What did you do today? [Archive] - The Home Shop Machinist & Machinist's Workshop Magazine's BBS

Carld

03-13-2010, 09:27 PM

I finished rebuilding two propane cyl charging guns and TIGed three aluminum handles for them.

Then I repaired my grader blade for my tractor that I severely damaged when cleaning a ditch last week. I am going to do some serious mod's on the grader blade to make it stronger.

Then I went out and cleaned up some of the ditch with the FEL and used the grader blade to dress the road where the tractor tires dug the gravel up.

Then I machined one FEL bucket tooth and checked the fit and it was good. I will do the other 5 teeth for the FEL bucket and mount them.

Then I can get the damn rocks out of the ditch the company that laid a water line in my near perfect ditch left in it mounded up so the water ran over the road instead of in the ditch. They told me they would be sure to leave a ditch for the water to run down but they left it higher than the road. I will have a serious talk with them and they WILL put some gravel on the road when I get things straighten out.

rockrat

03-13-2010, 09:28 PM

It rained most of the day here and in true "caveman" style I ddnt get out of the cave much. Hey, caveman would not have gone out unless he was hungry or something.

rock~

J Tiers

03-13-2010, 09:32 PM

I decided my new 3" x 4" tilting table needed clamps and t-nuts. So I made a few clamps out of some small thick-wall pipe.

They can be tightened down really quite tight, which surprised me somewhat. I still will probably make some more traditional ones with step blocks.

The table

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/jstanley/tilttable1.jpg

Here are some of the clamps holding down a knob (for no particular reason other than the picture.)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/jstanley/3x4table_fixtures.jpg

lenord

03-13-2010, 09:55 PM

J Tiers,

Thanks for posting that !!:)

Lenord

Michael Edwards

03-13-2010, 10:10 PM

If you would have asked that question last week, I would have said a new tool post for a G&E shaper. Tool post is mystery steel, thoght it was mild but it was noticably tougher. Bolt is 4140PH, and the dog bone is A2 which some day I will heat treat if I ever get around to building an oven.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2755/4399182731_cb30a1544d.jpg

ME

Your Old Dog

03-13-2010, 10:34 PM

Been making accessories for my 2x72 belt grinder that I just finished building. I would like to have several diameters of contact wheels, a platen and a fender to keep crap out of my face !

Rookie machinist

03-13-2010, 10:39 PM

Helped install another 50' of track on my local live steam railroad, our new line is almost complete. Just have to finish the switch tomorrow and add some more ballast. http://www.southerncalifornialivesteamers.com/Show_Photo_Details.asp?id=3082

fasto

03-13-2010, 10:49 PM

Pulled apart the X-axis drive on my Hurco. Took off the servo & the motor mount. Remove the ballscrew bearing housing. Pulled the table keeper plates & the gib. Removed the table, flipped it over, removed all the X-axis auto-oiling system. Replaced the five metering valves, blew out all the lines. Checked the ways & the Turcite, it's great except for the missing piece (?). Put it all back together.
Now, I won't have to oil the X-axis ways with a brush anymore, and I can remount the chip shields! Tomorrow, have to reset the gib & reshim the keeper plates, and fix the graphics CRT driver board.

MrDan

03-13-2010, 10:55 PM

I finished installing my new Teco VFD for the lathe. One minor setback and it was done. Works great. Thanks for all the info on the site, I perused it all before placing the order.

Then I worked on the door for my in the process of being built shop wood stove. That project has taken longer than I thought.

Then lastly I started working on the basketball goal I'm building for my kids, which will all be from scratch, quite literally because part of the wood is from a tree on my property that I cut down.

Oh, and I snuck ice cream to my 3 year old daughter at the store, and despite her wearing half of it on the ride home, I got by the mommy radar without getting caught.

A fairly productive day.

Doc Nickel

03-13-2010, 11:19 PM

Got a little further on this:

http://www.docsmachine.com/fabshop/lewis-stand-07.jpg

It's a full underdrive stand for my 10" Lewis shaper. I've had the bloody thing for some three years now, never liked the "cobbled" rear drive that came with it (Lewis' were sold as "kits" to be finished, you made your own drive) and decided to make a stand/drive/tray cabinet like the older Logans had.

This has been a "spare time" project for at least three months now- and that's after I made the basic box, tray and foot almost three years ago, and then let it sit- but it's getting close. The internal motor mount and jackshaft is done, later this evening I'l set the shaper back on top and give it a final test fit and test run before I blow it all back apart for bodywork and paint.

Oh, and I have to make a latch for the door.

Doc.

darryl

03-13-2010, 11:28 PM

Besides trying to figure out how to make a better widget, I've been eating a lot of Fudgee wafer stix. Mmm. Got some sun today, walked about here and there. Looked for (and found) some copper and got some good laughs from people I asked about it- the classic line- "ooh, that's gonna cost a pretty penny", or "I don't know WHERE you're gonna find THAT now". Or some reference to copper having been launched somehow "Oh, that stuff's gone through the roof ". Or a suggestion that I was going to lose a limb or two over it- "gonna cost you an arm and a leg"-

Made a few drawings, went for breaky at a place where I used to go, and apparently wasn't going to be welcome (according to someone who isn't very happy with me these days)- they were so nice to me. They make great pancakes with real strawberries and real syrup, yummy.

Paid some bills- that was costly. Now I'm thinking of going out for a french vanilla- hmm

KiddZimaHater

03-14-2010, 12:11 AM

Mowed the grass for the first time this spring.
Finished grouting the wall tile in the kitchen.
Made 3 parts for a customer on the lathe.
Went to the nursery, time to start the garden.:)

knudsen

03-14-2010, 12:17 AM

I machined off a small portion of my bank account. Ordered a lathe and bought a vise local.

This is smart, belongs in shop made tools thread! Care if I copy it in, Tiers?

I decided my new 3" x 4" tilting table needed clamps and t-nuts. So I made a few clamps out of some small thick-wall pipe.

They can be tightened down really quite tight, which surprised me somewhat. I still will probably make some more traditional ones with step blocks.

The table

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/jstanley/tilttable1.jpg

Here are some of the clamps holding down a knob (for no particular reason other than the picture.)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/jstanley/3x4table_fixtures.jpg

03-14-2010, 12:32 AM

I converted a VHS vid to DVD, bought 42 primroses, seeded the lawn, fed the moss, swung by the shop and admired my new rotary table, bought a new RAM mezzanine for one of my servers, uploaded my new DVD to YouTube, buddied up with a stray cat, fed all the raccoons, swung by the shop and turned the crank on my new rotary table, read a chapter from my Guy Lautard's bedside reader, bought an expansion tank for my water heater, bought a new DVD burner for my MacBook Pro laptop, swung by the shop and checked the fit of my MT2 taper and centered it with my fake Blake coax indicator, re-assembled my power hacksaw, then put my Harley up for sale again.

Still had time to fry up some bacon for fried rice dinner - damn that was good.

After that I checked the fit of a small 4-jaw chuck I bought with the intent of fitting it to the new rotary table - it will be a perfect fit and I don't even have to drill new holes. I will have to make some T nuts assuming I find time to kill the moss.

And somewhere in all that I still had time to piss off another HSMer for being a speeling nazi. It's been a good day.

knudsen

03-14-2010, 01:00 AM

Damn, dp, I got tired just reading about what you did today :D

What kinda RT did you get? They sho are fun.

03-14-2010, 01:13 AM

I have a small mill so got a small table - 6" from Grizzly. This guy:

http://grizzly.com/products/6-Rotary-Table-w-Div-Plates/H7527

And it's still rather large, truth be known, as it's a really small mill: http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2010/Main/531

Peter Neill

03-14-2010, 04:40 AM

I had a very productive 2 days (Friday/Saturday) making parts for my old 1975 RD350 restoration, as I definitely want it on the road for this summer.

First up was a replacement rod and clevis for the rear drum brake, made from stainless. Here are the old and new parts:

http://www.btinternet.com/~p.neill/Montage_1.jpg

Next up was a stainless rear wheel spindle to replace the original corroded and bent part:

http://www.btinternet.com/~p.neill/Montage_2.jpg

And finally made some new stainless fork top bolts to replace the scruffy old aluminium items:

http://www.btinternet.com/~p.neill/RD350/Rebuild/Fork_Tops.jpg

Now the weathers getting better the Bike is taking priority over the workshop, although it's nice to be able to combine the two.

Peter

oldtiffie

03-14-2010, 04:47 AM

Nice choice Dennis.

You will like that rotary table. It should fit on your mill fine. Any smaller and it is just that much harder to get clamps and packing on as well as the job. Any bigger and its a PITA to get on and off - and you will need a hoist as lifting it is asking for back trouble. No such problems with the 6".

And just what do you do with your spare time - if you can remember what it is.

Doc Nickel

03-14-2010, 06:30 AM

Since my "day" only just ended, this technically still applies.

http://www.docsmachine.com/fabshop/lewis-stand-08.jpg

Tomorrow is deciding where to mount the switch, figuring up a latch for the door, and finding the proper length belts.

Doc.

John Stevenson

03-14-2010, 06:30 AM

Non machining day.

Was stood at the side of the pond counting my small change when I dropped a 50 pence piece in.

Finished up having to drain the pond.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/pond1.jpg

Oh well off the the pub today to make up for it..

.

knudsen

03-14-2010, 07:56 AM

Nice lookin' parts, Peter.

I have a small mill so got a small table - 6" from Grizzly. This guy:

http://grizzly.com/products/6-Rotary-Table-w-Div-Plates/H7527

And it's still rather large, truth be known, as it's are really small mill: http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2010/Main/531

I have the same mill, in HF clothing. If you haven't already, you might want to up the z-axis travel. I just added the longer rack ( http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2232&category=6 ) and stripped off the torsion lift parts: instant 12" z-axis travel!

Nice garden, John. If I swing by after paddling across the pond, can I go fishing in your pond?

nheng

03-14-2010, 10:21 AM

Traded a gift card to a restaurant we hate for a 0.5 x 3" x 8' piece of precision ground 6061 bar. Very nice deal and the wife doesn't mind :)

Bought a digital bit error rate test for electronic experiments for $35. I bought the same one new for $35,000 at work ... in '85 :)

Filed and stoned the burrs off the sides of a Palmgren dp vise I bought in high school in '71 then recut the tops of the jaws while clamped on a piece of scrap. Held shop vac near cut as I'm freaky about getting CI on the machines. Will hold small parts more precisely and looks great.

Did eye survey of shop area to figure out a way to make it look organized :)

Generally a smiley day with a metal theme :)

Den

Duffy

03-14-2010, 10:41 AM

Changing the engine on a chipper/shredder. B&S dont have parts ,(fuel tank and carburetor,) for the old 5 hp, or IF I can find em, they will be as much as Princess Auto's Chinese 6.5 hp engine- $120.00. BUT Murphy never sleeps. The old engine had a 1" crankshaft with a 1/4" keyway. The new one is 3/4" (turned down from 1") with a 3/16" keyway. Made a bushing, now to cut a stepped key. Duffy

vpt

03-14-2010, 12:05 PM

Nice!
Had been thinking of doing that for a long time as well, so it was a noticeable difference then?

Yes! Very big difference! I had my cross slide all adjusted perfectly before the bearing install. After the bearing install the cross slide moved so effortlessly I was able to tighten down the gibs more which should help in the never ending battle of eliminating the random atlas chatter. I am so pleased with the results I am going out today to measure up the carriage handwheel shaft to get bearings and do the same mod. I just replaced the bushing for the handwheel a few months ago because it had some side to side slop in it. But now I see the light of bearings and want them everywhere! lol

Today as far as building stuff I may make a new cross slide nut. I already made a new screw and now have the bearings installed so the only thing left for the cross slide is the nut.

Some great stuff people built already in this thread! It makes my day to see things people have built or are working on. It also gives me great motivation. :)

J Tiers

03-14-2010, 07:11 PM

The little tilt table now has the last part needed, table keys. Longways and crossways both, just in case I need both.

It's convenient that the mill table works with 3/8" keystock, just a little trimming needed, usually.

I also finished a wall plastering job I have needed to do for a year or three ....... no machining content on that one.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/jstanley/tilttable3.jpg

Punkinhead

03-14-2010, 07:23 PM

I bought a Bridgeport two weeks ago so decided to put a heater in the garage since I'll be spending more time out there. I took a bunch of drywall off one wall in preparation for the plumber to run the gas line. Took the opportunity to hang a couple extra 220V and 110V outlets while the drywall was out of the way. The plumber came out to give a quote last week and, of course, he'll be running the gas line up the wall directly behind the Bridgeport. :D So I spent today replacing the drywall I'd torn out, moving the Bridgeport out of the way, and tearing out the drywall for the gas line. I also got the heater hung (ceiling mount, wasn't particularly pleasant) and ran the line for the thermostat. I'm still working up the nerve to cut a hole in the roof for the vent.

Guess I'll get more practice tramming the head when I move the mill back into its corner.

darryl

03-14-2010, 08:00 PM

Sir John, Earl of Pubwater, I'm concerned- did you find your 50 pence?

vpt

03-14-2010, 08:51 PM

It was 61F outisde today so I eneded up raking and picking up sticks from winter. I did get time to get out and start working on that cross feed nut today, just have to drill and tap the two holes.

Carld

03-14-2010, 09:31 PM

I snapped a 1/2" dia x 2" length M42 roughing endmill like snapping a pencil in half.:eek: It slapped the wall like someone threw a rock.

Tomorrow I will order a new one to finish the job.

John Stevenson

03-15-2010, 04:40 AM

Sir John, Earl of Pubwater, I'm concerned- did you find your 50 pence?

But of course, this was priority, how could I go to the pub on Sunday without my 50 pence ?

winchman

03-15-2010, 02:56 PM

I built these two fixtures:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/winchman/Welding%20Projects/transmissionassemblyfixturesandt-6.jpg

for lifting a set of transmission shaft and gear assemblies:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/winchman/Welding%20Projects/transmissionassemblyfixturesandt-1.jpg

after they're assembled on the stands I built several months ago:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/winchman/Welding%20Projects/transmissionassemblyfixturesandt-4.jpg

vpt

03-15-2010, 08:46 PM

I finished the nut cross feed nut and there was little improvement. I think an adjustable nut would be the only way to get .050 or better backlash with the little acme screw.

danlb

03-15-2010, 10:18 PM

I made a screwdriver last night.

I bought a new UPS for my wife's computer. Of course, I had to open the old one to see about replacing the battery. The case was held together with philips screws at the end of a narrow 7 inch deep hole.

My longest thin philips head screwdriver was too thick to go in the hole.

I made the scredriver from a 10 inch piece of 1/4 inch cold rolled rod. I cut it on my mill. The spin indxer set at a slight angle to the X axis with the front elevated 1/4 inch. That let me carve away 40% of the height and thickness at 90 degree intervals. Looking from the end, it left a cross that was tapered. It was still straight sided, so a minute on the bench grinder provided the typical V shape when looking from the side.

Less than 10 minutes to make a sloppy tool that worked on the first try. None of the angles were measured. It's probably way off. :)

Dan

BadDog

03-16-2010, 02:09 AM

I made a screwdriver last night.

I have had to make several of them. One was to help my son replace a broken case on a DS3 (or something like that, hand held game system). It used tiny little 3 point screws (similar to Phillips, but 3 point). I turned the end profile on a proper sized drill blank, then mounted it in a collet block. Next I mounted a finely dressed (using Norbide, to desired angle) dremmel wheel in the mill, and used it to notch the end. Mounted it in a pin vise/chuck and it worked like a charm. I love making tools to defeat proprietary "keep the owner out" fasteners...

J Tiers

03-16-2010, 07:20 AM

I love making tools to defeat proprietary "keep the owner out" fasteners...

So do I..... Until I find that I could have bought the driver end for 50 cents.

just about all of them are available in hex bits, just as fast as they come out with new ones they show up on the open market. of course sometimes hex bits won't fit

Ken_Shea

03-16-2010, 07:22 AM

So do I..... Until I find that I could have bought the driver end for 50 cents.

That's called "sticking it to the man", meaning us :D

hojpoj

03-16-2010, 07:33 AM

I made a screwdriver last night.

I would have, but I was out of Orange Juice :p

Finished making a DI holder so I could finally figure out how out-of-tram my recently acquired mill-drill's head is. The result is somewhere between 'horribly' and 'disastrously' so (about .008 per 4" along Y, .002 per 4" along X). Haven't done a teardown of it yet, so it may just need snugging-up of the column gibs.

vpt

03-22-2010, 06:56 PM

Made a couple brake caliper ducts the other day.

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/8526/brakecoolers037.jpg

torchroadster

03-22-2010, 07:06 PM

Went to the day job.

Then came home and took the requested pictures of my new DRO for the DROPROS website.

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s120/torchroadster/DRO/IMG_4047.jpg

lenord

03-22-2010, 11:20 PM

http://www.glacern.net/free_photo_upload/16%20geartrain%20and%20gear%20001%20%28Medium%29.j pg

http://www.glacern.net/free_photo_upload/16%20geartrain%20and%20gear%20003%20(Medium).jpg

The gear is 1" thick, 15.5" OD with a 2-3/16" bore.
Material is Mic 6 Al.
The gear train is spring loaded, 1/2" plates, 12" long.
Motor is a gearhead Pittman with encoder.
MXL timing belts drive the 1" worm, 3.2:1

Lenord

lenord

03-23-2010, 12:21 AM

http://www.glacern.net/free_photo_upload/harmonic%20web%20002%20%28Medium%29.jpg

A harmonic gearbox telescope mount. It's a shop pic, not installed where it needs to go yet.

The R.A. pipe is 24" long, 6" diameter.

http://www.glacern.net/free_photo_upload/harmonic%20web%20003%20%28Medium%29.jpg

gldwight

03-23-2010, 01:26 AM

Went to a friends tin shop & cut a half sheet full length to reface part of
the front on my old 1970 camp trailer.
Brought it home, another friend came over to help get it put on. IF the DAP has cured enough by tomorrow. I'll prime and get it painted.
Over the last three weeks between snows and cold spells I've sanded it all down and painted the outside. It's 21' long. Two tone. Bright baby blue about like the ? at the bottom on this page: top 16" and bottom 30", center 30" is white. Sure dressing this old trailer up nice.

Am also welding a 3' extention on the back end of frame rails, new bumper and metal box 3'x3'x 7' long w/metal doors to house two spares, generator, gas jugs and gas bottles, some extra storage for other tools. I use this mostly for summer camping in the mtns and elk/deer hunting in early Nov out here in CO.

wierdscience

03-23-2010, 01:48 AM

Started building a foundry sand muller,only $300-400 left to go:)

medwards

03-23-2010, 08:50 AM

I finished these last night. They are battery cutoff switches for a couple friends race cars. One for a Camaro, one for a Mustang. They could be bought from a catalog, but these have a little more style.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n177/edwardsmt/CIMG0331.jpg
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n177/edwardsmt/CIMG0329.jpg

John Stevenson

03-23-2010, 09:07 AM

Still doing bleeding electric motors.
Oh Wait is that something different I see being delivered ?

Yup two of those giant ball busting transformers with the 1,400A terminal snapped off...........................sigh................ ............

.

Ken_Shea

03-23-2010, 09:10 AM

Ken_Shea

03-23-2010, 09:19 AM

I finished these last night. They are battery cutoff switches for a couple friends race cars. One for a Camaro, one for a Mustang. They could be bought from a catalog, but these have a little more style.

They are really sharp, lets see two to go and none for you, that seems fair :)

medwards

03-23-2010, 09:52 AM

They are really sharp, lets see two to go and none for you, that seems fair :)

I don't have a race car to put one one right now. :( I spent all that money on Machinery. I did order an extra switch and rod end to build my own when that time comes. :)

BobWarfield

03-23-2010, 10:34 AM

Now that I am gainfully unemployed again, my brother and I are doing a proper job plumbing the big shop compressor with air lines throughout the shop. We're about 3/4's done.

Unfortunately, I now have to go build a new PC since mine crashed hard. What a nuisance. I am typing this on my daughter's laptop while she is at school. There'll be heck to pay if she catches me, LOL.

Cheers,

BW

snowman

03-23-2010, 10:40 AM

Sounds all too familiar Bob...my laptop screen died, so I'm using my wifes computer. She's getting a little pissed about me leaving screens open, always having my email up, etc.

Laptop is too old to get a new refurbished screen for...damn Toshiba's.

I too need to plumb the garage with compressed air...speaking of which, I need to make a post about that.

snowman

03-23-2010, 10:58 AM

I stood in the garage, amazed by the mess, annoyed by my inability to walk from one side of the garage to the other without moving something.

Now I think I'm going to start making a pile of stuff to take to the scrap yard, make the fixture to finally hang my damn ladder. Take up some more wall space, and make the floor more bare looking.

Then I'm going to wake up from my dream, take a shower and then a nap.

Not a productive day.

snowman

03-23-2010, 02:00 PM

HA...I lied. Just got my hydraulic press mounted on wheels, and found a piece of the floor that I haven't seen in a year.

Tomorrow I'm going to move my welding bench and mount my pipe bender to the press. Might also run to Home Depot to get some 2x8's to start building a small stock rack on the base of the press...might have to beef up the wheels if I do that though.

This organizing thing is fun.

John Stevenson

03-23-2010, 04:15 PM

Did one transformer, [ no pics ] and set up for the next. Milled the broken terminal back to clean up, cut a piece of 2" x 1" copper bar for a new terminal then put it on hold until they decide to issue an order number.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/transformer3.jpg

Setup on the POS Bridgy with horizontal head because it's too tall to sit on the bed.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/transformer4.jpg

Then as a change from motors they sent me a pump with the bearing housing gone right down inside.

Goody gumdrops.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/pump2.jpg

Bearing is 85mm diameter.
Bore housing out to 90mm, whack a sleeve into it made from the rings off the railings from outside Huddersfield town hall [ true ] and rebore back out to 85mm.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/pump3.jpg

Took an hour, jobs a good un and I can have another cup - a - soup.

Tomorrow I have 18 motors to convert from 90 frame to 80 frame .................. sigh...........................

38_Cal

03-23-2010, 04:53 PM

Yeah...you sigh all the way to the bank, Sir John! :D Don't you know that capitalism is so...passe'? :rolleyes:

David

camdigger

03-23-2010, 05:51 PM

Got my oxy and Acet tanks exchanged over the weekend.:rolleyes:

Made a stack of widgets over the last month for a project in progress.

Timleech

03-23-2010, 06:25 PM

Removed the broken glass from a ship's porthole. Yes, it was lathe work ;)

These are often held into the (gunmetal) frame with a very slim gunmetal ring which is threaded inside the frame, & just two shallow 45 degree notches to grip the ring.
Been assembled for 79 years so some reluctance to come unscrewed....
It's the 'opening light' type, so removed the hinged frame from the boat, just held with a hinge pin, & held it in the 3-jaw in the lathe. Ground up the ends of two pieces of 3/8" Silver Steel/Drill rod to fit into the notches in the ring. Drilled 2 x 3/8" holes in a piece of 1" Square RHS to hold the pegs at the right spacing, silver soldered to hold them in place. Pressed the 'key' into place with the tailstock, then heated the outside of the frame where the ring is screwed in. Then some judicious blows to the end of the RHS, keep going with that and the heat until there's some movement, it gives in eventually.
Tomorrow, clean up the frame and fit the new glass (19mm x 260mm dia) with some PU sealant. This is the second of three.

Tim

Timleech

03-25-2010, 07:17 AM

Removed the broken glass from a ship's porthole. Yes, it was lathe work ;)

In case anyone wondered (or cared) what I was on about, here's a pic of the ring being screwed in above the new glass:-

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss38/Timleech_2009/DSCF2912.jpg

Tim

vpt

03-25-2010, 10:50 AM

No cleaning and paint before the new glass install?

camdigger

03-25-2010, 11:04 AM

Meticulous preservation of the "patina"?:D

Timleech

03-25-2010, 07:17 PM

No cleaning and paint before the new glass install?

Paint? Never been painted in its 79 year life.
The bit the glass goes into was cleaned meticulously ;)

Tim

J Tiers

03-25-2010, 08:38 PM

Big project...... a couple pins for a tension hacksaw frame, so that I can have one with coarse and one with fine blade.... I took my spare to work...

(At the moment I am the only EE I know who is working in his field, AND has a stacked roll around toolbox at work. There are two EEs, one fulltime tech, and a programmer, plus call-in extras..... So we do whatever)

Other than that, I cut and put in some 1 meter pieces of PVC pipe in my shop raw metal shelves, so that I could get control of storage on different sized rod.

vpt

03-25-2010, 08:49 PM

I sawed 4 27x16" holes in a 4'x6'x.75" sheet of plywood with 35 degree cuts to act as doors. Tomorrow I have to drill 6 4" holes and build up a weather resistant housing down the center to hold 6 12v aerators. Than if I have time I will lay down the first of 3 coats of fiberglass resin on the whole deal.

kyfho

03-25-2010, 09:01 PM

Let me see:

Picked up bowling ball (free) from bowling alley, ordered 3" quick acting vise from Sears, and picked up 6" PVC flange from HD. Ready for a ball vise I've thought about for a while.

Reassembled head of my little Craftsman 101 lathe after cleaning and inspecting.

Finished installing UHMW skid pads inside of telescoping square tubes for shop-built gantry crane. Project now about 1/2 done.

Oh yeah, bought SWMBO a new car.

SHE gets $25,000 and I get $35. Sometimes things just don't seem to add up. :rolleyes:

bruto

03-25-2010, 09:30 PM

Most of what I did today was to work on my [expletives deleted] truck. It's an 88 chevy, and the crossover pipe rotted off at the manifold. Of course that meant replacing the bolts on the manifold, and they were, of course, seized and eroded. On the first side I tried heat and ended up nowhere, and wound up with something of a mess before I ended up drilling. On the second side, I cut to the chase, sheared them clean, ground and drilled, and that went much faster. Still it took hours of drilling and torching and cussing. Anyway, today it was the day to finish threading the holes and putting the damn thing together. Over the course of this job I've broken more drills than I'd care to admit, one tap which I had to burn out of the hole, cut myself, gotten a shard of hot rust in one eye despite the goggles, burned my lip with a blob of molten metal, had an acetylene regulator fail in the middle of the job, lost tools, had a cordless drill go up in smoke and the cord on another break, and I've probably forgotten a few other things. All this upside down and on my back in the dirt, of course, since the truck isn't a comfortable fit in the shop.

You know, they could have used pressed in studs on that manifold, the way my Jeeps do, and the whole job would have taken 45 minutes instead of three days.

On the positive side, though, I was reluctant to buy new graphite rings for the job at 16 bucks apiece, and figured I'd look around my place for something. A few years ago an old friend died, and left much of his lifetime collection of junk to be picked over by a large assortment of friends and neighbors. I was a latecomer to the party, missing out on the Porsche, the flattie Jeeps and military trucks and the backhoe and the Lull loader etc. etc., but still got loads and loads of interesting bits and pieces. Sure enough, one of the things I had in the barn was a big string of exhaust sealing rings, and among them, a brand new pair of the right ones for my truck. Some old friends never really die.

snowman

03-25-2010, 09:38 PM

One more shelf put up in the garage. Now I can't walk through it again. Won't be able to get back in there until Monday.

Got the basement clean though. Puppies come on Saturday, and I can actually move down there so I can get to MY computer.

Monday is the big day, hang one more shelf, move everything from the floor to the said shelves. Build press table, move press, start working on my die set. That and borrow the tablesaw so I can make a bunch of small organizer drawers for the lathe area, and all of my small fasteners. I'm going to have a functional garage yet. I also have to move the welding area to the other side of the garage at some point (next week) and set up a material rack. No more random pieces of steel strewn about the shop!!!

vpt

03-25-2010, 11:07 PM

Jim Shaper

03-25-2010, 11:27 PM

I bought a surface grinder. lol I'm up to 6 machines now. :D

darryl

03-25-2010, 11:53 PM

Well, I did something that has a tad in common with Sir John- I pulled a couple transformers out of equipment, and also some motors. One of the motors has an offset pin gone, but thankfully the manufacturer thought to put two holes in the eccentric, so I can make a pin to fit and press it into the new hole. I'm not even going to worry about balancing it- the pin is 1/16 diameter and 1/2 inch long :) Oh, and both transformers fit in one pocket of my jacket :)

medwards

03-26-2010, 03:48 PM

I just finished up a handwheel to replace the crank for the knee on my mill. I saw it on Frank Fords website and had to have one for myself. The handwheels and knobs are on sale in the enco flyer this month. It works perfectly.

Frank's page.
http://www.frets.com/HomeShopTech/Tooling/MillHandwheel/handwheel.html

Mine.
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n177/edwardsmt/CIMG0338.jpg

Jim Shaper

03-26-2010, 07:59 PM

Now you just need to add a motor so you only need the wheel for fine adjustments.

vpt

07-08-2010, 10:21 PM

I started work on an ITB setup for a customers civic.

Cut the manifold flange and injector bungs off.

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/5034/lathespider001.jpg

Need to reuse the old water nipple and make this project on topic with machining so i found a chunk of steel the size of the nipple.

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3197/lathespider004.jpg

And turn it down to fit inside the nipple for alignment.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/1951/lathespider006.jpg

Insert.

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/8044/lathespider008.jpg

vpt

07-08-2010, 10:22 PM

And hit with hammer.

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/4568/lathespider016.jpg

Using honda 954RR throttle bodies, the bonus is the car TPS plug plugs right into the stock TPS on the ITB's.

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/8117/lathespider017.jpg

vpt

07-08-2010, 10:23 PM

Lines up pretty good right off the bat!

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/913/lathespider020.jpg

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/530/lathespider022.jpg

Yup.

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/6702/lathespider028.jpg

More to come.

07-08-2010, 11:21 PM

I added 400 GB of RAID5 SAN storage to a 2-node clustered Unix system, and 100 GB each to two stand-alone Unix systems though technically I wrapped that up at around 1:00 am, PST. Then I handled several shoulder tap account related issues (forgot password), made screen shots of simulated ssh intrusion attempts including intentionally locking out my own account on a 12 year-old Tru64 Unix system just to show it still works.

Then I did some rolling maintenance reboots of some servers to allow patch updates to activate, corrected a mail smarthost problem, and just for the pure adventure of it, I shut down access in DNS to the root "." DNS servers on the internet in a lab environment to see how long it would take for the first error to be logged (18 minutes).

As I was about to start cooking up a flat iron steak I noted the packaging had been tampered with, so I put it out on the back lawn for the coyote bitch out back that is nursing a pup. Was gone in less time to write it up.

Oh yeah - then I swapped out the sound track on this video for one taken with a digital recorder at the same presentation. At about 2 minutes in I amped it up, added some echo, compression, and gain.
http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeWashingtonSinger#p/u/6/J_MnBgTkCGg

It's my wife's singing group.

All in all a pretty quiet day.

Edit: Speaking of that digital recorder - this is probably worth a thread of it's own. It is a pocket sized Sony:
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665963672

And here's the microphone:
http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/product/ECM-DS70P

It was clamped to a mic stand and placed just ahead of the director in the video. It's an amazing combination.

PeteF

07-08-2010, 11:30 PM

Moped around the house as bored as heck, whinged about always being either sick or injured (sometimes both) and made more "friends"/otherwise pissed off the entire community on the HSM BB :D

07-08-2010, 11:34 PM

Moped around the house as bored as heck, whinged about always being either sick or injured (sometimes both) and made more "friends"/otherwise pissed off the entire community on the HSM BB :D

Some days are like that :)

beanbag

07-09-2010, 03:14 AM

I used a vertical CNC mill as a CNC lathe by putting the stock in the spindle and the tool in the vise. It was really neat how I could cut arbitrary chamfer angles, turn a ball-end radius, and increase the spindle speed when the diameter got smaller. Also, awesome surface finish.

winchman

07-09-2010, 08:51 AM

Wednesday:

Repaired a book cart that had collapsed from being overloaded, and added a frame of 1" angle on the bottom to prevent a recurrence.

Completed milling the frame for the ball turning fixture I'm building.

Thursday:

Welded up a platform for mounting a 10KW Generac emergency generator on a small trailer.

platypus2020

07-09-2010, 09:43 AM

Installed $25 remote readout vertical scale from Grizzly (T 21577) on my Jet JVM 836 milling machine.

jack

http://i805.photobucket.com/albums/yy339/platypus-20/dro1014x.jpg

http://i805.photobucket.com/albums/yy339/platypus-20/dro1017x.jpg

Tony Ennis

07-09-2010, 09:51 AM

Sat in an office chair wishing I were someplace else doing something in which I could get immersed.

BillTodd

07-09-2010, 01:24 PM

Ran 'round like a blue-a****d fly sorting out a VFD to drive a tread mill, so a Bollywood stuntman can be seen to run at 50mph along a road (and leap cars at a single bound)

Bill

gearedloco

07-09-2010, 01:36 PM

Finally finished installation of DRO Pros 3-axis readout on my Jet mill. Should probably take pictures for their web site, if they want to use them.

There are probably better ways I could have built the mount for the Z axis scale, which were need because the Z ways were the only plumb and square vertical surfaces on the machine.:mad: Amazing what one can do with short hunks of angle and a zillion screws when one is motivated!:D

Now, I gotta figure out what it was I was going to do that I needed the DRO for.:confused:

-bill

vpt

07-09-2010, 08:55 PM

I replaced the rear axle seals in one of our chevys today.

J Tiers

07-09-2010, 10:26 PM

became disgusted when the boss managed to knock a 16mm chuck off it's JT taper WITHOUT loosening the MT2 in the DP spindle......

It was my chuck too... more elsewhere.

PeteF

07-10-2010, 03:50 AM

The Artful Bodger

07-10-2010, 03:58 AM

Got my parallelogram copy router to the testing stage.

lakeside53

07-10-2010, 09:53 AM

I made a pair of platten tool rests, one for my belt grinder, another for a friend. The Mitre is from my Baldor tool grinder.

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff150/lakeside53/x72%20Belt%20grinder/DSC_8743Medium.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff150/lakeside53/x72%20Belt%20grinder/DSC_8741Medium.jpg

What did I learn? Make sure the damn mill is spinning the correct direction before hitting the metal with the 6 insert face mill:( 6 inserts snapped off...

KIMFAB

07-10-2010, 10:55 AM

Easy day cleaning parts from my newly acquired DSG lathe.
Hurts too much to do anything else. I spent yesterday crawling around under my rental fixing plumbing.
I'm too old for this.

lugnut

07-10-2010, 12:41 PM

Something that PeteF forgot to mention that he did today was: he cleaned, waxed and polished/buffed his lathe.:D Nice work on the "Frank-Fordamejig". I made one of those last week.

j king

07-10-2010, 03:07 PM

finished the log lifter for the wood splitter.Going to love this mod.! Back feels years younger watching this work every time..http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/ikimjing/Mobile%20Uploads/downsized_0710000846-1.jpg

PeteF

07-10-2010, 06:04 PM

Something that PeteF forgot to mention that he did today was: he cleaned, waxed and polished/buffed his lathe.:D Nice work on the "Frank-Fordamejig". I made one of those last week.

Ha ha, actually it's just been reassembled and it's getting dirty. On the one hand I'm thinking "Noooooo!" but on the other hand it looks pretty good I think, certainly much better than it comes up in photos, and turns SO nice now, so I think "Yeeessss". Ok I'll admit, I do wipe it down after each use though. :p

The bearing tool sure works well doesn't it, such a simple idea and possibly the easiest thing to make.

Pete

danlb

07-10-2010, 08:05 PM

Today I went to the WEME (Western engine model expo) in Vallejo. I had the honor of meeting the owner of LMS, and I got to use the "executive pencil sharpener". The pencil sharpener is powered by a hit-n-miss engine. There must have been a hundred different model engines there.

They are open tomorrow (sunday) till 3 PM. http://www.baemclub.com/

Dan

Mad Scientist

07-10-2010, 09:00 PM

Not a lot of machining but my garden shed was starting to show its age so about a month ago I decided it was time to fix it up a bit. From the pictures you will note that there is a maple tree next to it, that tree did not exist when I built the shed. However it self planted itself and then proceeded to grow. Early on I was going to pull it out but was informed that it was a “nice little tree and I should leave it”. Well it obviously continued to grow some and since then and it got to the point where it was caving in the side of the shed. :mad: Clearly there is no way I could save the old shed I just needed to tear it down and build a new one.

Now I could have just copied the old design or even done the unthinkable and just gone out and bought a new one. But what’s the fun in that, plus I would then end up with a typical generic garden shed. So I decided to design my own and do something a little different. This is the result.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i17/mscientist/projects/gs1.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i17/mscientist/projects/gs2.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i17/mscientist/projects/gs4.jpg
Used the sheet metal from an old computer cabinet to make the candle holders. Cut, bent, welded, and powder coated them. The candles are white delrin and their flames are 150 watt halogen lamps. The moat, hard to see in picture, has a small water fountain. At night a dozen solar powered LED’s light up the windows with a soft yellow light.

Ken_Shea

07-10-2010, 09:46 PM

Outstanding, I love it!

Tree still there, right?

darryl

07-11-2010, 12:11 AM

Today- made a spur of the moment decision to drive out to Chilliwack lake. Used to be a favorite spot until the hoards got to know about it. Was nice anyway to get out and simply enjoy nature. This is not a typical suntanners destination, but it sure was hard to keep my eyes in my head at times. They just weren't built like that in my day-

tumutbound

07-11-2010, 01:21 AM

Up until lunchtime, I'd done nothing other than drink coffee.
Was planning to trim a few shrubs before the weather gets warmer but rain put a stop to that.
Put on some lamb shanks for dinner, should be ready in a few hours.

So the day wasn't a total loss, trammed the X2 mill and took a few measurements with a view to CNC.

Rest of the time, and tonight, is to be spent studying computer stuff for a job interview on Wednesday. Apparently my resume MAY have mentioned a level of expertise in a few areas that exceeds reality - at least I'll have time to brush up on a few buzz words.

AiR_GuNNeR

07-11-2010, 08:25 AM

Had a string of bad luck these last three weeks. Had a power surge that took out the microwave, two DVD players, stereo system, several wall warts, and the air conditioner control module and transformer. Got the air conditioner working first thing. Lawn tractor broke a belt, water softener had to be replaced. Rather than spend $800+ dollers on a new one, I bought the resin media and rebuilt the unit. It works great now, but I broke and the main water pipe coming from the water pump that had rusted as thin as the galvanizing. I'm currently repairing rotted window sills that I fixed last year but found that the Behr paint with built in primer doesn't stick to the Armstrong wood putty, resewed our 15x25 awning that had a seam let go down the middle, continued work on a Boyer Schultz surface grinder rebuild, (pictures will be posted eventually...).

Bob Farr

07-11-2010, 03:28 PM

I made a spacer for my clutch cable sheath. The cable was too long (or the sheath too short) to get a good adjustment between full engaged and fully disengaged. This little spacer did the trick.

It isn't much of a project, but being able to fabricate my own solution instead of ordering a new cable, waiting a week and hoping it fits is a small miracle. I sure am glad I bought a lathe!

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g272/frankenglide/Cablespacer1.jpg

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g272/frankenglide/Cablespacer2.jpg

loose nut

07-11-2010, 03:57 PM

John Stevenson

07-17-2010, 03:31 PM

Had a busy day today.
Went out in the shop today about 11:00 after doing a load of email and support issues.

Surface ground 58 laser cut discs for division plates and set the CNC up, that had a busy day chuntering away to itself.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/divisionplate1.jpg

Believe it or not there is a 10" heavy duty chuck under all that. Those turnings are all from a 1/8" drill !!

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/divisionplate2.jpg

Fifteen plates stacked on the side, one in the chuck. About 8,500 holes with three 1/8" stub drills.

In the meanwhile I was doing some POS Bridgeport double life drawbars, cut all the heads up in different lengths for step speed, varispeed and the extra long ones for the horizontal attachment.

Cut the bars up for the screws, got 48 out of what I bought.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/drawbars.jpg

Got the double length thread on all of them and about half of the short thread where it goes into the nut.

No thread wires were harmed in the cutting of these threads.

Sod it off down the pub for a pie and a pint, I think I deserve it.

.

Tony Ennis

07-17-2010, 03:51 PM

Today is the day I get the stuck faceplate off my lathe spindle. It was stuck when I got it and has remained that way. I've repaired or replaced most of the lathe now - there's nothing left to do except get the damned thing off.

I bored a 1.5" hole in a 4x4, cut it in half on the bandsaw, and chiseled a mortise for the woodruff key that connects the spindle to the bull gear. I removed the spindle from the lathe, wrapped the fixture around it, and clamped the two halves tight in my vise. I put a 4' cheater on the face plate and gave it a sharp pull. The woodruff key ate the fixture up. So I took it all apart, found where the woodruff key stopped eating the fixture, and embedded a piece of steel there. Did it all up in the vise again, gave a yank, and the fixture split out.

My third and final try will involve me clamping the fixture together with steel straps and bar clamps. It's gonna be good for one more try.

Now I need a helper to make sure the spindle doesn't hit the floor.

-=-=-=-
This is a low-probability event now. I'll likely have to come up with something else.

Stay Tuned.

Timleech

07-17-2010, 05:08 PM

Not today, but all last week......
Small coasting barge, 6-cyl engine from 1968. Not run for 5 years, and left with the exhaust uncovered. result, rain and salt spray finding its way into the bores, engine seized absolutely solid. My job, to make it go.

Engine room:-
http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss38/Timleech_2009/mersey2010/Kelvin/P1000354.jpg

One good and one bad bore:-

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss38/Timleech_2009/mersey2010/Kelvin/P1000355.jpg

Jacking arrangement, there's a piece of 6" dia brass bar on top of the piston and a 50 ton ram pushing it down:-

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss38/Timleech_2009/mersey2010/Kelvin/P1000363.jpg

More in another posting........

Tim

Timleech

07-17-2010, 05:14 PM

........that rotates the engine enough to lift the worst piston complete with liner:-

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss38/Timleech_2009/mersey2010/Kelvin/P1000373.jpg

That liner was brand new, never done any work, but left to rot........

Two more liners were much older and had to be extracted, here's one block with the liner removed and the B/E journal showing:-

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss38/Timleech_2009/mersey2010/Kelvin/P1000388.jpg

3 liners need replacing, amazingly the pistons might be salvageable but we have new ones available if needed.

It'll keep me out of mischief for another week or so.

Tim

EVguru

07-17-2010, 05:24 PM

I took apart one of the wooden garage doors that came with my workshop (I bought it with an upgrade kit consisting of a second 'blank' end-wall and a floor kit) and re-built it as a 78" by 32" entry door.

I then built a door frame and fitted hinges to the door. I'm off to a bike show tomorrow and probably won't feel like doing much when I get home, but perhaps monday evening I'll cut a hole in the wall and fit the frame and hang the door.

saltmine

07-17-2010, 06:16 PM

I had an unexpected machine shop job, yesterday. I was getting into my car and I heard a "SNAP", and the rear driver's side window rolled itself down.

Power windows, cable operated. I pulled the door panel, and found the anchor block on the window regulator where the cables are attached, had one side missing, the top, the side that raises the window and keeps it up.

I guess the heat of the day was too much for the nylon block that holds the cable end. I carefully took it apart, ground the locking tabs off of the block and, with a little heat, popped the damaged block out.
I took a few measurements, and fabricated a replacement out of 6061 aluminum. I glued this in place, where the nylon block was, and put the window regulator back together. Back into the door, and hooked up, it works perfectly, and I didn't have to wait three days for a $150 replacement window regulator assembly.

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/uu155/saltmine_album/block.jpg

PeteF

07-17-2010, 06:27 PM

Thanks for the photos Tim. At least it looks like you have plenty of space in which to work!

Tony Ennis

07-17-2010, 07:30 PM

Lathe face plate (continued)

Try #3 failed as expected. The fixture split again, and permanently.

My friend had come over to help and brought with him some manner of aluminum scrap that had a 1.5" bore and thick walls. We filed a slot for the spindle's woodruff key, slid the aluminum sleeve onto the spindle, and chucked the whole thing in the vise's pipe jaws.

A few heavy swats to the cheater bar with a 3 lb sledge hammer didn't seem to do much. I then leaned on the cheater bar to get it all under tension (with my friend holding the back of the spindle to make sure it stayed put!) and gave the cheater bar several medium taps. Suddenly, thunk! The cheater bar rotated to the floor! The face plate was free! It's probably been on that spindle for decades.

Finally!

RB211

07-17-2010, 08:16 PM

Ran cable, replaced conduit boxes, and worked on the track at the golden gate live steamers.
Shortly will be going to Point Pinole for a walk around the former Giant dynamite site.

DeereGuy

07-17-2010, 08:32 PM

I anodized this part. After several trail runs I think I am getting it.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Deere_X475guy/New%20Shop%20Maching%20and%20Welding/DSC_1500.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Deere_X475guy/New%20Shop%20Maching%20and%20Welding/DSC_1497.jpg

J Tiers

07-17-2010, 11:06 PM

Started cleaning up a got-for-free blacksmith's post drill I picked up today...... Spindle cleaned up with no rust on the journal section.

As if I needed anotehr tool.... I tell myself I might want to drill holes in heavy steel when power is out..... yeah, right.

Weston Bye

07-18-2010, 06:12 AM

Completed my next article for Digital Machinist and dropped it in the mail to George.

The Genesis for this article can be found here:

http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/showthread.php?t=39588

This is the MkII version of the drilling/milling/grinding spindle for the article, all anodized and pretty.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/Weston/DSCN3858.jpg

spkrman15

07-18-2010, 07:11 AM

Tim,

50 tones! Wow i would not have thought the head bolts could handle that. How do you remove the sleeves? When the piston is not seize to it ;)

Keep the pictures coming

Rob :)

Timleech

07-18-2010, 07:35 AM

Tim,

50 tones! Wow i would not have thought the head bolts could handle that. How do you remove the sleeves? When the piston is not seize to it ;)

Keep the pictures coming

Rob :)

It didn't need anything like 50 tons, but I had to take the kit 25 miles to the job, didn't want to take the little 10 ton ram & find it wasn't man enough, 50 mile round trip home & back, half in city traffic, to get the big one! Also it's a handy size to fit the job, less packing needed ;)
The head studs are 1 1/4" BSF, necked down to about 1 1/8", don't know what the breaking strain of four of those would be. Head nut torque is 500 lbft.

Having seen that was a new liner, thought the other two would also come out easily & made up a simple screw puller with M24 studding. Should have known better, it was right on the limit for extracting them. one of them has the date 1985 stamped on the bottom rim and after 25 years in place it wanted to stay. I've got a 30 ton hollow ram, ideal for jobs like that, but would have required making up a much more substantial bridge piece to span the top of the liner than the one I used. One of those jobs where you know almost from the start that you made the wrong choice, a heavier bridge would almost certainly get used again.

Tim

lugnut

07-18-2010, 04:38 PM

Some one on here a few weeks ago said that 6061 aluminum would work for a quick change tool holder, so I made me a new tool holder this weekend.
Was my first attempt at cutting a dove tail.. the tool seems to work very well.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v671/lugnut/ER%2032%20Collet%20Chuck/Jan011998001.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v671/lugnut/ER%2032%20Collet%20Chuck/Jan011998003.jpg

fasto

07-18-2010, 08:57 PM

Took care of my nephew. He's almost 10 years old. He wanted something neat to do, so we designed and machined suncatchers for his two little sisters (suncatcher = something you hang on a window). He loved every minute of it. We started with his sketch of what he wanted. He did say the hearts were "girly". Then I drew it up in 2d cad and dimensioned it. I helped him program the machine for the first few blocks, then he wouldn't let me help anymore! I did review the program before we ran it.
Programming the Hurco in conversational mode: (So simple a 10-year-old can do it!) :D
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq232/fasto_tt/th_dsc01285.jpg (http://s451.photobucket.com/albums/qq232/fasto_tt/?action=view&current=dsc01285.jpg)
The second suncatcher design. He loved the Hurco's graphics that draw the part and the machining paths, it makes typos stand right out. In fact he had so much fun with the graphic backplot I had to stop him from graphing every segment as he added it or we have been there forever.
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq232/fasto_tt/th_dsc01288.jpg (http://s451.photobucket.com/albums/qq232/fasto_tt/?action=view&current=dsc01288.jpg)
Two finished suncatchers. These are 0.250 lexan (or maybe acrylic?) and are 2.5" diameter. We just used a small 2-flute HSS end mill, with air blast to clear the chips for the engraving. I finished breaking them off the square sheet after this. I also deburred them, of course.
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq232/fasto_tt/th_dsc01292.jpg (http://s451.photobucket.com/albums/qq232/fasto_tt/?action=view&current=dsc01292.jpg)
His sisters loved them.
He designed a more complicated one for himself, next time we're going to make that one.

spope14

07-18-2010, 09:02 PM

my right arm is in a sling for the next 4 weeks, unsafe to machine, can't lift, so i continued to learn autocad inventor 2011 and am re-designing projects and am going to put together an ftp for projects and blueprints. been at this since the main drugs wore off thursday! look forward to sharing in october!

vpt

01-16-2011, 05:51 PM

Was searching my old threads for something else and seen this one and figured I'd post.

Just finished this up today. I didn't spend much time on it, just wanted to stop the drinks from spilling into the computers over and over again. Has a compartment that the puter fits in and the drink area is completely sealed off from the computer area.

I had had to tear down my laptop 5 times now from drinks being spilled in it. This last time was the wifes margarita with salt and I am having a hard time bringing it back from this one.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/990/dsc08387s.jpg

RB211

01-16-2011, 08:01 PM

I flew an airplane, did an instrument proficiency check, went well!

macona

01-16-2011, 08:10 PM

Built this camera stand prototype for work this weekend.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h228/macona/483ee820.jpg

J Tiers

01-16-2011, 08:11 PM

I started in on some reference squares.... milled them to flatten the surfaces, and get them close to a right angle. I'll be needing them later, and so I figured I had best start the cycle of scraping for them.

I plan to generate the right angle, as I find that my "precision vernier square" is a POS which appears to have the blade pads set too close together and hard to clean off. It claims the reference square I have is almost 20 thou "out", which I can prove is a crock by actual test......

I'd buy a granite square, but the ones I found are too big, I don't want one the size that I found at one of the import places, CDCO or SHARS, I forget which.

Tony Ennis

01-16-2011, 09:03 PM

Fitted a backplate to a new-to-me 3-jaw.

lodcomm

01-16-2011, 09:27 PM

Made a "Frank-Fordamejig", thanks Frank!

Hmmm, have to figure out this photo business. Stand-by ... let's see if this works. Sorry about my lousy iPhone pictures. First pic is parts before powder coating, second installed on lathe.

http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx21/886014/web-1.jpg

http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx21/886014/web-2.jpg

I think this is a device for centering workpieces in a chuck? - can you point me to the URL or reference page where Frank originally describes this?

thanks!

-t

01-16-2011, 09:58 PM

http://www.frets.com/HomeShopTech/Tooling/CenteringRoller/centeringroller.html

gary350

01-16-2011, 09:59 PM

Are you sure you want to hear this. Got up early, shave, shower, eat breakfast, crapped, brush teeth, drove 60 miles, took photos of tools for sale, loaded vehicle with tools and misc, drove to Cracker Barrel for lunch, drove home, unloaded vehicle, checked email, ate dinner, went to bed, had great sex with an attractive lady, cuddle and watched some TV, drink some more red wine, typed this, gone to bed.

polepenhollow

01-16-2011, 10:18 PM

Are you sure you want to hear this. Got up early, shave, shower, eat breakfast, crap, drove 60 miles, took photos of tools for sale, loaded vehicle with tools and misc, drove to Cracker Barrel for lunch, drove home, unloaded vehicle, checked email, ate dinner, went to bed, had great sex with an attractive lady, watched some TV, had a glass of red wine, typed this, gone to bed.

Sounds like a nice day to me,
Forget Cracker Barrel.. go to a Mom and Pop Restaurant. Support the locals.

And your problem is.. ???????
What is your agenda for tomorrow????
K Liv

Black Forest

01-17-2011, 01:10 AM

I dug a 50 meter ditch 1.5 meters deep. Installed the pipe in two meter segments. Filled the ditch back in again.

My back is a little sore! Not as young as I used to be. Sitting in the excavator is tiring!

Weston Bye

01-17-2011, 05:23 AM

I am finishing up the next article for Digital Machinist - A CNC Controller for the X-Y Table.

Yesterday I had some feature creep. The simple addition of a potentiometer (3 wires to connect, 1 hole to drill) wired to one of the analog inputs and 3 lines of code in the program, resulted in a manually adjustable feedrate. Now I have to go back and update the drawings and take a few new photos.

Black_Moons

01-17-2011, 07:22 AM

Brazed a gas tank.. did'nt turn out so well, Very ulgy.. Wonder if it fixed the leak? Good news is at least I did'nt blow myself up.

Cleaned the nastyest bicycle chain ever on my motor bicycle.. Its basicly been getting coated from oil in the exhaust, and debrie from the road.

winchman

01-17-2011, 08:20 AM

I modified two obsolete 12-ton special purpose jackstands to make them useful again. The tube was originally welded to the end of the block. I moved it to the center, and added the round bars on each end.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/winchman/MiscellaneousCannon008.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/winchman/MiscellaneousCannon009.jpg

That paint is surprisingly tough. I preheated the blocks for several minutes with the OA torch before welding the tubes in place, but the paint took it in stride.

danlb

01-17-2011, 12:20 PM

I added a 4th leg to my little (2 x 2 ft) portable welding table. The guy who built it had it set it up with three legs so it could lean against a wall or workbench. I just added 3 feet of 1 inch black pipe attached at a swivel. It's functionally just what I wanted. Very stable when it's in position.

Only after I'd finished it did I realize I was still working in 'pre welding' mode. I'd taken a 6 inch long piece of 1/8 inch strap, bent it to a U, flattened the U, drilled it for the pivot pin and welded the U to the underside of the table. It would have been SOOOO much easier to cut two pieces of strap, drill them at the same time for the pin, and weld the darn things in place.

What did I do today? I learned a lesson. :)

Dan

madwilliamflint

01-17-2011, 03:35 PM

Finished up a project then started turning down some stock to make a holder to put my dremel flexible shaft in the quick change holder on the lathe.

DeereGuy

01-17-2011, 03:53 PM

I worked on getting a high gloss black anodized finish...getting close I think.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Deere_X475guy/IMG_20110117_114536.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Deere_X475guy/IMG_20110117_100822.jpg

rock_breaker

01-17-2011, 05:43 PM

PeterF

We catch about a 15 second blip of news about the floods in Austrailia and am wondering how many members have been affected. Perhaps you can fill us in as to what has happened.

Thanks

Ray

Timleech

01-18-2011, 03:46 PM

Not just today, but the last three evenings after work -
I'm stripping a diesel engine down for rebuild, the crank needs to come out (It's a Gardner 4LW if that means anything to anyone apart from Sir John). Someone has modified the front of the crank to take a more substantial pulley, turned it down & made a special steel pulley held with two grub screws in the side and two 1 1/4" x 1/2" Whit grub screws into the end, half in the shaft, as Dutch keys. Decent job until it needs to come apart after a few years in salt air. I got all the screws unscrewed except one of these long 'keys'. Tried a good quality socket drive hex key with 1/2" ratchet, hand impact driver, electric impact wrench, heat, penetrating oil, it would move back and forth maybe 1/8 turn but no more. Eventually the end of hex key sheared inside the grub screw. Tried a selection of carbide drills, I wasn't making much impression, that key must have been bl**dy hard. Eventually got the end of a carbide drill sheared off inside the broken hex key :(.
Tonight I went prepared with welding kit to see what could be done, maybe arc away some of the remaining key and at least alloy or anneal what was left to something drillable. I was clutching at straws, even considering cutting the whole pulley off with a grinder. Anyway, first thing was to try to disintegrate the piece of carbide drill, so I worried at it with a small punch. Didn't do the punch much good but did manage to break the carbide up. Then, hey presto, the punch jammed in the hole & was able to pull the remains of the key out of the hole with surprising ease (I'd been having to lever out the complete key before it sheared).
Then had to drill out the whole of this 1 1/4" long hex grub screw, took a while & blunted sveral drills but I got there!
Next stage is to get a powerful puller & maybe some heat on the pulley until it gives in! Then, finally, I can get the front oil seal plate off the crankcase and get the shaft away for grinding.

Tim

John Stevenson

01-18-2011, 04:10 PM

Today,
Nineteen bloody electric motors to strip, mode the rotor, mod the mounting flange and machine new adaptor plate from a laser cut 10mm thick blank, rebuild and get ready to ship out tomorrow morning.

I'm seriously starting to hate electric motors.

Sleeved a mounting flange and tried to upset 3 customers on the phone, flange was Ok but didn't mange to upset anyone.

Pub tonight, steak and a pint £5.49 and no washing up, life is good.

Came back, read the forum, laughed my arse off at Tims antics with the little LW, thank Christ I'm out that game, 19 years was long enough, decided electric motors aren't quite that bad.

Sent he cheque off for those magazines Tim, let you know when they are ready to collect.

MotorradMike

01-18-2011, 04:32 PM

Made a bacon sarny with lots of mayo and butter.
Posted it to to Sir John.
Tomatoes might not keep so left those out.

Enjoy!

PS: If you don't like doing the motors put the bloody price up until you do.

vpt

01-18-2011, 06:47 PM

Unloaded a truck, loaded another truck, fixed a vacuum cleaner bushing and belt.

Walter

01-18-2011, 07:42 PM

Well, I had a damn good day in the new shop (new job). Finally feeling comfortable with the equipment, and went to town on the 4 projects I had in hand. 3 finished and 3/4 of the way done on number 4. :D

DougA

01-18-2011, 08:16 PM

One of those days when everything falls into place. Made the rounds to three customers in three different towns. First one just needed a lesson on how to run there band saw in automatic and have the parts come out the correct length. Second one was installing the newly repaired chip conveyor back in their saw. Of course this was made more difficult by the planners putting the side of the saw the chip conveyor goes in against a wall. But since I figured last week how to get it out it went back in quickly. We raised the head up as high as it would go then disconnected power to the saw. Took the biggest forklift in the building and half lifted/slid the saw at an angle until we could sneak the 8' conveyor back into the saw. This thing weighs around 7000 lbs. After that another drive to customer number three for an easy hydraulic cylinder problem. Quick seal kit install and I was done. After everything went so well I could have made another call but didn't want to take a chance of ruining a good day so I quit early.

gunbuilder

01-18-2011, 09:15 PM

Today, I just about froze, again. Had to move more snow, the wind keeps blowing enough snow in to block my driveway. I blow it out one day and the wind blows it back that night. Nearly a full time job just getting the road clear enough to get in and out.

The older I get the less cold I can take.

Thanks,
Paul

38_Cal

01-18-2011, 09:38 PM

Took the car in for front brakes...it's too darn cold to do in the driveway, I'm not laying on a sheet of snow & ice! My garage is now my shop, so can't pull in to do any work. Crowned a barrel that I relined, and started putting the rifle back together...taking too long, don't do Winchester Low Walls often enough. :( Worked on a couple of stock patterns that I'm sending off to be duplicated. Had a customer/friend drop some work off and chewed the fat for an hour. No profit to be made on that job, but he's on his way to becoming a client, not just a customer...the difference being where you put the decimal point on the bill! :D

David

J Tiers

01-18-2011, 09:52 PM

Hah.... fixed the high temp squirrely problem with a new product (a small custom VFD) and found that the fix also knocked the conducted EMI 15 dB below limits (that's good, btw).

Then found that the boss is promising another customer a VFD of 3.5x the power in the same package...... (not so good, the existing one is about maxed out).

I reckon I came out even on it today...... but got nothing done in the shop here but some bandsawing.

Tony Ennis

01-18-2011, 10:45 PM

I whacked by old jacobs-style chuck onto a new taper adapter and whacked that into my tailstock. To my surprise it all fit. Bored my first hole using the lathe. It's also the first time I used my tailstock. Then for no reason, I tapped the hole I bored. Which was my first 1/4x20 tappage experience.

/sheds a tear

Then I turned down the 4-jaw's backplate so it didn't extend past the chuck.

In short, I totally goofed off! :D

winchman

01-19-2011, 01:16 AM

"Then I turned down the 4-jaw's backplate so it didn't extend past the chuck."

Why did you do that? I can't imagine how the extra material was getting in the way of anything.

georgelaw

01-19-2011, 03:11 AM

feel like a idiot i have a tornado shelter built in the floor of shop and had the cover off and forgot to drop back in place and was getting ready to change the speed on my mill smithy 3in1 and stepped off into a 5 foot hole and busted my butt but good. been clumsy since i was a kid and still trying to prove i'm still good at busting my but. three times this week. got more bruises then someone who has been in a drag down fight. my wife has been laughing all day long.
gotta be a better day tomorrow.

Tony Ennis

01-19-2011, 07:13 AM

"Then I turned down the 4-jaw's backplate so it didn't extend past the chuck."

Why did you do that? I can't imagine how the extra material was getting in the way of anything.

As it protruded by less about 1/4", it probably wasn't. But it looked like I didn't finish the job when I turned the backplate. Also, the edges were sharp. Now the front edge is flush with the chuck and the back edge has been broken with a file. Looks nicer, feels nicer.

tdmidget

01-19-2011, 09:40 AM

Timleech

01-20-2011, 01:22 PM

Today,

Came back, read the forum, laughed my arse off at Tims antics with the little LW, thank Christ I'm out that game, 19 years was long enough, decided electric motors aren't quite that bad.

The struggle continues.
Tried a screw puller on the pulley last night, not a hope.
This evening went back with a 30 ton hydraulic puller, pumped it up to the full 30 tons, lots of heat. it moved mayabe 5 thou before the shaft heated to match the pulley. Pumped up just a touch over the limit (6000 psi) for the 30 ton ram, & one of the tension rods sheared! :(
I've got a 50 ton puller, it's a bl**dy heavy cumbersome thing to maul around & I'm not sure if there's a way I can set it up without using the same tension rods. (I do have a spare pair)
It's good quality kit, I'm a bit surprised that it sheared. Next stage apart from the 50 ton ram is to take the whole thing to where I can get an oxy torch on it, first to give it a quicker thermal shock than I can manage with a propane blowlamp, & second to burn the bu**er off if everything else fails!!

Tim

vpt

01-20-2011, 04:53 PM

Pulled a transmission out and apart, replaced one whole cluster and one gear assembly on the other cluster. Assembled and bench tested good, should be able to install next warmer day. It takes alot to heat the shop when it is -10F.

RB211

01-20-2011, 06:40 PM

Woke up 3:45am EST, flew on a 737-800 to Texas, then on a 737-900 to San Fran, arrived 11am PST. Still up, going out with my woman tonight, hope I don't fall asleep. Studying my butt off for airline interviews.

darryl

01-20-2011, 08:24 PM

today, yesterday, day before- worked on cleaning up the shop. I have some floor now, some benchtop, found some stuff I lost, clogged the vacuum cleaner hose- now I'm contemplating how to fit the pressure/vacuum station into the shop. These are all concrete walls (basement) and at one point shortly after I bought the place I gathered up all the white paint I could find and painted the walls. I ran out of paint and couldn't finish one end of the shop. It's sort of dark there, even though I have lots of light in that area. I'd like to paint that now, but there's soooooo much stuff to move-

Dan Dubeau

01-20-2011, 10:38 PM

took my camera into work to snap pics of some tools, and stuff I've made for the shop made tools thread. It's only taken a few months to get around to it. Hopefully the time it takes me to post them is shorter.

mike os

01-21-2011, 01:37 AM

Cut my first threads on the lathe......thought it might be difficult. nope, just tedious;)

danlb

01-28-2011, 09:07 PM

I practiced some welds today, in prep for building a rolling stand for my Mill. Learned a few things in the process.

1) A 100 amp mig CAN weld 16ga to 1/8 inch with no problems, even using gas.
2) I can get actually see MUCH better with the expensive Miller Elite helmet than I could with teh no-name auto-dark.
3) As it gets dark outside, you can't see what you are doing as well.

But most important...

A) When doing practice welds, do NOT do full welds on all 4 sides when attaching a 12 inch long 1x2 to a 24 inch long 2x4, even if it is a beautiful job. It's a bitch to get off to re-use.

B) Don't do A 3 times, closer together than your band saw and angle grinder can get into.

Anyone want to buy a 3 leg (inline) 12 inch tall stool for narrow butts?

Dan

J Harp

01-28-2011, 10:02 PM

Finished and tuned up a traditional screw box and cut a test thread on a two inch diameter blank. Getting ready to put an all wood face vise on my workbench which I started in the early 70's. Reckon I ought to stop rushing into things.

slim_jim

01-28-2011, 10:35 PM

i made a shot "glass" at work (don't judge me, it is slow) out of a bent 316 SS pump shaft, then gave it some color by heating just the rim with a propane torch. nice and blue at the rim and fading as it goes down.

J Tiers

01-29-2011, 12:15 AM

Sent a report to a client that is going to make them unhappy, with a list of serious safety issues in their product (what we were hired to do).........

Came home, worked on the various scraping tasks I have in hand, and then came here to waste time..... went back to more scraping, and am hitting the BBS's for entertainment before bed.

The Artful Bodger

01-29-2011, 01:28 AM

I loaded my lathe on my trailer and snigged it down tight using a fence wire strainer. Then, after oiling it well, I wrapped it all in polythene sheet and used plenty of duct tape to keep it in place then put a tarp over that and trussed it up like an Egyption mummy.

It is now well swaddled for its journey to the new house, 3 hours on a ferry then 5 or 6 hours on the road. I hope it does not rain......

vpt

01-29-2011, 08:10 AM

38_Cal

01-29-2011, 02:22 PM

I actually got out to the shop today for the first time in over a week. Been having hand problems, arthritis, and last Wednesday I had cortisone shots in both thumbs. :eek: Not funski! Did some fitting on a "new" hammer for an antique Tennessee percussion rifle I picked up 30 years ago or so...can't rush into these things, ya know!

David

tmc_31

01-29-2011, 02:26 PM

Drilled 15 - 7/8" thru holes in 3"dia X 1" stock in preparation for tapping. Cleaned on shop until the dumpster was full. I'm gonna have to wait til trash day to clean some more:mad:. I bought a shorty jack stand with a barstock roller on it that is just the right size for my new band saw. It doesn't have a screw adjustment like my other welding stands. So, I am spending some time figuring out how to add that feature easily.:confused:

All the best guys,

Tim

Weston Bye

01-29-2011, 02:28 PM

Mailed off my next article for Digital Machinist this morning, am "clearing the decks" and getting things squared away for the next project. (Cleaning the shop and garage.)

awemawson

01-29-2011, 02:45 PM

A/ Mucked out the eight pigs - hand shovel job
B/ Cleared and swept out the new log store
C/ Shifted 8 one ton bags of split logs up to the house to stack for next winter
D/ Went in and had breafast
E/ Cleared the yard behind my workshop ready for a roof to be put up on monday - this involved moving a 1.5 ton power hammer, and a lot of heavy foundry gear including the gas furnace and a BIG stack of cope and drags
F/ Mended the goose hut to keep out Mr Fox
H/ Shifted and stacked loads of pallets and machinery in the farm yard so the grand kids can get to the play area (following grumble from her indoors)
I/ Lunch
J/ Sheeted the stuff moved earlier to make way for the roof
K/ Broke down the remains of a hay & straw rick, cleared up and strawed up the pigs - looks like Martha is in pig again !!
L/ Councelled upset son whose new toy SUV failed it's MOT test - all trivial easy fixes so now son happy again!
M/ Supper
N/ Sat down and mused how busy being retired is, and how little time I get to play in my workshop!!!!!

Dr Stan

01-29-2011, 04:00 PM

Reassembled the apron on my 9" SB. Yesterday the half-nut lockout pin stuck which prevented me from using the power feed. Disassembled and cleaned out 60+ years of muck so it works like a new one now.

Once the lathe was operational continued working on a motor adapter for the feed unit on my Fray mill. Making it out of a piece of 1" thick mystery steel found along the side of the road. It has so many hard spots in it I may have been better off just hauling it to the scrap yard!

vpt

01-29-2011, 04:46 PM

Good luck with the lathe Art!

Well I just got up today but yesterday the new hub, slider, and synchro came in for a customers car that has been on my hoist all week. Got it all together, bench tested good, put trans in car and hooked everything up. Today I can fill with fluid and take the car out for a beat.

Filled trans today and took the car for a beat. Shifted good in all gears even banging threw them at 8000 RPM. Even reverse works! I think he'll; be happy with it.

danlb

01-30-2011, 12:26 AM

I practiced more in prep for welding up a stand for my mill.

I learned a lot about practicing welds. :) None of my welds failed the "bend test". My welds came out good despite the rain showers that forced me to improvise a lean-to to protect my outside welding area.

Had a nice dinner with the kids who were on their way to the big city to see Garfunkle and Oates at a comedy club. It's always great to see the kids.

Dan

vpt

02-04-2011, 07:48 AM

Turned down the end of a threaded axle for a buddy yesterday. He says ooo so shiney.

Mad Scientist

02-04-2011, 09:39 AM

Lots of snow and cold weather last few days (temp is now up to 8F) but didn’t want to go out so started laying new ceramic floor in kitchen/dining and utility area.
Converted table lamp for client to led’s for use at a trade show.
Modified a drilling fixture for another client, made new assemble fixture for him, still need to make him a test fixture for a pcb.
Made some artwork changes to a pcb for someone else’s new product.
To day waiting for a guy to show up to help him with his new idea on how to kill bed bugs. :cool: And I still have a bunch of floor tile to finish laying.

John Stevenson

02-04-2011, 10:44 AM

Did some more electric motors ...........................sigh

Got an interesting job coming in next week......................28 more motors..........................grumble.

Oh and 6 rotary tables to convert to stepper drive...............yawn.

danlb

02-06-2011, 11:36 AM

I did the the destructive tests on the practice welds I did last week. By destructive, I mean that I pounded and pried and bent and ground and sawed until I managed to get all those test welds off the test piece. It's a good thing to do while learning to weld.

I learned several things...

It is probably as important to know how to remove a weld as it is to place it.

When you have what looks like a bad weld, it does not magically become a good weld if you make a second and third pass. (MIG)

Most of my welds were very good.

When you weld a 1x2 bar to a plate, and you weld it all the way around, that is 6 inches of weld that you have to remove if you are off position by 1/4 inch or twisted by a few degrees.

Dan

bruto

02-06-2011, 12:30 PM

I got out the tractor and loader and moved snow. Then I moved some more snow. Then, for a little variety I moved some more snow. Every once in a while I stopped for a breather and shoveled some snow.

We don't have nearly as much snow as further south, but we still have a freaking lot of snow.

J Tiers

02-06-2011, 03:38 PM

I went out 3 times and chopped ice.

Once next door driveway.

Once across the street driveway.

last time my own driveway.

Exact same type movements as machine scraping, except more work and bigger swarf.

So then I came in and did some more scraping on a shop project. Time to go study pretty soon.

update that you don't need but get anyhow for free: Finished some clamp brackets for work after all that, cam back here to see what was up, as it's only a few steps from the machines

sasquatch

02-06-2011, 03:59 PM

Nothing too exciting,,, Went back to an auction sale i was at last week to pick up the rest of the stuff i bought for my son,s shop.

Steel table, piece of 10" channel with 2- 1 1/2" pillow blocks, a 20" length of 1 1/2" machined mandrel, and a fiberglass weatherproof box with some electrical breakers in it.
Paid $5.00 for the lot.

DougA

02-07-2011, 04:10 PM

I took a length of 2x3x1/4 and cut a 54" piece out of it to fabricate a guard for a customers bandsaw. Its a big old Hem saw with a 40" cut capacity. Then I made a couple fences to be used on the same customers plate saw so they don't have so much trouble clamping down aluminum plates when they cut them into strips. That was after repairing another customers saw on site about 30 minutes away.

wrenchbender

02-07-2011, 04:39 PM

took pics of tools that i haveand e mailed them to a fella to trade for a lathe.

coughed my common sence out threw up some coughed some more.

Timleech

02-07-2011, 05:09 PM

Couple of hours finishing welding some hull repairs on a 1935 canal narrow boat. Then power failed, something to do with high winds on overhead lines. Went out & delivered some replacement exhaust valves to the engine shop for a Gardner diesel I'm rebuilding, and picked up a roll of felt for my shed roof because the wind has blown the old felt off.
When out got an urgent call from some barge owners I do engine work for, one of their barges has blown aground. Could I come out & quickly finish a job I was doing 'as & when' on their tug (new bronze studs in heat exchangers) so we could try to pull the barge off. Did all that, well dark by this time, failed to pull it off (the river level has dropped since it went aground), but brought the crew ashore and got home to make a bite to eat at 10 pm. Have to go back tomorrow to try again in daylight, if they can persuade the navigation authority to boost the level a bit.

Tim

John Stevenson

02-07-2011, 05:28 PM

Timleech

02-07-2011, 06:13 PM

So did you drink my coffee Tim that I didn't get yesterday ?

Nearly brought the new dog up for you to play with then remembered your cats, ower dog wouldn't have stood a chance plus I don't know what he's like with water and no way I'm jumping in the bloody cut to fetch a ringing wet sheepdog out. :D

Must have missed your call by a few minutes, but didn't realise until later there was one missed.
Wanted to pick your brains on how your bandsaw coolant is set up, can you manage a pic? Mine has just the tank but no evidence of any pipework.

I don't drink coffee in the afternoon ;)

Tim

John Stevenson

02-07-2011, 06:36 PM

Try and get some pics tomorrow but it's crammed in a corner.
Mine has two tanks on it [ big headed bastard ! ] got the one inside which is fastened to the door and then a pipe goes from the bottom of that to another small tank at the back that has the pump in it.

That feeds to oil to the rollers, I use neat cutting oil, doesn't go fast enough to smoke and it oils the whole machine, drain to back to the tank in the door.

Whether or not mine is original I have no idea, it was like this when I got it.

I have fitted remote switches onto the head for start stop and a toggle switch for coolant, all in 22mm fittings.

I have also fitted an air cylinder at the side of the damper. It's fed by a 5/3 dual solenoid valve at the rear. One solenoid is powered by the auto stop and the other by the start button, extra blocks on both switches.

In use you press start and the air is released, the arm comes down and the damper takes over, when it's finished cutting it hits auto stop, energised the other solenoid and it raises by air so you can slide the next piece thru and set the vise.

An adjustable bowen cable sets the max hight.

Without this is a 3 handed job to work the saw.

J Tiers

02-07-2011, 09:00 PM

Just got back from welding class..... otherwise haven't done squat except do work, at work, for a client who I feel sure is going to try to stiff us for the money

Deja Vu

02-07-2011, 09:02 PM

Just got back from welding class..... otherwise haven't done squat except do work, at work, for a client who I feel sure is going to try to stiff us for the money

I squated today amongst the other activities.:D

ulav8r

02-07-2011, 10:33 PM

Reported to my first day on my new job, after being unemployed for 19 months. Found a Mcmaster catalog #116 on the desk.

J Tiers

02-07-2011, 10:49 PM

I squated today amongst the other activities.:D

Most of us have better facilities than that in the bog, but whatever you are into :D

vpt

02-07-2011, 11:10 PM

Went to the casino, won $300. Thats almost a RPC.

Timleech

02-08-2011, 01:38 PM

Spent all afternoon with the tug getting that barge pulled free, did it in the end & then had to bring it back to the wharf under its own power where it had set off yesterday midday. No apparent damage done, just a huge waste of time and not a little fuel.

Yesterday there was a gale blowing, 76 mph winds recorded in the Mersey. Today was a beautiful day for a pleasure cruise, sunny, mild and just a light breeze.

Tim

madwilliamflint

02-08-2011, 01:50 PM

Picked up a 6-32 die and a couple taps at the local. Forgot to pick up a corresponding drill bit, so I ordered a cheaptastic 115 jobber set on teh innertoobz.

Crap no doubt but if it drills these two holes I'll be happy.

Sadly that means I won't be tapping tonight.

And the project goes by yet another week while I wait. :-/

john hobdeclipe

02-08-2011, 09:51 PM

Finally finished up a wiring project.

That means I finally got my rotary phase converter wired and running. As part of this little wintertime project, I ran three outlets for the 3 phase, ran two more 240 volt 20 amp outlets, another string of 120 volt outlets, re-arranged some lighting so I can see what I'm doing, and finished the final little 4' X 12' section of my loft where I store all sorts of stuff.

So finally I can not only turn my "new" Bridgeport on, but I can actually see what I'm doing.

Tomorrow I sweep the floor. Then I have to actually do something to try to make some money to pay for all this wire.

hornluv

02-08-2011, 10:01 PM

I finished making my wife's Valentine's day gift. I'd tell you what it was, but I don't want to risk her checking the forum and seeing it before it's time. Unlikely, yes, but paranoia is the first line of defense :D

rbertalotto

02-09-2011, 06:33 AM

Got my new Kimber 82 "Rusty" from the Civilian Marksmanship Program.......What a deal. The government bought thousands of these single shot 22RF target rifles to be used in various school programs back in the 80s. They were never used. All are brand new. They are available in two versions...pristine for $600, and with a few spots of rust for $400.....

Mine was just about perfect! A very little bit of rust on the target sights...

You can read about it here:

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=378605

vpt

03-26-2011, 07:11 PM

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/5534/porsche010.jpg

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/3021/porsche015.jpg

http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/2990/porsche017.jpg

http://img857.imageshack.us/img857/4608/porsche023.jpg

DICKEYBIRD

03-26-2011, 07:38 PM

Nice work Andy....what kinda engine is that?

vpt

03-26-2011, 07:44 PM

Thanks! I was suprised how nice the finish was on the stainless. The engine is a 2.2L (I believe) porsche.

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/504/porsche008.jpg

darryl

03-26-2011, 08:32 PM

Picked up a Devilbiss compressor today, rescued from a dumpster. Not a large one, actually about the smallest one I've seen besides the obvious bicycle tire inflators.

Tank was about 1/4 full of water, which I drained. The wiring had been chopped and the gauges bashed. A check with an ohmeter showed no continuity through the motor, which turned out to be the thermal breaker device. Bypassing that, I hooked it up to the variac and gave it a try. I found out why the breaker had gone- the armature was rubbing on the field. The end result of all this is that I now have a good air pump, without a motor, but with a shaft that can be driven either directly or using a belt and pulleys.

I'm opting for the belt and pulley, since I'll be able to couple it up to a vacuum cleaner motor and build it into my workbox. The gauges work even though they're bent up, and the regulator works. There's also an adjustable output pressure regulator.

My challenge now is to determine the step-down ratio that will match the vac motor to the input shaft on this pump mechanism, and come up with a clutch which will decouple the vac from the compressor shaft. Operating the clutch will also switch power input from the pressure regulator to the vacuum cleaner switch.

The compressor has a belt reduction drive already, which eases the load that will be put on the reduction drive that I add to it. It would seem that because the motor was a universal type, the shaft probably turned at about 5000 rpm. If I can turn it at half that, I'll be happy. It shouldn't be a big deal to knock down the vac motor speed from its 20,000 or so to about 1/10 of that. The motor has its own cooling fan and doesn't rely on pumped air for cooling, so it should be fine in this application. It already has a drive for a belt on the shaft, and I might just put on the micro v pulley I have and use the belt that matches it.

That's been todays project. I have most of the parts brought together in one place, and with the rest of them gathered I'll make the final decision whether it's a go or not.

SGW

03-26-2011, 09:19 PM

I replaced leaking gaskets between the tank and bowl of a toilet. Much to my astonishment, given my general luck with plumbing, I got it together and it did NOT leak, first try.

Generally with plumbing I start to replace a faucet washer, something breaks, and I end up ripping everything out back to the water meter. Or so it seems.

I don't like plumbing much. :D

vpt

03-31-2011, 07:23 AM

Put some pipes together the other day. Waiting for a few more matterials so I can finish it up then onto the intake mani.

http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/8315/porsche004.jpg

Deus Machina

03-31-2011, 08:20 AM

I milled the giant T-nut to mount a new quick-change toolpost onto my lathe, which reminded me how much I hate working cheap mild steel in my mini-mill. Still need to tram it on the Y axis.

Used the QCTP to turn a new sheer pin for the leadscrew, then part off 32mm of a drill chuck shank and 15.5mm of a dead center so the 'zero' mark on the tailstock quill actually means zero, and then used the now functioning chuck to start, and the now functioning leadscrew (well, the automatic feed function) to machine a chunk of 1.25" 6061 Al round stuck into the blank that will later be threaded inside to 7/8"x14 to act as a 'sleeve collet' in the 3-jaw to produce a few parts.

Tucked that away, went inside to refill the washing machine's transmission with gear oil (80-90 because I couldn't find GS90. Not worried about it.) and install the new motor coupling. Just waiting for the RTV to dry so I can reassemble and have this thing working again.

It's now 9:20 AM. I think I deserve the rest of the day off.

dockrat

03-31-2011, 10:35 AM

Yesterday's job was to push/pull this 800' x 16" pipe
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh67/Dockrat1/pipe1Medium.jpg

Down to the river you can see in this pic

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh67/Dockrat1/pipe3Medium.jpg

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh67/Dockrat1/pipe6Medium.jpg

mike os

03-31-2011, 11:42 AM

thats a BFO pipe & no mistake:D

steverice

03-31-2011, 01:03 PM

This is an air shifter for a dragike with a three speed semi-automatic over riding transmission that I built using my Logan 10 x 24 and vertical mill.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b91/riceburnerfb1/airshifter2.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b91/riceburnerfb1/airshifter6.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b91/riceburnerfb1/airshifterwithstand.jpg

Carld

03-31-2011, 01:43 PM

Didn't do anything today but Tuesday and Wednesday my neighbor and I drove to Bedford Hills, NY and back, about 1600 miles, in a tad over 24 hours including gas stops and meals.

macona

03-31-2011, 03:57 PM

Installed my new projector. Infocus SP8602.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5110/5573523492_864594fb38_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/67292116@N00/5573523492/)IMG_0113 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/67292116@N00/5573523492/) by macona (http://www.flickr.com/people/67292116@N00/), on Flickr

RussZHC

03-31-2011, 04:58 PM

Finally finished a temporary water/rain fix at work.

I don't mind sheet metal work but man...265 feet of 26 gauge (27 ten foot sheets, 2 feet wide) with a 1" 90* brake the whole length via a piece of square tubing, 4 Vise grips and a framing hammer...then rivet it in place as much as possible while trying to stand on the remaining ice in the parking lot (that last bit was the royal PITA part)

No pics but I was told by more than one, it looked really stupid!

On the plus side it continues to warm up slightly each day, so "work" in the "shop" may soon begin again

PixMan

04-02-2011, 07:45 PM

Installed the hose hanger that my dad made for the new surface grinder coolant/dust collector unit I bought for him. Every one of these units I've seen being sold with used machines on Ebay or by machinery dealer sites has cracked hoses from people just letting everything hang. This solution that I thought of, dad fabricated and I installed takes all the weight off the hoses, without exerting any forces on anything else. It's a neoprene rubber sling suspended on a coil spring-loaded mechanism that was a door-closer, and fastened to a joist in the ceiling above the machine.

Also laid out and installed new "pegs" to organize the growing collections of grinder wheels & adapters. I used the long screws and plastic spacers sold for installing rain gutters on homes. They're long enough that I can start stacking wheels 2 or 3 deep if I need to. I still have room for a few more before that happens though.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/kenm10759/Dads%20shop/422322392_photobucket_47219_.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/kenm10759/Dads%20shop/422322392_photobucket_47218_.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/kenm10759/Dads%20shop/422322392_photobucket_47220_.jpg

RussZHC

04-02-2011, 07:57 PM

Pixman: curious, is there any ever issue with the use of flex hose in such an "industrial" setting?
Build up of crud after awhile, I mean...

PixMan

04-02-2011, 08:11 PM

I've not seen it used much in similar applications, only the photos of the stuff. I think coolant mist has more effect than crud alone.

When I worked in CNC screw machine shops that had high-pressure coolant systems and the accompanying mist collectors, the oil mist really attacked the 6" flex hose used on the mist collectors. It would swell up and split. A more-common issue was the oil collecting inside the hose, impossible to get it all out. That weight alone would make the flex hoses sag. I don't want that here, that's why you see the smooth curves, no sags. Then on the CNC machines, the mist collectors started to be installed directly onto the machine enclosures, problem solved.

I do see some flex hose being used in shops that have central dust/mist collector systems. There will be galvanized pipe run along a line of machines above head height, then flex hose down to the interface of each machine. It all seems to be intact, but a bugger to keep perfectly clean. Most don't bother, and I think that's when you get a lot of leaks and system failure.

For right now, being brandy new, this thing really sucks. I think I'd be careful about having a loose grip on a flexible 6" scale near the port, it sucks so bad. ;)

Video Man

04-02-2011, 08:13 PM

Found a replacement edger blade for my old edger, bored it out to fit my new edger. Yes I could have drilled the **** thing but I bought a boring head and by nab, I'm going to use it! Edger doesn't require =/- .0005 but I did it because I CAN. My wife wondered why I spent all that money on a milling machine.....:p

Tony Ennis

04-02-2011, 08:18 PM

Learned to brew beer starting with malt.

singlecedar

04-02-2011, 08:38 PM

Well,
First off, shot carpenter bees with a S&W 1917 with cut-down .308 brass necked down to pass the 45ACP headspace shoulder (.45 Lafayette Bee Magnum). Works quite well with 3.5 gr of HI-SKOR, and fill the case with walnut polishing media. Test-fired some 45 ACP loaded with 7.5gr of CPP behind a 200 grain ice-hardened bullet for 1007 fps. Stiff recoil, no signs of pressure. Colt 38 special was fired with a 158gr cast boolit with 5.7gr of CPP for a nice load (Chrony battery died, and I didn't get the fps).

Ran out of .45 Lafayette Bee Magnum, started shootin' da beez with a Ruger Mark II .22 Target model. Durned if that wasn't fun too. A little bit harder to shoot 'em, but finally figgered out Point-of-aim, and wasted a few more.

Shot the bull, told jokes, and traded some wisdom with my gun-nut buddies. Had to leave the range about 1:15PM.

Got home and started workin' on the wife's 25-06 I'm building for her. Nearly finished jeweling the bolt, when I wound up watchin' the grandkids. Both me and the grandkids had fun, so I reckon we had a pretty good day.

Gonna go fishin' with the wife tomorrow, and carry the S&W 1917 loaded with the Lafayette Snake Magnum (5gr CCP and 200gr of number 11 shot).

Oh yeah, and I dressed down a 1.5" bell reducer to build me another pipe burner for my blueing set-up. Building my own is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying them. Final machining tomorrow after I clean a mess of fish will be a cakewalk.

And right now, I'm answering questions from my wife about what gun I'm talking about to somebody..... women... go figger.

All this should have been in the Gunsmithing category, but heck, the question was "What did you do today?"

J Tiers

04-02-2011, 08:43 PM

Just finished sweeping up about 5 lb of chips from the shop, came over here to get the email, and here I am wasting time.....

Went to a few tool sales, cleaned up the purchases (hand tools).

Thinking about whether it's too late to start on a project now....

John Stevenson

04-03-2011, 05:48 AM

Threw a new control box together yesterday for a 4 axis project machine I'm working on.
Nothing fancy, just off the shelf items and 6 foot of cable but it makes a change from doing motors :(

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/4axis_box.jpg

Having said that, next week I have an interesting job even though it is a motor.

Got an axle here off a small battery operated tug from the airport, probably baggage handling ?
Motor coupled directly onto the diff by a fine straight sided spline, motor is toast, no spares available so been given a 'new' motor of totally different design and got to graft it to fit.

Makes a change from the run of the mill stuff for an hour or two.

PixMan

04-03-2011, 06:05 AM

Nice work, but looks kind of tight in there. Doesn't that power supply want a little more air flowing around it?

John Stevenson

04-03-2011, 06:43 AM

Integral fan in power supply mates up with grille in far end.

PixMan

04-03-2011, 08:17 AM

Nice, but where does the air come in or go out for flow?

I guess if you get a 4-axis CNC machine going you won't need that nice large collection of transfer punches any longer. Send them my way. :D

John Stevenson

04-03-2011, 08:24 AM

Grille is full width of the PS, fan is only half width.

Shouldn't get hot anyway as it's all over specked.
Drivers are 4.2 amp only running at 2 amps.

Buy your own transfer punches, I'd be lost without them.

sansbury

04-03-2011, 12:23 PM

J Tiers

04-03-2011, 10:17 PM

It was about 90F here today (32C for you others).

Did the Sunday morning things, then

Made about 2 cu yards of dirt...... means shredding various things together and dumping into a composter to settle and decompose.

Cleaned off the workbench out in the shed. Cleaned the truck bed out of dirt and rocks, and then got it dirty again hauling plants.

Didn't do squat in the shop except make a chuck key for the smaller Cushman out of one I got in a can of miscellaneous extra keys. That dude was some HARD steel, had to torch anneal it, turn the nose down with carbide, and then harden and draw it.

Tony Ennis

04-03-2011, 10:36 PM

Shot my flintlock at the range today. The barrel should be broken in now so I can sight it in.

Got the riding mower running for the first time this year, used it in anger. Can't get the blades off to sharpen them. Sucks. Considering buying a cheesy compressor and some air tools.

Weston Bye

04-04-2011, 05:21 AM

A prototype 7-position Geneva wheel for a mechanical calendar. This was drawn in BobCAD and cut on my X2. It's ugly, but this was just a proof-of-concept. The wheel could have stood to be a few thous smaller for smoother meshing, but the basic geometry seems sound.

http://i.imgur.com/fr4KDl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lQNBcl.jpg

Excellent. I have a soft spot for Genevas. Much easier to build than one would expect. If you haven't seen it before, check out mine in Machinists in Motion under the Interactive tab at the Digital Machinist website. (see my signature line below) It was the subject of the second article I did for Digital Machinist. Also see my Quartz Movement clock and Walking Beam while you are there there. (sorry for the shameless self-promotion)

I spent part of the day building and fitting parts for a new clock design.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/Weston/DSCN4020.jpg

Westline

04-04-2011, 07:58 AM

I'm pretty proud of this so I thought I would share it with you guys.
After 4 months of on and off work on my dads Devilbiss compressor finally completed the pump on Sunday.
I don't have pics of what the whole thing used to look like but the head used to look like this.
http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i460/KobusWestline/IMAG0688.jpg
Now after stripping sandblasting the entire thing at times that I would not urk my neighbours the pumps looks like this.
http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i460/KobusWestline/IMG_0284.jpg
http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i460/KobusWestline/IMG_0280.jpg
http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i460/KobusWestline/IMG_0283.jpg
The interesting thing is only one valve plate was broken but I replaced the bearings, bearing seals and gaskets while it was open anyway.
Also honed the cylinders and sprayed the entire pump.
All in all I'm one happy camper.
Now I have to do the motor and tank .......not that much fun

Timleech

04-04-2011, 12:48 PM

Spent a fair chunk of the weekend turning one of these:-

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss38/Timleech_2009/Bench-1.jpg

into this:-

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss38/Timleech_2009/Bench-2.jpg

The timber is one of several 9" x 6" pieces of redundant lockgate fendering from Liverpool docks, which I bought (old fixing bolts still in place) for repairs to the stands (Bostocks) in my little dry dock. There's some spare, & the timber was too good to waste. Most of the beams are Greenheart, anyone who has dealt with greenheart will know it tends to splinter and the splinters can turn nasty. Some of the beams are what I know as 'Purple heart' but that's probably not correct. It's very like greenheart, extremely dense and durable, used for similar things, but has a purplish-brown colour and is less prone to splintering (more suitable for sitting on!) The blocks sitting on the ground are greenheart, the rest comes from one piece of the 'purple heart'.

The spot is where a big beech tree snapped off in a storm a couple of years ago and demolished all the smaller trees in its path. After I'd cleared as much of the beech as I could there was a nice elevated clearing just asking for some sort of seat. I reckon the whole assembly must weigh at least 200 lbs ;)

Tim

vpt

04-04-2011, 07:46 PM

Finally had time to weld up the mani.

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3049/porsche005.jpg

J Tiers

04-04-2011, 09:52 PM

Got off work, went to welding class, where I decided that MIG sucks and stick rules......... we just started MIG, and so far I do not like it much.

Fixed a leak around the tub, glared at the slow sink drain a bit, avoided doing any tax paperwork, and came here to waste time...............;)

Black_Moons

04-04-2011, 10:58 PM

I'm pretty proud of this so I thought I would share it with you guys.
After 4 months of on and off work on my dads Devilbiss compressor finally completed the pump on Sunday.
I don't have pics of what the whole thing used to look like but the head used to look like this.All in all I'm one happy camper.
Now I have to do the motor and tank .......not that much fun

Wow, Awsome hotrod compressor paint job :) Hope it proforms as fast as it looks.

RussZHC

04-06-2011, 07:52 PM

Painted some small lathe parts.

Fitted the nut for the QCTP/compound "T" slot.
Would have been way simpler if the mill was up and running but need lathe up and running first for making parts.

Bonus: did not shiver once (it got up to about 8C here today)

lakeside53

04-06-2011, 08:12 PM

Went sking.. Awesome:D

Black Forest

04-07-2011, 12:39 AM

Went sking.. Awesome:D

I never liked water skiing much. I guess I am a control freak.

winchman

04-07-2011, 11:33 AM

I'm in the process of replacing the wood deck on a stake body truck with a steel tread plate deck. At the end of last quarter, I stripped off all the angle around the edge of the bed, and removed the bulkhead that supported the blade for the bulldozer that the truck had been used to haul.

Then I installed two channels and the plate for the hitch ball.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/winchman/MiscellaneousCannon041.jpg

This morning I fabricated this removable mount for the safety chains.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/winchman/MiscellaneousCannon040.jpg

Here's a shot showing the paint burned off the outside of the frame where I welded the channels. I was pleased to see the pattern is so consistent. It wasn't an easy place to work with the mig gun.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/winchman/MiscellaneousCannon042.jpg

PixMan

04-07-2011, 11:40 PM

I mixed up the 13 gallons of coolant for the surface grinder's new coolant/dust collector unit, checked concentration with a refractometer, and filled up the unit.

Works GREAT!

sasquatch

04-08-2011, 02:02 AM

Went to do some work at a house we bought in town.
This house is a One Owner built in 1939. The one bachelor son still living there gave me a box containing the original blueprints for the house , and a stack 4 inches thick of every piece of correspondence concerning all the construction materials, prices from woodwork, trim, furnace, electrical, plumbing, the lot it was built on, the labour rates paid out for various stages, in 39 the carpenters were being paid around 45-50 cents per hour.
Also brochures of other house designs they had considered.
Amazing they still had all this, great to have all the history of this house.

The Artful Bodger

04-08-2011, 02:38 AM

I wanted a piece of steel for my project so took myself down to an engineering company in this small town. I parked my ute then walked around one side of their premises and right around to the back of the building on the next street but no sign of any front door!

One door did however have an open padlock on it so I gently pushed it open and found a young man inside operating a lathe, he and an older man, maybe the proprietor, were the only two working in a shop with rows of machines, lathes, mills, a forge in the corner and no doubt a lot more I did not notice.

I got my metal and left wondering what the future there might be.:rolleyes:

John Stevenson

04-11-2011, 06:20 PM

Trying to play catch-up on a few projects before the racing season starts.
Did two steering wheel centre logo's today for a couple of Alvis vintage racers [ not mine ].

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/alvis_wheel1.jpg

Had a play with the latest Vetric software called Aspire. You cab pull this into 3D shapes and then machine it from there.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/alvis_wheel2.jpg

It's actually trickier than it looks as the centre flat section isn't on centre, if it was then the triangle would have the lower point on the edge of the circle.

The doming was done with a 6mm ball nosed cutter and the engraving done with a 20 degree V tool. 47 minutes per part.

terry_g

04-11-2011, 08:49 PM

Actually I made this yesterday. A rest for my .223 Savage.
I tried it out today and it works very well.

Terry

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5148/5608022616_ee83736a86_b.jpg

Timleech

04-12-2011, 02:59 PM

Tonight, made a dozen 3/8" Whitworth brass cap nuts for an old Lister marine engine I'm working on.
Originally every external nut on the engine would have been this type, but it's lost a few over the years and some had been replaced with nuts from the wrong size of bar.

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss38/Timleech_2009/Oldengine/Capnuts-1.jpg

Tim

J Tiers

04-13-2011, 09:48 PM

Made 2 of these pulleys for a test fixture at work , finished very early today, so they count as what I did "today". also made the idler stud, went to work, put them together on the fixture, and found out that the programmer wasn't ready to use this "rush-rush" fixture that we needed right away because the client wants this feature in the code super ASAP.....

In case you ask, no I could NOT find them in sizes wanted at Berg, Stock drive, or Small parts...., nor at Boston Gear. For 2mm round urethane belting, and a special new ratio that we needed to emulate on the fixture.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/jstanley/FPulley1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/jstanley/FPulley2.jpg

John Stevenson

04-14-2011, 05:32 PM

Mentioned in post #218.

It's the axle off a baggage tug at the local airport.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/tug1.jpg

Drive to this is via a 48 volt DC motor direct splined to the axle.
Splines are visible inside that finned housing which is all that's left of the original motor.

On the floor is the motor I have been given to graft on. Unfortunately it's a motor that has 6 large external splines and not the needed 12 internal spines, plus it drives via a reduction box [ missing but not wanted anyway ]

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/tug2.jpg

Closer shot of the problem.

So a bit of turning and boring and a bit of back breaking spline cutting on the slotter [ Oh why, oh why do slotter have to be so low ? ]

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/tug3.jpg

And we get a conversion piece.

This is as far as I got today.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/tug4.jpg

Far enough to get some measurements on the back of an envelope so that I can make a new housing up for the motor end and also fits to the axle.

John Stevenson

04-14-2011, 05:32 PM

New post because of the 4 picture limit.

State of play at the end of today.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/tug5.jpg

New lump of alloy, nay, BILLET, delivered. 8" diameter cut at 6" long. Ower alloy suppliers are brilliant, I only ordered this at 4:00pm yesterday and it was delivered today at 10:00am. If I had wanted just 1" long they would still have cut it and delivered it.

They come from Lincoln which is about 40 miles away and charge £7.50 regardless for delivery.

So tomorrows job is to replace that reduction housing with something that is hiding inside this BILLET.

dewat

04-15-2011, 01:02 AM

Actually over 2 days,

For reference that's a 5 gallon bucket ( 19 liters)

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j218/dewat/parts002.jpg

Excluding the center hole , 432 drilling operations, final ID .484" ( 12.3 MM) and 144 tappings , too big to power tap with my mill.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j218/dewat/parts005.jpg

.

Carbide Dies

04-15-2011, 09:39 AM

I've been plugging away at a gearless clock per Philip Woodward's design and today I managed to mount the escapement and verify that it seems to work. A minor milestone, lots more to go.

John

http://www.gadgetbuilder.com/GearlessClock/Gearless_Escapement.jpg

Not to be troublesome, but aren't those gears?

Peter Neill

04-15-2011, 09:57 AM

Made up a heat staking/riveting/swaging fixture for a custom plug-in rechargeable battery-pack case we are moulding.
I designed this battery to go with the "Teletest Focus" ultrasonic flaw detector I posted as a recent project. The Phosphor Bronze contacts (still to be gold-plated) were designed in an assymmetric shape so that they could be used flat in the battery pack as shown, and also in the mating case & charger as a cantilevered spring contact, just fastened at one end on the other parts and angled down to provide the "spring" action.

Heat staking/swaging is very common for fastening contacts, but because of the design I had to make a multiple staking head with angled pins, 30deg on one set of pins and 5 degrees on the other, so keyed them in position before grinding.
Used an aluminium block for the heat transfer from the staking m/c, but made the pins from steel so the face angles could be ground, and then machined a simple nest to locate the case.

http://www.admould.co.uk/OddDocs/Staking_1.jpg

Finished it off late last night, and got to test it out today.
Here it is on the benchtop. Tip temperature was set at around 105/110 deg C to soften and deform the plastic (PC/ABS alloy blend) without actually getting it molten, as then it sticks to the staking pins.
First-off trial run was not bad, but I will probably have to machine a hemispherical dome in th ends of the pins to finish it off, but I'm pleased with the way it worked.

http://www.admould.co.uk/OddDocs/Staking_2.jpg

Peter