What did you do today?

[J Tiers]

Not a moment of shop time.... went to the doc to see why my bronchitis was not improving as it should.... probably got it from dust up at my Dad's place 2 weeks ago. Came back from doc and pharmacy with stuff to take.... hopefully that will knock it down. I'm tired of it.

[fixerdave]

I made my GE 44ton 7.5" gauge locomotive open source...
https://github.com/RB211/GE-44ton-Locomotve

Thanks for doing this, and sharing. I've just imported it into Fusion 360... complains a bit about some missing hardware (sprockets, bolts, and whatnot) but works in general. I've no intention of building it, but I figure I can learn a lot by looking at the design. Well, might see if I can scale down the trucks, modify a bit, and 3D print them for Lego track. Might be fun.

Making me feel guilty though... the club is doing the second night of the Halloween run, and I skipped out on it. Did as shift as Conductor last night though, and probably again tomorrow night. Beautiful nights, clear, not too cold. At least 6 trains running, electric, diesel, steam... all the Halloween decorations out, lights... awesome event actually. Kids are loving it.

Oh... I actually got some shop-time in today. Spot-welded a SS rod handle back on the wife's strainer, then set about making a pulley for my CNC ronter thing's motor, the intent being to see if I can run a spindle at a higher speed. First test of that was not too promising though, as the motor is surging with no load. Might have to go with a smaller pulley on the motor... or a bigger one on the spindle... that one is actually 3D printed, spring-clamp on the spindle shaft. Yeah... might do that tonight.

David...

[RB211]

Thanks for doing this, and sharing. I've just imported it into Fusion 360... complains a bit about some missing hardware (sprockets, bolts, and whatnot) but works in general. I've no intention of building it, but I figure I can learn a lot by looking at the design. Well, might see if I can scale down the trucks, modify a bit, and 3D print them for Lego track. Might be fun.

Making me feel guilty though... the club is doing the second night of the Halloween run, and I skipped out on it. Did as shift as Conductor last night though, and probably again tomorrow night. Beautiful nights, clear, not too cold. At least 6 trains running, electric, diesel, steam... all the Halloween decorations out, lights... awesome event actually. Kids are loving it.

Oh... I actually got some shop-time in today. Spot-welded a SS rod handle back on the wife's strainer, then set about making a pulley for my CNC ronter thing's motor, the intent being to see if I can run a spindle at a higher speed. First test of that was not too promising though, as the motor is surging with no load. Might have to go with a smaller pulley on the motor... or a bigger one on the spindle... that one is actually 3D printed, spring-clamp on the spindle shaft. Yeah... might do that tonight.

David...

I have Lego trains, thats's an excellent idea!

[fixerdave]

I have Lego trains, thats's an excellent idea!

Yeah, I'm liking lego right now. A little easier to put back on the tracks when things go wrong.

Guess what I did tonight... yeah, put a train back on the rails. Derailed 3 times on me, and a kid managed to get his shoe ripped off (at least it was velcroed). Bet you he never drags his feet again. Busy night... went in figuring I'd end up as a conductor again, yelling at kids dragging their feet, but was given an engine to drive. The first-shift guy said he was tired, and his conductor didn't want to drive. Found out why.

That particular train had derailed 4 times already in the first 2 hours... too many cars I think. Pulling 6 of them, 2-4 adults and kids squished between them, plus the open box car at the end. Station master didn't want to stop and shuffle the cars about. I can understand as the lineup got to be 2 hrs long at one point. Crazy busy night. So, dead slow in a couple of places, worked on a few loops but not all. Longest and heaviest train I've handled to date. Busiest day/night of the year. But, really, still a lot of fun in spite of the extra stress.

That, and I'm printing another spring-lock plastic pulley for my high(er) speed CNC "ronter" spindle. Made the bore too big on the first go... not enough lock. Hey, they call it rapid prototyping for a reason. Do it again, no big deal Just a few cents worth of plastic.

David...

[CCWKen]

"Rapid prototyping" and printing shouldn't be allowed in the same paragraph. There's nothing rapid about printing plastic, if that's what you mean.

[J Tiers]

"Rapid prototyping" and printing shouldn't be allowed in the same paragraph. There's nothing rapid about printing plastic, if that's what you mean.

LOL. But you have to consider the alternative.... Hogging it from a lump, or cutting pieces and gluing them together.

Oh, yeah, and which production method produces parts most like the final production ones, if a prototype. Which ones impress management and clients. Which ones work most like the final ones will.

Usually that is going to be printed ones or stereolithography parts. (did you note that despite one looking more impressive, both words actually mean "printing"?)

[fixerdave]

"Rapid prototyping" and printing shouldn't be allowed in the same paragraph. There's nothing rapid about printing plastic, if that's what you mean.

Well... yeah, it's slow, but it isn't. It's only slow if you want the result right away or don't have anything else to do. I mean, it was a few minutes to adjust the model parameters... the whole thing is defined by 4 numbers: shaft size, shaft lock size, grove size, and pulley diameter. Go in, change 2 numbers, save as stl, dump in the slicer, transfer to the printer, watch it start (about 10 minutes total so far if you're counting), and then go make some more stupid forum comments, take a shower, and the part is ready.

If it was going to take longer to print then I would have waited to print it this morning, while I was off at work. In that case, I wouldn't have cared if it took 2 hours or 8 hours... makes no difference. None.

And, yeah, I'm a bad boy. The printer has been rock-solid and I'm letting it run unattended now. Life on the edge. I don't roll up my sleeves when I run the lathe either. Heretic, I am. You don't want to know what I do on a motorcycle

David...

[Arcane]

I defrosted my fridge today. The ice buildup varied from 1" to 2 1/2" and was starting to really cut down on the storage. Took just under 1 1/4 hours using my little "Hot Shot" hand held steamer to "cut" the ice into blocks and melt them free from the metal freezer box.

[jdedmon91]

I’ve been needing a relatively flat surface to do simple lay out and measurements on. Since my shop is small and storing even a small surface plate is a challenge. I machined up a flat plate of steel that I picked up and mounted to the work bench to use for lay out and measurement. I did post a video to my channel.

https://youtu.be/yIR9xkph84A

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[The Artful Bodger]

I suppose you could call it machine operating, of a sort; I drove my wife to the hospital and waited, and waited, until they removed the braces that had been put in for a broken jaw then drove home again. A bit over an hour each way but really took up the whole day.

[Dan Dubeau]

Picked up a plug for my new plasma cutter and currently waiting patiently until I can go home and "play with my new toy" as the wife called it last night. My 4yo daughter corrected her and said "it's not a toy mom, it's a tool". I love that kid

Used it a bit on 10ga running on 120v last night, and it worked great. Hoping the 240v will have a bit more jam.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

I suppose you could call it machine operating, of a sort; I drove my wife to the hospital and waited, and waited, until they removed the braces that had been put in for a broken jaw then drove home again. A bit over an hour each way but really took up the whole day.

Yikes, I hope she punched you back?

[Arcane]

Mundane stuff again. A trip to my dental hygienist and then my dentist redid an old filling. He did it with no "freezing" and to my surprise not one bit of discomfort. Great dentist! Then I did some Xmas and grocery shopping and finally I helped a friend put the box back on his 1 ton dually.

[brian Rupnow]

Today I carved a Jackolantern!! Haven't done that for about 25 years. And yes, I'm happy to report that the rind is just as tough and the guts are just as squishy as they were 25 years ago----and I didn't cut myself.

[J Tiers]

Nice again today, so far dug up a whole row of cannas, and a bunch of alocasia. Next is a bunch of colocasia (elephant ear), and that will be about all of the tropicals that have to come in for winter, other that a few zephyranthus (rain lilies) that don't have to come up just yet (but may as well). Playing hooky from client work, now I have to buckle down to it.