What did you do today?

[Ridgerunner]

Made a bracket to install a Prince hydraulic pump to the back of a tractor to run a Shaver post driver. The hydraulic cylinder on the post driver was leaking from the seal at the cap end so I had to replace it. The cap with seal was aluminum and the cylinder was steel so it was galled on.

bracket is black and bolted to pump



cylinder end cap after removal



end of cylinder with aluminum in threads.



Make a bowl from a pvc pipe cap to hold Drano to remove aluminum



cap installed ready for Drano



Drano working



Drano removed the aluminum. I then chased the threads and installed the new cylinder end with a new seal.

[vpt]

Finished the trailer I was building.

[RB211]

Freeeeeddoommmm! The old Lathe has left the workshop!!! I have room again to move around!

[vpt]

Time to buy a new lathe!

[RB211]

Time to buy a new lathe!

Already have it, why I had no room

[Cenedd]

Started milling a new part for the lathe yesterday. Spent this morning picking the splinters out my fingers. Need a bigger mill that doesn't have to take 0.1mm nibbles to solve that problem

Lathe carriage lock is badly designed and a buried SHCS just lifts a plate against the bottom of one way. It can spin 180 degrees so that it doesn't work at all - I didn't think I had one at all. Swapping the carriage gib (similar plate) and the stop means I can put a handle on the carriage stop so it's actually useable. Need to make a wider gib plate to avoid drilling lots of holes in the carriage and will also make them closer together so the stop plate can't spin.

[DennisCA]

Got new bearings for my bench grinder. Runs smoothly again. Removed more parts from the deckel saddle, prepping for going at it with filler, sanding and repaint.

Also, chopped down a tree with an axe, went pretty quick, quicker than trying to coax life into the chainsaw after the winter.

[Arcane]

This Friday morning I zipped out to a friend's acreage and picked up their dog to babysit until Sunday. She's a Black Lab and Border Collie mix and is just the sweetest little girl!

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

Assembled a new Asteroids/Lunar Lander arcade emulator from Arcade1Up to add to my retro arcade collection. Asteroids was one of my favorite arcade machines back in the day.

[Tom S]

I've been working for the past couple weeks on getting that Ames lathe I bought cleaned up and ready for paint.

So far I've disassembled, cleaned, oiled and re-assembled the cross slide assembly; and stripped the bed, and feet. This afternoon I manage to sneak away for a few hours and stripped the tailstock, and began checking over headstock.

The headstock looks to be a shop-fabricated headstock, well made and in good shape. I set about removing the dust covers to check the bearings, the rear one came off without a lot of work but the front one is being more stubborn. I've got some penetrating oil working on in now. I'm glad I did open it up, it's got some beefy rolling bearings that look to be in good shape but at some point the bearings were packed with grease, then oil cups installed and the bearings were oiled without cleaning out the grease. I'll be giving them a good flush and then continue oiling them since there are oil cups installed.

[Tim Clarke]

Tom, my friend Dennis is currently restoring an Ames with a square tailstock ram. Is yours similar?

[J Tiers]

Aside from some assembly on that Briggs, down to the plant area for another cold damp day of trimming/prettying up plants for sale, so that they look as if they are bursting with green good health. Sale is in a week, so I may get back in the shop then.

[DennisCA]

Our equivalent to halloween right now, keep getting interrupted by witches demanding candy.

[Cenedd]

Our equivalent to halloween right now, keep getting interrupted by witches demanding candy.

I know I'm a grump but I've never understood the idea of encouraging kids to demand sweets with menaces. "Right kids, this is how we do extortion!". These days where we're no longer pretending that everyone is 'nice' it seems even less like a good idea.

[DennisCA]

Yeah you are a grump. Just a buncha kids wishing happy easter and I give them some candy, many even give me thank you cards they made themselves, it's very sweet.

I wrote they "demand" candy but I was being a bit ironic, it's not like the american halloween where you got "trick or treat" and the threat of mischief.