What did you do today?

[Cenedd]

Finished (hopefully!) renovating a Starrett level. That to be fair, implies a lot more required work than was actually the case. Needed a pair of 3/8" spanners - which arrived this morning - I only had metric. Also found I needed decent hollow-ground slot screwdriver (gunsmith's?)...so I took one I wasn't in love with and introduced it to the grinder. Cue a bang, screwdriver sucked down the (tiny, honest!) slit between the table and the wheel and a broken table. Could have been worse, the wheel didn't explode! Did 8t without the table - like I was going to take that for a final answer! And got the screw out without mangling it. All parts disassembled, de-rusted, cleaned up, oiled and calibrated. A whole lot more pleasant than trying to calibrate the import level I previously tried - you can tell because the van full of men hasn't turned up to take me away in a coat with sleeves that tied behind the back! Will now see if it stays calibrated....'cos the last one really didn't.

[Mark Rand]

Next time, hold the screwdriver pointy end upwards rather then pointy end downwards. You are grinding on the flat of the blade and there is no danger of it getting grabbed by the wheel unless you trip over and try to stab the wheel with it.

[mattthemuppet]

Thought I'd found that elusive bag of money earlier this year but the bag only contained soiled undies. Hey it was a very nice bag, how was I to know?

depending on what sex the undies are from, that can = a bag of money in some places.

Nice save on the Stihl, it's crazy what people throw out.

[Arcane]

I watched a few various youtube videos and came across this one and I found one little portion of it (starting at 4:42) to be quite interesting in a what will they think of next sort of way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n8k0vq3wWs

[Cenedd]

Next time, hold the screwdriver pointy end upwards rather then pointy end downwards. You are grinding on the flat of the blade and there is no danger of it getting grabbed by the wheel unless you trip over and try to stab the wheel with it.

I'll try that next time. It seemed more dangerous that way in my head....but clearly my head was wrong!

[Cenedd]

Was perusing the specs of the Starrett 98-12 machinist level and was surprised (and a little disappointed if I'm honest) that it was only sensitive to 0.5mm/m and the 3-pack of Stanley carpenter's levels have 0.5mm/m painted on the edge. The frame level I have claims 0.02mm/m....but is utterly unusable either because of its construction or just it's ludicrous sensitivity. Thought I'd have a compare of the Stanley and the Starrett to see what the truth is when it comes to the machinist level only being as sensitive as the carpenter's level.

Using the 1.2m level as a base and with the Starrett level on top of that, I shoved a 0.5mm feeler blade under the base 1m from the end. The Starrett showed exactly one division movement. The Stanley didn't show any discernable movement. 0.5mm/m my backside!
There are only the two lines on Stanley and it took 3.5mm/m to move the bubble from centre to just touching the left hand line. So that would make it approximately 7mm/m....but that's one side of the bubble to the other. If you want an apples for apples comparison where we're talking one edge of the bubble going from one line to the next, you're looking at about 150mm/m! Although, to be fair, the bubble is really off-scale at this point.

Just thought it was interesting to compare reality with marketing claims. Much less upset about the apparent lack of sensitivity on the (quite modern) Starrett - it's comforting to know that the spec is exactly what they claimed...you rarely get that these days!

[MattiJ]

Fishing In real north where midnight sun wont set yet for at least 2 weeks.

[Galaxie]

I've been driving myself crazy trying to get everything on the Brooks cutter-grinder aligned. It's a real bear to try and shim the slide blocks in the shaper vise to ultimately get the top surface flat and true to the linear shafts. Of course when I tighten the vise, my measurements go all wonky. Not sure I can get any better than the .002" error in the photo.

The top slide is another matter. Placing it on the lower slide block, from one end to the other it goes from 0 to +.014" over a distance of 12". That's really not bad, but it's going to bug me if I don't try to fix it.

[RichR]

Fishing In real north where midnight sun wont set yet for at least 2 weeks.

Wow, catching fish from the brush while lying in a hammock, You Fins really have it made.

[DennisCA]

Finished the prep work today and masked it off, just came in from painting. Unfortunately I had issues with the spray gun, despite thorough cleaning it appears the paint had clogged the gun so it didn't work properly at first, end result was too much orange peel, but now I am out of paint. Not sure if I ought to buy more, I eventually want to paint the back cover and door and base too so I will need it sooner or later.

[DennisCA]

And non machining stuff, made strawberry jam, far to little to last through winter though. And they say the bilberry harvest is looking bleak this year, though a good lingon berry one.

Made strawberry jam (I only used one packet of jam sugar)




Goes well on pancakes (finnish style), though a bit runny since it's still hot:

[mattthemuppet]

Wow, catching fish from the brush while lying in a hammock, You Fins really have it made.

they have very long fishing poles, so to speak. That is indeed living the life Matt, though I'm looking forward to your fatbike riding pics come winter.

made an ugly but functional motion sensor LED light for inside the garage



the idea is that it gives off enough light for my wife and kids to find their way into the car, without having to turn on the main lights which they'll then forget to turn off. On the first instance, it was completely unsuccessful, but I have high hopes

[brian Rupnow]

Today was my seventy third birthday. Had all of our children and grandchildren here for a feast of Kentucky fried chicken and salads, then went up to a local park with a playground. Little kids played on the things in the playground, adults all set around and yacked, and my two oldest granddaughters accompanied me on my "fat mans walk" around the perimeter of the park. I try to walk a mile a day. My usual walk near my house is 1/2 mile up a steep hill and then back down. The park is quite lovely and mostly flat, so my walk wasn't as big a sweat-maker as usual.

[mattthemuppet]

happy birthday Brian!

btw I think "Fat man's walk" is a contradiction in terms. You either have a "Fat man's sitting on a couch" or a "healty(er) person's walk".

[brian Rupnow]

Matt--My "fat mans walk" is a hilarious name for my exercise walk. I was diagnosed with high blood sugar two months ago, and prescribed medicine which was supposed to fix things. The pill made me sicker than a dog, so I decreed that I would 50 pounds thru diet and exercise. It is working. I had a recent blood test and my blood sugar has dropped down out of the danger zone. I don't lead a very active lifestyle. In fact, after 55 years setting at a drafting board or a computer, your body has a tendency to become rather pear shaped. I have lost 17 pounds over the past two months, and hope to lose 33 more between now and November.--Brian