What did you do today?

[PStechPaul]

When I bought my first house in 1977, a hundred year old duplex, it had a duplex privy with two 5 gallon bucket "septic tanks" which had to be schlepped up the hill and dumped in a hole in the woods. The only plumbing in the house was two kitchen sinks, fed by a pump from a 15 foot hand dug well, and which emptied through a pipe through the wall and down into the storm drain which emptied in the street. My tenants filled up a kiddie pool with hot water and took baths in that. I soon ran water upstairs and installed a shower stall and sink, which drained out the back into a 5 gallon bucket. Later I ran PVC drains downstairs and out under the foundation into a "French drain" with overflow into the street. Around 1985 my neighbors and I petitioned for and got city water, but not sewage. In 1989 I bought my neighbor's house and in 1990 installed a septic system and full plumbing.

[Tundra Twin Track]

thanks for the pic TTT - this is more what I'm aiming for


the hexes are going to be provided by 12mm sockets pressed+glued into the body. Just need to make the outer part of the handle, then the body and outer handle will get anodised. Not much more work to do, but lots of little jobs that all need to be just so.

Sockets are great for these projects have drilled and tapped them as well.

[PStechPaul]

Actually yesterday - basically finished the shed foundation, using lag bolts to fasten the 4x6 timbers to the 2x8 mud sills, and treated the cut ends with Copper Coat wood preservative.

I used my new Harbor Freight chain sharpener on the 16" chain for my Remington electric chainsaw:

I've sharpened it many times over the last 25 years or so I've had it, so there wasn't much left of the teeth. It sharpened them pretty well, and it cut OK for a while, but they got dull after cutting the roots of a big locust tree that still had dirt and stones embedded in it.


So, I replaced the 16" bar with the 18" bar and new chain from my dysfunctional Poulan Pro gas saw. It fit perfectly and the electric saw now can handle almost anything I have to do. I also have the little 14" electric saw I bought last summer, and the 16" Echo 56 volt lithium battery saw, which I save for jobs far from the house where extension cords can't reach.

[Dan Dubeau]

Designed and printed this in between eating leftovers, and playing with the kids and their Christmas presents. Hose is from my CPAP machine that I stepped on and crushed a few months ago. I saved the longest section to re purpose into a vacuum hose. I printed a couple other attachments, but they stuck to the FEP, broke off from the bed and didn't finish. Gotta finish designing the reason I wanted this in the first place. A dust collection shroud that screws on the nose of a dremel. I also need to make an adapter for my shopvac. Improving dust collection on my woodworking tools is the 2nd main reason I got a printer in the first place. Factory provisions always seem like an after thought. I don't think anybody would ever accuse me of being a safety sally but wood dust, and abrasive dust have really started irritating my sinuses the last couple years.

[mattthemuppet]

Drove from San Antonio to Baton Rouge, waved to Paul A as we passed through Beaumont. Continuing on to Atlanta tomorrow

[Arcane]

Today I cancelled my cable TV subscription and I should have done it a loooong time ago. It will save me a just over $100 a month.

[Cenedd]

Today I cancelled my cable TV subscription and I should have done it a loooong time ago. It will save me a just over $100 a month.

I'm not far behind you. As soon as the replacement internet connection is in they're history. They've been taking the Mickey. I've stuck in an HD Homerun and an Nvidia Shield TV Pro running Plex Media Server. Outlay for the boxes but then the TV is free (Freeview here is variable quality and fewer channels but free and most of the channels you don't get weren't of interest anyway).

[DennisCA]

I've reassembled the motor for the deckel with the new bearings and put it back in place:







I've hooked it back up and it runs really nice and quiet now. Now I just need to reassemble the lower gear shaft and adjust the belt tension.

I've fitted the upper gear shaft with the new and larger 6mm key. I had to hone it to size in order to get a good fit. I honed it until it was 2-3 hundredths of a mm undersize (around .001" to .0015") and that allowed me to push it in most of the way by hand, and I could still knock it out again easily with a punch.



I needed to remove more material to reduce the height of the key sticking out, the depth of the slot was 4mm so there was 2mm stickout. But I needed to still remove a few tenths (of a mm) in order to get the bearing seat to clear, it has to clear the key if you want to be able to disassemble it. Every part on the shaft is carefully designed so everything can slide on and off in the right order.

Now only the gears still remain, I was not able to broach them, they are hardened throughout so I am having a nearby shop that does wire-EDM to fix the slots for me tomorrow.

[Mr Fixit]

Hi Group,

I finished up a tool for a tool. I needed rings rolled to make a filter housing for a dust collector for my sandblasting cabinet. Well I didn't have a ring roller so I had to make one. I had the rolls from a auction scrap box from years ago that I don't recollect where they came from. Anyway I put them into service and with a little machining and time I have this ring roller.



Anyway I'm pretty pleased with the end results and now I can move on to the real project at hand !

TX
Mr fixit for the family
Chris

[Tom S]

Spent the afternoon repairing the sliding door handle on my wife's 2010 Caravan.

Horrible design on these doors, where the handle is held on by two screws through the sheet metal, but the sheet metal is shaped with a thin strap of metal with large openings to either side. To top it off the holes for the screws pass right through the point where the strap connects with the edges of the openings, weakening it further. Over time and use these straps break, leaving the handles hanging partially of the door, and if both sides of the strap break you know lose the leverage needed to actuate the door latch. Mine were at the point where a good freezing rain and a kid yanking on the door would have broken both straps.

The fix is to unscrew the handle, slide a reinforcing strip behind that strap, and reinstall the screws. Should be simple, except that to get to the screws you either need to be a contortionist or take apart the entire door. I ended up taking apart the entire door and I still ended up installing the screws blindly by feel. Crap design, I'm sure it assembles real fast in the right sequence but next to impossible to service. One door down, ran out of time to do the second.

[Arcane]

Today I went out to my buddy's acreage with the dog I am babysitting for the winter and we replaced one of the casters on the 2 ton gantry crane I gave him for Christmas. It had a rough spot in the swivel part and it would lock up and not rotate fully to be in line with the direction of travel. Fortunately the Regina Princes Auto store had one in stock and they got it up here tout de suite. Then I helped him hook up his 3PH snowblower to my 3010 John Deere. During all this friends dropped over so lots of chitchat and after all that we had pizza for supper washed down with a glass of wine and then a few of hands of cards to finish out the evening.

[mattthemuppet]

spent the morning not fixing my battery powered lawn mower, took it to the tool rental section of our local HD and the guy there switched it on first try. Must have a special touch. Still, at least I now know the inside of my mower better than I did yesterday.

Currently anodising my mill vise speed handle, so I'll be sitting on the couch watching Star Wars for an hour and a half

[J Tiers]

At a deceased relatives house (I am executor). Cleared my way across one room of junk paper, and into the closet. Made a recycling run with what I cleared, had to look at every piece of paper, have found bills and even checks in them. Have a week or so of it to go yet, this visit. There will be more.

[Tundra Twin Track]

Hi Group,

I finished up a tool for a tool. I needed rings rolled to make a filter housing for a dust collector for my sandblasting cabinet. Well I didn't have a ring roller so I had to make one. I had the rolls from a auction scrap box from years ago that I don't recollect where they came from. Anyway I put them into service and with a little machining and time I have this ring roller.



Anyway I'm pretty pleased with the end results and now I can move on to the real project at hand !

TX
Mr fixit for the family
Chris

Looks Great,all the Ducks lining up for Blasting Setup?

[danlb]

Spent the last few days helping Mom again. Painted some banisters, put up some mini-blinds, set up a Raspberry Pi-4 based PC for her. It's got Debian Linux loaded. She just needs email and occasional web browsing. As an extra I set up a webcam that can be used for scanning documents.

I was delighted to find that her cable modem supports a VPN. It's PPTP but it supports encryption and works with my Linux clients. This means that I can tunnel into her network and remotely operate that web cam, keep the software up to date and print things for her. Using VNC I can also access her desktop so that I can guide her through using the software if she gets confused.

Dan