What did you do today?

[Kiwi]

Hi Allen
Duck numbers are way down an are we call the duck factoryIsland Block road Meremere is very empty however there should be plenty for you to photograph most of the ducks can be seen in city park ponds such as the pond by Auckland hospital / Domain ,western springs reserve, lake pupuke on the north shore, Mallard , gray duck, shoveler ,scaup,are often found in the city/city limits gray duck, gray and brown teal and the whio can be seen in the north Island.as the Whio the most prominent place would be in Whakahoro perhaps contact Dan Steele [email protected] he has accommodation there also (highly recommended) it is hard to get near them as they like cover and fast running water and not to many around. As to the Paradise Shelduck are seen in paddocks these ducks mate for life and mostly seen in pairs just about any where quite prolific in southern North Island and South Island
Cheers Andy

[The Artful Bodger]

But December 1971 when I got off the boat in Auckland, cleared customs, and stumbled bewildered out onto Queen Street, I did need a guide. All the people seemed as surprised to see me as I was to see them. The men were wearing short pants.

Well of course they were, that was the height of fashion for formal office attire, walk shorts, walk socks, short sleeved white shirt and a tie.



Obviously this retro-dude could not find a short sleeved white shirt.

[ncjeeper]

I got to play with my H/V rotary table.

[A.K. Boomer]

Obviously this retro-dude could not find a short sleeved white shirt.

Why bother - he's effectively still wearing long pants...


My Dad used to wear shorts lower than that and socks about as high, I used to look at him once in awhile and he would just have his knee-caps exposed, would just shake my head and ask him why he even bothered.... lol

[GKman]

Boomer,
God bless your dad and a hearty raspberry for you. My shins are about as skinny as radius rods, white as paper, and have scars from hundreds of battles with dirt bikes, ladders, saws, and god only knows whatever else. Hiding them and still getting some much needed ventilation up where it counts sounds great to me. I'm off to the Scotty's kilt and sock store or wherever they come from.

[PStechPaul]

Well of course they were, that was the height of fashion for formal office attire, walk shorts, walk socks, short sleeved white shirt and a tie.



Obviously this retro-dude could not find a short sleeved white shirt.

And he has a banana in his pocket, or he is really excited about the car (or perhaps whoever it was taking the picture)

[brian Rupnow]

In 1966, the year after I started my apprenticeship, the large company I worked for in Ontario hired a professional engineer on staff, who had emigrated from somewhere in the United Kingdom. He showed up at work in a very respectable white shirt, tie, suitcoat, and matching knee length short pants. An hour after he came to work, he was called into the chief engineers office, and sent home.--Told that short pants were not professional office attire!! He returned later in the day in long pants, and stayed with the company for a number of years. The world has changed a lot since then.---Brian

[vpt]

Filled up the entire trunk and back seat of a ford torus today with chips and scrap metal from the metal bins in the shop.

[brian Rupnow]

Yesterday I made these two simple looking parts, which are slid over a shaft on a spring loaded assembly and used to compress the springs in a simple press so that e-clips can be removed and the part disassembled. I was quoted $450 to make the two parts by a local machine shop, so decided to make them myself. The simplicity of the parts in no way reflects the work involved in making the damned things. I STARTED with a 12" length of cold rolled round 3/4" steel. A 3/16" hole was drilled 1/4" deep in both ends. Then with the compound rest set over at 22 degrees, the shallow taper was put into each end on the lathe. Then, a 3" length was cut from each end of the 12" piece I started with. These pieces were stood on end in my mill vice, one at a time, and a 3/16" endmill was used to cut from the center hole to the outside. Then the mill vice was tilted 22 degrees off vertical, and the shallow taper was run up each leg of the cut, to merge with the taper put in previously on the lathe. Then the 3" lengths were set up horizontally in the rotary table. About this time, I was beginning to figure out why they had been quoted at $450 for the two of them. An end mill was used to make the 4 cuts on the outer edges of the 3/4" diameter. Now, I had the shape I required, but tell me, how do you part something off to be .070" long, in a severely interrupted cut, without everything going sideways? So--I used the bandsaw and cut a slice about 0.150" long from each of the "stub ends" that had the correct profile. Then I took a piece of scrap steel, and plunge milled a couple of 3/4" pockets .070" deep into one side. Then I plunge milled with a 3/8" endmill to take the "hump" out of the center of the plunged holes. (endmills do not leave a flat bottomed hole). The two machined pieces were then coated with Loctite and set face down into the two recesses and left overnight to set up. This evening I set things up in the milling vice and milled away any material that stuck up above the scrap steel. The scrap steel was then taken out to the main garage and heated up with the oxy acetylene torch until the Loctite let go and the pieces could be popped out and cleaned up with 220 grit paper. The parts are a success, and i am sure my customer will appreciate them. All I have to say about the entire operation, is that this is about as close to wiping your arse with your elbow as I ever want to get!!!---Brian

[metalbender]

Installed the 2hp motor I ordered from Automation for my underpowered screw type splitter. Mo power, much better. Still not as good as the European types with 220 volts at hand everywhere.

[Hopefuldave]

Sill getting set up with a workshop after the house move, so bolted the vice and cheapy pillar drill to saturday's puchase (sturdy bench), tested a couple of DC motors (1800 and 450W, no sparks or smells so far), discussed putting the bigger motor into a belt grinder still to be built for my house/shop mate and got too elaborate with ideas for speed control, adjustable table etc. so he can grind blades, I can grind tools, both of us can sharpen wood chipper blades (instead of the locals paying 100 quid and waiting a week for 'em)...

[vpt]

Made up a sod cutter for a local business. Takes quite a long time to sharpen an edge on 1/4" AR400.

[Sun God]

I created a Mach 3 turning profile for my little SX2LF CNC converted mini mill. Stock is held in an ER32 collet chuck in the spindle, and a tool is held in the vise. Using an Alibre .dxf export -> LazyTurn -> Mach 3 Turn toolchain.

One of the jobs I wanted the 'lathe' for was turning up complex profiles - specifically I had in mind creating some waisted handles for my Adept shaper as the originals have gone AWOL. I used an SCMCN 0602 tool and got a great result.

I 'digitized' the original waisted handle by chucking it up on my real lathe, and then using an indicator in the toolpost to read out the radius, scanned the length of the part in 1mm increments and recorded the values in my Mark 1 Spiral Bound Notebook. Transferred the profile to an Alibre drawing, and exported it as a .dxf for LazyTurn, which is characteristically lazy. Create a SCMCN tool profile, generate a roughing toolpath and a finishing tool path, save them into separate files to get around the 150 line limit on the demo Mach 3, et voila.

[vpt]

Not long ago I made up a new wider sod cutter for a customer. Yesterday he walks in with a broken sod cutter mount bar . However it turns out someone at some point drilled a hole and welded in a bar for some unknown reason and then removed it but left the hole. This is where the mount broke. So I welded it back up and plated it today.

[Mark Rand]

Is that a copper heat-sink/weld-stop under the piece, or just the colour of what it's sitting on?