What did you do today?

[754]

I finished switching storage units today Got my lathe in, tricky with low ceiling.. Finally got a place with power to run my machines. Will still need a Roto Phase or VfD. Got a RPC for my mill , mill is not in the room yet. The room is full now but , I have to get everything put away.
Finally moving forward to having a machine shop again

[Cenedd]

The room is full now...

Nah, it looks like there's still space to walk around. It's not properly full until you're tripping over everything and clonking your funny bone if you try to face off too wide!

[Hopefuldave]

Made some primed parts...

Red.

(No, didn't miss a bit, masked off the QCGB cover for ID and thread plates etc.)

3D modelled some more parts for Best Boy's fiancée's Cosplay outfit (Fallout Nuka Girl), struggling with lofting 3D parts - Grrr. Semi-functional, breathing-apparatus backpack with fans and air hoses to keep the fishbowl helmet from steaming up

And discovered that my leaping in the air shouting "Yipee!" was premature, bearing supplier can't supply the advertised rocking-horse droppings

Dave H. (the other one)

[754]

Nah, it looks like there's still space to walk around. It's not properly full until you're tripping over everything and clonking your funny bone if you try to face off too wide!

I can't take that pic now 2 days later, there is about 30 inches of room in front of the lathe, or so. Once I organise , get a few more shelves on the mezzanine, I will have some room.,....soon.
I will take the spinner handle knobs off the cross slide and carriage , they are in the way. .

[plastikosmd]

Getting the new to me sawmill set up, took it out and trued it up on some oak
Swing blade Peterson JP
Max single cut 6x6
Double cut 12” slab
Aluminum rails are about 19’

[plastikosmd]

[PStechPaul]

More work on shed:


I added an additional brace to the peak of the roof trusses:

Got 5 of the roof trusses placed on the wall frame:


It started raining again so had to leave the trusses unsupported. They are fastened with 3" construction screws, but will need horizontal bracing. The roof sheathing will make it very solid. The mitre saw really sped up the process of cutting the angles for the trusses. All pieces are identical and all angles are 22-1/2 degrees.

[danlb]

I was using one of my many Dremel tools (a model 395) to clean the details on some brass pieces. Suddenly it stopped spinning even though the motor was still running. Oh well. I grabbed another off the shelf and continued. When the brass was nice and shiny and coated with a clear plastic spray I turned my attention to the broken tool.

The spindle was hard to turn but the motor seemed to spin freely. I suspected a broken gear somewhere. I don't like having to replace broken gears for high speed devices. It's easy to guess wrong. I opened it up anyway. The problem was immediately obvious. There was a big gap (about 1/2 inch) between the spindle and the motor shaft. Inside that gap was what looked like shattered pasta. It looked like a rigatoni noodle had self destructed in there. It was obviously a splined coupling of some sort. A bit of searching found that I could order 5 of them for only $10 including shipping from Amazon.

Lord knows that I'm not cheap, but several of the reviews of the replacement part said that it was likely to break again in the near future. Hmmm. I thought about all the ways that I might make a coupler. I have lots of delrin, nylon, aluminum and brass. I went in search of some appropriately sized delrin but I stumbled across a 1 foot section of surgical tubing. This is good, thick tubing with an opening just about the same diameter of the roots of the splines. Hmmm. I cut a piece to match the original length and forced it on the two pieces. The whole replacement process took only 5 minutes.

It was a success. I don't know what will happen when I jam the cut-off disk in a groove, but with luck the disk will shatter just as it always does and the tubing will survive.

[plunger]

Got to use a little mini bender I made from plans on the net.Its to bend the U piece for the handle. I also made molds for the black parts for the urethane bungs.
I wonder if there is a better method to bend this U.It is made by parting off a 1 inch tube which is 1,5mm thick and 6mm wide.I then tig weld it to the tube.Its a hospital fitting.

[The Metal Butcher]

Looking good Paul. You have given up on the idea of split level, correct?

I was using one of my many Dremel tools (a model 395) to clean the details on some brass pieces. Suddenly it stopped spinning even though the motor was still running. Oh well. I grabbed another off the shelf and continued. When the brass was nice and shiny and coated with a clear plastic spray I turned my attention to the broken tool.

The spindle was hard to turn but the motor seemed to spin freely. I suspected a broken gear somewhere. I don't like having to replace broken gears for high speed devices. It's easy to guess wrong. I opened it up anyway. The problem was immediately obvious. There was a big gap (about 1/2 inch) between the spindle and the motor shaft. Inside that gap was what looked like shattered pasta. It looked like a rigatoni noodle had self destructed in there. It was obviously a splined coupling of some sort. A bit of searching found that I could order 5 of them for only $10 including shipping from Amazon.

Lord knows that I'm not cheap, but several of the reviews of the replacement part said that it was likely to break again in the near future. Hmmm. I thought about all the ways that I might make a coupler. I have lots of delrin, nylon, aluminum and brass. I went in search of some appropriately sized delrin but I stumbled across a 1 foot section of surgical tubing. This is good, thick tubing with an opening just about the same diameter of the roots of the splines. Hmmm. I cut a piece to match the original length and forced it on the two pieces. The whole replacement process took only 5 minutes.

It was a success. I don't know what will happen when I jam the cut-off disk in a groove, but with luck the disk will shatter just as it always does and the tubing will survive.

I am not a fan of dremels. They are so cheaply made and their fanbase is offensively blind to their quality. I much prefer air die grinders. Maybe someday I'll have a flex-shaft nice pencil grinder which is lighter and more powerful.

[danlb]

Not sure about "blind to the quality" as much as willing to live with the limitations in exchange for the useful aspects of the tool. Personally, I don't like having the die grinder's air hose in the way when I just want to score a line on a small part or grind off an imperfection. Is there an extra tin and flexible hose that you can use with your die grinder?

[The Metal Butcher]

Not sure about "blind to the quality" as much as willing to live with the limitations in exchange for the useful aspects of the tool. Personally, I don't like having the die grinder's air hose in the way when I just want to score a line on a small part or grind off an imperfection. Is there an extra tin and flexible hose that you can use with your die grinder?

Nah, those folks are fine. Hell, we've got one, I use it. I'm talking about the dudes that vehemently defend the dremel as a great product when a brand new one has issues like you describe and sounds like a bag of rocks straight from the store.

I've got access to small, flexible hoses should I need one but it's never bothered me enough. I probably don't do much dremel-level precision work though.

[Fear]

[wierdscience]

Built a bunch of shelves in a sea container I bought for storage. Had 1 2x8 ft piece of wafer board left over, so decided a fold up work table might be a good use for it. Welded it up out of 2x1x 16ga tubing with 1-1/2"x 16ga tubing for legs. Made it so the legs fold up and the whole top hinges down for storage.

[mattthemuppet]

fixed two of my bike lights - one needed a new charger board (weak microUSB port), the other needed a new battery. Did some more work on my QCTP holders, broke a bandsaw blade and ordered a new one. That'll teach me to have the guide bearings too tight. Might see if I can convert the broken blade into hacksaw blades somehow..