What did you do today?

[reggie_obe]

Regarding the shed. If more strength is needed I would just get some 2 x 4's and make some blocking for between the trusses. If some blocking was run between the trusses at the joint in the gambrel rafters this would make the plywood joint there solid too.

If you add additional roof trusses so they are on 16" centers, load bearing won't be an issue. What are you really saving, building everything on 24" centers?

[Ridgerunner]

If you add additional roof trusses so they are on 16" centers, load bearing won't be an issue. What are you really saving, building everything on 24" centers?

Paul was talking about going with 3/4" plywood instead of 1/2" for part of his shed roof because he was concerned with the 1/2" deflecting under load. I was offering an optional solution of just nailing in some blocking between trusses which would keep the 1/2" plywood from deflecting. Further, if he put in a row of blocking at the pitch changing joint in the gambrel roof rafters, he would not need to try to try to glue the joint I think he said.

[Arcane]

Today I showed up promptly at my dental hygienist for a 2:00 PM appointment...and missed my 2:00 PM appointment with my doctor.

[Tim The Grim]

Happy Anniversary danlb!

Today I took a new HF 1/4 die grinder, an HF 2” diamond wheel and some aluminum scrap I had and built this little pig to touch up carbide tool bits etc.
Once I got the wheel concentric it works fine. It’s not a Dumore, but it gets the job done.


Then I laid out and cut some plywood for an airplane swing.

[PStechPaul]

I took back four of the 1/2" plywood sheets and got credit for what I paid for them, $14.33 each, or a total of $60.76 with tax. Then I bought six pieces of 3/4" sheathing at $23.78 each or $151.25 total. The cashier seemed offended that I said the previous purchase had been rung up wrong, and when I went to customer service to get the refund they didn't seem interested in fooling with the price adjustment. So I got a bargain discount of about $3.50 each on 8 pieces, but Lowes ended up selling me about $90 more of product. And it certainly makes me a happy customer who will certainly buy hundreds of dollars more from them this year.

I worked out the difference for making 3 more trusses (at about $9 each) to get 16" OC, versus six sheets of 3/4" plywood at $24 each less $18 each for 1/2" sheathing, and the 3/4" winds up being about $9 more. But the trusses are a lot more effort to build and put up, compared to just cutting and handling the heavier sheathing. I to cut the 3/4" sheets with a 22-1/2 degree bevel so they will butt evenly on the peaks, so there should be no need to add cross members under the joints. I think I will add three strips of aluminum flashing along the joints, and then follow with roofing felt and asphalt shingles. Should outlast me

So today we got both end trusses installed and cross-braces added under the peak. And we cut four side panels at 75" long with a bevel to fit under the exposed rafters. It's supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon, but hopefully we will be able to get the roof panels cut and at least lightly screwed down and covered with a tarp.

I'll add more pictures and details in my thread on the split-level shed I first planned to build. This seems to be much better, and I may even make a YouTube video of the project. I got the basic idea for this from this website:

[Tom S]

Things have been keeping me out of the shop lately, but over the last couple evenings I've been drafting up a fly fishing reel based on plans I purchased a while ago.

[Galaxie]

It's alive! This is the spindle and motor mount for the Brooks grinder. I machined the motor pulley today so I finally had enough to test it and run in the bearings.

[RB211]

I taught a bunch of senior mechanical engineering majors how to read micrometers and dial calipers today. I know they're not machinists, but still you'd expect them to be somewhat familiar with such tools especially after taking a principles of measurement and instrumentation class.

Hell, I don't know how to read a plain micrometer.

[The Metal Butcher]

Hell, I don't know how to read a plain micrometer.

Really? I.. well.. alright. I guess I'm surprised is all.

[PStechPaul]

The roof panels and some of the walls are now installed on my shed:



Here is an interesting piece of scrap from cutting two gable half-ends from a 4x8 sheet of 1/2" CDX. Looks like a lightning bolt or "The Flash" logo!

I had two hex bit holders with sliding sleeves to hold screws. One of them (left) jammed, so I may need to cut the sleeve off. On the other one (right), the steel male hex shaft stripped out the aluminum female hex bit holder so that it will no longer supply full torque to the bit. I might be able to make one good adapter from the two pieces.

[Dan Dubeau]

Things have been keeping me out of the shop lately, but over the last couple evenings I've been drafting up a fly fishing reel based on plans I purchased a while ago.

Sounds Interesting Tom. Keep us posted on your progress. Building my own fly reel (and rod) is something that I also would like to do some day.

[nickel-city-fab]

I thought I had it on my cylindrical square. The numbers were the same from one side to the other, 180 degrees. Then I noticed that the "rev counter" on the indicator was making a full revolution.... *sigh* back to the sandpaper and glass sheet

[DennisCA]

Been looking at the gear meshing in my milling machine, the vertical spindle is too loud and it's not the spindle itself. It's likely the meshing of the gears. When I had everything apart I noted two shim washers of .5mm behind the gear in the picture below, previous owner or factory setup I do not know.

I took a pattern:




Not a good pattern.

Attempted to remove one .5mm shim and got a better pattern. But too high on the teeth and the noise was unchanged.





I ordered a bunch of shim washers of 0.2mm and I tried a bunch of setups, 0.8mm seemed to pattern the best but still high, still loud and the spindle also felt sloppy.

I decided I needed to see what it looks like inside and stop guessing. I removed the spindle from the vertical head casting and looked inside.

This is with the gear shimmed 0.8mm, look at that backlash.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joV7tnDG9Qc[/youtube]

And 1.8mm of shims, I tried 2mm but that would not turn. A lot less backlash but still not a good setup.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAaF0oVXIHk[/youtube]

The clicking noise that I hear when rotating by hand, which becomes a loud noise at high speed is still there. To me this looks like the gear to the left, which sits over the vertical spindle and drives it, is too high. it needs to come down, and as it comes down the other gear needs to move away as well. but it's clear that both gears need to be adjusted at the same time in order to get them to mesh correctly.



I think the bottom of the ring gears lower edges are impacting on the bevel gear teeth. And I think these marks (red arrows) are an indication of that. So I have ordered more shim washers for this gear and I will be bringing it down, it looks like it could need to go down quite a bit. The grease pattern above also tells a story of the gear not making optimal contact. I wonder if the gear was shimmed from factory and was lost by the previous owners because this was quite a bad setup, no way Deckel let it out in the world like that.

[PStechPaul]

On Monday I went to my friend's house to retrieve my B&D solid state mini-refrigerator that I had bought (for $12) and fixed back in 2015, and loaned to her while she made arrangements to get a new full size refrigerator. She had said it stopped working after a while. This is what it looked like then:



This is what it looks like now - she never emptied it and the stench is horrible! It's sitting outside, in the rain, and I will try removing the rotten food, followed by a generous dose of bleach and Lysol, and then hose it out. I might be able to salvage it. What do you think my chances are?


She is quite mentally ill, with an extreme case of hoarding disorder. Her whole house is piled to the ceilings with junk and garbage. Here is how it looked in 2015 when I loaned her the fridge. Now it's even much worse, if you can believe that, and the stench is now unbearable. I think it actually made me physically ill last night. Her daughter is aware of the situation and has tried to help, to no avail. She will probably lose her house and be institutionalized.

[Tim The Grim]

I opened a factory sealed box and assembled this bike.
The axle flats on the forks were 12 degrees out from each other so I aligned them in my milling machine vise.
I think the weldor was visually handicapped. Certainly, nothing was done in a jig or fixture
The steering was so rough I took the forks out of the neck and found a bearing in backwards with only a thin film of that mystery
substance the Chinese supply as grease.
The training wheels needed some shimming and lube too.
What do normal folks do when they buy stuff like this ?