What did you do today?

[mattthemuppet]

good tip. We'll have to see how long the car buying process takes and how long of a fuse the family have

finished a refurb of the 3" Wilton bullet vise I got a couple of years ago for $50.

spooge tank

main body after a spell in the spooge tank

brushed down and cleaned off prior to primer

hold down clamp for the swivel had a broken ear, so I JB welded and pinned it back in place

[mattthemuppet]

all the bits primed (2 coats) and painted (3 coats, more or less)

and together. Made a couple of SS washers to go under the swivel nuts too.

~5 1/2" opening compared with ~3" for the Irwin - that will make a big difference for certain projects.

and compared to my old trusty rusty Irwin

forgot to say - the date on the key underneath is 12 30 50, so this vise was made at the end of 1945. Crazy!

[The Metal Butcher]

Dad and I moved a roll in saw into the shop. This thing is sweet. Fits in the footprint of the old power hacksaw and is better in almost everywhere. Moving up into the 20th century.





It took about a day to clean up and go through and check out. Still needs a few fixes, but it's ready to work. That's gotta be a record compared to what we normally buy. This thing is dead simple. Nothing to go wrong. I'm not sure how the previous owners chewed up the table so bad but it doesn't cause any problems.

That's odd -- why does it take so long? We had a 14 tpi blade on the horizontal saw at work, and it would go thru 2x4 inch mild steel in about 10 - 15 minutes. https://www.hydmech.com/products/ban...al-pivot-s-20/

Cuz it's hard to push on a vertical with the same feed pressure. But problem solved. ^ This thing rips through steel. Probably would take 10 minutes max with the 4-6 tooth blade currently on it.

[Tim The Grim]

For the 1st time in my almost 67 years I replaced a wax seal. One of our upstairs toilets showed up on the TV room ceiling yesterday, directly above the TV.
The metal ring was non existent except for a few scraps of paint. The dopes that put in in 14 years ago when the house was built really messed up on the install.
I got a two piece repair flange and had to add some through bolts and some angle below the floor board due to damage and areas I removed. Lost some sheet rock but damage was fortunately not that bad. Turns out the 7/8 fitting on the feed line was ready to let go too so I’m glad I tore everything apart.

I scoped out everything I needed at Lowe’s online, and to their credit, found it all where it was supposed to be. I don’t think I was in the store 10 minutes and left with 9 items.

I guess I can cross “Toilet Rebuild” off my bucket list.

Now I’m sore everywhere.

[DennisCA]

Picked the black & red currants of the bushes and froze them, also got some bilberries, one of our boys picked raspberries and said we have to save them for his birthday cake. No gooseberries this year either, they don' t seem to be thriving. Very few american blue berries so far, they donät seem have taken to this spot either.

Also cats doing cat stuff

[Stepside]

Metal Butcher
I bought a brand new Roll-In like yours 25 years ago. Some things to check out. 1) On mine the back and front of the table is machined. The saw cuts exactly 90 degrees to the machined edge making it handy to set-up with fixtures. 2) I drilled and tapped a series of 3/8-16 holes in the top to aid in fastening different fixtures. The 3/8-16 matches the clamping kit for my ProLight Mill giving even more ways to hold parts. 4) It is mounted on a frame with 4 inch diameter cast iron wheels/casters. This lifts it 8 inches and makes the table at a more useable height. 5) Cut a doorway in the side of the shop. The roller at the bottom of the door is the same height as the saw table. This makes it easy to cut 20 foot lengths of material to size.

DO NOT use a cutting oil as it will cause the tire to expand and come off the wheel!!!

All and all a handy machine and the current price new is $5000.00 .

Pete

[Tungsten dipper]

Thanks for the cat pics!!

[swatkins]

I unboxed a Primeweld Cut 60

Then my friend Don and I put it to work cutting some C Channel and I beam.. THe C channel is for the table frame of the CNC MechMate I'm trying to finish up... The I beam is for two projects. One is a gantry crane for my Axelson lathe and the other 14 foot piece is for a crane I'm building to raise up items to my second floor of the shop..

[danlb]

I was fixing a "foaming hand soap" pump today. It's a great idea which will stretch 1 oz of dish soap into 12 ounces and make it last a month. But something either caused the plunger's seal to swell or the pump casing, which does double duty as the cylinder, to shrink. It got to the point where the plunger would not return to it's normal position.

I measured the ID of the casing at 1.159 inches and the plunger seal to 1.162. Since the seal is cast plastic that is integrated into the plunger body it has nowhere to compress to. My solution is to make a die from aluminum that is 1.161 and warm the casing as I force the die into it. If I'm lucky, it won't get permanently stuck.

I decided to use my HF 9x20 lathe to cut the die since the lathe was set up and had my 6 inch set tru chuck on it already. I changed the belt to 620 RPM (pully b to c, groove 3) and set up everything to reduce the diameter of a 1.125 bar to my desired size. I turned on the lathe and the chuck spun for less than a second, and then the lathe went dead. I checked all the fuses, and eventually found the 13 amp circuit breaker on my extension cord was popped. I reset it several times and repeated the experience. Could I actually be pulling more than 13 amps now? It's worked for years.

I grabbed my in line ammeter (actually a killawatt plug in energy monitor) and checked the draw. I was pulling 19 amps for over a second, then the breaker was popping. It's only supposed to draw 10 amps or so. Was it bad bearings? I pulled off the belt and rotated the chuck by hand. No problem. I applied power without the belt. No problem. I looked at the belt again and it hit me. The chuck is heavy, a lot of mass. It takes a short time to get up to speed. I looked again at the pulleys and realized that I'd blown it. I wanted BC3 and used instead AC3 for 2000 RPM. This mistake is common for me because the chart shows a picture (from top to bottom) of the motor, drive pulley (a) ,jackshaft (b), and chuck pulley (c), In reality the motor is in the back on the bottom and the chuck is at the top in and closest to the operator.

So the problem was that the 2000 rpm setting was geared up and took longer to spin up to the speed where the start circuit cuts out. The fix was to use the "belt tension" handle to turn it on while the belt was slack, then engage the belt to start the spindle spinning. Once the motor was up to speed it was able to handle the extra load with no problems.

Lesson learned.

Dan
P.S. The user manual says to disengage the belt before starting / stopping the lathe to avoid belt breakage. I've never used it that way because that made no sense.
P.P.S. This is not a problem with the lathe. It's a problem with using a retractable spool drop cord rated at only 13 amps. The correct fix is to install more dedicated drops for the lathe, bandsaw, belt sander and other occasional use machines.

[PStechPaul]

I almost always release belt tension before powering on, but I think it's not necessary in the low speed settings where I usually use it. I think it's more an issue with breaking the skinny little belt, which HAS happened to me. But I think this happened when trying to use a slitting saw.

[Cenedd]

P.P.S. This is not a problem with the lathe. It's a problem with using a retractable spool drop cord rated at only 13 amps. The correct fix is to install more dedicated drops for the lathe, bandsaw, belt sander and other occasional use machines.

Surely the problem is that you're feeding it 110V. That maxes out a 13 amp circuit at something around 1200W. If you move to a manlier voltage you'd get twice that. This is, of course, where people now get to lord their three phase over me
You could always do what the chinese manufacturers of my stick welder did when 13A wasn't really enough for their (claimed) 200A box. The fuse is soldered into the plug....because it has a thicker wire hidden underneath it! ...or I should say "used to have"!

[swatkins]

You could always do what the chinese manufacturers of my stick welder did when 13A wasn't really enough for their (claimed) 200A box. The fuse is soldered into the plug....because it has a thicker wire hidden underneath it! ...or I should say "used to have"!

Can't trust anyone these days.... That is a low down dirty trick....

[Cenedd]

Can't trust anyone these days.... That is a low down dirty trick....

Seems to be. It's worth being aware of and to check anything you might buy. Thing is, it's a perfectly good beginner's stick welder. It adds another tool to my arsenal at a price and size that I can handle. Had they quoted real figures and kept it with a 13 Amp max, I'd still have bought it. It's only that they all start quoting silly amperages that it just isn't going to actually do and once they've up'd the ante, they all have to do it to compete. Same with the lathe tools that claim to be 50HRC. They clearly aren't (not even the case) as I can shorten them with a hacksaw and file them....but they're plenty good enough for the jobs I put them to. Don't think I'm just having a go at import stuff though, it's the same with EU and US manufacturers anywhere they think they can get away with it - just take cordless tool battery voltages as an example!

[swatkins]

I started making the Jib Crane for use over my 20 inch Axelson... Really, really clever design for the swivel part... I wish I could say I came up with it...... I love using my tools to make parts for the tools



Here is how I make them,

[RB211]

Caught a bunch of striped bass and 2 reds. Plus a flounder and a LMB.

Where do you fish that you can catch both Stripers and Reds?