What did you do today?

[reggie_obe]

Played race-the-builder. Radiator taken off the wall and one valve leaking. No caps on his van so he was going to go buy some. Knocked one up from a chunk of ali bar with a 13mm drill, boring head (can't drill 19mm with my size of chuck), a G1/2 tap and some flat washers. Not only did I beat him collecting them, I beat him getting round to leaving to go get them.....and a good job I did or the drip tray would have overflowed!

Next time, maybe a cork? Or a suitably sized wooden dowel with a taper turned on It. Boiler repairmen use them when temporarily removing a piece of equipment so they don't have to drain all the piping. On a ship, a variety of sizes would be standard equipment in the damage control locker.

[PStechPaul]

Actually on Sunday, I helped my friend Neal remove an old toilet and we installed a new one for about $120. I wonder what a plumber would have charged? Took a few hours, but much of that was pulling the old one, cleaning up, and determining that it was not worth trying to repair and re-install. The problem was that there was something like a stone caught in the water outlet in the bottom of the bowl, so it would not flush properly. A spring snake was unable to dislodge it.

[Cenedd]

Next time, maybe a cork? Or a suitably sized wooden dowel with a taper turned on It. Boiler repairmen use them when temporarily removing a piece of equipment so they don't have to drain all the piping. On a ship, a variety of sizes would be standard equipment in the damage control locker.

All the wine bottles seem to have screw caps on them these days....and my wife would get antsy if I left them lying around anyway. Dowel may well have done it but I didn't have anything in that sort of size; just the spares from various flat-pack over the years. Also, I guess you get stuck in a mindset so making a metal cap with a thread cut in it was the only solution I could see at the time. A good outing for the shortened aluminium-profile insert bars I made up for the boring head a while back....just in time to not need them for ages

Pic of the late-night bracket support blocks I milled (slots and reliefs). Today there is sawdust in my shop to clear up.

[J Tiers]

Another day of driving a 9+ hour day returning from another 4 day session of dealing with a house I inherited 600 miles away. It's getting to be a "career". Luckily my wife is being an absolute sweetie about it, and comes along to help.

[GeoBruin]

Brought home this project...

[Cenedd]

Brought home this project...

Well, that looks like you've got your work cut out - just moving it, let alone renovating it! How bad are we talking? Things move or seized and/or massively worn?

[Bob Engelhardt]

http://www.lathes.co.uk/rockwellmillers/

[GeoBruin]

Well, that looks like you've got your work cut out - just moving it, let alone renovating it! How bad are we talking? Things move or seized and/or massively worn?

Not that bad actually. The table slides fairly easily, the knee moves easily enough I can turn the nut by hand (the handle is missing of course). The head nods left and right no problem so the worm gear at the back of the ram appears intact. The motor runs great.

The clutch assembly for the fine feed and the fine feed knob are missing (assuming it came with them?) and the table has some dings but other than that, it appears to be in decent shape. My understanding is it was used primarily as a drill press so hopefully the ways aren't worn but we haven't had a chance to really investigate that.

We plan to start with a complete teardown so we'll see how it goes.

[Bob Engelhardt]

This mill has a neat feature for adjusting the angle of the head. It's a worm and gear at the back that rotates the ram:




What I don't get is how the ram can move in & out and still have its angle adjustable. Does the worm gear slide on the ram with a key way in the ram?

[GeoBruin]

This mill has a neat feature for adjusting the angle of the head. It's a worm and gear at the back that rotates the ram:




What I don't get is how the ram can move in & out and still have its angle adjustable. Does the worm gear slide on the ram with a key way in the ram?

Here's a picture of it freshly removed from the mill.

I loosened the two Allen head bolts that clamp the ram and was able to tilt the head all the way over out of the way to get the lifting slings around the ram and lift from overhead.

[The Metal Butcher]

I got me a '68 Machinery's Handbook for $15 from ebay. Pretty beat but the insides are mint.....except for the threading section. Suitable for home reading though.

[DennisCA]

OK progress slowed down because I am back at work since last week, I did get the last beam in place however before sunday ended.

Next I made some scaffolding.





And after that I put up one side of the rafters.



I used the scaffolding so I could adjust the rafters, I only nailed them in place with a single nail at the bottom first. Then I used an axe and a chisel to adjust the beams so the rafters all sit evenly across. I used a taught line that I had going above the rafters from edge to edge, that gave me a reference to work from.





In some places I used "shims" (a bit thick for a shim perhaps) which are also nailed and glued with PU glue. It was better I felt to shim some, or I would have had to lower all the other rafters and they where all sitting evenly and nice already.





Oh and each side will get two more rafters so I get eaves on all sides, but I have to make the rest of the roof for that first as they attach to the roof structure that will be built out from the rafters. That way the beams can be hidden behind the paneling and protected from the elements.

The open ens of beams is an area that tends to rot first on log houses, it used to be common that such houses would have the corners covered up with a box like structure.

[Bob Engelhardt]

OK progress slowed down because I am back at work since last week, I did get the last beam in place however before sunday ended.
[snip]

Nice. A lot of hand-crafting there. Should last a hundred years and then people will be looking up and appreciating the handiwork.

In the background there's this interesting bit:



Someone's going to the trouble of putting it there implies that there is a need to get up on the roof more frequently than is convenient to use a ladder for. If so, what is that need? Also, do the neighborhood kids consider it a challenge to climb onto your roof (when you're not around)? Around here it would likely be considered an “attractive nuisance” (attractive to kids, but potentially harmful), like an unfenced swimming pool.

[DennisCA]

Thanks! And that ladder is legally mandated on all houses and is for the chimney sweeper, it hardly ever gets used really mostly we hang clothes from it. But every house with a chimney will have one permanently affixed ladder. So it's nothing special that attracts the kids, just part of the background to us.

[mattthemuppet]

that's some impressive work Dennis, you'll have a fantastic building that'll be a pleasure to just sit in and admire when you're done!