What did you do today?

[mattthemuppet]

did a little good deed and fixed a neighbourhood kids school drum stand

[Mike Burch]

Are you sure about needing new phones? We have VOIP (Vonage) and its router has a jack for the in-house phone wiring. The house wiring gets plugged into the router and all our old phones work off it just like they always have.

Bob, thanks for the cheering response to my exasperated rant. We have two sets of cordless phones, and one is not young enough to work with the new system. Unfortunately no-one sells a combo of more than three handsets, with the shed to cover as well as the house, that is not enough.

I confess I hadn't thought of isolating the house telephone wiring from the incoming line, and using that to send the signal to more phone-friendly areas, so many thanks for the tip.

[Cenedd]

Bob, thanks for the cheering response to my exasperated rant. We have two sets of cordless phones, and one is not young enough to work with the new system. Unfortunately no-one sells a combo of more than three handsets, with the shed to cover as well as the house, that is not enough.

I confess I hadn't thought of isolating the house telephone wiring from the incoming line, and using that to send the signal to more phone-friendly areas, so many thanks for the tip.

If the router doesn't have a PSTN (Plain Standard Telephone Network) or POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) port for adding traditional phones, you can also get a little box that does that. The usual suspect was a Linksys SPA2102 but there may well be newer alternatives. Somewhat complicated to set up but you may fine the telecom provider has a configuration already for one - it's worth an ask. Then you can run your existing phones off your existing wiring but connect it to that box instead of the line that used to be provided by the telco.

[Bruno Mueller]

For my Bosch Combi multifunction tool, there was a quick release bolt for the circular saw in the 70s. The part is no longer available on the used parts market or in stores. I have made myself such a part. Now the fumbling with the shims and the spindle nut when clamping or changing the saw blade has an end. The saw blade is clamped once and remains on the bolt. The change is much faster.



The number on the bolt is the original Bosch part number.

[Bruno Mueller]

[PStechPaul]

That's a good idea. I have several electric drills and a few small shaft mounted circular saw blades that could be turned into a small table saw.

[danlb]

The wife and I got our Covid-19 booster vaccine shots today. We are still providing elder care for our parents and that requires a lot of inter-state travel, so it was a good idea.

[J Tiers]

I need to do that soon. My wife is not eligible yet (I "robbed the cradle").

Meanwhile, I moved a nearly 7' tall drill press, and a milling machine, and need to move a set of drawers containing stock, so that the plumber can get to a part of the piping that has a leak probably because it was never done right to begin with.. It's a problem to replace, , and currently I am supposed to be a good boy and have a real plumber do it. Otherwise I'd likely do it myself and nobody the wiser.

Quite irritating, because I called the usual local plumbers, only to find that they had been bought out by a different company as of the past July.

[Mike Burch]

If the router doesn't have a PSTN (Plain Standard Telephone Network) or POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) port for adding traditional phones, you can also get a little box that does that. The usual suspect was a Linksys SPA2102 but there may well be newer alternatives. Somewhat complicated to set up but you may fine the telecom provider has a configuration already for one - it's worth an ask. Then you can run your existing phones off your existing wiring but connect it to that box instead of the line that used to be provided by the telco.

Thanks for the tip!
The Covid lockdown still in place in Auckland means that the extinguishing of the old telephone system has been delayed—though of course there's no word yet as to when it might proceed.

[The Metal Butcher]

Installed a new Bison 10" D1-5 3 jaw chuck at work today. Old one was just beat after years of graphite and salt. Jaws heavily bellouthed, pinion stiff. I don't think it had ever been apart. Bison impressed me. Using the master pinion, I was getting 2-3 tenths consistent on a random chunk of stainless. Not bad at all.

[J Tiers]

Well, I did a run of parts for a guy I know. Not that complex at all, essentially just parted off sections of brass tube, for use as rollers in a peristaltic pump setup. Around 40 to 50 parts total, more than a couple, but not enough to spend a lot of time on setup for.

I did not set up the turret for this, figuring that there were not that many operations (or parts), and it wasn't needed. I also thought I was being smart, as I set up a stop and the cutoff operation, so that I could just pull the tube out to the stop and then do a parting off operation.

The parting tool had a chamfer that would de-burr the OD, and I figured everything should be great, with just a one end second op to deburr.

Well, it was not quite that way. The parting tool kicked up an internal burr, despite being sharp, and the internal chamfer tool did not deburr as well as it should, it kicked up a small burr on the end that has to be hit with a file as a last step. But, I had to do a second op on BOTH ends, instead of just one.

Size was fine; they were dimensioned to two decimals, and the spread of lengths was only about 5 thou. It was all finishing issues.

So much for my bright ideas about getting multiple things done at once. I ended up re-doing much of it in second op.

I really should have set up the crosslide table so that I could have a back-side tool as well as the tool in the holder (a QCTP would be too slow and clumsy). I also decided I need a "stop" for the spindle, so that I can insert parts to a consistent depth in the chuck. A lever collet setup would have been faster than the chuck.

With the crosslide table, I could have started with a "V" groove where the parting would be, so that the part-off following that would have only an end burr if any, not one on the OD. That could be knocked off with a file. The internal burr, if not too big, and not loose, could be ignored. But these were larger, and had loose portions.

It's easy to be wise after the event...........

[Cenedd]

Bison impressed me. Using the master pinion, I was getting 2-3 tenths consistent on a random chunk of stainless. Not bad at all.

I get repeatability of 2-3 tenths on my 3-jaw import chuck too.....we are talking about metres, right?!

[Richard P Wilson]

I get repeatability of 2-3 tenths on my 3-jaw import chuck too.....we are talking about metres, right?!

2-3 tenths in metres? Umm, a tenth of a metre is just under 4", so yes, every chuck I've got can match that----

[Bob Engelhardt]

[snip]
I really should have set up ....
It's easy to be wise after the event...........

Next time.

[The Metal Butcher]

Super productive day today!

• Split some wood and stacked it on my inside rack.
• Unloaded some dad had that was too long.
• Loaded up some I had that was too short.
• Changed the oil and air filter in a new used mower. First try, ran great.
• Fixed a pex leak.
• Went shopping.
• Tried out a new (to me) parts washer. Mostly works. $140 for 15 gallons of solvent.
• Installed some new light fixtures in the kitchen to replace the crap HD ones that died. Lets hope the 15 watt LED bulbs don't overheat. It's bright AF though.
• Went on a quick intense climb, then a short grocery shop.
• Most importantly, had a couple beers.

If I could have 2 days per month of that productivity level, I'd be unstoppable.