Stuff you have made today

Richiew · Jul 22, 2022

@Onoff, Frank Sidebottom reimagined by Tim Burton.

Munkul · Jul 22, 2022

Woody.v8 said:
A clean engine and a start to the next project, must be mad......
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Mazda 1.6\1.8?

dan.taylor.1 · Jul 22, 2022

Made this rack for my Stanley sort master boxes between jobs this week. Pull out shelf at the bottom to sit a box on and peruse contents.

Also finished this handrail off, was an absolute pain to get right.

DAPPH · Jul 22, 2022

I paid 50 p several years ago for a rusty & painted silver pair of grassshears . they have rarely been used , daugther asked me if I still had them .. can we have them dad .
So today I rediscovered where they had been hiding , stripped them down found the hinge pin was a domed 1/2 round bar then ground to 3/8 square then threaded for a 5/16 Withworth staked nut & Thackeray washer .
As I set about giving them a racing tune up & full de paint & rust I found that they were made in 1968 with a NATO part number . Where the hinge pin went through I discovered that the holes hadn't been de burred so had produced a bit of swarf .at th two flat faces ... no wonder hey were difficult to use . that filed and rubbed flat I set abut putting on a new cutting edge at an angle . , cleaned every ting off added silicone grease to the wear points and faces then re assmbled them . they cut a single strip of printer paper as if they were new razor blades .

Just about to pack thing away for the day when I noticed a bit of a mismatch at the tips , so ground them equal as a closed pair on the 9 inch grinder .. what lovely sparks they gave off.

Here my friends is what seems a cheap way of getting some reasonable quality flat steel for a few projects including knife making as there are often several pairs on sale at car boot sales .

Woody.v8 · Jul 23, 2022

Munkul said:
Mazda 1.6\1.8?

Yeah the 1.8, I acquired a few bits but I could do with a complete mot failure really for the rest of the bits and id.

Cobbler · Jul 23, 2022

Woody.v8 said:
Yeah the 1.8, I acquired a few bits but I could do with a complete mot failure really for the rest of the bits and id.

We’ve got quite a few bits of a left hand drive one that we broke in the shed, drive shafts, rear suspension both subframes, uprights & hubs, this sort of thing. Shout if you need anything & I’ll see what we’ve got.

Dr.Al · Jul 23, 2022

Some of you may remember that a little while ago I made a handle to make shooting stuff more comfortable:

More info here: https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/stuff-you-have-made-today.67127/page-1093#post-2055351

It works really well and has been an almost permanent attachment to my low angle jack plane. However, it has two (arguably rather minor) problems:

Firstly, while it gives the gap between thumb and forefinger something comfortable to push against, it doesn't give the rest of the hand something comfortable to hold on to: you're still gripping the side of the plane.
Secondly, it has to be removed if I want to put the plane away:

I was in a machining mood yesterday so I decided to have a go at making a new version, which I finished this morning.

Here it is in bits:

Another view:

The body and knurled nut are brass; the handle is 303 stainless steel; the pivot screw is EN3B mild steel, the pin is EN1A mild steel (the hole in the end is tapped M2.5 to help pull it out of its hole if required). The flat strip is 1 mm thick aluminium, used to stop the grub screws from damaging the side of the plane.

Partly assembled:

Fully assembled and fitted:

This is what it looks like in use:

Undoing the knurled knob allows the handle to pivot 90°...

... which means the plane now fits on the shelf with the handle attached (and also means the handle doesn't stick out the side of the plane while I'm using the plane for non-shooting stuff):

Maker · Jul 23, 2022

Maker said:
I made this old air pump suck twice as much.
View attachment 350552

I've had it in my treasure pile for years waiting for a use. It occurred to me today it might work for vacuum filtration, so I stuck a gauge on it and the needle was bouncing between about 375 and 500 Torr, which dropped back to zero almost immediately. I took it apart expecting to find the diaphragms all perished and leaky but luckily they were fine, the reed valves however were seriously manky:
View attachment 350553

The tar came off easily enough but the sealing faces were corroded and pitted so I cleaned them up with wetstones, working up to 8000 grit, much better now (I didn't bother cleaning the pitting off the back face).
View attachment 350554

Tiny drop of light oil should keep them sealing tight, all back together and it easily pulls 625 Torr, which takes a few seconds to bleed back down to zero now. I put another gauge on the output and it makes it to 40psi before the PRV opens, not bad at all. No idea what it's rated for, where it came from or what it was used for, quality little unit though. There's a small leak where the diaphragm meets the casting, it's not a machined face so I might pull it apart again and see if a light skim on the lathe can get it to seal, maybe get a few more Torr out of it.

I of course had to try filtering something so had a rummage around and found a cute little side arm flask, a bung that didn't fit it and a narrow stem funnel (Exactly the type you wouldn't use for filtration). Cut a circle out of a coffee filter, filled it with cutting fluid, fired up the pump and it pulled it through in less than a second.

View attachment 350555

Looks like my cunning plan is gonna work, next job will be to make a big special Büchner funnel, something like this:
View attachment 350562

Stay tuned.

I've finally had a go at this. I turned a plug to fit inside some 4" stainless tube so I could hold it in a chuck without deforming it, just to get clean, perpendicular ends and a tidy chamfer. The Perforated mesh was cut somewhere close with shears, then hot glued and pressed between two bits of plastic and machined to size, which absolutely ******** my last Seco insert.

It turns out I didn't have the material thickness to get the bottle thread on the funnel but I thought it would work without it, the vacuum should pull the gasket tight.

Unfortunately when I drilled into the side for the vacuum line, the drill bit broke though the bottom, and also through into the middle hole, totally ruining it. I tried wedging bits of PVC tubing into it but couldn't get it to seal.

I think I'm gonna put it back on the lathe and turn the bottom off so its just a shallow funnel, then cut out another piece of plastic, machine the bottle thread* and drill it for the vacuum fitting, then glue it all together. I also need to find a big O-ring and machine a groove, to seal the stainless pipe to the funnel.

*I want it to fit an ISI cream whipper, the bottle has a 50x3mm trapezoidal thread, I need to grind a tool and remind myself how to cut metric threads on my lathe. I was hoping I could make it work without the thread but there's only gonna be any real force to compress the gasket (The white thing in the last image) when the filter is blocked, it'll be much easier to use if I can just screw it on, it'll save having to hold it in place and I won't have to worry about it sealing.

Woody.v8 · Jul 23, 2022

Woody.v8 said:
Yeah the 1.8, I acquired a few bits but I could do with a complete mot failure really for the rest of the bits and id.

Well that escalated quickly :laughing:

Maker · Jul 24, 2022

Maker said:
I've finally had a go at this. I turned a plug to fit inside some 4" stainless tube so I could hold it in a chuck without deforming it, just to get clean, perpendicular ends and a tidy chamfer. The Perforated mesh was cut somewhere close with shears, then hot glued and pressed between two bits of plastic and machined to size, which absolutely ******** my last Seco insert. It turns out I didn't have the material thickness to get the bottle thread on the funnel but I thought it would work without it, the vacuum should pull the gasket tight.
View attachment 356697
View attachment 356698

Unfortunately when I drilled into the side for the vacuum line, the drill bit broke though the bottom, and also through into the middle hole, totally ruining it. I tried wedging bits of PVC tubing into it but couldn't get it to seal.

View attachment 356699
View attachment 356696

I think I'm gonna put it back on the lathe and turn the bottom off so its just a shallow funnel, then cut out another piece of plastic, machine the bottle thread* and drill it for the vacuum fitting, then glue it all together. I also need to find a big O-ring and machine a groove, to seal the stainless pipe to the funnel.

*I want it to fit an ISI cream whipper, the bottle has a 50x3mm trapezoidal thread, I need to grind a tool and remind myself how to cut metric threads on my lathe. I was hoping I could make it work without the thread but there's only gonna be any real force to compress the gasket (The white thing in the last image) when the filter is blocked, it'll be much easier to use if I can just screw it on, it'll save having to hold it in place and I won't have to worry about it sealing.

I spent a while this morning measuring the bottle thread, perhaps a bit big for this microscope, maybe I need to find an optical comparator?

I welded a 1/4" piece of HSS to some steel to save grinding an internal threading tool out from solid, works a treat.

Excellent fit. Turned it round and cut a register on the back face, and a matching step on the back of the funnel, the plan was to epoxy it but it's a solid press fit and air tight, so I probably won't bother.

There's a slight taper on the inside face, I was hoping it would stop liquid clinging to the surface and making it back into the vacuum line, but it didn't quite work, I'll probably just plumb in a trap between the filter and the pump.

Insulation tape because I haven't decided how best to seal the funnel to the pipe yet, probably make a custom O-ring. Finally found a use for these Melita filters, bought them years ago thinking they'd fit a V60.

It's brilliant with water, sucks it through faster than you can pour it, but I put a handful of sand in it and it got blocked. Hopefully once there's a better seal to the pipe it will build up a stronger vacuum and won't get blocked. I'll have to make a batch of coldbrew and test it properly.

Dcal · Jul 25, 2022

Today I made a couple of small C spanners to tighten the spindle nuts on a rotary table I'm painting up.

Turned a washer to size on the lathe.

Split the washer and welded tabs to grip the nuts.

Filed the tabs to suit and welded the washers to some flat bar. The flat bar was thicker than the washer (but all I had) so I made the spanners handed.

Cleaned up they do the job fine.

DAPPH · Jul 25, 2022

Maker said:
I spent a while this morning measuring the bottle thread, perhaps a bit big for this microscope, maybe I need to find an optical comparator?
View attachment 356864

I welded a 1/4" piece of HSS to some steel to save grinding an internal threading tool out from solid, works a treat.
View attachment 356865
View attachment 356866

Excellent fit. Turned it round and cut a register on the back face, and a matching step on the back of the funnel, the plan was to epoxy it but it's a solid press fit and air tight, so I probably won't bother.

View attachment 356868

View attachment 356869

There's a slight taper on the inside face, I was hoping it would stop liquid clinging to the surface and making it back into the vacuum line, but it didn't quite work, I'll probably just plumb in a trap between the filter and the pump.

View attachment 356867

Insulation tape because I haven't decided how best to seal the funnel to the pipe yet, probably make a custom O-ring. Finally found a use for these Melita filters, bought them years ago thinking they'd fit a V60.
View attachment 356870
View attachment 356871

It's brilliant with water, sucks it through faster than you can pour it, but I put a handful of sand in it and it got blocked. Hopefully once there's a better seal to the pipe it will build up a stronger vacuum and won't get blocked. I'll have to make a batch of coldbrew and test it properly.

Perhaps put some hollow fibre from an old quilt ( or buy new stuff ) as a prefiltr device so there is a lot of surface area to let the finings settle on and not get dragged straight down the bottom onto the filter paper.

Cobbler · Jul 25, 2022

A garden ornament, a bee. Horseshoes courtesy of Hotponyshoes

Hood · Jul 25, 2022

Made some rollers from 100mm dia Nylon (2x 200mm long and 3 x 300mm long), couldn't believe the price increase. Just over a year ago I was about £100 for a metre, now it is just shy of £200

Brad93 · Jul 25, 2022

Hood said:
Made some rollers from 100mm dia Nylon (2x 200mm long and 3 x 300mm long), couldn't believe the price increase. Just over a year ago I was about £100 for a metre, now it is just shy of £200

View attachment 357033

Plastics have gone mental

henry Kadzielski · Jul 26, 2022

Not just plastic :mad:

Blue Chips · Jul 26, 2022

This was a simple little project...more like "adaptive re-use" than "made."

I have several specialized trowels for masonry, plaster, and drywall (plaster board) work. One of my favorites is this "exact-angle" adjustable inside corner trowel. The old house we're restoring has a lot of odd inside angles in the walls and ceilings, especially in the attic rooms, and with some practice, I found that this trowel works really well for applying plaster, joint compound, topping, etc., over the joint tape in those inside angles.

One of the challenges for me is to do a clean sanding job on odd inside angles while maintaining a nice straight line, especially with shallower angles, so I thought to myself, "why not adapt this tool for sanding?"

I figured that a hook-and-loop approach with replaceable abrasive sheets would be handy, so I ordered a black adhesive-backed hook sheet and a roll of hook-and-loop type aluminum oxide abrasive. I cut pieces of each to fit the trowel, including several extra pieces of the abrasive.

The black hook sheet has a very agressive adhesive backing which adhered tenaciously to the trowel, so the hook sheets won't be coming loose anytime soon. The abrasive pieces also stuck very securely to the hook sheets, but can be easily changed. So far, so good.

To prevent the outer edges of the abrasive from digging in too far and making unwanted grooves after multiple passes, I found that placing a strip of 'sacrificial' masking tape over each outer edge acted as a depth stop, which pretty much eliminated that problem.

After a bit of practice (it takes a light touch), it works great.

I was also surprised at how long the 'temporary' strips of masking tape lasted; I haven't had to replace the tape strips yet, even after sanding about 40 feet of inside plaster board corners, although I suspect the tape strips will probably wear out faster when sanding harder materials such as setting-type plaster, etc.

The only thing I'd change (so far) is to use a finer abrasive grit...like 120 instead of 80.

Since this trowel is now dedicated to sanding, I plan to buy another one to use for its original purpose.

Jan-DIY · Jul 26, 2022

Finally got the red flag here. Not allowed for showing my kids any stunts in the pool area. Or any other kind of water or something else.

10 days left for my wife to get the bet I will end in the hospital.