Stuff you have made today

[Brad93]

Finished grinding and onto paint. 2 coats topcoat left to go

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Did you weld the treads back to back or heat straighten? They look very flat.

 

[Onoff]

Bes

They are best done in a large lidded wide necked jar ,, so you can spoon out the plums to put on Ice-cream or eat neat. Take a peek at Rhumtopf glass jars in the likes of B & M stores .
Making Rhumtopf with loads of different fruits is also started around now to be ready for Christmas but start it when cherries are in fruit and work the calendar of fruits as they become available & it really is some thing else . I got very tiddly on a bowl of the Rhumtopf fruits one new years eve .

The only wide necked container we had was a sweet jar with a clamp lid like a Grolsch bottle, not enough volume. As it was we had to cut the plums into eighths to get them in the neck of the demijohn. We gently heated the plumbs and sugar on the stove then poured the resultant goop in using a jug.

Maybe next year for the calendar of fruits, if I haven't chopped the cherry tree by then!

 

[arther dailey]

We're building a second garage, and we are now at the point of setting up forms for the footings that will support the foundation walls. The footings will be poured directly against solid bedrock (or 'ledge' as they call it here).

The concrete contractor got started on building the forms for the footings (below) a couple of weeks ago, then had to leave for another job for about a week.

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While he was away, I thought I'd do some work on the forms myself to help speed things along.

As you can see, the forms need to be scribed to fit the convolutions in the bedrock. I'm not sure yet if they'll use a concrete pump or if they can get the truck close enough to use a trough, and I'm not sure what the concrete slump factor will be, but in any case I figured that a closely scribed fit would be better than a sloppy fit.

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I came up with an idea for a simple device that I thought could scribe the forms quickly and accurately. It’s probably not a new idea, but it’s new to me, as I haven’t seen one like it yet. My idea was for a device that rolls along a track attached to the form. It has a guide tube with a ball bearing at the bottom that rides up and down with the contours of the ledge and scribes a line on the form with an attached marker. I fabricated the gadget (below) mostly from scrap metal I had lying around. There are two garage door track rollers (behind the steel trolley in the photo) that follow the track that I temporarily attach to the form with a few screws. The guide tube can be inserted at either end of the trolley so that both ends of a full 8-foot board can be scribed. I can already see some improvements that I'd like to make, but for the time being, it should do the job.

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The marker holder was a bit fussy. I drilled a centered hole lengthwise through a bolt (bored the hole with my lathe) and also drilled and tapped the head of the bolt for a set screw.

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I sized the marker holder so that it could hold either the cylindrical metal extension of a mechanical pencil or a thick graphite lead.

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The marker holder is shown below inserted into one of the threaded holes in the square tube.

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The ball bearing at the bottom of the tube allows the guide tube to roll relatively smoothly over the surface of the bedrock.

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Here's the track and my device mounted on a sheet of OSB. You can see the scribed line that I drew with it.

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And here's the OSB after I cut the board along the scribed line. It made for a nice snug fit.
Note: The various supports, pins, rebar, etc., will be added after all of the boards are scribed and installed. A perimeter drain system will also be installed after pouring the foundation walls.

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Here's another section that I cut this afternoon. It was a virtually perfect fit. I'm quite pleased with my little gadget, and I get faster at using it with each board.

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The concrete contractor should be back on the job tomorrow, and I'll educate him on the use of my gadget. I think he'll like it. I hope that we can get the footing forms finished this week, or no later than the following week. After the footings are poured, a set of standard modular forms would then be set up on top of the footings for pouring the foundation wall (or ‘frost wall’ in the local vernacular).

I think you should copyright that Pronto .

 

[Munkul]

Did you weld the treads back to back or heat straighten? They look very flat.

I welded the treads to the mitre pieces individually on the bench, with clamps and a spacer plate to pre-bend them. Worked well.

The main spine has a slight bend in it unfortunately, even though I broke its back with a 12mm spacer. 4 heavy duty G clamps weren't enough to keep it down once I started welding.

 

[Kram]

Nice but what is it?

 

[Brad93]

Nice but what is it?

stairs

 

[Onoff]

stairs

He tried that...

 

[Kram]

Converted two 5 packs of 6" 37DL 1/4 pitch cheapy chains into 5x 10" 60 DL 1/4 pitch to fit the Echo 2511, one not pictured as its on the saw. Lots of spare links. Master links are not available so had to reuse the ones I punched out. Total cost about £8 where as a genuine chain is about £15-£25 each, plus delivery.
Actual cutters and links look near enough identical, and having used the short ones on the cordless they last reasonably well, too.

 

[magnet]

Been up the breamish valley today. Along with the usual raft we carved some propellers and put them in the river. One of them seemed to attract the small fish that are there. It was interesting making them and carving them in different ways so the turned in opposite directions. Give me a stick a pocket knife and a riverbank on a sunny day and im as happy as a pig in the proverbial

 

[Anguz]

Not today, but Monday I had a knife making experience at the oldfield forge.
Tempered it last night in the oven
Scales to be made
Thoroughly enjoyed it

 

[Tupers]

I had an old Erbauer led work like with a dead pack so I’ve pulled it out, replaced it with a chunk of lead and put some temporary terminals on so I can run an external Dewalt battery.

 

[Arc Tourist]

......................................

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Nice benchtop anvil.

 

[Onoff]

I had an old Erbauer led work like with a dead pack so I’ve pulled it out, replaced it with a chunk of lead and put some temporary terminals on so I can run an external Dewalt battery.

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Would a nice 3D printed DeWalt battery holder stuck on the side be better?

 

[Hood]

Made a hydraulic tank from some 3mm stainless.

Cut the stainless on the plasma and then welded it up, well out of practice with stainless Tig but got better as the welds progressed.

Made up a piece for the bottom of the tank for the filter to screw onto inside the tank and a valve will fit to it on the outside.. It was made from some 2" dia 316, threaded 1.5" BSP on the lathe and then into the Chiron the mill a flat then bore a hole and tapped that 3/4" BSP

Welded in place

Tank almost completed, top of tank bored and tapped for the filler and return filter.

Just made a couple of gaskets on the laser for the filler and return.

 

[Gragson]

Made a hydraulic tank from some 3mm stainless.

Cut the stainless on the plasma and then welded it up, well out of practice with stainless Tig but got better as the welds progressed.

Made up a piece for the bottom of the tank for the filter to screw onto inside the tank and a valve will fit to it on the outside.. It was made from some 2" dia 316, threaded 1.5" BSP on the lathe and then into the Chiron the mill a flat then bore a hole and tapped that 3/4" BSP

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Welded in place


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Tank almost completed, top of tank bored and tapped for the filler and return filter.



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Just made a couple of gaskets on the laser for the filler and return.

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Nice work!

 

[MattF]

Cut the stainless on the plasma

On a tangent on that topic, does plasma cutting stainless harden the cut edge making it a grinding task to dress the edge, or would a file be able to dress the edge?

 

[Barking Mat]

On a tangent on that topic, does plasma cutting stainless harden the cut edge making it a grinding task to dress the edge, or would a

On a tangent on that topic, does plasma cutting stainless harden the cut edge making it a grinding task to dress the edge, or would a file be able to dress the edge?

Yep, you'll need a grinder.

 

[MattF]

Cheers.

 

[arther dailey]

Nice benchtop anvil.

eagle eyes on this forum spot good tooling from a shaow

 

[Hood]

I would say there is no hardening at all as really stainless can't be heat hardened or at least 304/316 can't.
I have never used a file as I don't want any contamination but it should be fine. I use a flap disc just to get the slight oxidisation off before tig welding. Having said that I have very little oxidisation nowadays due to the water table.