Stuff you have made today

[henry Kadzielski]

Have been playing a bit on a new job. Ex Sydney harbour river cat in for some tlc. Have to remove the props, shafts and couplings. Got the props off, split the couplings and, where's the coupling spanner, no one knows. Measure up the coupling nut with 4 holes, back to the workshop and presto new coupling spanner.

New spanner body from 25mm plate, holes drilled for 10mm pin punches.

Also vessel engineer managed to damage three bolts for the couplings, so it was decided that they would be replaced. Got three bolts from a bolt shop and measured the original bolts only to find they are fitted bolts. So material arranged, delivered that night for machining to be started the next day

30mm hex bar cut to length.

Relief and machined along with center hole.

Shank and threaded section machined

What we must achieve minus the damage.

Three are damaged so I thought that a spare would be advantageous in this case.

Managed to get them all done and not stuff anything up, so ended up with 6. Ah i didn't notice my safety shoes in the foreground

 

[Mick Annick]

- my die grinder isn't variable speed, and without a shield I'm a bit nervous.

Glad it’s not just me

 

[Nomad]

The bottom of the lounge door needed 2mm off to give clearance over the new laminate.
Best suited woodworking tool here is a biscuit jointer but that has a minimum depth of 8mm - after adding a faceplate from some scrap timber it shaved 2mm off the door nicely leaving a narrow guide strip in the middle that fell off when I tickled it with a Multi-tool

 

[My Old Landy]

Playing with the IR laser after @Dr.Al was enquiring about brass the other day.
The disk came from Amazon and may or may not be brass, it is 40mm in diameter as per the listing!
20 passes @ 80% on the 2w IR 16 minutes per side.

 

[indykid]

my die grinder isn't variable speed, and without a shield I'm a bit nervous.

Pneumatic die grinder or electric? Turn the pressure down on the airline regulator if it's pneumatic

 

[droopsnoot]

Pneumatic die grinder or electric? Turn the pressure down on the airline regulator if it's pneumatic

Electric, though I do have an air one. I haven't used it for ages, not since I bought the electric one, I'd almost forgotten it was there. I'll have a go with it.

 

[Memmeddu]

Custom made a washer to reduce to zero the head movement on my brand new breaker bar

It originally had 1+mm gap between the bar and the swivel head.
I thought about those breaking exactly there so I've made a washer to increase the surface area touching between the handle and the head.
Take 18x6mm washer drilled to 8mm and then I've filed it down to 1.1mm in thickness.
Results are that the swivel head stay firmly in position but it's still adjustable by hand with not too much effort but now at least one of the flat surfaces is always touching 100% on the head
With little bit of oil and wear it will become little bit more loose and easier to move but right now is usable without any problems

 

[Kram]

I have been convinced to try a Stihl PM3 chain in the Echo 2511 chainsaw, supposed to be the best but at 5x the cost of others. However inna climbing saw it will last well, whatever I use. They are not available in the correct 60DL so had to buy a 64DL and shorten.

Had a look at this today. Generally 1/4" master links are not available and on my other chains I generally can reuse them.

Stihl are a bit stingy on the rivets - tho the look pretty! there is not enough meat to sensibly reuse them combined with slightly smaller drive link/pin holes that wont fit other brand links. A pain.

The quick option which I prefer will be a nice blob of 1.6mm stick weld on the pins, which I have had success with before. It is not always pretty I could TIG but Im out of gas.

The other option is to turn some new pins on the lathe from en16t steel and rivit both sides, but my tiny shed, I have no space to put everything and it would take an age to get access to lathe.

Stick welding it is!

 

[Gragson]

Had to use the mrs beetle Sunday night, unlit country roads, frightening!
Mentioned how terrible it was and she says yeah hard to see isn't it

Bought new bulbs but the real issue was the plastic lenses. You have to take the whole headlight out to change the bulbs on these comedy cars so thought I would have a go on the lenses. Guess I could have made up a kit but got one of these -> https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B5B9NNQZ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

Pretty impressed although was a bit worried on 600 grit start, went through all grades and polish, came out well.





Silly Dutch clog of a car!
Just finished both and fitted new standard bulbs - will slap them back in tomorrow, should make a noticeable difference I hope.

 

[My Old Landy]

I had a couple of commissions turn up yesterday. Got them made today (sorry no pics as they contained personal stuff) then my Mrs points out I would have made more money if I had gone to work
Missed the point completely but hey ho lol

 

[Kram]

For her and other drivers!
It would be interesting to know how well the UV protection fluid has worked in a years time. I polished my Mazda 6 lights before summer, they were great, sadly they have already started to cloud over. Next time I will spray them with 2k clear.

 

[Kram]

I have been convinced to try a Stihl PM3 chain in the Echo 2511 chainsaw, supposed to be the best but at 5x the cost of others. However inna climbing saw it will last well, whatever I use. They are not available in the correct 60DL so had to buy a 64DL and shorten.

Had a look at this today. Generally 1/4" master links are not available and on my other chains I generally can reuse them.

Stihl are a bit stingy on the rivets - tho the look pretty! there is not enough meat to sensibly reuse them combined with slightly smaller drive link/pin holes that wont fit other brand links. A pain.

The quick option which I prefer will be a nice blob of 1.6mm stick weld on the pins, which I have had success with before. It is not always pretty I could TIG but Im out of gas.

The other option is to turn some new pins on the lathe from en16t steel and rivit both sides, but my tiny shed, I have no space to put everything and it would take an age to get access to lathe.

Stick welding it is!

Finished chain.

Not pretty but functional.

I used some cheap chain off cuts as practise peices. Its not easy welding something the same diameter as the electrode without melting it!

 

[oldbikedavey]

Mostly, a most greatly improved cylinder head sand casting mould, and some evolutions to the sand muller.
A bayonet fixing arrangement for the upper drive shaft on to the gearbox drive, and a quick but likely effective knife coulter setup on the toolbar.
Without sand conditioning equipment, you can't really do sand casting anything like properly, and the sand muller is the absolute queen of that particular battlefield.....

 

[Kram]

Couple of pics from Oldbikedavey,'s. I'll try to put the videos up at some point.

 

[Gragson]

For her and other drivers!
It would be interesting to know how well the UV protection fluid has worked in a years time. I polished my Mazda 6 lights before summer, they were great, sadly they have already started to cloud over. Next time I will spray them with 2k clear.

3 Hours work, but the convenience of the kit is a given and the arbour, pad and other bits are good for the job, enough left in that kit to do another 2 pairs.

But would agree that the UV protection juice which you just dab and polish on is snake oil and won't last a car wash - which this car hardly gets...

I'll see how it looks in the summer, but having opened the polycarb surface up through all the wet grades, even tho highly polished, I expect it to deteriorate pretty quick.

It's a sticking plaster over replacement, I'm not sure a 2k clear coat would fair much better over a year, have some and may try in the summer.

 

[Kram]

Mine I didnt bother sanding, straight to polish with 3m Finess-it which is intended for paint, but both are plastic and I already had it. I was amazed how clear it was after 5 minutes work.

Automotive 2k clear has UV protection in it, so should be pretty good on a headlamp. White cars dont turn yellow and cloudy after a few months of summer!

The Aussie paint gun guy recommends 2k clear to do headlamps and they have a lot more UV/sun/heat out there.

 

[Hood]

Working on a prototype for soft luggage racks for some guys on the Africa Twin forum.

 

[selectedgrub]

.... for some guys on the Africa Twin forum.

It's ok man, we know them for you.

 

[Hood]

It's ok man, we know them for you.

Not at this point in time, I have panniers that clip on rather than bolt on so unless I can design these to do the same I probably won't

 

[RichardM]

@Hood are you going to put a cross tube between them so they don't bend in?