Stuff you have made today

[nickk]

These are pretend fire dogs to support a cast fireback but had to be a small footprint due to restrictions behind the stove,40mm square 300 long tapering to 620.

 

[Maker]

I came all the way back to Suffolk to turn four long 8x2s into eight short 2x8s.


The plan was to make a table but Brundle couldn't be bothered to deliver my steel in time.

It was also supposed to be sawn green oak but that would have been four hundred quid.

 

[Seadog]

What's a 2x8?

 

[daleyd]

What's a 2x8?

16?

 

[Newlands]

There should be a thread for stuff you have been making on-and-off for years and years, but since I just managed to get this operational this morning I thought I'd post it here anyway. Its a tracking solar panel, which is a project that had its beginnings when I was at college years ago, resurfaced again in 1993 when I decided that solar panels were better if they pointed towards the sun, so I wrote a program in BBC Basic to run a couple of stepper motors. I resurrected it about 2 years ago, but this time with a Raspberry Pi, so I had to learn Python (which I found really difficult after Basic!). On and off over the last couple of years and it now sort of works to run this little test panel setup.
The Python script starts off at 6am, works out the azimuth and elevation angles and sends the appropriate number of pulses to the steppers. Then it does it again every 15 minutes until 7pm, when it returns to the start position and goes to sleep for the night. Starting mid-way through the morning, as I did this morning, it will move straight to the correct current position, which is what is happening in this short video clip (its moving quite slowly, you have to be patient!):

And a couple of photos of the guts of it. One of the biggest problems I had was to shift the logic level of the Pi from 3.3v to 5v to run the stepper drivers. It should be really easy, but I tried loads of different ways - onto-isolators, darlington pair transistors, mosfets, logic level shifter boards from Sparkfun and Pimorini, and expensive 4-channel mosfet board called a Mosfetti and not one of them worked. I ended up taking a chance on a 4 channel board from Aliexpress for a couple of quid that had a really vague description, and it turned out that it works perfectly.

 

[Cheesie]

This is for a disabled child a type of bean bag will sit inside it,

 

[Misterg]

Nice.

One of the biggest problems I had was to shift the logic level of the Pi from 3.3v to 5v to run the stepper drivers

I ran into the same thing with my ESP32 CNC control: 74HCT245D is your friend.

I've seen some big trackers that use a group of 4 photo sensors with a small shield between them. The shield casts a shadow on the sensors if it isn't pointed straight at the sun, and the controller just steers the array to keep the intensity on all 4 sensors the same. Starts from a mechanical 'home' position every morning.

 

[nickk]

Some may remember the octagonal base with a faceted pyramid type pedestal welded to the plate. Here’s the finished article with a fallen tail.

 

[Misterg]

A swaging die to create drainage channels / stiffening in a jacking point repair section I'm making (1.5mm thick steel):

It worked!

After trimming the bottom edge:

 

[selectedgrub]

 

[Hood]

Just done this for the skipper of the boat I am currently doing work on.

 

[northwest]

Well if this counts (because I started it yesterday but finished it today, chunk of "ally" from the mystery metal shelf (it could be anything- I think it is a bit of 7000 series from the way it machined):



I dislike interrupted cuts but needs must:



Spoil everywhere, it's going to take some clearing up:



Always drill out as much as possible, saves a real bloody mess:



Then the boring bar:



Always that sense of foreboding as you part it off:



The left overs:



Couple of people dropped by and they asked what I was doing "coffee machine part" none of them believed me, thought it was some secret project I was working on, no really, a part for a coffee machine, I don't even know which one. Youngest son sent me the original and said "can you copy this"? Suppose so:



Reminded me of back in the day, making throttle bodies. I am sure it is for a coffee machine so next time I will just send him a bit of stuff and he can make his own. Bought him a lathe years ago.

 

[northwest]

Then there was this, the Colchester Master I have recently acquired was backed into by a tank, a Chieftain I think. Anyhow the cross slide control took a big hit and snapped the wheel off, it also snapped a control shaft. Tigged back together then I jury rigged a small grinder to the toolpost and very carefully ground the retaining collar back into it. This really did deserve a Before and After pic but I was getting a move on:



Really took my time as I could see it ending in tears:



Cleaned up nicely I thought:



I made up a mandrel to get the two halves as best I could parallel to each other:

Try it in place next and look at my next problem, the support housing is in several pieces:

 

[Maker]

Well if this counts (because I started it yesterday but finished it today, chunk of "ally" from the mystery metal shelf (it could be anything- I think it is a bit of 7000 series from the way it machined):

View attachment 492402

I dislike interrupted cuts but needs must:

View attachment 492403

Spoil everywhere, it's going to take some clearing up:

View attachment 492404

Always drill out as much as possible, saves a real bloody mess:

View attachment 492405

Then the boring bar:

View attachment 492406

Always that sense of foreboding as you part it off:

View attachment 492407

The left overs:

View attachment 492408

Couple of people dropped by and they asked what I was doing "coffee machine part" none of them believed me, thought it was some secret project I was working on, no really, a part for a coffee machine, I don't even know which one. Youngest son sent me the original and said "can you copy this"? Suppose so:

View attachment 492409

Reminded me of back in the day, making throttle bodies. I am sure it is for a coffee machine so next time I will just send him a bit of stuff and he can make his own. Bought him a lathe years ago.

Looks like a funnel to chute coffee grounds into a portafilter.

 

[northwest]

Looks like a funnel to chute coffee grounds into a portafilter.

I thought someone on here would recognise it, I have no idea, I will ask though

 

[nickk]

Replacement brackets to hold a pane of glass that acts as a porch canopy,40/15 flat,12 square and 6 round for the leaves,the veining was cut cold,I’ll fit them next week.

 

[Hitch]

Been working on a pair of these for a while... quite a lot of work. Another 2 weeks or so should see them done.
Everything inside is fully polished, to certain radiuses so it meets the relevant standard.
The polisher has been flat-out on this!


What you can't see is the support frame for the floor inside, and the floor, protected with vinyl coating.
Got thousands and thousands of tiny angled holes in it.
Outlet chute to go on next week, then up onto its legs.

 

[Blobber]

Been working on a pair of these for a while... quite a lot of work. Another 2 weeks or so should see them done.
Everything inside is fully polished, to certain radiuses so it meets the relevant standard.
The polisher has been flat-out on this!


What you can't see is the support frame for the floor inside, and the floor, protected with vinyl coating.
Got thousands and thousands of tiny angled holes in it.
Outlet chute to go on next week, then up onto its legs.

What does it do?

 

[voipio]

What does it do?

It's a canal submarine, for tourist trips on the Grand Union!!

They are a thing, apparently:

Relevance of Submarines to the UK canals

There is clearly a history of submarines on canals, should this history be celebrated more? I would be interested to see pictures of U-boats on continental canals, if such an event ever happened Richard

www.canalworld.net

 

[Hitch]

What does it do?

It's a dryer basically.
That's about all I know