Stuff you have made today

[Justme]

This months project is making a monster mobile firewood processing plant.

Started with the processor.
Bought a 14 foot trailer with a log crane already fitted (save a bunch of work but also created some too).
Bought a log deck as a starter kit but then altered the life out of it by adding a third beam, raising one end & altering the motor & rollers. Looking back I should have just made it all & save a bunch of money.

Started with this processor.



Un altered log deck



Mounted processor
Yes I know it looks well back but the crane is heavy & the engine will be mounted further forward.
The balance point of the processor is between the rear two axles.
Before its fixed down I will do balance / driveability tests.



A few stages of the build

Work area up, doubling up as a trailer side.



Work area down
Still needs an adjustable cross brace underneath



2 of the leg extension bits




Test fit of extended legs & additional brace
I did plan on adding diagonal bracing as well but the second brace has tightened it up so much even without the bolts I dont think it will need it.




Third beam end



Altered log deck assembled




The crane had ONE snapped bolt. It was slightly leaking.
Yesterday started to strip to fix it.
Found that previous owner had glued a snapped bolt in with silicon so there were TWO snapped bolts.
Oddly both stubs came out super easy.
Yep your right that should have been alarm bells.
Most of the other bolts were covered in PTFE & some looked like they had liquid metal in the threads.
All no biggy, been there done that, grabbed the m8 helicoil kit off the shelf.
Hole one, no problem, hole two ***** snapped tap in hole.
Had a quick try to shift it but no joy.
Stripped crane down & dropped it off at the local Agri fab shop & should be done by tomorrow.
Will then need to carefully helicoil the other holes too & fit with new bolts.
I expect the snapped hole will need to be m10 once they have sorted it. No issue plenty of metal to do so.


Still to do:-
Move crane controls to an adjustable mount so I can use from both sides.
Build engine cradle
Mount engine & 90 deg gearbox with all the bits needed
Adapt prop shaft to suit.
Build some storage cages.

 

[Hood]

Fitted the ramp to a boat today. Also got the port side guide made and fuel tank inside and angle welded to the lid for box storage. Also got the second side started but will have to wait until tomorrow to get it finished. The old handrail was also put on the starboard side and the angle slide rail chopped off and merged into the hand rail.

 

[Brad93]

Fitted the ramp to a boat today. Also got the port side guide made and fuel tank inside and angle welded to the lid for box storage. Also got the second side started but will have to wait until tomorrow to get it finished. The old handrail was also put on the starboard side and the angle slide rail chopped off and merged into the hand rail.

View attachment 269014 View attachment 269015

Smart mate

 

[EddyP]

@EddyP Good job there , and clever idea using those Rice Krispies as a play medium - much easier to sweep up....

Self cleaning too, she must have eaten half of them

 

[brewdexta]

Another thing part 1.

This time I'm using some ash, some dark American walnut and some scrap oak. The ash is some wood that @Shox Dr collected and dropped off for me a couple of years ago. The bit of ash I'm using today is not quarter sawn and has a couple of blemishes but that won't matter. its cupped a bit and the dimensional change coefficient is greater when flat sawn. Its 0.00169 when quarter sawn versus 0.00274 when flat sawn for white ash. The cup will come out on the planer/thicknesser and it will be cut into smallish strips so any dimensional change will be small.

The walnut is from a mistake I made while trying to resaw some for another job and it went pear shaped, plus I then spilled a load of water based polyurethane on it and it set in lumps. So its only about 11mm thick, so I glued it to some 12mm ply.

then I put both through the PT and took them down to 22mm, then planed one edge smooth and cut them both into strips.

Then glued them up for the night.

the rest of the timber, apart from a bit of ply, will come from these two scabby lumps.

Once sawn up I will get some nice useable bits with interesting grain, and a lot of waste.

To be continued....

Cheers
Andy

 

[DennisCA]

Blew the drive belt on my Toro 828 snowblower and since I live in metric land and there's a snowstorm coming I didn't have time to order a 3/8 x 34-5/8 belt from the US. At the local auto parts store they found a 10x875 mm v-belt for a car fan instead, so I fitted it, was a few mm shorter than the original and I had to open up the blower both on the underside and on the top to get it onto the wheels, but it fit with some effort.

Not that fun to work in the cold, ideally one should take a break and run around the house or something with regular intervalls to get the blood pumping to the fingers. I kept taking my gloves on and off instead.

Hopefully everytihng works as it should when I get home later today, got some snow to get rid off....

 

[Munkul]

Fixed the alignment coupling on my rolls... bust before i got it, and was bodged with washers, which didn't really have much holding strength.
Made a cover flange, and fitted with a spacer on the bust edge to keep it flat.



I love having a lathe should have had one years ago! Even just for rough jobs like this!

 

[Hood]

Got the second side guide/tank/box holder bit done today and a bit of chopping off of redundant parts and wired up a wiper and got the welder back in the workshop

Then welded up this from some old Aluminium.

It is for a hot box to keep the pies warm, the cheeky beggar didn't leave a pie in for me

Then I got some of the drawers for the Plasma consumables labeled.

 

[Tangledfeet]

@Hood I note that the water in the harbour is the same colour as the water under your plasma cutter... cold still no better then?

 

[Hood]

@Hood I note that the water in the harbour is the same colour as the water under your plasma cutter... cold still no better then?

Nope, getting worse.

 

[pressbrake1]

Today I made a few holes

 

[mtt.tr]

Today I made a few holesView attachment 269164

looks heavy enough

 

[brewdexta]

Another thing part 2.

it came out of clamps ok.

I then sliced it into more strips, I ended up with a pile like this.

See what it's going to be yet? I then sawed flat edges on the scruffy bits of burr oak

I put them through the bandsaw and resawed them to about 30mm, then took them down on the planer/thicknesser to about 23mm. There should just about be enough swirly wood to do what I'm thinking.

You have probably guessed that its a top for a chess table by now. Here it is before gluing up. There is about a 112mm border around the board, there will be a thin 2mm strip of walnut around the board, then the rest will be the burr oak. I'll finish off the outside with some more walnut, or possibly oak, I shall see what it looks like once the burr oak is done.

Here it is tucked up in clamps for the night.

I have looked at chess tables and I am going to add a northern trades union social club twist to it. The tables in most clubs have places underneath the table to hold your drink while you play dominoes or cards. But I also want somewhere to hold chess pieces, cards, draughts, dominoes and the essential crib board. So I've sketched up something that should do the trick. That may come later, my girls are into chess so they can play on the top once it's finished while I make the rest.

Sorry about the never ending wood bothering, I will be back on metal soon, honest

Cheers
Andy

 

[mtt.tr]

I welded some bits of glass together, does that count?

What's it for?

 

[Barlidge]

What's it for?

There's three different jobs there, over all three there's about 900 splices. The one with the pink pigtails are temporary (10 years) and are for a CCTV ring which goes around the site offices/laydown area for the new North London Heat and Power project which is a 10 year project to replace the ageing Edmonton EcoPark incinerator with a new one.
http://www.northlondonheatandpower.london/media/xdtkm1we/lee-valley-regional-park.pdf

The one with the aqua pigtails is for the backbone network between the buildings of the Woolwich Works, an arts and cultural centre located on the old Woolwich Arsenal site
https://www.woolwich.works/whats-happening/

And the fibre to the desk outlets are for some official type people to temporarily decant from London to a secure location in Northamptonshire.

 

[Nick DV]

I welded some bits of glass together, does that count?

Takes me back a bit! I used to 'weld glass' back in the 90's and early 00's on national/international cable networks. I think the kit then was Fuji but I imagine the cleaving tools, splicers and testers are pretty state of the art bits of kit now compared with what I used

 

[Memmeddu]

Replaced the camshaft cover gasket ,oil filter, and oil on my Punto MK2 this morning .
Helped a friend of mine who practically did the job alone

 

[slim_boy_fat]

A muck-up of my first use of the magnetic chuck on the Amolco mill.

I machined a couple of bolts to fit the table slots, fitted the chuck and had a go on a piece of scrap 6mm steel which already had holes in. Even with other bits alongside to brace the work-piece against the cutter [2-flute end mill, small & looked sharp ], the work-piece slid along the chuck.

I was only trying to cut at 2-3mm depth and had cleaned the chuck surface [Acetone]. I'll have another go tomorrow, other 'stuff' permitting, and try a different cutter and experiment with spindle speed [I wasn't feeding fast]. The chuck def holds lumps of metal [V-block etc] to the extent that you can't lift them off...... It's a mystery #scratching head

Here's what I had [I know the chuck isn't locked in the pic ......]



EDIT: If you enlarge the pic, you can see the extent of the 'wander', the slot was supposed to follow parallel to the edge of the chuck.

 

[Hood]

2-3mm DOC might be a bit ambitious and also the cutter looks like it may be meant for aluminium, not that that should matter too much.
You could try blocking the work piece in with larger bits of steel at the edges. BTW is it definitely steel and not some kind of ferritic stainless?

 

[Agroshield]

...a piece of scrap 6mm steel... The chuck def holds lumps of metal [V-block etc]

How smooth and flat is the underside of the piece you are holding? Generally V-blocks, etc. will be ground, so very smooth and flat. If the 6mm stuff has burrs or is only touching at one or two places, the adhesion will be poor.