Stuff you have made today

[MCKDAVID]

good excuse to go get the bike then, you could get a full roll in they paniers nae bother.....

 

[Hood]

good excuse to go get the bike then, you could get a full roll in they paniers nae bother.....

Dog doesn't let me through the week as he needs to get to work so have to use the van.

 

[MCKDAVID]

aye the 4 legged QC, can you not make up a kennel for the back, between the paniers, bike seems big enough?

 

[8ob]

Today I started making a trench to relay some cables.

Urelectrishuns thought its ok left like this

 

[MattF]

Can't believe you posted the link, Hood. I'm having a right internal battle of wills now. You do know how crap I am at resistance?

 

[Maker]

First I made a top from some 5mm aluminium and bolted it to the top of an old stainless frame I had so that I had a place for the, newly acquired, mini press brake.

View attachment 323608


I then adapted the quick and dirty rod bender I made years ago for a specific job so that I could make a U loop in some 8mm stainless. The adaption was to put a socket over the bolt so that I got the correct radius



View attachment 323609


Worked well, really should make up a better one some day.

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I then bent some 60mm x 5mm 316 stainless in the new press and welded the loops to them.

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Next up I went to cut a rack on the plasma but the bleeding gaskets went in the compressor again so I had to make some more. Found some carboard and cut them out.
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Compressor now running again so I was able to cut the rack, this time I cut with a higher current and it cut better, even leaving the centre of the small 'a' unlike previous attempts. I then tried to bend the tabs but that didn't go great, the bend happened at the slots rather than further in, I was kind of expecting it but....
Not sure how to overcome the problem, possibly having a backing bit of metal to support as the fold is done would be the way but I am not sure if the brake will be good enough as it is only supposed to do 4mm aluminium at that length, we will see.


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Before I headed home I soldered up a mast head light, it is a local restaurant that has it for a display piece but people keep prodding it and the solder gave way and the glass fell down. Wasn't making any promises and actually didn't think I would make anything of it as I don't have the right gear but I managed to get it back together with a soldering bolts and some solder, not the neatest but not any worse than the previous repairs that have been done.



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You got your money's worth out of that wire wheel!

 

[Hood]

You got your money's worth out of that wire wheel!

It is actually excellent for deburring stuff when like that.

 

[MattF]

It is actually excellent for deburring stuff when like that.

Your excuse list is on a rare old roll today.

 

[m_c]

What machine out of interest, I'm awaiting my motor mounts for my conversion

A Matchmaker CNC mill that I purchased quite a few years ago via one of @Hood 's contacts, which is based on a Shizuoka ST-N.
It's one of those projects that's continually been bumped down the roundtuit list for various reasons.
Most notably 1 CNC lathe retrofit (Denford Cyclone which has just been sold), one mini CNC mill purchase (Denford Novamill) as I needed to machine some holders for the Cyclone and the Novamill happened to appear for sale at a reasonable price, one CNC mill retrofit (Denford Triac) as I wanted something bigger than the Novamill, and it happened to pop-up at a reasonable price while I was procrastinating, and another CNC lathe purchase.
Main reason for it finally progressing, is I've had the servos sat since last year, and since selling my Harrison manual mill earlier this year, I need something with bigger capacity than the Triac for repairing machinery bits.

 

[MattF]

@Hood, you're on my @skotl, (yes, I named my list of users whose posts to be cautious of reading after him ), list now.

Been wanting one for years. That one of yours looks nice enough to have given me that final prod/push.

 

[Hood]

That was about the time I got the Chiron, must be 8 or 9 years now.

 

[Hood]

@Hood, you're on my @skotl list now.

TFFT, peace at last

 

[Stueeee]

I have lots of 10W LED security lights here. so, it seems there's always at least one that's on the blink/knackered.

I just change them out, but usually have a poke about inside afterwards, almost invariably it's the PIR that's failed. Looping the PIR out turns it into a plain 240V flood; or, fitted onto a stand into a 240v worklamp. After the last changeout session, I decided that having a 12V LED worklamp connected to whatever with a cigarette lighter plug would be a useful thing.

The COB LEDs in these lamps are normally powered by a 240V in 28+ volts out LED driver. Plain 12V won't light the LEDs up. So after a quick look on ebay I bought a couple of these 'chopper' switch mode power supplies https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/383731933861?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649 -less than £2 each delivered. A quick test using the tiny unit with my homemade bench power supply @ 12v output showed that it works OK.

So I wired the board into the rear of the Lamp where the 240V LED driver had been.

Then found an old magnetic base in my 'come in useful one day' box.

Should be useful in places where there's no mains handy.

 

[Kram]

A pair of external thread chamfer bits, @ukracer I wont have any use for the big one so its yours if you want it, when its finished, it should do 8-27mm.

Cut a slot and used a few scrap drill bits, rough ground, then turned the HSS back almost to the surrounding taper. Lathe did not like the intermittent cut but carbide had no problem. I dont know how hard it compares with new HSS but files/centrepunch dont cut it,

The two anodised fillers had masking tape and it has survived without any UV fading that I can see, I ordered a bottle of indigo blue for the next alu bits.

Then some grinding, mostly with a 20mm diamond multitool wheel in die grinder with the er11 chuck.

I will turn a sleeve to shrink over the bits, for a bit of user protection. The cutting edge is far too sharp to leave exposed. You would not want to be hand holding short bolts anywhere near these as they are.

 

[ukracer]

A pair of external thread chamfer bits, @ukracer I wont have any use for the big one so its yours if you want it, when its finished, it should do 8-27mm.

View attachment 323651
Cut a slot and used a few scrap drill bits, rough ground, then turned the HSS back almost to the surrounding taper. Lathe did not like the intermittent cut but carbide had no problem. I dont know how hard it compares with new HSS but files/centrepunch dont cut it,

The two anodised fillers had masking tape and it has survived without any UV fading that I can see, I ordered a bottle of indigo blue for the next alu bits.

View attachment 323652

Then some grinding, mostly with a 20mm diamond multitool wheel in die grinder with the er11 chuck.
View attachment 323653
View attachment 323655

I will turn a sleeve to shrink over the bits, for a bit of user protection. The cutting edge is far too sharp to leave exposed. You would not want to be hand holding short bolts anywhere near these as they are.

View attachment 323650

Yep that was my concern. Sorting a quick method of gripping the short lengths quickly and securely is my next task.

But that's awesome. Let me have your PayPal and how much its cost as soon as its ready to ship and I can send you my address.

 

[Hood]

What's it seem like, quality wise? Decent bit of kit?

Another job done on it, need to get into the swing of measuring the bends but did not too bad for a first go of making this.

3mm stainless and 80mm wide at the widest part and you hardly knew it was bending it.

 

[Hood]

Made another pair for another boat.
The brake works well but I think maybe some sort of side shims for close bends would be better, will experiment sometime and see.

Anyway next ones.

 

[MCKDAVID]

for radiused bends, you'd be quicker making up a new plate with a round bar welded on so basically a round end blade, then you could do it in more or less one hit.... might have to make a few to suit your required radius... I made one for a daft one off job for my home made one (photos on here somewhere), just welded it quick as mine is a fixed blade, did the job and ground it off when I was done. Yours looks better and more flexible, and I would like to take the time to make up multple blades like yours, probably will when I need it, but for now works ok,

 

[Hood]

for radiused bends, you'd be quicker making up a new plate with a round bar welded on so basically a round end blade, then you could do it in more or less one hit.... might have to make a few to suit your required radius... I made one for a daft one off job for my home made one (photos on here somewhere), just welded it quick as mine is a fixed blade, did the job and ground it off when I was done. Yours looks better and more flexible, and I would like to take the time to make up multple blades like yours, probably will when I need it, but for now works ok,

Aye, had thought of that but I kind of wanted the angular look on these. Will likely make up a few formers for other stuff though.

 

[Kram]

Yep that was my concern. Sorting a quick method of gripping the short lengths quickly and securely is my next task.

But that's awesome. Let me have your PayPal and how much its cost as soon as its ready to ship and I can send you my address.

Er32 or 40 is a good way for small bits. Doesnt need to be that secure, as the small clearance will prevent it taking a deep chip or grabbing, just needs to get the fingers out of the way.

I dont know how long the hss edge will last and didnt take long to do so its free, post is about £4. Pm your address and I'll try to get sent today. I'd be interested to know how long it lasts, as theres not much online about tig with hss.

Done some reading, hss should be tempered about 500c so I've done the body to light blue, upsidown so flame away from the edge. The HSS has taken a nice purple. Little more grinding to do..