2014 POTD Thread Archive

[hman]

Had some fun with JB Weld.I mixed up some JB Weld for a project a couple of nights ago, and had some left over. For no good reason at all, I decided to set the blob over a rare earth magnet. It was interesting to watch the blob coalesce over the magnet.


It was nicely cured today, and the iron content of the epoxy was definitely concentrated over the magnet, because the magnet would only stick to the center of the blob's bottom surface. I cut the blob in half and sanded one side to as smooth a surface as I could, and took the following photo:


You can plainly see the classic "lines of force" pattern of the iron particles. For scale, the magnet is a 1/4" cube, and the blob is about 3/16" thick and 1" wide.Things I learned-


(1) JB Weld does contain iron, but not a whole lot of it


(2) If someday I need a surface that's only attractive to a magnet in a certain area, I now know how to do it!


PS - Post-it notes are great for mixing small amounts of epoxy. They're cheap, they stay put on the table while you're mixing, and they're portable, so you can take the mixed epoxy to the job.

 

[RWL]

I use the plastic lid from a coffee can to mix epoxy.

 

[xalky]

I built a rack to hang all my QCTP tool holders, chuck keys, centers, and drill chucks on. It's sheet metal with 3 rails bent at a 45degree angle to hang the tool holder by the dovetail. The chuck centers, chucks and, keys are hanging from some bent rod welded to the panel. Now, my most used items are within easy reach, and itr cleared up the top of the headstock for smaller items, like calipers and tool bits.



Marcel

 

[churchjw]

This is very cool. I need to keep my eye out for some cheap wrenches.

Jeff

Strictly a welding project, but it is after all in "the shop". For a long time now I've wanted to take the time to build a simple magnetic tig torch holster. Finally bought a big dumb magnet at HF last night for $4 and found some old wrenches I'll never use. Shinny stuff mesmerizes me...

 

[Smudgemo]

I'm getting my new mill set up and the VFD wired up, but I needed to do something with the pallet and plywood it came in, so I replaced my small 2x4 bench with a new and more robust 3x5 bench. I'd guess 80%+ is shipping material, and the rest is the old bench (with plenty left over for the fireplace.) Not terribly fancy, but very sturdy and easy to resurface when needed. I just need to seal the top and mount the vises.

 

[hman]

I'm getting my new mill set up and the VFD wired up, but I needed to do something with the pallet and plywood it came in, so I replaced my small 2x4 bench with a new and more robust 3x5 bench. I'd guess 80%+ is shipping material, and the rest is the old bench<snip>

View attachment 71541

That's a mighty fine and stout looking bench ... and some mighty fine looking lumber, for a pellet. etc. Where was it crated? I'd bet it musta been somewhere other than overseas )

 

[Smudgemo]

That's a mighty fine and stout looking bench ... and some mighty fine looking lumber, for a pellet. etc. Where was it crated? I'd bet it musta been somewhere other than overseas )

Thanks. Quality Machine Tools in Pittsburgh crated and shipped it, and that's exactly what I thought as I took the crate apart. The only thing left is nails and short pieces of firewood.

 

[metalmole]

This is very cool. I need to keep my eye out for some cheap wrenches.

Jeff

Cheap....looks like he used a MAC wrench for one of them....

 

[FanMan]

This was over the past week, but I finally finished cleaning up last summer's flea market find, an old rollaround toolbox I got for $50 with a bunch of tools (some good, some junk) in it. Dragging it over a grass field back to my truck was a struggle! Guessing 1960s promotional, with the STP logo sticker in a matching stamped in oval on the front cover... when I was a kid, every self respecting American boy had an STP sticker somewhere... mine was on the seat of my Schwinn Stingray. Anyway, not a fine restoration, just for use... cleaned it up, painted it, new rubber mats, and an original 1960s vintage STP sticker from ebay to top it off (the sticker went on tonight).

Seemed only appropriate to use it for all my wrenches and other auto related tools, freeing up the Craftsman box I inherited from Dad for metalworking tools. The toolbox on top was separate, a dumpster find from a few years back.

 

[Hawkeye]

A friend asked me to make a few parts for him. He is a helicopter mechanic. He needed some longer screws for a set of bearing greasers, and a weight for a slide hammer to pull a particular cartridge. The aluminum he had turned out to be really nice to machine. Since the threaded sections were fairly thin, I singlepointed the threads to start and finished with dies.



The only thing I can't do is anodizing.