2015 POTD Thread Archive

Got tired of lugging my old oxy acetylene cart around so I had and extra hand truck and I coverted it to a oxy/acetylene cart. Sure a lot easier to move around now.

View attachment 110921

That's a dandy looking jolly trolley Sandia.
May I suggest that you keep the individual chains for securing individual bottles and bin the single nylon strap idea , the chains don't burn or melt through if you have a slight mishap.
 
That's a dandy looking jolly trolley Sandia.
May I suggest that you keep the individual chains for securing individual bottles and bin the single nylon strap idea , the chains don't burn or melt through if you have a slight mishap.

I figured someone would notice, thanks for the heads up David. The strap was temporary, I used the chain link off my old cart.

Bob
 
I missed my deadline on the project I've been working on for the last couple weeks.
I was chased out of my wood shop by bugs.

I felt a great disturbance in the Force tonight,
as if dozens of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.


Last night I had some final work to finish my project I've been working on this last 2 weeks.
I was looking through some sheets of plywood I keep stored in a rack.
I must have pulled out a fairly long sheet and perturbed a hornet nest.
I didn't see it, though I did see a single hornet buzzing around.

While sanding a part I felt something hit me on the calf. I reached down and swatted it.
It was a hornet and I had mortally wounded it.

One thing you don't want to do is mash a wasp or hornet.
A mashed wasp emits a pheromone that signals its wasp sisters to investigate and sting.

I closed the roll-up door and proceeded to sand a few parts. Something hit me on the neck.
Burning horrible pain.
I looked up and saw a hornet buzzing around.
I backed out of the garage and scoped it out. There were three of them!

All of my fluorescent shop lights were on.
I turned out all but the two on the far end of the shop.
I got some flying insect spray and waited for them to buzz close enough to squirt them
while I lurked and cowered on the dark side of the room.

I got all three of them squirted but the poison was slow to take effect,
so they continued to angerly buzz around the lights.
I waited about 30 minutes but they were still buzzing.
I searched with a flashlight for the nest but didn't find it.
So, I gave up, went inside, and missed my deadline today.

Chased out of my shop by bugs. It was the first time I ever used that excuse.

Early this morning, I went out and continued the search.
I found the nest. It was a big one with 30 to 50 hornets on it.
It was right over my head above the door where I had been working.
This would not stand.

Late this afternoon, I cleared out some space so I could get a good shot at them.
Coldly and without mercy, I plotted their murder.
I would wait until after dark when they were all on the nest (they don't fly in the dark),
move up on them by the light of a flashlight and give them a good soaking with wasp and hornet spray.

That stuff really works.
It shoots out a big wet stream of dripping death that soaks the nest and drops them straight to the ground.

They are gone. They never had a chance. It was not a fair fight.

The words of this post is their eulogy, such as it is. They will not be mourned or missed.

fin
 
If you don't have hornet spray on hand, I've found that spray brake cleaner is an excellent "field expedient." Just be EXTRA careful about ignition sources, and be sure to ventilate very well after using it!
 
Paint thinner is my usual choice for bees. Always have a spray bottle loaded with it.
 
I generally don't mess with the bees. they perform important work. Without bees, we'd starve.
Wasps, on the other hand are agressive, territorial and serve no useful purpose I know of. Many of them eat spiders. Spiders are beneficial. I try not to hurt them. Sometimes I just catch them and move them to an out of the way place.

Bestine Rubber Cement thinner is a very useful highly volatile big molecule. It evaporates and leaves no residue.

It is great for getting that wasp that gets in the house and ends up behind the blinds. Any other spray will stain the blinds or widow. A thin squirt of Bestine thinner shot with a small hypodermic syringe and small needle will drop the largest scariest hornet or wasp straight down, and leave no stain on your window or blinds.

Bestine is also great for dropping those large Palmeto bugs that gets in the sink or counter top. A couple of drops and they are finished. Much better than mashing their nasty insides on you sink or counter top.

Another thing that kills or vastly slows down Palmeto buggs is spray cleaners like 409. A friendly chemical to spray on your counter tops. It slows them enough so you can scoot them down the sink and swish them down the drain.
 
Franko.
I have a similarly cold blooded attitude toward critters that infringe on my space. None of them have ever contributed to paying my mortgage, utilities or even bring a social beverage when they come to call.
I was visited by a cluster of wasps/hornets/yellow jackets (I'm not an entomologist) recently. The previous owner of this building left a 1/2" diameter hole through the sheathing and slightly torn insulation inside (where he ran coax to his radio antenna). The insulation is covered in white vinyl. I noticed about 4 or 5 crawling around near the hole. On closer inspection, I saw a bunch inside the insulation and a cluster of maybe 20 of them on a shelf just below the hole. My guess is that their queen was inside that cluster. There are now a few dozen ****** off (maybe dead) insects in one of my shop-vacs (it was real close by). I need to get a plug for that hole.
 
Became terribly frustrated. Stopped all work. Cleaned lathe. Cleaned Mill. Cleaned workshop. Tidied all tools. Stopped trying to take shortcuts - went back to Go didnt collect $200

Started making a lathe depth stop in order to to make a pot chuck, to make an accurate washer, to use in a slitting saw holder to make decent clamps for dti and dial gauge to check tramming on mill to ensure accuracy of final finish current rotary jig which will initially be used to make a sharpening jig so that I can better control angles to sharpen tools on the grinding wheel.

These things will all be reasonably well made simple things, but not daggy temporary jigs - then I can use them again in future. If I bump into any other jigs I need along the way but not mentioned above then they will be made as well.

Seeya
 
Back
Top