2015 POTD Thread Archive

[brino]

Pictured is the offending burr scraped down.....

okay LEEQ, I'll bite.......

Is that a hand cut oil passage on the piece on the same galvanized-top bench?
What's that from?

-brino

....oh and nice clean-up on the guide rail. Take care of your tools and they'll take care of you!

 

[LEEQ]

Bridgeport saddle hogging all my light. We'll blame that for me missing the gouge with my first scraping stroke when we both know it's because I don't scrape every day.

 

[Mark in Indiana]

Not a difficult project, but I needed a very low profile caster cart to store my Airco 225 Stinger welder. The welder is 230 volts, 250 amps, and it measures around 24" long x 12" wide x 12" high. Fits perfectly under the parts cleaning tank.

 

[Firestopper]

Our time is a scarce resource. Not quite the same as a commodity.

I stand corrected. I hope you got my point.

 

[omni_dilletante]

I am working on a box for my rotary table. I always struggled with how to grab the thing to pick it up. No good way to get a grip on it. I figured it would be even worse when it was inside a close fitting box.

Now it is pretty easy to grab.

Used 1/2" rod to balance the table along the x and y axis and was able to transfer the center of gravity to the plywood bolted to the table. When you pick it up by the handle is does not tilt at all.

Now time to get to work on the box.

 

[Franko]

More on the never ending mill stand wheels dilemma.

One problem I had installing the brackets was removing and replacing my mill on the stand. I have a regular HF engine hoist. It was adequate to remove the mill, but with the increased width of the new brackets, It isn't near wide enough.

I've seen a couple of modifications for the HF hoist support legs, but I've searched all over and can't find them.
I want to modify the legs on my hoist, but I'd like to see how some other members have done it.
Can anyone supply me with a few links to hoist mods? I'm getting squat on my searches.

 

[mzayd3]

Hey Franko- what if you simply splayed the legs out further? If they are angled 30* included angle, maybe cut and reweld the associated brackets to 40* or so? Seems that simply welding an offset in the legs themselves would lessen the hoist's capacity.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[chevydyl]

I agree, splay them legs
Isn't your hoist a 2 ton? I lifted my 1 ton mill with just the boom extended cause the legs wouldn't go around the pallet it was on, should have no problems hoisting a baby mill.

 

[KMoffett]

When an Army engineer came to pick up my old South Bend mill, we had the same problem. The legs on my HF shop crane weren't splayed enough. So on his suggestion...we lifted the crane up and placed it a little over a foot off the floor on cinder blocks and 6x6 cribbing. Then it only had to straddle the narrower, rear column. This cleared the base of the mill. And, we could put the end of the crane right were the lifting straps on the ram just balanced the mill. We lifted it just enough to get dollies under the base. Set the mill down on the dollies, removed the crane and blocks, and away it went.

Makes you respect riggers!

Ken

 

[Bill C.]

Yesterday I was walking out the side door in my shop and felt a slight temperature increase as I approached the door. Hmmmm, strange. I started trying to track down the source and I put my hand on the breaker panel, right next to the door, and it was warm. Not a good thing. I grabbed my IR thermometer to get some readings. About 94 degrees on the front panel, the ambient temperature measured on the side of my tool box was 75. Pretty big difference given that I was not running any equipment in the shop, just the normal parasitic load of battery chargers, computers, and a couple of other minor loads, maybe 150 watts or so. It was getting late, and I was tired so I just shut off the main power feed to the shop.

So this morning I pulled the cover off of the breaker panel, and turned power back on. I turned on all the lights and took temperature readings on all of the breakers and connections. It turns out that the right hand main power lug was getting hot, 74 to 108 degrees in about a half hour. The left lug remained at 74 degrees. The genius that wired the shop used aluminum wire and it was obviously getting oxidized. I know the guy, and he is a licensed electrician, I don't know how he has kept his licence, I've seen some of his other work. This was done before I bought the property, I would have brought in copper. The thing that he didn't do was use anti-oxidant compound on the aluminum wire.

I suspect I was just hours or maybe days away from an electrical fire in the shop. Ok, shut the power off again and check for a loose connection, everything was tight, so oxidation is the culprit. Off to HD to get a bottle of NOALOX to apply to the wires after I get them cleaned up.

View attachment 112510

Now the aluminum wires are properly terminated, and have the proper amount of goo on them and the terminals. You use a small wire brush to de-oxidize and work the compound into the wire. The screws are tightened then tightened again, then at least one more time.

View attachment 112509

I did a load test after I did the repairs, with all the lights on and the compressor coming up from empty the terminals stayed at ambient temperature. I think that one is fixed.

While I was at HD I picked up a new set of IR motion detectors for my shop yard lights. One of them was dead and the the other was getting weak. Got those installed so now when I come out of the shop in the dark, at least I have a chance of not walking into something. After being in a well lit shop, then walking into the dark it takes a while for my old eyes to adjust, it's like midnight in a coal mine. You can wire these parallel, I didn't know if that would work, so I just tried it. Didn't let the magic smoke out.

View attachment 112512

I have friends who are master electricians. I am doing good wiring up 110V but that box to me doesn't look quite right. Those neutral bare wires, shouldn't they behind all the power leads. From your photo looks like a couple were added later.

Still I am glad you caught the over-heating before, if nothing else melting of the terminals, some serious damage to the electrical system and shop.

I recall the first hop I worked in after high-school moved into a new building. The electrician had wired all the different overhead lights to individual breakers. After the shop replaced a few breakers, I came in one morning there was a bank of regular light switches controlling the lights.