2020 POTD Thread Archive

[BGHansen]

POTD will take more than a day, just getting started on the project. My shop takes up 40' x 32' in a 40' x 96' pole barn (56' has a cement floor). It gets a bit chilly in southern MI in winter. I've spent many an hour working in 20 F weather wearing Carhartt's. I've thought about heating the shop, but for 25+ years have just managed my projects around the weather. Last year my wife was using one of the heat treat furnaces and commented that the 36 F air temp in the shop was a bit brisk. . .

Bought a 125,000 BTU Mr. Heater Maxx propane heater which will extend the shop season quite nicely. It's rated for something like 3100 sq. feet so I've got double what is needed.

First step was laying a piece of cardboard on top of the unit which was marked for vent and hole locations to mount it. Held that to the ceiling with magnets (my ceiling is barn steel) and Sharpie'd the holes. Didn't show it, but ran angle iron over 3 trusses for the 4 support rods (3/8"-16 all thread).

Now, how to lift the 100 lb. heater. Bolted a piece of 3/4" ply on top with a "U" bolt in the middle and picked it up to the 3' all thread hanging out of the ceiling. Ran a redundant tie strap over the top in case the plywood broke. Jacked it up to the 3 rods from the ceiling (couldn't do the 4th corner with a long rod as it'd hit the blower) and secured the bottom of the rods with nuts. Then lifted a corner and spun the nut to get it up to 6" from the ceiling.

Still some work to do like getting another propane tank set, plumb from the tank to the unit, string a 110V line to it, plus run the wiring for the thermostat.

And yes, I'll admit I screwed up this project royally and will be repeating this work. Lessons learned is I should have started with the vent stack through the roof (steel roof) to ensure the 4" B-vent went through the flat area between the ribs of the steel. I couldn't have hit one of the ribs in the roof any more centered. So, buy some more all thread, make the hole in the roof first, cut the hole in the ceiling then aim the unit to set up the holes for the all thread. Just love doing things twice. . .

Thanks for looking, Bruce



4" B-vent stack and all thread for hanging the heater


Bolted a piece of 3/4" ply with a "U" bolt in the middle for grabbing onto with an engine hoist


Ran a safety tie strap too just in case


Lifted the heater up to the all thread and secured with nuts. Then lifted a corner, spun the nut up and moved to the next corner.

 

[Janderso]

I have been practicing scraping for my upcoming rebuild of one of my cnc mills.

I also made a video explaining some of it. I am pretty new to this so I’d appreciate any pointers.

If you don't mind some corrective criticism, the blue/ink is too thick. All you can see is smears.
The only reason I know this is because I took a 40 hour scraping class from Richard King. I'm a complete novice.
Calling Richard.
If you are making a flat surface say a surface plate you are probably ok, if you are scraping to match flat sliding surfaces you need to have individual scraping marks at 90 degree intervals to be able to hold oil.
Just trying to help.
Steffan, Kieth Rucker, Lance (the vet) all took his classes and are very good. Youtube has some real good scrapers and some real bad ones. IMHO

Here is one of his classes. Abom is using the Biax.

 

[extropic]

Bruce,
Is it going to be OK to locate the heater (open flame) in such close proximity to the dust collector equipment?
Maybe GREAT filtration on the heater's room air intake?
Looking at that arrangement brings to mind the old pick-up trucks that had the gas tank inside the passenger compartment.

 

[pontiac428]

Extropic, the lower explosive limit for wood dust is 40 grams per cubic meter of air. As humans, we tend to run out of a building screaming when dust concentration exceeds 5 miligrams per cubic meter (visibility less than 10'). Just for perspective.

I don't like combustion in my shop that isn't happening under a torch tip. I don't like gas/LPG heaters. But these things are built to run as safe as a hot water heater, generating heat on the inside of the appliance and jetting excess out the exhaust stack. It is certainly a source for vapor ignition, but Bruce is conscientious enough to protect his home and shop. It looks like he mounted the unit with good clearance.

 

[BGHansen]

Bruce,
Is it going to be OK to locate the heater (open flame) in such close proximity to the dust collector equipment?
Maybe GREAT filtration on the heater's room air intake?
Looking at that arrangement brings to mind the old pick-up trucks that had the gas tank inside the passenger compartment.

I've got wood and metal in the shop and mulled over and over about placement. Thought hard about placing it on the metal side and blowing heat to the wood side. My 2-year plan is to move the wood shop to the back of the 40 x 56 barn (have a insulated wall separating it into 32 x 40 and 24 x 40 sections) and throwing in a 55,000 BTU gas heater for that side. That gives me separate zones depending on what I'm doing as one consolidated shop would be heating a 2100 sq. ft. area which is bigger than most houses. We already heat a 4000+ sq. ft. house with wood and propane, not looking to contribute a lot more to the lords of propane.

Yes, did consider that the dust collector is under the heater and plan on swapping its current position to the opposite side of my dust collection run. I'll end up moving the thickness planer to the corner, then the 3 1/4 HP router/table and stick the dust collector on the end. I have blown a bag off the top of the Grizzly dust collector in the past which makes for a huge mess. It might make for some nice pyrotechnics if blown through the heater! I recall Mythbusters doing a show once on a powdered coffee creamer explosion, not looking to have my 15 minutes of fame from a fire-breathing heater! In the meantime, if I'm going to use the collector in the winter, I'll just turn the heater off after the room gets warmed up. The heater doesn't have a standing pilot, it's a piezo-electric start so no worry about a standing flame.

Bruce

 

[Ianagos]

If you don't mind some corrective criticism, the blue/ink is too thick. All you can see is smears.
The only reason I know this is because I took a 40 hour scraping class from Richard King. I'm a complete novice.
Calling Richard.
If you are making a flat surface say a surface plate you are probably ok, if you are scraping to match flat sliding surfaces you need to have individual scraping marks at 90 degree intervals to be able to hold oil.
Just trying to help.
Steffan, Kieth Rucker, Lance (the vet) all took his classes and are very good. Youtube has some real good scrapers and some real bad ones. IMHO

Here is one of his classes. Abom is using the Biax.

I honestly appreciate any tips you have. I made the video not to teach someone else but so others could teach me.

I could not afford a Richard king scraping class but I would love to go to one.

Yes the blue was too thick. I liked keeping the blue thicker to rough in the part which is what I was doing in the video I just figured I’d take a print to show that the other side was reasonably flat.

I mentioned that the blue was too thick in the video.

This picture is about the thickness of blue I was using to finish that side.

Another this to note is with the grinder I was getting scraping marks much shallower than what I have read about. Most being .0001” to .0002”

On the flatter side there is no deviation of more than .0005 from valley to high point and if I kept refining it I could probably get less as I gouged a few times. Excluding the obvious large pitting.

In this second picture the blue is a bit thicker but I also have a yellow highlighter on the part

 

[Janderso]

We found the surface grinder would get you to within .001 to .0015 then with a scraper you can remove .0002-.0003 per scrape.
Sorry, I didn’t watch your video.
I usually put my foot in my mouth with ease.

 

[GoceKU]

Quick little project for today was to make me a tire pressure gauge, i really like the race gauges used by pro teams that you can lower the pressure with a button on the side. No one is selling them here and online the shipping is ridiculous, so today on the way back from work i stopped by a hardware store and got me a 2,5 bar pressure gauge the rest i had laying around. I did some machining on my lathe, for the relief valve i cut down a tire valve. Is a bit bulky but for my needs should do the job.

 

[rwm]

Delete me

 

[rwm]

Finished my drawbar tool:





I press fit the socket. It has a knurled edge with .008" interference fit. I doubt it will come loose.
R