-
Welcome back Guest! Did you know you can mentor other members here at H-M? If not, please check out our Relaunch of Hobby Machinist Mentoring Program!
2020 POTD Thread Archive
- Thread starter eugene13
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2013
- Messages
- 4,395
made a counterweight system for my drill press. With the XY vise on the table and the table lock underneath it was both heavy and awkward to adjust the height of the table. It's only taken me 8 or so years to get round to this 
starting lump of 12x12x1" alu. It's knarly looking from spending some time in the swimming pool holding something down. I think I might be over the size limit of my HF 4x6" bandsaw.
squared off and the middle bit holesawed out. That took a while.
bored to size. First time using the boring head to bore a hole, funnily enough.
various holes drilled and tapped, clamp cut in half
No pictures of the little studs I made - 3/8-16 threaded on one side, sized to fit the bearings and a tapped M5x0.8 hole in the middle. 2 of the pulleys were repurposed from an archery stand I made a while back, 2 were made for this. Simple U groove and a spare bearing pressed into the middle. 2 Alro, 1 Ol'Roy, 1 DelMonte peaches and 2 unknown (probably dogfood) cans filled with lead melted down from car batteries (bad idea, don't do it) and lead weights from the scrap yard. 19lb each side. Old outside dog leash cable (got run over by the car one too many times) goes from the right hand set of cans, over the pulleys, through the table, up to the next set of pulleys and then down through the LH set of cans. There it doubles back over a piece of steel rod and back up through the cans and gets tied off.
works really well. Holds the table still when the lock is released and takes only a little nudge to go up or down, then holds it still until the lock is tightened.
Extra bonus - I no longer have a large back of lead wheel weights to stub my toe on next to my mill. Weirdly some of the wheel weights didn't melt, maybe they're steel or some other metal.
starting lump of 12x12x1" alu. It's knarly looking from spending some time in the swimming pool holding something down. I think I might be over the size limit of my HF 4x6" bandsaw.
squared off and the middle bit holesawed out. That took a while.
bored to size. First time using the boring head to bore a hole, funnily enough.
various holes drilled and tapped, clamp cut in half
No pictures of the little studs I made - 3/8-16 threaded on one side, sized to fit the bearings and a tapped M5x0.8 hole in the middle. 2 of the pulleys were repurposed from an archery stand I made a while back, 2 were made for this. Simple U groove and a spare bearing pressed into the middle. 2 Alro, 1 Ol'Roy, 1 DelMonte peaches and 2 unknown (probably dogfood) cans filled with lead melted down from car batteries (bad idea, don't do it) and lead weights from the scrap yard. 19lb each side. Old outside dog leash cable (got run over by the car one too many times) goes from the right hand set of cans, over the pulleys, through the table, up to the next set of pulleys and then down through the LH set of cans. There it doubles back over a piece of steel rod and back up through the cans and gets tied off.
works really well. Holds the table still when the lock is released and takes only a little nudge to go up or down, then holds it still until the lock is tightened.
Extra bonus - I no longer have a large back of lead wheel weights to stub my toe on next to my mill. Weirdly some of the wheel weights didn't melt, maybe they're steel or some other metal.
made a counterweight system for my drill press. With the XY vise on the table and the table lock underneath it was both heavy and awkward to adjust the height of the table. It's only taken me 8 or so years to get round to this
starting lump of 12x12x1" alu. It's knarly looking from spending some time in the swimming pool holding something down. I think I might be over the size limit of my HF 4x6" bandsaw.
View attachment 335925
View attachment 335926
squared off and the middle bit holesawed out. That took a while.
View attachment 335927
bored to size. First time using the boring head to bore a hole, funnily enough.
View attachment 335928
various holes drilled and tapped, clamp cut in half
View attachment 335929
No pictures of the little studs I made - 3/8-16 threaded on one side, sized to fit the bearings and a tapped M5x0.8 hole in the middle. 2 of the pulleys were repurposed from an archery stand I made a while back, 2 were made for this. Simple U groove and a spare bearing pressed into the middle. 2 Alro, 1 Ol'Roy, 1 DelMonte peaches and 2 unknown (probably dogfood) cans filled with lead melted down from car batteries (bad idea, don't do it) and lead weights from the scrap yard. 19lb each side. Old outside dog leash cable (got run over by the car one too many times) goes from the right hand set of cans, over the pulleys, through the table, up to the next set of pulleys and then down through the LH set of cans. There it doubles back over a piece of steel rod and back up through the cans and gets tied off.
View attachment 335930
View attachment 335931
works really well. Holds the table still when the lock is released and takes only a little nudge to go up or down, then holds it still until the lock is tightened.
Extra bonus - I no longer have a large back of lead wheel weights to stub my toe on next to my mill. Weirdly some of the wheel weights didn't melt, maybe they're steel or some other metal.
A lot of zinc and steel wheel weights out there these days
- Joined
- May 3, 2017
- Messages
- 2,026
Very nice.made a counterweight system for my drill press. With the XY vise on the table and the table lock underneath it was both heavy and awkward to adjust the height of the table. It's only taken me 8 or so years to get round to this
starting lump of 12x12x1" alu. It's knarly looking from spending some time in the swimming pool holding something down. I think I might be over the size limit of my HF 4x6" bandsaw.
View attachment 335925
View attachment 335926
squared off and the middle bit holesawed out. That took a while.
View attachment 335927
bored to size. First time using the boring head to bore a hole, funnily enough.
View attachment 335928
various holes drilled and tapped, clamp cut in half
View attachment 335929
No pictures of the little studs I made - 3/8-16 threaded on one side, sized to fit the bearings and a tapped M5x0.8 hole in the middle. 2 of the pulleys were repurposed from an archery stand I made a while back, 2 were made for this. Simple U groove and a spare bearing pressed into the middle. 2 Alro, 1 Ol'Roy, 1 DelMonte peaches and 2 unknown (probably dogfood) cans filled with lead melted down from car batteries (bad idea, don't do it) and lead weights from the scrap yard. 19lb each side. Old outside dog leash cable (got run over by the car one too many times) goes from the right hand set of cans, over the pulleys, through the table, up to the next set of pulleys and then down through the LH set of cans. There it doubles back over a piece of steel rod and back up through the cans and gets tied off.
View attachment 335930
View attachment 335931
works really well. Holds the table still when the lock is released and takes only a little nudge to go up or down, then holds it still until the lock is tightened.
Extra bonus - I no longer have a large back of lead wheel weights to stub my toe on next to my mill. Weirdly some of the wheel weights didn't melt, maybe they're steel or some other metal.
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2014
- Messages
- 2,634
POTD was replacing the blades on my Flowbee. Never heard of one? They are an in-home barber shop. They have cutters for the obvious, and are hooked to a vacuum cleaner to draw your hair into the cutters. Not making a sales pitch for them, but I've been a very satisfied customer for close to 20 years. Paid about $60 for mine, lots cheaper than the $12 at the time for a hair cut.
I didn't picture it, but they have a series of clear rectangular tubes of varying lengths that attach to the cutting head. The tubes are about 1/2" x 2 1/2" long; concept is to simulate a barber combing your hair up, then pinching it between his fingers and trimming it with scissors. There's a base with some stand-off ribs that touch your head. They come with two, one flat and one tapered. The stand-off ribs let air drawn from the vacuum rush into the tube and lift your hair into the cutting head. Want a 6" cut length, stack up 6" of tubes. Want 1", you get the idea.
The replacement blades were around $40 delivered. The ones on the unit still worked, but I could see my hair being drawn into the cutting head, but not much was happening. Figured after close to 20 years, the blades were probably dull.
Here's the drawing that came with the replacement blades.
The cutters slide back/forth cutting hair drawn between them with a vacuum
So how does it work? The motor spins a couple of ball bearing eccentrics. The blades have a plastic detail with an elongated slot that an eccentric sets in. As the motor spins, the blades go back/forth in opposite directions.
Pretty quick swap out, 5 screws to pull the cover, lift off the old blades and drop on the new. Sorry, didn't shoot photos of my hair cut, maybe next month.
Thanks for looking,
Bruce
I didn't picture it, but they have a series of clear rectangular tubes of varying lengths that attach to the cutting head. The tubes are about 1/2" x 2 1/2" long; concept is to simulate a barber combing your hair up, then pinching it between his fingers and trimming it with scissors. There's a base with some stand-off ribs that touch your head. They come with two, one flat and one tapered. The stand-off ribs let air drawn from the vacuum rush into the tube and lift your hair into the cutting head. Want a 6" cut length, stack up 6" of tubes. Want 1", you get the idea.
The replacement blades were around $40 delivered. The ones on the unit still worked, but I could see my hair being drawn into the cutting head, but not much was happening. Figured after close to 20 years, the blades were probably dull.
Here's the drawing that came with the replacement blades.
The cutters slide back/forth cutting hair drawn between them with a vacuum
So how does it work? The motor spins a couple of ball bearing eccentrics. The blades have a plastic detail with an elongated slot that an eccentric sets in. As the motor spins, the blades go back/forth in opposite directions.
Pretty quick swap out, 5 screws to pull the cover, lift off the old blades and drop on the new. Sorry, didn't shoot photos of my hair cut, maybe next month.
Thanks for looking,
Bruce
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2015
- Messages
- 829
I took a memory-failure time to also start adding liquid cooling to my old PC (dual quad-core Xeon CPU system set up in 2004 that has 2U server chassis fans running on it). The noise of the fans finally wore me down to the point I started going mad-scientist on it. First, the parts all together, and starting the assembly :
Yes, I'm using a pickle jar for the reservoir, just because. I made a mistake in my first run - I split the hose to feed each CPU block separately. Anyone who has done electronics is probably understanding already - it (whether coolant or electricity) ALWAYS flows the path of least resistance. I set this up without putting it in place to make sure the circuit had fully sealed, so I lucked out there. Because of the dual-path for the liquid (water/coolant additive/dye), the air pockets prevented it from fully priming :
So, I pulled out the tee fittings and simply daisy chained the CPU blocks so it is all serialized. Seems to work much better!
Now I just need the Molex adapters for the fans on the radiator, and this can be fully married into the CPU system (without opening anything up).
Yes, I'm using a pickle jar for the reservoir, just because. I made a mistake in my first run - I split the hose to feed each CPU block separately. Anyone who has done electronics is probably understanding already - it (whether coolant or electricity) ALWAYS flows the path of least resistance. I set this up without putting it in place to make sure the circuit had fully sealed, so I lucked out there. Because of the dual-path for the liquid (water/coolant additive/dye), the air pockets prevented it from fully priming :
So, I pulled out the tee fittings and simply daisy chained the CPU blocks so it is all serialized. Seems to work much better!
Now I just need the Molex adapters for the fans on the radiator, and this can be fully married into the CPU system (without opening anything up).
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2015
- Messages
- 829
Oh, and I got my stupid car that I took completely apart to idle on it's own for the first time in 19 years. I need to tweak the carburetor to get it to run right, but it's coming.
- Joined
- May 3, 2017
- Messages
- 2,026
What kind of car?
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2015
- Messages
- 829
It's a 1977 Corvette. It's been fully taken apart and put back together the way I like it. It's now got a 383 stroker backed up by a Tremec TKO II manual transmission (replaced a 350/TH350 automatic combincation). I still have to install the seats and dash, that's been waiting until I can validate the electrical system (last few bits and pieces are the engine, gauges, and the headlight conversion from vacuum operated to Ford Probe electrical pop ups).
It's designed to pass anything but a gas station, but right now it can't even pass a spot of dust. (it has yet to move under it's own power). Once I get the dash buttoned back up, I'll break in the transmission. Baby steps, though. 19 years of taking every single bolt apart and putting it all back together has been a learning experience that I don't want to repeat, but I'm glad I've learned what I have. GoceKU put me to shame in how fast he did his little Niva. I have to get that carburetor running right, though.