POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

[GoceKU]

Well is no surprise that me and my brother do a lot of driving and have multiple cars in many cities. Most of our cars are old and high mileage, few weeks ago me and my brother agreed to sell the Astra, mainly because it broke down very often. With that car gone we also agree to get rid of couple more and get something newer. Next to go today was the 206, i've rebuild this car couple years ago from the ground up, swapped in a different drivetrain, also got new paint and interior. Because of that it sold in less than a day, my reputation was enough for a friend of a friend to travel across the country with cash to buy it for his daughter. And he paid fair market value, i'll miss this one, it was a gocart with the heart of a lion. When i was finished transferring the title i stopped by the local flea/tool market there was not much to buy but i did found this small cute Co2 high pressure cylinder it was 3.5$ so i could not pass it, its full so i know its good.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

Bit of a what did you buy and what did you do. I bought an unlabeled 4" vise at an auction last week 99% positive it was a Kurt D40 and.... it was! Only paid $100+fees (about $125 total), less than the import next to it and allot less than the other D40. Came with a handle, spare set of hard jaws and a set of soft jaws.

It was a bit rough and properly dirty, but with little wear where it matters. Cleaned everything out, added some ball oilers and cut the end off to regain some Y travel (I don't have much!).


Haven't put it on the mill yet as I was cleaning up my shars vise to sell it, but I'm really happy with it!

 

[Gaffer]

Today was fixing what I broke over the last two days - broken bolts. One was to my motor. It was 10.5" long. My first thought was to buy it online, but fortunately, no one had it, and 10" bolts were around $10. Late last night I had an epiphany (?), so first thing this morning I hit Lowe's for 12" of 5/16"-18 all thread and a couple of nuts. Some C25 and a smidge of mig wire, and I had my replacement for $2.42. The other HUA broken bolt was into the top of my compound while trying to separate the two halves. I drilled it and tried an easy-out with no success. I drilled it out and tapped it. It sucks putting in so much time just to get back to start. Other than that, more lathe disassembly. It's proving to be quite humbling, but I've no regrets, yet anyways, for taking on the task. This project is only going to be about 75% teardown and the head looks great. I might post a separate thread about it.

I cleaned more parts with my new ultrasonic cleaner. I don't remember who posted in a different thread about putting parts in a heavy-duty zip-lock bag with a solution. I used simple green and water in some and dawn and water in others. I kicked up the heat to 65*C and ran it for 30 minutes, and this time it handled the greasy parts pretty well. The oily and generally dirty parts were very good.

 

[wachuko]

Finally got around to finishing the top border in the two planters... easy stuff, just cutting the 2x6 to length and screwing down... Cold weather burned all the plants... but, as you can see, they are starting to come back out.



And wife has been asking me to make a table from the scrap piece of butcher block from another project... happy wife and all that...




One more year and we should be full time in the house in Ocala...

 

[mmcmdl]

Half a day in at work . Walked into a line that the heaters were left on a very high temp over the weekend . Turned the entire extrusion barrel and screw into carbon . 5 hrs today tearing into a full week job . Doc appointment today in an hour . I hate going to the doc , almost as much as tearing extruders apart .

 

[dkemppai]

Half a day in at work . Walked into a line that the heaters were left on a very high temp over the weekend . Turned the entire extrusion barrel and screw into carbon . 5 hrs today tearing into a full week job . Doc appointment today in an hour . I hate going to the doc , almost as much as tearing extruders apart .

Wow, this is odd. Had a heater switch fail closed on an electric heater in a small room not too long ago. Didn't cook things, but heated the whole room up pretty hot. Was glad the heater was wired for minimum power. 5x more heat would have been a disaster. (Although, it probably would have blown the thermal fuse).

Sitting in the Dr right now waiting for results for someone else. I think the heater melting down was better!

 

[mmcmdl]

These are heaters all over the machine . 800 plus degrees . Heat turns the poly into carbon if left to bake . This will be another full blown teardown of the line . We just finished rebuilding one 2 weeks ago . It requires a lot of heavy lifting and removal of all motors , gearboxes , pumps and dies . I'm sure not a word will be said as to how this happened . AGAIN ! Off to the doc .

 

[erikmannie]

Over the weekend, I did what I have always been doing for the last month or so: gas welding on 1/8” sheet coupons. This weekend was butt joints in the horizontal position.

While I do this, a very nice young man named Jack face mills E7018 (practice) stringer beads off of 5/8” steel plate. He uses Glacern 50 and 80mm face mills. I found out that Glacern FM45 face mills are made in South Korea by the same people that make Kyocera tools. I had to call Glacern this morning to get a spare bolt; they were kind enough to send me 4 bolts free of charge.

This morning I spent $28 to ship an acetylene regulator that is to be rebuilt (because I drew acetone through it while not minding my fuel level). Two of my friends just bought a shipping store, & my Dad & I were their first customers.

I bought this regulator for $200 only 2 months ago, and the price has already gone up to $267 (Baker’s Gas prices).

Finally, I am submitting my paperwork today to cash out my last 2 weeks vacation, & 100% of that money will be sent to my debt. I will be a debt slave for the next 12-18 months, but all of the debt is for metalworking tools.

 

[dkemppai]

So really surprised this might actually work. Have a silly project that requires 3D contouring some XPS foam. Need a long reach ball (6" reach), around 5/8" diameter. Priced one on line, that ain't gonna happen! (Not with me being on a short leash due to ebay in the last few months... )

So, took some 4130 round, and milled then TIG welded some old drill bits (M2???) onto it. Ground a flat half way down. Drew the part in CAD, rotated the part 5 degrees in two planes, and projected that cutting edge to a plane for a cutter path. Threw that in 5C collet block with the flat rotated in the same two planes (relief angles). With that rotated to match the CAD, CNC milled it with a 1/8" coated carbide. Hand ground some clearance then a light touch with a hone, and the "El-Cheapo Ball Mill" was born...


Moment of truth, tried cutting some blue board. At under 2K RPM it tends to dig in a little. Bumping the speed up and it cuts pretty nice. That might be due to chip load, or something silly about cutting XPS blue foam. The router that'll be used has a 8K RPM minimum spindle, so should be plenty fast for this. Pretty sure it won't get run at 24K RPM!


Figured I'd get to use the tool and cutter grinder for this. Nope. Shank is too long. %^&$*##
The handle/screw that pulls the collet doesn't have an open bore... ...one more thing to modify.

 

[rwm]

Seems like you could regular mild steel for this?