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

[DeadGuyAle]

I made dirty parts clean.

 

[Inferno]

I made a MISTAKE!

I'm making the spacer to add the stepper drive to my Y-axis and, somehow, I messed up the measurements. I haven't figured out how I messed them up.
I was trying to duplicate the hole positions in the small piece and, well, I'm off by a LOT. The small piece was bolted to the machine so I couldn't just follow the holes. Any way I look at it, it was a bonehead mistake.

What's worse is even if the holes were in the right spot, I counterbored them on the wrong side. D'OH. That tab was supposed to go on the other side.
I had the 3D model, too, so there's no excuse for that bonehead mistake.
The part was fubar no matter how I sliced it.

Luckily I have a 6 foot long bar of the raw stock so I can start over.

 

[FOMOGO]

In to every life a little rain must fall. You'll feel better when you find something else to use it for, which you will. In the mean time, have a beer. As a matter of fact, I think I'll join you. Cheers, Mike

 

[Larry$]

(which in some areas results in needing Radon ventilation).

We just had Radon ventilation put in. House built in 2000.
Gas furnaces are the standard here. Older ones drew their combustion air from in the house but new ones are supplied by a duct from the outside so the ventilating effect of the old ones has been lost.

 

[twhite]

So today I am finishing the tie clips for my son’s wedding. He drew up the mountain scene. I then recreated it to machine. I just made a simple bending jig. Heated the brass then bent 90 degrees l. Then heated again to finish bend.

I then flipped it to give a lead-in bend. Once they are all bent. I will polish and try and find a place to hold plate them.

Cutting oil is my blood.

 

[Martin W]

My hand crank on my mill is badly worn. Third picture.. it is a seven sided spline, kinda like a love joy connector.
I made a new one. It fit’s really well but I’m not happy with the finish. I’m going to make another one tomorrow evening.
I learned the order of operations is important. My first cuts were the top side of each spline. So when I did the bottom of each spline it was climb feeding. I was using a 1/4” end mill and it snapped. I also need to go to a 3/16” end mill as you can see the 1/4” one cuts into the round.
Martin

 

[PNW_Guy]

Current new homes are even better: regs call for even higher R-values and tighter envelopes (which in some areas results in needing Radon ventilation).

I am almost finished building a house - I was the contractor and did all the work that wasn't way over my head. I hired out the excavation, framing, windows, exterior doors, insulation, sheetrock and paint. I did the design, electrical, plumbing, flooring, ceilings, roofing, trim, cabinets and a bunch more.

Walls are R21, ceiling is R50. Even in the shop it's R19 & R45. At night I open some windows and it's chilly in the morning. When it's 90 outside, it's still still in the high 60's in the evening inside. I haven't needed heat or AC in several months. So far my highest power bill has been 115, when it was a month at 40-20 degrees. Everything but the stove is electric.

 

[Inferno]

I am almost finished building a house - I was the contractor and did all the work that wasn't way over my head. I hired out the excavation, framing, windows, exterior doors, insulation, sheetrock and paint. I did the design, electrical, plumbing, flooring, ceilings, roofing, trim, cabinets and a bunch more.

Walls are R21, ceiling is R50. Even in the shop it's R19 & R45. At night I open some windows and it's chilly in the morning. When it's 90 outside, it's still still in the high 60's in the evening inside. I haven't needed heat or AC in several months. So far my highest power bill has been 115, when it was a month at 40-20 degrees. Everything but the stove is electric.

Such a wonderful feeling to see the finish line.
I did the same thing you did. Just add in that I ran out of cash for the framing so I had to do @25% of it myself. But moving in made it all worth it.
Unfortunately, a year and a half later I was moving out due to the divorce. Still worth it.

 

[Eyerelief]

I am almost finished building a house - I was the contractor and did all the work that wasn't way over my head. I hired out the excavation, framing, windows, exterior doors, insulation, sheetrock and paint. I did the design, electrical, plumbing, flooring, ceilings, roofing, trim, cabinets and a bunch more.

Walls are R21, ceiling is R50. Even in the shop it's R19 & R45. At night I open some windows and it's chilly in the morning. When it's 90 outside, it's still still in the high 60's in the evening inside. I haven't needed heat or AC in several months. So far my highest power bill has been 115, when it was a month at 40-20 degrees. Everything but the stove is electric.

I am in the middle of building my next home as well. Doing much myself. House over shop and garage. The R value numbers estimated are all over the place for spray foam, but I have 5.5" of spray foam in the walls and 7.5" on the roof and under the floor. Separate AC systems for upstairs, and a 2 head 2 ton mini split down, one in the shop, one in the garage. Since I am cooling the shop and garage I also added a 2.5" thick insulated double steel garage door. Might seem like overkill, but with high's this week of 107-108 and heat index numbers around 115, I'm thinking it is going to be worth it.


shop



Shop into garage. Roll up door at back of garage in photo is not insulated as everything I read says the insulation available for these doors is pretty worthless. When done, I will likely stand up 4x8 sheets of 1" foam in front of the door to hold back some of the heat, moving them when I need access to open the door. The door faces east and is under a pecan tree so I am not too worried about thermal loading on it.

 

[dkemppai]

View attachment 450934

Is that an open or closed cell foam?

We went with blown cellulose (The new stuff isn't the stuff that settles, it's blown in wet with water based adhesive, and scraped flat to the stud surface). The R value is around 3.7 per inch, but it fills the gaps better than spray foam that expands.

Anyway, in our new house my biggest complaint (and really only complaint) is that it's so tight we have trouble keeping moisture level down. Even with the air to air exchange, between the wife's plants, teenage girls showering, their fish tank, and other sources of water there's quite a bit of humidity input. The other compounding issue is we have a heat pump system. The AC is overly large because it functions as the heater also. In in AC mode, it doesn't have enough contact time with the air to remove moisture, it just makes cold wet air.
A smaller AC unit would work longer with a lower delta T, and remove much more moisture in the process. In the summer you want moderately cool but dry air, not cold wet air. The house is so tight, even in the dead of winter we have trouble keeping moisture down.

Around here in general, we have issues with moisture from the house traveling through the wall due to long cold winters. There are people that have messed up vapor barriers, and completely rotted studs walls in under 10 years because of this. Part of our decision for cellulose is that it doesn't impede vapor egress like closed cell foam. Other climates may have completely different concerns.