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

[ChazzC]

I know nothing about ham radio but that looks beautifully made.

I know enough to be impressed, particularly with the taps: construction/fabrication details please!

 

[Fasturn]

I know enough to be impressed, particularly with the taps: construction/fabrication details please!

Thanks for the kind words. Just a bobbin made from lexan and delrin. Brass furrels with 3/8-24 thd at each end.
Hard part is the helix on the corner posts. To make easyer/ safer, I numbered the 6 posts. With a ball mill you mill all slots at a pitch of .150.
The next post #2 you advance the start point .150 /6 = .025.
Repeat until all six are milled.
Assemble in this order for a .125 pitch helix. Then on a lathe you wrap the bobbin with #14 ga copper wire using super glue as you go. Wrestle the wire thru a hole in the cap and bottom and attach to the brass. See easy peasy.

Thanks for looking !

 

[Fasturn]

I know enough to be impressed, particularly with the taps: construction/fabrication details please!

Here are the new taps. The colors are for different band changes and nicer looking.

 

[ChazzC]

Thanks for the kind words. Just a bobbin made from lexan and delrin. Brass furrels with 3/8-24 thd at each end.
Hard part is the helix on the corner posts. To make easyer/ safer, I numbered the 6 posts. With a ball mill you mill all slots at a pitch of .150.
The next post #2 you advance the start point .150 /6 = .025.
Repeat until all six are milled.
Assemble in this order for a .125 pitch helix. Then on a lathe you wrap the bobbin with #14 ga copper wire using super glue as you go. Wrestle the wire thru a hole in the cap and bottom and attach to the brass. See easy peasy.

Thanks for looking !

Thanks!

 

[projectnut]

Finally got a few minutes in the shop today. by a few I mean less than 20 minutes total. The project at hand is to replace the fuel tank on the end loader I made some 20 years ago. At the time I selected a 10-gallon poly tank from Northern Tool not realizing it had a limited lifespan.

About a month ago the wife started smelling gas in the garage. It isn't all that uncommon due to the cars, trucks, tractors, and dozens of pieces of gas-powered lawn & garden equipment. Sometimes I spill a little, but the smell clears out quickly. This time the smell lingered for a couple weeks. By that time, it was obvious it was more than a few drops spilled when fueling something.

It seems the poly tank on the loader was leaking around the outlet and through several cracks in the bottom of the tank. Once I drained and removed it the smell was gone. The next step was to order a new one and mount it. I found a reasonably priced 15-gallon aluminum one on eBay and decided to go for it.

The next step was to find a way to mount it. The new one has a 2" sump, so I had to raise the mounting platform at least that much to clear the framework around the engine. I cut a base plate out of some 6061 aluminum and found some 1 3/4" round stock to make standoffs. I finally got a few minutes to cut them this afternoon.

I thought it would be a great excuse to try out the cold saw. Since I wasn't sure how accurate it would be I decided to make them long enough to be able to trim them to exact size should the saw be somewhat inaccurate. I was pleasantly surprised when the majority (4 out of 6) were within .001". I probably could have gotten them all to within .001" had I squared the ends of the stock before cutting. As it turned out the first piece was .006" longer due to a tapered end, and the last piece was .004" short for the same reason. Not a real problem though since the finished size of all of them will be 2.250". The total cutting time was about 3 minutes. The rest of the time was spent setting up, cleaning up, and measuring.

That's it for shop time for a while. We have some trees to take down, others to trim, and a garage to rebuild before winter sets in. It's been a busy summer, and it looks like it will be just as busy until the snow flies.

 

[Firstram]

Thanks for the kind words. Just a bobbin made from lexan and delrin. Brass furrels with 3/8-24 thd at each end.
Hard part is the helix on the corner posts. To make easyer/ safer, I numbered the 6 posts. With a ball mill you mill all slots at a pitch of .150.
The next post #2 you advance the start point .150 /6 = .025.
Repeat until all six are milled.
Assemble in this order for a .125 pitch helix. Then on a lathe you wrap the bobbin with #14 ga copper wire using super glue as you go. Wrestle the wire thru a hole in the cap and bottom and attach to the brass. See easy peasy.

Thanks for looking !

So easy a cave man can do it. Nice work!!!

 

[GoceKU]

Today i finished one job that i've been putting off for more than a year now. Behind my house i fixed and expended my parts storage shed last year just before winter. But found out that there is a voided, some old unused septic right in the middle of the shed. Years ago my father cover it with a thick piece of sheet metal and a foot of dirt over the top. For walking is not noticeable but i don't want to open the door one day and found a hole in the middle, when the metal rots away. So i decided to build a false floor out of old shipping pallets. The pallets come from a friend and they were free. What i was dreading was clearing out the stuff i throw in there, like propane tanks pieces of wood and other junk. I did fill a 150L trash bag to throw away and will out about 10 wheel barrels of ground to make the floor somewhat level. Got the pallets set in place and nailed down pieces for others to fill the gaps. With the floor finished i should have stopped, but when a relative come with a broken bolt that took me 5 min to get out i seized the opportunity for him to help me cary out all the body panels from my latest parts car, i even unbolted the front wings to keep as spares even they are rusty. Now my back is a bit stiff, so i plan to take it easy tomorrow.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

I got a set of metric er25 collets to fill in the gaps between my 1/8th set on the milling machine (I need them for drilling and tapping). BUT space is at a premium around the mill and everywhere else, so I needed a solution....

Bit of cardboard sided design and some scrap alu sheet

Clamped to some scrap alu and then hole popped with a 1" annular cutter

Holes drilled for a stiffener

Collet sizes stamped and highlighted with some black paint, plus a stand off pressed and JB welded in place

Installed!

Tucked away

Swung out for use

Dog schnozz

And the leftovers from making those dividing head back plates

 

[Boswell]

Tucked away

That is a clever hiding place for the ER32 collets. Well Done

 

[dkemppai]

I really enjoy seeing all of your projects. Get so many good ideas from them. Hopefully some of my silly little projects inspire some of you.

Trying not to spend too much right now. (Other than the HF tool box...) So, decided to dig through the scrap heap of wood, and make a top for this tool box. Nothing fussy about the fit and finish here. Just trying to burn through the scrap pile and get something sorta useful from it.

The plan is to put the little Chinese surface grinder on it, so it's over sized to keep oil drips off the box. Hopefully the box will hold all of the surface grinder attachments for both grinders, which will free up the other box for the Sheckel tool and cutter grinder.

Last step will be a bunch of good coats of Poly, hopefully enough to fill the voids and some sand to smooth it out.


Started with some left over stained/varnished ply from the house project, an extra step nose from the oak staircase, and some left over chunks of trim. Ripped, glued, sanded, and stained until I had a box cover. Threw it on the router table to cut the groove to match the top of the box, and presto it's done. Nice snug fit.


Note, if anyone is wondering, a kreg pocket screw trumps a 1/8" single "O" flute carbide at 20K RPM. Figured this would be the case, so just let 'er fly anyway. (It's the reason I did the groove with the $3 1/8" carbide, not the $30 1/4" carbide...