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

[GingerMidget]

Espresso machine lever was rough... I have taken it apart several times to polish the main lever cam shaft... replaced all valves... and it would be smooth for a few shots and get rough again...

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Well, today I decided to figure out what the problem was. Turns out it was a simple fix. This stud, that the lever rides against, had some raised areas around the slot for the screwdriver... seems the previous owner was not careful when installing.

Removed it, filed down the raised areas... placed it on the lathe and use some fine sandpaper to smooth it out. Finished with a 3000 grit then to the polishing wheel... Also took the time to polished the lever cam shaft again...

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All working fine now... I will be able to confirm if I found the culprit if it continues to work smoothly for the rest of the week...

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Nice! Love my Rocket Celinni. How old is yours?

 

[dkemppai]

Oven is nothing sophisticated. Big Chief smoker, amazon $35 temp controller and a little extra insulation. Smokers are cheap and easily obtained in this part of the county.

Yeah, curing paint is really much better in an hot box than letting it air cure.

I ended up with a kitchen range in the garage from CL. A buddy picked it up for me, because we were doing some heat treating of larger parts for him. We needed to go immediately into tempering oven after quench. I've used it to cure paint a few times (it has a 150F Minimum temp). Also used it to burn paint off of old parts. Next project will be to preheat a cast iron part to 600F prior to welding. Turns out that was the best $40 he spent...

 

[tjb]

I had a little project that kept me busy for a couple days. A fellow sewing enthusiast was lamenting a broken lever on her Elna Supermatic and I realized it was exactly the same failure that the same lever on one of my (three) Supermatics has. So I thought it would be a good challenge to see if I could come up with a replacement for her and I’d be able to use my machine as the Guinea pig.

This is what’s left of my original lever. As you can see it’s pretty small and understandably fragile so small wonder they break. Plus there’s a sliding feature as well which further reduces the available metal. I’m not sure why the sliding feature is there, really, as it doesn’t seem to get mentioned in any manuals I’ve seen so I decided to steer away from that and just make a non-sliding replacement.

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Operation of the lever is pretty basic: it just swings back and forth and engages in one of five detent notches on the chassis trim. This is an illustration from one of my manuals — the lever is identified as part 3.

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My plan was to make a copy of my broken lever but modify the arm portion into an inverted v-shape to engage the detents. Rather than try to whittle this all from thicker stock I decided I would press the “v” into my shape. The chosen metal would be a scrap of salvaged pallet banding which is the closest thing to spring steel that I have kicking around in the right thickness (0.020”). It’s a little hard but with decent tools it drills and shapes easily enough. I cut the shape using my jewellers saw using a photocopied template of the original.

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Usually by the time I get to this point I start getting impatient and start thinking how to makes things go fast! The bottom part of my press die would be a block of aluminum with a little v-groove cut in on the shaper. The top part would be a triangular-shaped bit of steel that was hiding inside a broken drill bit….

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Now how to hold everything in alignment and in the correct position while I pressed it? Need something…..squishy…..like plasticine! So I taped the blank to the block over the v-groove, put three little dabs of plasticine over the blank, pressed my triangle into the clay, and then squished it….

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Worked great! The plasticine held everything in position until the press came into contact and then squished out of the way as pressure was applied.

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And the rest was gravy, as they say. I finished cleaning up the blank, tweaked the springiness a little to solidly engage the detents, and fashioned a knob from some black acetal I had in stock. I think it’ll be okay for the intended use and it’ll be on its way to Portland as soon as I can get it into the mail.

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Thanks for looking!

-frank

Nice work.

Is it the way you're holding the parts or do I see some Dupuytren's contracture in a couple of the photos?

Regards

 

[francist]

Is it the way you're holding the parts or do I see some Dupuytren's contracture in a couple of the photos?

You do.

The one finger has been at about 90 degrees for the past twenty years or so already. My Dad had similar way back in the 60’s and they operated to straighten it out. Never came back. A fellow at work also had surgery on a finger but had to get it done three times! I figured heck, I’ll see what happens and if it becomes a real problem I’ll get it nipped off or something. So far I can just work around it and it hasn’t progressed much for quite some time. Bit annoying for some things but whatever. You?

-frank

 

[pontiac428]

I haven't made anything in my shop today... but in less than seven hours, I get five days of uninterrupted shop time. The wife's visiting her folks, so I don't even have to leave the shop for dinner. Got a few energy drinks in the fridge and a pizza coupon, I think I'm good to go! Hmm, which of my twenty projects do I want to lean into... Ah, the dizziness of freedom.

 

[tjb]

You do.

The one finger has been at about 90 degrees for the past twenty years or so already. My Dad had similar way back in the 60’s and they operated to straighten it out. Never came back. A fellow at work also had surgery on a finger but had to get it done three times! I figured heck, I’ll see what happens and if it becomes a real problem I’ll get it nipped off or something. So far I can just work around it and it hasn’t progressed much for quite some time. Bit annoying for some things but whatever. You?

-frank

Yeah, I'm very familiar with the condition. About ten or twelve years ago, I had a fairly intensive surgery on each hand. The procedures were done several months apart to allow for healing. I had constrictions in all four fingers on each hand. The surgeon told me that when he got through with me my hand would look like a grenade went off. He wasn't joking. That was before the new procedure was more popularly accepted. My second set of procedures hurt like crazy, but they were essentially non-invasive. For each hand, I went in one day and got an injection into the restrictive tissue, then went back a couple of days later, and the doctor basically just snapped it apart. Both steps hurt like crazy - felt like you stuck your and into a wasp nest - but it was over fairly soon. I actually have an appointment tomorrow morning to have the injection done again on my right middle finger, then a return trip on Monday for the second phase. Like you, my pinkies are pretty bent over, but not quite as acute as yours look in the photo (I'm at about 50 to 60 degrees). Makes it difficult to get my hands in my pockets - especially blue jeans. My doctor considers them too far gone at this point for the injection to work. Maybe another invasive surgery will offer some relief but he thinks probably not. I am aware that it's not uncommon for amputations in situations like that. Don't even want to think about that just yet. Maybe someday.

In my case, it was a curiosity to learn that the condition is likely hereditary. ZERO family members that we know of for either of my parents has ever had this issue, but clearly there's carrier in there somewhere. And neither of my two brothers have had issues. Among the three of us, there are ten biological children, eighteen biological grandchildren, and one great grandchild. No sign of this condition for any of them. Lucky me.

Frank, if you've not already done so, you may want of find a specialist in your area. They may be able to offer more relief than you think.

Regards

 

[mattthemuppet2]

no pics as I was covered in oil, but I replaced the oil pan gasket on the Fungus (thinking of you Pontiac ). Would have been pretty straightforward if a) the oil catch pan hadn't of tilted and dumped some oil on the road (I'm cooling down before going back outside to clean it up) b) I wasn't in a hurry as I had to pick my youngest up from swim camp and c) it wasn't 95F in the shade at 11am

Cleaning the engine bay will have to wait for another (cooler) day

 

[pontiac428]

no pics as I was covered in oil, but I replaced the oil pan gasket on the Fungus (thinking of you Pontiac ).

Hey, it may have been rude of me to point it out, but I trust my cringe reflex. They always come back to thank me later, though! That was quite the engine bush you had growing there. You gotta pressure wash that sludge muff so you can see what you're working on, and to keep you from slipping your fingers into other parts while you're at it.

 

[francist]

No sign of this condition for any of them. Lucky me.

Wow, I do feel for you. Both hands would be killer. Fortunately (?) for me I still only have the serious contracture in the one hand and not my dominant one either, so most day to day stuff is fine. Gloves are annoying though . I've heard conflicting information about the genetic inheritance of the condition, and like you none of my six siblings exhibit any signs at all and they're all senior to me. One thing I always remember from early on in the early stages was my doctor saying to be careful about alcohol intake. He said a beer or two no big deal, but try to keep it at that. Don't know if there is any merit to that at all but I've quite alcohol altogether for about 10 years now anyway so no longer a concern.

Hope your hands don't get any worse.

-frank

 

[dkemppai]

... it wasn't 95F in the shade at 11am

Cleaning the engine bay will have to wait for another (cooler) day

Yeah, but your winters are pretty nice. Was in San Antonio a few years ago when the wife had a conference in October. Was real nice weather sitting along river below the Hilton having something cool to drink. IIRC we left snow to get there. Is Schilo's Cafe still open? (Was way cheaper than eating breakfast in the hotel, a few years back anyway...)