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

Hardly anything notable but I was kind of pleased when I thought of it...

I'm building "a thing" at work and I needed to drill a 3/4" hole into the edge of this 15" x 21" piece of wood. As I said, I'm at work, and shop capabilities here are woefully inadequate for many things compared to my home shop. If I had been at home I would have just swivelled the table up on edge, clamped to the face, checked against the spindle for parallel and away we go. I wasn't looking forward to fussing with the work stuff like that and was trying to think of how I could support this slab of wood sufficiently without any angle blocks. Then I thought of these shelf brackets -- they're the heavy-duty kind from Home Depot and I remember being fairly pleased with them for shelves as they were pretty square and fairly stiff. So I dragged out two, clamped them to the table, checked against a framing square and after a bit of shimming here and there I was away!

Worked great. They're easy to clamp against, they come with holes if you want to screw something to them, and they're not bad for square. No substitute for a good angle block by any stretch, but in a pinch and depending on what you're doing they're worth remembering.

And just in case anyone is wondering, the slab of wood is Sawara Cypress. You're not likely to find any in the store and this has been my only opportunity ever to work with it. We had to take one down some years ago and it was a good size and in good condition, so as a nod to its good life we had it milled and kiln dried to use for some bench seating. It's a lot like a white or sugar pine in the looks but very, very light in weight. Wears well though (yes, it dings up, but in a pleasing sort of way) and has a very spicy, almost peppery scent when you work it. I like it, wish I had more.

Thanks for looking!

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francist said:
the slab of wood is Sawara Cypress.
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Had to look it up. "False Cypress" family. I don't know how closely related it is to Bald Cypress but I planted one from seed 25 years ago. They aren't real common around here but a few as street trees. I made my porch balusters & rails out of it. Pretty soft but rot resistant. Available from industrial lumber suppliers.
 
Thought I was done making these VFD control systems, every once in awhile I let down my resistance to help someone out. This is a PM-1340GT VFD control system with a proximity stop, I am still waiting for the micrometer to modify it. System includes power supply, CC fusing, 15A Breaker and a tachometer that mounts under the DRO. All the cables are custom made, cables are shielded and most are plug and socket. A few additions include the lathe spider with hardware, pump oiler manifold for the Norton gearbox, and lathe handles to replace the plastic ones. Quite a few hours of time, but then always nice to get some time on my lathe and mill for these projects. The wiring and cabling is tedious, this is more like the project of the week.

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mksj said:
Thought I was done making these VFD control systems, every once in awhile I let down my resistance to help someone out. This is a PM-1340GT VFD control system with a proximity stop, I am still waiting for the micrometer to modify it. System includes power supply, CC fusing, 15A Breaker and a tachometer that mounts under the DRO. All the cables are custom made, cables are shielded and most are plug and socket. A few additions include the lathe spider with hardware, pump oiler manifold for the Norton gearbox, and lathe handles to replace the plastic ones. Quite a few hours of time, but then always nice to get some time on my lathe and mill for these projects. The wiring and cabling is tedious, this is more like the project of the week.
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Mark what's this is it for resistance? 20240928_164216.jpg
 
I always test the system I build, on the VFD cable I apply 24VDC to the common (black wire) and then check to see that I am getting 24VDC for each of the respective VFD input wires based on the control that is activated and also the safety circuits. I use a dual power supply, the second one powers the control system so I can check mA load, and also check the voltages are all correct, I use a step down converter to supply 12VDC from the control system 24VDC power supply. I check the speed pot resistance and that it tracks correctly. Every once in awhile I find a glitch, in this build I had the JOG joystick directions incorrect, just switched two wires. But always worth checking everything.

Sorry, I missed what you circled, that is the a manifold for a pump oiler, the stock Norton gearbox has a hole on the headstock side, but doesn't evenly distribute the oil unless you pump a ton of oil into it. This manifold is connected to a Bijur pump oiler, when pumped each tube distributes the oil to each drip hole above the Norton gearbox which drips down on a gear or lubrication to a bearing. Below is the original one I made for my 1340GT, you can see the oil pooling over each hole.

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Mauzinette said:
Shop layout work. The progress is very slow, but I want to get it right the first time. There are so many different possible ways to arrange the tools :guilty:

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Best option for organisation? "First order retrievability".

Basically, think to yourself "if I want that tool, where would I be most likely to have put it"?
 
savarin said:
It will never be there in a million years.
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Always is for me, especially since I always put things back where I get them from. Keeps the organisation of things working as it should ;)
 
"Always" is perfection. I put things back at the end of the project or the day which ever comes first. I also Almost always clean up before I leave the shop.
 
Larry$ said:
"Always" is perfection. I put things back at the end of the project or the day which ever comes first. I also Almost always clean up before I leave the shop.
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Now, see, putting tools/equipment/stock away and cleanup for me are non-negotiable "must be done" things. Everything has to be cleaned up, no ifs, buts or maybe's about it. Only a genuine life or death emergency would stop me cleaning up any mess from working.

Heck, my lathe not only gets wiped down, it also gets a hoover over it and then a relube after every use. No sense in having a machine and not looking after it. Same with all my other tools. Always cleaned after use and always put back exactly where they came from. My drills get a regular strip, clean, relube and my sander always gets a complete dismantling, clean, relube and rebuild after every use to get all the dust out of it.
 
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