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

[woodchucker]

so I learned long ago in woodworking, when you have a long, long hole, drill 1/2 way from one end, and then flip it and drill from the other end .
This so each hole is centered. The drill will average in the center of the length.

The problem with drilling using a twist drill is if the bit is not sharpened exactly equal it will wander off center.
So the above is good for resolving that. Another useful way is by using a 2 flute straight carbide. But you need to peck often.
The reason is the grind on a straight 2 flute carbide is pretty accurate from the manufacturer, the straight flute makes the bit even stiffer (and carbide is stiff already).

Always go smaller if it needs to be an accurate sized hole then ream to size.

 

[Dhal22]

Picking away on long neglected project. About 10 year ago, I started an electronic shoot control actuator for the snow blower on the tractor. This adjusts how far the snow gets thrown. I did a board layout for a control board with relays, and push button holder for the joystick. Picked a 12V linear actuator to drive the shoot up and down.

The tractor joystick had a plastic filler intended for optional buttons of some sort. I pulled that and recreated it in CAD, and added holes for a pair of buttons. These are rubber covered momentary contact buttons. Sent the design out to shapeways for a 3d printed copy of the part. Last week was finally time to install that...
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A circuit board was designed that included relays to reverse the motor power (UP/DOWN). A micro controller was used to read the buttons, and power the relays. I wanted some safety built into the system, so accidently pushing two buttons didn't mean shorting out the 12V feed to the whole thing through the relays, etc. A current measuring resistor was included, so an overload condition on the motor could be detected and relays disengaged. Code was written and tested, then the project was set aside. (We built a house in the meantime).
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Took the 10 year old board layout and designed a 3d printed housing. (I now have a 3d printer).
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The hard part was routing the wires through the joystick, and under the plastic in the cab to someplace that is partially accessible (if there's trouble in the future). Routing wires from the front of the tractor through the firewall and around the cabin took some time also. Once that was done, the connections were made, and housing installed around the control board (above).

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It took a while to find the auxiliary power connectors listed in electrical schematics in the cabin. Once that was located, power was run from there to the control board. That saved not having to cut into any factory wiring. Still waiting for the 12V "Tee" connector kit to show up, but for now just crimped on some 1/4" spade terminals that pushed into the sockets.

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Next step will be to hook up the shoot actuator to the blower, and route the wiring back to the tractor. Using the standard SAE 2 pin battery connectors as those are cheap and easily available.


Then yesterday was making the last parts needed for the bridge crane project. The drive chains are fixed on the ends, but it needs a little adjustment in the endpoints. So machined up some blocks with a slot for a clamping screw that fits to the chain. A tension screw pushes against the bolt (Not ideal, but good enough) to take up the slack when setting it up. Here are the four end blocks with one installed on the drive chain.

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Googling snow blower……….

 

[francist]

Finally made myself a pen

Good job on the pen — I like the retraction mechanism. I’m also intrigued with your tap handle, it’s very stubby. Any maker mark on it? I don’t think I’ve seen one like that before.

-frank