Stuff you have made today

[northwest]

Just to complete the circle, finally mounted the quick change fixture, which is great, in theory, practically you need a lot of wall to mount the storage brackets and mount the other presses on them, they don't look very elegant.




Makes swapping presses a breeze though.

 

[Blue Chips]

I'm planning to electroplate a lot of small parts for my Dodge M37 restoration project, so I cobbled together a plating setup, including an adjustable power supply, a darkroom timer, a couple of heaters, a small circulation pump, various anodes, lead wires, connectors, etc. The bench was sitting unused in our storage unit, and I had a 4-foot LED light that was gathering dust.

I made a wall bracket for the power supply to keep it up out of the way of splashes and to save countertop space.

I found the darkroom timer on eBay. It's in near-new condition and I picked it up for a small fraction of the cost of a new one.

I also bought an inexpensive oven that I plan to use to bake parts immediately after plating to help prevent hydrogen embrittlement.

Mrs. Blue Chips sewed some polypropylene anode filter sleeves for me. These should help keep the solution clear of contaminants and sludge produced by the anodes. I bought a large sheet of the polypropylene material...probably enough to make at least 100 filter sleeves (I'll have to practice using her sewing machine and making some of the sleeves myself to avoid pestering her too often).

Obviously, for larger items, I'll switch to larger buckets or tubs.

For preparing parts for plating, my approach would depend on the type of part and the condition it's in. It could include various combinations of abrasive blasting, solvent stripping, ultrasonic cleaning, electrocleaning, alkaline cleaning, acid cleaning/pickling, etc.

I hope to start plating some parts next week. The first batches would be acid-zinc plated with a yellow chromate passivation coating. I plan to post those on my M37 restoration thread.

 

[droopsnoot]

^ It'll be interesting to see the results you get. I bought a kit from Gateros some years ago and have mixed results, but I think that's down to how well I can clean the items before they go in. I'm a bit short of space to have it set up at the moment, so mine was set up and taken down as needed. I wish I'd found space over summer as I have a few things that need to be done and for some reason I don't like leaving it set up in the cold weather as I'm not sure what the effect on the chemicals would be. As they're stored in the same shed that they'd be used in, arguably they're getting down to the same temperature, maybe a little higher when stored in sealed containers in closed cupboards.

 

[northwest]

We should have a thread titled "what you didn't make today, but thought you might".
This job has been dragging on for weeks now and it is becoming embarrassing TBH but out of my control, I contracted to make some converters that require a couple of reamers I don't have so went over to my grinders to get some made, here are the blanks and the drawings but progress has ground to a halt<groan>.



The machine they need to go on has just arrived and the commissioning engineer is arriving Monday so progress soon I hope.

 

[Blue Chips]

^ It'll be interesting to see the results you get. I bought a kit from Gateros some years ago and have mixed results, but I think that's down to how well I can clean the items before they go in. I'm a bit short of space to have it set up at the moment, so mine was set up and taken down as needed. I wish I'd found space over summer as I have a few things that need to be done and for some reason I don't like leaving it set up in the cold weather as I'm not sure what the effect on the chemicals would be. As they're stored in the same shed that they'd be used in, arguably they're getting down to the same temperature, maybe a little higher when stored in sealed containers in closed cupboards.

Having clean, bare metal is definitely a prerequisite for getting consistent plating results, as is a clean solution, free of contaminants. From what I've been reading, most plating and plating-related solutions should keep quite well if kept tightly covered, and some solutions can be easily rejuvenated/replenished, rather than replaced. I'm just getting started with doing my own plating, so still more to learn.

 

[Bki26]

A piece of 3/8" to ~8mm as though why not give it a go with my diy fly cutter (aka lathe boring bar clamped in a crude piece) and save £15 on ebay and not fussed about finish as have other side for mounting surface...

Now paid double what the right size piece would have cost me

 

[m_c]

A piece of 3/8" to ~8mm as though why not give it a go with my diy fly cutter (aka lathe boring bar clamped in a crude piece) and save £15 on ebay and not fussed about finish as have other side for mounting surface...
View attachment 468588
View attachment 468589

Now paid double what the right size piece would have cost me
View attachment 468590View attachment 468591

That looks like a very 'optimistic' depth of cut and feed rate for a flycutter on something X1 sized!

Flycutters are handy, but looking at that pic, more spindle speed, less depth of cut, and lower feedrate.
I wouldn't worry about any theoretical spindle speed when flycutting on aluminium. Just run the spindle as fast as possible (usually the lack of balance will be the limiting factor on small mills), err on the side of caution for depth of cut/feedrate, and give it the occasional squirt of WD40/<insert light maintenance spray/release oil of choice> to stop swarf sticking to the cutter (plus a blast of air, if available, to keep the surface clear will also help with the finish).

 

[Bki26]

That looks like a very 'optimistic' depth of cut and feed rate for a flycutter on something X1 sized!

Flycutters are handy, but looking at that pic, more spindle speed, less depth of cut, and lower feedrate.
I wouldn't worry about any theoretical spindle speed when flycutting on aluminium. Just run the spindle as fast as possible (usually the lack of balance will be the limiting factor on small mills), err on the side of caution for depth of cut/feedrate, and give it the occasional squirt of WD40/<insert light maintenance spray/release oil of choice> to stop swarf sticking to the cutter (plus a blast of air, if available, to keep the surface clear will also help with the finish).

Yea I could have done a much better job but I had no motivation to spend hours slowly going back and forth especially without power feed lol so just set it to a deep cut and very slowly went across it.

It's only for a prototype 3d printed powered rope ascender I'm working on so the other face is flat enough to be the reference side I just need it closer to 8mm for bolts/bearings to go through and not be too short.

It's not even a proper fly cutter just a carbide insert boring bar clamped in an off-axis hole on a shaft I turned to fit in a collet (surprisingly balanced when I get it in the right location) and roughly lined up.

 

[optima21]

a little steam engine on a pound coin for scale

from these bits

I'll update the build thread when I get round to it.

 

[MattF]

That is impressive.

 

[Dr.Al]

It's made of American black walnut with mitred (at the bottom) dovetails and the same simple hinge I've used on all the other ones. I've now made three with "TEA" carved into the top (all American black walnut), one with "KEEMUN" carved into the top (made of cherry) and one with "EARL GREY" carved into the top (ABW again). The Earl Grey one (of which I can't find any photos at the mo) was a present for my parents, the Keemun one is (predictably enough) for Keemun, which is what I mostly drink (weak and black). The bigger one of the existing "TEA" ones holds English breakfast tea, the smaller one has different things in depending on what we trying at the time (currently Darjeeling). The new one will also hold Keemun tea but is for me to take into work.

With that done, I had a fun little session using my little home-made block plane to make a load of shavings out of maple, walnut and cherry so that I could take an arty photo of it, which I'm going to get printed on a mug as it'll be a bit more interesting than the one I have at work at the mo:

 

[galooph]

Carving those letters must be nerve wracking, @Dr.Al, especially as you get near to the end!

 

[Dr.Al]

Carving those letters must be nerve wracking, @Dr.Al, especially as you get near to the end!

It's a lot easier when it says T"EA" rather than "EARL GREY"

 

[6ply]

Hinged motor mount for a mini lathe. It's getting a 3HP motor.

 

[ajlelectronics]

It's a lot easier when it says T"EA" rather than "EARL GREY"

Are you going to be taking commissions?

 

[Dr.Al]

Are you going to be taking commissions?

I can't imagine anyone would ever be willing to pay enough to make it worth it. Even if I only valued my time at minimum wage then (working purely with hand tools) the labour cost would be well over £100 which is a lot more than most people would spend on a tea caddy. I'll keep making whatever I want to make and it can remain as something I enjoy doing rather than something I do for money.

 

[m_c]

A lovely little arrangement.





And why are control cabinets never big enough?
I want to leave room to install another servo drive, which means there isn't much space left for routing wiring using trunking, and I've got no where left to easily mount a mini-ITX board, as I was trying to avoid having to have that external.
I think the VFD and sine filter will have to be moved into a separate cabinet :/

 

[cardiffrob]

Every year I make a Poppy or two to give to other people. The time taken gives me time to think and to remember. This year my hand is in a cast so i'm stitching fabric rather than Brass or Leather like previous years. These ones have taken about an hour each, mostly due to manipulation issues whilst trying to stitch the safety pin on

 

[cardiffrob]

Felt, with filler and the striations (?) made with black wool.

The finger splint I made from Polymorph thermo plastic bead since it lets the skin breathe and fits better than the NHS one.

 

[Kram]

Yesterday, a hole in my glove
Quick reactions saved my thumb but lesson learned. I shall reserve one handed cutting for the less powerful 2511, at full extension in the tree..
I had just sharpened and adjusted the rakers a bit on the low side, so it was a bit jumpy on ivy.

I shall also stop abusing the 020T as a ground saw, which was only because my cheapy McCullock cs380 is not worth fixing. I have just now bought a Lidl 53cc ground saw for this sort of abuse.

A lot if ivy was cut. Originally it was 1-2 meters above the fences. Chopped up small and it has so far fit in 4 green bins, likely 5 when the rest is done.