Stuff you have made today

[slim_boy_fat]

Finally finished the painting on my new aluminium end marker boards. (It's amazing how much you can't get done when you're only home at the weekend

Will those be gracing your new wagon?

 

[4String.]

Will those be gracing your new wagon?

Indeed they will John.

Their intended use was for overhanging rail and I designed an easy to use bracket for clamping them on, but as they conform to Construction and Use regs I can use them on any over length load. I have some heavy duty rubber coated magnets that are used by the taxi folk to hold their signs on their car roofs, so a couple of those will keep them safely out of harm's way high up on the back bulkhead of the cab.

Start the new job tomorrow, and I'm very much looking forward to it. The bulk of my work will be at 44 ton pulling flat and stepframe trailers, but these folk move some BIG loads, and as I worked for them a couple of years go driving their 150 ton 6x4 hiab unit, I'll probably get involved with that at some stage.

 

[henry Kadzielski]

Needed somewhere to store the laptop in the new van for when I am working away as Fusion on the phone is not the best.
There is an Aux 12v socket in the back so it was the perfect place for the chargers so I made up a model in fusion.

View attachment 253736

I cut the parts out and welded up and then screwed it to the plywood lining of the van but it is pathetically thin, only 6mm and poor quality ply at that, so another plan had to be made.

I did some measuring and then cut this out on the plasma.

View attachment 253737

I then welded the tray to that and and fixed it over the plywood with self tappers right into the vans metalwork, it is much more solid.

View attachment 253738

View attachment 253739

I need to get something made to attach the adapter to and I should probably have incorporated something for a mouse as I detest touch pads

Good morning @Hood. I have seen what you can and have with Fusion 360. I have outsourced my dxf stuff generation as with all things happening at my place it had been faster. Now however, due to the last drawings fiasco and the subsequent cost associated with that I am considering doing things my self. The only drawing package I got with all my cnc stuff was corel draw, which isn't that suitable to do engineering drawings, so my question why do you use fursion 360 and not anything else, also how difficult is it to learn. With the cam software I have the start was the hardest, (no prior knowledge or exposure) the more I used it the better I got, (still learning) but I can whip through the dxf processing now and get almost everything right. The ability to model what you have drawn to see how and if it fits is wonderfull, and to get what you want, when you want and most importantly THE WAY YOU WANT IT is also a plus. So the question begs asking why fusion 360, advantages, disadvantages, others available. The plasma table was done in fusion, just don't know which, with modeling so I could see what was going on and how it was going to happen. Get back to me at your leisure thankyou!

 

[Dutch Welder]

I've made the magic smoke come out of my Lathe motor.
Was using it to make soem welding table clamps, when suddenly the power was way down and after a second or 2 or so the breaker tripped.
Lights are on a different breaker so i did see that little puff of magic smoke.
Lathe is a Chinese one sold by a well known Dutch machine seller which does specialise in Chinese products, but apart from the motor has been very nice.
Added digital rulers on both axii, so have dismantled the motor mounting, and have ordered a 1.5kw motor to replace the 750w one that wa son there.
Lathe has a gearbox for feeds/speeds, so as long as the motor is the same RPM im ok.

 

[Dcal]

Today I made an adjustable carriage stop for my lathe.
It's really only a simple tiny G clamp I made out of scrap.



Only extra was a blob of braze on the bolt to stop it marring the bed.



Seems to do the job.






There is enough meat on it for me to drill and tap it for a bolt for fine adjustment if needs be.
A far better job would be to fit a DRO

 

[DennisCA]

Finally got the tongs done, not that happy with them but I guess the first pair are never gonna be the best:

The rivet is an M8 bolt, all I had, should have been a bit longer so the other side matched better. I had it in the forge to get rid of the zink coating first. I think I could turn some nice rivet blanks on the lathe from bigger M10 bolts in the future, or just get suitable round stock and make a rivet set.

Also found some spring steel (a whole bunch, 8mm ish) and I made a chisel and punch from it.

On to the next pair of toongs soon, perhaps some hooks in between. For the next pair I will use thicker material, 10mm plate I think.

 

[Hood]

Good morning @Hood. I have seen what you can and have with Fusion 360. I have outsourced my dxf stuff generation as with all things happening at my place it had been faster. Now however, due to the last drawings fiasco and the subsequent cost associated with that I am considering doing things my self. The only drawing package I got with all my cnc stuff was corel draw, which isn't that suitable to do engineering drawings, so my question why do you use fursion 360 and not anything else, also how difficult is it to learn. With the cam software I have the start was the hardest, (no prior knowledge or exposure) the more I used it the better I got, (still learning) but I can whip through the dxf processing now and get almost everything right. The ability to model what you have drawn to see how and if it fits is wonderfull, and to get what you want, when you want and most importantly THE WAY YOU WANT IT is also a plus. So the question begs asking why fusion 360, advantages, disadvantages, others available. The plasma table was done in fusion, just don't know which, with modeling so I could see what was going on and how it was going to happen. Get back to me at your leisure thankyou!

Why Fusion?
Well I used to use a mix of SolidWorks and BobCAD for my work. All could have been done in BobCAD but its CAD side is poor and I was used to SolidWorks so found it easier to do the model in it then import into BobCAD for the CAM side.
I wanted to upgrade my version of BobCAD but got a price and they were looking for approx £3000 just for an upgrade so I decided to have a look at Fusion. Fusion is similar to SolidWorks for the modelling but still different enough that I had to learn it but the great thing was the CAM side of things was also in Fusion and once I got my head around things and altered the post processors to suit my machines (Lathe/Mill/Plasma) it was a breeze. Best thing was I would be able to pay for 7 years of fusion for the same cost as a BobCAD upgrade.

Another thing that steered me towards Fusion was it is constantly upgraded, bugs fixed and new features added and they are automatically updated, with BobCAD you had to pay for any bug fixes and new versions.

As said I have post processors altered to suit my machines, I also have templates made up for the CAM side of things so now making the code is very quick, especially for Plasma and Lathe, mill is a bit more involved for me but certainly no slower than SW/BobCAD.

Here is a vid I did showing how quickly I can get from a model to code in Fusion.

The thing about SolidWorks was you had to build your parts for a model in single files then pull them all into an assembly and join them together to make the part. You could model all in one file but then it was one part so not easy to separate out into individual parts for plasma. With Fusion it is all done in the one file and you use different components for different parts and you can then pull it apart and align for putting into a plasma ready profile for the CAM.
I usually do my model then once done I "Save As" so that I can then pull it apart and align parts but still have the model complete.
Here is a vid showing the stages I went through on a model of a roller I made up. Obviously it has already been drawn but I am just showing the stages of making the model from individual components rather than a one piece model.

Here is the model laid out for plasma.

And here is it in real life.

 

[Rannsachair]

Why Fusion?
Well I used to use a mix of SolidWorks and BobCAD for my work. All could have been done in BobCAD but its CAD side is poor and I was used to SolidWorks so found it easier to do the model in it then import into BobCAD for the CAM side.
I wanted to upgrade my version of BobCAD but got a price and they were looking for approx £3000 just for an upgrade so I decided to have a look at Fusion. Fusion is similar to SolidWorks for the modelling but still different enough that I had to learn it but the great thing was the CAM side of things was also in Fusion and once I got my head around things and altered the post processors to suit my machines (Lathe/Mill/Plasma) it was a breeze. Best thing was I would be able to pay for 7 years of fusion for the same cost as a BobCAD upgrade.

Another thing that steered me towards Fusion was it is constantly upgraded, bugs fixed and new features added and they are automatically updated, with BobCAD you had to pay for any bug fixes and new versions.

As said I have post processors altered to suit my machines, I also have templates made up for the CAM side of things so now making the code is very quick, especially for Plasma and Lathe, mill is a bit more involved for me but certainly no slower than SW/BobCAD.

Here is a vid I did showing how quickly I can get from a model to code in Fusion.

The thing about SolidWorks was you had to build your parts for a model in single files then pull them all into an assembly and join them together to make the part. You could model all in one file but then it was one part so not easy to separate out into individual parts for plasma. With Fusion it is all done in the one file and you use different components for different parts and you can then pull it apart and align for putting into a plasma ready profile for the CAM.
I usually do my model then once done I "Save As" so that I can then pull it apart and align parts but still have the model complete.
Here is a vid showing the stages I went through on a model of a roller I made up. Obviously it has already been drawn but I am just showing the stages of making the model from individual components rather than a one piece model.

Here is the model laid out for plasma.

View attachment 253991

And here is it in real life.

View attachment 253993

That is impressive @Hood looks a lot better than the Pro/Engineer I was using in the late 90's and hate to think what it cost in today's money.

 

[Hood]

That is impressive @Hood looks a lot better than the Pro/Engineer I was using in the late 90's and hate to think what it cost in today's money.

It is nice, still a bit clunky at times compared to SW but improving all the time and having everything integrated (CAD/CAM) in one file is great.

 

[bigegg]

Not so much made, as "experimented".

My SS pizza cutter.



Masked with insulating tape + crafting stickers from The Range.


CB radio power supply (13.8v, 2A) + some croc clips.



Positive to the blade, -ve to saltwater+cotton wool.

And etch - about 60 seconds, in 10s hits and a wipe in between.


Clean off with a pan scrub:



I think it needs a fair bit longer than 60s, but i didnt want to over etch it, and make it difficult to keep clean.

 

[Hood]

Chopped the downward facing parts of the cylinder holder brackets I made for the last car.

I then measured up and welded them to a bit of Alu sheet. I fixed the sheet down via the bolts that the lashing rings in the van attach to, also kept the rings in place just in case I need them in the future.
I also had to alter the hinging part of the bracket that holds the cylinder neck as they are now at the opposite side compared to when in the car so I needed it to hinge the other way.

And with one cylinder in situ.

 

[Aesgarth]

Not quite finished, but table and 4 stools set. Photos during application of clear coat. Got a few more layers to apply.

 

[brightspark]

Get the cripples out

aptly named. you will be if they give way

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Not quite finished, but table and 4 stools set

I like the 'nesting' feature!

 

[Mick Annick]

Finally got the tongs done, not that happy with them but I guess the first pair are never gonna be the best:

The rivet is an M8 bolt, all I had, should have been a bit longer so the other side matched better. I had it in the forge to get rid of the zink coating first. I think I could turn some nice rivet blanks on the lathe from bigger M10 bolts in the future, or just get suitable round stock and make a rivet set.

Also found some spring steel (a whole bunch, 8mm ish) and I made a chisel and punch from it.

On to the next pair of toongs soon, perhaps some hooks in between. For the next pair I will use thicker material, 10mm plate I think.

Dennis

What size stock did you start with for the tongs?

 

[Dcal]

Today, I made a chain pull, pull.
I was actually more than today but that was because it spent a day soaking in citric acid and was then put on the long finger.
I decided to assemble it tonight before I lost some bits.

Anyway, this is what I started with.

Not very promising, but at least it came apart easily enough.
After a clean with TFR, a blast with the jet wash and a day in citric acid things started to look up.
It even has a lsd.

There is a roller bearing in the plate with the pawls that was seized solid but unbelievably it cleaned up after it's bath.
Then it was just a simple matter of putting it together agai
We all like a jigsaw, especially after the bits had been kicking about in a box for a month.

Still, all went smoothly and I now have a functioning chain pull.

Just needs a safety catch to get it fully functional.
No doubt someone will be along to tell me I shouldn’t be attempting to fix lifting gear but it only for my own home use, so I'll take the chance.
It also now works better than the one I was using which can now get the same treatment.

 

[selectedgrub]

Not quite finished, but table and 4 stools set. Photos during application of clear coat. Got a few more layers to apply.

Very nice sir.

I made blocks so I can attach a tail to my junk art.

 

[Tangledfeet]

After catching some of a YouTube video on AC TIG welding last week and critiquing some of my welds as I practice AC TIG, I managed to get Project Management (aka Mrs Tangledfeet) behind the torch before dinner last night! She's a left-hooker and does some tasks right-handed, but did find left-handed better for her.

She made me happy!

 

[bigegg]

Today's etching experiment.

STE-141 stencil tape to fit my brother p-touch e-300 label machine arrived this morning. (£11 for 3m ) [1]
It doesn't do custom graphics off the PC, unfortunately, although alternative brother printers with that facility can be had for c. 60-80 quid.

Same setup as before, but onto my mora companion.

90secs etching time.



I won't be using it much - although the convenience is nice for security marking tools i take to college.
(Not the mora! Can't even take a stanley knife )


[1] The stencils are re-usable, so not as uneconomic as you would suppose.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

She made me happy!

OK, stop right there!

P.S. Tell her to pull those sleeves down