Stuff you have made today

[My Old Landy]

First things on the cnc that look ok.... ish From the top, depth is 0.3mm, 0.2mm & 0.1mm all then brushed on a non woven pad wheel.

 

[DAPPH]

First things on the cnc that look ok.... ish From the top, depth is 0.3mm, 0.2mm & 0.1mm all then brushed on a non woven pad wheel.
View attachment 348741

What metal ?

 

[My Old Landy]

What metal ?

It is Aluminium, 1mm thick.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

A little fly cutter. I had an hour free at work and nothing to do…

 

[Blue Chips]

I just finished making an improvement to an existing gadget that I made back in 2017.

Background: Whenever we have an above-freezing winter day, I like to wash off the road salt and de-icer from our vehicles, walks, stairs, etc. We have freeze-proof garden hose taps, but I got tired of going down into the basement, hauling out the hose, connecting it to the freeze-proof tap, and then disconnecting the hose, coiling it up, and lugging it back down into the basement again every time I used it in the winter. So back in 2017 I bored a hole through the basement wall, epoxied in a piece of PVC pipe, and installed a knob (at the left in the photo below) outside with a long rod connected via a U-joint to a valve in the basement that supplied a hose tap in the basement. I mounted a rubber seal on the basement side of the PVC pipe to seal around the hose to keep bugs out. This setup allowed me to leave the hose connected in the basement and just pull it out through the PVC pipe in the wall and turn it on with the outside knob. When finished, I would simply shove the hose back through the pipe. I found that the nozzle would not freeze as long as it was pushed almost all the way back into the basement, but still remaining inside the PVC pipe. I attached a short cord to the nozzle, so that I could pull it out easily. Anyway, that system has been working well. The only minor drawback was that I had to pull the hose straight out or it would bind against the edge of the PVC pipe.

That brings me to the new improvement I just made:
I had a roller-type fairlead (see below) that was gathering dust in one of my parts bins. I can’t recall what it was originally used on…possibly a retractable hose reel.

I removed the original mounting brackets from the fairlead and fashioned two hefty new mounting brackets from steel angle, which I bead blasted down to clean bare metal, primed with two coats of self-etching zinc phosphate primer, and topcoated with black paint. I also drilled and tapped the mounting brackets for two stainless set screws whose pointed ends fit into a detent I made in the fairlead body to lock it firmly in position.

I drilled two holes all the way through the concrete basement wall alongside the PVC pipe and bolted the fairlead to the wall with 7/16” stainless threaded rods. It’s very solidly mounted, with thick, wide stainless washers against the concrete, and with epoxy putty under the washers to help distribute the load evenly. I left the threaded rods extra long inside the basement, in case I want to use them later in some way, such as mounting a spring-loaded retractable hose reel, which I might do soon. A retractable hose reel would feed the hose very smoothly through the wall and eliminate a pile of hose on the basement floor. The original rubber seal around the hose worked well, but it eventually wore out, so I replaced it with a chunk of stiff closed-cell foam, which seems to work well and helps the hose slide through the pipe without binding or getting scraped up.

The fairlead works great. I can now pull the hose out from any angle without it binding against the PVC pipe. (For scale, the garden hose is about 1 inch in diameter.)

 

[Hood]

Today I made the new AT ready for its first service on Thursday, exactly 600 miles when I parked up this afternoon

 

[Hood]

600 miles and you havent improved on it…What’s wrong,are you sick?

I have, lots of bits added and looking sweet

 

[Onoff]

I knew there would be a fair bit of tension

Stressful business clearly...

 

[MattF]

600 miles and you havent improved on it…What’s wrong,are you sick?

I have, lots of bits added and looking sweet

View attachment 348764

@Johnnybravo, you just had to go & give him an opening for the photo, didn't you....

 

[DAPPH]

A little fly cutter. I had an hour free at work and nothing to do…View attachment 348746

When you have the gear it's amazing what you can do with your skills.

 

[DAPPH]

I just finished making an improvement to an existing gadget that I made back in 2017.

Background: Whenever we have an above-freezing winter day, I like to wash off the road salt and de-icer from our vehicles, walks, stairs, etc. We have freeze-proof garden hose taps, but I got tired of going down into the basement, hauling out the hose, connecting it to the freeze-proof tap, and then disconnecting the hose, coiling it up, and lugging it back down into the basement again every time I used it in the winter. So back in 2017 I bored a hole through the basement wall, epoxied in a piece of PVC pipe, and installed a knob (at the left in the photo below) outside with a long rod connected via a U-joint to a valve in the basement that supplied a hose tap in the basement. I mounted a rubber seal on the basement side of the PVC pipe to seal around the hose to keep bugs out. This setup allowed me to leave the hose connected in the basement and just pull it out through the PVC pipe in the wall and turn it on with the outside knob. When finished, I would simply shove the hose back through the pipe. I found that the nozzle would not freeze as long as it was pushed almost all the way back into the basement, but still remaining inside the PVC pipe. I attached a short cord to the nozzle, so that I could pull it out easily. Anyway, that system has been working well. The only minor drawback was that I had to pull the hose straight out or it would bind against the edge of the PVC pipe.

View attachment 348751

That brings me to the new improvement I just made:
I had a roller-type fairlead (see below) that was gathering dust in one of my parts bins. I can’t recall what it was originally used on…possibly a retractable hose reel.

View attachment 348752

I removed the original mounting brackets from the fairlead and fashioned two hefty new mounting brackets from steel angle, which I bead blasted down to clean bare metal, primed with two coats of self-etching zinc phosphate primer, and topcoated with black paint. I also drilled and tapped the mounting brackets for two stainless set screws whose pointed ends fit into a detent I made in the fairlead body to lock it firmly in position.

View attachment 348753

View attachment 348754

I drilled two holes all the way through the concrete basement wall alongside the PVC pipe and bolted the fairlead to the wall with 7/16” stainless threaded rods. It’s very solidly mounted, with thick, wide stainless washers against the concrete, and with epoxy putty under the washers to help distribute the load evenly. I left the threaded rods extra long inside the basement, in case I want to use them later in some way, such as mounting a spring-loaded retractable hose reel, which I might do soon. A retractable hose reel would feed the hose very smoothly through the wall and eliminate a pile of hose on the basement floor. The original rubber seal around the hose worked well, but it eventually wore out, so I replaced it with a chunk of stiff closed-cell foam, which seems to work well and helps the hose slide through the pipe without binding or getting scraped up.

View attachment 348757

View attachment 348758

The fairlead works great. I can now pull the hose out from any angle without it binding against the PVC pipe. (For scale, the garden hose is about 1 inch in diameter.)

An auto drain off valve inside the building to fully drain the hose & pipes out side is also useful for harsh out door weather periods

 

[Blue Chips]

An auto drain off valve inside the building to fully drain the hose & pipes out side is also useful for harsh out door weather periods

That is a good idea. Fortunately, we have no pipes or hoses outside here that would need to be drained, the only pipe being the supply from our well, which is buried below the frost line. However, when I lived in a drier climate out west in Utah years ago, we had a lawn sprinkling system, and each circuit of the system had self-draining fittings at their lowest points to prevent freeze damage in the winter. Lawn sprinkler systems are very rare here in Maine, as we generally get enough regular rainfall to keep lawns alive without watering them. A neighbor here has an extensive drip irrigation system for some of his veg gardens, which has to be drained before winter. Our domestic potable water system, which is in our basement, is set up so that we can drain all of the pipes in the house. We would generally only do that if we were doing plumbing updates or if we were planning to be away during the winter and wanted to protect against the possibility of the boiler shutting down for some reason while we were gone and having the pipes freeze. We would also pour non-toxic antifreeze in the toilet and sink traps for any extended winter trip. As a backup, we have a freeze alarm which calls us if the temperature in the house drops below a set point.

 

[Mick Annick]

A skid plate for the Morgan gearbox crossmember - it is very low and I got it stuck on a speed hump a few weeks back and bent the crossmember. The crossmember is an inverted channel, so this will be bolted underneath and hopefully help me slide over bumps - it’s 3mm stainless. £180 to buy one from a Mog specialist!!

 

[redlig]

Not today but a few pics of the shelter deck I have been working on for the last two weeks.
First pic is the two halves fitted .

View attachment 348648


Next two pics are as far as I have got so far, cut out the aft bulkhead and have extended it.

View attachment 348649View attachment 348651

Any chance of a before picture so I can get my landlubber head around the job please?

 

[Barking Mat]

I just finished making an improvement to an existing gadget that I made back in 2017.

Background: Whenever we have an above-freezing winter day, I like to wash off the road salt and de-icer from our vehicles, walks, stairs, etc. We have freeze-proof garden hose taps, but I got tired of going down into the basement, hauling out the hose, connecting it to the freeze-proof tap, and then disconnecting the hose, coiling it up, and lugging it back down into the basement again every time I used it in the winter. So back in 2017 I bored a hole through the basement wall, epoxied in a piece of PVC pipe, and installed a knob (at the left in the photo below) outside with a long rod connected via a U-joint to a valve in the basement that supplied a hose tap in the basement. I mounted a rubber seal on the basement side of the PVC pipe to seal around the hose to keep bugs out. This setup allowed me to leave the hose connected in the basement and just pull it out through the PVC pipe in the wall and turn it on with the outside knob. When finished, I would simply shove the hose back through the pipe. I found that the nozzle would not freeze as long as it was pushed almost all the way back into the basement, but still remaining inside the PVC pipe. I attached a short cord to the nozzle, so that I could pull it out easily. Anyway, that system has been working well. The only minor drawback was that I had to pull the hose straight out or it would bind against the edge of the PVC pipe.

View attachment 348751

That brings me to the new improvement I just made:
I had a roller-type fairlead (see below) that was gathering dust in one of my parts bins. I can’t recall what it was originally used on…possibly a retractable hose reel.

View attachment 348752

I removed the original mounting brackets from the fairlead and fashioned two hefty new mounting brackets from steel angle, which I bead blasted down to clean bare metal, primed with two coats of self-etching zinc phosphate primer, and topcoated with black paint. I also drilled and tapped the mounting brackets for two stainless set screws whose pointed ends fit into a detent I made in the fairlead body to lock it firmly in position.

View attachment 348753

View attachment 348754

I drilled two holes all the way through the concrete basement wall alongside the PVC pipe and bolted the fairlead to the wall with 7/16” stainless threaded rods. It’s very solidly mounted, with thick, wide stainless washers against the concrete, and with epoxy putty under the washers to help distribute the load evenly. I left the threaded rods extra long inside the basement, in case I want to use them later in some way, such as mounting a spring-loaded retractable hose reel, which I might do soon. A retractable hose reel would feed the hose very smoothly through the wall and eliminate a pile of hose on the basement floor. The original rubber seal around the hose worked well, but it eventually wore out, so I replaced it with a chunk of stiff closed-cell foam, which seems to work well and helps the hose slide through the pipe without binding or getting scraped up.

View attachment 348757

View attachment 348758

The fairlead works great. I can now pull the hose out from any angle without it binding against the PVC pipe. (For scale, the garden hose is about 1 inch in diameter.)

Freeze proof taps.

Care to elaborate on that, please.

 

[Hood]

Any chance of a before picture so I can get my landlubber head around the job please?

Don't have one but may be able to find one online, will post if I can. It had a plywood shelter if I recall.

 

[Hood]

Here you go.

 

[RichardM]

Today I made the new AT ready for its first service on Thursday, exactly 600 miles when I parked up this afternoon

View attachment 348763

What's the 74 mph displayed for?

 

[Hood]

What's the 74 mph displayed for?

That was the last cruise control speed I had set.

 

[Blue Chips]

Freeze proof taps.
Care to elaborate on that, please.

To be more accurate, I think that the terminology used over here might be something like "frost-proof anti-siphon sillcock" or "freeze-proof anti-siphon hose bib" (or "...tap" "...spigot" "...faucet," etc.). The idea is that even though you connect the hose outside the house, the actual valve for that tap extends inside the home to a heated area, such as a heated basement. We've had them on our houses for many years, and we've never had one freeze yet, even in below-zero Fahrenheit (below -18C) conditions. They are installed with a slight slope for drainage and an anti-siphon valve to prevent backflow. You should always disconnect the garden hose before freezing weather sets in, so that it can drain. Otherwise, water trapped in the pipe between the valve and the hose bib could freeze and burst the pipe.

Here are a couple of links:

https://www.denommeeplumbing.com/outdoor-faucets-make-winterizing-a-snap/

https://www.quora.com/How-do-Frost-free-faucets-work

Of course, if the anti-frost valve extends into a cold or unheated area, that area may not be warm enough to prevent the valve from freezing, so all bets are off.