General Tech What did you work on Today?

[zmotorsports]

I picked up a few inexpensive F-clamps in which to modify for use on my fabrication table with the new found fixturing holes.

Started by cutting the ends off and knocking back the zinc coating in preparation for welding.

Machined some 1” O1 drill rod with a .625” step one inch long.

It is so nice to hit my measurements on this lathe.

Test fitting.

Cutting at .500” from the step. I gave it about .015” more for facing and cleanup.

Clamped to angle plate with .250” shim for proper spacing prior to welding.

A few various weld photos.

Clamps all done and ready to try them out on next project.

Next project for Saturday was to build a mounting solution for a “no soliciting” sign as we have had an unusually high number of solicitors coming to our door lately. I didn’t want to mount the signage to either my rock, stucco or timbers at the front door.

I dug through my scrap to find materials.

I cut some aluminum scrap down to a 3” X 14” piece and radiused the corners.

Machined a taper with a step in which a 12” long piece of 1” OD DOM tubing with be welded to.

Taper and step machined.

Pressed together in preparation for welding.

Top end of the 12” piece of tubing has a slug machined in which to join the 54” piece of tubing that will slip on and bolt together.

This piece will be driven in the ground almost flush.

Fixturing holes and clamps already coming in useful.

Machining a top cap to 1” OD with a step in which to press into the top of the 54” pole and with a radius on the top.

Fusion welded to the top of the pole without filler, autogenious.

I still have to sand, prime and paint the pole as well as drill & tap for securing the aluminum signage.

This will be placed just prior to our front porch so it will be eye level as walking up to our front door.

Thanks for looking and stay tuned for completed project.

I hope the wife likes it.

Mike

 

[Jesser04]

@zmotorsports Pretty sure you could solve world hunger with some metal scraps in your garage. Like always amazing work

 

[zmotorsports]

@zmotorsports Pretty sure you could solve world hunger with some metal scraps in your garage. Like always amazing work

Thank you. I've definitely been thinning my metal rack with my projects lately but the best kind of project is one you don't have to spend money on for materials.

Mike

 

[frieed]

Next project for Saturday was to build a mounting solution for a “no soliciting” sign as we have had an unusually high number of solicitors coming to our door lately. I didn’t want to mount the signage to either my rock, stucco or timbers at the front door.


Top end of the 12” piece of tubing has a slug machined in which to join the 54” piece of tubing that will slip on and bolt together.

Forget the sign, just meet them at the door with that thing...

 

[Hickey]

Forget the sign, just meet them at the door with that thing...

I thought he was gonna use it as a javelin against the solicitors. 😂

 

[zmotorsports]

Forget the sign, just meet them at the door with that thing...

I thought he was gonna use it as a javelin against the solicitors. 😂

Both excellent ideas but I was trying to go with a more less violent method of deterring them.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

I took yesterday off work to get caught up on a few things in the shop as well as having to wait around for a contractor to show up.

I was able to get some items crossed off of the white board so I can move on to the next task this coming weekend.

Drilled & tapped the two holes to secure the “no soliciting” sign onto the pole that I built last weekend.

I then played around with some engine turning for the aluminum sign. This was actually practice for another project I had in the shop.

Corresponding holes drilled and test fit.

In between cloud bursts yesterday I sprayed etching primer then some dark bronze on the pole for the sign.

Paint matches quite well.

My DIL cut out the lettering for me and I applied them to the engine turned aluminum plate.

After several coats of clear.

Tonight everything should be dry enough to install the pole and sign. Not a minute too late either because we had two interruptions last night during dinner.

Here is the dowel I used for the engine turning. I added the .500” aluminum arbor so I could hold it in the drill chuck on the mill.

The lapping compound used.

Then I moved on to a project for a gentleman from North Carolina on another forum that I belong to.

I had to move clamps around quite a lot as it was very fragile and wanted to spring back and forth when the dowel would come in contact. Once I clamped in the immediate area the flexing was eliminated but I continued to move the clamps often and keep them close to the contact area.

One down, one to go.

Both completed and cleaned.

Packaged using tape to hold in place and paper between them to prevent marring the finish.

Ready to be shipped back to the owner.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[mbryson]

Did another coat of epoxy coating for my desk last night. Had a few flaws to fix from my first shot at it.

The weird white junk in the bottom picture is from heating the area up to much. Part of the epoxy process is heating the epoxy with a propane torch to eliminate bubbles in the clear. That area is a knot depression and had a lot of bubbles... I over did it just a little (who's surprised?). I sanded the area pretty hard with some 80 grit and it looks like I would have had to strip it down to the wood to get rid of the white bubbles. I decided to just live with the imperfection (of course that'll be where a normal "clean" area is on my desk, not a place covered by a keyboard).

Turned out pretty good. I've have two $25 Lowes purchases wrapped up in a desk for my "dungeon" (1 purchase per coat). Famowood Glaze Coat is what I used that is $25 at the West Bountiful Lowes. 2 quarts is the exact right amount for this surface size. Wood was scrap from the house build. Quick run with a propane torch over the wood to "burn" treat it and then the Glaze Coat and we have a finished product. I have some shelf brackets that weren't used other places in the house that I'll use to mount the "desktop" to the wall and I'm good to go for nerding in my dungeon and moving my junk from the main floor office.


I halfway want to do the glaze coat to my pool table but I'm not sure if I want to tear it down again.

 

[mbryson]

My twin boys think they are gamers and Youtubers. They really wanted to stream but the laptops I got them for Christmas wouldn’t even play most modern games let alone stream. So we set off on building computers. All three of ours are the same build but I did a case swap on mine where we just did a “gamer sticker bomb” vinyl wrap on the twins computers to save money.
Dell Optiplex 9020
I7-4790 cpu
16gb ram
500gb ssd
1tb hhd
RX 580 GTS 8gb ddr5 GPU
650 watt power supplies

My ex wife built them a super nice desk out of Ash to hold everything. And I threw in some RGB led lights under it for maximum gamer effect.

I’m into there’s under $500 each with 1 new 1080p display one used display each,keyboard and mouse. And mine about $100 more minus monitors and stuff.


View attachment 128444
View attachment 128445

@J-mobzz --- what's the deal with the legs of the desk? Those look pretty burly? Possibly very heavy? Love the look and the adjustable height you built in

 

[Herzog]

I ended up making a swivel stand for my drill press and bench grinder out of random scrap in the shop. I wanted to get the drill press off the table for more space and the original bench grinder stand was pretty jenky anyways... this allowed me to combine space and easily use one or the other when I need it.

I cut down an old D60 pinion for the pivot. I'm no machinist (I wish I had the tools!) so I just welded the old races to a chunk of pipe that was close enough to create the outer piece that will rotate.



It aint purdy, but it works



I have an extra spring pin to lock the stand into position


Bench grinder mount added:


Done! I'm satisfied with it.

 

[jeeper]

View attachment 128445

I love that table!

 

[J-mobzz]

I love that table!

Thank you. I built that a few years back. The center pipe is an old satellite dish pole from a lds church. The side bolts were pulled out of a recycling yard along with the 10ga plate I made the sides from and the poplar top well that was just sourced as rough cut but it’s been a cool desk to have.

 

[Hickey]

@Coreshot and I have recreation property in the hills north of Fairview. It gets a little hot there in July and August. Many years ago we had a stock tank that we used as a redneck swimmin pool, as there aren't any great bodies of water close by.



The Wood Hollow fire came through in 2012 and burned everything down, including that plastic tank. Twas a 250 gallon model.

We've talked of replacing that stock tank for many years but never got around to it. Cory has a well on his property, but the pump is bad. Any water we have is hauled in with trailers and big totes from a friend's well below our properties.

We decided to make something happen this year using both of our dump trailers and all of our water totes.


Moving water into the new 16'x7.5' swimmin hole.

It's like an eternity pool... Almost.


Testing the waters...


We've been working on this for 3 weeks. 😂

 

[J-mobzz]

@Coreshot and I have recreation property in the hills north of Fairview. It gets a little hot there in July and August. Many years ago we had a stock tank that we used as a redneck swimmin pool, as there aren't any great bodies of water close by.

View attachment 128643

The Wood Hollow fire came through in 2012 and burned everything down, including that plastic tank. Twas a 250 gallon model.

We've talked of replacing that stock tank for many years but never got around to it. Cory has a well on his property, but the pump is bad. Any water we have is hauled in with trailers and big totes from a friend's well below our properties.

We decided to make something happen this year using both of our dump trailers and all of our water totes.

View attachment 128644
Moving water into the new 16'x7.5' swimmin hole.

It's like an eternity pool... Almost.
View attachment 128645

Testing the waters...

View attachment 128646
We've been working on this for 3 weeks. 😂

I love that so much!! That’s amazing.

 

[DAA]

That is awesome!

- DAA

 

[Herzog]

Seriously Hickey, that's is just rad.

 

[Unimog]

Love it! That has to be a lot of lbs of water!

 

[Hickey]

Love it! That has to be a lot of lbs of water!

1,650 gallons. It's close to weight capacity of the trailer.

 

[Jinx]

Wait Coreshot is alive???

Tell him "hi" for me. it has been a while since I have seen him.

 

[jeeper]

Is there any effort to filter and clean that water?
That’s got to be the most expensive temporary pool ever sitting in a $8k trailer 😳

we’ve got a 15’ intex quickset pool. Why not use something like that up there? Super cheap.