What have you been doing today?

[Sprocket]

Minh Than,
I wish I could, but these don't travel well.
Doug

 

[ArdVaark]

Spent the morning helping a neighbour wheelbarrow sod to his back yard. Then helped lay it on the ground.

Now sitting in the shop contemplating whether I have enough energy left to sweep the floor.

 

[Steamchick]

Is that "Sod's Law" in action?
I presented 2 boilers for testing at my local club this weekend.
One passed easily, trouble free setting-up, testing, etc.
The other was a disaster of my making.... The 10 year old boiler is to be tested to a new version of the certification.... so prepared for Hydraulic test - until I found I was short of a fitting to connect test gauge to boiler... (stupid me!).
So we dismantled a blow-down valve, but the jury-rigged (bodged) connection leaked... (done by the Boiler inspector) And left to fiddle with it, I broke it! - Probably due to brass de-zincification of one part of the valve? (coppery appearance and crystalline break zone).
So NO TEST. and broken proprietary part. Now I must make a new bit for the valve (from bronze?) and test in a month or 3...
Ho Hum.
Now that's Sod's Law!
K2

 

[lee webster]

My workshop re-arrangement is 99% finished. I gained 6 or 8 inches of extra width in the garage by swapping the shelf units around. It might not sound much to justify several days of very hard work, BUT, after sweeping the floor, I moved the Austin Seven I am working on over to one side enough to work on the rear offside brakes, and I could still get access down the other side. I couldn't before, and it's where all the tools and spare parts are, so well worth it. I also re-positioned the workbench from one side of the garage, to the top of the garage. Before the re-arranging, the workbench was being blocked by the car. I have now started to rebuild the parts of the rear hub before fitting a new hydraulic cylinder.

 

[lee webster]

Part two.
After all the work on the garage/workshop I ended up with a lot of stuff that needed a new home, so I had to clean out the shed to make room for it. Whilst cleaning the shed I noticed that there is a lot of rot in some of the panels. I need a new shed. That can wait till next year!

 

[Bentwings]

Part two.
After all the work on the garage/workshop I ended up with a lot of stuff that needed a new home, so I had to clean out the shed to make room for it. Whilst cleaning the shed I noticed that there is a lot of rot in some of the panels. I need a new shed. That can wait till next year!

Having a really bad day. Somebody hacked bank card bank security locked account . I arranged for a new card to be sent over night have not received it yet. I’ve been on the phone all morning making arrangements with companies I have account with . Most are ok but Amazon and AT&T are the worst their customer service is terrible it’s hard to get to a real person I intently dislike text messages they send instructions that only stay visible for a few seconds then when I try to view them I lose the person AI. REALLY inhales . Now all my med stuff needs changing even the pharmacy for co pays. I think there are 20 or more contacts to makes patience is really thin right now . Big fire works in field behind home some really big firecrackers. Lots of big rockets.

 

[Bentwings]

Having a really bad day. Somebody hacked bank card bank security locked account . I arranged for a new card to be sent over night have not received it yet. I’ve been on the phone all morning making arrangements with companies I have account with . Most are ok but Amazon and AT&T are the worst their customer service is terrible it’s hard to get to a real person I intently dislike text messages they send instructions that only stay visible for a few seconds then when I try to view them I lose the person AI. REALLY inhales . Now all my med stuff needs changing even the pharmacy for co pays. I think there are 20 or more contacts to makes patience is really thin right now . Big fire works in field behind home some really big firecrackers. Lots of big rockets.

Lots of really big stuff. I think somebody lit off a garbage bags of oxy acetylene as there was a blast that shook everything quite a few people around cheered. Then cops came asking questions no arrests someone had a metal Potato gun firing flaming balls highly illegal there is a gun shop thatsells lots of reloading supplies so various powders are readily available Home made fireworks are really dangerous. I remember as a youngster having older kids get M 80’s for us they are illegal now too. Lots of big celebrations this year my kitty watched in the windows . Many special effects are now done with drones . Must be fun doing this .

 

[Steamchick]

Guess you must have been celebrating the date you stopped paying tax to the UK?
Your tax bill is still running at this end though.... with interest at inflation plus 2%....
K2

 

[Bentwings]

Guess you must have been celebrating the date you stopped paying tax to the UK?
Your tax bill is still running at this end though.... with interest at inflation plus 2%....
K2

Just got home from clinic had sir Lancelot squire for nurse today. Not too painful. Transportation drivers are crazy I don’t think they know what turn signals are for.

 

[Rocket Man]

I spent the day enjoying my second hobby; it's called KiteBoarding. This sport involves attaching a large fabric kite to the climbing harness you're wearing and allowing the wind to pull you across the water while you stand on a piece of plywood about the size of an ironing board. It's good fun and a great way to get in some some much needed exercise here in the hot, humid tropics of Thailand.

View attachment 137595

When I lived in Arizona wind was perfect to fly kites. I had lots of fun with kites. A 1/2 mile of string sags so we put 8 kites on the same string 300 ft apart. We had several different kites for doing different things.

Now I live in gusty wind Tennessee where wind speed can be any speed 15 mph for 20 seconds then dead calm for 25 seconds. I have not found a kite yet that will fly in this wind conditions.

 

[Bentwings]

Up here in Minn it’s almost dead calm sunny on the way to 85 deg day. Waiting for sis to come and do meds and grocery shopping . The infusion Friday again leaves me with 0 energy . I’m just starting to pack hobby stuff and clothes for move to Tenn in the fall. Hopefully before first snow. Big doc visit this Fri. It will determine the balance of treatments for the next few weeks . Hopefully these can be completed before the move. It will be hard enough to get established as it is. My two sons will help with the move.

 

[LaFrance4]

Been busy reloading 1000 rounds of .380 cartridges. Then spent a couple of hours laying out the yard for my Lionel trains.

 

[Bentwings]

Up here in Minn it’s almost dead calm sunny on the way to 85 deg day. Waiting for sis to come and do meds and grocery shopping . The infusion Friday again leaves me with 0 energy . I’m just starting to pack hobby stuff and clothes for move to Tenn in the fall. Hopefully before first snow. Big doc visit this Fri. It will determine the balance of treatments for the next few weeks . Hopefully these can be completed before the move. It will be hard enough to get established as it is. My two sons will help with the move.

Today I was at the clinic having an IV treatment. A lady came by with a service dog. It’s always polite to ask if the dog would like some pets so I did. She said he loves that I gently called the big Chesapeake retriever and he came over , looked up atvthe IV bag and put his foot and head on my knee. He looked up at me as if to say” you are going to be ok “ so he got lots of pets . The lady said he does that too when she has the IV bag too. He just nuzzled in I thought he might jump in my lap . We said our greetings and they left. Not to be out done when I got home my kitty jumped in my lap and sniffed around then licked my wrist right above the small wrap . She then curled up in my lap . She does not purr loud or often she vibrates but today she vibrated for a long time . Cats pad with front feet she was padding my leg for quite a long time she only likes one kind of treat. I keep a few in my pocket. So I gave her a few . So a disagreeable day turned out ok today. Only a few more of these and I’ll get some time off according to the doc . I guess that’s a good sign. These clinic visits take a whole day get ready in morning wait for transportation the event then wait for ride home .

 

[Steamchick]

I read that scientific studies show that purring cats heal better than non-purring moggies. Toms and Queens will purr heavily when they sense a wound that needs healing, and try and nuzzle the wounded zone, as the acoustics actually stimulate some extra healing endophines.... so keep Kitty purring on the healing parts. Cheaper than Acupunture. (THAT works really well!).
Also dogs detect cancers and some other medical problems by smelling your sweat and breath.... They just can't speak English to explain their diagnosis.
You must thinkI am barking mad..... I appear so on purrrrrrpose.

 

[michael-au]

I bought a 3 phase 4Hp motor and VFD in 2018 and never used it, so I just decide it was time to make in fit the mill and put it to use
I didn't want to butcher the pulley on the original motor as the shaft sizes were not the same, so I made a new shaft extension for the new motor

First I made a sleeve to fit the shaft and broached a keyway in it then a fitting for the pulley to fit onto and keyed them, joined the two parts with four Allan head bolts with the head of them recessed so the pulley would not foul on them (didn't get a photo with the bolts in) once the were all joined slipped them on to the motor shaft and then a 10mm bolt went through the centre in to the motor shaft

Installed an encoder to the spindle so I can set and see the spindle speed

Wired the motor to the VFD and the VFD to the cnc controller adjusted a few setting, no more swapping belts to change the spindle speed, so far all working very well

 

[michael-au]

I also swapped my small CNC lathe over to a Masso touch controller so I could do away with the computer and Mach3
The mill has been running on a Masso controller since around March 2022, very happy with it

 

[lee webster]

Today started as an ordinary day. Did a bit of shopping, took a friend to her friends house etc. This evening I sat down to watch a Red Dwarf dvd. Watched the dvd, and decided to do a bit of work on my model car. Turned the telly off, turned round and saw some stuff on the little side table under the main table. Odd, I thought, I haven't seen that before. I vacuumed and polished in the room only a few days ago. On investigation I discovered that said items are birthday cards and presents from my family. My 70th is tomorrow, the 20th. Now, I shouldn't have missed seeing these things, so I am left with 2 possibilities. One, a member of my family drove a 700 mile round trip to hide them when I wasn't there, or two, they hid them, in plain sight, when they stayed with me several weeks ago, in the full expectation I wouldn't find them because, well just because. I think one is more likely than two.
Third option is that they told me about the prezzies when they stayed and I forgot. No, it's one. I'm sure of it.

 

[Steamchick]

Michael, this looks very clever, but apart romantic the Hoby of fitting the controls, does it make better parts, or mass-produce parts, or shape parts by generating profits and curves, or what?
As a human I have limitations, to controlling feeds one axis at a time. So does your controls system do more?
I have the same basic lathe. But totally human controlled.
K2

 

[Steamchick]

Happy birthday Lee. So "who dunnit?"
K2

 

[michael-au]

Michael, this looks very clever, but apart romantic the Hoby of fitting the controls, does it make better parts, or mass-produce parts, or shape parts by generating profits and curves, or what?
As a human I have limitations, to controlling feeds one axis at a time. So does your controls system do more?
I have the same basic lathe. But totally human controlled.
K2

Hi
It will run g-code generated from CAD-CAM software, I use fusion360
The controller will move Z & X axis at the same time, so it can do threading and turn tappers also ball ends
I am not a qualified machinist just a self taught hobbyist so for me making my small lathe and my mill CNC was part of the hobby, but it does make turning or milling complex parts and repetitive parts a little bit easier, I can still mange my fare share of bad parts too

Michael