What have you been doing today?

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Onboard an oil rig now in Persian gulf. Its summer here with temperature 45-48C and humidity in 30s. One time the temperature went to 53C in engine room. It was hell.
Just had physical therapy. I’m doing ok. I guess, no pains waiting for stitches to be removed from minor operation site. Summer has been about average not too many really hot days lots of rain however . Just an extension of massive winter snow falls . Can’t complain I guess others are much worse off than me . I’ve lived in the far north cold as well as our east coast hurricanes.
 
I've been working on a new core box for my 10CC model engine patten, then trying some castings. Right now, machining the casting to see
how they turn out. Using the Sherline with the mill column. The most critical castings for the engine are the crank case, the cylinder head and the gear housing. Used SolidWorks to create an STL file that was then sent to ART in Fredericksburg, VA to print epoxy patterns.
 

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I saw that there use to be a fun thread like this, and maybe it would be fun to have it again.

I'll start. I've been on the forum, and looking after my gardenia bush. It smells so good, especially at night in the mellow heat of summer.

And then I like listening to music. Since it is almost the 4th of July, I was listening to this earlier today. This has the Bicentennial presentation of "1812" with the cannons and church bells,etc.


Well another long needle injection in tummy. I YHINK just the thought of it makes it worse. I wanted to take a picture of the “ war weapon” but they said they prefer I not do this . At least the doc review was very good . 2 more to go then he thinks I’ll be in full remission . And energy should return gradually . I sure hope so. It’s so frustrating . Got two boxes packed up for the move. So that was good . It was such a relief to get home that I took a long nap with my kitty . Got my full step count today just moving around in the clinic . I got most of iPhone and iPad issues fixed with a call to Apple . Great customer service . Real person . Got stitches removed from elbow yesterday it’s healing very good . The wrap kept coming loose so I cut the toe off a clean sock the used that with the heel just covering the outer elbow this allowed much better movement without pain . Had physical therapy in morning followed directly by I&R blood test. So busy med day . All 3 events were right on time.
 
It wasn't really fun, but the lawn is mowed and looks much better. Good for another week! Ah, summer.
Doug
Rember in hurricane Hugo I got caught up in it in the middle of job change large long leaf pine tree fell across my twin dog kennel jamming the gates I had a tiny Mac chain saw that took entire week end to cut enough of it off do I could unbolt the gates dogs were happy to get out . I also had a big magnolia tree in the yard the wind stripped almost all the large leaves off leaving a huge mess wet magnolia leave don’t rake easily I tried mowing them but they are pretty tough things and my mower just couldn’t chop them up . I had wait a week for them to dry up . Mean time they browned the remaining grass under them . Hail from the storm cracked my motel room window so I had to move to a more protected room . Now only deal with knee deep snow in the winter .
 
Spotted this on a search for family stuff.
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-...tiny-'naval-brigade'-victori-846-c-bd44a34b04Probably not of interest except to family and "VC lovers".... but may be of interest here to someone? - It's what some people do (did) for a day in their lives.... beats digging for potatoes....
K2
I'd disagree!
Digging for potatoes beats wandering around digging through mountains of other people's detritus hands down.
After I dig the spuds - - - - well - - I get to eat them!!
(Have dug about 2/3rds of ours so far - - - - very early for here at least.)
 
On Potatoes.... this last week all the tops on mine have died/dropped-off. They were lush one day, dead the next. Maybe because I couldn't manage to water them last week? Is it time to dig-up the spuds? I guess they can wait a week or 2 as I slipped a disc last week and only manage to get around with strong NSAIDs at the moment. - Hence time on the PC to dig-up stuff about my forebears.
K2
 
Spotted this on a search for family stuff.
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-...tiny-'naval-brigade'-victori-846-c-bd44a34b04Probably not of interest except to family and "VC lovers".... but may be of interest here to someone? - It's what some people do (did) for a day in their lives.... beats digging for potatoes....
K2eell yesterday was moving day I have moved to Tenn we got all of my stuff packed and loaded in one day. Then the next day we began the drive to Tenn stopped st Rockford fo the night then finished the final leg to Tenn got all unloaded upon arrival . Only casualty was tv screen fell out of trailer and cracked screen so not a big deal as new ones are dirt cheap . I use the tv as a screen for my lap top when doing solid works as I can’t see lap top icons so we’ll probably go find someting in the next day or so . Got all unloaded in a couple hours. My sister took my beloved kitty . Kitty will have a very hood home grand kids have already brushed her a couple times she has really sharp claws so sis will take her over to vet for shots and claw clipping . Kitty has already found her new sand box and food dishes kitty has over 9” spread of whiskers so she get extra wide water and food dishes . She had a little issue with grand kids stuffed animals but has now worked that out . I have my own hobby room do all my steam stuff is already there I found a book by Joshua rose called modern steam engines so I’m reading that over it’s quite a tech book but covers about all types of piston steam defines .

So move is completed now have to set up med stuff then start living again
 
Carry on living as long as they will let you. My ex-NHS dentist told me today that I am no longer a customer, as they are now only robbing private patients for their treatment, not providing a service at NHS rates. I blame the Germans, EU or anyone else. Jealous of the UK system that we had "for the people". 43 years paying National Insurance stamp and no-one will treat my teeth now.
K2
 
I built this indoor plant potting "studio" for my wife years ago and she uses it all the time. She was dividing a terribly bound-up bunch of White Siberian Irises last night. You can see them in the containers on the left. The right side of the counter and the sink were disasters (like the left) so I did a thorough cleaning of it for her.
Why?
1) she deserves it.
2)Task avoidance..........Its a heck of a lot easier than cleaning my shop, LOL.

IMG_20230906_111419560.jpg
 
What a nice lump of shiny metal! Hope it works as well as it looks! Of course, the secret is the shape inside where gases run.. and fuel splashes. Please keep us posted.
K2
..............emphasis added by Lloyd..........
I remember the classic line from the long running comedy series "Saturday Night Live". Billy Crystal's impersonation of Ricardo Montoban. "It is better to Look good, than to Feel good."
The intake screen really sets the entire assembly off.
 
Speaking of carburetors...it appears this fuel line disconnected itself from the carb at full pressure and atomized nicely (demo derby last night). You can see the S shape on the flame. The flame was twice this size before I shot this video.
My wife heard the crowd roar from inside the house across the river. Driver was fine and the firemen got the flames out right away.
Demoderby.jpg
 
A fun hobby.... Was it a carburettor or higher pressurised fuel injection system?
I did a fire fighting exercise at work. A 6ft x 4 ft tray with a half-inch of petrol. Ignited the flames were way over my head as 2 of us evtinguished the fire. I had the water spray to make a heat screen, so the other guy could direct the foam on top.... Hot stuff! I did not want to do that again, for real. Big respect for fire fighters!
K2
 
I have been working on a project that is only tangentially related to model engineering ... but it did present me with an interesting machining challenge. I got a chance to buy a Powermatic 66 table saw for $200. Those of you who are into woodworking will recognize this as a now discontinued high-end cabinet saw in the same price and quality range as a Delta Unisaw - in other words, $200 was a a killer deal. Of course, the reason it was $200 was because it had seen heavy use in a school setting, but the bearings and trunions are smooth and tight, the motor looks brand new, and the dings and scratches on the table were nothing that concerns me for woodworking.

There were / are three issues that I knew had to be addressed. The first was that motor, a 5hp 3-phase Baldor. The seller told me he knew how to test a 3-phase motor, but he did not think the motor worked. As mentioned, the motor looks brand new; the magnetic switch, on the other hand, looks well used. I figured there might be a problem in the switch, or maybe the motor was wired up for 440 instead of 220, or for a wye instead of a delta, or so on, but in any case I was willing to take a chance on it. When I got the saw home, I checked the wiring - no obvious problems, and it was wired for 220 delta. So I wired a plug on it and plugged it into my 3hp rotary phase converter, hoping it might be enough to start the motor, if the motor actually worked. Wow - the motor starts right up and runs smooth as silk; the magnetic switch functions perfectly. Issue #1 resolved!

The second issue is where the machining challenge came in. The miter gauge slots, especially the left hand slot that gets the most use, was badly worn, unevenly, up to .020" oversize in places. After much pondering, I decided to mill the slots to clean up the wear, leaving each slot parallel, straight, and identical in width - oversize compared to a standard miter slot, but I have a solution for that (see below). The challenge here is that, even though my Bridgeport has a 42" table, it only (only!) has a maximum X-travel of 24" (limited to 22" using the powerfeed), but the slots are 28" long. Meanwhile, the slots are around 16" apart, but the BP has a maximum Y-travel of 12". So ... how to mill both slots, perfectly straight, parallel, and to size across their whole length?

The solution, of course, lies in the flexibility of the Bridgeport design. While the BP design sacrifices rigidity, it allows one to tackle projects that otherwise would be outside the scope of a less flexible machine. I first secured the saw table centered on the mill table and indicated it using the least worn slot; I got it within a half-a-thou or so, not counting the dings and dips. I extended and rotated the ram so that I could reach all the way to one end of the outer slot, which was also the most worn slot. I machined until I cleaned up one side, zeroed the DRO, then machined until I cleaned up the other side, carefully noting the final reading on the DRO. Then I rotated the ram so that I could reach the as-yet unmachined end of the slot. Now came the part that caused a good bit of pre-machining anxiety - cutting this section so as to match exactly with the already-machined section. I marked the already machined part with marker; then I used a paper shim to set the cutter to within a couple of thou to this already machined part. I then milled the un-machined section a half-thou at a time, extending into the previously machined part until I just scraped the marker off. At that point, I zeroed the DRO and moved to a couple of thou short of the recorded DRO reading on the other side of the slot, then again worked my way in half-a-thou at a time, using both the DRO and the marker to hit the size. I also used an adjustable parallel set to the width established in the previously machined end of the slot as a gauge; this was a very helpful sanity check. Once I had both ends of the slot machined straight and parallel and to size, with the adjustable parallel sliding smoothly but snugly throughout with the same "feel," I wound the ram back in and repeated the whole thing with the inner slot, opening it to the same size, again creeping up on the size and using the adjustable parallel to check.

I have to admit that I was both relieved and more than a little pleased with myself when I got done. I had feared making a mess of it, but as best I can tell, I succeeded to within the limits of my ability to measure. Whew!

Of course, this now means that a standard miter gauge will no longer fit snugly in the slots. But that brings up the third issue, which is that the saw lacked a miter gauge. The solution to both problems, of course, is to make my own, or at least make my own bar, custom sized to my now over-sized miter gauge slots. That is the next project awaiting my attention.

And that is "what I have been doing today" (or rather, over a good many days)!
 
A fun hobby.... Was it a carburettor or higher pressurised fuel injection system?
I did a fire fighting exercise at work. A 6ft x 4 ft tray with a half-inch of petrol. Ignited the flames were way over my head as 2 of us evtinguished the fire. I had the water spray to make a heat screen, so the other guy could direct the foam on top.... Hot stuff! I did not want to do that again, for real. Big respect for fire fighters!
K2
Ha, no my bad it was likely injected. The vehicles are old but the engines in this class were pretty fancy.
 

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