MetalworkingFun Forum

Getting the hang of it with milling now aren't you, Darren? Looks great!

You do have access to some exotic (to us) woods there, so I'll be watching to see how you do the handles.

Thanks Ken - I'm going to go with Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata)

That quarter-sawn is impressive.

I got to work a little bit more on a project that I started awhile ago, but just haven't been able to keep up lately. I borrowed an idea from Tom Lipton (Ox-tools) and began putting together a QCTP holder rack. The top of my lathe head stock is now covered (three layers deep) with tool holders and other "stuff", and it needs to go. I want to have two rails mounted behind my lathe to hold my AXA and BXA sized holders where they will be out of the way, yet I can easily reach them.

The rails are the common "uni-strut" stuff found in the electrical department of the big box stores, used for hanging conduit, electrical boxes and pipes etc. They use little t-nuts for attaching things to the rails and are available in multiple fastener sizes. I bought a bag full of angle brackets that are wide enough to accommodate both sizes of my tool holders with a little mill work. For my AXA holders I had to cut 0.200" from each side of the brackets on the "uprights". The BXA holders will be a little wider.

Still a work in progress, but you get the idea and I'll get there eventually.  

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My order from McMaster Carr showed up last night so I hurried and machined the content restraints for my new residential refrigerator in the coach.  I started with some .5" 6061 aluminum rods and machined the ends down to .350" at 1.250" in length for the small spring to slip over.  I also drilled and tapped a 10-32 thread in the end .400" deep so the screw would bottom out before locking down on the Delrin, which will allow it so slide about .375".


Next up it to chuck up a piece of .750" Delrin and machine a .5" opening to slip over the aluminum rod and then machine a recess for the 10-32 stainless steel socket head capscrews.


This completed end is actually the stationary end, it measures 1.125" OAL.  The countersunk hole is for the head of the stainless steel socket head capsrew.


This end will slip over the .5" rod.


Here I am machining the spring loaded end.  This will also be a little longer, 2.25" OAL.  I am just using a .250" two-fluted end mill in the tailstock to countersink for the bolt head to float in.


Here are the components that make up the spring loaded end.


Five of each end completed and awaiting the rods.


Machining the spring area of the other rods and drilling/tapping the screw thread in each end.


Three of them completed.  


One of them completed and installed.


It was late last night but I completed three of them.  I have enough for two more but I will complete them after we return from our test trip, just in case I need to make any "adjustments".

Mike.

Hey Greg! If you need any more shakes, I have a few to get rid of. My son and I are two days into stripping and re-roofing the 3000 square foot roof on his cow barn. The first day we built a scaffold to the eaves, so we could reach it with a ladder (the orange one in the pic is a 40 footer), then figured out the best way to strip two layers of shakes and an aluminum outer. The second day we got the valley figured out between this one and the older (1884) front barn and laid a few courses of steel, making sure we got it nice and plumb. It would have gone faster, but we picked two cloudless 95 degree days to start. Should be cooler this weekend though. My son is uncomfortable with heights, so guess who gets to work the upper part?

Tom

Looks like a daunting task Tom. Like the scaffold, neat idea. Are you stripping all the shingles? Spent another afternoon making them here.

Yes Greg, it is a daunting task. I figure another 10 man days to finish if there isn't too much damaged wood underneath. All of the shakes are coming off since they are part of the reason the aluminum roofing failed. Most of the screws ended up in the soft cedar and didn't hold, so it pulled off in the wind. The new steel panels will be screwed directly to the roof boards.

The scaffold worked out really well. It has a U shaped channel along the back side for the ladders to sit in, so there is no need the tie them down. I'm going to re-design it a bit though to eliminate the sections of 2x6 that rest on the roof, because they get in the way of the new panels. I'm going to add some structure to make it free standing instead.

The front barn is next and will require two people working off ropes, since it's taller and has a steeper pitch than this one. The good thing is that all it needs is some new wood around the eaves. The steel can be screwed down over the existing roof.

Tom

Replaced the two starting and one of the run capacitors in my compressor motor. Still don't understand how it could start when the capacitors were open but it no longer dims the shop lights when it starts.

The great goddess google may have answered my question. Maybe. This motor uses two 15 uF run capacitors in parallel as well as the two 1060 uF start capacitors in series. The run capacitors stay connected to the start winding all the time, the start capacitors are connected through the centrifugal switch. So I guess the one 15 uF run capacitor was enough to get it turning in the correct direction on start. The compressor has an unloader valve so the motor only has to spin up the mass on startup.