2015 POTD Thread Archive

Do to health reasons I haven't done much in the shop for a long time, But today I decided I needed to do something. I got a new ham antenna a few weeks ago and not being able to get the right size pipe I had to make a adapter to fit what I had.

I'm just getting back into ham after around 40 years ( like I need another hobby). Anyway the base of the antenna needed a 1 3/8 tube and I had a 1 5/8 pipe so I made a adapter that would fit over the pipe and a reduced part for the antenna.

I guess that SWMBO was feeling a little sorry for me because she got me a Kenwood TS-520 transceiver and other things I would need.

If anyone said a little prayer for my Cancer problem I want to think you. Ok on to the pictures.

Paul

1 (1).JPG 1 (2).JPG Kenwood TS-520.JPG
 
So yesterday I decided to spray some blackberrys. I have a sprayer that's mounted to my ATV and when I started spraying the hose where it connects to the spray wand started to leak. When I tightened the hose clamp the plastic fitting broke spraying Crossbow on me. After cleaning up the mess I took the broken fitting to the house for some quality time on the cad machine. This morning I machined up the new replacement fitting and it works like a charm. Nice to have $$$ equipment to make a cheap part. LOL

fitting1.JPG fitting2.JPG fitting3.JPG fitting4.JPG fitting5.JPG
 
Old Iron said:
Do to health reasons I haven't done much in the shop for a long time, But today I decided I needed to do something. I got a new ham antenna a few weeks ago and not being able to get the right size pipe I had to make a adapter to fit what I had.

I'm just getting back into ham after around 40 years ( like I need another hobby). Anyway the base of the antenna needed a 1 3/8 tube and I had a 1 5/8 pipe so I made a adapter that would fit over the pipe and a reduced part for the antenna.

I guess that SWMBO was feeling a little sorry for me because she got me a Kenwood TS-520 transceiver and other things I would need.

If anyone said a little prayer for my Cancer problem I want to think you. Ok on to the pictures.

Paul
Click to expand...

Was the orginal part cast or machined? Looks to me it was casted.

Some of my late friends where extra class hams, they have passed on.

Glad you are feeling better.
 
Late yesterday, I got an email/order from my boss/eldest son for a number of balsa propellers. I spent several hours last night and today getting them ready to ship tomorrow. He's going to a major meet next week and wants them by Monday. This is what I did in my shop today.

Misc props.JPG

I've gotta talk to him about waiting till the last minute. The shortest are 6" long, the big one is 18 inches long. The threaded ones are hinged and fold back against the fuselage when the rubber band runs out.
 
Have a new to me Frejoth 1340 lathe that was making a lot of noise. Knew it was a bearing but have been putting off changing it. It was the one on the shaft with the drive pulley on it and naturally on the bottom of the headstock.

Tore into it this morning and finally got it apart. The new bearing was $3.55 and the oil to refill the headstock was about $5.00.

Got it back together about five this evening. Sure sounds a LOT quieter. Can actually hear my radio with the lathe running now!!
 
T Bredehoft said:
Late yesterday, I got an email/order from my boss/eldest son for a number of balsa propellers. I spent several hours last night and today getting them ready to ship tomorrow. He's going to a major meet next week and wants them by Monday. This is what I did in my shop today.

I've gotta talk to him about waiting till the last minute. The shortest are 6" long, the big one is 18 inches long. The threaded ones are hinged and fold back against the fuselage when the rubber band runs out.
Click to expand...

I'd be very interested to see how you make those propellers!

John
 
A picture won't do any good. The blank is mounted in a carriage which revolves as it moves length wise. A vertical spindle carries a 7/8 inch diameter sanding roll spinning at 10,000 rpm. Most props take two or three passes on each side, with one template determining the rate of 'roll,' another the profile of the prop, thin at the ends, thicker in the middle. The large prop is made of three pieces, the two blades are made on the machine and glued to a 3/8 by 1/2 piece of basswood. The hinge wires are bent to fit the blades, glued and thread wrapped to secure them.
The machine was built about 25 years ago by a mechanical genius out of parts of other machines. It's all run by a 12 volt battery charger, supplying 12 Volts to the stepper motors which move the carriage and the spindle (which moves up and down as it spins). The spindle is driven by a 1/2 horse 110 volt motor spinning at 3450 rpm. There are manual controls for depth of cut (sometimes over the 7/8 diameter of the sanding roll) and which side of the blade is being worked upon. The 6 in props take about two minutes to make, the 13 1/2 inch (the five with threading) about 12 minutes. Blade tips are about .10 inches thick, while the hubs are near 5/16 to 3/8. This wood was imported from a surf board manufacturer in Melbourne Australia.
Thanks for your interest.
Edit: Added data: the customer carves and sands the props to airfoil form and seals them with dope or some other substance. All we do is rough them out.
 
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Today, I lugged home some one-by furring strips, a 4x8 sheet of pegboard, and two packs of organizers. I also slipped two carbide-tipped sawzall blades into the cart while I wasn't looking, don't know how they got there, but I got a use for 'em. ;)

So, weather permitting, on Saturday, I'll slice the sheet into two 2'x8' pieces, cut up some one-bys to offset it from the wall, and get it put up on the wall. I already have the same setup on the north wall of the shop, now I'm duplicating it on the south wall. Pegboard is always useful, and I have plenty to load it up with.

The wife's phone broke today. Not the screen, but the speaker. No ringing on incoming calls, no alerts on messages, etc. She traded it in on a new Samsung S6, and got me a new tablet for free to boot! The only things wrong with my current tablet are a cracked touch screen (the display is fine, but the glass is jacked up), and that the battery is loosing it's oomph. A new front glass is about $35, but it's a royal bear to install. But, with another tablet, I can safely do this myself. :)

Despite what a lot of people work with think, I actually use my tablet for work. Not gaming, not facebook or stuff like that. It's loaded with apps that I use for work. Network utilities, remote administration tools, monitoring and status tools, secured and encrypted data, etc, etc. About the most I use my table for as entertainment, I read these forums sometimes while on break or lunch, I watch Netflix on it sometimes, youtube sometimes. It gets a lot of use in the shop, too. Looking things up, a dang handy calculator, notes, music player, etc.

Actually, there is one (1) game that I play on it. Old-school NetHack. "You starved to death."

Progress will resume on the toolpost grinder soon. I got sick of not having somewhere to put often-used items within easy reach, so I decided more pegboard was in order.

No pictures, as my shop is a disaster right now. I hate the mess. But, I made it, and I gotta clean it up.
 
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