2015 POTD Thread Archive

FYI guys it's well off topic .:grin:.......

When I purchased our ideal house which was an 1864 ex railway gated crossing keepers house some 20 years ago the " Strange guy with long hair , lisp , mincing walk & a wet handshake " ,who sold it to us asked me if I would ,"Please Please" dig up his buried pet dogs and take them to his new isolated property .
I asked him how long they'd been , "ex dogs " and he said at least five years ,with " Jingo " being the eldest and being buried over 11 years ago .

No probs I thought, I've had to go corpse digging /looking for bits once or twice and found them without too much grief.

He gave me the rough locations in the 1 & 1/2 acre plot that was now well over grown with nettles , thorny brambles , briar roses & a couple of hundred cheap job lot trees he planted 17 yerars previously , but never given much thought to as to how big they grow etc.

The first couple of months were spent felling trees and getting the brambles & briars out .
Then in the heat of late Summer I decided to go dog looking with the rotor tiller as now was the time to cultivate & sort things out for a massive quality grass lawned area. .
I found most of them the same day , unfortunately each mutt had been wrapped in a silk shroud then wrapped in a genuine lace shawl and put in a new suitcase the only little problem with all this is that he wrapped each body in yards & yards of food wrap plastic film effectively making them into mummies but with out the advantage of the air helping bacteria & worms to decay things .
Each body had turned into a khaki green slime with the hairs still showing and bits of pink bones sliding around inside that rotor tiller had opened up the very first sodding one I found . I hooped my toe nails up several times .. It got so bad I had to go and have a swig of neat gin to clean my mouth out & bolster me up before I could fully excavate it & dump the suitcase on the trailer down the yard.

Over the next few days I found the remainder of them all packed & parceled up in the same manner , with the same result of me doing up chuckies , save for the last one which whilst the suitcase had been caught on the tines of the tiller it hadn't opened up the internal package.
I chucked the last one on the trailer and a wicked thought occurred to me ..I had to go through the local town to get to the guys place.

YUP ! I sliced open all the suitcases with a new blade in my box cutter ,opened the contents to the air, having a few more regurgitation's whilst doing it . Then after vomiting a few more times whilst connecting the trailer to the car , gave Michael a phone call to say I was bringing his boys & girls home , I drove off to his place ....... through town .
In town I had to stop at several traffic lights and as we all know most small market towns on a Saturday are fair crawling with shoppers & it's often faster to walk that travel in a car .. I saw three people that threw up & suspect that there was more .
On getting to Michael's place he came skipping out full of joy with tears in his eyes as soon as he got a whiff of the mess in my trailer he threw up all over his car putting plenty in through it's open window. he ran away then a few minutes later pleaded with me to, " Dig a hole and bury them , over there , I'll pay you £50 ".
" Make it a hundred & your on " ,I said . " Yes Yes I'll give you a hundred " he replied.

That was the easiest £100 I've ever earnt , I had a few more attempts at vomiting but hadn't anything left inside to throw out . On the way back home I stopped off at the ,local chippies & enjoyed a feast of golden hand cut chips (thick french fries ) and a nice piece of golden fried cod in a beer batter along with mushy peas.
batter. :grin:
That's quite a tale, David! lmao

It brought back memories of a tale told by Garrison Keillor, somewhat of an icon here in the upper Midwest. The gentleman appears every Saturday evening on out national public radio in a show called "a Prairie Home Companion" The highlight of each show is the "news from Lake Woebegone", a mythical community of largely Norwegian heritage in Minnesota where "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

In one episode, it seems that a septic tank which had been made from a re-purposed 1937 Chevy had failed and had to be replaced. The car was duly dug up and loaded on a flat bed wagon. Rather than spoil the ending here is a link to the tale in all its glory. Enjoy!


Bob
 
That's a great show. I listen to it almost every weekend. He has just retired after something like 30 yrs. Really going to miss those Wobegon tales. Mike
 
That's a great show. I listen to it almost every weekend. He has just retired after something like 30 yrs. Really going to miss those Wobegon tales. Mike
Unfortunately, Mike, I rarely have the opportunity to listen. I hope that they will rebroadcast old shows like they are doing with Click and Clack.

Bob
 
I am a big fan of Garrison Keillor. He is not replaceable. It is the end of an another era, and I will miss him as much as I miss real hardware stores.
I went to his show when they came to Dallas. I was very impressed. He does not use any notes. All the songs and stories and poems he quotes are from his head.
 
Kenny, It is over 5" to the floor from the base of the cabinet, so any kind of bolt adjustable foot just wouldn't be stiff enough. The other problem is that the rig is not maneuverable with the swivel casters I got. If I want to change the direction I'm rolling it, I literally have to bend down and hand-turn the casters.

It is possible I could machine a foot from something like a 2" tube with a mounting plate to a 1.5" threaded tube with a foot. But, that doesn't solve the maneuverability issue.

When the foot of the Footmaster is adjusted down, they are very solid, and because of the large off-set of the axle to the pivot point, when it is up, it is easily maneuverable. Just a slight sideways pull, and it easily rotates and tracks.
Hey Franko Wow Those footmasters look like they are HEAVY- HD prob bit pricey tho . if thats the route you are going to go great
Just want to throw something out there that may be a less expensive route .When i was building a 2 tier grinding table shelf bench , i had gotten SS pipe wracks for free however. However needed to make modify shelve mounts , make tiers and add foot mounts ect..
As far as the base/ Mounts i decided to use pipe flange feet for the base . I bought a bunch for project. .Used only 2 for base mounts (returned the other 4 to save a few bucks). The entire project cost me $10 bucks . So ended up making my own version for the tier feet. mounts . Anyways just an idea to toss around going a pipe route. Ya can make any configuration make them adjustable too by couplers. No welding or drilling or any hardware . Just few ideas to whet the whistle . Btw the pics are not my project only showing for examples of rigid footings

pipe1.jpg pipe2.jpg pipe3.jpg
 
shrunk my drill press.
seriously though my favourite drill which is nearly 35yrs old needs some tlc.
as i have couple of spares thought i would sort it out before any damage occurred, so cut down column on old drill i got from place that was shutting down.
it had no table and base was cracked from where it had been bolted down, but motor and quill were good bought it convert top end into tube notcher.
made up adaptor to fit into column from 4" rd stock steel as planning on keeping column to use as multi-purpose stand.
then made adaptor to fit drill top from ali.
going to start stripping my old friend tomorrow ready for re-build and slight mod.
dp.jpg
 
Franko,
heres an example of the cantilever style castor bracket. This saw had to stay as low as possible for the input table to work without modification. This saw is very nice to have but can get messy. The castors all swivel and have a overhead lock that is very easy and a dynamic "click" on/off. No fighting with moving and alignment. The castors ran 38 bucks each but well worth the $$. They are 15 years old and work as new. Two pins disconnect from the input table and the saw can be moved for cleaning/ changing cutting fluid etc outside.
Notice the San Andreas fault in the floor LOL!IMG_1045.JPG
 
Thanks, Paco. I considered doing my that way, but the cabinet is made of plywood. I didn't trust that it wouldn't flex some.

The saga of the mill wheels continues. The Footmaster casters arrived today and I drilled a 1/2" mounting hole in the center of the brackets I made, milled some spacers and installed them.

Half of my problem is solved.
The good news is that mill rolls like it is on an air hockey table.
The bad news is that it still wiggles. The leveling foot wiggles in the housing. I am ******.

I have to say, that I am very unimpressed with Footmaster casters. The ones I got are rated for 500 pounds each. That should be more than sufficient for my application.

I'm going to return them. They don't cut the mustard.
I re-ordered a pair of Carrymaster AC-1000 casters like I used on the lathe. They are rated at 1100 and are dead solid.

Facing a spacer for the caster. It is a 2-5/8" aluminum rod 1-5/6" long, center drilled with 1/2" hole.
Caster with the wheel and the 3" x 1/2-13 set screw to adapt it to the height of my brackets.

turning spacer_0731.JPG caster & spacer_0732.JPG

The finished wobbley installation.

wheels mounted_0734.JPG
 
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Franko, sorry they didn't work out. I'm sure you confirmed the play wasn't coming from any flex in the design thus the reason for the sample photo of the ones utilizing a gusset.
I too would not have mounted to the wood cabinet for the same concern you expressed.
Good luck amigo and keep us posted.
 
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