2018 POTD Thread Archive

Janderso said:

I guess I am a bit OCD. I change the oil in my lawn mower once a year with synthetic oil.
It's a Honda motor going on 20+ years old now.

Click to expand...

I'm way too busy to be changing it that often, also i don't use my lawn mower that often to need it.

I decided to give my 20yr old mountain bike (Univega 900) some love, I cleaned the cobwebs, adjusted the derailluer, ordered some new grips and a more comfortable seat. However I found that I no longer like the hunched down position of riding. So I ordered a new adjustable stem off Amazon.



The stem fits but there's a small problem, I need a longer spacer to raise it up.


Hmm, I think I can make one.



30mins on the lathe, problem solved


Fit like a glove on the first try.


I love having the capability to make random stuff even if it's something as simple as this spacer.

Since I was on the magnet chuck rebuild kick I decided to go through a mag compound sine plate I picked up awhile ago. I was surprised at the rust I found in this one. They must have used coolant a lot.


Ended up surfacing the magnet with some 600 grit on a surface plate along with the bottom side of the top.


Nice thing was nothing was broke or worn just some elbow grease. I then grease her up and reassembled. Surprisingly with both adjustments at zero I only have .0005 difference only in one axis. I can push on it and it goes to zero. I have to figure out where the bind is.

Started on a work stop system for my lathe. Got the plate finished today now on to milling. Started with 1/2” 6”x 6”’square plate.

Here is the video

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Revision #4 of my exhaust (from https://www.hobby-machinist.com/thr...you-make-in-your-shop-today.67833/post-609220)

The exhaust pipe failed right at the flange for mounting it to the head.


Bought a piece of flexible exhaust tubing, cut out most of the vertical tube, used the lathe to turn down the pipe a little to permit the exhaust tubing to fit over it (so actual, proper "machining" content today), welded short bits of the pipe to each end, welded the flange back onto the pipe, and cut/fit the flexible tubing.

The result:

I think I'll weld the flexible tubing to the top part, and install a small exhaust clamp for the bottom joint.

I have a big horizontal bandsaw, and use a smaller Harbor Freight bandsaw at the Railroad museum. They are perfect for whacking off lengths of bars and rods, but since I do not have a vertical bandsaw, there is an occasional need to make an angle cut on an odd shaped part. Trouble is, the vises on these saws are not really designed for short or odd shaped parts, and it takes awhile to figure out how to hold any particular part. In fact I see that the movable jaw on some saws is shorter and doesn’t come close to the blade...makes working with small parts harder.

I have a couple of Kreg auto-adjusting clamps for my woodworking, and I have mortised a few of the clamp plates into my workbenches so I can hold a piece flat and firm about wherever it is needed. I was wishing there was something like this for the saws, and noted that each saw has a clearance slot running the length of the bed for the vise actuator screw.

I took advantage of this, and made a simple part in just a few minutes that comes up through that slot to hold the clamp. I ran a 5/16-18 carriage bolt up through a Delrin holder, and that allows the vise to slide along the slot as needed, and rotate to any angle to hold small or weird parts securely. Just retract the vise jaw back a bit, reach under the saw with the holder, stick through the slot, and screw the clamp on loosely...it tightens as the clamp pressure is applied.

I still want a vertical saw, but this takes care of a bunch of my needs. Give it a try?

My son and I reload ammo, and the Dillon press we use has interchangeable tool heads which are set up for each caliber. Dillon sells individual
stands for the toolheads when not in use, but instead I decided to make one that would hold four.



Just a simple job with some steel tube I had in the spares box and stainless "pins" to support the heads. But, the learning
part came from the fact that I had never turned 304 before. Got the speeds figured out, power fed everything and made sure
the tool was cutting rather than rubbing the work, so I had no problems with work hardening. I bought some new Cobalt drills
as well, which worked nicely.

Finished my clamps for the mini pallet


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Finally replaced those awful, taffy-soft, too-short head to column pinch bolts on the Rong Fu with some good USA stuff. So much better!

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Special grill scraper to fit the grate on a high end grill.



Robert