2017 POTD Thread Archive

One of my more satisfying POTDs; made my wife smile. We have been blessed with a very nice home. Our entryway is open to 2 stories and as the weather starts to cool we get unwanted house guests in the form of lady bugs. Hundreds of them get in someplace and ball up at the peak of our foyer. I’ve set up an extension ladder and carried a vacuum cleaner up with me to get them in the past. Gotta be a better way, of course, a POTD!

Took an attachment and measured the ID at two depths with a telescoping gauge to get the taper and ID of the opening. Also measured the OD of a 10’ length of ¾” PVC pipe. Little bit of sag in the PVC when held out flat, but it was a lot lighter than thin-walled conduit and only dropped about 6” at 10’.

Chucked up some 1 ½” Delrin and drilled/bored a 0.90” hole (ID of the ¾” PVC). Then bored the PVC end 1” deep to the OD of the PVC (1.060”). Flipped the adapter and set the taper attachment to 0.5 deg. Really nice to have a DRO on the lathe for tapering. The X (diameter) would move with the Z (longitudinal) IF I had turned the cross feed clockwise to take out backlash after turning CCW for a deeper cut. Checked the fit with the wand end of the vacuum when I got close.

Used some Gorilla glue to attach the ¾” PVC to the adapter. Project sucked, just like it was supposed to. No more lugging a vacuum cleaner up the ladder for me!

Bruce

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We have been drowning in the orange biting ladybugs. Fly into the house all the time. Pests!
 
I've been toying with the thought of a laser myself. I don't like using the vacuum becaquse they continue to emit an odor in the vacuum. I used to have a Dust Buster that was deidicated to them but the battery went south.

I have managed to seal the house up fairly tight but a few get in. In the kitchen, we have 8' ceilings and we find the a tall jar with soapy water works well for the occasional Asian Beetle.
 
Bruce, Pierre and RJ -

Where are you located? I never got ladybugs in Oregon (or here in Arizona), just an occasional invasion of box elder beetles.

I'm hoping the folks in charge of the forum get a bit of breathing room soon, and can re-add posters' location info. It was always nice to know.
 
I repaired the table on the kalamazoo 6" belt sander I'm rebuilding. had to recut the front that was damaged by the belt and recut the 45 degree front lip. I have always hated to move the head to 45 degrees and then tram it in again. but one purchase I made this year was the double indicator tramming tool. makes tramming so easy that I moved it and retrammed it. this tool works so nice I should have bought one years ago. if anybody else is wondering about this tool it works great. I trammed both directions in about 5 minutes bill
 
The Asian Beetles were introduced into this country as a means of controlling aphids in fruit and nut trees. It turns out that they like the aphiods which feast on soy beans. When soy beans are harvested in the fall, their food supply disappears along with their home and they go looking for a place to overwinter. When they're bad it looks literally like a blizzard. The bug people say they don't bite but I have been bitten and I have witnessed some chewing on a dead fly. They are carnivores after all.

I happen to be in Southern Wisconsin. The bugs made their first ever appearance here about fifteen years ago. Since then they have been spreading throughout the country wherever soybeans are grown. Yet another example of our government trying to make our lives better.
 
We have Box Elder bugs and ladybugs here in Niagara Falls
Started on firewood for next year. I like to keep a year ahead
Martin
 
Niagara Falls area as well. The bugs were covering everything a couple weeks ago as the harvest was on. Lots of stink bugs as well!
 
The ladybugs/Asian beetles are only a problem for a few weeks in the late fall and early spring. What do we feed the bears for rest of the year?1510003144934.png
 
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