2018 POTD Thread Archive

Finished up this project (from https://www.hobby-machinist.com/thr...you-make-in-your-shop-today.67833/post-577772)

I shorted the frame a bit (cut off the end of the frame, moved the bagger, rear wheels and handlebars forward about 4"), and welded in a crossmember to stiffen up the frame a little.

Made a frame for holding an extension tube to the top of the bagger. This tube is used for vacuuming up harder to reach areas or where you don't want to just vacuum everything up (for example, to vacuum up the leaves on wood chips in a flowerbed). It hooks up to the short hose off the input to the blower.

Used the remnant of the old vacuum output I made (the one pointing straight up) as it's about the right diameter) to bend the two arms, then welded on cross members and some braces to stiffen it up. And did actual machining on the lathe, made some washers out of 1/8" sheet metal to hold the frame off the plastic bagger housing a little (3/8" washers or fender washers just didn't seem the right size to me)

The two end pieces of the frame:
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I made the washers by cutting the sheet metal into small squares, drilling a 3/8" hole through the middle, bolting all 4 of them together, and then chucking 2 nuts on the bolt in the lathe, and turning all 4 pieces down to size. Couldn't go too fast, otherwise they would spin, but it didn't take too long:
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Result, 4 washers:
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Final result:
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Glenn Brooks said:
Stoic, I’ve heard of using vinegar, but didn’t know about the salt additive. Very interesting. Some folk also use molasses. I thought about the molasses bath, but then what to do with 20 gal of water, rust and molasses? :eek:

I think the surface does get pitted slightly with say, flash rusting. It’s just microscopic and not all that noticeable to the eye. I’ve heard it said one part metal makes 9 parts rust. So the iron oxide molecules must be substanstially larger than the parent ferrous atoms. Advanced stages, I’ve seen steel plate and things like 1-2” galvanized cable on the beach up in Alaska in the old days, completely rusted and crumbling apart in large sheets of rust by the salt water. Pretty amazing.

Glenn
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From my Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, iron has a density of 7.86 g/cc while hydrated ferric oxide has a density between 3.4 and 3.9 g/cc. Rust has about twice the volume of the iron it replaced. It is the increase in volume that makes rust a bad actor. As it is created, it swells up creating fissures which allow oxidation of the newly exposed iron.
Aluminum, on the other hand, forms a tight oxidation layer, preventing further oxidation, even though aluminum is much more prone to oxidation. Blued steel is just coating the steel with a layer of iron oxide but it is ferrous oxide which forms a tight layer as opposed to ferric oxide.
 
Shawn, do you have a bypass for the timer for the event of using an air tool that is drawing significant air and preventing the tank from recharging?
 
Had an quick project today. I was checking the oil in Chris’s Impala when I noticed one of the latches holding the air filter box closed was broken off. So I went out to the shop and made up the stud system using a bolt to hold the box together
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Got about 99% of the wiring done for my new surface grinder. Took a little bit of time to configure everything and make it look nice. I added a coolant system and am working on a self contained vacuum system with all parts hoarded through the years. F0B927EE-94A2-47BD-B40C-4557C6EF9611.jpeg

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Worked on fixing the frame on my walk-behind mower (it's a 52" Snapper Hydro mower). The frame bent a little due to the extra weight of the bagger setup I made for it, which adds about 200-250 lbs to the front arms when the bags are fully loaded (which is generally rare).

First, I straightened the frame using a jack & a chain to each end:
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Then, based on suggestions from members, I welded a 3/16 x 2 strip of mild steel to the side of each arm to stiffen them up:
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When I checked each arm before doing this, they both bent 1/4" (using a straightedge flat on one end, the other end was 1/4" away from it).

I'll check it again this fall and see how well this worked.
 
PMing my roto tiller. Spring finally sprung and my garden is calling, it's raining today but supposed to be clear the rest of the week. My machine is an 1989 Troy Built "Horse" that I bought as a present to myself when we finished building our house. I've found the best way to put oil in one of these small engines is to use a squeeze bottle, this one originally held green slimy tire stop leak, I had to reinforce the caps threads with a hose clamp. The gear boxes use 140 WT gear oil and it's getting hard to find, Alemite is the only vendor. In the background is an 1983 Ford F-100 step side that my son and I are putting together for my grand daughter. This is the last year of the F-100.

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In my last post I said Spring has finally sprung.....yeah right.

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