MX-210V came in handy today - wife is happy!

[Tomzo]

Something rare happened today that I thought I would share. My wife bought some large (and expensive) planters for our pool deck, but she bought some low profie stands for them so they will drain when on the deck. The cast iron stands had cheap casters on the bottom and told me that she did not want them to roll (they weigh about 100 lbs each and would have crushed the casters anyway). If I just took the casters off there was not enough clearance for the irrigation tubing to get up from the bottom into the pots. For once, my lathe came in handy for something my wife needed done!

These are from 3/4" round aluminum that I turned enough to clean things up and used a parting tool to take down most of the material where the threads are. I finished those up by turning to dimension, put a chamfer on the end, and cut the threads with an M8x1.25 die. I used the parting tool to cut them down to a roughly even thickness (0.325) but dimensions were not critical as they are just holding up pots and can be adjusted to fit the contour of the concrete.

I made 12 in all and it took a few hours, but she was appreciative!

Parting with the mini lathe is not super hot - I was only able to part down to about 5mm from the center before things got nutty. I replaced the compound a solid block that I think I need to trim down a bit on my mill as the parting blade is a bit above center. No big deal - just finished the off with the bandsaw and cleaned it up with a file.

 

[vocatexas]

It's always good when the wife learns all that 'stuff' in the shop is actually useful.

A tiny plastic roller broke on one of the baskets in our dish washer a few months ago. I took took the parts to the shop and a couple of hours later had a new roller installed-made out of aluminum. My wife was impressed. I told her 'see, it only takes about twenty thousand dollars of equipment to make a $2.00 part.' She wasn't as impressed after that....

 

[T Bredehoft]

"She wasn't as impressed after that...."

You had to tell her.... your fault.

 

[mmcmdl]

I told her 'see, it only takes about twenty thousand dollars of equipment to make a $2.00 part.'

Sometimes you can't get that $2.00 part !