Re: What Projects / Tasks do you have going on / to do??

[RVR II]

Does it have a Rudimentary option? 

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Does it have a Rudimentary option? 

Nope, this is intermediate to advanced lathing, not something you could fashion from sticks.  Is lathing a word?  Spellcheck seems to think so.  OK, getting silly, haven't eaten in 12 hours, better get to making my Friday night pizza...

[RVR II]

Talked to the builder of that giant monstrosity behind me this morning and he's decided not to construct his privacy fence the entire length along my chain link fence after all, after I moved all my privacy fence panels I had along my 'Mega Shed' backyard chain link fence last month because it was leaning into their yard
He's decided that he will be putting up his privacy fence along my immediate backyard then stopping halfway (about where my backyard and Mega Shed backyard meet), and putting an access gate instead. He needs me to move my remaining 6 privacy fence panels to put up his privacy fence and will need access to my backyard to put it together so I'll make sure I'm home when they do this.
Since he's changed his privacy fence plans I've decided to change mine as well and slide all remaining 6 privacy fence panels in my house backyard down along the chain link of my Mega Shed to replace the panels I removed last month. I'll just need to reinforce the poles that are loose in the ground so it doesn't go leaning into their yard again

The builder contacted me yesterday afternoon saying his fence guys started working on the fence yesterday because another job they had scheduled canceled and he wanted to see if I could move my remaining 6 privacy fence panels out of the way so they could start work on their privacy fence and I told him there was no way. I based my schedule on them working on it next week based on our discussion Wednesday and I can't just suddenly rearrange my schedule and move those fence panels right away to appease his change of plans!
I politely apologized and told him the earliest I can get them moved is Sunday so they will have to come back.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

After days of adjusting, cleaning, polishing, greasing, oiling, adjusting, and more adjusting, I have this Chinese mini-lathe about as good as it can be.  Well, there are some mods people do like put different bearings in the headstock but it's highly unlikely I'll ever need that level of precision with this thing.  I did order parts to modify the tailstock, when drilling you tend to move it quite a bit and it's currently tightened down with a nut, so every time you move it you have to get a wrench and loosen the nut, and if you want to move it in closer parts of the lathe get in the way making it hard to get a wrench in there.  The parts coming will replace the nut with a cam and lever.  I ordered a cheap quick change tool post from Amazon that came Sunday and it's terrible, so ordered a good one that should arrive tomorrow, 4x the price but it is steel instead of cheap aluminum.

I 3D printed some blocks to set the tool post to different angles, when cutting threads you are supposed to set it to 29.5 degrees, so I designed and printed a tool to set it there.  And it worked great, these test threads look really good:

[RVR II]

Talked to the builder of that giant monstrosity behind me this morning and he's decided not to construct his privacy fence the entire length along my chain link fence after all, after I moved all my privacy fence panels I had along my 'Mega Shed' backyard chain link fence last month because it was leaning into their yard
He's decided that he will be putting up his privacy fence along my immediate backyard then stopping halfway (about where my backyard and Mega Shed backyard meet), and putting an access gate instead. He needs me to move my remaining 6 privacy fence panels to put up his privacy fence and will need access to my backyard to put it together so I'll make sure I'm home when they do this.
Since he's changed his privacy fence plans I've decided to change mine as well and slide all remaining 6 privacy fence panels in my house backyard down along the chain link of my Mega Shed to replace the panels I removed last month. I'll just need to reinforce the poles that are loose in the ground so it doesn't go leaning into their yard again

The builder contacted me yesterday afternoon saying his fence guys started working on the fence yesterday because another job they had scheduled canceled and he wanted to see if I could move my remaining 6 privacy fence panels out of the way so they could start work on their privacy fence and I told him there was no way. I based my schedule on them working on it next week based on our discussion Wednesday and I can't just suddenly rearrange my schedule and move those fence panels right away to appease his change of plans!
I politely apologized and told him the earliest I can get them moved is Sunday so they will have to come back.

Got the privacy fence sections moved on Sunday and while I was at work they started to take down my chain link fence today.. They were supposed to start tomorrow because I told them I wanted to be here when they started the work!
Then I asked to make sure they were going to put the chain link fence back when their privacy fence was completed and they sounded like they didn't want to put it back but they said they would.. I told them that was part of the agreement with the builder that my chain link fence would be put back in place when they were finished! We'll see..
Sounds like I might have some issues with them if they don't put my fence back

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Got a 4 jaw chuck for my mini-lathe and set it up.

Now I can make stuff like this:

[RVR II]

Talked to the builder of that giant monstrosity behind me this morning and he's decided not to construct his privacy fence the entire length along my chain link fence after all, after I moved all my privacy fence panels I had along my 'Mega Shed' backyard chain link fence last month because it was leaning into their yard
He's decided that he will be putting up his privacy fence along my immediate backyard then stopping halfway (about where my backyard and Mega Shed backyard meet), and putting an access gate instead. He needs me to move my remaining 6 privacy fence panels to put up his privacy fence and will need access to my backyard to put it together so I'll make sure I'm home when they do this.
Since he's changed his privacy fence plans I've decided to change mine as well and slide all remaining 6 privacy fence panels in my house backyard down along the chain link of my Mega Shed to replace the panels I removed last month. I'll just need to reinforce the poles that are loose in the ground so it doesn't go leaning into their yard again

The builder contacted me yesterday afternoon saying his fence guys started working on the fence yesterday because another job they had scheduled canceled and he wanted to see if I could move my remaining 6 privacy fence panels out of the way so they could start work on their privacy fence and I told him there was no way. I based my schedule on them working on it next week based on our discussion Wednesday and I can't just suddenly rearrange my schedule and move those fence panels right away to appease his change of plans!
I politely apologized and told him the earliest I can get them moved is Sunday so they will have to come back.

Got the privacy fence sections moved on Sunday and while I was at work they started to take down my chain link fence today.. They were supposed to start tomorrow because I told them I wanted to be here when they started the work!
Then I asked to make sure they were going to put the chain link fence back when their privacy fence was completed and they sounded like they didn't want to put it back but they said they would.. I told them that was part of the agreement with the builder that my chain link fence would be put back in place when they were finished! We'll see..
Sounds like I might have some issues with them if they don't put my fence back

They put it back but they obviously don't have a clue how chain link fence is assembled It's a cobbled up mess now with the chain link 'bowing' into my yard, top rail and chain link not attached to the poles properly, etc. The main reason I wanted the chain link left in place was to attach some of my privacy fence panels back in place with privacy lattice on top to block as much of their view into my yard as possible from their first floor. This can still be accomplished but I cannot use the chain link to attach the panels to now because it is too loose so I'll have to attach the bottom portion to the poles in the ground for better anchoring in place..

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Think I'm finally done making adjustments to my mini lather.  Pretty sure I've taken 90% of it apart at this point to clean things up and adjust them so things are tight and run smooth.  There's a reason quality machines like this cost 2 or 3 times more than the stuff slapped together quickly.

Also all the accessories (tooling) I ordered have come in, so now can make just about what ever I can think of on this thing.

This evening I made some allen screw caps for the gear cover screws so I don't need an allen wrench to remove the cover:

[MartyS (Gromit)]

 Finally got around to making a classic machinists puzzle, the captive nut:



This pushed the limits of what my cheap lathe can do in steel.  One of the drive gears ceased up in the middle of making the thing, so I had to take it out so I could use the lathe to fix the lathe, that meant trying to get the part back in exactly where it was and that lead to some issues so one end had to be turned down a little.  But I guess that kind of works as a red herring, it almost looks like the nut could fit over that smaller end but no it can't.

If you want to see a pro make one, along with jokes and puns, here's a This Old Tony video:

[Darth Geek]

I have been doing more ambitious projects with my 3D printer.
I am working on a large (~8" diameter) walking Bob omb toy. It was originally supposed to be windup, but I couldn't get the spring to be strong enough to operate the mechanism with all the weight so I am using a small motor now. But it is working pretty well. I am using a moving weight inside it to help with the balance so I don't need a lot of overlap on the feet to keep it upright. I took a sparker mechanism from another tin toy to put in the tip of the fuse, but I am having difficulty to get it to operate correctly.


I found a really good STL file of Godzilla pointing his head upwards, so I want to make a lamp based on him blasting his atomic breath straight up like in the poster. It will be a 6' floor lamp, so the Godzilla statue itself will be about 30" tall.
It took me a while but I finally got the STL file to convert to a usable CAD file so I could make changes. I am making clear blue dorsal plates and I want to set the electronics up so when it is turned on it will light up slowly from the tail to the head before turning on the main beam.

[RVR II]

Got 2 small projects done today.. Before my 52nd Birthday tomorrow 

Put a TV in my carport

And replaced a vent cap on my roof

[RVR II]

Swapped a few of my HDTVs around and installed & setup my new Vizio V505-J09 HDTV in my bedroom

[RVR II]

Got me a beat up generator that is able to power my 3 full size fridges and 2 freezers running on propane

[MartyS (Gromit)]

 How many hours per propane tank with that thing?   I've never put gasoline in mine, I keep a log for oil changes and since I got it I've run it about 16 hours to keep my single fridge, TV, laptop, and battery chargers going during power outages.  I get about 8 hours on a tank.  During the few long outages I would run for an hour or 2, then shut down for 2 or 3 hours, and repeat...

I always keep 2 full propane tanks in my shed in addition to the one on my grill, I got an inverter type generator so it can throttle down and still provide normal power to low power devices like TVs and computers, increases the run time on a tank quite a bit.  Normal generators have to run full speed all the time to maintain the proper frequency (60Hz).

Thing to watch out for with fridges and freezer compressors is the startup power needed, when the compressor kicks on it will draw a lot more power for a few seconds. 

Got me a beat up generator that is able to power my 3 full size fridges and 2 freezers running on propane

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Made another mod to my minilathe, the tailstock cam-lock kit I installed had a plastic ball for the end of the handle, I made an aluminum straight handle for it, also since I got the knurling kit I knurled it and also knurled the caps I made earlier for the gear cover screws.



Giant picture labeling most of the mods I've done so far: