Making things!

I need to take some decent photos of my bike and its new setup…

One good day later and it’s done. It’s ametureish and I see all the little (and huge) flaws, but at some point ya gotta cut and ship. Ladies and gentlemen and anyone else who have been following along, I give you, Hrotti

Carcassonne for size, also if ya want a close up of any bit lemme know, I give it away on Monday.

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So, today’s adventures.

I had issues with my compressors. One, broken elbow fitting in the block, easy to solve, we can manage that. The other, I thought, even easier to solve, the drain valve on the other compressor was stuck open, so it needed to be pulled out and replaced. Easy done, I throw a wrench on the fitting, spin it out, put in a new one.

As is the way of things, this is not what happened.

First, no matter what wrench, socket, or pair of hardcore extraction pliers I put on it, it just rounded off until it was entirely circular. Filed new flats on it, it just rounded them off again. Okay, fair enough. Got the grinder out, slapped a deathwheel on, cut a slot, and tried to torque it out with a screwdriver. No good, slot keeps chipping out and slipping the screwdriver. Okay, let’s get serious. re-cut the slot with a thicker wheel, put a bit of flatbar in, and the head of it just snapped right off. Well then. So, got the small hand-files out, filed two interior slots, formed a tool on the end of the flatbar with my power file…it chips out again and again, no good.

Okay, so that’s the way you want to play. Filed down the slots to the tops of the threads, took a quick measurement, and drilled it out with a blanking drill to the tops of the threads. Cleared all the leftover brass in the threads by chasing it out with a 1/4 inch BSP tap - after a little wriggling, slipping and cursing, it finally pulled a small section of brass free on one side, bit deep, and cleared all that garbage out like magic, even used a thicker, stickier cutting oil, so that the chips wouldn’t fall into the tank, which worked great. Finally finished! two and a half hours of fucking around with it, and it’s finally done, the thread is clean and neat as a pin, it’s all ready for the final step, bit of thread tape, screw in the new drain valve, re-fill the oil, and she’s good to go.

Fucking bought the wrong size fitting, didn’t I. Measured the exterior diameter, forgot to do the internal diameter calculation, and bought a 3/8" drain valve when I needed a 1/4".

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I bought this a few weeks ago. Tonight I take my first steps:

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Cool! Speakers are always a fun project.

I found this pattern and I think I will make it from scrap yarn to have some very funky sheep. Not for a while though, since I’m currently working on making something to replace the hat I lost last winter…

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Such a nice sheepy.

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I’ve been on a huge knitting bug. Been making loop fringe scarves for friends and myself.

Now working on an infinity cowl with three colors. Using a basic pattern and customizing my scarf/cowl for how long/large I want it to be.

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I always admire people who are good at knitting. It’s a skill I’ve just never picked up, and you can make some extremely impressive things, as our knitting type people here - like Nuri, Ro, and No_Fun_Girl - have regularly shown. Working with fabric and yarn always seems simple from the outside, but there’s a reason that some uni lecturers use them to help teach advanced engineering and math.

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Awe, I loved that I’ve learned to knit/crochet on my own. It’s seriously great after a long day of work, where my mind is racing full of thoughts. Knitting relaxes me while I either watch TV, listen to an audiobook/podcast. Keeps my hands busy while being productive. I love making gifts for people because it’s nice knowing you can create something that people can use.

But yes, it’s fucking math. Gauging your work is important. Knowing the weight of your yarn and needles sizes is so important. Here is some calculating I had to do on trying to figure out how to add more to a pattern (make it larger) and both the edging and center pieces had different pattern lengths. Had to do some math, but figured it out eventually.

I don’t even know what I did after looking at that page.

You’re too kind. I crochet. hahaha

I’m reckless and just do things on the fly. Usually that means I undo a lot of stitches :sob: And then when I’m done, I have no idea what I did, exactly…

What I really want is a CAD program that will let me create patterns for complex 3D shapes, because I don’t want to figure it out myself.

Well, I’m thinking of buying a wood lathe. Anyone got a compelling reason not to? 400W, max bed length of 1000mm, max rotating diameter of 350mm, and the bed is two-part so that you can break it down for storage. Just a little baby lathe, but I feel the need to start turning stuff again, even if it’s just bits of tree corpses.

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Got a great idea for a Christmas gift. For our holiday this year Laura and I drove around the entire UK stopping at specific landmarks. So I’ve ordered a canvas map of the UK and I’m going to sew a thick red thread over the route we took. We called it the North to South.

Years ago we did a day we call East to West. On the summer solstice we started on the East coast, watched the sun rise, and travelled to the west coast in wales and (nearly) watched the sun set. We got an extra half hour of daylight just by driving west!

So I’ll put that on there too, I still have the google maps data.

It could say “North to South, East to West, something something never rest”…

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I made a things. They are nuno zouri made from old fleece pants and worn out tank tops, to keep my feet warm in the house.

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That’s a really good idea! I wouldn’t have thought to use Fleece pants like that, if I’ve gold old clothes, they tend to get cut up(or specifically, I cut the seams out) and they go in the rag bag. Making warm sandals would have never occurred to me.

Also, minor side note, I did end up buying that lathe, so after I fix the small oversight that I sold all my old lathe tooling with my last woodlathe, expect more posts here as I wrack my brain trying to remember how to turn wood again.

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I’m building a ceiling mount for my projector and learned that 1/4" carriage bolts fit nicely in the aluminum rails I’m using with a bit of modification. I’m basically bolting 2 short rails to the ceiling so that I have plenty of room to customize things.

I don’t wanna do this to you because I know how it is to find out about these things after I’ve done it, but have you tried regular T-head bolts? You can even get them in sides that are meant to fit those bits of aluminium channel, usually under the name T-slot bolts. You’ve done a good job modifying what you have to work, though! How’d you get it done that neat, Bench grinder?

Also, bench grinder tip - one of the handiest things you can get for your bench grinder is a dressing wheel. Over time, your stone gets loaded up with metal and the like - especially if you’re grinding non-hardened metals - and it means that it will grind less effectively, it’ll produce more heat, it’ll put more heat into your workpiece, it’s just shithouse all around. Take care of your tools and they’ll remain inanimate objects incapable of taking care of you but they’ll last longer and be easier to use.

Also don’t grind on the side of the wheel, that’s bad fucking news if you damage your wheel, because don’t forget you’re spinning a glued-together lump of stone chips at 3600 rpm or more. Having a grinder stone explode on you is bad times.

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Good info, thanks! I’ll have to add a dressing wheel to the list of things I need.

I do have some bolts that are made to fit in the slots but they weren’t long enough for the task. Also didn’t want to deal with shipping this close to Christmas and end up putting the project on hold for a week. There’s probably a local place around somewhere but not one I know about.

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That’s the spirit. I like using T-nuts, and stocked up on them, because then I can use any old length bolt or threaded rod. But modding a carriage bolt head is a solid plan, and if it fits it ships.

You can get them dead cheap on amazon, since they’re basically just a couple of free-spinning hardened steel star-wheels in a handle. Just make sure you get a dressing wheel and not a dressing tool - the dressing tools are basically just a bit of box-tube with diamond dust glued on, and don’t work nearly as well, as well as being harder to use. A dressing wheel, if you do managed to wear through your wheels, you can replace them cheap as chips, since they’re basically just some hardened steel sheet. Mine set me back about fifteen bucks, it’s violently orange, I use it maybe twice a year at most, but it makes my grinder so much more pleasant to use.

Just make sure you wear some goggles and have the vacuum or dustpan ready, because as I’m sure you can imagine, it produces a LOT of stone dust, since it’s basically just pulverizing a thin top layer of stone as well as knocking loose all the loaded-on metal.

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