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What was the last thing you made?

We held our no show show last weekend out at The Steam Gas and Horse Association grounds.
It was a gathering for all who miss the shows we put on because we are tied up in our own displays.
It was great to be together again on our own terms and we feasted at each meal that was set out at the Whistle Stop restaurant near our steam train display.

I went up there Friday morning and set up camp in the shop again.
Here are my new digs up there:
20221007_140254.jpg


It's an instant up dome tent.

Yep, that's the Murray sitting on her new front tire, a super skinny one to go with the drag bike theme.
About three hours later, the front and rear brake calipers were removed, disassembled to change out their mounting plated and both of the levers were final assembled with their new cables.
The shift cable got put on hold again due to lack of the proper parts to finish it out.
No biggie, I already made what it needs when I returned home.
Other than that and the final placement of the shifter handle, the old girl is back in service and was ridden several miles over the weekend.
The final step to complete it is a faux patina treatment to the fenders, but that can wait.

The tent idea was capital.
I placed my cot inside of it along with an electric oil filled radiator.
We woke up to a heavy frost Saturday morning, but I was cozy warm all night in spite of that.

The door placement wasn't all that great the first night because to watch my TV with a DVD player, I had to leave the tent door open :p
Saturday evening brought about a better plan where I rotated the tent 90 degrees which placed the door in a better position to close it most of the way and moved the TV to a better location.
Then I placed my pantry tote inside of the tent to use it for a table and have access to my goodies without leaving the confines of it.
Yep, dragged a 110 volt extension cord thru the back door for the heater and my phone charging plug.
Even had a small led light on the ceiling.
The shop was cold enough to just leave my drinks outside of the tent, but it was generally about 75 inside. (t-shirt weather)
So far, my modern food prep stuff in the shop is a fridge, a microwave, an air fryer, a water cooler and a charcoal grill.

Saturday morning I did more work on our old Diamond horizontal milling machine in order to get her back inline.
She is very close now, only needing the switch and power wiring finished up to make her sing again.
I found out I can get a modern ER-32 collet arbor and collets for it for under $100 for it, but will have to design a cover shield for it to hide the modernistic parts.

I will be making the outboard arbor support back at Dad's shop during the winter.

genset.jpg

Yesterday I got more of the genset panel board wired and even added a dimmer switch to it to tone down the brightness of the silly old looking bulbs I used on it.

The several month old battery on the Wheelhorse let me down, but the latest (second) carb I put on it seems to be working half decent when it would start.
I have until mid May to get it sorted out, so it will still happen.

Saturday we had a huge bonfire.
Huge as in used a Bobcat skid steer with forks on it to place the logs on it.
It burned all day and all Sunday.
In fact, we even got it to relight this morning.
Saturday night got a little crazy as the heavy equipment operators decided to hold bulldozer pulls.
Ever see an inch and a half cable snap?
We saw that happen 6 times :cool:
In the end, the roughly 90,000 pound D-9 took top honors as it dragged two Cat D-8s hitched together at a time.
After too many cable failures, they switched up to basket chains with three inch links with two hook ends tied to the ripper bars.
When they did the chain pulls, anyone with a lick of sense stood behind a a pan in order to be shielded from stuff flung out from the failures ;)


Ever seen a Caterpiller D-9 stand up on it's tracks?
It's pretty freaking awesome :hearteyes:
Another boy hitched his 2022 four door cab Chevy one ton to a two year old Ford with a toolbox body.
Both trucks never moved.
The crazy part of it all was that the Chevy only had about 300 miles on it on tires with less than 50 miles on them.
Big fun, redneck style :D
 
Nitro said:
This is my early '70s Murray Eliminator 3 speed bicycle survivor project that is in the works:
View attachment 84774
I found a donor bike from the same era in the trash to provide both missing and damaged parts.

Stripped to nearly her bare bones:
View attachment 84775
This bike will look like crap when it is finished, but will be in 100% perfect working condition.
I'm still up in the air about re-lacing the crusty rusty wheels to more modern rims, but that has yet to be decided.
If I do the wheels, it would be considered a resto-mod.
If I don't, she will be considered a survivor.
Click to expand...
It looks like my bright orange Chopper bike , seventies kid me.

Wish I still had it.
 
clg114 said:
I made a 100 amp load bank to load test 36 volt, 1000 ah and up, batteries. This is not something that most people would ever need. I use it a lot to test electric fork lift batteries. Now, how is that for boring?
Click to expand...
No, it's interesting. I used to service the load banks which were for aircraft generator testing.

The aircraft generators were then towed by us up to RAF fighter jets and visiting NATO ally aircraft.
 
When mixing epoxy, especially in small batches, it should be weighed down to the drop. When I was busy mixing several times a day, I only had time to cobble together balances from scrap wood and thread. Then there was a pleasant period when electronic scales made life easier. Then, my old one died, and the locally available replacement is one decimal point less sensitive. So, I made a lever to multiply the weight ten times. I used wormwood rescued from my firewood, and aluminum to match the scale. I'm rather pleased with the novelty of using a counterweight to stabilize a top tray, instead of the usual triple beam arrangement. The lower tray can be used without the counterweight to weigh heavier loads.
Scale1.JPG


Scale2.JPG
 
Shevek said:
When mixing epoxy, especially in small batches, it should be weighed down to the drop. When I was busy mixing several times a day, I only had time to cobble together balances from scrap wood and thread. Then there was a pleasant period when electronic scales made life easier. Then, my old one died, and the locally available replacement is one decimal point less sensitive. So, I made a lever to multiply the weight ten times. I used wormwood rescued from my firewood, and aluminum to match the scale. I'm rather pleased with the novelty of using a counterweight to stabilize a top tray, instead of the usual triple beam arrangement. The lower tray can be used without the counterweight to weigh heavier loads.
View attachment 93784

View attachment 93785
Click to expand...
Whose Epoxy? In boatbuilding I have used both MAS and West Marine products. They seem to be resilient to minor volume differences between resin and oxidizer. The most sensitive I have ever used is Epon 88, which I used to embed specimens for electron microscopy.
 
Gerald Wilgus said:
Whose Epoxy? In boatbuilding I have used both MAS and West Marine products. They seem to be resilient to minor volume differences between resin and oxidizer. The most sensitive I have ever used is Epon 88, which I used to embed specimens for electron microscopy.
Click to expand...
Where I live, I can only get West 5:1, and I sometimes want quite small batches. I was delighted with the toughness of System Three's Phase Two resin, and liked the economy of their regular grades, until it got humid one evening and turned my bright-finished boat milky white. They also have one that works as a barrier coat to allow polyester to cure atop it, so I can seal in rust, and finish with bondo, I've also bought a lot of West laminating resin, at 3:1. It saves a lot of time with lowered viscosity.
Epoxy always "goes off" but if the mix is not exact, you wind up with some As or some Bs without partners, which weaken the matrix. I have used dozens of kinds, and been responsible for retraining polyester workers to mix it thoroughly.
 
Shevek said:
When mixing epoxy, especially in small batches, it should be weighed down to the drop. When I was busy mixing several times a day, I only had time to cobble together balances from scrap wood and thread. Then there was a pleasant period when electronic scales made life easier. Then, my old one died, and the locally available replacement is one decimal point less sensitive. So, I made a lever to multiply the weight ten times. I used wormwood rescued from my firewood, and aluminum to match the scale. I'm rather pleased with the novelty of using a counterweight to stabilize a top tray, instead of the usual triple beam arrangement. The lower tray can be used without the counterweight to weigh heavier loads.
Click to expand...
Oh.....I think the last thing I made was a mistake.

1678832880988.png



In my case a picture isn't worth a thousand words.

I saw the picture and thought this was a Beer Catapult.

Then I read the words.
 
Here is my progress on the canoe. The strips are under stress because of the bow and twist of conforming to the forms. So, completion has slowed. I am using Western Red Cedar for the bottom and will complete one side to the center line, trim it, and mirror on the other side.

20230314_154225.jpg
 
IMG_0337.JPG

I made a swing-away laptop table and keyboard tray to use for Zoom calls. It clamps onto my kitchen table to replace the sliding jury rig that had usurped the front of the table for years. All salvaged and recycled wood.
 
Kisa the tea said:
This is genius and I want one haha
Amazing work!
Click to expand...
Thanks. You should see me on Zoom. A talking head level with the camera, or more, and I don't have to tidy up the background scenery. It is also easy to spin around with the camera off to just watch a meeting while cooking, etc. I think it should be easy to see how it is done from that pic. I clamped and glued all the wood.
 
For a semi-plastic carving material, I was recently introduced to Beet Root, a common food item. It dries very hard without cracking or severe shrinkage. It looks worth investigating.

Here's my latest - about 80% of my salvage/scrap wood, and I can unscrew it and have about 70% back - there was very little trimming to assemble this puzzle. It features live-edge wormwood, and will be oiled when I can open the windows next week. It divides my room into more sections and provides more shelf space, as well as a counter top that is more comfortable for my height. The low table surface can slide out for knee clearance. I'm especially pleased with the economical yet effective structure from the arm of the fold-down bed to the near end of the countertop, using door skin for a shear web.
Shelves.JPG
 
Shevek said:
For a semi-plastic carving material, I was recently introduced to Beet Root, a common food item. It dries very hard without cracking or severe shrinkage. It looks worth investigating.

Here's my latest - about 80% of my salvage/scrap wood, and I can unscrew it and have about 70% back - there was very little trimming to assemble this puzzle. It features live-edge wormwood, and will be oiled when I can open the windows next week. It divides my room into more sections and provides more shelf space, as well as a counter top that is more comfortable for my height. The low table surface can slide out for knee clearance. I'm especially pleased with the economical yet effective structure from the arm of the fold-down bed to the near end of the countertop, using door skin for a shear web.
View attachment 101796
Click to expand...
So very 1950s.
 
Gerald Wilgus said:
So very 1950s.
Click to expand...
This place feels really homey to me. It was built in three stages on a tight budget. I'm sure that the kitchen cabinets were carried in as sheets of plywood. Even the countertop material is the same pattern that my father used around 1960, and I chose some matching period furniture.
 
I just started to work on a wig that I want to use as part of an earthquake survivor lip sync number for I feel the Earth Move by Martika that I have had inside my head for years. I found the right sized bird that I wanted to be tangled in my hair and now need some Bobby pins to hold it down some more since the clip it already had is so small. Next I need some foam board to create pieces of drywall and a fake rat and then dust the entire wig in baby powder. This is my first wig that I’m fully styling beyond using some hair gel to spike the hair or using a clip to hold up some of the hair back.
 
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