An interesting day
This morning I applied the screwdriver to my wife's Dell again, this time removing the last screw holding the keyboard down (the plastic place where the other screw went was broken off). That, and some heavy paper between the keyboard and the motherboard to insulate what seems to have been an intermitten short, seems (I hope) to have done the trick.
In any case, my wife worked on cleaning up the pictures of #91 while I carefully pulled her vital data off the Dell and moved it to my Sony. Then I used it for a while, and it failed to fail. Back in business, but no more Dells for me.
She continued cleaning up the photos while I went out to the shop. Actually the cleanup took her most of the day, our camera is poor and the lighting abysmal, so the background was very difficult to remove with the airbrush tool.
First order of business in the shop was making an end-cutting drill bit to use in boring the true mortise, into which the mortise insert fits. The previous one was a little larger than my preference, the new one reduces the diameter by about .030"
Making an end-cutting drillbit is interesting. I start by whacking off the pointed end of a regular drill bit with a metal-cutting disk in a fender grinder. Then to get the end flat, I put it into the lathe spinning in reverse at 1400rpm and flatten the end with the same fender grinder. Then it becomes a hand operation done with a rotary grinding tool. The whole process takes perhaps 3-4 hours. When that was done I checked the edges on the other tools I'll need to bore the next set of 3 pipes. Why 3 blocks at a time? Simple, I have 3 gluing clamps.
That done, it was time to lay out and bore the next 3 blocks. I decided on one that has a Horn shape in it as my first, and got about 1" through cutting what will become the pipe's top with the bandsaw, when my last bandsaw blade broke.
Of course that puts my bandsaw out of commission until I get new blades. The closest place where bandsaw blades can be purchased is an hour's drive away, and the round trip costs almost $25 at today's gas prices, more than I can afford just now.
So it was pondering time again. After about an hour of thinking over what tools I had that could be made to fill in until I can lay hands on some new bandsaw blades, I decided on an approach. It's something that I'd thought of a couple months back in order to speed up the rough shaping process.
In my shop, I have a fold-up table attached to the workbench. It's made of aluminum, and had originally been a writing table when the shop (which is a 12-foot step van) had been used as a delivery vehicle. I drilled four holes in the table, and mounted my Bosch plunge-router underneath so the bit can project up through the table. I have a pedal-switch that I also use with the Foredom so it will be easy to control. The bit chosen to replace the bandsaw is an agressive hole-cutting drillbit, one of those intended to be plunged through a board and then used as a saw. It sticks up about 2" through the table. OSHA would not consider this a safe arrangement. It seems to work well enough though, surprisingly docile for a 1-hp motor spinning at 27000 rpm.
The only problem is that the 3 screw-heads that hold the router in place stick up above the table surface. In the morning I'll cut a piece of masonite to size and place it on the table to provide a smooth surface, then it's back to getting the next set of 3 blocks bored.
Assuming that the generator doesn't pitch a fit, and the creek don't rise.
In any case, my wife worked on cleaning up the pictures of #91 while I carefully pulled her vital data off the Dell and moved it to my Sony. Then I used it for a while, and it failed to fail. Back in business, but no more Dells for me.
She continued cleaning up the photos while I went out to the shop. Actually the cleanup took her most of the day, our camera is poor and the lighting abysmal, so the background was very difficult to remove with the airbrush tool.
First order of business in the shop was making an end-cutting drill bit to use in boring the true mortise, into which the mortise insert fits. The previous one was a little larger than my preference, the new one reduces the diameter by about .030"
Making an end-cutting drillbit is interesting. I start by whacking off the pointed end of a regular drill bit with a metal-cutting disk in a fender grinder. Then to get the end flat, I put it into the lathe spinning in reverse at 1400rpm and flatten the end with the same fender grinder. Then it becomes a hand operation done with a rotary grinding tool. The whole process takes perhaps 3-4 hours. When that was done I checked the edges on the other tools I'll need to bore the next set of 3 pipes. Why 3 blocks at a time? Simple, I have 3 gluing clamps.
That done, it was time to lay out and bore the next 3 blocks. I decided on one that has a Horn shape in it as my first, and got about 1" through cutting what will become the pipe's top with the bandsaw, when my last bandsaw blade broke.
Of course that puts my bandsaw out of commission until I get new blades. The closest place where bandsaw blades can be purchased is an hour's drive away, and the round trip costs almost $25 at today's gas prices, more than I can afford just now.
So it was pondering time again. After about an hour of thinking over what tools I had that could be made to fill in until I can lay hands on some new bandsaw blades, I decided on an approach. It's something that I'd thought of a couple months back in order to speed up the rough shaping process.
In my shop, I have a fold-up table attached to the workbench. It's made of aluminum, and had originally been a writing table when the shop (which is a 12-foot step van) had been used as a delivery vehicle. I drilled four holes in the table, and mounted my Bosch plunge-router underneath so the bit can project up through the table. I have a pedal-switch that I also use with the Foredom so it will be easy to control. The bit chosen to replace the bandsaw is an agressive hole-cutting drillbit, one of those intended to be plunged through a board and then used as a saw. It sticks up about 2" through the table. OSHA would not consider this a safe arrangement. It seems to work well enough though, surprisingly docile for a 1-hp motor spinning at 27000 rpm.
The only problem is that the 3 screw-heads that hold the router in place stick up above the table surface. In the morning I'll cut a piece of masonite to size and place it on the table to provide a smooth surface, then it's back to getting the next set of 3 blocks bored.
Assuming that the generator doesn't pitch a fit, and the creek don't rise.
posted by random at 7:11 PM
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