Random slightly cool stuff you built but not worth its own thread, thread

[azzurro]

10 hours ago, Kimjon said:

My mig welder has been misbehaving lately. I figured out the issue and did this fix.

Bolt head is pulling out of the base, cheap shit plastic!

Luckily I have a tig, so was able to weld this bolt to a bit of metal I turned up on the lathe.

It's done the trick, but it's still being a bitch and acting up. The 0.6mm wire just doesn't seem to work in this welder. Weird, as I used to run it without issues. Maybe cheap brand? Anyways once lockdown is down I'll go back to 0.8mm.

Probably the liner needs replacing.

If it came with a roll of gasless wire it may be a bit big ID for 0.6 to start with.

[Pushiepirate]

Been a Veedub fan since my teens, collection stuff that lived in a box for

ages, found a bird cage stand and re purposed it as a shrine to the VW.

Couple of semi rare items, the red 50/50s one year only Australia and Italy,

also some Snowflakes up the top. 

 

VW lounge light, used a big valve for the stand, actually casts a VW emblem on

the roof above.

 

[SOHC]

[chris r]

Barried up the start of a 3" dump for @Raizer van for hero churbo diesel spool noises

[sheepers]

made some mods to my sandblaster and its fucking cash.

so the old venturi suction sandblaster feed is a bit shit what with sand/media being really heavy and all. you need to run the biggest nozzle to get enough air flow to raise the sand and then there isnt enough velocity at the nozzle to really do fuck all once you do raise the sand up from the bottom.

so i made some mods to mine to effectively run a "total loss" sand system. it works mint.

so the sand sits in the funnel at the top and gravity feeds the handpiece. i can now run the smallest nozzle and the velocity is good so it removes rust/paint/crud quickly and really well.

the funnel full of sand lasts ages because you only need the small nozzle.

I've cantilevered the cabinet out off the bench so i can pull the bung and drain the media into the bucket, then just tip it into the funnel again. fuckin too easy.

i could run the thing without the bung probably, haven't tried yet.

visabality is good too with the vacuum stuffed in the side. the whole things is a win in my book.

 

2020-05-14_06-16-08 by sheepers, on Flickr

 

2020-05-14_06-15-59 by sheepers, on Flickr

 

2020-05-14_06-15-51 by sheepers, on Flickr

 

 

[sheepers]

oh, fuck something i forgot to mention, now that the cabinet has effectively no sand in it its light as and i can just lift it down and store it under my bench when im not using it.

also a win. 

[Kimjon]

Never one to waste an opportunity. The concrete I cut up and removed from my shed floor. I've just laid it out for a quick visual and it looks roughly about right.

Next I'll remove it, level out a flat base with sand. Lay the concrete back in, then fill it flush with the driveway and tops of the concrete bits using gravel.

Something like this ^

This should give me am area to park my hilux or maybe a large tandem trailer in the future if I actually buy one etc...hell, if I get old enough maybe even a camper van?

[chris r]

I was looking for something else when I was in the garage today and found this 

Barry spec coil tester I made a while ago. Ne555 ic producing a output to a Honda ignitor module which goes to a couple of flying leads to attach to a coil 

 

[flyingbrick]

On 28/04/2020 at 08:27, azzurro said:

Probably the liner needs replacing.

If it came with a roll of gasless wire it may be a bit big ID for 0.6 to start with.

Do liner sizes change? I had no idea. My welder is terrible on .6, if the wire gets slightly stuck in the nozzle it starts to bird nest. I fitted a new liner a while back,  maybe I didn't get it sitting close enough to the wheels.  Hmn 

 

[Lord Gruntfuttock]

On 14/05/2020 at 20:10, sheepers said:

made some mods to my sandblaster and its fucking cash.

Whoah, this interests me greatly. More deets please.

Funnel attachment, did you fit metal tube thru roof to clamp to? and did you just rotate the pickup on the gun? My gun's not like that, fixed suction tube underneath. Might look at new gun and do this conversion, seems to make so much sense and will remove much frustration, hopefully...

Also make it super easy to swap between blasting media types...

[sheepers]

So,  yes the gun originally had the sand fed in the bottom but it was easy to take the front it and flip it up the other way.

I bought a large funnel of the tard then when it turned up I machined the head of a big bolt to the right size so I could clamp the funnel to the head and I drilled a 13mm hole down the guts of it to let the sand through. 

The bolt just sticks through a hole in the top  of the cab and the hose clamped from underneath holds it in place. 

I used it for half a day blasting all the headlight brackets and whatnot and it works mint.  The things that let ir down were bits of shit in the sand blocking the nozzle and the ever present nemesis of all sandblasters, water in the air. 

[sheepers]

Fun fact about the nozzle blocking. 

When a bit of paint or whatever it was blocked the whole outlet the air has nowhere to go but back ot the sand feed tube resulting in it exploding sand all over the roof and you. 

After the first time that happened I invented the "anti- hair, eyes, ears and teeth full of sand paint bucket lid on top of the funnel" device. 

[azzurro]

31 minutes ago, flyingbrick said:

Do liner sizes change? I had no idea. My welder is terrible on .6, if the wire gets slightly stuck in the nozzle it starts to bird nest. I fitted a new liner a while back,  maybe I didn't get it sitting close enough to the wheels.  Hmn 

 

yeah, and they get effectively larger as they wear as well. Gasless wire has that rough as coating on it (which when burns creates a gas shield) so can both wear liners quick and cover them in gack as well.

 

This site (first one on my goog) has 4 diameters:

https://www.arcweld.co.nz/itemdetails/Binzel-(Style)-Liner/3623.aspx

[flyingbrick]

Shit I had no idea.. got my last liner off Ali and that's when the problems started. Seems to be on the verge of jamming constantly. Thanks man

[azzurro]

If its birdnesting like that it could be tension on the roller too high as well.

Its supposed to slip on the wire if you pinch it in your fingers as it pushes out the end. 

As the liner gets dirty from use it gets sticky so it might be cranked tight to push through, but on occasion of a new one need everthing readjusting again. 

More knobs to twiddle!

 

[Kimjon]

Kids now have a matching tiny house, that they'll never use (along with all the other shit I've made them that they never use). Finally finished it today.

[Muncie]

Looks like a flash as goped house to me!

21 hours ago, Kimjon said:

 

Kids now have a matching tiny house, that they'll never use (along with all the other shit I've made them that they never use). Finally finished it today.

 

[SOHC]

I made a spoon from a scrap of stainless steel I found on the road

[igor]

Youngest has made a forge/furnace thing to melt beer cans. Forced draught courtesy of his mother's hairdryer. He needs a better crucible. The stainless steel jug wasn't quite up to the task. Check out jetret's experiments on youtube for more.

[tortron]

Made a small windshield/pot stand to use with a chafing dish warmer

It's full of gelled meths, so it's pretty safe to use, can't really spill it, no fumes, nice and silent, don't need to bring another bottle of fuel like an alcohol stove, and it's basically fail safe

 

Downside is 21minutes to bring 500ml to a rolling boil under perfect (sitting on my kitchen bench) conditions

The pot holds 200g of fuel and will burn for about 3 hours. So can boil around 4.5L of water. A can costs about $2-3

 

Weight of my mug, windshield, and a full can comes in at about 340g.

I'm going to zing some holes in the windshield where I can and try cut the gel with something to get more BTUs

A home made alcohol stove should boil the same amount in under 10mins. They have the benefit of self pressurising and getting a strong flame, the gel also results in less energy than straight denatured alcohol.

I might try make a round screen if it will fit inside the mug around the can (this one was just cut out of a much larger screen I have)

 

 

 

Edit

Straight meths knocks about 5 mins off the boil time in the same set up

The flame gets a bit unwieldy though. I tried some stainless steel wool as a wick, which helped. But irl I don't think il bother, I also added meths to the gel until it was quite thin and it took about 1-2 mins off the boil time. 

Gona stick with the can as it is and perfect my windscreen

Maybe something like this

Thier alcohol stove is made from a beer can, seems to chooch harder than my gel and boil in half the time. Wonder if a small tube would supercharge the air intake