Vacationing Day 2 - Torch Cutting For Fun (Sunday Recap)

I think I have it! I read the harris welding manual and worked out what I needed to do at the torch end to get it to cut. As it turned out it was pretty simple, I was running too small a tip, adjusting the flame incorrectly, and was a bit confused with the 2 oxygen valve setup. Oh and also I had the acetylene set way to low at the torch. I was able to cut a freehand square/rectangle and a couple stars. Pretty nice and quick. I wish I had got a set like this years ago.

I think I have enough gas in the tanks to last me a little while. They are still running on what was in them when I bought them (second hand). I am a bit worried about getting them refilled. I misplaced my bill of sale, but the company that does the refilling has me on their computer, the man I bought the tanks from had done the transfer with them. Unfortunately I forgot their name and they were not easy to find as I recall. I'll figure it out. I own the tanks but they swap the tanks for filled ones.

Still running the plan for making my garage a workshop. I got 10 pallets from tractor supply. A buck a piece and rather poor quality but the only place I know to get them local.

S and I did the Tag Sale thing yesterday and the weather was sweet! Got a bunch of loot. Got a few blowguns (very dirty and neglected but cheap), a arrow fletching kit (been looking for one for a while), a nail gun (uses remington blanks), and a jotto desk computer stand for vehicles (minus mounting base, they sold the car). I got 2 small sailboat hulls for free that I have to pick up, they come minus sails, masts and all that, but that is ok. The people had bought 8 at auction and sold the complete ones, and these were left. I actually left and went back to the Tag Sale. I had to think about it and it worked out that I decided they would be perfect for me to make a pedal boat that I had been talking about for a while.

That's all for now.


 
 

 

Out on "Holiday"

I took 2 weeks from the job. I hope to achieve a few things during that time.

One is get a handle on my "shop". I want my garage to only have tools and what I am working on in it. As it is I have a lot of things in it. Things like old tools that need repair, bikes, sewing machines, packing boxes, yard tools. I want to clear it out to leave only the working useful tools!


Today I installed the flashback arrestors on the oxy acetylene torch and started trying to figure out how to weld and cut.

http://www.harrisproductsgroup.com/pdf/manual/9505643HarrisOutfitManualRevAa.pdf

I did manage to cut some bike tube with the cutting torch and melt the surface of a 4130 piece of tube I had. Overall it didn't seem to go quite as well as I imagined it should with the torch. I am going to have to do some more research on the procedure for welding and cutting to make sure I am doing it right.

Useful Welding of a Thing!

Ta Da! Yeah, it is a pretty messy weld but it is my first useful thing. It is the base of a halogen shop lamp that broke. One of the leg holders (the things attached to the central pipe piece) broke off. That was maybe 8 years ago, it has kicked around from the basement to the garage waiting to be fixed. I welded the other two leg holders since they were tack welded the same way as the one that broke.

It actually took 4 or 5 tries to get the trick of doing the first weld. After I got one right I was able to do all 6 fillets well enough to reasonably say they were a fix.


 



 
The grey dirty "box" is a old arc welder I got for a deal years ago. It was the rig I was going to teach myself to weld with. It did help me install a 240v outlet in the garage.
You select the amperage you want by putting the welding wire into the grid pattern. I forget which but one row is dead. I haven't tried it yet but I think I will soon. I dug up my sandblaster, which I got last year and never used. I have some media for it but I want to figure out how I can use it most efficiently. I was thinking I would make a improvised sandblasting box so I could minimize the airborne dust and recycle the media. This is what I will use to prep for painting the part I welded. I set up my oxy acetylene tanks, they are chained there for safety. I have a old set of craftsman regulators and hose. I started reading about using oxy acetylene welders and about check valves and flash arrestors. The sets they sell you don't seem to come with them but from all I read it sounds nice to have them. I am pretty sure your won't just blow up without a check valve or flash arrestor but I decided to get a set before I start in with this. Also I could only find some cutting torches, I am pretty sure I have some welding torches but have to clear out some more things in the garage and I am sure I will come across them.

My Lincoln arc welder and mig welder are also second hand. I will keep practicing a little every so often and set up some of the support equipment. I have a grinder, bench sander, abrasive chop saw, a metal bandsaw etc. that would be really helpful if set up for convenient use.




 
 

 
 

All Fixed Now!

Okay, all is not fixed, I did put the downshift lever and cable from my donor bike onto the canondale. I am quite pleased with myself and for the part bike manufacturers have played in allowing interchangeable parts. If you can call swapping a shimano lever for a shimano lever.

Took a short .75 mile ride and it was a little scary with all the potholes, I ran through all the gears was going along faster than I have ridden a bike in years, mostly because I have not really ridden a bike in years;-)


  
 

Canondale Road Bike

I picked up a Canondale Road Bike at a moving sale, For a "All Must GO" sale the woman was pretty tough on the haggling, though she was nice. She did come down on the $50 price tag. Of course what really "forced" me into buying it was that Pete has been going on about his road bike all week;-) What can I say, it sounded pretty cool having a road bike.

This is the most I have spent for a 2 wheeled bike in 20 years. It is missing a shift lever and cable to the front derailleur and the paint is bubbling in a bunch of places. Tires (700 x 23C) are not great but are not plainly cracked and ready to fail.

So overall it is in pretty good shape.

I rode it up and down the street and I thought it was pretty decent. Of course the last 10 speed (the Canondale is a 14 speed) that I rode was a Huffy. And if I do ride a bike on the street it is my Trek 820 mountain bike. I am going to swap levers from a Bianchi parts bike I have just to complete the Canondale and see how it goes. I am not really picky on things like this. I will have to take a better look at the tires, any old tires that could be 22 years old really should be replaced. They may be newer, do look like they could be from 1986.



 
 
 
 

Mig Welding Practice

I dug out my mig welder. The stick welder was burning through my bike tube practice piece. I think I could stick weld tube with smaller stick, but since I do actually have a mig welder I thought I should try it. It worked ok. Any problems were probably due to it being only the second time I have tried to use it. I did have a couple burn through holes but was able to fill them in. The fill was a big mound of metal but it was filled! At least I have some hope of doing what I want to do with the welder. More on that later if it starts to look like I can manage it.




 
 
 
 

Arc Welding

I have been building up to this for a while. I bought a auto darkening welding helmet, welding gloves and a chipping hammer. I spent a lot of time this weekend clearing out space in my garage just to be able to get at my welder.

I finally got to it at about 8:30 pm Sunday night and did these practice beads. I was using a old craftsman welder. It went okay. I was using very old welding sticks and the welds were ugly but would have more or less worked.

Next time I am going to use the Lincoln welder I have but I have to dig it up.



 
 

Bikes Repair or Chopd

We disassembled the Pink Huffy, it sticks in the ground nice. N and S (North and South?) wanted to strip more frames and make a bike frame fence. I plan on chopping it for a recumbent homebrew or a bike powered grain mill.
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Also got a Schwinn "vintage" 10 speed, kinda ugly but free. Got caught looking at it a tag sale and the Woman yells to me "take it, it's free!" If Pete wants it, it is his. I forgot to check if the brakes and derailleur works. I kinda like it after looking it over. And I have huffy that would be a cheap donor for cables and tires.



 
 
 
 

Tag Sale Bikes

I have been getting cheap bikes at yard sales pretty regularly. The going price for a kids bike or huffy has pretty much been about $5. More or less. I got a cruiser this weekend, it is novel in that it has front drum brakes and goofy handlebars and big seat. It is a 3 speed and has big balloon tires. It is pretty dorky to ride.


 
 
 
 

Bike Trailer

Finally used the free bike trailer frame. I used only scrap I had around and though it doesn't look all that special it works ok.


I had been thinking that the trailer connected to the bike with some sort of attachement but Pete thought it mounted directly to the bike, well that does work. As it turns out I found an illustration of the style while looking at the torker bike site, they appear to sell the same style bike trailer.



 
 
 

Baby Goat Delivered.

The baby goat was born this morn. Rosie goat was due today, and when S went out she found that the goat had been born. This was really great, even though all the preparation for the event and expected hanging about to help the goat deliver was averted. Rosie was milked to relieve some of the pressure at lunch time and later at 6 pm. We plan on bottle feeding the baby with her mothers milk. Right now it is the first milk, the colostrum, though reserved for the baby goat I decide to try a 1/4 cup (the most M reluctanly allowed me to have) I was pleasanly surprised to find it very yummy. Kind of like a mild vanilla shake.


 

Unrelated to goats I satisfied a long time desire. To get a unicycle. I had never ridden a unicycle and so the first thing I did on getting it was look up info on learing to ride one. One page suggests practicing for an hour a day (balacing, not actual pedalling around) and after a couple of weeks you should be able to ride. We will see about that. I think it is pretty difficult, but that is ok.

 

Horrible Green Fangs - Jumping Spiders and Woodworking

I was going through my stored wood to make a goat milking stand and came across a really big(for this area) jumping spider. I measured it at 7/8" long. It seemed to have made it's home on this piece of wood and was reluctant to leave it. So I decided to take some pictures and video of it.

Tricorders and Gardens

Had to work Saturday, got into work at 5 am, it was drizzly and dark, and left about 11:30 am to blue skies and sun. The worst part was that instead of the predicted rain it was beautiful and sunny.

Did some planting in the garden that afternoon, and made a "custom" setup for marking rows. All out of scrap wood I got on the curb from a woodworking shop, last week in fact. Also made row markers with scrap slats from the same pile by cutting them into 12" long pieces.

The main features of the row markers are that they are 36" long and are themselves row distance measures. One has 2 screws for winding string that are spaced 24" apart for measuring out the string for estimating row length. The triangular pieces are a handy foot pressing pad to seat them in the ground. All from free scrap wood.

I was also making furrows to plant in by riding my mountain bike down the rows.

Sunday morning I kept thinking it was Saturday. Working Saturday really puts me in bad sorts on a weekend.

Though I missed Tag Sales Saturday, N made it to some with his mom. He got a pair of flip open walkie talkies to "convert" to tricorders. He is 7 and really into star trek right now. He really wanted a "real" tricorder but they are out of his budget. I am thinking that he will eventually find one at a TS for a quarter or in the free box.

So N hits me up to help him make a tricorder from the walkie talkies. We came up with a nice template from the nokia maemo forums.

We resized it to print on hp photo paper so it would fit on the walkie talkie right and did the cutout and double sided taped it to the walkie talkie case. We did a second one where I used the radial arm saw to cut the top off to make it more sized like the st tricorder. Cut a piece of 1/8" plywood to fit and filed and glued to the case. Found that a silver sharpie marker was a decent match.

The first picture is the gutted walkie talkie case. The second is the case cut down with "decals" applied, and the third is a "real" tricorder, I think it is a playmates toy one.