Little bit of Solidworks, little bit of print time, now I have some workbench space back
Little bit of Solidworks, little bit of print time, now I have some workbench space back
In reply to Mr_Asa :
BRILLIANT!! 
Finally finished this walnut and ash cutting board.
Mr_Asa said:Little bit of Solidworks, little bit of print time, now I have some workbench space back
Reclaimed Workspace 2: The Reclaimening!
These I just got off Thingiverse
The dead pedal on my GTI is too vertical and a little too narrow for my taste. I designed an adjustable pedal a while ago. I finally had the time to machine and install it today.
Machined a new sliding universal joint for a 1913 Buick model 40:
In reply to ShawnG :
More info? I think I see how it works, but I'm not sure
The brass slider blocks have their outside surfaces machined on a radius that matches the inside width of the two C-shaped sockets. This allows for east-west movement of the shaft because the blocks can slide fore and aft in the sockets as well as rock on the center axis of the joint without having any side-to side play. The cross pin they are mounted on allows north-south movement. A drive flange bolts to one end and a cover with a hole for the shaft to the other end and they keep all the bits inside.
I don't know if that helps, it's easier to show it working than to explain it.
The outer round casting is original but was badly beaten up inside. I managed to get it centered in a rotary table and machined the damage out of the two bores for the sockets. After that, all the dimensions had to be changed to work with the new, bigger sockets.
The original guts of the joint had been badly bodged by a farmer with a stick welder and enough knowledge to be dangerous.
It took me a little figuring and a initial failure to sort out how it was all supposed to work.
The guts were originally all some grade of steel. Now, the blocks are brass and the sockets and cross pin are 4140. The whole joint gets filled with grease when it's closed up.
Should last another hundred years.
In reply to ShawnG :
Fiat used them until the early 1970s. 850 rear axles.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
I should know that, I had an 850 Spider. Never had the axles out of it though.
I made a safety door at work. I know that it isn't much but I am now getting to explore my creative fabrication skills. The safety door now has a safety interlock and stops the operator from running it if opened which is is our new standard
I built it in 2 hours from concept to install and now I get to replicate it on 5 other not identical machines 
In reply to QuasiMofo (John Brown) Forum Supporter :
Machine guarding is really important, but I hated that part of my last job. Our rules were a moving target, and it often felt like guarding was an excuse to skimp on training. We ended up with guards on top of guards. Elegant solutions were really difficult.
In reply to bigeyedfish :
If there's enough guards, the machine becomes inoperable and is then very safe.
I design a lot of automated machinery and our guarding has to be really tight. We usually do full enclosures with either safety light-curtains on the access points or doors with locking safety latches.
Neither are cheap, but the opportunity to get hurt is very low. But access is quite good for the operator.
I made a new burn barrel, pictured right, because the one that came with the house literally fell apart. To do this I had to make a new cord for my plasma cutter, but, that means I can use the plasma cutter again.
I made my barn into a trials section
I bought a trials bike in the fall and rode it every chance I had before it turned cold and wet, but I really wanted to keep riding so I've been picking away at this all winter. I'd usually go out in the evenings, cleaning, tidying, then adding and subtracting as I had room and time for. I didn't take any pics early on but the barn was in dire need of a cleaning, with 20+ years of accumulation.
This was during the cold snap we had a few weeks ago and it was about -15C that nght
I was busy all weekend cleaning the hay loft because I had something coming.
This was the Loft when I started. My Son built a skate park up here 20 years ago to have som fun in winter, but it hasn't seen a human since.
This is what I was wating for
I needed some help so my buddy came out today to give me a hand and brought his new bike to try out. He hasn't ridden in 20 years and was stoked to get some seat time. This was today's action.
Then we went outside for a little fun
It was a long day and I'm exhausted, but I'm going back out tonight to see if I can incorporate the 10' long staircase I found up in the loft.
I hope you enjoyed my story
ShawnG said:In reply to bigeyedfish :
If there's enough guards, the machine becomes inoperable and is then very safe.
Indeed. I had to decommission a couple perfectly good machines (zero incidents over the course of several years of daily use) because they couldn't be made compliant cheaper than buying new machines. Yes, I understand that zero incidents does not mean the equipment is safe. It could just mean that operators had been lucky. My heartburn came from the attempts to save money by guarding for an untrained and unskilled workforce.
TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:I design a lot of automated machinery and our guarding has to be really tight. We usually do full enclosures with either safety light-curtains on the access points or doors with locking safety latches.
Neither are cheap, but the opportunity to get hurt is very low. But access is quite good for the operator.
Interlocked doors and light curtains are great and easy to implement, and the cost is easy enough to accept. We had a few machines where a maintenance tech was required to do the lock out tag out for standard tooling changeovers. That had a tendency to make changeovers very expensive. We had a bunch of initiatives driven by people who didn't know their way around a manufacturing plant. Anyway, I should be putting this in the rant thread. Back to making things.
Rainbow caterpillars, aka structural 308 SS welding. This is for a rail system at work that carries racks of product.
not sure why everything is so distorted... I promise, they look really good.
I made an air hose holder out of an old trailer wheel
For the "Why I'll never be an engineer," part of this discussion, I submit my portable ATV winch setup. Got the idea from Stampie.
I got carried away replacing the exhaust on my friends Solara...
Vs old parts store "negative Y pipe"
In reply to Peabody :
That is bad ass
In reply to Recon1342 :
Those are beautiful. Stick weld?
Now, if only the gate and right side looked as good as the left.
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