The "non-car" project braggin' thread

Finished a long dormant project today. I picked up most of it about 13 or 14 years ago, collecting parts from Ebay, private collectors and salvage yards. I had it put together once years ago, but had to take it back apart to re-finish some of the parts. It got boxed up for a house move 11 years ago and stayed that way until I started pulling it out during the New Year break. Finally finished this evening. It's a Martin Baker Mk H7(AF) seat from an Air Force F-4C. Major portions of it came from tail number 640679, which got the Air Force's first MiG kill in Vietnam. Thought you all might appreciate it. Feel free to tack on your own "non car" projects.

I grilled steak, okay it was from 4 years ago, but it popped up in my facebook flashback and it looks way too good to be $3 worth of chuck steak.

I had kind of a busy day. I also finished an "assemble it yourself" file cabinet with zero profanity, so I was kind of on a roll. BTW, that steak looks excellent.

In reply to kazoospec:

I could never be a chef of line cook due to volume, but for parties of 8 or less, I can make a mean meal. The ejection seat project is one of the coolest and most different things that I've ever seen.

The last thing I did that I was proud of was some HO car bodies back in the late 70's...

My non-car project is Christmas lights. It's an 11 month per year project. As of this moment, I have about 40,000 lights that get put out. They're on various "props" that are home made (not well, but I try). I have 3 controllers that are used to make the lights dance to music which I broadcast on FM radio. All the dancing is sequencing that I do myself on a software program.

This year, I am adding RGB lights, which give me the ability to control each individual light bulb, instead of just the whole string at once. Plus, I can make them change into any color I want, bulb by bulb.

I successfully replaced my over-the-range microwave with a range hood.

Please record the first testing session of the ejection seat!

In all seriousness it is awesome, hopefully nobody accidentally goes through your ceiling while sitting in it.

In reply to Dr Ribs Revere:

Anything that goes bang or shoots flames is inert or replicated. It does have some pretty nasty finger pinching ability, but my kids are old enough that that isn't really a big issue. Eventually, I'll have Mrs. Kazoo help me make a canvas cover for the rare times we're visited by little people.

I built a scale four wheel drive truck.

In reply to kazoospec:

A guy that hangs out at my local pub actually had a chance to try one of those seats out over Haiphong Harbor on a bombing run that went bad. He was the driver in the front seat. He ended up getting fished out of the water by the good guys. The guy in the back seat didn't make it.

In reply to Gary:

berkeleying Goose, I miss that guy.

Cousin_Eddie wrote: I built a scale four wheel drive truck.

Details. I need details man. Where? When? How much? I need to know

Stroker - What bodies did you build?

Nick (Bo) Comstock wrote:

Cousin_Eddie wrote: I built a scale four wheel drive truck.

Details. I need details man. Where? When? How much? I need to know

www.rc4wd.com for the source of a lot of the parts as well as the base truck. As far as cost, quite a bit more expensive than most folks would realize. There's probably in the neighborhood of 1000 dollars tied up in it.

I am starting another build tomorrow, a Land Rover Defender. I hope I learned some stuff on the Toyota that will make the Land Rover turn out a lot better than this one.

In reply to Cousin_Eddie:

That thing is awesome!

Anybody want to buy a Civic?

Gary wrote: In reply to kazoospec: A guy that hangs out at my local pub actually had a chance to try one of those seats out over Haiphong Harbor on a bombing run that went bad. He was the driver in the front seat. He ended up getting fished out of the water by the good guys. The guy in the back seat didn't make it.

The cool thing about the seats is that about a half dozen things happen pretty much automatically once the handle is pulled. The stories I've read of ejections go something like this, "I pulled the handle, and the next thing I knew, I was floating under the parachute", since most ejections in this vintage were in the 20+ g load range. Every one of those functions happens mechanically and at about 6 different locations on the seat. The mechanisms and linkages are mind bending.

Pushrod wrote: Stroker - What bodies did you build?

Started off with a Vega funny car. Shortened and narrowed it then added nerf bars to make a pretty bitchin Modified.

Cousin_Eddie wrote:

Nick (Bo) Comstock wrote:

Cousin_Eddie wrote: I built a scale four wheel drive truck.

Details. I need details man. Where? When? How much? I need to know

www.rc4wd.com for the source of a lot of the parts as well as the base truck. As far as cost, quite a bit more expensive than most folks would realize. There's probably in the neighborhood of 1000 dollars tied up in it. I am starting another build tomorrow, a Land Rover Defender. I hope I learned some stuff on the Toyota that will make the Land Rover turn out a lot better than this one.

I have an axial scx10 trail honcho that is really neat. But the body isn't super scale like yours. The chassis very cool though. I've thought of doing a scale body, but I may likely just sell it

I built a table and fence for my drill press. And it almost doesn't suck.

I wasn't planning on making a build thread, and kind of forgot about this thread, so my pictures are a little lacking. How I've gone this far in life without bar clamps is beyond me, these things are freaking awesome. ^^That is the table part glued together. 2 pieces of 3/4" MDF ^^ The hole for the replacable sacrificial section.

Yes, I made the cuts in the dark before you ask. And apparently I can't eyeball a centerline worth a E36 M3.

But at least the bit will go through the sacrificial piece. barely.

I actually took a lot of time and some graph paper and measured everything out before I got started. The table that came with the drill press that this mounts to is 7.5" long by 6.5" wide.

This new table is 18x10. I purposely cut the top piece of the table short enough to keep put the fence on top of the bottom and behind the top. Some glue and some screws, and it's mostly there.

I missed eyeballing center I guess, but not pictured in the bottom board of the table are 4 1/4-20 bolts that go through the metal slots on the table. But I did set the board up on the table, and traced the slots on the bottom of it before drilling, so I could get the bolts in the corners of the slots. I drilled them out with a 3/8 bit, then used a step drill to countersink the heads because I don't own a set of countersinks. Yet.

I still want to add markings every half inch along the table and fence, and will chase them out with a square to make measuring a bit easier.

I'll make a better one in the future, but this is already better than just the table that came with the press.

A build thread will be coming up for the new portable stand, but I want to finish building it first.

I'm still trying to figure out what exactly to do with all the different parts of this thing:

It's broken down into several pieces (came incomplete) and all I can think of is an angle iron framed wooden top 'wet bar'

I've got a 1930s aufschnitt schneide Maschine made by westfalia (Alexander week) I'm slowly trying to return to working order.

Its a hand cranked German sausage slicer. Spose I should get around to doing a build thread for it because I need some hive input.

I'm finishing up getting the last of my stuff moved from my childhood home 160 miles away and the house I'm trying to sell 45 miles away to my new place. Yesterday I moved the last of the engines (3 of 20) and storage totes (53 of the 200 or so) home. I'll be spending next winter sorting, consolidating, and purging.