# Holiday shop projects?



## Dan Dubeau (Dec 23, 2022)

May you all get some time to spend out in the shop over the holidays.  

What is everybody working on?  Hopefully we see some more project threads in the next few days/new years.

Me?  Steel stock rack for the shop, and maybe some blacksmithing tool projects.  If the power stays on.....

Oh, and Merry Christmas, to you and your families. Cheers!


----------



## Gearhead88 (Dec 23, 2022)

Building another V twin short block , balanced crank , hand fit bearings

There's a transmission being dropped off  that pops out of fifth gear that needs looking at .

Some tidying & organizing , ............   maybe pick a couple of ideas from my tools to build list and go ahead with that .

I would like to , at some time soon , build a valve grinding / seat grinding work station / bench , for me , the cylinder head reconditioning work is  growing and evolving , I can't see me stopping buying tools any time soon , that and  expanding my engine building  skills. I scour ebay , kijiji & marketplace for engine building stuff


----------



## historicalarms (Dec 23, 2022)

Dan Dubeau said:


> If the power stays on.


Inflation added to everything including home heating gas has forced me to shut my shop heat off so no shop "inventions" till spring.

     The day I pulled the plug on the shop heater I sat in my basement fantasizing about rigging up a "temporary" shop down there....two things dashed that experience from happening ....I know what kind of confusion & mess I can create in very short order in my outside shop and SWAMBO has her working office down there....and very big mess & SWAMBO are not even remotely compatible. 
    After thinking about it I have nothing but admiration for you boys that do the "basement shop" thing.


----------



## thestelster (Dec 23, 2022)

historicalarms said:


> Inflation added to everything including home heating gas has forced me to shut my shop heat off so no shop "inventions" till spring.
> 
> The day I pulled the plug on the shop heater I sat in my basement fantasizing about rigging up a "temporary" shop down there....two things dashed that experience from happening ....I know what kind of confusion & mess I can create in very short order in my outside shop and SWAMBO has her working office down there....and very big mess & SWAMBO are not even remotely compatible.
> After thinking about it I have nothing but admiration for you boys that do the "basement shop" thing.


"SWAMBO"??


----------



## Darren (Dec 23, 2022)

I'm building a hotwire foam cutter.

I have a growing pile of about 500 pieces of 4'x'4' EPS foam insulation in front of my shop to deal with. Its all tapered by 1/2". Thickness ranges from 0.75-1.25" to 5.5-6".  

The first planned use is to insulate my 'bonus' room in my attic trusses. For that i need mostly 5.5" of thickness by 22.5" wide to fit between the trusses. So some of the pieces will be ok, the 5-5.5" pieces can be just cut to 22.5" wide. For the rest, they will have to be sorted to make 5.5" by gluing the tapers opposite.  Anyone good with spreadsheets? 

Once its all cut to proper dimensions I can get it hauled upstairs and out of my way.  Right now I can't even plow the snow in front of the shop.

Once the upstairs is done, I'll see what I have left, and ideally use the hotwire cutter to cut pieces into 1.5 or 2" thick pieces to wrap my house and shop. So lots of mental work to make best use of it all.


----------



## YotaBota (Dec 23, 2022)

I'll be back to my Stuart 10V steam engine and other "stuff".



thestelster said:


> "SWAMBO"??


SHE
WHO
 "always" or "actually" or "absolutely"
MUST 
BE
OBEYED


----------



## Susquatch (Dec 23, 2022)

historicalarms said:


> Inflation added to everything including home heating gas has forced me to shut my shop heat off so no shop "inventions" till spring.
> 
> The day I pulled the plug on the shop heater I sat in my basement fantasizing about rigging up a "temporary" shop down there....two things dashed that experience from happening ....I know what kind of confusion & mess I can create in very short order in my outside shop and SWAMBO has her working office down there....and very big mess & SWAMBO are not even remotely compatible.
> After thinking about it I have nothing but admiration for you boys that do the "basement shop" thing.



I think we love in parallel universes. My bride and I are identical. My shop and my house are at opposite ends of the world.

But maybe you are onto something. I wonder what my shop would look like if she was out there as often as I am.....

What does the A in SWAMBO mean? I've seen SWMBO, but not with an A.


----------



## Dan Dubeau (Dec 23, 2022)

I can't do the basement shop thing.  My Wife has one half for her yarn business/storage/craft areas, and the other is a mix of utilities, and a few woodworking tools and kids area.  I like having the mess, and smells of a metal/machine shop out in the garage.  As much as I like having a few woodworking tools (bandsaw, scroll saw, and woodlathe) in the basement I hate the mess it makes, and as soon as I get the barn cleaned up, and closed up to the elements, they are going back out there.  I do have a workbench down there though, where a mix of everything from making fishing lures, household repairs, to electronics happens.  It's a 5lb sac stuffed with 10lbs of crap right now though.  Perhaps I should work on that instead over the holidays........


----------



## boilerhouse (Dec 23, 2022)

My wife took an indigenous art course, and painted a cool polar bear done in an Inuit style of artwork, so I just finished a custom picture frame for it.  This being a metal working site, if I attempt to post, it will cause the site to crash.
Also,  turned a handle(s) for a garden spade she had.  The spade itself was slightly bent and had a small crack, so that was heated, straightened, and brazed.  The handle was turned from birch and had a stepped drilled hole to accept the spades tang.  The first handle cracked as the drilled hole was too tight.  The second handle cracked as the drilled hole was too tight.  Third times a charm, and the spades tang fitted the 3rd handle well.


----------



## Degen (Dec 23, 2022)

Shop clearout, to gain space.  As most of us do, we keep odds and ends (my wife calls it pack-rat) that always come in handy at some point for that emergency repair (you're the hero) until then still the pack-rat.  So for more shop space, time to divest of valuable treasures (aka junk) will be let go.


----------



## PeterT (Dec 23, 2022)

Darren said:


> I'm building a hotwire foam cutter.


I used to do a lot of foam hot wire cutting for RC models. This link might be helpful for info/ideas/supplies






						Nichrome Wire Power Supply Design
					

How to design a variable AC power supply for hot wire foam cutting and for powering other nichrome wire heating applications.



					jacobs-online.biz


----------



## PeterT (Dec 23, 2022)

Gearhead88 said:


> I would like to , at some time soon , build a valve grinding / seat grinding work station / bench , for me , the cylinder head reconditioning work is  growing and evolving



Maybe you are already familiar with PaulX channel? If not he has multi-part series on his shop made machine for ideas & lots of related reconditioning projects








			https://www.youtube.com/@PaulXchannel/videos


----------



## Darren (Dec 23, 2022)

@PeterT  Yes, i came across that site and played with the calculators. I'm using 20 gauge nichrome (already have it), and it looks like a 12v car battery with a charger on it might be just about right for 13v-14v and 5a for a 50" wire length.  I'm thinking a gravity feed system where the weight of the cutting apparatus will provide the feed, on an inclined table. Trying to come up with something to make it as quick and efficient as possible.


----------



## Gearhead88 (Dec 23, 2022)

PeterT said:


> Maybe you are already familiar with PaulX channel? If not he has multi-part series on his shop made machine for ideas & lots of related reconditioning projects
> 
> View attachment 29204
> 
> ...


Yes , I've watched several of his video's , and have been subscribed for some time now. 

He does some very creative work


----------



## whydontu (Dec 23, 2022)

The next few days will be:

Drawing up the bracketry to install a stepper motor to drive my lathe leadscrew

Cutting and grooving a bunch of stainless steel pipe to start the next phase of prototype testing on a multi-phase flow meter design

Swearing at the frigging snow.


----------



## Susquatch (Dec 23, 2022)

My life at Christmas is so much simpler than most of you guys. 

We generally spend Christmas eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day with each of our kids with kids in sequence with our 4th and his lady coming on one of those days too. So the whole period is more or less spent doing as I'm told. 

I just finished putting up the tree we cut out back. She wanted a big one. Took 6 weeks to get it through the door. 






Then she couldn't decorate so I was told to cut 3 feet off of it. 






If I get any time to myself it will be spent clearing the snow from the blizzard we are getting right now or working on a rolling cart for my Ripper Blade so I can move it around in the barn more easily. For those who don't know, a Ripper blade is a 40in long tooth made of 1.5 inch plate with a replaceable hard point on it that you pull behind a tractor to rip through tree roots and hard pan clay. Here in the east, big hardwood trees like to send their roots out into the farm fields to eat all the plant food and water that your crop needs. You can cut the tree down or just cut the roots. I prefer to cut the roots. 

Oh ya, and the wife wants a dimmer in the great room. It's a 4-way circuit - so not so easy. It's taken me a Fg year to find a smart dimmer that works on a 4-way circuit. Of course, that officially makes me an idiot in her eyes. It's not installed yet, but for anyone who is interested, a Leviton D26HD & two DD00R-DLZ Satelite switches arrived yesterday and should do the trick. Of course they MUST be installed today. Oh my..... I prolly have to go to the barn for pigtails..... I'm virtually certain that it will take me hours to find them...... LOL!


----------



## Shoprat (Dec 23, 2022)

A pair of 12 foot jib cranes for lathe chuck swaps and metal fabrication.  All in all a pretty tame break. Merry Christmas to all!


----------



## DPittman (Dec 23, 2022)

Everyone has fun projects planned mostly, I'm driving to northern bc to visit mother-in-law right now in cold and blizzard conditions and my minivan heater motor sounds like it's going to hang a rod.   If we get back home next week without freeing to death I get to repair a heater motor (hopefully I won't be cursing auto engineers to much).


----------



## Susquatch (Dec 23, 2022)

DPittman said:


> If we get back home next week without freeing to death I get to repair a heater motor (hopefully I won't be cursing auto engineers to much).



Ya, please don't. If you are gunna curse anybody for it, curse the auto bean counters. 

And if you really must curse auto engineers, at least know I never personally worked on heater systems. 

Regardless, I really hope you have a safe uneventful trip without any serious problems.


----------



## DPittman (Dec 23, 2022)

Susquatch said:


> Ya, please don't. If you are gunna curse anybody for it, curse the auto bean counters.
> 
> And if you really must curse auto engineers, at least know I never personally worked on heater systems.
> 
> Regardless, I really hope you have a safe uneventful trip without any serious problems.


Hee hee I won't curse anyone personally just in general, and who knows it might turn out to be be an easy to access thing and I will be saying good things about rhe engineers!
Right now we are temporarily stuck in Jasper as there was some sort of accident on highway 16 that closed the road.  Someone's holiday season is turning out very bad and sad, not ours, my kids are a bit grumpy but I keep telling them how lucky we are!


----------



## Canadium (Dec 23, 2022)

I have at least 2 projects I'll be working on thru the holidays. One is to restore my new to me rotary table, the other is to restore my set of Mitutoyo micrometers. Both the box and the micrometers that is. These days I'm never in a hurry tho so these projects may continue for some time. Especially since I prefer to do my painting in the summer!


----------



## Chris Cramer (Dec 23, 2022)

I don't get any more days than the holidays off, so I'll just be continuing with my blades. I need to stay focused on finishing my set of steak knives. I have every blade finished, and most handles bonded to the tang, only I keep moving to other projects instead of shaping and sanding the handles, to complete the set.


----------



## Chicken lights (Dec 23, 2022)

historicalarms said:


> Inflation added to everything including home heating gas has forced me to shut my shop heat off so no shop "inventions" till spring.
> 
> The day I pulled the plug on the shop heater I sat in my basement fantasizing about rigging up a "temporary" shop down there....two things dashed that experience from happening ....I know what kind of confusion & mess I can create in very short order in my outside shop and SWAMBO has her working office down there....and very big mess & SWAMBO are not even remotely compatible.
> After thinking about it I have nothing but admiration for you boys that do the "basement shop" thing.


never cross a lady that feeds you well 

and one that shoots faster than you can


----------



## historicalarms (Jan 7, 2023)

Susquatch said:


> What does the A in SWAMBO mean? I've seen SWMBO, but not with an A.


  She who *ALWAYS *must be obeyed....and as Chicken pointed out, I am duly kept in line  LOL


----------



## Canadium (Jan 7, 2023)

Despite getting Covid for Christmas on top of other underlying health issues I'm struggling with I did manage some significant progress with my two holiday projects.

The rotary table was completely disassembled, degreased and derusted. The table had been frozen and would not rotate when I started. A significant amount of rust was found inside but I think it is entirely salvageable and will work fine when I relube and reassemble. I even managed to get in a few coats of paint but am unhappy with the paint result. It's supposed to be a "hammered" look paint but the effect doesn't show well IMO. I think I will wait till summer to get a different shade and then I will try again and bake the paint at the same time. Also will have to make a new machine label!

With the micrometer box all the hardware was removed and the whole box was degrimed with dish washing soap on a wet rag. Remnant bits of ribbon around the micrometer slots were removed with a small sandpaper drum on a dremel tool. The micrometer thimbles were removed and the knurled parts boiled in a water vinegar solution and then scrubbed with scotch brite and dishwashing soap. The micrometer frames were also degrimed with dishwashing soap on a wet rag. One locking mechanism was found to be not working. That was easily fixed with a minor adjustment. One thimble was found to be frozen. That was remedied by soaking in a light oil overnight. After cleaning and relubing the micrometers seem to all work very well. The set is missing the 7-8 inch micrometer and I would like to replace one of the others. I will be watching the used tool offerings for those while I wait for the summer painting season.


----------



## Susquatch (Jan 7, 2023)

Sounds like a darn good success story if you ask me!


----------

