# Another "What has Josh been up to" thread



## Jwest7788 (Jul 31, 2017)

Here's some of the things I have had on the go lately.

Firstly, spent another whole afternoon cleaning the shop. (It never ends!)

Just finishing up a little shop press brake for my tiny shop press:
(Bit of a hack job, just quickly threw it together. Also used it as an opportunity to show my little brother how the tig welder works.)



 



Need to find some thicker stock to work with. I had a piece of 3/16"X2" aluminum flatbar, but I cut it in half, whoops.
This still needs two springs and a guide ring at the top to ensure the press ram always lines up correctly.

Had @Alexander  and @kylemp over on Saturday. Great hanging out with you both. Tinkered on a few things, flew the drone for a bit. Good times.
(Drone POV)






Melted down some aluminum in my kiln, to prove it could. Going to keep my eyes open for some simple casting projects to take on, now that I know it's a relatively quick process to get the aluminum molten.





Recently went to a scooter meetup with @Alexander and @Janger --> That thing was awesome fun.




--> Those scooters really outpace my moped though, have to work on that.

Finally cutting functional stuff on the CNC Plasma cutter. Here's a sign I made for the family house in the crowsnest pass:




--> Still some backlash type problems to work out, but still learning a huge amount with this stuff.

Did some work on my (new to me) bandsaw. Here are the specs:





After cleaning up the shop. I've decided to make one of those thread displays you see at hardware stores, for checking thread sizes. I want to have: M+F Imperial threads, M+F Metric threads, and Hex head bolts imperial and metric too.
(I decided on this new project because I finished cleaning and added 20% to the pile of allen keys




Also because I have about 25 different bins with assorted bolts in them that came off of old repair projects, etc. Want to get them sorted into bins by thread size.

Still haven't really started my X2 Mill CNC, but have pretty much all I need now except for a bit of stock, so running out of excuses not to get this completed!

All of this was while drinking beer, and waiting for my homebrew to be ready. Here's the first glass of my home brewed beer:







JW


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## CalgaryPT (Aug 3, 2017)

You guys need to put down your beers long enough to help me unload the ironworker I bought LOL.


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## Tom O (Aug 3, 2017)

CalgaryPT said:


> You guys need to put down your beers long enough to help me unload the ironworker I bought LOL.


But with enough beer it's just backup and hammer the brakes!


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## CalgaryPT (Aug 3, 2017)

Ummh....you just failed the interview Tom.


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## Jwest7788 (Aug 11, 2017)

Bought some parts bins to sort my fasteners. Starting to regret the idea:








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## Tom O (Aug 11, 2017)

I was looking at those at princess auto, the top row seems quite tight trying to pull it out not a bad price though.


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## Dabbler (Aug 11, 2017)

ya know, jwest,  I did the same thing on a previous sale...  uh... well, I got half way!  then all stink broke out, and now I have no organization.


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## Tom O (Aug 11, 2017)

Just number them all and have a ledger to keep track of what goes where that way you won't have to worry about using multiple drawers or mixing the contents.


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## CalgaryPT (Aug 11, 2017)

I don't know how many label guns I have owned in my life for these type of cabinets.

What I learned is that, in the absence of girlie fingernails, the label tape that you can bend and split in two to separate the protective backing is worth every extra dime. I have lost many years off my life trying to peel protective backing off those silly things until I discovered split tape. I also learned to string expletives together to form swear words that are nastier than the sum of their parts.

Oh the memories.....


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## Jwest7788 (Aug 12, 2017)

Thanks for the tips guys. Anyways successfully setup parts bins for bolts? I would love to see a picture. 

@CalgaryPT I actually ordered one of them yesterday morning. The "embossing" type, right?

A ledge makes sense too!


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## CalgaryPT (Aug 12, 2017)

I can't recall the brand of mine--maybe Dymo. Another thing I remember to do with these labellers is to cut some anti-slip Gator tape and put it around the sides. They always seem to slip from my hands and because they are not very durable, a shop floor shatters them.


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## Jwest7788 (Aug 12, 2017)

Pretty sure that's the same one I just bought. Dymo. 

Preemptive reinforcement. I like it. 


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## Bofobo (Sep 1, 2017)

I've labeled the inside of the drawers with paint pen, it lasts longer but writing in reverse is a pain, also time consuming, after awhile I just know where what I want is located. all nuts and bolts sorted by size, one drawer for each you've got a lot more drawers than I've got and you mentioned sorting by cap style? Even if it's kinda sparse now but I'm sure it'll fill up quickly


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## Jwest7788 (Sep 1, 2017)

Bofobo said:


> I've labeled the inside of the drawers with paint pen, it lasts longer but writing in reverse is a pain, also time consuming, after awhile I just know where what I want is located. all nuts and bolts sorted by size, one drawer for each you've got a lot more drawers than I've got and you mentioned sorting by cap style? Even if it's kinda sparse now but I'm sure it'll fill up quickly


That's the truth, will fill up in no time.

I've been procrastinating the sort job, but pretty sure I'm getting started this weekend. Will snap some progress pics.

I'm thinking head head (bolt) get's it's own section, internal hex it's own section, then all screw heads in their own section (machine screws only)
--> No wood screws or nails or anything, and nuts and washers all close to their bolt counterpart.

Probably will end up with leftover drawers for set screws, lock nuts and other specialty stuff etc.

Guessing I'll use a whole label maker roll by the end of it, haha.


Anyone have a good chart that shows the full range of common fasteners?
--> Most charts I find have all the super niche uncommon stuff too...


JW


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## Bofobo (Sep 2, 2017)

Thought I snapped a pic but don't see it .. perhaps I miss clicked something so here is another attempt. 

It's all in the colour


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## Jwest7788 (Sep 3, 2017)

Nice. That's awesome. I'm sure mine will look similar at the end of the day.

Working on it this afternoon and much of tomorrow. If anyone is looking for something to do tomorrow, we can hangout. 

JW


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## Jwest7788 (Sep 3, 2017)

I started by working against your storage just to realize that my tap and die set makes a perfect chart for thread sizes. 


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## Jwest7788 (Sep 4, 2017)

So I ended up following the strategy of making spaces for each and every size I have in my tap and die set. (86 piece?)

This means everything I do have has a bin, so I can definitely get this all sorted. 


I know many will be empty at the end of his project, so I plan to remove the labels from those and rearrange based on what I actually have used. Still working on the "freedom units" side, moving into metric shortly. 

This is as tedious as I thought it would be, lol. 








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## Bofobo (Sep 4, 2017)

My roomie used to joke at how much time I spent playing with my nuts


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## Jwest7788 (Sep 10, 2017)

Update:







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## kylemp (Sep 12, 2017)

Nicely done, its hard to get things organized in a way that works for you and fits your space. Now that you're pretty much done that, I've got about a thousand pounds of hardware that I could use a hand with...


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## David Henry (Dec 9, 2017)

Its most important to run a tight ship no matter the square footage you have to work with.


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