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Hello from a Loosenut behind the wheel

Loosenut

Loosenut

New Member
I'm from a small town in Ont., trust me you haven't heard of it, and currently retired. Been a amateur metal mangler for 40 years as well as 30 years in the trades as a P & P welder/pipefitter/boilermaker etc.

My main focus has been building 1/6 scale artillery (non-firing), a British 18 PDR and a 4.5" Howitzer both of WW 1 vintage. Currently building a 1/2 scale 1906 Maxim machine gun (non-firing). As well as that I have built a model gas turbine engine designed for R/C aircraft (not by me) plus the usual shop tools and assorted bits. I have also been a CAD user for over 20 years, mostly Autodesk Inventor but now I use Solidedge. I also have a 3D printer which has been handy for making patterns for metal casting, jigs for machining as well as various parts for around the house. Hope to have good discussions on metal work in general.
 
Loosenut said:
I'm from a small town in Ont., trust me you haven't heard of it, and currently retired. Been a amateur metal mangler for 40 years as well as 30 years in the trades as a P & P welder/pipefitter/boilermaker etc.

My main focus has been building 1/6 scale artillery (non-firing), a British 18 PDR and a 4.5" Howitzer both of WW 1 vintage. Currently building a 1/2 scale 1906 Maxim machine gun (non-firing). As well as that I have built a model gas turbine engine designed for R/C aircraft (not by me) plus the usual shop tools and assorted bits. I have also been a CAD user for over 20 years, mostly Autodesk Inventor but now I use Solidedge. I also have a 3D printer which has been handy for making patterns for metal casting, jigs for machining as well as various parts for around the house. Hope to have good discussions on metal work in general.
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Welcome from a large city in Ontario.

Don't bet that anyone here hasn't heard of your town, we've got people from everywhere.

Also, as a former reservist in the Canadian artillery, I'd love to see your project
 
Loosenut said:
I have also been a CAD user for over 20 years, mostly Autodesk Inventor but now I use Solidedge.
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Welcome. We like pictures! Especially (selfish personal interest) the gas turbine although the other pursuits sound appealling too.

Your CAD comment also caught my eye. We do a lot of chatting about CAD modelers. Usually when the renewal bill comes due LOL. I dont think SolidEdge has had a lot of air time for whatever reason & I've always wondered why (aside from folks who want an integrated CAM). Seems like a powerful app from big boy vendor, especially for a free licence (Community Edition). Is that what you are using? Given that you have come off Inventor & lots of CAD experience, I'd be interested to hear you rcomments in this regard. But save that for whenever you are ready.
 
PeterT said:
Seems like a powerful app from big boy vendor, especially for a free licence (Community Edition). Is that what you are using?
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It is a full featured CAD program (community edition) without any restrictions or degradation like some programs, free to hobbyists. The file format is different from the version they sell but that is of little consequence to home shop guys. Your right it doesn't get much traction, no good reason why but somebody must use it. It is comparable to Inventor, Solidworks, Fusion etc. I'm still trying to unlearn the old program and adapt to the new one. It probably would have been a lot easier to switch to Fusion, sort of based on Inventor, but I don't like the online aspect. In the old days we had these things called books that made it easy to learn something but not now.


Proxule said:
What's a P P welder?
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Pipe and Pressure vessel Welder

TorontoBuilder said:
Don't bet that anyone here hasn't heard of your town
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Honk if you know where Forest, Ont. is. No googling it.

Thee Pics are of the British 18 PDR beginning of WW1. the first pic is a cad drawing cutaway of the recuperator cylinder. Some parts missing for clarity. All of the internal parts are in the model. Most of it is functional within scale effect limitations.
001.jpg1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg6.jpg
 
This is the 4.5" Howitzer Mark 1 from WW 1 also 1/6th scale and mostly functional. All internal components.

I'm still working on the maxim, it is in pieces at the moment for paint and then hopefully reassembly. There be some tricky bits that where difficult on the full sized guns worse when 1/4 of the size.
I don't have any pics of the turbine at the moment, I will gets some soon.

Building these things keeps me out of trouble..........mostly.

P.S. I have touched up the paint since these where taken.

DSC00350.JPGDSC00351.JPGDSC00352.JPGDSC00353.JPGDSC00354.JPGDSC00355.JPGDSC00356.JPG are included.
 
Wow! Cool photos!

Welcome aboard from Ontario farm country south of Chatham. Lots of corners around here have a town name and not a single house. So I echo @TorontoBuilder's comments - don't bet a coffee that nobody here knows your town's name. If you live there, it's bigger than most of the closest places to me.

On the other hand Forest is a huge place by my standards. I go through there routinely on my way north or south. Nice town. I might even move there if I ever quit farming.
 
Loosenut said:
Honk if you know where Forest, Ont. is. No googling it.
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Forest isn't exactly small or obscure, it's between Sarnia and Grand Bend. Although I usually go the back way.

I had an old trucker tell me it was ok to park behind the grocery store, then immediately proceeded to get yelled at the next morning for parking there 🙄
 
Loosenut said:
Honk if you know where Forest, Ont. is. No googling it.
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Dude, you think I've never been around Grand Bend, or Sarnia??

I have US relatives in Michigan and Ohio.

We'd meet and stay in cottages either near Grand Bend, or Point Pelee. Or at Pelee we'd camp when it was permitted back in the day
 
Some serious metalworking skills there, Bravo. I'd like to see some of your casting methods, some of those (I suspect cast) parts look pretty finesse. So like lost wax or sand or..?

Oh and no rush but.... TUR-BINE! TUR-BINE!, TUR-BINE! 😛
 
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