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The swarf shop

Bradells

(BRad)
Brad you might this guy's channel. He has built submarines and ROVs, but for the past years has been building a 74 foot all steel origami boat. It's modelled on a Chinese Junk and he's built it all himself in his backyard in Tulsa, OK. It's intended to be a research and exploration vessel and people have been coming from around to world to help him. Lots of metalwork, casting, electronics, etc., but mostly I like how he just learns about something and shows off his way of mastering it.


Awesome!

Brad
 

CalgaryPT

Ultra Member
Vendor
Premium Member
I used to follow him till he faked the acetylene explosion.
I didn't know about that as I stopped watching him around the time everyone starting sending him free tools and he started selling swag. As his channel progressed I found he became less authentic. He clearly loves the camera. I think it's interesting that he says he is single now. I recall when he started out (10 yrs, ago?) he was married and his wife helped him. If I built a 74 foot boat in my back yard my marital status might change as well.

I don't follow him anymore either, but I get why he has a following. I've leaned a few things from watching him and do admire his persistence. But I wonder if it has become more of an obsession. The early vids were good.
 

Dabbler

ersatz engineer
I vaguely remember having a look at an episode or 2, years ago. I love to carefully think things through, and judge success or failure based on how close things ended up to my original or modified plan. He seems to be the 'build it and see if if floats' school.

After looking at a current video or 2 (including the linked one), I got the impression the project began in earnest, and now it is just a project to create videos. I'm pretty sure he really doesn't want to actually go anywhere in it any more.
 

Bradells

(BRad)
Oh, that’s the guy?

I’ve only heard of it by jaded YouTube creators... but no one would link or provided more details


Brad
 

Bradells

(BRad)
@Bradells - are you a GUE cert diver or DIR side ?

Been diving since 92 but slowing up A lot. Did Fundies about 10 years ago?

Sure am! Did fundamentals back about 7? years ago, went through Tech 1 and did CCR 1 last summer down in Tulum ... just need to move to a coastline to properly use a JJ (and acquire one).

I normally dive my KISS side mount rebreather, and have training from pretty much everyone ... Caves with NSS-CDS, rebreather with IANTD, misc things with TDI (mainly service courses).


Brad
 

Bradells

(BRad)
Well, some more additions to the shop this week via Kijiji.

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In no particular order..

27th edition bible (with box) sorry @YYCHobbyMachinist

2” dial indicator

Metric DTI with lots of little bits and bobs

Set of 4 squares (2.5”, 3”, 4”, 6”)



Later on I’ll go and check out the accuracy of these finds, i’m In the process of moving, so slowly taking over the new 1 car garage with stuff

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So far, just piles and some sort of organization (well, starting).

Going to put the tools on the left side (where power is, 30A 240v) and recreation on the other. Add in a beverage fridge and a poker table once it’s all done!


Brad
 

Bradells

(BRad)
Well, first project completed in the new shop!

A woodworking project.....

Gotta have a spot to put the 3 sets of tires kinda project...

Off to HD and pick up some surprisingly straight 2x3 and 2x4

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And 40 minutes later, just as the hail started to come down...

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This frees up tones of space from the last shed (which had no roof height), and from the garage floor where this open space was filled

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I have one more workbench to bring over and some shelving for the recreational side of the garage, then it’s figuring out where everything should go in relation to each other... thinking metal things on the house side, and wood things on the garage door side, as most of the work would be out the door anyways...

Might also need to make a nice and large splash for the Sherline setup... keep metal in a somewhat contained area...

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I can’t recall when I’ve had all my tools in one spot! (Always split up between work, storage, small shed, ‘spare bedroom’, basement...)


Brad
 
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Bradells

(BRad)
Not my shop project, but a work shop project.... labels/barcodes and stickers.

Growing up, my dad was the weird dad on the block.

Regularly grinding edges on his shovels, putty knives, small prys, some small pets, etc. Basically anything that could have an edge, got an edge (some razor sharp, others a very rough edge).

Digging was easier in our solid clay (you would be lucky if you had 1’ of real ‘soil’ before hitting clay).


Well, here I am, with a box cutter on my mat, along with a strip of 400g sandpaper just to swipe every few labels to keep an edge, reduce any dings so I don’t scratch the painted surfaces...

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Keeps things happy, and my tools lasting just a little longer...

I mentioned in a different thread that I haven’t ground a HSS tool since the late 90’s.... that’s when I made most of my lathe HSS tooling back in high school. I just keep the edge clean and sharp with a stone and some sandpaper... almost 25 years later!


Brad
 
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Bradells

(BRad)
Along the same lines as yesterday’s post, here’s another not my shop, project..

Still labelling away at work, but with trickier labels and stickers (thicker, gooeyer, and more of a pain if you don’t land it right the first time kind of labels...

Here’s the setup

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2 clamps clamped together to form a sideways ‘vice’.

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Once the item is degreased, it is lightly clamped in place, sticker is prepped, and ruler at the ready..

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And using the ruler, line up the vertical Center feature of the logo (thanks for finally changing it up so something is centred!), lay it over and you have a centred, square logo!

Rinse, wash, repeat...


Brad
 

Bradells

(BRad)
Today was a busy day. We're back at work for 3 days a week, so today is the start of my super long weekend ....

It started off with the Ms. fleeing the country this morning (international work/conference), and then a phone call to go into work .... Great ...

Work was quick, and there were some postings on The PortraitNovel of some "estate" tool sales. I found 2 of them, and nothing worthy of my few peso's and blocks drive .. bummer #3.


But, I have been selling of some equipment on the Kijiji the past week, and the last one was picked up this afternoon.

I filled up the SUV with another load destined for the new place and headed over. Setting up the new 'dive shed', and decided that I needed to use the lathe to 'fix' a part that I made back in the spring for my rebreather.

IMG_5461.JPG

When I made the aluminum post, I didn't know how long to make it, so I made it 1.5" in length. That is too long I found out, as I catch my light cord underwater constantly with it!

I went and put on the 3jaw onto the Sherline, and realized, yup, I can't see much in the garage with 2 LED overhead bulbs... Somewhere in a box I was smart enough to bring over a bunch of random lights, and set to mount one strip light in such a way to illuminate the working area of the lathe.

IMG_5462.JPG

First thing that I wanted to do was to turn a relief shoulder for the screw, to see if it would sit better ... *Spoiler* it didn't in the end. Most likely the hole wasn't bottom tapped. I might go back and remove .100 +/-.100" or so to get it to seat nicer.

I turned the part around in the chuck, and put the parting tool on.

IMG_5464.JPG

I like to register a .010" shim stock between the work and the tool to find the edge, move the tool out, and over the .010 and zero out the dials. I put another tool post on to register the DI (I hope to make a way mounted adapter for the DI ... no need to eyeball the alignment).

I moved over the offending .620" to make the unscrewed length to be .750". Parting went well ... until it didn't. Can you see what happened?

IMG_5465.JPG

At some point since I last used the tool, the blade slid down (it is on an angle), and was undercutting. With all the gunk on the tool and post, I couldn't slide it easily into position without raking the post off, loosing the registration and whereabouts in space it is.

IMG_5466.JPG

So out came the hacksaw for the last little bit.

Previously, to cut the ball end, I rotated the headstock (there isn't a compound on this lathe) and roughed in a radius with multiple passes at various angles. I wanted to try a new method (to me).

On my tablet (currently my shop music device), I downloaded a cad program (GNA Cad) and have been using this for a few projects when I want to accurately figure out some dimensions... This time, I drew a .249" circle (diameter of the part), and made measurements every .010" along the radius to figure out the depth of cut.

In hind sight, with this program (which I'm still fairly slow on ..), I should have gotten rid of the decimal, as the unit resolution is set to 0.0000", but the dimensions were 0.00" (I couldn't find the setting). I might just have to find a cheap monitor and windows XP computer to put ACAD2000 on in the shop for quick dimensions...

Anyways, this is what it produced on the lathe.

IMG_5467.JPG

A little file work, and finishing off with 220g sandpaper, this was the final result ... Probably about the same amount of time as unlocking and rotating the headstock, but I didn't loose my alignment this way.

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And here it is, back in the DSV (Dive/Surface Valve)

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After finishing this quick project, I added some more lights underneath as I found that the one light didn't light up any indicator if it was mounted behind the lathe, so 2 more were added.

IMG_5470.JPG

And here is what the base is looking like ... a few shelves, from the top, some measurement tools, below that, setup/cutting tooling, and on the bottom, some stock and misc tooling.

IMG_5478.JPG


..... It needs a lot of work still, but is slowly getting there as the shop progresses into something usable.


Brad
 

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