Thread: Your latest project

Originally Posted by jack620

Must have been some gun! Definitely not small arms.

7.6mm bore (.303?), so I guess there are smaller,
but it was from Lithgow SAF - "Black Mountain" - a precision target shooting barrel.


Those things are all modular, with a big flange and thread where it attaches to the receiver.
Front of the barrel is small 5/8" or 3/4" dia., but the back was big enough for me to turn down easily.

Originally Posted by NedsHead

I've been playing around with the water jet at work in the afternoon when everyone goes home, the plan is to teach myself how to use it.

I was curious if it would cut some gears so I went to McMaster Carr website and downloaded a CAD file of a mod 2 spur gear and after a bit of trial and error I managed to cut these, one nylon, the other inconel (that's all I had on hand) they aren't perfect, I need to work on the lead in and lead outs and maybe add some tabs to hold the piece in the parent stock.

So far I guess it's a success...?

Attachment 391897

Does anyone here operate water jets? hopefully I can pick some brains

At $100 per kg we keep our inconel locked up so it doesn't accidentally get used for forignies. good job with the water jet, wish we had one at work.

At work we used Inconel to make "bombs". The were called bombs because there was always a risk one would blow up and make a mess of the lab.

The correct name for the "bomb" is a pressure digestion vessel. Inconel rods about 100 mm long, 50 to 75 mm in diameter, into which a 25 or 30 mm blind holes were bored to close fit a Teflon liner which slip fit over a thick custom made PTFE Teflon two part chamber.

Inside the chamber was placed some rock powder (we were hoping to liquify/dissolve the rock, plus about 20 mL strong acids like nitric and hydrofluoric. The rods had fine threads machined on the outside of the open end and a thick cap made out of 100 or 125 mm diameter incone,l was screwed

The bombs (maybe 6 or 8 of them at a time) were placed into a lab oven and heated at 200ºC+ for about 12 hours (over night) the ovens would go off at bout 5am so by the time we arrived next day they might be cool enough to handle. If you were lucky the powdered rock would dissolve but usually it took two or three goes.

During one of the first runs when we were only using 6 mm thick bomb walls we came one morning to find the oven door buried in the opposite wall to where the oven was and fair bit of broken glass around. One of the bombs had split at the thread - there was no acid as it would have all vaporised. After this we switched to 12mm thick walls.

The techo that made the bomb casings did not like making them but he did a great job and ended up making about 3 dozen of them. The Screw fit was exquisite and they would just glide on and off.

These days ordinary microwave ovens and mini (3mL) FEP teflon digestion vessels are used. There's still a risk of explosion but its usually contained in the microwave oven - sometimes the MW has to be chucked out but thats usually a micro cost in what it takes to fund research.

That sounds interesting BobL,

I've always had a bit of an interest with inorganic chem which is probably why I've been enjoying working under the metallurgists at work.

What was the purpose of dissolving the rock powder?

Originally Posted by NedsHead

That sounds interesting BobL,

I've always had a bit of an interest with inorganic chem which is probably why I've been enjoying working under the metallurgists at work.

What was the purpose of dissolving the rock powder?

Rock dating using the uranium and lead concentration and the lead isotope ratios.

These days they use an ion-probe mass spectrometer and fire a plasma beam at rock crystals in a machine like this.
SHRIMPd1ss.jpg

This is SWMBO's 2020 Xmas present finally completed about an hour ago.
The gizmo is called a "drum carder" and is for carding wool.
Raw wool is fed into the small drum via the on feed tray and the wire toothed carding cloth teases it out onto the big drum.

I started in about mid Dec 2020, which is not bad for me.
To be fair I had to wait for ~4 weeks for carding cloth, and then the same for the green "PU belt" to come from the UK.

Timber is from a curly Marri log I milled in 2009.
Apart from a few custom made bronze washers, all the metal is 316 SS.
There are 6 bearings in there, 2 on each end of the drums and one in each of the belt tension pulleys.
Took me bloody ages but was pleased that I only had to make one SS piece (a small collar) twice.

Complete1.JPG Complete2.JPG belt1.JPG Complete3.JPG

The most expensive part is the carding cloth, ~ $100.
The SS would cost more if I had to fork out $, but I already had some pieces, and all the fixings, in my stash.
Under the feed tray there's a tool box with the wool removal hook, a timber thickness gauge to set the roller spacings, and 3 Allen keys for adjustments etc.

Handle and legs are easily removed for storage purposes.

Originally Posted by BobL

The gizmo is called a "drum carder" and is for carding wool.

You poor bugger....

Is SWMBO into weaving as well, or just the spinning side of things?

My mother got into weaving some years back, now there are multiple looms with the surrounding area littered with carding machines, various racks for warping yarn on, and all kinds of other stuff, and Dad is constantly roped into making shuttles and bits to modify looms. I'll have to make sure she never sees these photos, she'll definitely want one like that, it looks great especially when compared to the ones you'd normally buy.

Bit of a running joke in the family that weavers tend to be these wild eyed people with hair going in all directions, muttering about thread counts and patterns.... But she loves it which is good. I get the basic setup of the things and how they work, but my eyes glaze over when she starts talking about tying up specific patterns and laying them out, some of it makes complicated machining setups look easy!

Got no idea how it works but by geezz it's a work art!

The combination of timber and machined parts looks beautiful.

Well done.

Simon

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by Jekyll and Hyde

You poor bugger....
Is SWMBO into weaving as well, or just the spinning side of things?

She's into a zillion things and has mainly used wool to spin but lately she'd been "needle felting" - sculpting with wool.
Here are some of her latest.
The dog is meant to be a coyote howling at the moon and you can see a sheep over the back,
She's also made a Border Collie incorporating our border collie's hair.
IMG_4899p.JPG

Got no idea how it works but by geezz it's a work art!
The combination of timber and machined parts looks beautiful.

Thanks Simon - I agree - I was thinking brass instead but as I already had some 25, 10 and 8mm 316, and after a visit to Boher Uddeholm I picked up some 40 and 50 mm offcuts plus a 3m Length of 12 mm 316 (I will definitely use the rest of that). It also needed some 15mm custom washers and couldn't bear to turn down the 25mm stainless to do this so I used an offcut of 16mm bronze.

How it works.
Raw wool (even straight off a sheeps back if it's not too dirty) is fed slowly across the infeed tray under the small drum which rotates at 2/7ths the speed of the bigger drum (pulley ratio is 7:2). The larger drum spikes moving faster whip the wool off the small drum - in doing so crap like seeds, straw and muck is released and falls down under the machine - SWMBO reckons it needs a SS tray under there to catch the rubbish . The whipping/combing action also disentangles small knots etc and aligns the wool in one direction. When the big drum is fully covered, a hook is used to pull the wool off the drum - the wool comes off like its been combed. The first time/pass is not that inspiring so multiple passes are employed to continue improving the wool alignment and remove more crap. Then its washed, maybe carded again and then spun.

SWMBO also uses it to blend colours - like the pink flesh colour for the red headed lady above. Straight dyed pink was too pink so she mixed it with some cream and beige colour.

Before,
This wool has been washed so it's quite clean already.

before.JPG

After
After.JPG

Originally Posted by Jekyll and Hyde

Bit of a running joke in the family that weavers tend to be these wild eyed people with hair going in all directions, muttering about thread counts and patterns.... But she loves it which is good. I get the basic setup of the things and how they work, but my eyes glaze over when she starts talking about tying up specific patterns and laying them out, some of it makes complicated machining setups look easy!

SWMBO has steady steely grey blue eyes, a #3 haircut, and is very laid back about most things.
Her top interest is a horse, followed closely by perhaps quilting and sewing, but she has had a go at many different crafts.
She's really good at design and tailoring items to suit individuals interests/needs etc
One year she made hand/shoulder bags as Xmas presents for the dozen members of her book club, every bag was designed and fabricated to suit the individual member.
Her favourite TV show is the ABC Repair Shop and it's from that show that she took up ceramic repairs.
She also repairs and makes (mainly glass) jewellery. The space behind the shed is slowly accumulating empty blue bottles that formerly contained gin - all her doing as I don't drink alcohol.
All self taught - OK there's a fair of bit of Youtube involved.

I know this is not MW but this is the sort of thing she pumps out regularly for friends and family.
Quilt.jpeg

Simon pretty well nailed it Bob, you and your wife are most creative and you both do beautiful work. Very well done both of you!

Originally Posted by BobL

At work we used Inconel to make "bombs". The were called bombs because there was always a risk one would blow up and make a mess of the lab.

The correct name for the "bomb" is a pressure digestion vessel. Inconel rods about 100 mm long, 50 to 75 mm in diameter, into which a 25 or 30 mm blind holes were bored to close fit a Teflon liner which slip fit over a thick custom made PTFE Teflon two part chamber.

Inside the chamber was placed some rock powder (we were hoping to liquify/dissolve the rock, plus about 20 mL strong acids like nitric and hydrofluoric. The rods had fine threads machined on the outside of the open end and a thick cap made out of 100 or 125 mm diameter incone,l was screwed

The bombs (maybe 6 or 8 of them at a time) were placed into a lab oven and heated at 200ºC+ for about 12 hours (over night) the ovens would go off at bout 5am so by the time we arrived next day they might be cool enough to handle. If you were lucky the powdered rock would dissolve but usually it took two or three goes.

During one of the first runs when we were only using 6 mm thick bomb walls we came one morning to find the oven door buried in the opposite wall to where the oven was and fair bit of broken glass around. One of the bombs had split at the thread - there was no acid as it would have all vaporised. After this we switched to 12mm thick walls.

The techo that made the bomb casings did not like making them but he did a great job and ended up making about 3 dozen of them. The Screw fit was exquisite and they would just glide on and off.

These days ordinary microwave ovens and mini (3mL) FEP teflon digestion vessels are used. There's still a risk of explosion but its usually contained in the microwave oven - sometimes the MW has to be chucked out but thats usually a micro cost in what it takes to fund research.

Good thing that bomb went off at night Bob, a daytime blast might have necessitated a few changes in knickers at the very least.

Originally Posted by BobL

After
After.JPG

NICE work on the carder, I've had to repair my partners a couple of times.
JEEZ Bob, that room looks familiar, same as my Partners "craft" room, as she's also into felting. Plus numerous other crafts.
Kryn

Originally Posted by KBs PensNmore

NICE work on the carder, I've had to repair my partners a couple of times.
JEEZ Bob, that room looks familiar, same as my Partners "craft" room, as she's also into felting. Plus numerous other crafts.

Thanks KB, That pic was taken in my electronics room.
SWMBO has a sewing nook in the family room that spills out to surround chairs and the coffee table etc, and she has also taken over the lounge room which we don really use.

Originally Posted by Ropetangler

Simon pretty well nailed it Bob, you and your wife are most creative and you both do beautiful work. Very well done both of you!

Thanks. Wifey simply can't sit still for long. She's a huge reader and that's about the only time she doesn't have something crafty in her hands. She also watches a lot of TV/internet but she's always doing something crafty while doing that. Going camping is a giant PITA as there are always at least half a dozen bags full of craft stuff IZ have find room for in the van or car, "just in case she gets bored", but she only ends up touching about half of them.