A Few Of The Many Things I've Made

[mytwhyt]

I'm lucky to have a small shop, and an urge to make the things that come to my mind,, That and being retired and having a small income from the VA and SS... The pandemic didn't much change my day to day life.. I don't play games or watch movies and can only read one or two books a week.. I've many more failures at the things I've tried to make than successes.. Many many more.. My adventures into vacuum forming will cover a lot of my needed posts.

 

[mytwhyt]

Before we get to far away from the furnace, here's a few pics of the adjustable size burner made from off the shelf parts.. You will need a drill press and grinder with a metal cutting blade..
A few other brass water plumbing parts.. Also the wire feed electric welder tips for the gas outlet. They come in assorted sizes.. May need the larger wire size for a larger burner.. Not sure what size I used for the burner I used.. It's like a puzzle you can put together in different ways depending on what size you need.. Much like everything I come up with.. If anyone wants to build one and needs help, just holler.

 

[mytwhyt]

Turns out I can edit. I was blocking cookies for this site.. When I allowed them it gave me that option.. I'm dumber than dirt when it comes to using a computer.
Trichrider,
If you want to build a furnace using Kaowool and welded wire mesh I can post a link so you can see how simple it can be..

 

[trichrider]

Turns out I can edit. I was blocking cookies for this site.. When I allowed them it gave me that option.. I'm dumber than dirt when it comes to using a computer.
Trichrider,
If you want to build a furnace using Kaowool and welded wire mesh I can post a link so you can see how simple it can be..

i've finished the furnace, except for using the stiffening agent on the ceramic blanket.
i'll post pics if that's alright.
two burners, built similar to yours with their own tanks and regulators. the tongs both done but do not fit my crucible.
i need to get other items for safety' sake, but not too far from firing it up.
thank you for the link to the sodium silicone or whatever that chemical is...lol, just ordered it from walmart.

 

[mytwhyt]

Sure go ahead, not a problem with me.. Really would help with the life of the blanket to coat it. It has some binder in it as it was made.. You'll probably see the need after you fire it up..

 

[mytwhyt]

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​ My sterling silver castings are all done using lost wax investment casting... Most of my larger aluminum casting casting ore done using a two piece sand casting molds.. They're getting a little hard for me to handle now.. Most weigh 50# or more.. Here's pics of an ashtray cast in aluminum. The eyes in the ashtray are 10mm onyx cabochons, and a 5mm cz in the center tooth.. It's a little hard to see, a colored store would have been better. It weighs about 1 lb.

 

[shithawk420]

That deer handle is really nice.i wanted to make swords when I was a kid.i actually did make something resembling a sword out of an antenna when I was ten

 

[St. Phatty]

​ My sterling silver castings are all done using lost wax investment casting... Most of my larger aluminum casting casting ore dome using a two piece sand casting molds.. They're getting a little hard for me to handle now.. Most weigh 50# or more.. Here's pics of an ashtray cast in aluminum. The eyes in the ashtray are 10mm onyx cabochons, and a 5mm cz in the center tooth.. It's a little hard to see, a colored store would have been better. It weighs about 1 lb.

I got a good deal on 2 HUGE graphite crucibles.

They hold 200+ pounds of aluminum, or 400+ pounds of copper.

But I'm not sure if I will ever build the structure to hold them in the kiln fire, and to move them to pour in the mold.

 

[mytwhyt]

I use a small 1lb. empty propane canister, with the top cut off, for a crucible. I figure it'll hold about 4 lbs of aluminum. I use a kiln shelf wash to coat the inside.. After 4or5 melts I toss it.. I wouldn't know what to do with one that size.. Just building the equipment to lift it out of the furnace to pour would be a huge task.. Not to mention the furnace you would need to build.. I'm more of a small scale, low budget maker.

I try to make all the equipment I need for my projects.. For lost wax casting it's much easier to buy a casting machine and electric oven on the open market.. I also have other assorted equipment used in the one man repair shop I ran until the 2008 recession.. It killed that business when gold hit $1500-1700 dollars an ounce.. Everyone sold their broken gold jewelry instead of having it repaired..
I've got a leg up on the jewelry casting and repairing.. Before I retired, I worked as a bench jeweler diamond setter, in a couple Vegas hotels.. That was in the 70s and 90s..
At the moment my shop time is mostly spent on my vacuum forming projects.. It's not that expensive for materials for those projects.. Wood [mdf] for the molds, and .093 sheets of ABS 24"x24",,,

 

[mytwhyt]

This is the larger of the two vacuum formers I designed and built.. The oven is cantilevered over the forming table to save space when not in use.. The 12 gal tank is pumped down to 29hg vacuum to provide the surge to pull the hot plastic down over the molds on the vacuum table.. This machine will handle 24"x24" .125 abs. Since it was my first stab at building a vacuum former I made some assumptions that were wrong.. That resulted in it being underpowered.. It still does what I want it to do, but takes twice as long as it should for each pull.. I plan on rewiring it with 220 volt and doubling the power output.. That'll have to wait for later..
I built the lid to help keep the heat in to make up for being under powered.. Later I also modified the plastic holding frame so it can rotate 180 degrees as it's heating.. Doing that exposes the other side to the heat.. That has eliminated the need to use the lid.. The oven is wired with three sets of coils.. The first two are powered up first because the plastic closest to the frames take much longer to reach forming temperature.. The gray powerstat underneath is used to turn on and regulate the center set of coils... Here's a few pictures..
Well I hit post by mistake before I loaded the pics. They'll follow in the next post..

 

[mytwhyt]

 

[mytwhyt]

Dog Log Retrieval and Bagging System aka DLRBS

This is another one of my make work projects from way back.. always good for a laugh....

It's rather funny how this got started... I was out with my dog, naturally she took a shit. I slipped a plastic bag on my hand to pick it up, believe me, you want that warm feeling your dog can give you, in your heart, not your hand. Anyway, she started laughing and rolling on the ground, when she got control of herself, she told me how embarrassed she was to actually be with a human who would pickup warm dog shit with their hand.... I had to agree with her..
She was a great dog, Rhodesian Ridgeback. One day she accused me of cheating at poker. I told her "I can't help it if you wag your tail every time you get a good hand." All in all, she gave me some pretty good advice... I told her my ex-wife was being really good to me lately...She said "That's what usually happens before that last ride to the vet." Enough about my dog. Here's my solution for moving that warm feeling out of your hand and back into your heart..
This project was made to use a plastic shopping bags to pick up dog logs. I cut the corner out of one and attached it to the scoop with a twist tie.. Can't find the pic that shows it..
I've posted on several sites looking for anyone with similar interests, not much luck there.. Where did all the makers go?

 

[St. Phatty]

What will Humans do when we realize it's not so smart to use drinking water to wash away our Poop ?

Maybe something similar to what we already do for our dogs. Pick up their poop with our hands, with the plastic as a barrier.

Or maybe humans will imitate cats, and bathrooms will have a big People kitty litter pan.

and there's always solar composting toilets.

 

[mytwhyt]

Especially when they send that water to the waste water treatment plant.. And then return that water to your drinking water reservoir for you to drink, and flush your crap again..

 

[mytwhyt]

This is my 12"x12" vacuum former. Since I have a lot of smaller things I want to make.. . It will only cost 25% as much for plastic compared to the bigger former.. The next project is a plastic adapter to mount a computer fan on my 315 watt Sun System light.. I can better deal with the lights heat if I move it out into the room for the air conditioner to handle.
This smaller VF started out with a $5.00, 1200 watt, thrift store barbeque.. I needed it to be deeper to reduce the heat, and higher to mate with the plastic holding frame.. It also needed to be insulated to keep the new configuration from over heating the outside of the unit.. It's amazing the amount of off the shelf stuff that can be repurposed with a little imagination.. Daydreamers like myself have a ton of that, from not spending 24/7 in the real world.. I had a shrink tell me he could put me in touch with reality.. I told him no way because I've heard some really bad things about too much time there..
This first bunch of pics will start off at the beginning of the transformation from barbeque to VF.. This is how the heating unit part was done. I'll cover cover the rest of the VF construction in following posts... The raised walls were made from metal 1"x3-5/8" studs meant to replace wood 2"x4"s.. They were cut bent and screwed together to form the inside and outside walls... Insulating Kaowool 1" fiber board was used for all the insulation in the oven.. Those walls were then attached to the base with screws.. The last pic, is with the reflective side panels, seen in the first pic, added to reflect the heat back into the oven..

 

[mytwhyt]

The frame to support every thing was made from 1/2" square tubing.. I bought a cheap wire welder from Harbor Freight for under $100.. Not a machine for larger or longer time welding.. It does a good job on simpler projects like this VF frame... A 4.5" grinder is also very useful to clean up the bird shit welds most beginner welders, like myself get.. Not a big deal since perfection was not my aim.. After the frame the next step is a vacuum table to pull the hot softened plastic down over the mold... Then we'll move on to the plastic holding frames..
These next pics show the sandwiched two pieces of 3/4 plywood the table was made from.. The top of the table was covered with the same type of perforated screen used in most security doors.. It's under laid with 2 pieces of window screen so air can flow from the outside of the screen to the center hole.. A vacuum is pulled from the fitting under the table.. The outside of the vacuum table was wrapped and sealed with some aluminum bought at Home Depot.. The hot plastic seals on this edge when the plastic is pulled about 1/2" past it.. The next posts will take us to the plastic holding frames and clamping system.. That again made from 1/2" tubing and improvised off the shelf parts..

 

[mytwhyt]

As originally designed the VF was to include its own vacuum pump and vacuum storage tank.. That is shown in these pics of the build in progress.. That idea was discarded in favor of using a larger vacuum pump not mounted on the frame.. With a bigger pump the draw down happens in about 3 seconds, without needing a vacuum holding tank..
The following pics also show the clamps that were built using nuts, bolts, and wing nuts.. I could find no clamps available that would work.. The clamps were put on the wrong frames.. They should have been reversed with the wing nuts on top when over the vacuum table.. They still work well, but would have been more convenient the other way.. It just seemed to much trouble to redo them.. If any of my explanations are confusing, as I expect they may be, just ask and I'll try to do a better job.. On the oven pic you'll notice nuts and bolts are used as legs to position the oven at the correct height.. They also allow the oven to be bolted to the frame..
The last two pics show the frame modification that allows the plastic to turn as it's being heated.. The plastic is of a finished pull of an early mold that was later changed.. The piece of screen over the center of the heating element was used to reduce the heat in the center of the oven,, This frame modification was also done to the big VF... The molds are made with Durham's water putty.. It's like a powdered wood that is mixed with water and hardens when it dries.. Very strong and durable..

 

[mytwhyt]

My latest redo of an old project... First finished, up and running prototype... The original of this was made 20+ years ago, in fiberglass and a bit larger in size.... It was just too costly and time consuming to do in fiberglass.. I was looking to make a little profit, and there wasn't any... So I decided to give it another try now, this time vacuumed formed in ABS plastic... I also built another project, the 24"x 24" vacuum former, during those intervening years, it was for a different another project,...
Redesigned, this smaller [but just as efficient] would fit my 20.5"x 20.5" vacuum table... I'm sure you're wondering what the hell is he talking about?? What it is, is a swamp cooler for my old 82 Toyota truck... Where I live, it's always triple digits most of the summer.. Humidity can be as low as 2%... I'll show a few finished prototype pics to start.
It's forecast to reach 116*f today, with 6% humidity.. The great thing about such low humidity is evaporative coolers work very well.

 

[mytwhyt]

A little explaining on how it works.. Although the cooler runs on 12volt, a 110v> 12volt 200 watt power converter is included to run it off 110v while parked, and save the batt.. I used a 5 gal bucket as a reservoir and a 12v bilge pump to recirculate the water over the pad... This proto-type was used for testing different type pads for air flow volume and temp data... Using PWM speed controllers, air flow and and water feed are controllable from 0-100% ... On a dry day it'll deliver air at 26-29*f below ambient air.. When I say dry I mean 2-8% humidity, with an average of 6% at days end..
Max air flow on this model was 8-10 cubic ft a second.... About 750 a minute.. Measured with a cheap anemometer at +/- 3.5%.. and depending on what pad was being tested... Even with the error factor, the temp. shift between conditioned air and ambient air should be close to accurate.. On the first morning, 10:30am tested ambient air 92*f humidity 13%, fan on low, air off the cooler 65*f...

 

[mytwhyt]

Everyone knows, or should know that loose perlite is excellent insulation.. Loose, it can be poured into cavities around things that get very hot.. Stoves, fire places, almost any thing that gets hot.. There are places where loose perlite just wont stay in place without something like a wall.. There is a way to make it retain a given shape and make it very strong at the same time..
The same way one can make popcorn balls that retain their shape by adding some form of sugar... Perlite can be mixed with Sodium Silicate, aka Water Glass, then placed in a mold until it dries.. I buy it online for about $40 a gallon.. Here's an example using a plastic cup as a mold.. It's good up to 14-1600*f.. The binder and the perlite will melt at higher temps,, The perlite itself is good for higher temps, but the SS might act as a flux and lower that melting temp..