a photoblog of what i did today.....

[fargon]

Lookin good

[glatt]

Just got back from a few days at a Boy Scout camp. It was a fun time. Pretty location. No cell signal at all, even on the mountain hike, because we never went over the other side of the ridge. It's been a few years since I've been disconnected from the world for that long. I need to do it more often.

[sexobon]

Was that for their witch burning merit badges?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Lesson in creating air pollution.

[glatt]

It was pretty cool. Every boy likes building a fire but is always taught to build them small and keep them under control. To see a couple massive fires was literally awesome.

[glatt]

The hand crank that lifts the table on my drill press got a crack in it. I thought it was a cast iron hand crank, but on further inspection, it's cheap ass plastic. Craftsman quality.



It felt like it was going to break off completely any day now, so I looked for a replacement. The replacement part was $20 or so (with shipping) from Sears. It would be the exact replacement part. In other words, another cheap plastic handle.

So I measured the shaft with my calipers, and then the bore of the existing handle to see how much slop there was in the handle. Turns out I needed a 9/16th bore.

Not a lot of those, but finally I found this, and for the same price as the new plastic one.


It fits perfectly.

But it wants a keyed shaft. My shaft has a flat spot, not a key. So I think I'll try to drill a hole in the handle and tap it to accept a set screw that can press against that flat spot.

[chrisinhouston]

Nice job! It amazes me the crap that they produce now and when they design a part so badly. Lifting the table puts a lot of torque on the handle, your new one should be much better.

My old Delta doesn't have a crank and gear rail like yours, you just loosen the clamp and heft the table up or down. I saw a jig I can make where I would mount a pulley up at the top rear of the column and attach a cable to the back of the table clamp and put a weight on the other end that would just hang down and act as a counterweight.

[fargon]

Hi Chris.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by glatt

But it wants a keyed shaft. My shaft has a flat spot, not a key. So I think I'll try to drill a hole in the handle and tap it to accept a set screw that can press against that flat spot.

Can you get the proper sized key for the handle and file it down so it fits into the handle and rests on the flat? Then, when you drill and tap your hole, the set screw will press the key against the flat, like a brake, and not scar up the shaft.

[glatt]

Good idea, but the key is in a spot where you can't drill a hole. It's by the handle itself.

It came out well though anyway.

[footfootfoot]

Nice

[nowhereman]

Actually yesterday. Did a major inspection of all hives and found one that has a mother/daughter queen situation. Not uncommon, the original queen is failing somehow and the bees raised a new queen to replace her. Sometimes, they will co-exist for a while, then the older queen gets killed or pushed out. I hope that the new queen can produce enough brood to build the hive up for the winter.

[glatt]

Who kills the Queen? The daughter or one of the others?

[Griff]

My bees are really going to town on the golden rod. The hives smell amazing.

[glatt]

This is sort of the defacto repair thread. Yesterday I spent about 4 hours replacing the sound deadening insulation in our dishwasher door. It's a tar like material that provides weight to the door to keep it open, and sound deadening.

Over two decades it tends to break down and fall into the wash chamber where bits of it act like a black crayon marking the white insides and dishes up.

So here are before and after pictures. 80% of my time was cleaning an incredible amount of gunk out of nooks and crannies.