The Gustavus Thread

[gustavus]

Back in the days when i was just a poor boy raising a family had to improvise, 63 years later.

If i had to hone a brake master or brake or clutch slave cylinder that was larger than my hone I would grab or make a wood dowel then cut a slit into one end to hold the sand paper in place. The slit has to be wide enough to accept folded paper otherwise one side of your makeshift hone will be the backside from one side will be the backside of the paper without grit.

I needed to sand the inside of my kaleidoscope shell and this is the setup I used, of course if your honing a brake cylinder your going to use a drill.

With the lathe running I hold onto the tube then work it back and forth on the mandrel.



The black inside the tube is charcoal, I've used to torch to blacken the inside to absorb any stray light sources, it's not finished yet more burning to do. The mirrors will also be painted black on the backsides and edges.

[gustavus]

Seems that my whole life I've been dependent on other people discards, the black oil transfer pump was picked from a scrap bin all that was wrong with it was someone an employee did not know there was a fine wire mesh screen that needed cleaning now and then. Pump is worth $1200.00 new at the local Co-op.

That fine wire mesh screen does a great job of filtering the crude out from the veggie oil I use to fire the boiler, that old cast iron radiator came from the trash as well. That one radiator is enough to heat the whole shop.

[gustavus]

Yup another kaleidoscope this one made from brass, the large brass casing came from a submersible water pump.

While working on the latest scope my metal lathe quit, the electrical box with all the relays is located behind the machine so it had to be moved away from the wall. Later this evening I will go out and pull some wires from that piece of Chinese junk and see if i can figure out the problem.

[landmine]

Man i like your oil pump

All i have is a dinky 4gpm takes a looooong time to fill the house

[gustavus]

Man i like your oil pump

All i have is a dinky 4gpm takes a looooong time to fill the house

Me Too, the pump has a built in by-pass enabling you to use a nozzle on the end of the hose, so you don’t have to shut the pump down to stop the oil flow. Best part was the pump was a trash find, they did however break off the plastic fan on the end of the motor.

[gustavus]

From that ugly piece of brass pipe it's now becoming a thing of beauty.

When the lathe quit it was to be found a faulty micro switch located on the combination stop switch foot brake.

My poor little 3/4 HP buffer had a tough time handling these large buffing wheels so I made an arbour to chuck into the lathe, now I can really lay into the piece I'm buffing with out stalling the motor.

A lot of things that I put up for auction will get a few minutes of buffing, especially the glass door knobs. Tripples the final value.

[gustavus]

Cut a small chunk from one of my broad leaf B.C. maple planks this is going to be the eye piece plus end cap for the object cell.

The wood almost has an opalescence to it.

The pattern is quilted or Tiger.

Below is the mirror system I'm aiming for which is 36-60-90 degrees to give me a spherical image.

[gustavus]

This scope when finished sits on its own pedestal or tri pod similar to a telescope. it is much to heavy for a hand held.

It's now 3:00 am just finished cutting in the slots where the light is going to shine onto the object chamber, I used a high speed die grinder with a 1/4" shank router bit. The die grinder is held onto the tool post with hose clamps.

Sometime this week I’m expecting my acrylic order to show.

[gustavus]

Neighbour gave me a small piece of wood called Caragan, stuff grows all over the Prairies like an invasive weed. Skimmed the bark and sap wood off gave it a bit of sanding turns out this species iof wood has a very nice grain. Problem is the largest diameter this shrub grows to is 4" should make some nice scopes if i don’t tire of this project and move onto something new soon.

[jghilino]

nice tools and shop, i am impressed. We are using a barrel stove to heat ours. Basically its a 55gal drum with a vent coming out. It is not very efficient but will heat 600 sq feet just fine. gonna try adding a 2nd barrel and a couple box fans to increase the output.

[gustavus]

nice tools and shop, i am impressed. We are using a barrel stove to heat ours. Basically its a 55gal drum with a vent coming out. It is not very efficient but will heat 600 sq feet just fine. gonna try adding a 2nd barrel and a couple box fans to increase the output.

The 2nd chamber should help, most guys install tubes, if you want to heat a part of the shop that's cooler crack a window open.

A buddy of mine who used to ride the crummy to work in cold weather would always grab a window seat then crack the window open a bit all the warm air tries to escape through that opened window.

If you put a layer of sand on the bottom of your wood heater you will extend it's life span three fold, also the sand will hold the heat hours after the last log has burned down.

Now if you had large chunks of soapstone to put on top of the heater these stones would hold the heat overnight, the best wood heaters in the world are made from soapstone.

Select Collection Soapstone | Hearthstone Stoves

Soapstone is an ideal stove component storing more heat for its weight than any other naturally occurring material, thick soapstone panels absorb the high heat of the fire to emanate natural, even warmth long after the fire dissipates.

[gustavus]

Not much new and exciting going on in the shop, had to do an emergency plumbing repair in this old house we call home. The coupling on the sink drain separated flooding the floor.

The objective is to get my fingers as far away from the spinning chuck while sanding, it hurts to get them rapped.

So I made up this set of cones last night, a 5/8 inch ready rod goes through the centre hole backed up by a nut behind the cone to help centre the hollowed out spindle and hold it firmly in place.

On a side note, I also brought my foundry sand into the shop to thaw out, I want to do a bit of casting.

[gustavus]

While I'm waiting on my acyclic order to arrive started two new projects, a pair of centrifuges one to clean my waste vegetable oil, the other to concentrate the values from incinerated ash. I've started on the later by making a pattern from some scrap pieces of wood glued together.

So far I have the outside of the bowel profile completed, tomorrow I'll hog out the centre then do some serious sanding. The wood pattern has to be nice and smooth with some free draft to be able to pull out from a sand mold as this bowel along with the other will be cast in aluminium.

The principal behind the centrifuge is G-force, on the inside of the bowel near the top edge there will be a series of groves were heavier material will become entrapped from the G-force while the lighter unwanted crap gets flung over the top to be discarded.

I have three 20 litre pails of ash to concentrate and I figure this will save time and acids.

[Bear]

how do you use wood in making a mold? I though those were done with wax, or clay, or stuff like that

[gustavus]

how do you use wood in making a mold? I though those were done with wax, or clay, or stuff like that

Bear this is only the pattern, once the sand has been rammed around the wood pattern it's then removed from the sand leaving a cavity to be filled with molten metal.

The casting from this first pattern will have to have the internal groves machined into the finished aluminium casting, had i the money to purchase RTV silicon rubber could have machined the groves into the wood then made another mold to cast a wax pattern which then would have been encased in plaster then cured then melted the wax out leaving a cavity for the molten metal.

Lost wax is not for production runs and requires more equipment, wood is cheap and I do not mind having to machine the groves in.

The bowel I'm making will look similar to the one below.

[gustavus]

Here's were I left off for the evening, tomorrow the outer white wood gets turn to the diameter i need then the inside taper.

[BarrenRealms007]

I like that toy. I could use that on some stuff I'm working on. Great job as usual Gus.

[gustavus]

I like that toy. I could use that on some stuff I'm working on. Great job as usual Gus.

Thanks barren coming from a perfectionist like yourself your thanks means a lot.

I've been experiencing a flame out on the boiler about once a week two if I'm lucky.

I need to polish my waste oil, what better way than another centrifuge built to the task. glued up the wood this evening to begin a new style pattern.

The waste oil centrifuge sells in the neighbourhood of $1500.00 or you can buy the bowl for $500.00 then build your own.

I'm not selling just quoting prices I've taken note of from around the net.

[BarrenRealms007]

Did you run the oil thru any filters?

[gustavus]

Did you run the oil thru any filters?

Only the filter that came with the boiler, other than that I let the oil settle out for a year then take the top 2/3rds.

My neighbour gave me a bunch of waste engine oil and this is when the trouble started, should have stuck with my veggie.