Got our local agricultural show on the weekend so thought I would throw something together for the “article made of metal” class. Have always wanted to do something with the ever growing pile of scrap and useless offcuts I seem not able to throw away so ….. a pair of old land rover brake disks, a few old mower blades, some useless short bits of box and some past-their-best bike bits got stuck together over the course of a couple of hours in the workshop on a rainy day in Wales. And I know the patio is a mess 🙂
Quick project with my five-year-old at the weekend…
[url=https://flic.kr/p/WKZfsU]IMG_20170803_070842[/url] by W Hyde, on Flickr[/img]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/W8zEoB]IMG_20170803_070856[/url] by W Hyde, on Flickr
He did most of the work himself – used his pruning saw to cut a branch (from a prunus/flowering cherry), then used the mitre saw to tidy the ends and chop into 150mm lengths. We measured the diameter of the crayons we were using and picked the right size drill bit, which was 8mm. He drilled the holes in each end (shallow hole in the flat end, and about a 60mm hole in what was going to be the pointy end – note to anyone making these, at this point you will want to mark which hole is which, as they look the same once filled with wax…).
Tried two methods for filling. First was a bit of glue in the hole then sliding the crayons in. This was a bit hit and miss, as the crayons were about 8.1mm so were very tight in some holes. Other holes were a bit larger due the variability in the boy’s drilling skills 🙂 and the crayons were a bit loose as the glue wasn’t keen on sticking to green wood.
The next method we tried was using a small stainless saucepan with a pouring lip, pop the crayons in and apply a heat gun. Then pour the molten wax into the holes. This is by far the easiest method, and results in the ‘lead’ being totally secure and well-fixed into the hole. You don’t have to worry about matching the hole diameter to the crayons, or glue not setting against green wood etc.
After that I used a knife to sharpen them (this is where you need to know in advance which end has the deep hole).
He took them to ‘show and tell’ at school, and said he’d chopped them from the pencil tree we have in our garden 😀
I finished the main structure of our oak framed garden room yesterday. It’s really just a posh conservatory, about 3.5m x 7m. We will have a little snug reading corner with a woodburner and a large dining room type area.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/WwH9Wh]Garden Room[/url] by Scgwhite, on Flickr[/img]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/XJoqwA]Garden Room[/url] by Scgwhite, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/XJorV7]Garden Room[/url] by Scgwhite, on Flickr
This has been a really fun project, but really hard and heavy work in places – the purlins alone are about 140kgs each, and each rafter (50kgs) had to be lifted into place and lowered (by hand) three times for cuts and holes to be marked. There is about 3000kgs of oak in total, and it has taken about four months of evenings and weekends. I designed it using Sketchup and everything was manufactured at home, including all the oak pegs and curved braces. Going full chat, I was generating a wheelbarrow-full of sawdust and shavings a day.
The frame will be shot blasted next week to remove all the water staining, and then the roof and glazing will make it watertight. Lots still to do, but I’m getting there!
This has been a really fun project, but really hard and heavy work in places – the purlins alone are about 140kgs each, and each rafter (50kgs) had to be lifted into place and lowered (by hand) three times for cuts and holes to be marked. There is about 3000kgs of oak in total, and it has taken about four months of evenings and weekends. I designed it using Sketchup and everything was manufactured at home, including all the oak pegs and curved braces. Going full chat, I was generating a wheelbarrow-full of sawdust and shavings a day.
I haven’t the faintest idea how anyone manages to do something like that. I was pleased when I built a shed door.
Made some roof bar thingies to help my Dad get his canoe onto the car roof singlehandedly. Couple of inserts into the end of the roofbars which have bearings as rollers, and the blue bars have bearings at the other end to roll along the bars. Bits of cord hold it in position for loading. Not used in anger yet. Think his door mirror might be at risk…
CAD’ed and 3D printed a mount for my Magicshine-818, it now points backwards (on a 74deg seatpost) rather than at the ground. Printed in Ninjaflex so it simply grips the seatpost
Still isn’t quite right, mk3* will hopefully have a smoother finish if I tweek the E-axis on the printer slightly.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/XNmGH9]2017-08-25_01-24-31[/url] by thisisnotaspoon, on Flickr
Out of interest AlexSimon, what do the signs cost to make? How long do they take? In terms of filament it’s about 50p. Print time is 9 hours on my printer. Design time was about 2 hours in the 3D realm after I’d already designed the logos.
Obviously didn’t make it completely from scratch, but first time trying anything like this. Moment of truth will be about 6.00pm tonight when it should be finished curing and I will be tentatively unwrapping it…
[url=https://flic.kr/p/XGZEU9]2017-09-01_03-16-39[/url] by Rob P, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/XGZPjq]2017-09-01_03-18-34[/url] by Rob P, on Flickr
Started the clean up and rough shaping today (thankfully I got a finger sander for this – wouldn’t want to tackle it by hand!).
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Y7pn2w]IMG_20170903_120645[/url] by Rob P, on Flickr
All was going well until I thought I’d trial fit the rear wheel… Oh dear…
[url=https://flic.kr/p/X6GbxN]IMG_20170903_121216[/url] by Rob P, on Flickr
No more sanding until I’ve worked out whether I can fix that by bending the dropouts a bit since I can’t move the frame itself (will have to wait ’til I’m back at school with some proper vices).