Post pictures of something you have made!

[TheShoun]

Hopefully not insulting to native Hawaiians but I wanted a traditional Hawaiian sword. Instead of shark teeth I used steel and blued it to prevent rust. Koa wood which is hard enough to hold an edge and cut vegetables (and my finger).


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those looks wicked! very detailed rendition, great job!

 

[DeanMk]

I thank you very, very much for the compliment, even though I can only wish that I had what it takes to be a true craftsman.

I've done just enough woodworking including a few good inlays, (and many more not so good!) to realize this. In wood; every joint has to be absolutely PERFECT. Whereas, when working with steel, or aluminum, and I screw up a measurement or a joint, say I leave a 3/8"-1/2" gap on on end, and the other end is perfect; I run a bead up it, and when I'm done...nobody except me knows it was ugly when I first struck that arc. Also, if my wife were to grind too deep, and screw up the way something looks, I can just run another cover pass over it, and grind it off over again. (Not that anything like that would ever happen, over and over)!

Thanks again for the compliments, so far every person that sits around it seems to like it...especially if they've had a few!

...let me tell ya sumthin', wood putty and sandpaper works WONDERS....trust me.
Seriously, you did a really nice job on that firepit.

 

[HaveGun]

Building a solar shower for camping. Looked at a few different designs and incorporated what I thought would work best for mine.

Just got it all assembled a few minutes ago and need to let everything cure overnight, then need to spray paint it black and mount it on the crossbar of my utility trailer.

The concept is pretty simple. Basically, you just take a 4" diameter PVC pipe and put an end cap on one end, and a 90 degree elbow on the other with a filler tube. Then you install a hose bib on the end cap and a schrader valve near the top. Fill the tube with water, then use an air compressor to pump up the tube to 25 psi, attach a hose and nozzle on the bib, and you have a shower.

Tomorrow I'll paint it and mount it, then wait a couple of hours and try it out. I tent camp out of a pickup bed tent mounted in the trailer, so this should be nice.

 

[2DaMtns]

Building a solar shower for camping. Looked at a few different designs and incorporated what I thought would work best for mine.

That's really cool. Might have to borrow the idea when I get a rack put on our popup camper.

 

[HaveGun]

That's really cool. Might have to borrow the idea when I get a rack put on our popup camper.

I've seen portable propane-powered camping showers for $180 to $350 that supposedly work well. I figured this set up was going to cost around $70. When I left the hardware store with everything, it was $110. More than what I wanted to spend, but still less than a mechanical device that still needed propane.

Tomorrow I'll see how many gallons of water it holds and how long of a "shower" it provides with a single pressure charge.

 

[DeanMk]

Building a solar shower for camping. Looked at a few different designs and incorporated what I thought would work best for mine.

Just got it all assembled a few minutes ago and need to let everything cure overnight, then need to spray paint it black and mount it on the crossbar of my utility trailer.

The concept is pretty simple. Basically, you just take a 4" diameter PVC pipe and put an end cap on one end, and a 90 degree elbow on the other with a filler tube. Then you install a hose bib on the end cap and a schrader valve near the top. Fill the tube with water, then use an air compressor to pump up the tube to 25 psi, attach a hose and nozzle on the bib, and you have a shower.

Tomorrow I'll paint it and mount it, then wait a couple of hours and try it out. I tent camp out of a pickup bed tent mounted in the trailer, so this should be nice.

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Cool idea.
I've seen a number of YT vids concerning that.
Just ran some numbers....if your 4" pipe is 6' long, that only 3.9 gallons. If you moved up to a 6" pipe the same length, capacity goes up to 8.8 gallons.
What are you using for a shower head?

Dean

 

[HaveGun]

Cool idea.
I've seen a number of YT vids concerning that.
Just ran some numbers....if your 4" pipe is 6' long, that only 3.9 gallons. If you moved up to a 6" pipe the same length, capacity goes up to 8.8 gallons.
What are you using for a shower head?

Dean

Yeah, most of those hanging bag showers are only a couple of gallons so I figure this should be enough. Plus I camp near a water source, so I can refill it easy enough.

I am just using a 15' garden hose and a cheap spray nozzle since it's also going to be used to hose the dirt off my UTV and mud off my boots and such.

 

[DeanMk]

Ok, I see your purpose now.
Yeah, 4 gallons of water should be enough for those purposes.
...however...
to clarify, I was referring to your PVC pipe idea. There's already a bunch of YT vids on that concept.

Dean

 

[HaveGun]

Got it all put together and installed on the trailer. That was a new level of pain with a bulged disc, lol. I'll have to get it filled and tested tonight or tomorrow when my back settles down.





Was trying to find one of those smaller diameter coil hoses locally, but no dice. Will have to try the larger one first, but I suspect the larger hose will really diminish effective water pressure.

 

[DeanMk]

I'd be interested in seeing what kind of drop in performance you get due to a larger hose.
Reminds me of a brake job we did on a '69 Mustang at a shop I used to work at.
Everything new, people who worked on it knew what they were doing, but the car wouldn't stop for nothin'.
Only thing that wasn't stock replacement were the hoses. Some kind of NEW funky looking clear hose with coloured kevlar thread reinforcing it.
Boss wouldn't believe me when I told him the hoses were the problem.
We power bled that puppy for weeks.
FINALLY, changed the hoses because "nothing else seemed to be working" (and the bosses buddy was smart enough to start polling everyone in the shop what they thought the problem was).
Put the stock hoses on it, stopped like the tires were made of glue.
Difference in diameter of the two hoses was negligable, but it was enough to make a big difference in performance.
...this will be interesting.

Dean

 

[gmerkt]

Some kind of NEW funky looking clear hose with coloured kevlar thread reinforcing it.
Boss wouldn't believe me when I told him the hoses were the problem.

Thanks for this information, I will file it away in my head. I wonder if the plastic line (Keylar nothwithstanding) wasn't rigid enough and would expand some under pressure, robbing the wheel cylinders of adquate pressure.

Anyway, here's something I'm working on. Not finished by a long shot, and don't think about doing stone masonry work during the hottest day of the year.



I recently had my driveway dug out and repaved (42 years old). There was a wooden bulkhead along the east edge. Constructed of 4x6 timbers. It had seen better days, even pressure treated wood doesn't last forever. I decided to replace it with natural stone. So this is the beginning, long way to go. One smallish pan of mortar at a time but working alone, I can only carry and mix so much at a time to work with. So it lends itself to numerous sessions, long or short at my chosing. The pictures show my first two pans of mortar's worth; this evening I mixed another pan and added more to the little wall. The finished wall will be about a foot and a half tall at the one end, tapering down to zilch as the grade reduces along the edge of the driveway.

When I was stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, there were little walls like this that German POW's had built during WW2. They were still in good condition up into the 1980's when the barracks were torn down. Remants of those stone walls are still there.

 

[DeanMk]

" Thanks for this information, I will file it away in my head. I wonder if the plastic line (Kevlar not withstanding) wasn't rigid enough and would expand some under pressure, robbing the wheel cylinders of adequate pressure."

That's exactly what happened.
Brake line for any car is just miniaturized hydraulic hose.
In order to withstand the pressures involved, they're reinforced with a metal mesh that is impregnated into the rubber hose.
These are known as "cores". The more cores a hose has, the more pressure it can withstand.
I remember coming home from a trip to the Boeing Surplus store once with a 3 foot piece of 1" hose, because my dad asked me to grab him a piece if I found any.
It had 7 cores. Was probably a piece of line from the flight control system or maybe the landing gear.
My dad freaked.
...ANYWAY...back to hose in question...
My boss was sold this as the "coolest and grooviest" thing yet.
The problem was, the clear hose was of the type usually used for fluid transfer.
It's pretty soft, but impervious to the effects of certain fluids.
Someone obviously thought it would be "smart" to impregnate this hose with coloured Kevlar (yes, coloured...namely; red, white and blue) and that would make it capable of handling a lot of pressure, like hydraulic hose.
Unfortunately, this is yet another case of someone not doing their research.
Part of what makes Kevlar "strong" is ability to stretch without losing integrity.
So what happens is the hose bulges when the brakes are applied.
They're probably ok to move the pads that millimeter to create pressure, but once the pressure starts to build, they fail because of the stretch.
The piston in the master cylinder is only going to move so far and thus, only displace a certain amount of fluid. Once that's done, that's all there is.
The hose had enough stretch to run the piston out of travel and so....the car coasts to a stop.
To compound matters, the interior volume of the hose was about twice that of the stock hoses.
This creates, what is called, "The Snowshoe Effect".
A brake system, actually, any hydraulic system, is sized to move a certain amount of fluid such a distance, that a certain amount of pressure is created.
When you alter part of that system, the entire system needs to be altered as well, otherwise, its not going to work as intended.
With a larger diameter hose, you get the volume of fluid moved displaced over the greater capacity of the fluid held inside that hose, so some of the pressure (and the movement) is soaked up by the extra fluid afforded by the greater capacity of the hose.
....thus, its just like the guy in the snow.
Without snowshoes, he sinks down in it until he hits the ground or the snow compresses to the point to where it supports him. Once he puts snowshoes on, he can "float" on top of the snow, because more snow is displacing his weight....just like the extra fluid inside the hose displaces the movement caused by the pump or master cylinder.
The second we put OEM spec brake lines on that thing, the test driver said the stop was so violent he almost hit his head on the steering wheel.
.....but I'm too stupid to ever know how to fix the problem, so my boss had to learn it from someone else.
Anyway, water under the bridge now. I don't even do that kind of work anymore.
You did a nice job on your driveway, btw. I like the rockery. Nice touch.

Dean

 

[gmerkt]

A brake system, actually, any hydraulic system, is sized to move a certain amount of fluid

In the era of drum brakes, this is one reason why wheel cylinders were sized to specific applications. I'm sure the same engineering principles apply to disc brakes but it's more difficult to get them wrong. Unless possibly when doing a hot rod project. But "back in the day" lots of wheel cylinders looked alike but could have different bore diameters.

My friend John, no longer with us now, told me about cars he'd seen where steel brake lines had been replaced by regular copper tubing. His words were, "Copper can burst like a child's balloon under those pressures." Not long ago, I replaced the front rubber hydraulic flex hoses on my 1972 Ford Ranch Wagon. They were original, 48 years old. Very sorry shape but they hadn't yet failed. I'd observed some rust on the steel lines, was a bit worried that I'd have to get into those but they turned out to be okay. Actually what I thought was the threaded fittings would be seized (and rip the steel tubing), but some penetrating oil overnight and a flare nut wrench did the job. Those are kinda hard to replace from end to end; they are attached to the frame of the car at the factory before the engine is installed.

These days, there is cupro-nickel brake line which is supposed to be better than steel. The steel lines on my Ford Crown Vic are coated which deters rust.

 

[Tomahawk67]

Some headers I made last week for a Vette drag car. They exit out of the fender on each side through a hole in the body. I usually only make stainless, but the customer wanted steel. 18 guage tube , then they were jet coated.

 

[Devneck]

I'm not as talented or creative as many of the people here. Borrowed an idea from the internet for this lamp. The valve handle is the switch to turn it on and off. Wife has requested a matching floor lamp so that'll be in few weeks or so.

 

[Frank RW]

Bonus points for anyone guessing what the heck I put together here...

 

[sobo]

Prototype flux capacitor???

 

[Phantom Man]

I'm not as talented or creative as many of the people here. Borrowed an idea from the internet for this lamp. The valve handle is the switch to turn it on and off. Wife has requested a matching floor lamp so that'll be in few weeks or so.

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I have never been able to get light out of my plumbing...

 

[DeanMk]

Bonus points for anyone guessing what the heck I put together here...

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I don't know, but after you plugged it in, this was the result.....



....

 

[Frank RW]

I don't know, but after you plugged it in, this was the result.....

hehe, nope, but it's use allows me to help in that situation, or at least talk to someone over there, assuming ideal propagation.