De Ranged

A little work play project, I picked up a second hand knurling tool so me and the old machinest (only a couple of yrs older than me lol) we had a play with the tool to see how it worked So I made a couple of scribes Stainless body with tungstun tips The knurling tool turned out to be a bit of a dud lol its a floating head twin roller, it was real hard to get it "tuned" so both rolls cut.... you need it adjusted to just the right height or one roll or the other will ghost cut (the dia of the stock changes this height too), it didn't like feed in either direction.... the rolls tilt and don't tilt back so the knurl patern ends in a fade out We did get some good results but it requred wasting alot of stock to find just that right height where both rolls cut evenly.... so basically a dud thats not worth using, I'm keeping it for the moment i might make it into one of the sissor style tools, as the rolls are still nice and sharp lol I think the past owner gave up on it too The scribes were both the same length at the start lol each with a piece of worn out or chipped tungston silver brazed on the end and then ground to a point. The short one the point kept snapping off... I suspect it was due to the coatings and chipped a insert down before brazing it on, it lasted longer but snapped in the end. It sat around for a bit before I noticed these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000776629832.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.603b1802sz6ggG 2.5mm dia 35mm long tungstun. After a bit of wait I got the chance to try it out, machined a new end with a reciever so it would stick out by 15mm (so it would be great for scribing around the inside of a hole).... notice its not sticking out that far lol I discovered when I brazed it into the handle.... it was a little... phizzy lol and after it cooled down it snapped easily..... I'm guessing its alot less quility than a lathe tip But after i ground a point to it held it and hasn't chipped so I machined a bit of the handle back to make it a bit more useable A fun little project with a bit of learning

Sorry I've haven't updated things in a while..... I was too cheap too lol. Where I grew up this is refered to as being Scottish (no affence to the Scotts) the early Scottish settlers to New Zealand were a... frugal bunch known for not wasting money lol I've needed a new phone for a while now, there is more crack and black blob than veiwable screen lol I finally deciced to spend some money on a new one when the screen on the camera cracked and fell out So after a bit of research I decided I didn't need the latest gadget show off toy phone, and I happened to find an outfit selling referb'd S9's at a good price (what my cracked and still current phone is lol) 1st phone arrives (took a month) and it was locked.... sent it back asking for an unlocked one (as advertised) long list of appology emails lol and a month later another phone arrives..... also locked lol so I tired to get it unlocked (not wanting to wait another month).... this ment the company that sent the phone won't replace it, and I discovered that none of the major phone service providers can unlock it, I have to find the company that sold it initally lol or I can spend twice what its worth to get it cracked lol But on a positive note I have found that while I can't use it as a phone lol I can use it as a camera For those interested in the oil fire.... I've gotten one of the new fans on with the speed controller as a background fan (to blow the heat out into the shop), its great just the right amount of air flow and you can't hear it over the the hairdyer fan I've got pushing the fire blower The fire has cracked a weld on the pan inside and is dripping a bit of oil under the pan now (need to make a new pan) this is causing a puff of smoke as this ignites under the pan, you can see it venting out the bottom of my door.... but last time I ran it the roof vent was good enough the smoke in the shop wasn't bad But since its pretty much summer here and I have too many other things to finish lol I'll leave this alone till next winter

I was making them for a while for the winch comp guys..... I was making my blades from 3mm Bis (400) with a 10 degree fold, no one ever told me of a failure The blade size is dependent on truck weight and ground conditions.... bigger the truck and softer the conditions (except pumice) the bigger the blade (sorry I don't have the old design files they were back when I had access to AutoCad, I lost access and didn't think i'd be able to access them so didn't bother saving them) I think the smaller blades were 200mm wide and the Saf/Cruiser ones were 350mm wide ...... for peat bogs and sand I'd recomend the wider one

Cwazy is right, in the shop it has a chimny that slips over the top of the heat exchanger.... you can see it in the last pic of the stove... my chimney is some heavy air conditioning ducting I got from the local scrap dealler Deep is right my workshop is very drafty..... it has a gabble vent running the length of the top peak of the roof so heating the shed is an exercise in wasted energy .... why I'm putting effort into getting the heat blower to work, getting the heat out into the shop.... before it heads up to the roof and out the vent I will finish this and throw up an update soon.... unfortunatly I've been working long hrs and extra days with work and then got an inner ear infection lol I kept falling over! (while I was sick I've been designing a little side hustle lol when I've finished the designs I'll throw them up here...)

Now thats interesting.... never thought of that From what I remember it was in the 80's% charged, and had been in use on the charger for a couple of hrs playing music off youtube.... it also had a bit of a warm feel to it, can't tell you if that was because the battery was faulty or that was from use

I imagine you've all heard the overly paranoid people talking about how Lithium batteries can explode lol hmmmm My nice new to me tablet developed a little gap on a seam, between the screen and the back of the case.... at first I just pushed it back together, but after a few days it was apart again So I figured I'd take a peek in there, I managed to pop a bit more of the case and get a good enough view that I could see the foil cover on the battery was balloned up.... a bit of research later I discovered the only option for a replacement battery was worth more than I paid for the tablet lol (yes I'm regretting buying a google tablet lol) Oh well if its buggered... its buggered Time to have a play with the battery and see if they are as dodgy as some people say lol So peel the screen off and start to remove the battery from the case, I've got a stainless rule and I'm gently lifting the battery away from the case its stuck too..... when a seam in the middle pops This nasty white smoke starts shooting out..... I put the end of the ruller over the hole grabbed the tray and took off outside lol the smoke is really nasty.... Choking on the smell I launched it out onto the concrete It burned for a couple of min's a 75mm flame jetting out of the hole in the bag, the smell was bad enough my neibour came over to find out what I was up too lol When we were chatting I noticed it had burned/melted the end of the stainless rule similar to what a good weld splater would do! You could still smell the acrid smell of it 4hrs later when I went home I now have all my rechargable stuff sitting on fire bricks or steel surfaces, if it had been on something that could burn I would have set fire to it... On a side note had a guy try and sell me another tablet cheap.... its got a slight bulge in it LOL no thanks.... warned him, but I think he thought I was just paranoid lol

Been busy with work (an install in a chaff plant lol I'm over dust).... so I haven't had much shed time and less motivation lol I have gotten a tablet for the workshop so I can view plans for stuff I've designed at home, and do research while i'm there.... with my fading eyesight and the growing number of cracks and black spots on my phone screen it seem'd like a good way ahead But.... my cheap nature got in the way and I ended up with a second hand chrome book..... I have to admit it is alot of tablet, but it is frustrating to use i can't load files to it unless its through google drive, it won't install solidworks viewer so I'm havning to turn all my drawings to PDF's but it works Made a we stand for it so its not lying on the metal dust.... its got some serious magnets in it that just find metal dust lol some time in the future, if it lasts I'll draw up and print some form of protective cover, there isn't one out there for these.... the soft silicon one is going to rely more on luck to save it in a fall

I have conduit cutters/ratchet cutters and while they are good on plastic tube they aren't that good on silicon If i'm trying to do a nice square job then I'll mark my cut with a strip of emery or paper and a sharpy then slip it over a bit of tube or pipe and cut it with a knife

3" is a little bit of overkill lol.... I've used inch and bent it on stumps When I was logging it was common for a 30ton digger to wiegh in at 45 ton or more due to the logging package HD high tensil plate belly plates, High and wide track frames (to get over stumps), The cabs are ROPS,FOPS etc the door is normally that heavy it needs a hydralic ram to open and close it, Catwalks around both sides to create a bumper, Side doors often from 10mm bis If its working out in the bush instead of the skid then add another couple of ton for a engine cover , ram guards etc

I did some work in a shop in Australia that had small and large versions like that and other shapes as well...... I got the impression one of the staff had made them They were a bit wider which worked well for what I was doing, they also had some home made G clamps to work with them.... the foot of the G had a step big enough to clear into the sqaure for clamping They did have a self keying setup similar to that but a bit more chunky and each one had a tig weld, the keys were about the spot where you clamped They were good enough I added the idea to the list of one day projects lol

Solved the smoking fuel pipe..... but what a performance, building the oil trap fitting I set fire to myself..... I'd decided to gas weld it and I could smell acetylene gas every now and then, got the goggles on over my glasses and felt something a bit warm on my thigh, moved around a bit and it went away figured a little splatter or slag that I hadn't seen when it got warm again in a different spot I thought same again put my hand down to swot it off my leg and it came back with burning rubber stuck to it ... the goggles and glasses came off fast lol the hose was on fire and it had burnt a 50mm hole through my overalls and was working on my trousers Then I'm chassing the plug bolts threads by hand.... with the tap all the way in it locked up, so I go to clamp it in the vice and because of my burnt hand I drop it..... lol it landed on the tap and snapped it off flush at the base of the handle with next to no flute to grab It neally got launched into the bin at that stage lol there were a few choice words used.... I could only just grab it with the very tip of my needle nose plyers, after 20mins of no joy I'm about to give up and start again when it moved a little bit And here it is and it works no more smoke I've run it for a couple of days now... I've done a bit of fuel usage tests at its lowest down to 1/2 L/hr, while it will run at this the heat output isn't great enough for the size of the shed and to win out against roof vents (that run along the top of the gable in the roof) the flow is as small a continuous flow that the oil will flow at and the gap in the tap is so small it is blocking with sludge The best level is about 1.5L/hr the fire is glowing good enough to carry the heat out to about half the shop Things I've learned.... The shop fan didn't work in behind the stove.... it did push some of the heat out into the shop but you walk infront of it and was blowing hard enough to be cold lol The hairdryer fan I'm using is just loud enough to be annoying listening to it all day The tank isn't far enough away (getting warm, not too hot to hold tho) and its not big enough My door needs some form of seal... its letting smoke out when you first start up or you adjust flow The vortex spins the wrong way past where the fuel oil comes into, this is swinging smoke and flame at the door (which doesn't seal properly lol) The more air I force into it the faster it heats up enough to burn clear and the more fuel you can add So I happened to find someone local who is selling some second hand 240v 150mm dia fans so I got one to test out I've got it running through a cheap aliexpress speed controller I happened to have for another project.... about half the noise of the current one and alot more flow, I'm thinking about getting a couple more, run this one in place of the hairdryer fan and put the other two in parralel behind the burner, one either side and hook them up to speed controllers so I can dial the speed to push gently and see if this warms the place a bit better i'm also going deal to the other issues

Another round of mods to try and stop the fuel pipe smoking lol With the pan out I noticed the oil isn't being sweep hard in the direction of the vortex (the phunnel pipe is the bottom of the side seam)... you can see it has traveled back against the air flow (to the right of the inlet pipe) This got me thinking my attempt to create a little bit of vacumn and draw the smoke in... wouldn't work so well because the air vents might be to high, so I cut 10mm out of the bottom of the air tube to lower the vortex vents down in the pan ( the pipe bends are now sitting on the pan's inner ring about 20mm above the base of the pan and the oil ) I then added a sloped cover over the mouth of the inlet pipe the top of which is level with the base of the air jet So back out to the ally and spark it up..... still lights easily, a few min's in the fuel pipe is smoking again lol so I figured I'd see what happens if I increased the flow from the tinny thin stream so I doubled it and a bit more lol The first one is with the flash... you can see the fuel line smoking..... the second is what the phones "night light" camera does to the pic, and is automatic if the flash is turned off kinda cool lol One interesting thing I noticed is dropping the air vents has improved how quickly the "settle in period" is (how long it takes to burn clear and stop smoking) before it would take about 10mins to settle in after a big change (starting it or doubling flow) now its around a min A bit frustrated I started thinking Youtube has alot of different ideas and versions so I figered I'd try some of what other people have done, so one of these was a bit of angle iron as a channel to pour the oil into the pan inside the cyclinder, so I figured I'd cut the top off the tube inside the cylinder so any smoke can go into the fire instead of back up the fuel pipe.... nope no change... thats not totally true, in the second pic above you can see a bit more bright flame at the top of the door I found that this allowed some of the oil to vapourise on the open pipe and the vortex swept the flame around to the top of the door.... but as you can see it didn't effect the efficiency of the burn in the pan and didn't change the amount of smoke out the flash back T on the fuel pipe lol That was it for that night I've started modifing it for the next idea lol I'm cutting a recess into the side of the cylinder so the section of fuel pipe that is inside is only the very end bit that goes into the phunnel of the pan the rest of it will have an air gap to the outside air around it.... I know this will be sufficent cooling to stop vapourisation as I've poured a bit of oil on the pipes outside the cylinder to see if they are getting too hot and no smoke I could also increase the height of the deflector in the pan..... I don't see this as being something that could have negative results but I don't think it will change I am also considering some form of trap at the join where the down pipe goes to the sideways one that goes into the cylinder.... I think I can do this with offsetting the pipes and using bolts as sealing caps so I can still have straight sections that I can rod clean

Never thought of that lol I'll give it a go Had another go at it last night added 25mm to the sides of the pan I've gotten a new phone (doesn't have a cracked lense lol) I was about to see if I could get some pic's or video of the burn chamber..... when it ran out of oil lol The extra on the pan has contained the vortex it now spirals up through the center of the burner. This has stopped the sides of the cylinder glowing at low flow.... anecdotally I don't think I have lost heat output I think the heat exchanger is now disapating more of the heat because the exhaust out the chimney didn't feel any hotter.... I could leave my hand in the flow for a long time lol The not so good news is the while it has reduced the fuel line smoke it hasn't stopped it I think what is happening is the oil is vaporising in the little funnel my fuel pipe pours into on the side of the pan and its then allowing some of the smoke back up the fuel pipe (15mm NB pipe) there doesn't appear to be any caking or ash in the fuel pipe so that supports this idea I'm thinking if I put a little sloped deflector in the bottom of the Pan just infront of the phunnels outlet into the pan.... if I have it at just the right height the vortex blowing over it will create a low pressure area just inside the pan that will draw the air through the phunnel taking this smoke, another option is trim open the top of the pipe inside the cylinder Well that was simple enough, other than 5min's to upload and its only 6 sec's lol I might have to look at video compression or something (I might do more videos)

Fired her up tonight lol..... the vortex is where its at It started easily, half a cup of desiel in the pan light it with the map torch.... turn the air on and turn the oil on, as low a flow as possible... as a flow (no drops) Got a couple of short video's but can't seem to load even a 3 sec one on to the imgur site..... and unfortunatly pic's just don't show the vortex in fact they don't like the bright light lol This thing really burns even on the lowest setting it now glows.... and its dropped my oil useage back to at a guess a liter an hr, with the vortex I've noticed the more air I throw at it the cleaner it burns (once its on song) Now for the bad..... my fuel line is now smoking and if you look close enough you can see its still smoking.... part of this might be my heat exchanger I am taking that much heat out of the exhaust gas that I can hold my hand for 20-30 sec's before it gets too hot And that is while there is a glowing section on the body.... interestingly there isn't any smell to the smoke (there is from the fuel line lol) Watching the vortex you can see the flame spiralling up but at the same time flowing out over the top of the pan and out to the body. This area is where the body is glowing and is just above the area where the fuel line goes through into the body.... it is also well below where my shop fan would be blowing So my next move is going to be a taller sides on the pan.... if I'm right I might be able to lift this heat zone and stop the fuel line heating so much and smoking Oh and just for a laugh.... I wound her up a bit (about a 2mm wide stream of oil.... I'm guessing about 2L an hr) in 5 min's I had the LPG cylinder glowing lol..... the heat was rather intense, I wasn't game to stick my hand over the chimney at this level ..... the picture just doen't show it, my phone shows it as white and pink lol More to come

Mk 4-ish lol..... got sick of the difficulty to change things and the limitations of the air/fuel pipe.... so The air now comes in from below..... yes I did miss the fact I mounted it on an angle lol The fuel now comes in through the side.... I improved the fuel pipes while I was at it, if I take the bolts out of the end of the pipe I can rod the pipe clean should I get any blockages.... something I didn't like about the original where I had the fuel line in the middle of the air pipe This setup lets me adjust or build new designs for the air delivery and pan to play with tuning the burn The idea of this is to let the oil pour into the base of the pan inderneath the air currents (stop the air blowing the oil out into the drum and I suspect giving me a smokey burn) once the pan is hot the oil should boil so I'm burning the vapour above the oil, where I'm blowing the air in.... I'm working to the idea a vortex will get a longer burn time and possibly make it hotter which should mean cleaner On the pan I've started with a shallow sides (just enough to clear the top of the air vents) and a large dia. The air tube has the vents about an inch above the bottom of the pan I suspect I'll need to lower the air delivery closer to the oil so I catch the start of the flame and I'm thinking a smaller pan with taller sides might make a better vortex Some of the ideas I've been playing with as well as the adjustments above..... the shape of the sides of the pan, is there a gain to making the top opening smaller or the opposite, do I put a cone on the top of the air tube like a jet engine, possibly with a smaller top to the pan? Changing the air delivery to lots of small 2-5mm holes, stack a defusser plate on the top of the air pipe so I force the flame out to the sides of the tank and potentailly gain more heat from the burn At this stage I don't know how much I'll play with it.... (I have alot of projects on the go) my goal is simply to stop the smoke and smell, then get it back to less than 2L of oil an hr. I have plenty of my own oil and access to an unlimited supply of used oil through work, reducing the volume is about the smaller tank I used and while I might have a clear exhaust it does concern me about polution At this stage I haven't fire'd her up ( to fit the bigger pan in there I had to make the door hole bigger and I still haven't finished making the door fit lol ) Possibly tomorrow night

So what I ended up with, a few ribs to hold the heat exchanger, some bracing to the air fuel pipe...... added a hotplate to the top, for lunch and a frame to fit my shop fan so I can force the hot air out into the shop (my shop is 16m x 16m and because of poly panels (chiller panels) that were used to build the shop..... the burner is almost as far from where I'm working as it is possible to get So its been tested again.... too much air force from my hairdryer, is blowing the oil off the pan So cut the air fuel pipe out and put a nozzle on the end to shrink the air flow (drop from 2" pipe to abit over 1" ).... still blowing the oil and flame off the pan So drilled half a dozen 11mm holes in the air pipe to reduce air pressure.... better but still pushing the flame out to the edges of the pan and eventually extingishing it So made another pan that is more pot shaped with vertical walls.... I'm having to increase the flow of oil over the original pan (about twice the original pan) and noticed I'm getting oil spay over the top out into the cylinder, and no longer clean burning.... so add another 40mm to the top, stopped the oil getting blown over the top but more smoke lol this isn't as simple as youtube makes you think So been doing a bit more research (youtube and talked to the old man) He made venturi burners for smelting and pottery kilns...... this has got me thinking, maybe I should look at creating a vortex so I can get more air.... part of this is I've noticed that when I have too much air volume and I'm pushing the flame off the pan, I'm getting more blue flame, which should in theory be a cleaner flame Also thinking of adding some form of electronic control to the fan so I can vary the air input

First project for the plasma was supposed to be rust repairs on a DKW resto..... but we had a couple of bitter mornings (I hear you guys are having a heat wave lol) so I kinda got distracted solving the cold shop A 9kg LPG bottle from the neighbour, the decission to build a black oil furnice.... after looking at scrap and offcuts (I'm too cheap to waist good steel from the rack on my shop projects lol) i started with a heat exchanger... have I mentioned I'm a little random how I do things kinda little bit over built..... heavy wall steam pipe, I got given some offcuts from a mate who works at another engineers, Got the enough of the burner together me and mate late fri night after a few beers decided to try it out lol hmmmm after alot of abuse with a MAP tourch and the odd desiel fire we got it going The next day thinking about what worked and what didn't I noticed that the chimny with the heat exchanger in it and the air/fuel pipe weren't as "true" as I'd welded them..... a little looking showed that the top of the cyclinder had distorted in the heat.... a bit of research (youtube) proved lighting this shouldn't have been the performance it was to light, this appeared to be due to the mass of my pan (made from some 6mm 316) Shame there was a bit of work making that one lol.... so made a replacement out of some 1mm sheetmetal The pan was shaped like this to spray the flame out to the cyclinder so I should scavange more heat from the flame ...... time to see

Got a new toy for the shed..... Work got ripped off a while back I lost a few hand tools and my Mitech single phase plasma.... insurance covered me for a new unit so I hit them up about a bit of an upgrade The reviews from local guys were good enough I thought I'd give this a go single phase that was listed at able to sever 20mm..... I was a bit doubtfull but got talked into it lol This is from the first project I've used it on (10mm that I'm using for a hot plate) I've cut 16mm flat at work with it... without any tuning just guessed the settings and the cut was similar. It has impressed the shop forman enough there has been talk of getting one for work

lol hopefully a long time, I have another bench behind the welding table I use as the junk bench and I've sort of started on the smalls storage.... a whole day of miter cutting angle iron to make the frames to hold the parts bins.... the shed now looks more like a workshop and less like a storage unit lol You'll have to come over and have a beer some time

Not much of an update, been a bit distracted with finishing off a classic car for a mate, just the fun of solving parts problems etc I have had a few moments where I've gotten frustrated in the shed and let loose lol My welding table has seen a bit of attention and finally a coat of paint And my OCD got the better of me on the other bench That all started because I tripped over an extention cord and pulled the grinder off the bench..... 2 days later I have two 4 way boards under the bench in custom sheet metal holders (so they can't bounce out if I'm hammering on something), all my marking tools etc and a selection of blades bits etc for the power tools are on hand.... its made work/play... nicer lol This one was prompted by BoC the local branch didn't like me wearing a motorcylce helmet as a covid mask so wouldn't let me pay my account (cylinder rental) so I got a nasty letter in the mail... this got me looking at how much I was paying in cylinder rental... a dollar a day per cylinder, so did a bit of ring around and now I own a pair of swop bottles... basically a yrs time and I'm ahead I decided to drop bottle size too so I could fit them under a bench, so reworked and improved the gas plant trolley being smaller its a bit more site friendly.... the bar across at the top is so if its tipped over onsite I don't have to worry about the regs and the bar its mounted on is in position to balance if its lifted (not that I plan on doing this lol its just in case ) There might be a bit of fun design work show up in the future had a friend plant a seed that portals would be a cool idea for a FJ45 project I'm designing on, due to freight costs and shipping logistics I'm considering designing a set so I can see if cost wise its worth doing in comparison

For what its worth I'd do this anyway... solves your reach problem and you don't have the doubt that the rivnut will come loose and spin in the softer Melamine (I'm not a fan of them for that spinning reason)

All cold, I tend to only use heat to shrink when I'm in the middle of a large panel.... it might just be me but heat on the edges or on small high form pieces is a gamble that can go horribly wrong as it cools

lol it does, I never thought of it that way...... that little air box was a real challange to form on the back end... the metal stopped stretching, I find just before the metal tear's when your roughing your shape into the panel to stretch it (in this case using a ball pien of a 3 lb hammer into a sandbag) it will resist the dint from the hammer and when it does form a dint from the hammer it will pull the panel in warping it alot more than normal.... I hit this with a long way to go so had to build a new ball dolly small enough to get into the end that I could shrink the sides over A real challenge to form and fun to see it work

Been doing alot in the shop but most of it has been stuff that isn't worth showing lol, or stuff on the scooter that is small and almost trivial yet take an age.... abit like this lol Every performance motor needs a "Bug catcher" filter..... even if it is just a little scooter lol.... a week to do 😔 but I have to admit it as been a ball to build There was one bummer.... I was working towards running this in a local charity scooter ride Napier to Wellington I get the got the panel work almost done (just the guards to finish, a days work, and the seat to cover) decided to check the motor and trans to make certain it was up to the 8hr ride lol probably should have done this a while ago..... discovered the clutch was cooked a very bad shade of blue, at a guess I'd say the tolerance is gone and its slipping badly.... the bearing behind it doesn't feel bad to spin but looking at the colour on the clutch drum I'd say there has been that much heat I'd not put any faith in the bearing seals still being good Then there is some damage to the front pully of the CVT.... I'm guessing something got caught on the belt and did the damage, its not bad enough to stop it working but with this being a cheap Taiwanese scooter I admitted defeat lol I have since found a distributer for them.... so she'll be all good and reliable for next yrs ride lol For the books the lid comes off the front and there is a bit of foam from a spare filter for my stolen bike lol hopefully have it off to the painters this week and new parts on the way

It can be.... depends on the mating face of the rim. But its not a biggie lol with the nuts off kick your tyre a bit and they pop loose