What Are You Up To Today?

[steamer]

WE,

Cool! I am building a "Seadog" for a tugboat this winter. I have a transmission done up for it, but I need to draw up a clutch. ;D

The next engine build I think is going to be a "Wallaby" though probably not with castings...too pricey

BAR STOCK. That should give my mill a work out.

I just like the looks of her.....Very Agricultural........ ;D

If I survive that, An Ageless Nine is in the cards. Been looking at building some clocks too

Been working on the boat. I am about to install and injector for her. I got the Superscale Locomotive works "Economy" injector and I am planning the plumbing for it now.
Trying to get her steaming before the snow flies....much to do!

Have a good night!

Dave

 

[wareagle]

steamer, you sound like me! Too many irons in the fire and not enough of me to go around! LOL

I have thought about designing and building a hit-n-miss engine, but haven't taken the time to do it. We have a trade festival in a town east of here and one of the vendors has a hit-n-miss engine that just captivates my attention everytime I am out there. The exact brand/model of engine it is escapes me, but I could stand and watch that thing chug along for hours. It'd be cool to have one to fire up and just loose time watching it.

But here recently, I just keep circling around (no pun intended) to those radials. I was talking to SWMBO this evening and contemplating on order the plans for the Pip and getting set up to make an attempt. I think my better judgement has dictated that I finish the Crusader first before I start cutting the on the Pip. If I started a radial, I am afraid the Crusader would be shelved for a while! : I'll probably spring for the Pip plans in the next week or so.

Rather than buying the Ageless 9 plans and casting, I put those on my wish list for Christmas. Everyone want to get me stuff, but I am the type that if I want it I just go get it. 8)


In the spirit of staying with the topic, I managed to go out and do some machinery maintence this evening. Oiled the machines, wiped up the chip pans, vacuumed the swarf, trammed the mill and got them ready for battle. Sometimes that is as rewarding as making parts for some reason, and it certainly was this evening!

 

[steamer]

Hey WE,

Like this one?

http://www.oldengine.org/members/cmsgma/2008show/simplicity.html

That was my Dad's engine. It's mine now. I plan on having it for a while.

Yes I can get lost watching it run...My kids do too.

Sorry to stray off thread

Dave

 

[Maryak]

Today was a WOW, (Win of the Week), factor day.

I was given this - A piece of copper pipe about 30" long 6" dia. Was going to be a muffler on a vintage car. When I get the ends cut off I hope it will make a boiler. Must measure the wall thickness but it's seamless and is heavy enough. :big:

Next this little gem fell into my lap. Don't know how accurate it is but as somebody here said it's good enough for measuring scrap, (other peoples treasures).

Not bad for nuffink huh.

 

[Kludge]

We have a trade festival in a town east of here and one of the vendors has a hit-n-miss engine that just captivates my attention everytime I am out there.

Where I grew up north of Pittsburgh, PA, there were a lot of baby oil wells that didn't really produce a lot but were enough that the folks who owned them and the land kept them chugging along. (The income from them was split between the well owners and the land owners.) Most of them used hit 'n miss engines that ran off the crude they pumped and I can still remember listening to them at night. A few - the ones closest to me - I could identify by sound, mostly the bark when it was time to hit again. Aside from the few steam engines still in use, there were also some one-lung engines that ran at a phenomenally low speed and were geared down further to operate a walking beam like the steam engines did. Nights were fascinating because of all of this, just listening to them.

By the time I got back from the Navy, a lot of them had been capped and the rest had electric motors which just wasn't the same. (There's a story about one of the ones that got capped - but I'll save it for another day.)

I think somewhere down the line, there's a hit 'n miss in my future.

BEst regards,

Kludge ... wandering down memory lane again.

 

[carbide_burner]

(There's a story about one of the ones that got capped - but I'll save it for another day.)

Tomorrow maybe?

:big: {me bouncing up and down in anticipation}

 

[John S]

Repairing electric motors...A gain [ best Forrest Gump voice ]

:'(

.

 

[BAH101]

I am sitting in a tent, 10 km from the arctic ocean in a mining camp. Spent the last hour cleaning 1/2 in of inch from the tails of 2 helicopters so they could take the crews out to work. It is only -2C with a nice southern wind and light freezing mist. Oh, and there is a low pressure system coming in with some bad weather .
So, between putting the covers on the helicopter blades so they don't get all frozen, I will dabble with my CAD program to fill the day. Gonna finish the Snow double cylinder engine drawing I posted in the Learning to use CAD thread.

Only 2 weeks left until I get home

 

[Cedge]

BAH...
I take it you are not working on your tan or surfing much right now...LOL. I can do heat with little problem, but I could never abide the maddening cold at the levels you mention. You have my respect for your durability. Hurry on home. I'll have a neat brandy in your honor, when the sun sinks over the yardarm.

The past two days have been been an endurance race of sorts here. I pretty much took my shop down and went through it with an eye towards consolidating things a bit. Having more tool boxes than any sane man should, I decided to centralize all my tooling and gain a bit of room by eliminating the boxed tools from their various locations around the shop. While I was at it, I added non-slip drawer liners to the tool boxes to keep things from bumping into each other.

I sorted everything into "logical" categories and then went about trying to make it all fit into the 32 available drawers. After everything was in the drawers, I went back through it all and fine tuned things so that the effort resulted in a usable arrangement. When done, I was a bit amazed at just what I'd accumulated along the way. What I discovered is that I'm probably tooled out better than many small professional machine shops.

It's pretty cool to see it all in one place with everything in a place where I can find it with ease. End mills in one drawer... specialty mills in another, measuring devices, clamping and setup, files...etc... all in their own place and arranged for quick access. I'm chuffed....LOL

That project opened up a bit of space, so I kept going and rearranged much the stuff on pegboards, shelves and work tables so that they more easily met the work flow I seem to have accidentally established. All the while I cleaned up stray swarf, wiped down counters and in general tidied the place up.

I finished the second frenzy and sat down to take a break. As I looked around, something seemed amiss. It took a few minutes to figure out what was niggling my single lonely brain cell. Everything looked nice and neat, but my machines were looking a bit neglected. Grease, dust, dirt, grime, swarf, surface rust.... you know the stuff that sneaks in, was on every machine in the place, to one extent or another....(sigh)

Out came the cleaning products, steel wool, WD40, fine sand paper and polish as I began an effort that will probably last well into this evening. I'll not have any problems getting to sleep tonight...except maybe from the 3rd degree "dishpan hands" I'm sporting right now....(grin)

In between all the bursts of energy, I managed to tram several machines, correct a problem with the new QCTP holders (now they all lock down in the same place with the quick release) and polish up all the work tables on the various smaller grinders and the drill press. It's just time to get all those tiny little annoying "round tuit" items killed off.

Steve

 

[CrewCab]

Steve .............. your "aving a larrfffff" ............... I doubt I could get that much done in a week

The medicinal Brandy sounds good mind ............. and as the sun is well over the yardarm

CC

 

[wareagle]

Steve, when you are done could I give you my address... :big: :big:

I need to do the same thing in my shop in the worst way. The thing is it won't take more than a day to do, but just biting the bullet and getting it done seems to be the tough part. One day.... <sigh>


What am I doing today??? Well, work mostly. Trying to get paperwork tidied up so I can get some money in the door. All of the work stuff sure gets in the way of my play time!!

If all goes to plan, I will take about an hour or so and make a few chips on the Crusader and try out the new camera. ;D The old one had me speaking in tongues tha other night when I uploaded the images from the card and saw just how terrible they came out.

 

[BAH101]

BAH...
I take it you are not working on your tan or surfing much right now...LOL. I can do heat with little problem, but I could never abide the maddening cold at the levels you mention. You have my respect for your durability. Hurry on home. I'll have a neat brandy in your honor, when the sun sinks over the yardarm.

Tan haha I wish, I have been here since Saturday and no sign of a sun...I think it left for the south with the birds. -2C is not bad, the wind does your fingers in, but winter is not here yet. In November -30 to -50 is common . Then it is maddeningly cold. Thanks for the support, 2 weeks left then home

 

[Cedge]

W.E....
That's about what it came to.... I finally couldn't stand it anymore. With the additional tools I bought from Clarke, I had to do something and do it now. I had to find a place for more than 50 reamers, several new precision measuring devices and a whole boat load of other sundry loose tools. It was definitely bullet biting time or I had to enlarge the man cave.

BAH
Hang in there guy... the sun still shines over the rest of the world. Sounds like maybe you're living a part of the Ice Road Truckers saga.

Steve

 

[ChooChooMike]

Recovering :

Spent 8-days in Colorado. 3 playing at Pikes Peak, Leadville (and backroads around there), Georgetown & Idaho Springs. Yeah I know I'm weird, but am quite interested in the old mining areas and of course steam trains Then had to work in the Denver area for 5 days. Flew home last Friday nite, then had to get ready for working our 2 cruises this past weekend on the S.S. Lane Victory (a tribute to the Merchant Marines of WWII+)

www.lanevictory.org

This is a fully operational WWII Victory-class cargo ship that is berthed in San Pedro, CA (Los Angeles harbor). We had our Sept cruises this past Sat/Sunday. I volunteer as an engine room tour guide and general deck help where needed. I 1st went on a cruise last year and the engine room tour guides had to mop up my drool as I toured the ships machinery. I even convinced them to let me spend more time down there later that day. They then got smart, shanghied me, threw me in the bilge and refused to let me go until I had agreed to join the engine tour guides and the rest is history !! : I started working the very next cruise ! Hell, even doubled my pay :big:

If you want to see some real steamy action, then the engine room is the place to be. 2 large boilers, cross-compound turbine pair, driving a large reduction gear box to an 18' diameter propeller. Not quite the same as a steam locomotive (I work on one of those too ), but quite fascinating. Lots of heat, (~110 degrees in various places), all kinds of machinery clanking, rotating, clunking, gurgling, etc. Some of the firemen & engineers we have ran these ships in WWII. Talk about some amazing history !!

There's only 2 or 3 other Victory ships open to the public. The Lane Victory is the only one fully ocean certified.

There's an operational Liberty ship - the Jeremiah O'Brien

www.ssjeremiahobrien.org/

in San Francisco that has even more steam action - it's powered by a triple-expansion piston engine and most of the deck equipment (capstans & winches) is also steam powered. You can probably see more steam powered equipment there in a few hours than anywhere else. That's on my list for a visit too

Mike

 

[wareagle]

CCM, that looks like a fun gig! No wonder you are beat!! Drooling take it out of a person!!

 

[ksouers]

Flew home last Friday nite, then had to get ready for working our 2 cruises this past weekend on the S.S. Lane Victory (a tribute to the Merchant Marines of WWII+)

www.lanevictory.org

This is a fully operational WWII Victory-class cargo ship that is berthed in San Pedro, CA (Los Angeles harbor). We had our Sept cruises this past Sat/Sunday. I volunteer as an engine room tour guide and general deck help where needed. I 1st went on a cruise last year and the engine room tour guides had to mop up my drool as I toured the ships machinery. I even convinced them to let me spend more time down there later that day. They then got smart, shanghied me, threw me in the bilge and refused to let me go until I had agreed to join the engine tour guides and the rest is history !! : I started working the very next cruise ! Hell, even doubled my pay :big:

If you want to see some real steamy action, then the engine room is the place to be. 2 large boilers, cross-compound turbine pair, driving a large reduction gear box to an 18' diameter propeller. Not quite the same as a steam locomotive (I work on one of those too ), but quite fascinating. Lots of heat, (~110 degrees in various places), all kinds of machinery clanking, rotating, clunking, gurgling, etc. Some of the firemen & engineers we have ran these ships in WWII. Talk about some amazing history !!

Man, wish I could have been there! I spent two years on a T-2 class oil tanker back in late 1980 to 1982. The ship was commissioned in 1944. I was "black gang", of course. There is no other place to sail but the engine room! The main power was turbo-electric, a main turbine dedicated to a motor driving the ship. Also two auxiliary turbines for ships main electric and a whole mess of piston steam engines for various operations and backup.

Almost 30 years later I can still hear the sounds of that engine room.

 

[compound driver 2]

Im working on a 3 1/2 inch gauge 0-4-0 tank loco thats being built for my step son
when he gets his steam ticket for the local club.
he already drives my 4-4-2 but its a bit on the leggy side for him.

 

[kvom]

Steve,

If you need to get rid of some of the extra toolboxes, let me know and I'll take them off of your hands ;D

On my shop build:

My AC units came yesterday, and today I'm reading the installation manual. It seems relatively straightforward, except for the fact that the power calls for 20a breakers but on a 14ga wire. A friend is helping me run the linesets on Saturday. Other than that, I installed locks/doorknobs on the doors and hauled 300+ pounds of scrap wood to the landfill.

Still waiting for my electrician friend to bring over the #2 grounding wire, and for the framers to finish a few minor items prior to calling in for inspections.

 

[wareagle]

Well, I am fighting of some sort of bug. Feeling a little under the weather. Have been for the past few days.... :-[ I think I am turning the corner, but we'll see. Just tired of coughing all of the time!!

Basically I am taking it easy today. Have been napping and just laying around. I can't remember the last time I had an opportunity to be a couch veggie!!!! Just wish it wasn't due to illness. :

 

[steamer]

Hope your feeling better!