Projecting, tinkering, fiddle-farting around: whatcha building? (4 Viewers)

[KLF]

20 yrs ago someone gave me a 34" cookie from an approx 80 yr old loblolly pine. Always wanted to even it up and make a table or something out of it and came up with various designs of rigs to run a router over it. But recently stumbled across DIY router sleds on youtube and there was my answer, with linear rails from Amazon, for way cheaper than I could fab up. Gave it a brief try in the shop today and as expected given the mess, will definitely have to wait for nice day to carry whole table outside.

View attachment 3540143

I had some trees taken down about a year ago, and one was a particularly large white oak. It was leaning over the garage and had to go. I had the guys save me a 4" thick cookie off the stump, it's about 3' across, and I can barely pick it up. I also got a 20" cookie of black birch.

I immediately set about learning how to keep them from cracking, because I am as of this week finishing up my new woodworking shop and wanted to do exactly what you are doing. I learned about Pentacryl as the best curing solution, so I bought a gallon ($90!) from the local Woodcraft. I quickly built a "tub" out of scrap wood and 6mil plastic and soaked both those cookies for a week. Then I wrapped them loosely in heavy paper and set them in the darkest, dampest corner of my basement.

I finally opened them up about 8 months later and the oak has a huge radial crack in it. I'm not sure it's salvageable, maybe with a big bowtie and a lot of epoxy. So bummed. The black birch is actually still fine, so maybe I'll find something to do with that. I'll wait till warm weather so I can do the flattening outside, yes it makes a huge mess.

Please share how yours turns out!

 

[Waorani]

I've got a bunch of older/commercial woodworking machines I've picked up over the year but like many things I muddle through, I'm not a woodworker. Maybe one of these lifetimes I'll get set up and usable. I think hardwoods are much more susceptible to checking than pine but could be wrong. I basically stuck this up on a shelf for 20 yrs and that was it.

On the other hand, the longleaf pine cookie is so dense and full of resin, it probably couldn't split. When I was still a teenager you'd still see rail cars full of LL pine stumps (pulled out of the ground from trees cut who knows how many years ago) going to be used in gunpowder manufacture. Or at least that's what I was told.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

I had some trees taken down about a year ago, and one was a particularly large white oak. It was leaning over the garage and had to go. I had the guys save me a 4" thick cookie off the stump, it's about 3' across, and I can barely pick it up. I also got a 20" cookie of black birch.

I immediately set about learning how to keep them from cracking, because I am as of this week finishing up my new woodworking shop and wanted to do exactly what you are doing. I learned about Pentacryl as the best curing solution, so I bought a gallon ($90!) from the local Woodcraft. I quickly built a "tub" out of scrap wood and 6mil plastic and soaked both those cookies for a week. Then I wrapped them loosely in heavy paper and set them in the darkest, dampest corner of my basement.

I finally opened them up about 8 months later and the oak has a huge radial crack in it. I'm not sure it's salvageable, maybe with a big bowtie and a lot of epoxy. So bummed. The black birch is actually still fine, so maybe I'll find something to do with that. I'll wait till warm weather so I can do the flattening outside, yes it makes a huge mess.

Please share how yours turns out!

Fill the crack with colored epoxy resin and then flatten (true up or whatever you want to call it) the cookie. Make sure you overfill the crack before routing/sanding the top flat. I would let it air dry indoors for a while first though to make sure it's cracked all it's going to crack. It would make an impressive charcutier board or table top.

 

[Rugy]

Installed a 6" ball valve closer to our Micro Hydro station.
We installed a butterfly valve at the top of the hill about 15 feet from the weir.
This allows us to turn off the flow when we have to do maintenance to the MH station.
With the new 6" ball valve we can regulated the amount of power going to the charge controller.
Regulating the power so our output into our batteries is kept to 1700w.
Dump loads at this time are electric oil filled heaters and heaters with fans.

 

[Waorani]

Got both sides flat/parallel. Lost ~ .25 - 1.25 from thickness. This side is going to get a lot more sanding and then I might try walnut oil at suggestion of woodworking friend. Original plan was three legs but thinking now I might try to find an existing table or even cabinet to mount it on.

 

[firestopper]

Building a custom flagpole for the front of the property. Not your ordinary FP, but a counter balanced one that can be levered over by hand. The design is in my head and Im building this as I go between projects.
The mini excavator punched an 18" hole some 76" deep.

Some #4 rebar rings rolled into 12" circles.

A self centering cone was made to allow the receiving pipe to center at the bottom.

The weldment is ready to be set into the hole and filled with the initial 2500 pounds of high strength concrete. The top nuts welded to the open end are for jacking bolts for later plumbing of the receiver, the other end self centers over the cone.

 

[firestopper]

The jig I came up with to plumb the weldment in prior to pouring.

The same jacking bolts are use in reverse to fine tune level in all directions.

A UFERS clamp was used on the rebar cage and a section of solid copper #6 will be clamped to a 8' ground rod.
Flag poles don't require a ground but it cant hurt.

While this was curing, I started designing the fenial. I machined the pulley and installed a ceramic bearing and a 360º swivel truck. The Ball is a 6" diameter and threads into the top of the truck.

The ball.

 

[firestopper]

Bored out a cap that will have a nipple welded in to secure the threaded swivel truck.

A couple of light passes with a boring bar and the nipple slips in.

The truck with a new ceramic bearing and a new SS axel was also turned and threaded.

Next up was machining a 7" disc of 3/4" CR. This will be the adaptor for the top of the receiver sleeve. The outer groove will index over the pipe already set in mud. The adaptor will be welded to the larger pipe in concrete (underside) while the ID will accommodate the OD of the sleeve. Welded and then more mud.

I had to hand grind a trepanning cutter for that indexing groove.

Almost there. The foil is a trick to keep the boring swarf from packing in to the four jaw scroll/indipendant chuck.

 

[firestopper]

The Adaptor fit really nicely onto the lower section and was burned in. The sleeve was cut and lowered into the adaptor and self centered into the base. A 12" #4 rebar was also welded to this new section. A 24" sono tube was also set in and plumbed. Another 750 pounds of mud added to finish the pier.

A close up go the 2nd phase of the pour prep.

A day after the pour the sono tube was stripped and the ground rod pounded in with the demo hammer.

Pretty please with the results.

Moving on.

 

[firestopper]

Making two 1/2" x 24" flanges.
Cut the flanges on the plasma table and laid out the hole pattern on the base flange. This will take 16- 3/4" bolts.

Finding the center.

Some math I used back in HS machine shop for flange hole layout. Machine shop guide book I purchased in 1978 for advanced machine shop class was used to jog the cob webs in my head.

11/16" annular cutter provided the correct hole to tap a 3/4-16 thread.

I made a transfer punch bushing to allow for accurate transfer pushing of the second plate prior to tapping the 11/16" hole. A knurl was added to help grip the snug fitting bushing.

 

[firestopper]

After transferring the holes, the lower flange was tapped on the mill to aid in aligning the tap. I ended up power tapping all the holes on the mill using a bolster plate as a platform.

The bushing worked well.

After transferring the punch locations a 13/16" annular cutter was used on the top flange.

Tapping the lower flange went well.

A clear shot of the threaded hole along with the top flange.

All 16 bolts fit with clearance. The North indexing on the top flange will allow me to weld the two 8" channel in the correct location so that the flag pole will pivot true south.

 

[firestopper]

The lower threaded flange center was removed and beveled to be welded onto the pipe. The bevel will allow for a hot root pass (6011) followed by three cover passes with either 7018 or 7024.

The fit up looks fine but I may bevel it more yet.

The flange looks pretty cool sitting on the pier. The top flange will remain blank and will seal off the opening. I'll probably use some silicone to keep water out when it gets torqued. I will weld the lower flange after I compleat the heavy welding on the top flange. Bolting them together will help reduce any warping from welding in the pair of 8" channel that will support the fulcrum point. Now it should be clear why the North lines are important.

The flange sit level in all directions.

 

[firestopper]

Building the pedestal for the base. Using 1/8" x 12" flat strap, I decided on a radius.

Using a tape, string line, and Sharpe, I made a radius template.

With radius transferred, I used a power hand shears to trim the .100" thick piece of aluminum.

Here you can see the precut sections of the 12" flat strap, the connection clips made from 1" angle iron. The female side to the connectors have 5/16-18 qcarure nuts welded in. The rolling template was also folded over on the break to enhance rigidness.

The rolling setup.

Achieving the radius with the help of the template.

 

[firestopper]

The fork lift saved my hide again. I really believe I would have hung up all shop work by now if I didn't have this machine.

They're a match.

The connectors also performed as intended.

The ring came out nice.

Break it down and move it out to the site.

 

[firestopper]

Leveling the ring wasn't too bad and it will elevate the pedestal 12" leaving the top of the concrete proud about 4".

Three 36"L x 12"H x 6" H steps were added 120º. the steps were also rolled to match the profile.

Back filled with rocky dirt then topped off with three inches of 3/4 - 1" coranado brown gravel will finish this off.

The water riser will be extended and secured to the side of the ring. The riser will also be lowered some and the spigot rotated away from the ring.

stay tuned.

 

[1911]

Love to see your work Paco!

 

[firestopper]

Thank you sir. It’s still enjoyable to spend time in the shop.

 

[Waorani]

Curious to see final product. I'm having a hard time putting it all together in my head. Great shop!

 

[firestopper]

The flag pole will stand 30’. The first 5’ will be counter weight up to the fulcrum point. The idea is to have the correct amount t of counter weight allowing the pole to be laid over with minimal effort. The pole will be pinned and locked when vertical or horizontally. The materials used to build the counterweight structure must be weighed as accurately as possible. This way I can figure how much media to use to fill the voids. Magnatite is on the short list as this stuff is very dense. It’s used in ballasting ships, off shore rigs etc. it’s mixed with water (slurry) then pumped. When the suspension settles, the water is pumped out. The other option is ingots of some sort. The problem finding the correct shape and size that will work given the shape and size of the counter weight structure.
A fixed vertical flag pole is easy brother, this makes me think and get creative.
Hopefully you have a clearer mental picture of it.
I’ll keep posting progress. Hopefully someone can find useful information on techniques anyway.

 

[groundeater]

Log into Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

www.facebook.com