Above 1200 Sq/FT Cleaning Up My Shop

[dreamingmuscle]

I can't find the coke machine.

 

[Guster]

You should see my shop, it IS a Faraday cage........sigh..........

Same here... can just about get phone service if my phone is by the open door.

Though there is always a way!

 

[oldironfarmer]

It's not just my cube that travel the world.
Here's a great gift with my wife's initials I got from Andy .
Thanks Andy, that's very cool!!!

Thanks for posting that! Most people think that I never actually get anything done. Just started.

OK, I'm not going to post any pictures of my pain booth, aka the Dungeon. It's pretty dark down there anyway and it's only for consenting adults. Maybe it does not really exist. I meant to say paint booth. But with the way I paint, there's always lots of pain there too.

I never would have thought about the metal walls/roof creating a Faraday cage . I wonder if Plexiglas panels may help in the roof and some walls...

Connected sheet metal is pretty effective. So is a grid. Plexiglas and fiberglass panels are effective at letting the weather in, eventually, so I have learned to get by without them.

When I first started using my TIG welder it soon got to where it would not initiate the high frequency start unless it sat for several minutes. A little investigation revealed it should be grounded to the building (and it is recommended to have heavy wire screens over windows per Hobart). I grounded to the electrical ground and that fixed the problem.

You should see my shop, it IS a Faraday cage........sigh..........

It might have been overkill to use sheet lead instead of building paper.

Andy Copper looks great and good to hear that you are making progress on the phone.

Dwight

Thanks, but I'm not in law enforcement so calling me Andy Copper is a misnomer but I know I look great.

I can't find the coke machine.

OK, got me, that is another notable change. I'm sorry. I was hasty in my assessment of changes. Right now the door is open to defrost (once per month). Wife has two cousins coming to visit tomorrow and the machine needed reloading.

Same here... can just about get phone service if my phone is by the open door.

Though there is always a way!

Got it! Put up a 1" PVC antenna. That was so easy, seems too good to be true.

With surprise company coming tomorrow I got out early and poured two trivets, one for each lady who is coming. My flask for the trivet pattern is a little too narrow and when I tried pulling the flask off to pour two trivets at once the metal broke through the side (I posted pictures back then) and ruined the pattern. After spilling the metal there was not enough to pour the second one. Well today I needed to pour two to save time so I tried pulling the flask off the first one and clamping boards to the sides to hold the sand in place.

Worked like a charm.

With one more pour I checked the oil level.

Down about 3/4" for one and one half pours. Just shy of 1/2 gallon (1.92 qt, 61.7 oz). When I refill I think I'll try to calibrate the level gauge.

Thanks for stopping by, sorry the Coke machine is down.

 

[drivesitfar]

Handy: I'm sorry if it sounded like I meant you weren't a good farmer cause really trying to say you were in good hands with JBL cause he does it right. did the PVC antenna work? and what other things did you have to do?

i'm guessing the bull, the cows, the calve, Hershey and your bride are all in pretty good health today and of course you seem to have the energy of an 18 year old every day so keep up the good stuff whatever takes your fancy.

i'm in ORGANIZING HELL at the moment and wish I had a huge barn to stick stuff I just don't want to sell or make a decision on today or for a while, but that's not happening so having to get rid of or even throw out some good stuff.

cheers and I was going to grab a coke cause tired of drinking ice tea today, but since you're out of cold ones i'll grab a Stella if I can find one.

take care

BTW I had a chance to walk around a small town Saturday morning at 7am and had this area all to myself. if your caboose is as big as this one i can't even fathom how you moved it to your farm or how you'll ever move it again.
it would be cool to have one in your yard though i'd have to admit. WELL DONE SIR!!

 

[Slowbuilder]

As promised, here's my shop layout. House is to the east.

Walls are sheetrock over studs except for the following which are sheet metal clad:

Exterior walls except east wall in broom room is wood
Four walls in blacksmith shop
West wall in lift room

Back to regularly scheduled programming!

I always enjoy seeing what you are up to on your Saturdays!

Thanks for your shop layout, it piqued a question for me: After working in your expanded shop for a while, how do you like the "hard" divisions between work areas? Many of the shops here on GJ have areas, but they aren't divided by walls, allowing the work to expand into nearby areas if need be. I would think the downside of the open approach would be contamination, and thus more cleaning, while the upside would be more space for whatever is the current need. You wouldn't want to share space between paint and machine shop or vice-versa, but I would think some areas could easily share space.

Would you design it same way if you started from scratch? Are there other things that the walls promote or enable?

SB

 

[cvairwerks]

Andy, I hope you saw the humor in it, like I did....

 

[realvc]

My wife and I live in a rock house with a metal roof in a hilly rural area next to a lake. Our cell service is very limited to none at all. My shop is a metal building located less than 10' from the house. Our cell phones do not work in the house or the shop. We have a whole house cell phone signal booster for the house and a smaller one in the shop. They are weBoost brand formally known as Wilson and work O.K. most of the time.

My shop is 30' by 60' and is one large open area with two smaller rooms. The cell phone signal is better the closer the phone is to the inside antenna.

I don't know how well they would work for you with the metal walls inside your shop.

They make one that would work for you but the price might be pretty steep. It is like so many things that all it takes is money to fix it.

Good luck on your quest for cell phone signal between the house and your shop. I'll be interested to see how you make it work so that I may be able to copy.

 

[jbmatth]

I never would have thought about the metal walls/roof creating a Faraday cage . I wonder if Plexiglas panels may help in the roof and some walls...

I can't say it doesn't help but in my 46'x76' metal building I have 6 Plexiglas panels spread throughout the roof. On a good day I can get one bar of reception but lose signal often. It isn't enough signal to watch YouTube videos but is enough to stream music. Personally I'd use a signal booster but haven't ever decided to actually spend the money on one to say how well it would work in my case.

Good luck on your quest for cell phone signal between the house and your shop. I'll be interested to see how you make it work so that I may be able to copy.

I'm doing the same thing, sit back and wait, if it works for Andy I'll know I might have a chance at success as well.

JB

 

[cvairwerks]

We built a building that was a total Faraday cage for one project we were part of. You could put a multi-kilowatt transmitter in the atrium and you could not find anything other than a miniscule blip on a spectrum analyzer anywhere around the outside of the building. Electric, water, sewer, fiberoptic lines and even the air conditioner exhausts and intakes were hardened. Lots of bucks involved and some wild piping arrangements to make it happen.
The site got sold off a few years ago, but as part of the sale, all the hardening for the water, sewer and air conditioning systems was removed. All the power, telco and fiber stuff was removed from the inside of the building entrance points too. The new owners got a building that was a faraday cage, but had no mechanical or electrical systems between the service entrances and the mechanical rooms.

 

[njhoudini]

I can't say it doesn't help but in my 46'x76' metal building I have 6 Plexiglas panels spread throughout the roof. On a good day I can get one bar of reception but lose signal often. It isn't enough signal to watch YouTube videos but is enough to stream music. Personally I'd use a signal booster but haven't ever decided to actually spend the money on one to say how well it would work in my case.



I'm doing the same thing, sit back and wait, if it works for Andy I'll know I might have a chance at success as well.

JB

I wonder if the panels need to be on the walls instead of the roof since towers are sending the signals horizontally. Not exactly something easy to test.

Andy, do you get service if you are in the broom room or when all of your roll up doors are up? May not be something fun to test if you're also enjoying this lovely heatwave. If your driveway isn't paved, I still vote to trench and run ethernet (run a few to try to have backups).

 

[jblnut]

I've installed a few Wilson and a bunch of SureCall brand cell boosters. A decently equipped SureCall runs in that $500+ range but they work amazingly. A cell booster is one of the easiest things to install. There is an antenna that goes on the exterior of the building and one, or more, that goes inside. Plug them into the brain box and away you go. I put a system in a 150'x650' dairy barn that had 6 antennas and was advertised to cover 40,000sq feet and it works in every single corner of the entire barn. Just amazing but you need to spend a bit of $$$$ to get something decent. The stuff at Best Buy and Walmart is mostly junk .... for the money those systems cost they are not worth it ...

If a guy wants to give WiFi calling a shot all you need is internet. A transmitter on the side of the house (Ubiquiti NanoStation Loco) setup as an access point, a receiver on the side of the shop (Ubiquiti NanoStation Loco) setup as a station to receive the signal from the house, an access point in the shop (Ubiquiti PicoStation M2HP or any Ubiquiti air-max product setup properly as an access point will work). Boom. Done.

I've installed dozens of the above setups in one way or another on dairy farms and have had zero issues with any of it. In 3yrs of installing stuff I've had one NanoStation fail and two cameras fail. I'd have to add it up but I have installed well over 300 NanoStations (or similar Ubiquiti stuff) and almost 200 cameras in the last 3yrs.

We're working on something that'll be both cost effective and hopefully easy to setup.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Handy: I'm sorry if it sounded like I meant you weren't a good farmer cause really trying to say you were in good hands with JBL cause he does it right. did the PVC antenna work? and what other things did you have to do?

I wasn't offended but you'll find people rarely appreciate advice in their areas of expertise unless the advice giver is also an expert. Not that I'm an expert farmer. But as with most endeavors, you have to do what works for you. I could give you lots of advice on how I sell property but I doubt it would be of much value to you.

Agriculture varies significantly across the country. What works her does not work there due to soils, weather, local markets, etc. On top of that, the research universities all try to help the poor farmer do better but their advice, while based on research, is rarely of value. Since I have an engineering degree I value the results of research. I went to a university cattle seminar many years ago. They were discussing maximizing productivity in the cattle operation. Their idea was to carry maximum cattle and sell down if weather was unfavorable and then buy heifers to build the herd when conditions were favorable. Maybe big operations can do that, but I don't know any cattlemen who want to buy someone else's cast off heifers. We sell fence jumpers, calves from cows who don't milk good or who have an aggressive trait. You don't learn those things looking at livestock before a sale. I came away from the seminar understanding why the old farmers laugh at the university advice.

That being said, I'm sure I could do things better but I will not risk my money trying something I'm not comfortable with.

There you have it!

i'm guessing the bull, the cows, the calve, Hershey and your bride are all in pretty good health today and of course you seem to have the energy of an 18 year old every day so keep up the good stuff whatever takes your fancy.

i'm in ORGANIZING HELL at the moment and wish I had a huge barn to stick stuff I just don't want to sell or make a decision on today or for a while, but that's not happening so having to get rid of or even throw out some good stuff.

cheers and I was going to grab a coke cause tired of drinking ice tea today, but since you're out of cold ones i'll grab a Stella if I can find one.

take care

BTW I had a chance to walk around a small town Saturday morning at 7am and had this area all to myself. if your caboose is as big as this one i can't even fathom how you moved it to your farm or how you'll ever move it again.
it would be cool to have one in your yard though i'd have to admit. WELL DONE SIR!!

My caboose looks to be a bit larger than that one, especially the cupola. mine is 45 ft long and maybe a little wider but I would think they're all the same width. A house mover moved it. Not very big to them.

Sharon's health is not good, but Hershey and the Bull are doing great.

I wish you could have a big barn too. We each make our own choices and some are harder than others to change later in life. It's too late for me to try out for the NBA.

I always enjoy seeing what you are up to on your Saturdays!

Thanks for your shop layout, it piqued a question for me: After working in your expanded shop for a while, how do you like the "hard" divisions between work areas? Many of the shops here on GJ have areas, but they aren't divided by walls, allowing the work to expand into nearby areas if need be. I would think the downside of the open approach would be contamination, and thus more cleaning, while the upside would be more space for whatever is the current need. You wouldn't want to share space between paint and machine shop or vice-versa, but I would think some areas could easily share space.

Would you design it same way if you started from scratch? Are there other things that the walls promote or enable?

SB

Thank you for the kind words. I've wondered what I would do if I had the chance to build another shop. I would like to walk across the room to get a tool sometimes, and I have to carry lumber through several doors at times. But, the individual walls offer lots of storage possibilities. I would like my planer in the woodshop instead of next door, but I don't want sawdust in the machine shop, nor welding and grinding residue in the wood shop or machine shop. The broom room needs to be a clean place (with residue all over the floor) and of course the paint booth needs to be independent. I like having a separate blacksmith shop, you open the door and step back 100 years. Same with the broom room. But occasionally I wish the forge and anvil were in the welding area. I definitely want the foundry area separate, no grinding residue or sawdust.

So there you have it, I don't know. I have had the opportunity to do as I like and I like what I did.

Andy, I hope you saw the humor in it, like I did....

Hmmm, I'm sorry I got lost. The humor in...

My wife and I live in a rock house with a metal roof in a hilly rural area next to a lake. Our cell service is very limited to none at all. My shop is a metal building located less than 10' from the house. Our cell phones do not work in the house or the shop. We have a whole house cell phone signal booster for the house and a smaller one in the shop. They are weBoost brand formally known as Wilson and work O.K. most of the time.

My shop is 30' by 60' and is one large open area with two smaller rooms. The cell phone signal is better the closer the phone is to the inside antenna.

I don't know how well they would work for you with the metal walls inside your shop.

They make one that would work for you but the price might be pretty steep. It is like so many things that all it takes is money to fix it.

Good luck on your quest for cell phone signal between the house and your shop. I'll be interested to see how you make it work so that I may be able to copy.

At this point I don't mind spending the money, it could be life and death for my wife. We'll see what Mike advises.

I can't say it doesn't help but in my 46'x76' metal building I have 6 Plexiglas panels spread throughout the roof. On a good day I can get one bar of reception but lose signal often. It isn't enough signal to watch YouTube videos but is enough to stream music. Personally I'd use a signal booster but haven't ever decided to actually spend the money on one to say how well it would work in my case.

I'm doing the same thing, sit back and wait, if it works for Andy I'll know I might have a chance at success as well.

JB

I'm sitting back and waiting too.

We built a building that was a total Faraday cage for one project we were part of. You could put a multi-kilowatt transmitter in the atrium and you could not find anything other than a miniscule blip on a spectrum analyzer anywhere around the outside of the building. Electric, water, sewer, fiberoptic lines and even the air conditioner exhausts and intakes were hardened. Lots of bucks involved and some wild piping arrangements to make it happen.
The site got sold off a few years ago, but as part of the sale, all the hardening for the water, sewer and air conditioning systems was removed. All the power, telco and fiber stuff was removed from the inside of the building entrance points too. The new owners got a building that was a faraday cage, but had no mechanical or electrical systems between the service entrances and the mechanical rooms.

Must have been research or government, or both. Interesting story.

I wonder if the panels need to be on the walls instead of the roof since towers are sending the signals horizontally. Not exactly something easy to test.

Andy, do you get service if you are in the broom room or when all of your roll up doors are up? May not be something fun to test if you're also enjoying this lovely heatwave. If your driveway isn't paved, I still vote to trench and run ethernet (run a few to try to have backups).

I get service in front of any door which is open. I get great service in the foundry room while I have the north door open and am cooking metal. I get some service in wood shop close to the north window, and fair service in the SE corner of the broom room. Sometimes my phone buzzes in the planer room but it just lets me know I had a call, can never make a call from there.

The driveway is not paved and I used to have phone service in the shop. I finally gave up trying to maintain the buried line. I could make calls but never heard the phone or could see the light unless I happened to be right there. I assume that wire would not carry ethernet.

I've installed a few Wilson and a bunch of SureCall brand cell boosters. A decently equipped SureCall runs in that $500+ range but they work amazingly. A cell booster is one of the easiest things to install. There is an antenna that goes on the exterior of the building and one, or more, that goes inside. Plug them into the brain box and away you go. I put a system in a 150'x650' dairy barn that had 6 antennas and was advertised to cover 40,000sq feet and it works in every single corner of the entire barn. Just amazing but you need to spend a bit of $$$$ to get something decent. The stuff at Best Buy and Walmart is mostly junk .... for the money those systems cost they are not worth it ...

If a guy wants to give WiFi calling a shot all you need is internet. A transmitter on the side of the house (Ubiquiti NanoStation Loco) setup as an access point, a receiver on the side of the shop (Ubiquiti NanoStation Loco) setup as a station to receive the signal from the house, an access point in the shop (Ubiquiti PicoStation M2HP or any Ubiquiti air-max product setup properly as an access point will work). Boom. Done.

I've installed dozens of the above setups in one way or another on dairy farms and have had zero issues with any of it. In 3yrs of installing stuff I've had one NanoStation fail and two cameras fail. I'd have to add it up but I have installed well over 300 NanoStations (or similar Ubiquiti stuff) and almost 200 cameras in the last 3yrs.

We're working on something that'll be both cost effective and hopefully easy to setup.

What he said...

by the way, anybody with an M Farmall in his avatar is to be trusted and admired.

 

[cvairwerks]

Lots going on here in your thread Andy. My comment was about the humor in the "pain room"...

 

[drivesitfar]

Handy: first of all I'm sending my prayers to you and your bride and hoping that BS she's got maybe has a miracle turnaround cause you both seem like great people that's always helping others.

also even though i've been buying and selling stuff almost all my life and I spent 30 years selling real estate for clients i've still got a lot to learn so teach away if you want to add your 2 cents.

hope you get this communication issue worked out cause nothing worse than not knowing everything is ok inside the home with your bride while you are out melting metal or doing something else productive.

good to hear the bull, cows and especially Hershey are doing well.

cheers and enjoy your SATURDAY

 

[jimreed2160]

Update from Florida

Well the postman surprised me today with a package from Oklahoma! It was full of much appreciated goodies. My current shop broom worked for awhile and then the handle tip broke off. Ouch! Hurts my hand. I drilled a hole and wired a loop so I could hang it properly but Andy's solution is much more elegant. It displaced the old broom and sent it down to driveway duty. Now it hangs with honor just beside the saw till.

The hammer is front and center among the soft basher group of mallets, etc.

And the trivet is on the kitchen table. My wife was both surprised and pleased so now Andy has yet another female admirer, this one being in Florida. She wanted you to know that the trivet is in good company because it sits on a table that she refinished herself. One good crafted item deserves another.

So many thanks are going your way, Andy. Best wishes to you and your family for a wonderful fourth!

 

[oldironfarmer]

Lots going on here in your thread Andy. My comment was about the humor in the "pain room"...

Yes, that was amusing. Depending on who has the whip...

Handy: first of all I'm sending my prayers to you and your bride and hoping that BS she's got maybe has a miracle turnaround cause you both seem like great people that's always helping others.

Thank you. The more prayers the better.

also even though i've been buying and selling stuff almost all my life and I spent 30 years selling real estate for clients i've still got a lot to learn so teach away if you want to add your 2 cents.

We can all learn something even from the novice, I know that. but your experience far trumps mine.

hope you get this communication issue worked out cause nothing worse than not knowing everything is ok inside the home with your bride while you are out melting metal or doing something else productive.

I made a purchase today, at jblnuts suggestion. It's a cell signal amplifier, or something to that effect.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8TAPMQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

good to hear the bull, cows and especially Hershey are doing well.

cheers and enjoy your SATURDAY

Thanks! We had my wife's cousins in today and they'll be back tomorrow. Each got a trivet and I think they liked them.

Update from Florida

Well the postman surprised me today with a package from Oklahoma! It was full of much appreciated goodies. My current shop broom worked for awhile and then the handle tip broke off. Ouch! Hurts my hand. I drilled a hole and wired a loop so I could hang it properly but Andy's solution is much more elegant. It displaced the old broom and sent it down to driveway duty. Now it hangs with honor just beside the saw till.

The hammer is front and center among the soft basher group of mallets, etc.

And the trivet is on the kitchen table. My wife was both surprised and pleased so now Andy has yet another female admirer, this one being in Florida. She wanted you to know that the trivet is in good company because it sits on a table that she refinished herself. One good crafted item deserves another.

So many thanks are going your way, Andy. Best wishes to you and your family for a wonderful fourth!

Glad the mail didn't let us down!

Such kind words are a joy to hear. That knot in the hammer handle is nasty looking but I think the handle is solid . If it breaks please let me know and I will refund your entire purchase price and send you a new handle. Even though you could make a better one.

Thanks for the visits, guys!

 

[jblnut]

I made a purchase today, at jblnuts suggestion. It's a cell signal amplifier, or something to that effect.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8TAPMQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I hope it serves your needs !!

It is a cell signal repeater, essentially ... It will take the cell signal level you have outside and bring it inside. Since you have some signal in places in the shop already this should fill in all the gaps so to speak.

I told you I've installed an additional interior antenna with this system and I guess I forget easily ... I've installed a pair of extra antennas on the most recent install I did on a farm. One antenna in each milking robot room and one in the barn office. The customer is a neighbor of mine and I know it works well because I seem to wander over there once in a while and the phone always rings when the wife sees I'm gone

 

[oldironfarmer]

I'm ready to get it here! Amazon says 7-10-18 (or is it 10-7-18?) let's just say the tenth day of July.

 

[jblnut]

I'm ready to get it here! Amazon says 7-10-18 (or is it 10-7-18?) let's just say the tenth day of July.

7-10-10 I said "I Do" to my still beautiful bride so that'll be a great day to get it in the mail

I think this is the first time I've ever wished my wife would look at what goes on here on the GJ because she'd be over the top impressed I remembered our wedding anniversary.

 

[BUGTHUG]

 

[oldironfarmer]

7-10-10 I said "I Do" to my still beautiful bride so that'll be a great day to get it in the mail

I think this is the first time I've ever wished my wife would look at what goes on here on the GJ because she'd be over the top impressed I remembered our wedding anniversary.

Best to not show her, though, come the tenth it may slip your mind.

Here's a shot of the north side of my barn (north is to the right). The wall is 75 ft long and peak is about 21 ft high.

I'd like to put the receiver on this wall, maybe up high as I seem to get the best signal from the north. Any issues with the power line?

He did good.

With my bulk melter I get a pile of slag, ****, steel, charcoal, and aluminum nuggets. I've been separating the aluminum out by putting shovel fulls on the bottom of a wash tub and washing it down with water. It's slow and tedious.

We watch Gold Rush so I thought I'd try a sluice and knocked on eout this morning.

Here's a small shovel charge.

And partially sprayed.

It works OK. By spraying at a low angle I can blow most of the charcoal off the top, and the trash washes out pretty good. Small aluminum nuggets only make it to the second or third ripple. There is slag which has similar density to the aluminum so it will always be hand work. I think I'll try a ******** next and see if that makes everything go better.

Brits please look away.

Happy 4th of July!!

Welcome back, our British friends.

 

[jblnut]

Best to not show her, though, come the tenth it may slip your mind.

Here's a shot of the north side of my barn (north is to the right). The wall is 75 ft long and peak is about 21 ft high.

I'd like to put the receiver on this wall, maybe up high as I seem to get the best signal from the north. Any issues with the power line?

Back whenever it was I started installing cameras and WiFi stuff for others I quickly found the need to standardize my network layout and IP addressing scheme. It is best to segment the network and put the security related items (cameras, motion detectors and such) on their own network so tampering is less likely. I needed to come up with something I could remember. I decided to use 7.10.10.X for the base on the security stuff. 7-10-10 is our wedding anniversary so I can't forget it now !!

With that SureCall system it is recommended to have the outdoor antenna as far away from the interior antenna as possible. The outdoor antenna grabs signals from a 360 radius so it'd also be best if you can put it above the peak of the room. I see zero issues with the power line. Don't get too close and end up all fried and crispy !!

 

[xtremek]

Hey Andy, I just got caught up. Sounds like you're getting this foundry thing dialed in. Just curious, how far are you going to take this? How many different metals do you hope to be able to work with?

 

[oldironfarmer]

Back whenever it was I started installing cameras and WiFi stuff for others I quickly found the need to standardize my network layout and IP addressing scheme. It is best to segment the network and put the security related items (cameras, motion detectors and such) on their own network so tampering is less likely. I needed to come up with something I could remember. I decided to use 7.10.10.X for the base on the security stuff. 7-10-10 is our wedding anniversary so I can't forget it now !!

With that SureCall system it is recommended to have the outdoor antenna as far away from the interior antenna as possible. The outdoor antenna grabs signals from a 360 radius so it'd also be best if you can put it above the peak of the room. I see zero issues with the power line. Don't get too close and end up all fried and crispy !!

Great plan on 7-10-10!

I'll put the antenna on the roof. As far away as possible? More than twenty ft?

The power line is farther than it looks I'll take an aluminum pole up with me and try to get a measurement to the wires.

Hey Andy, I just got caught up. Sounds like you're getting this foundry thing dialed in. Just curious, how far are you going to take this? How many different metals do you hope to be able to work with?

I'm making progress, have made 140 melts in the new furnace.

I don't know where it will go. I doubt I'll ever try casting steel, although that would be great it takes a controlled atmosphere. I definitely want to cast iron. But more practice is in order to get better at what I'm doing. Even with the ability to cast brass and bronze, and eventually aluminum bronze, I would expect the majority of what I make to be aluminum. It is very inexpensive and also versatile. Automobile manufacturers use it for about everything. Some old cast iron equipment parts would be fine in brass (like small handwheels).

We'll see, so far it's loads of fun.

 

[njhoudini]

I hope it serves your needs !!

It is a cell signal repeater, essentially ... It will take the cell signal level you have outside and bring it inside. Since you have some signal in places in the shop already this should fill in all the gaps so to speak.

I told you I've installed an additional interior antenna with this system and I guess I forget easily ... I've installed a pair of extra antennas on the most recent install I did on a farm. One antenna in each milking robot room and one in the barn office. The customer is a neighbor of mine and I know it works well because I seem to wander over there once in a while and the phone always rings when the wife sees I'm gone

This looks like a phenomenal solution. Hope it can send the signal throughout the megashop.

For the sluice, you might need to make it longer and potentially add some mats to help grab the aluminum. Brilliant application of reality television to your own reality. I wonder if adding a finer mesh (maybe a second and/or third layer) to your bulk melter could improve your aluminum to junk ratio.

Very impressive stack of ingots in that oil level picture. Looks like you've been very busy.

 

[oldironfarmer]

This looks like a phenomenal solution. Hope it can send the signal throughout the megashop.

For the sluice, you might need to make it longer and potentially add some mats to help grab the aluminum. Brilliant application of reality television to your own reality. I wonder if adding a finer mesh (maybe a second and/or third layer) to your bulk melter could improve your aluminum to junk ratio.

Very impressive stack of ingots in that oil level picture. Looks like you've been very busy.

If one inside antenna can't do it I can add more. It's only money.

For a real sluice, which should be longer, I need a lot of water. My plan is to just use a hand held hose as this is a very occasional use. The slag is sometimes heavier than aluminum so simple density separation does not work. I really think vibration will help get the heavies down and bounce the lights over the obstructions. Like I posted earlier, I'm not getting hardly any aluminum past the second dam.

Interestingly enough the bulk melter system is a little counter intuitive. It draws cold air in from the bottom while melted aluminum is running down through the wood. Even my rebar screen with wide openings winds up with aluminum stacked on top of the rebar in places. I have been advised that a screen (I have some 1/4" mesh Hastelloy screen) will plug up with the first aluminum and there will be a solid mess after the fire. I believe, having had some of it with the grating I have. I have thought about letting it dry good then try to separate the charcoal by flooding the mix in a large pan. In any event the slag has to be hand separated.

The ingots have been building up. I'm saving for hard times. It's an inherited disease. My mom never got over the Great Depression.

Thanks for your comments!

 

[DennisRoy]

Great stuff...!

 

[oldironfarmer]

Great stuff...!

Thanks!

 

[oldironfarmer]

Great stuff...!

Did everybody get a chance to see this post?

 

[oldironfarmer]

Great stuff...!

Oh, he's recommending a product to me

Oh well, have a nice day...

 

[xtremek]

Oh, he's recommending a product to me

Oh well, have a nice day...

You must be a really smart engineer, because you're over thinking this. He's saying you have great stuff.

 

[bolensboneyard]

Best to not show her, though, come the tenth it may slip your mind.

Here's a shot of the north side of my barn (north is to the right). The wall is 75 ft long and peak is about 21 ft high.

I'd like to put the receiver on this wall, maybe up high as I seem to get the best signal from the north. Any issues with the power line?



He did good.

With my bulk melter I get a pile of slag, ****, steel, charcoal, and aluminum nuggets. I've been separating the aluminum out by putting shovel fulls on the bottom of a wash tub and washing it down with water. It's slow and tedious.

We watch Gold Rush so I thought I'd try a sluice and knocked on eout this morning.

Here's a small shovel charge.

And partially sprayed.

It works OK. By spraying at a low angle I can blow most of the charcoal off the top, and the trash washes out pretty good. Small aluminum nuggets only make it to the second or third ripple. There is slag which has similar density to the aluminum so it will always be hand work. I think I'll try a ******** next and see if that makes everything go better.

Brits please look away.

Happy 4th of July!!

Welcome back, our British friends.

Panning for coal???? Now Andy next thing you'll be walking the tracks looking to save on next years heating bills. Looks like a good idea. What about tipping the sluice and pouring the water out of a bucket at the top? More head may wash out the lighter aluminum..

 

[oldironfarmer]

You must be a really smart engineer, because you're over thinking this. He's saying you have great stuff.

Hmm, I don't know. I've been told my donkey is smart, I think that's what they're getting at.

It was hot yesterday. After a little foundry session I went out to pull a cylinder off my old backhoe. Sending it to a guy to make something out of.

The tractor and backhoe were burned in my fire of '89. Long cylinders I always thought I'd do something with. Not yet. So in 30 years laying outside after being outside for 30 years before that (Sherman backhoe, one of the first, on a Fordson Major diesel) some stuff is stuck

OK, it's all stuck. The snap ring came off this pin and a little lubricant and ten pound sledge did the trick but I got wet in the process. And the hoses came loose with a little hammering and did not break the wrench.

Then the other end

This pin is real long, I thought I could drive it into the dirt but no. So I got a little help from a friend.

Sweet success!

But I was shot for the day. Fortunately my wife had a doctor's appointment so I could just sit and look smart.

 

[dchance]

Andy
Panning for aluminum looks to be paying off for you.
Did you make to Jennings with the show truck today?

Dwight

 

[1/2 Cup]

Andy what is the ram going to be used for??

 

[oldironfarmer]

Andy
Panning for aluminum looks to be paying off for you.
Did you make to Jennings with the show truck today?

Dwight

The sluice does help.

I'm pretty much ******* at home these days, so the Show Truck stayed home. like me!

Andy what is the ram going to be used for??

They are trying to make a sprue extruder. Wax rods for lost wax casting are quite expensive. Some guys were discussing having basically a hydraulic cylinder made. They didn't know what cylinders were and I suggested they find a used cylinder (pretty cheap in farming areas). Eventually I offered this cylinder and they want to try it. The plan is to make dies and extrude wax by forcing the ram into the cylinder.

Didn't mean to be cryptic, but they have a lot of issues to work out (like loading the wax) and so I don't know if it will ever actually be used.

Thanks for the visits!!

 

[oldironfarmer]

Finishing a trivet yesterday it broke while I was filing the rim. Out of 36 trivets this is the first one to break.

Inspecting several others I see a small crack between the words Family and Fun. I have seen a crack in a few, but everything felt solid. I'm wondering if this is expansion cracking from rim heating while sanding off gates? Next one I'm going back to filing the gates off.

Enjoy this great day!

 

[njhoudini]

Finishing a trivet yesterday it broke while I was filing the rim. Out of 36 trivets this is the first one to break.

Inspecting several others I see a small crack between the words Family and Fun. I have seen a crack in a few, but everything felt solid. I'm wondering if this is expansion cracking from rim heating while sanding off gates? Next one I'm going back to filing the gates off.

Enjoy this great day!

Looks like there's a crack pointing to the A in FAITH as well but you probably saw that one already. Maybe there's some tension in the outer ring. Would it be challenging to make the outer ring a little bigger behind/around the words? Your design must be pretty solid on this very sharp trivet since your filing failure rate is only 2.78%. Maybe when you stockpile enough materials to make brass, there won't be any failure. Maybe you can add some other metal to make the aluminum less brittle. Then you'd have to keep track of those leftover ingots.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Panning for coal???? Now Andy next thing you'll be walking the tracks looking to save on next years heating bills. Looks like a good idea. What about tipping the sluice and pouring the water out of a bucket at the top? More head may wash out the lighter aluminum..

You snuck in when I wasn't looking, Bobby!

Panning for aluminum. I'm throwing the charcoal away, so far. It will keep. The aluminum is one of the heavies so I'm trying to keep it.

I never walk the tracks looking for Railroad property. They're funny about that.

Looks like there's a crack pointing to the A in FAITH as well but you probably saw that one already. Maybe there's some tension in the outer ring. Would it be challenging to make the outer ring a little bigger behind/around the words? Your design must be pretty solid on this very sharp trivet since your filing failure rate is only 2.78%. Maybe when you stockpile enough materials to make brass, there won't be any failure. Maybe you can add some other metal to make the aluminum less brittle. Then you'd have to keep track of those leftover ingots.

Yes, it cracked at three spokes and in the middle. Pouring hotter fixed it.

Initially I was concerned that it would shrink crack upon cooling. I was prepared to make a new pattern with "S" shaped spokes. But that has not been an issue until this one.

I have to keep alloys separate and don't want lots of spurious alloys around to cause confusion. But I do want to do aluminum bronze.

Thanks for the comments!

 

[oldironfarmer]

At JBLnuts suggestion I purchased a SureCell cellphone signal repeater.

I wandered around on the roof with my cell phone last night and determined the best signals are from the north.

I decided to hang the outdoor antenna on the blacksmith chimney. That's the chimney to the right.

That roof is wet. But my boots don't slip on it.

The antenna came with an aluminum bracket to hold it to a pipe. I didn't have a mounting so second best was to make a bracket. That's galvanized flashing. Another job I screwed up.

There's the outside antenna hung.

Ran the cable through a grommet

Then filled it with silicone caulk and built it up.

More later!

What I did was make a hat section and screwed it in place