Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT DIY Shop

[Jeff Ivers]

Yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the 75 degree weather and did my 92nd hunt since taking up metal detecting. Went to a park I had not hunted and saw 2 other MDers there. One was walking quite briskly and swinging his detector at an angle to the ground, the other was too far away to observe. Decided to do my typical plodding grid and had at it. Not counting junk, I found $.85 in clad, a Velociraptor Hot Wheels car and a ring. Didn't get too excited about the ring, as I assumed it was the typical costume jewelry that I tend to find in the tot lots. Quit when I got tired and headed home feeling it wasn't that great a day. Got home and cleaned up my finds only to discover the ring marked 14K on the inside. Tested the stone and my tester says it is a real diamond. My first gold find out of 92 hunts!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Last Friday, I was sitting at the computer and hearing lots of wind (gusts to 65 mph) and strange sounds, so I grabbed the camera and headed outside.






With all the horrible tornadoes and people losing entire homes, I can't complain, but it is disconcerting to sit in your home and feel like it is coming apart at the seams. In the first pic, you may notice, just below the flapping shingles, the patched area from when this last occurred, a little over a year ago. At that time my insurance agent insisted my roof was in solid shape and the patch was an acceptable repair. Still aggravated about that. The house was built in 1992 and I re-roofed in 2005 with Certain-Teed shingles that were supposed to be 40 year shingles. I will never use CT again. I have been told there was a period when the shingles they produced simply would not seal and stay sealed. So today, I have different noises outside as a crew is re-roofing the house with GAF Armor Shield class IV shingles. Hope this one outlives me as I hate dealing with roof issues.

On another note, I finally got in some shop time. My Stihl MS 250 chainsaw did not start the last time I wanted to fire it up to do some cleanup of blown down limbs. Did the typical routine of air cleaner, plug, fuel filter. It still did not want to start, so I left if for a few days. Came back out to the shop and pulled the rope and it fired right up. ??? Shut it down after about 30 seconds and left it to the next morning when I was going to try again on the limb cleanup. You can probably anticipate where this is going - wouldn't start. Put away the rest of the equipment and back to the shop with the chainsaw and started trying to figure out what was going on when the sparkplug boot fell off the wire.

Honestly could not see a way to reattach, so I ordered a kit with coil, carb, and several other replacement parts. Replaced the coil/spark plug wire and verified I had spark, but still wouldn't start, so I installed the new carb and all is good now. I have bee religious about running the tank dry every time I use the chainsaw, so don't see why the carb would act up.

 

[RickP]

Whenever I have carb problems with chainsaws, I usually blame the ethanol.
Replacement fuel lines crumble after only a few years, and I've had to install multiple carb rebuild kits (on different engines). I tried using airplane fuel (100+ octane, without ethanol), but the cost was brutal. I finally found Ethanol Shield at Home Depot, and that seems to have solved the problem (finally). It's 2-cycle oil, with extra additives and fuel stabilizer.

Good luck with your preventative maintenance!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

No pictures today, and nothing done in my shop, but I thought this was funny:

Talking to my daughter today. They just bought a new Corolla that they let their 18 y.o. son take on a date last night. He returned from the date and put the car back in the garage. Now this is a new car, with lots of "smart features" that require linking one's phone to. So they get a message on their phone to "check the back seat". Grandson is still in bed, so SIL goes to garage and finds his sons jacket and wallet in the back seat. Grandson claims his date and he moved to the back seat to play chess.

 

[38 Dodge Coupe]

Checkmate!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

For years, I have picked up an occasional Matchbox/Hot Wheels vehicle for my personal collection. Mostly I have collected Corvettes, Lotus, and any small British sports car, supplemented with the occasional Cobra, or other car that caught my fancy. These have been displayed on a shelf in my office.

Then several years ago, in one of my bouts of downsizing efforts, I was going through some toys that had been retained from my childrens early years for grandkids to play with which they had now outgrown. I came across 3 cars that I wanted to add to my collection for nostalgia but they were pretty beat up.







So, I decided to "restore" them. Now this is an endeavor that makes no economic sense - probably less than most car restorations, but I got a kick out of the process for a small, relatively inexpensive shop project.



I recently acquired material for making water transfer decals and may try to redo at least the Shell logo.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Then, as previously reported, I took up metal detecting about 1.5 years ago. I have since found a dozen buried Hot Wheels cars (actually 2 are Maisto and one is Matchbox). Some were found obviously fairly soon after they had been buried and simply required a good cleaning. One, a Shift Kicker was so far gone, there was no chance of doing anything with it. Of the remaining, I am working on restorations of some of them.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

A few months ago, I acquired a T-Mobile hot spot to run my internet access after Consumer Cellular changed my carrier and throughput went to near zero. I did not set up auto-pay as I don't like storing credit card info and, when I drop dead, I don't want companies charging me for service I am not using before my heirs can find out about my passing and get accounts closed.

So, this morning, I could not log in using my mobile hot spot. Temporarily activated my phone as a hotspot (yes it worked for a bit) to access my T-Mobile account - they had sent reminder messages about payment being due to the mobile hot spot, which is not capable of displaying these messages. ??? Logged into my account and could not find a way to have them send me an email reminder. Paid the monthly bill, but high-speed access was not restored.

After 2 attempts to contact them via their online chat which kept asking me to login when I was already logged in, I finally found a phone number to call and reached a person who could activate my high-speed access and change notification to email.

As a former software developer, I find some of the implemented software I am asked to interact with about as user friendly as 2 drug addled individuals in a shouting match.

 

[bdbecker]

Reading this as I receive yet another text message from my cell carrier telling me that my auto payment is not working. I manually paid the bill, and the next one isn't due until next month, but get a text at least once a day. I've tried and supposedly succeeded in setting it up again several times, only to log back in and see that it is not setup. I'm not going to wait on hold for 40 minutes on the customer service line, so I guess I'll have to go to a store in person to get some resolution. I hate going to the cell phone store.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Reading this as I receive yet another text message from my cell carrier telling me that my auto payment is not working. I manually paid the bill, and the next one isn't due until next month, but get a text at least once a day. I've tried and supposedly succeeded in setting it up again several times, only to log back in and see that it is not setup. I'm not going to wait on hold for 40 minutes on the customer service line, so I guess I'll have to go to a store in person to get some resolution. I hate going to the cell phone store.

It amazes me the narrow solution paths implemented by so many companies. I honestly don't think they know what customer service is anymore. But, hey, if they can get you back in the store again, maybe they can sell you another device or upgraded plan - right? Good luck.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Today, was kind of a bust in the shop. I wanted to do a bit more work on some Hot Wheels restorations and set up an electroplating system to try zink and copper plating. In order to do that I needed a power supply. No problem - got a couple dozen ac to dc power supplies I have saved - just need to check the voltage and amperage output to pick the most suitable one and make sure it works.

Grabbed my Craftsman Multitester and started testing but the first few were all testing bad, which I thought was unlikely. Opened the tester up and discovered corroded batteries. Who knows when I last checked or changed them. Tried cleaning up the terminals and changing the batteries, but still was not getting consistent readings. I guess it is time for a new multimeter - this one is probably 30 years old.

I really wish manufacturers would put the dates on the instruction manuals.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Finished a few more restorations:

 

[rharman]

< snip >
As a former software developer, I find some of the implemented software I am asked to interact with about as user friendly as 2 drug addled individuals in a shouting match.
< /snip >

37 year S/W developer here - now retired. Could not agree more. Sadly, I had co-workers still developing just like that when I retired. Think dates stored internally as CYYMMD. Can't count how many spreadsheet data extracts I saw go out with that same format. Or, status codes going out as-is vs. adding the descriptive text.

End-Users loved working with me as I always developed with them in mind.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

A week or two ago, I finished with the 12 cars - Hot Wheels (9), Matchbox (1) and Maisto (2) cars I had found treasure hunting with my metal detector. Of the 12, one was too far gone so was trashed, 3 required cleaning and blowing some sand out of the cracks, and the remaining 8 were all disassembled, cleaned, and touched up, restored, or customized. I won't boar everyone with all the before/after photos, but here is the entire collection:

 

[Jeff Ivers]

On Father's Day, I woke up to discover the power had gone off at 12:39 am during a storm with severe winds. Later learned that straight line winds were clocked in excess of 100 mph. I went outside and was pleasantly surprised to see my roof looking just like it did after the re-roof in April - no visible damage! Yeah!

Had significant damage to 3 trees that required cleaning up, including dropping one tree. I have spent several hours almost every morning since 6/18 running the chain saw, cutting and hauling brush to the green waste site, and cutting and stacking brush for pickup at curbside. Finished that process this morning.

Of course, with that much chain saw work, I needed to spend some time in the shop tweaking the chainsaw.

Went out to the shop to work on the chainsaw (clean and sharpen chain) and was greeted with a flickering light fixture. Since it was over where I clamp the chainsaw to work on it, I thought I should first take care of that problem. Hauled a couple of new fluorescent bulbs out of the attic and installed them only to discover that apparently the ballast had given up the ghost. Looked around the shop and remembered the last time I had a ballast go, I had invested in LED bulbs and conversion bits to change an 8' flour. fixture to 4-4' LED fixture with ballast bypass. Seemed like I remembered buying enough to convert 2 fixtures and only 1 had been converted, so I found the bits I needed to convert this fixture.

That is when the fun started. If I had been paid for every trip up and down the ladder (caused by dropping the screws I was using), I could have eaten out for a week. I prevailed and got the fixture converted.


Of course, while all this was going on, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and thought it looked a bit strange:

Took it apart and removed the swelling battery and ordered a replacement phone.

I was lucky that I was only out of power for 42 hours and only lost a few refrigerated items of food plus the contents of the freezer compartment of the refrigerator. I saved my chest freezer contents. As of last night, some people in the metropolitan area were still without power - 8 days after the storm.

 

[bdbecker]

Glad the roof held up! The rest of the story sounds all too familiar - need to work on project A, but first I need to tune up B, in doing that I find an issue with item C, but in order to do that I need to find repair part D. And my wife wonders why a two hour project takes all day to complete!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Glad the roof held up! The rest of the story sounds all too familiar - need to work on project A, but first I need to tune up B, in doing that I find an issue with item C, but in order to do that I need to find repair part D. And my wife wonders why a two hour project takes all day to complete!

Ain't that the truth! The thing that gets me is it seems the older I get the more interrupting issues seem to intervene. Can't figure out whether it has something to do with my mental focus or the fact that everything in this place is aging as fast as I am!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Last week we had a storm come through and prior to it hitting, I stepped outside and captured this photo:


Very unusual cloud formations. Several similar photos were shown on the weather that night and they named the cloud formations and explained how they form. Can't remember the name and the formation has something to do with air turbulence. All that white fence is my new south neighbor who is a dressage rider.

As previously mentioned, I have taken up metal detecting as a hobby. Last Saturday, I was hunting the nearest middle school practice field and found an unusual token.



An initial search on the net turned up some info about Jim Brewer, but nothing about the token. I posted on a treasure hunting forum and received some responses that helped fill in the story. Kind of interesting story. Jim Brewer grew up here in Broken Arrow, OK in the early 40's thru the early 50's, graduating from BA high school. He went on to be a major league baseball pitcher, specializing in the "screwball". Sometime in the 70's he returned to the Tulsa area and coached at ORU for a time. In 1986, he allowed his name to be used with regard to a baseball academy founded in the area. In 1987, he was killed in a car crash. The baseball academy continued as late as 1991. These tokens were given out by the academy.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Growing up in LA, got to see Brewer pitch a lot. Twelve seasons with the Dodgers and several with the Angels. Pretty strong bullpen pitcher.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

I have been in heat-of-the-summer mode. Most mornings, I am up early and out in the yard for 2 to 4 hours of yard work - weed eating, brush cutting, downed limb cleanup, weeding, mowing, etc. Then I go in for shower, shave and lunch followed by computer time and errand running. Only seem to find a few minutes at a time for the shop.

Some time back, I switched from gas power to battery power for weed eating and brush cutting and from gas to diesel for lawn mowing. This resulted in a surplus of 2.5 gallon gas cans and no diesel cans. I went to buy a diesel can and could only find one in 5 gal size. It was too large and I ended up selling it. So, the obvious solution was to start using some of my 2.5 gal gas cans for diesel. I didn't want to risk grabbing the wrong can, so I decided I needed to paint the ones for diesel in yellow.

This led to one of my shop failures. I initially decided to use Plasti-Dip to paint the cans. after some use, this is what the 2 cans looked like:

It turns out that diesel is apparently a solvent for the Plasti-Dip.


So, that led to stripping the Plasti-Dip. Mostly it would just rub off with bare fingers. I finished the job with a once over with 3M pad on a die grinder followed by a soap and water wash.


Then a repaint with Rustoleum. I am only doing one of the cans until I see how this one holds up to diesel spillage.

Of course this took over 6 days after allowing 48 hour dry time before turning to spray a different side.

If this doesn't hold up, any ideas on what to try next?

 

[RickP]

Yellow duct tape?

Actually, spray paint should work. I have some spray can primer that works on plastic, but I haven't tried it yet. If the yellow paint doesn't stick directly to the plastic, maybe some primer would help.

Good luck with it!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Yellow duct tape?

Actually, spray paint should work. I have some spray can primer that works on plastic, but I haven't tried it yet. If the yellow paint doesn't stick directly to the plastic, maybe some primer would help.

Good luck with it!

I am very hopeful this paint will adhere. If it doesn't, I will test some diesel spilled on duct tape before investing in a roll of yellow. If nothing else works, I guess I will resort to using a black permanent sharpie and inscribing on the side "this is really yellow!"

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Several years ago, I experienced problems with breakage of storm doors while weed-eating the property. It has been long enough ago that I have forgotten how many storm doors I replaced before diagnosing the problem and finding a solution. The first time or two, I thought I had been shot with a BB gun or something.



The house has 3 storm doors like this one.

This is the solution I came up with. It is so not up to the standards typically displayed on this forum, I hesitated to post. But, this has worked for a number of years as can be seen by the wear on my "assembly". Thought it might save someone else an expensive replacement.

As this shows the "assembly" is multiple layers of heavy cardboard and 1" foam board initially duct taped and then zip tied together. After years of use, the duct tape is peeling off, but the zip ties are still holding it together. At the time I made this, I did not have enough foam board to make the entire center layer, but I had lots of cardboard. I have heard this hit with rocks and found the dings, but no more broken door!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Last weekend, while on a Sunday morning bike ride, I went through a car wash parking lot and found yet another tool. I love finding tools and have found dozens over the years.

Before.

After polishing for a few minutes on my buffer. The amazing thing to me is that despite having a fairly extensive socket collection, I can still find a size I did not yet have - in this case 1/4 dr 9/16 deepwell, which is now residing in my toolbox.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

For my metal detecting hobby, I have been thinking about trying metal detecting while wading in a river. Having watched a number of UT videos, it seems a floating sieve is almost necessary when dealing with a rocky bottom. I researched and found a model available for $170, but had noticed some individuals using floats that looked like they might have been homemade using PVC and pool noodles. So I decided to try copying what I had seen - besides it would give me some quality shop time!

Of course the first step in any shop project is determine what I have that can be used and what I need to buy.

So I have some wall art that takes up a lot of space and looks like it would make a good bottom for the sieve;

Need some PVC, some fittings, some glue and some pool noodles. Had everything but the noodles. Total cost outlay was less than $7 (not counting the gas to hit about 8 different stores to find pool noodles off season!)

Dry fitted thee PVC assembly so I could make a cardboard template for the bottom:

Assembled the float. Old electric knife to cut the noodles and dressed the ends on the disk sander to get them nice and square.

Placed the template on my "bottom stock" and positioned it to get the flattest possible piece, covered both sides with painters tape and then did a drilling layout to turn this into a sieve.

A mere 432 holes later, remove the tape, clean a bit and ready for final assembly.


Final product:


Now, I just need to test it!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Tried out the new floating sieve (actually, floating sorting platform would be a better name) yesterday. Think its going to work. Need to find a more productive place to hunt.


Decided I might need to empty the dust cyclone bucket.


Lastly, had to reweld the left front gauge wheel bracket on the Kubota mower deck for the second time.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Last week, I ran the edger on the property and decided the grass growth had died enough that this would be the last edging of the year. So, I left the edger running until the tank went dry in preparation for storing it for the year. Then, I gave it a look over and decided it needed to move to the shop for some attention before storing it in the barn for the winter.

Now this edger is 35 years old. The last time I remember working on it was 6 years ago when I replaced the B & S engine with a Predator. I knew the blade was getting worn, so decided to start by removing the blade.


Yes, a new blade is definitely called for. Of course, I forgot to take a picture before starting the work.

This is a picture of the edger after removal of the edge guide, blade, blade guard, and debris shield.


The above 2 pics show the edge guide which needs some work. Of course, no parts are available for this unit from any source.


The above 2 pics show the debris guard that also needs some attention.

 

[bdbecker]

I'd say you got your money's worth out of those blades!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

I'd say you got your money's worth out of those blades!

That I did!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Since the blade guard was missing some paint and had peeling decals, I decided I would repaint it.

Step 1 was a trip to my blast cabinet where I use 80 grit aluminum oxide.

Step 2 was to go over it with a red 3M pad in my die grinder. Step 3 will be a wipe down with a cheaper version of Acryli-Klean, an oil and wax remover. That will be followed by paint.


For the debris shield bracket, first I straightened and welded the cracks.

I then added some bracing - please excuse my ugly welds. To repair the edge guide, I started by using a piece of the same gauge metal to create a longer flat piece the same shape, but without the slight offset bend. Once I get some other work done, I will trial fit this and see if the flat piece will work. If not, I will cut and weld the old and new together to replicate the offset, since I have no way to replicate the offset bend that is equivalent to the thickness of the bend. In the middle of the pic, you can see the 2 pieces bolted together so that I can insure the central hole is correctly placed and sized.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

I continued working on the rejuvenation of my 35 year old edger. I cut a couple of flexible bits for the debris shield, attached one to the bracket and trial fit on the edger.

Then I had to turn my attention to the spindle the blade mounts on shown just ahead of the debris shield in the above picture.

Notice the bevel worn on the flange where the nylon bolt is inserted? That original bolt was sheared off, so I felt some reinforcement was called for that would level out the nut mating surface. This thing is made of aluminum or pot metal so welding by me is out of the question.

This shows the sheet metal bit I made to JB Weld into place.

 

[Prospecter]

I continued working on the rejuvenation of my 35 year old edger. I cut a couple of flexible bits for the debris shield, attached one to the bracket and trial fit on the edger.

Then I had to turn my attention to the spindle the blade mounts on shown just ahead of the debris shield in the above picture.

Notice the bevel worn on the flange where the nylon bolt is inserted? That original bolt was sheared off, so I felt some reinforcement was called for that would level out the nut mating surface. This thing is made of aluminum or pot metal so welding by me is out of the question.

This shows the sheet metal bit I made to JB Weld into place.

That is an inspired solution.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

I applied the JB Weld and bolted and clamped the sheet metal piece in place.



The GREAT news is that I did not JB Weld my clamps in place! This is my reinforced part after removal of the clamps and bolt.


The shaft that holds the blade goes thru this component that I "reinforced" with bearings on either side. I last changed the bearings 6 years ago when I installed the Predator engine. At that time, one of the bearings was loose in the housing so I had used Locktite 609 (green) to secure the bearing. Seems to have worked as I had to tap the bearing out with a punch.

This picture shows the bearing sitting in the housing and perhaps one can tell that it is loose.


This shows the 609 applied and allowed to work down into the gap to seal the bearing in place. I will check this morning and if any gap is still showing, I will apply 609 a second time before flipping and doing the other bearing.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

That is an inspired solution.

Thank you. I hope it works!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

After getting the bearings "glued" into place with the 609, I started reassembly of the blade drive unit only to run into the next problem.


The woodruff key I took out was toast, so I made a trip to the hardware store where I was lucky enough to find the correct size in stock. However, after inserting it in the slot, I noticed considerable gap along the edges. Since I am hoping to get a few more years out of this edger and had not worked on it for 6 years, I decided to JB Weld the key in place. I figure if I have to take it apart, some heat will break the JB Weld bond. Of course, I forgot to take a picture after the JB Weld application. When I discovered this problem, I also discovered the pulley was rotating about 20 degrees around the shaft with the woodruff key set screw tightened down. I also discovered the hole in the pulley had, as a result, wallowed out of round. After a search for a replacement pulley or something I could modify, I decided to put the pulley on with the new key and see how bad it was. Surprisingly, the key solved the problem.



Next, I trial fit the blade guard, edge guide and new blade. The pictures don't show it well, but the edge guide was the same length as the blade, but without the offset bend of the original guide is too far from the blade. An examination showed the edge guide could not be spaced out without the blade contacting the bolt heads.



So, I cut apart the original edge guide and the new flat one and welded pieces together to get the necessary offset. I painted the first side of the parts today, and hopefully will paint the back side on Wednesday.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Got the edger parts painted.


Then I reassembled the edger.

This shows the clearance between the blade and the edge guide after adding the "offset".

Here it is all together. I have one remaining problem. Notice the front wheels sitting on a 1.5" thick block of wood and the blade and edge guide sitting on the ground? It seems to me that may have something to do with the excessive blade wear and the damage to the cutter head. I think when the front wheels are adjusted as low as they will go, the blade and edge guide should have a small space under them so the blade can turn without hitting anything. There is a cable that goes to a lever on the handle that adjusts the height of the front wheels, and thus the depth of cut. Where the ends of the cable go through holes, the holes are wallowed out and I suspect the cable has stretched over the last 35 years. I think my solution is to try to shorten the cable.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Today, I shortened the adjustment cable.


And now, with all wheels on the ground, there is space below the edge guide and blade! I thought I would need to change the oil next, but when I checked the oil it is so clean it looks like it was changed a week ago - can't remember if I have ever changed it since replacing the engine 6 years ago. This thing probably gets run about 2 or 3 hours per year total. Thought about filling the tank and testing everything, but I decided I am confident enough in the work that I am going to park it in the barn till I need to use it next spring.

 

[bdbecker]

Nice work Jeff! Looks good as new!

Happy Thanksgiving

 

[Prospecter]

There's a lot of ingenious engineering getting this edger up and running well. Nicely done. You are a credit to GJ!

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Nice work Jeff! Looks good as new!

Happy Thanksgiving

There's a lot of ingenious engineering getting this edger up and running well. Nicely done. You are a credit to GJ!

Thank you both! Happy Thanksgiving to you and all the other GJers!