#themochinist

[themochinist]

Goat Roaster:

A friend called on Monday and said he needed help for a goat roast on Friday. Luckily I had a BBQ grill rotisserie that I was able to modify. :)

[themochinist]

Dry Rot

  I’ve needed to change the front tire on my Honda Shadow for a while now. I got this Kenda from Pep Boys for a song, and in about an hour I was up and rolling again. Spring is on the streets!

[themochinist]

Well Rounded:

Tip: A corner rounding end mill also works great in a lathe.

[themochinist]

Fat Bottom Bracket

  While working on a flat bar road bike build, I found that the crankset was offset to the right le. To fix this and to get the chainrings in the right position, I needed to remove some material. I didn’t want to file away at the frame and possibly ruin it so I had to come up with a more precise solution, something like a lathe in reverse. 

  After a bit of thinking, I came up with the above-pictured solution. I simply turned a piece of aluminum to slip into the bottom brack and act as a center for a circle cutting swing bit. The screw in the lower cable guide acted as a convenient set screw to hold the aluminum center in place while I used the drill. As you can see, it worked like a charm.

[themochinist]

Water Bottle Cage Lock Holster:

 I had originally fabricated a simple lock holder for my work bike from aluminum sheet, I didn’t like how it looked. So I decided to bend and strip the paint from a water bottle cage, making it into a very serviceable lock holster.

[themochinist]

Scrap Metal Bike Rack:

 I recently cobbled together this flat bar road bike together from two bikes and some internet parts. I decided to keep it at work so that I could use it to run up to our Airbnb or grab a quick sandwich. 

  After having it there for one day I realized that a non-obtrusive bike rack was a must. After staring at the scrap metal pile for a few minutes, I decided that a piece of steel flat bar and a piece of uni-strut could be cut and welded into a serviceable rack that could be hooked on the outside of my cube. 

  A couple of pieces of split plastic tubing fit nicely over the rounded uni-strut and serve as a buffer to protect the bike from repeated rackings. 

[themochinist]

Full Circle:

  Amazon Warehouse deals are the best. I bought this heater core for my 2008 A4 for 6$. The website said it was slightly damaged, but for 6$, I couldn’t pass it up. As you can see, the inlet and outlet were both damaged because of inadequate packaging. Oh well, for a 90% discount, I’ll take this challenge.

  To fix the damage, I had to look back on a high school shop class experience. I recall turning a flat piece of aluminum into a bowl using a lathe and friction, this process is called metal spinning. I figured that if I reversed the process and spun a correctly sized object in the hole, I could heat and reform my damaged heater core. 

  Well, it worked. I turned a piece of scrap Delrin on a lathe to fit the ID of the heater core ports.  I then used a drill to spin the Delrin into the ports, the heat from friction and pressure was enough to stretch and reform the aluminum. Like new for 6$.

[themochinist]

Dog Proof:

  I feel like getting a dog may be one of the worst decisions we have ever made, sorry dog lovers. On the other hand, it has forced me to get creative. Our dog had developed a taste for the earplugs and chapstick that I keep on my nightstand, so I drew and printed a solution. 

  If I print another one, I will change the layout to accommodate pens/pencils. Either way, I have a functional twisting drawer that not even Harold can get in.