The MOchinist

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. :)

All I have to say is that the layout takes way longer than the hanging.  Make sure to take a picture of your mockup before you start hanging. :)

We recently started renovating this apartment, and somehow the beams and brackets throughout had never been painted or stained. It was a huge pain, but I think it was worth the 15+ hours of overhead ladder work. :(

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

 When throwing away electronics I try to be responsible and recycle or upcycle the useful components. I recently bought a bike that came with a nice rechargeable flashing light, but the battery did not charge. After digging around in my pile of goodies I found a similar battery of a smaller capacity that I soldered in to fix the issue. Now I only have to recycle the bad battery and won’t have to pitch the whole thing!

  I recently cobbled together a flat bar road bike that I leave at work for tooling around downtown Springfield MO. Yesterday I realized that I did not have a way to air up the tires at work. After sifting through the parts bin, I found that a 3/8″ brass compression insert (for plastic tubing) fit nicely over my air gun and sealed well enough to air up the tires. Cost 0$

 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.

 Need to get the paint off of a small part? Put it in a bag with some PVC pipe cleaner. Outside of a bag, the smell is terrible and it evaporates too quickly. After sitting for a bit, you can rub the paint off through the bag and pull out a nice clean part. This is a bicycle water bottle cage that used to be red. 

  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. 

  Sometimes it’s more efficient to buy more than you need. Take for instance this hitch mount bike carrier. I bought this 5 bike carrier for a little more than the equivalent 3 bike carrier. Two cuts and two drill holes later, it’s now a 3 bike carrier with spare parts. 

  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.

  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!

 Pretty self-explanatory, flea market wheel and an Amazon clock movement. History defaced and preserved at the same time. ;)

  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. 

When reassembling, tempered hardboard works well as a flat backing material and craft paper is a perfect dust cover. A tape runner from the craft store will attach the paper just fine. Two ring hangers are ideal, especially for heavy items. Frame on! ;)

  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$.

 While making this test jig I broke a tap. To fix it, I used a carbide endmill to open the hole and cut the tap out. I then turned a plug, pressed it in place, and tapped the plug. Problem solved, without having to start over.