A couple of Blacksmithing projects from this week:
Hand-forged farrier and 1/2” bolt tongs.
A forged, flamed-for-color feather hook made from angle iron and a lot of hot chiseling. This still needs mounting holes to be drilled.
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This is a quilt top pieced improvisationally using the strips leftover from a quilt I made for @ioport51’s 80-something-year-old Aunt Becky.
I usually wind up with leftovers from projects that then sits around taking up space and making me feel guilty. So I decided to do something about it right away this time.
These are all the scraps remaining after finishing this top. WOOT! After I get it quilted, I’ll give it to the “Covers for Kids” project that the Quilters Guild of Dallas does year-round. This particular quilt will probably go to either the Ronald McDonald House or the Dallas Childrens Advocacy Center.
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I’ve been itching to get my craft paints out of a bin and hung up somewhere to conserve space in my small studio. After researching several variations that ranged from some mildly absurd options (MAGNETS!) to those that ate up my limited wall space (nail polish shelves) I settled on using PVC.
Basically the back PVC caps are screwed into the door and the front caps are just aesthetic. The 3/4" PVC was cut into using a 1/4" bit on the Bridgeport. We tried an option where we made a 1/4" hole and cut into it with a 3/16" bit so that the wire rack would pop in, but the 3/16" bit was too short to do it in a single pass without needing to flip the part and do it again so we nixed the idea as too much work with not enough payoff.
I like this option because it gave me the ability to store the greatest number of paints in the smallest area of any option I could find. Unfortunately there are a few drawbacks. My closet door is hollow-core, so there’s not much there for it to grab. As can be seen in the picture below the whole rack is leaning slightly. The lean in and of itself isn’t too alarming (actually it kind of makes the bottles stay in a bit better), but I’m concerned about it ripping out of the door.
I’m considering trying to find some short enough molly bolts to see if I can make that work, but honestly I’ll probably leave it alone until it does rip out of the door at which point I’ll replace the door (its possibly original to the house in 1972 and in not great shape) and figure out another solution.
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I love this! My bottles are just living in wooden wine boxes.
Where did you get the wire racks?
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Looks like she used wire-grid from a cube storage kit.
https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Cube-Storage-Shelves-White/dp/B0735CJJDM?th=1&psc=1
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I was actually able to find it here. I was hesitant to order from this site because it doesn’t look legitimate, but I used a prepaid gift card and only ordered like $20 of stuff and it worked out fine.
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You could run a 1/4" or 1/2" thick piece of wood from edge to edge screwing into the rails of the door and then mount your racks to the wood rail.
If you did a 1/4" top rail and 1/2" bottom it would help with the angle of the bottles too.
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Customized Steering Wheel for the race car. This is a stock removable wheel with a “wireless” push-to-talk button, welded steel hub, and 3D hub logo.
Yes, I know, a screw is missing. I took one with me and got all new ones from the store, and installed them before the race.
The wheel center is a 3D printed DMS Motor Sports logo. I made one for the hood, too.
The wheel has a quick release hub, with an aluminum adapter, which striped out. I made a steel adapter from an old wheel (thank you, Bryan!) and a machined steel plate.
The release hub has contacts for a horn button, which I repurposed for a push-to-talk button. That is what that cable is for. You can see where i mounted the button in the picture of the wheel. Now when you remove the wheel there is no wire tethering it to the dash.
This is the complete wheel and hub assembly.
This is what it looks like from the driver’s point of view.
The race went well. More pictures soon.
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If you cut that notch into the PVC at perhaps a 15 degree angle from the screwed cap end, the rack would slide down and out as you mounted it and would act a bit like a french cleat to hold the rack more securely. Any later upward pressure on the rack would also push it into the door, which the mass of all the paints would resist.
Given the cap spacing, your rack would end up sitting just a bit more proud of the door, so you’d have to cut the pipe a bit longer to allow the front cap to fully seat (the top of the slot would be in the same place, but the 15 degree slope would put the bottom of the slot perhaps 1/4" farther from the door.
Also, the rack itself would end up that same 1/4" farther from the door, which would allow the paints to sit on the LID at the front, rather than the body of the tube - this might make them less likely to fall out by accident, but would also mean you’d have to lift the tube to remove it.
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Glass Christmas ornament made after taking a class with @meanbaby and glued to a wood backing I made on the laser.
Now to just make a dozen or so more.
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How cute!!
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When is the next one. I will fight my doc to get clearance
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I’ll let ya know! Holidays and all 
Same (and treatment lol)…but I am stoked its running and to learn from you
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Nitinol wire heat engine made by Bob Karnaugh in the DMS machine shop using only machining skills learned since joining the DMS in 2016,
The attached video shows the nitinol heat engine operating and even doing measurable work. It is one of several energy conversion exhibits being made for an educational lab kit for physics and thermodynamics studies.
The engine uses an alcohol lamp to heat a water vessel which heats the passing wire. When the wire passes into the hot water it experiences a solid phase change which causes to attempt to become straight, which it can’ do being in a loop; that it turn imparts a net torque on the lower wheel. It is made of aluminum, copper, brass, acrylic and Delrin parts and has some instrumentation on board, namely, a mini scale and thermocouple. Future plan is for data to be taken to computer graphics via Arduino so that quantitative analysis can be performed (That is the educational aspect).
1116191036-01.zip (391.2 KB)
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Nitinol Heat engine photo (Video quality is low)
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That is great @BobKarnaugh.
For those who wonder. Bob is the perfect example of someone who has never had Machine Shop experience before joining.
What does that mean? Well with determination YOU can achieve same results with practice and some instruction.
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Ceramic cab done by Johnny B Split Shank ring done by John S