What did you do today

[MickinOz]

Today, I worked on my little catamaran.
The top surface of the centre console had a squillion holes in it, nearly thirty years of battle scars.
So I cut a piece of ACM to size, drilled 1 hole in it to line up with an existing cable hole, and glued her down with a bead of Soudal all purpose silicone.
I grommeted the hole, an oft overlooked step.
My new to me Lowrance Hook2 4xGPS Sounder is now sitting on a pristine surface.
I turned it on and nothing happened. Usually, your helper can feel the transducer pulsing.
Not so with the Lowrance.
There was nothing on screen and nothing to feel at the transom.


I set the transducer in a bucket of water and the trace magically appeared and the shallow water alarm sounded.
I am taking this to mean my $80 Facebook Marketplace bargain is going to work.
(It was a fairly safe bet. Everyone knows everyone in this town, so sellers are often less inclined to rip people off.)
Still, a relief. Removing the wiring for the old sounders and running the new cable has taken days. It's very hard to get at and I am sure the previous owners had shares in a cable tie factory somewhere. I'd hate to have to do it again.

Ready for reassembly, tested all systems.
Nav Lights? Check
Anchor light? Check
Radios? Check
Sounder? Check
Floodlights for gar fishing at night? Check
Bilge pumps? Nothing. Not a squawk.

Sniff suspiciously for smoke. All good.
Check fuse. Good.
Check power to switch. Good.
Check power out of switch. Nothing.

Pull switch out to take down to Jaycar to get replacement.
Decide I might pop it open for a look. Eject insect egg cocoon from switch body.
Reassemble.
Test bilge pumps? Check.

How the heck did the pesky little insect/spider even get into the damned switch?

Not much remains to be done. Retie cables with a sensible number of cable ties.
Patch screw holes the Humminbird transducer was mounted with JB Marine Weld.
Was able to reuse the screw holes for the Garmin transducer to install the Lowrance transducer - it shares shape and screw hole spacing.
Prime and paint the patch.
Go fishing. Woohoo.

new dash.JPG (80.66 KiB) Viewed 1298 times

[MickinOz]

The club captain awarded her the Wascally Wabbit Twophy (a little statuette of Elmer Fudd) for the 100 yard shoot.
Her aunt kicks my butt every time we shoot together.

Sophie.JPG

Ok, I'm fascinated by the CRT monitor sitting on that desk not covered in a half inch layer of dust and presumably functional. I thought such things were only found in museums these days.

It is old but functional apparently.
They aren't big on technology, though they did recently get an electronic target they use for the 900 yard shoots.
Saves the 1 mile round trip to go down to the butts and score.

Actually, when I think about it, it's probably the last Cathode Ray Tube left in the country.
Australia had a big push to get rid of them all, and just about every one came to my smelter for recycling. There's anything form 15 to 22% lead in the funnel glass, which we were able to recover.
I was processing more than 10,000 metric tons per year before I retired. It was an interesting setup. We were continually being audited. The people involved at the other end of the process, accepting old TV's and the like from the public, had to prove the glass wasn't just being stockpiled somewhere, so they'd come and see for themselves.
Which reminds me of something - each TV sized tube had a palm sized lens in it.
I regret not liberating a few - they would have made excellent little skylights in a TD.

[Tom&Shelly]

I'm cleaning out our basement and should take a look to see if there isn't an old monitor there somewhere. We have two old TV's and heard rumors gamers want them to play "classic" video games. Good theory, but we haven't had any takers (at e-bay prices).

I did find one of my old console computers, and plan to take the power supply out to use as a bench supply. Lot's of good opportunities for reusing a lot of older electronics.

Tom

[MickinOz]

Check for old microwaves while you are in the basement.
I got a couple of really strong magnets out of the magnetron in our old microwave a while back.
I combined one with a 4 LED module and a length of figure 8 and a plug to yield a handy work light I can run off the house battery and it sticks like a limpet to any bit of steel I find.

[rjgimp]

You can build a fantastic Death Ray gun out of the screen from a rear projection tv. I had a website bookmarked on my old laptop that bit the dust. I need to find the link again. Often you can get these old tvs free from craigslist. The screen has a lens that takes a small image and spreads it out, but if you use it backwards it will focus a sunbeam into a needle point. Remember the 2" plastic magnifying glass your brother used to fry ants on the sidewalk? Now imagine using a 60" projection screen which can focus that sunbeam far more precisely. Properly constructed, you can just about cut a beer can in half.

[tony.latham]

Carbon fibre CZ 22 at bottom, nice little rifle...

Mick:

Yesterday, I fell off the wagon and ordered a Howa Super Lite in 7mm-08. My old dirty thirty, .30-06 weighs nine pounds. This new shooter will come in just below 6 with glass on it.

Perhaps these hills won't be so damn steep this year.

Tony

[MickinOz]

Carbon fibre CZ 22 at bottom, nice little rifle...

Mick:

Yesterday, I fell off the wagon and ordered a Howa Super Lite in 7mm-08. My old dirty thirty, .30-06 weighs nine pounds. This new shooter will come in just below 6 with glass on it.

Perhaps these hills won't be so damn steep this year.

Tony

Awesome. A young farming friend has a Howa in 0.223. A lovely straight shooting rifle.
I reckon you can't go wrong with anything made in Japan.
An acquaintance who worked overseas a bit told me its because making quality goods is a matter of patriotism and national pride.
Under 6 pounds with the scope is fantastic.
My XPR weighs nearly 7 pounds without the scope.

[tony.latham]

A young farming friend has a Howa in 0.223.

My '06 is a Howa. It's probably the most accurate rifle I've ever owned.

Tony

[RJ Howell]

Fall is mixed with yard chores and a couple foliage runs. Driveway needed help with all the rain this year and the ruts.

So.. I made this drag grader today and gave it a run.


I'm good with what it did!


Ya,ya, I should have taken a before.. Most of the drive was washed down the hill and the ruts were all over, worst on the edges.
Looking now at sliding that weight to one side and dig a channel for water drainage. I see some drainage pipe in my near future!

[Tom&Shelly]

In an all too frequent lack of judgement, I bought this for cheap at a flea market this morning



Not sure why. I've had good luck jointing edges of boards with the router & table. I know benchtop jointer/planers are frowned upon (for good reasons). And I'm not sure how I'd even fit it in the shop.

It's in great shape: Needs new blades (to be expected), Craftsman fences come in two varieties--this one is concave, and, as may be seen in the second picture, the infeed and outfeed tables are a little scratched up. Not quite sure what used to cover the belt and pulley in the front, but I'm pretty sure it should be covered with a piece of plastic or metal or something. On the other hand, the motor works.

I thought the tables might be steel, but my magnet says otherwise, so I might be able to sand and buff the aluminum, if I can figure out how to keep them flat in the process.

I can fix the fence with some MDF, as I fixed a Craftsman table saw fence. In this case it would convert this from a 6 1/8" to a 5 3/8" width, but it would eliminate the worst of the chips in the blades, until I get new ones.

I'm not at all sure it's worth the trouble. Anyone have any opinons? How about ideas for what I can do with the parts? I'm wondering about a nice, squarable glueing jig.

Tom

[twisted lines]

Hot Wire

[twisted lines]

Today I redecorated my shop

[Tom&Shelly]

First hard freeze of the year here in the East Mountains New Mexico



What did I do today? I built a fire in the woodstove!

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Hot Wire

Not a bad idea! Thank you.

Tom

[MickinOz]

I have lived alongside my neighbours since December 1980.
Alas, despite multiple visits every day from their large extended family, they can no longer care for themselves and moved to assisted living earlier this year.
All is not lost though. One of their granddaughters, who I've seen only infrequently since she was a small child, has moved in so the house doesn't lay empty.
So last night, I lit the wood oven, and turned out a batch of pizzas.
Sarah came over, and helped us eat some.
My wife sees her more than I do, because she shops where my wife works.
So a great evening was had by all, eating wood fire pizza, filling in lots of gaps, gossiping about all and sundry, and having a laugh.