DIY Harrow Blade - Sun Dial

Started thinking about the lake again and decided we needed a substantial Sundial. There are soooo many types to choose from that I had to apply my "just make something" rule. It is also just a beginning and next year may bring something different.

The lake is located at 44.66 Lat. and on-line there is a plethora of materials for designing and making them.

I picked a 45deg pattern as a guide and rummaged around the shop for a piece of something and found a harrow blade that I had purchased for another project.

The curvature is a problem because it causes the shadow to curve.

In CAD I developed the curved hour marks. 3 points for each curve.
I laid it out old school; clamping the disc to a piece of plywood so that I had easy X & Z axis.

I got to use my newly restored CSE height gauge.

Then I got to use my Accu-Arc for the 1st time to scribe and then mark the curves.

And lastly I used my chalk board compass with the gold marker to stripe the circles.

Mostly complete.
Drilled 3 holes for 1/4-20 screws.
Don't drill thru Harrow blades, takes a couple of bits per hole and it turns out I didn't need them.

Some other mounting / leveling method would be easy enough.
I didn't want to weld onto the disc and burn off the finish.

The next post will be on Memorial Day when it gets positioned by the lake.

FYI turns out daylight saving time offsets the numbering system!

After the first summer in use I wanted to fix the issue of numbering and the color issue.

I went with a light camo green, black (Sharpie) markings and a clear cote over it
I still got the numbers wrong so I substituted the stickers, maybe next year I will get it right.

Serendipity says; with the hemispherical shape of the blade you can read the time of day from your seated position!!

Shereline Lathe - Adjustable Tailstock

I've always been wishing I could tune in the tail stock alignment with an adjustable system.

Looking around I see that A2Z came up with a nice one and so I decided to design and make my own.

Using the original Sherline tail stock I realized that there was enough space between the head and the base to put an aluminum section.

The other advantage is that I can now put a riser under the L section and finally get to the larger diameters that need tail stock support.

The design concept is that just slightly oversize holes for the attachment bolts will be all the adjustment necessary.

Also I focused on using the heaviest section (3/8" wall) and largest bolts (5/16-18) possible.

AprilAire humidifier Water Flow Indicator

Another science project: I could not stand the mystery of whether the water was flowing or not into the drip feed humidifier.

So I hooked up this $16 flow indicator.

I have the solenoid hooked direct to the control board so it is on when the blower is on.

Ok, experiment fail!
The low pressure gauge finally blew after a couple months.

World's only Cat Box Work Bench

Looking at the last open wall space in the shop and needing additional bench space for some new tools I began to covet the space that the world's largest cat box occupied. The cat box is actually a small cement mixing bin that I prefer to the smaller commercial ones, I learned a few years ago to put a frame around it with wheels so I could move and clean around it.

Note the filter taped to the 20" box fan, eliminates breathing the litter dust while scooping.

The bench has to be on wheels to access the crawl space door behind it.

Montgomery Wards POWR KRAFT Electric Planer TWH 8985 Restoration

Found this at the South High School Rummage sale for $8, and decided to give it a complete overhaual.
This is one of those machines that I always wanted but could never justify buying new.
A 50's era machine it looked OK Just dirty and the blades were butter knife sharp.

An ingenious design where the motor & handle are one unit and the blade & guide are another. The belt looks new, but are still available!

Its a 2" wide planer most of today's are in the 3" + range.

The really cool thing is that the bushings for the cutter head were standard off-the-shelf items so for $7 I was able to replace them.

The blades took some time to sharpen, this is a case where you have to go to the disk grinder and take a lot of material off (slowly)

I clamped them into my machinists vise and grind for 4 - 5 seconds and dunk in water, then it was on to the WorkSharp.

Setting the blades is a slow process, no wonder the newer machines have made great strides in ease of use.

Champion 10 Leather Splitter Rebuild

Not sure how old this thing is, 75 years old? Lots of net search yealded very little.

I'm looking for a manual, an exploded view, patent dwgs. anything that would help me get into the mind of the designer and understand better how to dial it in.

Picked it up from my friend Ralph over at Grosse Pointe Shoe Repair; he had never used it. It was bolted to the bench when he bought the shop 20+ years ago; judging by the cob webs on it. I asked if he could part with it.

It has 2 broken castings and the main gear is cracked. It's working fine in spite of all that.
Took pictures as I disassembled it... they came in very handy! Probably about 7 hours of time into the rebuild

After sharpening the blade and getting the bottom roller positioned correctly I got a trial split, no problem.

Its hard to beat a RED machine!

Just like Case vs John Dear you got your Reds and your Greens.

Sharpening:

The 6" x 0.25" x 3" blade is a formidable challenge, without a surface grinder however...
I have a surface plate!
It became apparent that I needed a sanding fixture to hold the angle and so made this little clamp.

I could even use it on the belt sander for the rough work.

The previous owner put a huge belly in the center of the blade so the only way out was a lot of metal removal.

With slots in the carriage plat I can level and change the angle of the blade.

The Champion can split very evenly but the blade must be even.

Adding some additional assem. photos:

These picture were very helpful in getting this contraption back together.

Landis 5 in 1 rebuild

I needed a 5 in 1 for some time now and picked up this Craig's list find.

It was a real mess.

Cosmetically it was the glue spatter covering the bottom 3rd that was the worst part. I had no intention of repainting initially but when the glue refused to come off without taking the paint with it I decided there was no way to avoid it.

Mechanically it was fine but the blade had been badly abused, someone had tried to remove it, dented it to butter knife levels, and then reassembled it in the wrong order.

Ultimately I made a holding fixture for the blade in my lathe and was able to sharpen it very nicely but, when a blade is damaged that much the diameter is reduced and even though it is razor sharp it doesn't extend as far below the drive teeth as it should, so a new blade is still needed.

I did a complete tear-down and de-greese of the "oily bits" and used a paint stripper on the casting.

Rustolium green looks pretty good.

I prefer to not repaint, instead I will scrub clean the worn painted parts and give them a coat of MinWax water based polyurethane. This method shines & darkens the dull cleaned surface and protects it but leaves the vintage look intact.

I'm ordering a new Landis badge because the old one was un-salvageable.

Amazing durable machines. 

Many people ask what are the 5 things that it does?

(Well it does 4 things) but does them all well.

Next up is a Champion Model 10 splitter getting the same treatment!