Danger of Papercuts

Hmmm...

Henry started sticking post-it notes on my face when I tried to say goodnight to him.

That's Max's friend, "Puppy". It's a stick with a bunch of leaves impaled on it.

Henry made some decorative headgear for toothbrushing.

Here's a video of a small turret lathe in operation.

Great film tag lines.

Fuchs Surface Indicator

I'm helping a friend dispose of some tools and thought this little indicator was worth showing.

I had already cleaned the gunge from the face, but the whole thing is somewhat dirty and rusty.

Loosening the clamp on the right allows the case to separate. The little knurled nut is used to engage or disengage the mechanism so that the body can rotate.

I cleaned out this side.

This was difficult to clean as I didn't want to completely disassemble it. Tiny hairlike springs make me nervous.

The small pinion transmits force when screwed down against the larger gear. The one coil spring provides tension.

I flushed out the filth with solvent, scrubbing lightly with steel wool and a toothbrush. The small hair spring is hooked into the other end of the indicating needle wire that's staked into the small gear.

Back together, very lightly oiled. The indicator is responsive again!

BRATSCHI MFG CO
Fuchs
PAT NOV 18 1913
CLEVELAND O USA

I searched a bit and found the patent, #1079169. The "Fuchs" is one Leon Fuchs of Dayton, Ohio. There are some small differences between the patent and the production model.

Cleanliness

Henry likes to clean.

Here he is cleaning the toilet. He set up the safety flasher.

Max is pensive.

Max and Henry clean the sink.

Henry looks bored.

Henry cleans his face.

Max!

Here's a neat way of generating large radii grooves.

Cosmic Diary: Greenwich 1894

Machining with Spud

My neighbor Chris, who also goes by Spud, came over this afternoon to work on a few projects for his dragster.

He had already made some parts but wanted some aerodynamic radii added. Ok, they are just for looks, not drag reduction.

So I used my Shaplane tool to make some radii.

Pretty.

Pleasing to the eye.

I then turned my attention to making a mandrel out of plastic for him. I used a half center to support the work while allowing a facing cut.

This end will be grabbed in his smaller Atlas lathe when he gets back home...

I turned the OD with a shoulder at the chuck end.

While I worked on the mandrel, Chris was milling slots in the smaller parts.

Chris, hand on one crank and the other ready to drip some cutting oil on the slitting saw, with panache and élan, to boot.

The finished saw cuts.

I didn't take pictures of the drilling and tapping of the mandrel because I was: a) busy working on it and b) it was boring. That's one of the exhausts of his dragster mounted on the mandrel. He needs to trim the powdercoat from the bottom section and needed a way to fixture it on the lathe for that.

It's tapped for the screw that when tightened expands the mandrel against the inside of the tube.