No Strings Attached

 

As with many of my garage projects this next one started with someone else’s idea. A good friend of mine decided to get himself self educated in luthiering. For those of you who do not know what a luthier is Wikipedia defines it as someone who makes or repairs string instruments generally consisting of a neck and a sound box. It is better known as a guitar builder. He plays guitar and had the urge, and the skills, to be able to build his own electric 6 string.

He had already started his build before he approached me with his idea. He works much the same way as I do in respects to how he stages his builds. Although he had his current project well under way he was already thinking ahead to his second guitar build. For his current build he opted to purchase a pre-fabbed neck. For his next guitar he was planning to custom build the neck from scratch and this is the point where I enter in.

He required a way to cut the fret slots into the neck. Basically he need a high precision miter box in order to mount the neck blank square and then miter a slot to a precise depth using a fret saw. These fret miter boxes are nothing new as there are companies that exist who sell miter boxes specifically for this purpose. He approached me thinking that I may be able to come up with a custom design that would suit his needs.

So one early Saturday morning we met for breakfast and blueprinted out a rough design. Threw some ideas around and I was able to get a solid idea of what he needed the box to do. Best part was that as long as it accomplished the required task I was free to build it anyway I wanted to. I love not being constricted by boundaries. I had planned to combine materials in order to make the visuals worth looking at. I opted to use brass, oak, and aluminum in order to give it a unique image. Guitar building is precise, requires patience, and needs a deep philosophical understanding of craftsmanship therefore the tools that are used to build the guitar should meet the same standards as the luthier possesses. So, like usual, the following pictures take you through the entire build.

I planned to sandwich the fret saw blade in between 8 sealed ball bearings. I acquired high precision ball bearings used for router bits. The bearings will all get supported by brass spacers. I acquired a small Taig lathe awhile back which works great for small, precision, parts so I spun all the brass spacers out using it.

This is the ball bearing set up that will eventually get installed into 4 main aluminum supports.

Time to get the main vertical supports fabricated. Started off with some 6061 aluminum and squared it all up in the mill.

Milling out slots that will accept the ball bearing assemblies.

The miter box will require adjustment to accommodate fret saw blade thickness. 2 of the vertical supports were slotted to allow for adjustment.

Cross drilling and tapping holes to allow for a set screw to be threaded in and therefore secure the ball bearing assemblies. The hole will be hidden on the bottom thereby making the top, visual, portion of the support super clean.

I needed to secure different widths of the fret board blank into the base of the miter box. I came up with a cam system that would adjust to widths. Here I am spinning out one of the brass cams. Keep scrolling as more pictures will show exactly how this cam works.

The 2 brass cams required clearance in order to spin and adjust therefore the 2 rear vertical supports got milled in order to allow for cam clearance.

Time to lighten things up and shave off some excess material. The vertical supports didn’t require all the aluminum they started off with so I shave some off just to give them better visuals.

Since I was on a roll I thought I would try and prevent things from getting too mundane so I opted to drop a ball nose endmill into the supports to give them a good visual dimension.

Onto building some feet. They were machined from some round stock aluminum and then milled out to mount flush with the oak base.

Drilled and chamferred to accept stainless steel hardware.

Moving onto the depth stop for the saw blade. This will all make sense later. I machined some brass guide pins on the Taig lathe. I built a radius turner for the lather in order to get I beautiful contour finish.

More depth stop milling.

Time for another mill clean up.

With most of the aluminum machining completed I moved onto the oak base. I used a combination of endmills and router bits in the mill. Although the mill can’t even come close to putting out the RPM a router does it still does the job well. Here I drill all the holes in order to mount the brass and aluminum to.

I hate screwing into wood as it feels so imprecise to me. All the drilled holes received 1/4″ thread steel inserts therefore implementing metal threads.

Taking the edge of the base using a radius router bit on the mill.

And here are all the fabricated components that will eventually make up the miter box. Seem a bit excessive considering the tool only has to cut 1 slot.

The bearing assemblies get secured using hidden set screws.

These are all the components that make up the blade depth stop.

And these are all components assembled that make up the blade depth stop.

Before I go into finishing stage I mock everything up to ensure that it all works the way my brain designed it to.

The box gets disassembled and then the finishing process begins. The oak base received a couple coats of stain.

I thought since the miter box was a one-off design I would customize specifically to my friend. His name is Fabrizio and so I came up with an unapproved logo for him. I cut out a stencil on my vinyl plotter so that I could embed the logo into the oak base.

Using my airbrush I experimented with some colors on some scrap. I came up with a trio combination of colors that would suit the overall appearance of the design.

Applied the stencil, taped of the remainder, and started laying down the paint.

Once the logo was airbrushed in the oak received a polyurethane clear coat finish in order to protect both the logo and the work surface.

All the aluminum received hand brushing using a 320 grit paper.

Since the miter box required adjustment before use I built in a spring loaded hex key holder. A couple plungers and springs would allow for tool storage in the base.

This is a shot of me drilling only 2 holes for my friend in his original electric 6 string build. I want to be very clear here that I had NOTHING to do with his build. It was all him and all I simply did was drill 2 precision holes for him. His progress looks fantastic.

So here I move onto the pictures showing the completed build. You can get an idea of how everything works from this shot. The saw gets sandwiched between the bearing assemblies and then the top brass support of the saw is what contacts the depth stop.

Here one of the brass cams are evident. The 1/4″ stainless steel Allen head bolt gets loosened and then the cam can be pivoted and locked into place to allow for different neck widths.

The 2 spring loaded hex key holders are shown here. All that is required is light push in of the key and then a 90 degree turn in order to release it from the base.

Close up shot of the bearing assemblies.

This is the depth stop mounted to the verticals.

Here the 2 brass guide pins are visible. The center screw is used for precision adjustment of the depth height. I installed a rubber protective cap on the end of the adjustment screw in order to prevent any damage to the guitar neck due to contact with sharp edges.

I won’t go into great detail about how the depth stop set up is done however I will mention this. The stop can be precisely set using feeler blades. The saw in inserted and rested on top of the require feeler blades which represent the required depth. The depth stop is then locked into place.

You can see the slotted screw in the center and on top which is what is used to adjust the depth stop vertically. The stop is then locked into place using 2 set screws (shown being tightened) that lock into the brass guide pins.

The screw that is being pointed out allows for adjustment to accommodate different saw blade thicknesses. If only 1 saw is ever being used there is no reason to have to ever need to adjust this after the initial setting has been made. There are a total of 4 adjustment screws.

Here shows the adjustment and lock down of the brass neck width cams.

The underside of the miter box shows the aluminum supports. I built the 2 end feet with holes to accommodate screws in order to secure the box to a work bench. The center aluminum “GG” logo plate is simply there to provide support and prevent the oak from bowing.

For those interested this is the fret saw that is being used for the build.

This post wouldn’t be complete without showcasing Fabrizio’s first guitar build. The lines and zebra finish are fantastic! At this point the guitar is only mocked up which is evident by missing hardware. Photo credit goes to Fabrizio Tessaro.

And as an added bonus we all get to enjoy a 30 second riff featuring Fabrizio rippn’ on his custom in gordsgarage. NOTE: Do not judge the quality, the session was impromptu and features sound courtesy of a low end practice amplifier with absolutely no consideration given to sound set up.

 

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Took A Bath

This blog entry is a bit out of the ordinary however it still involves the garage and building things. Today’s project involves a mission I have been on for almost a year and a half and it involves introducing the love I have for metal, building, and mechanical things, into other parts of my life. As the title suggests it was a lesson that came at a price however that is of little concern to me. It was a project worth completing.

It all started with the exposure to the unlimited amount of “body” products, and soaps, designed, and available, for women. It’s endless! I personally do not have a desire to have the same products available to me however I thought that if something was available that was to my liking I would potentially appreciate it. There is always a small line of men’s soap products available but it is limited plus I would never take the time to actually purchase it.

So like I said I wouldn’t take the time however I have no problem spending countless hours designing and making my own soap that I would consider worthy of being used. And so this brings us to the current blog posting. Soap making 101 gordsgarage style.

Of course with any project there is always research and planning involved. Since I had no idea how to make soap from scratch I decided that would be a good place to start. Flipping through the course catalog advertising adult weekend classes I found the course I needed which would teach me the basic skills of soap making. Turned out this class is not all that popular with the guys as I was the only one. Didn’t matter to me, I was on a mission and had a bigger plan then just leaving a class with a few bars of scented soap in the shape of flowers.

So the training course was very good and in approximately 6 hours I had a decent understanding of the process, equipment, and supplies required to turn out all natural soap. I tooled up and made a few batches at home to ensure I could produce a decent result on my own. No problem. Now it was time to put the project into motion. The plan was to turn out handmade, all natural, gear shaped soap made to look like machined metal.

I admit this is not the usual type of garage project I share mostly because it doesn’t actually involve metal however it does involve the garage, fabrication, R&D, and most importantly the learning of a new skill. I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

 

The start of the gear soap required coming up with a blank that I could create a soap mold from. I had created a 2D model of what I wanted and then got in touch with my friend Jason over at The Gahooa Perspective. Jason just happens to have a very nicely equipped shop which includes a CAMaster CNC router table. Jason had agreed to help me out by routering out a blank from some High Density Polyethylene. The photo is a screen shot from the CAM program used to generate the G-code for the CNC.

Jason managed to cut a couple of samples for me. They worked out fantastic, the cut quality was perfect for molding.

The following video shows the CNC table set up Jason has in his shop. The CAMaster Cobra is a work horse of a machine and is fascinating to watch. I would highly recommend you all visit Jason’s blog, The Gahooa Perspective, to check out his cool projects.

 

So here are the mold blanks. 2 of them Jason cut out of HDPE and the 3rd one (blue) was done on a 3D printer by a friend of his. The 3D printed one had fairly precise lines however the finish, to make a mold from, was not as good as the CNC routered ones.

So now comes my time to put some effort into the project. I need to create silicone molds of the gear and therefore need someway to house the blank in order to pour silicone. I decided to build a housing out of a toilet flange since it was cheap, easy to machine, water proof, and had a great finish to release the mold from. The flange required some clean up on the lathe prior to building the rest of the housing.

I required a method of securing the gear into the center of my mold housing. On the back side of the gear I drilled and installed a metal 1/4 x 20 threaded insert.

Here is my completed mold housing. It is fairly simple. The gear and the flange both get bolted onto the base plate. The only change I made that is not shown in this picture is that I applied some white vinyl to the steel backing plate in order to allow for clean release of the silicone.

And here we go for the first run of mold making 101. I have never done it so I am not completely sure what to expect. I am using Mold Star 16 Fast which is a 2 part silicone that sets up in approximately 30 minutes.

Ready to go! I am doing this in the house since the silicone is fairly temperature sensitive to ensure proper set up. The garage is just a bit on the cooler side.

Mixed up and pouring. In 30 minutes I unbolt the housing and remove the mold.

Tick Tock

I spray the mold with a mold release prior to pouring. This is a shot of the base plate removed. Everything slides apart nicely.

This is a completed mold. The detail is fantastic! I made sure to build the mold walls thick enough the ensure good support of the liquid soap.

Although this is only a single picture in a blog posting of 30+ shots it represents where most of my time on the project was spent. What you are looking at is a run of soap in its natural color. I performed many test batches of soap to ensure I would be able to get the detail from the mold into the soap. I struggled, a lot. Although I could achieve good results in the teeth and body of the soap I could never get the “GG” and “bolt holes” to consistently release from the mold and produce good consistent results.

Here is the result of many failed attempts at building “GG” soap. I felt after performing multiple different techniques to get the soap to release properly I hade no choice but modify the design. It pained me to chuck up the blank in the lathe a machine off the face of the gear. My deepest apologies Jason, if there was any other way to solve the issue I wouldn’t have cut up your work.

And here you can see the result of what 5 minutes on the lathe turned out. No more “GG”

Back to running new molds. I had previously made 3 molds of the “GG” design. This time I am going all in and doing a run of 7 molds feeling fairly confident that this design will work.

And here is the new, simpler, design.

So now a word, or 2, about the actual soap. Since this is “garage” soap it is being made in the garage all from raw ingredients. I use a basic soap recipe that produces a good cleaning, scentless, and lathering, soap. Because this is gordsgarage soap I felt it was appropriate to add my own signature to it. I wanted something that you wouldn’t be able to find in someone else’s soap and wanted it to be distinguished from others therefore making it truly garage soap. Although cleaning your body with engine oil and cutting fluid would be considered unhealthy I opt to put 1 drop of Relton cutting fluid and 1 drop of Mobil 1 engine oil into every batch of soap I make. This way when you are singing in the shower you can feel connected to that part of your life that brings you so much joy. A batch of soap produces 7 gears and therefore 2 drops of oil is hardly enough to cause any issues. I have been way more exposed to the stuff just working in the garage.

It was also time to start adding the color to my soap. My initial plan was to find a color combination that would look like freshly machined 6061 aluminum. This was harder then I expected. I ordered up some powered mica in various colors that would allow me to experiment with colors. Here I weighed out some Polished Silver for a base color and then some Pearl Basics to give it some sparkle. It’ll take many batches before I find the color I like.

With all my fats and oils weighed out it was time to add the drop of cutting fluid and engine oil. I should probably mention that I’m not going to cover the actual soap making process, there are a bazillion websites out there that already cover this and I probably couldn’t do it any better.

With everything, but the lye, added into the pot it was time to start heating things up. I use the same hotplate for soap making as I do for anodizing.

With everything brought to within 100 degrees Fahrenheit it was time to bring it all together and start mixing. The lye gets added to my fat/oil solution, mixed, and then my color is introduced.

Soap is then poured into 7 molds and allowed to set up for 24 hours.

Once the 24 hours have passed, after pouring the soap, the gears get removed from the molds and then set aside for 30 days to allow for the saponification process to occur. After 30 days the soap firms up and is ready for use.

Here is an example of where R&D went wrong. In my quest to find some aluminum looking mica to dye the soap with I had ordered some mica that actually contained aluminum in it. As I know from my anodizing experiences that lye (caustic soda) and aluminum do not get along. There are always warnings that you are not to clean aluminum with caustic soda. I use it on aluminum to remove anodizing simply because it eats into the aluminum. In the case of my soap making the aluminum mica reacted with my lye solution and turned my soap into a huge foaming failure. Took me awhile to clean all the molds out. Lesson learned.

So with the soap making under control I figured the finished product should get some packaging. This is were I get my brother, Brian, involved as he it the guy you want to know when it comes to graphic design. I asked for his help to get a label design built. Between the two of use we were able to come up with the following.

This is the computer generated sample of the soap label. This is what I will be supplying to the label manufacturer to have printed up on 2.250″ circular vinyl.

I sent the file off to the printers and in a couple weeks I had myself some professional looking labels.

With the label created and printed I needed to come up with a protective packaging material. Initially I had wanted to use brown paper tool wrap with wax paper on one side. This stuff is known as VCI Paper (Vapour Corrosion Inhibitor). I think it looks totally old school and would suit the project well. The down side is that it hides the beauty of the gear shape. I settled on using a heat shrink type of plastic that snugs up around the soap using a heat gun. This way the soap is protected yet still visible.

So with most of the hurdles hurdled it was time to start cranking out production. Still not sure what color I will officially settle on. I continue to make each batch different. I think I am liking the darker ones more and more.

Gotta Know How To Hold’em

Often I run impromptu sessions in the garage. These times are usually highly satisfying for me as they usually occur when I have just cleaned the shop, everything is organized, and I have available to me the equipment and supplies. Often I spend the time, when I should be sleeping, laying awake brain CADing the next project. The spontaneous projects are great because I just start to wing it and make whatever I have work.

I have a couple of friends that work at the local Audi and Hyundai dealerships in town. The Audi friend is a service manager and the Hyundai friend is a partsman. I figured their desks may benefit from a customized, one off, business card holder.

I scrounged around the shop looking for automotive related parts that I have stashed in various corners. I collected a few components that would lend themselves well to some modifying and decided to build some unique card holders. Below are the pictures showing what I came up with off the top of my head.

 

Sorry, no shots of the milling of the piston top. The first card holder consisted of a old BMW piston and an aftermarket rear spring lowering perch for a mk4 VW. The piston top was milled to fit business cards and then both the perch and piston were polished.

The polished piston top was taped off and the bottom half was the glass media blasted.

The Glacier White powder coating was fogged on and the assembly was baked.

I plotted out Hyundai decals on some gloss black vinyl to add to the customized look.

Done deal! Quick and easy.

As you may know I am I big fan of retro and vintage styling. I keep the polishing down to a “not so gleaming” level as I think it looks better.

The spring perch height was a little too tall so trimmed it down a bit. The base was cut on the lather in order to ensure it would press fit into the piston base. The jam nuts were left untouched.

I think the style suits a parts persons desk.

My next card holder took a little more machining. It started out with a rod of 6061 aluminum. I offset it in the lather chuck and drilled an off center hole straight through. I have a four jaw chuck that allows me to offset the stock properly however in this case I was lazy and the precision was not required so I opted to just toss a spacer into the 3 jaw. It works.

Onto the mill where I used a ball nosed end mill to cut some slots through the narrow side.

Next I moved onto a section of 1.000″ 6061 solid square bar where I dropped an end mill part way through it.

Next I hogged out a section where the business cards would slide through.

Onto the band saw where the milled bar was trimmed to length using a 45 degree angle.

All the components would get bolted together so I drilled, and countersunk, the hole for the stainless steel fastener.

Here are all the components that make up the card holder. The large valve is from an air cooled Porsche 911 and the the small valve was from my Honda CB160 cafe racer.

The aluminum components received a brushed finish. I like it!

Both valves received a polishing.

An Audi rings decal was plotted and applied. Done deal!

The small valve was secured with a set screw. The large valve was press fit into the aluminum rod and the secured using the stainless steel socket head cap screw.

I hid a GG logo on the bottom of the 911 valve.

Mind The Gap

One day I had an idea, went into the garage and built it. The End.

Not sure what more I can say about this post. I thought it would be cool to make more of an unconventional themed oil filled candle. I figured a spark plug lends itself well to a flame theme so I went for it. A day in the shop landed me a double scaled spark plug candle.

The entire plug was made from a single piece of 6061 aluminium and done to scale. The specs are as follows. Overall height 7.750”, spark plug maximum diameter 1.460”, oil chamber volume .68 cubic inches, 100% cotton wick, 99% pure paraffin(e) lamp oil, burn time approximately 2 hours.

So here we go…

Project planning began by recreating a spark plug scaled 2:1 in a CAD program. This is what I referenced to for all the machining dimensions.

 

The actual hands on portion of the project started off with a 6.5 inch section of 1.500″ 6061 aluminum.

Using various cutters I was able to build the first have to my CAD specs. It is starting to look fairly authentic.

Onto the milling machine where the wrench hex was milled into the plug.

The first half worked out as planned, here’s hoping I don’t screw up the second half.

The threaded section was spun down to spec before the threading began.

A 2:1 scale of the threads turned out to be approximately 10 tpi. I re-geared the lathe for the proper pitch and set up the threading tooling before cutting.

Time to drill out the oil chamber using a 9/16 inch drill bit to a depth of 2.800 inches.

With the chamber drilled I machined in a shoulder to allow for the wick holder to rest on.

The completed spark plug worked out great. Next step was to machine a mounting base, a wick holder and a ground electrode.

With the wick holder complete I gave the spark plug a test drive. Turns out it actually works!

To make the plug look more authentic a ground electrode was required. I came up with a few ideas before settling on using a .250″ stainless steel round bar. I trimmed .400″ of the round stock down to .120″.

Next step was to get some heat into the round bar in order to give it a 90 degree bend in the vise.

With the bend complete all that was required was trimming up of the electrode length to spec.

In order to fit the ground electrode into the plug a .125″ hole was drilled to allow the stainless pin to rest into.

Here are all the fabricated components including the base. I opted to keep the base super simple in order to not distract from the spark plug.

And so this brings us to the part of the show which displays some of the completed shots.

Very happy with how the hex turned out, as well as the rest of the machining.

A few notes on the electrode. The spark plug gap is NOT to spec. It would not work out without smothering the flame therefore I opted for a visual pleasing gap which is a bit larger. Second thing to note is that different wicks and different oils burn differently. Some give off more carbon the others. In my case the flame has no visible black carbon however the bit that is present gets deposited on the stainless electrode. I like to think of it as a clean burning eco friendly oil candle. Third thing I decided on was to leave the finish of the electrode rough. I had contemplated polishing it but I thought the rough look gave the candle a bit more character.

Junk for the Trunk

So I made the mistake of purchasing a 36” slip roll capable of handling 16 gauge (at least that’s what is advertised, I haven’t actually tried it yet). The mistake being that I am in a serious state of running out of shop space for equipment. The machine actually sat in the middle of my shop for a good 4 months until I finally decided it wasn’t going to find a home for itself. One Saturday I just sucked it up and built a steel frame for it and added some wheels so that I could stand the unit up on end and roll it into a corner.

Anyway…this post isn’t actually about the machine but more about just messing around with random stuff. I figured I should actually try out the slip roll since I paid money for it. I did not have a current use for it, only brainstormed ideas where it would be required at a later date. I plasma chopped a chunk of 20 gauge sheet metal out and set it up in the slip roll. The intention was just to watch the metal bend, be satisfied, and then recycle it.

Well the bending and satisfaction part worked out as planned but the recycling was harder to do. On a side note…I am a sucker for scrap metal bins. I know of multiple good bins in my area which I frequent. I have access to lots of brake rotors so I exchange what I take with rotors. The bins get paid out to whoever owns them based on weight therefore I make sure I leave more weight then I take. The point being that I feel sorry for scrap metal and find it hard to watch it go to the recyclers. I want to save it all and build it into something cool. Well I have learned that I am only one person and that I can not save all the metal on my own. I try to frequent the bins less often as I find the less I know the better off I am. The whole point of this is that I couldn’t bring myself to scraping my slip roll sample.

So this post is how I couldn’t let go of a chunk of scrap sheet metal. After I inflicted my Big Brother powers and forced the steel to comply with my agenda I took a second look and figured I may be able to turn it into something useful. The following pictures take you through an impromptu garage session. Meh.

So this is how the unplanned project began. I simply wanted to see a section of steel get bent in my new 36″ slip roll. It started out so innocent.

Once the steel was bent I figured I would weld it into a tear drop shape and then trim the top up, free hand, with the plasma cutter to give it more of a unique shape.

This is what the shape came out to be.

The time came to transform the tear drop cylinder into something more than just a shiny piece of metal. I used some ER70S 3.2mm TIG filler rod and started twisting it up and tacking it on.

Just kept bending, twisting, and welding as I went along.

Finally decided I was finished once I had a fairly uniform design built.

Next I spray bombed on a clear lacquer finish to give the bare steel some protection, and shine.

As you can see from the foliage poking out the top I recycled my steel into a vase cover. I used a glass cylinder with the proper diameter which slid perfectly into the tear drop as the holder for the water. My creation is simply a facade for the murky water that will inevitably appear.

Personalized it with a gordsgarage decal.

Mikey Likes It!

A friend of mine that works at the local Porsche dealer has been harassing, yes harassing, me to supply him with a gordsgarage automotive themed item for what seems like an eternity. My friend, who shall remain nameless, came to me with a Porsche PCCB center lock brake rotor that was taken out of service and requested that it be converted into a clock for his man cave. I said I would see what I could do.

As cool as clocks can be they always seem to be the default fab item for anything that is round. Brake rotor clocks have been done, and overdone, time and time again. If I was going to build a clock it needed to have a slightly different style then most. Even at that it is hard to come up with a truly unique way to display seconds that tick by.

The one thing I had going for me is that ceramic brake rotors weigh a 3rd of what cast rotors do. This will allow me to be able to tack on a bit more weight and still allow it to be hung on a wall. I’m not sure I am totally thrilled with the end result but the feedback I received from others appears that the design meets a certain amount of approval. It serves its function and fits into its environment as designed. The following post takes you through the build process of my version of a man cave brake rotor clock.

The project revolves around a used Center Lock Porsche PCCB rear brake rotor. Because of the center lock design the holes, where the wheel bolts would typically go, are now equipped with red anodized wheel lugs.

Since I wanted to build something more then just a flat hanging rotor attached to a wall I started off by machining some pivots out of 1.75″ solid round 6061 aluminum. First order of business was to drill, and tap, an 8mm hole.

Onto the milling machine where the center section got hogged out an inch deep and the width of the rotor.

The beauty of swarf makes up for the waste it becomes.

Test fitting of the rough machined rotor clamps prove to fit perfectly.

To secure the clamps to the rotor a couple of 1/4″ set screws were fitted into each clamp.

To complete the pivot assemblies a couple end caps and center spacers were spun out on the lathe. I opted to keep all the angles, and design, fairly clean and simple with no added cuts or highlights.

These are the rough machined pivot assemblies that will get clamped onto opposite ends of the rotor.

Next it was time to move on the steel work and fabricate the actual wall holder. The rotor pivots were going to require a bushing to help provide the support. A couple of spacers were cut, and faced, from some 2″ seamless tubing I had remaining from my metal bender rollers I built.

Each bushing received a 3/8″ hole drilled only through one side. Keep scrolling, the reason will be revealed.

The pivot bushings required some support. I wanted to keep things simple and clean without making the unit look messy or chunky. Not to mention I needed to keep the weight of the entire project as low as possible. I opted to bend some 3/8″ cold rolled rod with a radius that would visually match the brake rotor.

I sketched out the rotor on the bench to aid in the mock up. This way I could ensure that my clearances would work and that my center line would actual be centered.

Since the rod support required something to actually be attached to I trimmed up a 19 inch section of 3″ x 1/8″ flat bar. I plasma cut the ends to get rid of the corners.

I was kind of stuck for creative ideas to attach the rod to the wall support plate. Usually I like to get creative with sort of thing. I decided on keeping the brake rotor the main focal point and opted to fabricate some clean and simple support rods from some 7/8″ cold rolled.

Concept revealed. Mocking up the components before putting the TIG to them.

Everything was tacked and final welded. Time to move onto to the other parts of the project.

The clock face was sliced from a sheet of 6061 aluminum using the circle guide for the plasma torch. Ironically this is the same sheet of aluminum that I cut my German tank sprocket clock face from years ago.

To clean up the plasma cut, and to ensure the face was perfectly round, the aluminum was mounted on the lathe and trimmed up.

The PCCB rotor hub has two 8mm holes threaded from factory 180 degrees apart. With a couple of spacers I would be able to mount the face to these existing holes. I programmed in the proper spacing on the DRO for the mill and drilled the face for mounting.

Here the entire project was mocked up to ensure everything would fit. It does.

Onto the art work for the clock face. I decided to build a tachometer themed time keeper. Using a combination of Draftsight, InkScape, and vinyl plotter software I came up with this.

I vinyl plotted the entire face on black vinyl first to ensure it would work the way I wanted it too. I then printed just the “redline” section on red vinyl.

It’s always so satisfying when I start to peel back the transfer tape to reveal the vinyl. I wasn’t sure what color background to use. I thought of powder coding the face white but in the end I opted to stick with a brushed finish. I think I made the right choice.

Here is the completed clock. I use continuous sweep movements for my clock motors which not only gets rid of the “ticking” but also gives a more precision look to the second hand.

Time to move onto the hub side of the rotor. Since this clock is going in a “man cave” I thought I would personalize it for Mike. Started by slicing out a 7 inch diameter section of mild steel to be used as a mounting for more vinyl decaling.

Porsche uses a 5 x 130 wheel bolt pattern. Using the mills DRO I marked all the mounting holes and then finished them off on the drill press.

Building using math is so satisfying as things always fit together perfectly.

The time has come where all the fabrication work is complete and it’s time to move onto the finishing stage. I removed the hub from the rotor and chucked it up in the lathe in order to clean the finish up using Scotchbrite.

Tractor Red powder is incredibly close to the same shade as factory Porsche red brake calipers. Since I know Mike likes red I figured using the color was a “no brainer”

The rotor mount was wired to one of my oven’s baking racks and then fogged with the powder.

With the pivot mounts sealed using silicone plugs it was time to bake the powder coating at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Here are all the components that make up the project before the assembly phase begins. Everything was either powder coated, polished, or brush finished.

The hub side face received a personalized Mike’s Place decal so that you knew exactly where you are.

The contrast between the red and the brushed finishes looks good. I was happy that the pivot still works with the added thickness of the power coating.

Rotor mounted up and centered just waiting for all the guts to be installed.

The clock face gets mounted using a couple of 5mm black socket head cap screws. Even though the screws are placed a bit far apart they still help give the clock face that”gauge” look. In order for the clock battery to be replaced the face will need to be unbolted from the hub.

Since the rotor was mounted on a pivot it was important that all visible angles would look good. I like all the nice, clean, lines of the cross section.

The rotor lugs were originally anodized red from the factory. Since the finish on them was slightly worn, plus the shade of red would clash, I decided to strip them of the anodizing and give them a brushed finish instead.

I try and add a “GG” somewhere to my projects. This time I applied a decal on the inside where the only time anyone will see it is when the clock motor battery needs to be changed. In this picture the mounting spacers for the clock face are evident.

Ain’t No Yoke

I have a lot of interest in simple, mechanical, things. Something that requires an energy source and that does not involve electricity or fossil fuels is always super cool to me. Water wheel fed saw mills, steam powered work shops, bicycles, yo-yos, fully manual lathes, a hand saw, and the list goes on.

This is what brings me onto my next project which is a slingshot. Now I have to mention that I am not a hunter and I typically have no desire to kill anything except the occasional mosquito. I really know very little about slingshots and I suspect there is an entire world surrounding these simple devices that I know nothing about. I just happen to think that the simplicity of a slingshot is pretty cool and the transfer of energy that it is designed to deal with is intriguing.

I have had an idea in my head for a very specific style slingshot for quite some time now. The design is fairly detailed and it will take some dedicated AutoCAD time to come up with a workable design. I had never built a slingshot so I thought that a practice run might serve me well and that way I will have a better idea of how to build my final design.

So over the last couple of weeks I milled away aluminium and spun it down to my desired sizes to finally come up with a practice version of a gordsgarage slingshot. I did not start with any specific design in my head. I built it as I went along and it turned into what it is simply by chance. The morphed design worked out well in the end and I am pleased to say the slingshot is actually functional. I have had multiple test firings with it and it appears to work as designed.

So as per usual the entire process is documented in picture format located below. There is one video included in case you are interested. I also included a picture gallery closer to the end. I had too many pictures to post so I condensed a bunch of the final shots into an album.

 

The project started off by obtaining a slingshot band and some ammo. I have plenty of loose ball bearings kicking around but I figured I would go genuine.

Onto the fabrication process. Like I said…I didn’t have a plan in place so this is how it all started. I knew that I wanted finger holes so I made the slingshot to specifically fit my hand.

I measured the OC (on center) point of my fingers on my left hand as well as the diameter of my middle knuckles then I started to drill some holes in some 6061 aluminum.

With the holes milled to fit my fingers I started to shave of extra aluminum.

The final step in the finger holder was to mill a tab tab that would eventually slide into the handle assembly. Here one corner of the tab was cut, just needed to finish off the left side.

I didn’t have a clear vision for the “yoke” of the slingshot but I had a general idea. Since I didn’t have any round aluminum stock large enough I decided to machine something out of .375 aluminum flat bar. I started with a 4″ x 4″ section and mounted it to a lathe arbor.

I included this picture because it shows the 4″ diameter I am shooting for. 5 minutes on the lathe will bring it from 4 corners to pi.

Getting closer to my final dimension. Makes me wonder if there is a mathematical term for a square with rounded corners.

So with my 4″ circle compete I set things up on the milling machine to hog out a center, offset, hole with a hole saw.

Back onto the lathe I switched out the 3 jaw chuck for the four jaw and dialed in the center hole. With a boring bar I cleaned up the previously cut hole to dimension.

Now I am back onto the milling machine where I needed to position the part precisely in the chuck as the next step involves drilling symmetrical holes.

I had a plan in my head that was BrainstormCAD’d at around 2:30 am on a sleepless night. It involved drilling a stepped hole in order to secure the slingshot band this way making the install look super clean. It is rather difficult to put into words so I will just mention that the design actually worked.

Here is my progress so far. I post the picture to help illustrate the order in which things are done.

As you can see from the previous picture the handle is nothing more then a 1.250″ chunk of aluminum stock. It is time to start working it over. I need to fit the finger holder into the handle. Instead of milling a slot out I figured I would remove a bunch of the excess material with a drill bit first. I don’t think people appreciate the cutting power of a drill bit enough. Perhaps now would be a good time to reflect on their abilities.

With the holes drilled I then dropped in a .375″ end mill and hogged out the remaining material.

Here I am able to test fit the finger holder and it just happens to slide in perfectly. Amazing what can happen when you use math.

I needed to secure the finger holder to the handle so I set it up in the mill then drilled, and tapped, 5mm holes to accept stainless steel allen head bolts.

I needed to flush mount the non-yoke into the handle. Since the handle had a .375″ slot machines to accept the non-yoke I need to mill off a flat section in order to close up the visual gap that would have been evident with a radius.

I have some ideas in store for the base of the handle. As I plan to build multiple options I decided to drill, and tap, a 6mm hole into the bottom.

The handle was looking rather plane being just round and smooth. I thought I would give it some grip by dropping in a .375″ ball nose endmill 60 degrees apart around the circumference.

The ball nose machining gives the handle both a functional, and visually pleasing, aspect.

With the 3 main components completed it was time to enter into finishing stage. I had contemplated anodizing certain components but in the end I thought that a brushed look suited the project. The finger holder was cleaned up using a die grinder and sanding wheel.

Here are the 3 main components cleaned up with a brushed finish.

With the main slingshot machined it was time to start on the handle bases. Like I mentioned earlier I installed a 6mm thread into the base of the handle in order to accommodate different bases. I had many ideas to build however I decided to limit myself to just three. Here is the start of the first base. It is a chunk of 2.50″ round aluminum that will eventually be turned into a 9 round ammunition holder.

Onto the milling machine where 10 holes where drilled, 9 of which will accommodate the 3/8″ ammunition.

Since I am planing to hold the ammunition in place with 1/8″ rare earth magnets I cross drilled the previously machined holes so that I could epoxy the magnets in place.

With all the crucial angles machined I cleaned up the visuals on the lathe.

Here I sat down at the sunny kitchen and epoxied all the 1/8″ rare earth magnets into place.

The video posted below shows the loading of the slingshot ammunition into the holder. The ammo can be loaded from either side and the magnets are plenty strong enough to keep them in place.

The second interchangeable base would be nothing more the an over sized hook attachment to allow for a caribiner to hook onto. Started off with 1.250″ aluminum stock and trimmed the sides flat.

Dropped a 5/8″ endmill through the middle to make room for a caribiner to clip onto.

Moved onto the lathe to clean up all the visual lines. Gave it s tapered finish.

Rough machining completed of the caribiner end.

As another option for a base I decided to adapt a triple blade carbon arrow head onto the end. At first I was going to pass on this idea as the arrow heads are rather sharp but when I discovered I could buy protective pods to prevent any unwanted injury I figured I would go for it.

This is the first, and second, stage machining of the arrow head adapter. The center hole was drilled and tapped to accept the threaded arrow head. The outer three holes were machined only for cosmetics.

The arrow head adapter was tapered down on the lathe to give it a more stealth look.

All the components of the slingshot received a brushed finish. The finishing touch was the glass bead blasted gordsgarage “GG” gear logo. I created a .900 inch diameter logo on the vinyl plotter, applied it to the handle, taped up the rest of the surrounding areas and then shipped it to the glass bead blast cabinet for some etching.

Here are all the machined, and finished, components that make up the slingshot prior to assembly.

The following gallery displays the finished product. If you click on a picture you will be able to cycle through all the remaining pictures at a decent resolution. The gallery shows multiple combinations of the ends. The ammunition holder can be used on it’s own or coupled with other options. Check out all the pictures to get all the details!

Board Beyond Belief

 

I had an idea in my head for some time now but it lacked specifics. Usually I want to have some clear direction before moving into the shop for the execution however I have learned that sometimes good things can result from little planning. Since I didn’t have too much loose, if my idea went sideways, I thought I would just wing it and see what would come of it.

Often I wonder why things are made simple when they work just as well complicated and in the case of my next project I wanted to add an element of engineering to a rather basic item. I needed a shop clip board and wanted to build something that would reflect the environment it would be used in. I love seeing the internal mechanicals of machines and often wonder why people feel they need to cover them up.

In the case of my clipboard I wanted to build a more mechanical type spring mechanism as well as fabricate a more interesting shape for holding the paper. Unfortunately this post is not filled with fabricating pictures. Since I didn’t have a plan I didn’t know when to take pictures. In fact I wasn’t planning to post this project on the blog however it actually turned out ok so I thought I would share. The following pictures show the tail end of the project but it will give you an idea on how it was built.

The entire clip board was built from 6061 aluminum. I machined everything you see in this picture except for the stainless steel fasteners, spring, and cable. The actual “board” was plasma cut from a sheet of aluminum. I realize it is hard to visualize how this all fits together, just keep scrolling.

This is the board in mocked up stage to ensure that the spring tension would work. I’m not in love with the lever I built located on the right side of the pivot shaft however I’m going to go with it for now.

So here I jump straight to the finishing stage. Everthing was either polished or powder coated. Ready for final assembly.

Finished product! Looks kinda cool, a little bit chunky but still works for me. Next time around I’ll build more intricate.

The exposed spring mechanism allows viewing of all the action.

Rocker arm style paper clamps.

Cable adjustment cap allows for spring tension calibration.

The paper release lever lacks a bit of an interesting visual but still works, for now.

Decided to decorate the back side with a unique GG decal. Cut out an old skool diving helmet on the vinyl plotter for no other reason other then it looked cool.

Vacillating Vertical Pendulum

I received a notice from my daughter’s school looking for silent auction donations for an upcoming fundraiser. The funds were going towards the school’s parent council and are to be used to fund programs, and purchases, not covered by the schools budget. I thought it would be fun to donate something that was hand machined in hopes that my labor would score a decent bid and therefore increase the funds collected from the auction.

I wanted to fabricate something that would appeal to a wide audience and so I settled upon machining a yo-yo. I figured both kids and adults could enjoy the pleasures that come from rotational energy. The yo-yos I build are not pro style trick units, they do not run ball bearing axles or friction pads. The units I make are for the pure novice that can appreciate the joys that come from classic design.

The first order of business was to change the name. Although yo-yo is a generic, non-trademarked, name I felt it was too immature. Therefore instead of machining a yo-yo I opted to machine a Vacillating Vertical Pendulum. The concept is the same, only the name has changed.

Since the pendulum will be placed on an auction block I opted to machine a custom storage case for it as well. I have posted pictures of my “yo-yos” in the past but have not dedicated an entire post outlining the process. The following is jam packed with pictures showing the procedure I have developed to make a Vacillating Vertical Pendulum.

The entire process starts off with a section of 6061 aluminium. Normally I use 2.250″ stock however I was out so I was forced to start with a 2.500″.

Since there are a total of 18 holes being drilled in each half I try and keep the starting thickness down to a minimum. The final thickness of each half will be .500″. Working with a .550″ thick section allows .050″ for rough, and finished, machining.

First machining step involves facing the one side and then drilling, and tapping, a 6 mm hole .300″ deep. Look at me splitting metric and imperial.

To make the rest of the machining easier, and to avoid damaging the finish, I use an arbor I made that has a 6 mm stud.

Using the arbor I face the opposite side. No need to clean up the diameter yet.

With the 2 blanks built it is time to move onto the milling machine and set it up for the drilling of the lightening holes.

The milling machine gets dialed into the center of the blank.

Next I use the DRO (Digital Read Out) to program in the placement of all the holes.

All the holes get marked using a centering drill.

The twelve outer holes get final drilled using a .250″ drill bit. The inner 6 holes are opened up to .3125″.

The blanks start off at 110 grams (there is that metric again)

The 18 holes shave off 22 grams of weight.

Next it is back onto the lathe to clean up the inside face of the blanks.

These are the blanks prepped and ready to get the final weight machined off.

Here the diameter gets spun down to a final dimension of 2.200″.

As previously mentioned I would typically start with 2.250″ stock however in this case you can see the amount I had to take off from the 2.500″ I actually started with.

Using the arbor in the lathe chuck I face off enough material to bring the thickness down to a final .500″.

In my quest to shave off more weight I set up to trim the outer face at a 14 degree angle.

With the face trimmed up I chamfer the corners using a 30 degree angle.

With the final machining complete I clean up the edges using 320 grit sandpaper. The 30 degree chamfer, performed in the previous step, allows for a sanding of a smooth corner.

Here you can see the rough clean up on the left as opposed to the final machining on the right.

Total weight has now come down to 41 grams.

With all the machining completed it is now time to move onto the second phase of the process. Since the units are going to be anodized it is crucial that the surface finish is perfect before zapping them in an acidic bath. To make polishing easier I decided to build an arbor to help keep the machined faces from “getting away”.

2 stage polishing is adequate for the anodizing process.

The foreground face has been machined where as the background face has only been sanded using 320 grit and Scotchbrite.

This picture makes it obvious I am building 2 Vacillating Vertical Pendulums.The second one is for a friend. The polished faces have now gone through a rigorous cleaning process. Aluminum filler rod has been wedged into the 6 mm holes and they are ready to get dunked in the ano bath.

Here they all sit in a bath of sulphuric acid for 2 hours with approximately 2 amps of current flowing though the liquid.

The anodizing process is complete after the 120 minutes, it is evident that the process worked by the change in color to a light grey.

The unit that is being donated for the silent auction is being dyed a red bordeaux finished. Total time spent in the color bath is approximately 10 minutes. After that the units get boiled in water for 30 minutes to seal the color in.

This picture is kind of just stuck in the middle of everything. The axle shaft is cut from a 6 mm stainless steel threaded rod. Here the bushing , that the axle slides through, is being cut from a section of .3125″ aluminum.

These are the 2 dyed, and sealed, pendulums. Pretty!

 

I like to add a silver lining around each hole using a chamfer bit on a hand drill.

 

Since the Vacillating Vertical Pendulum requires a place to be stored I thought that a custom case would be in order. Here I started by machining down a section of 1.000″ 6062 aluminum to act as a storage perch.

A radius sliced into the top will allow for some stability when resting the pendulum on its stringed axis.

The base of the storage case was, once again, trimmed out from aluminum. A threaded 10 mm center hole will allow the center perch to attached.

The base of the storage case received a coat of matte black powder and then got baked at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Time to clean and assemble everything. The pendulums received a hand waxing with some Collinite’s #850.

Here are all the components, before assembly, that make up the entire project. The glass cover was purchased and the base was machined to fit.

The center storage perched was screwed into the base. Note the humidity control holes that was drilled into the base to allow for strict climate control inside the case.

The storage case received a GG decal to finish things off.

To ensure that the person who purchases the item knows that it is authentic a certificate, and specification document, was created.

I Saw the Sign and I Opened Up My Shop

Work on the homemade plasma CNC table continues to make progress. After hours of machining I finally have the Z and Y axis all mocked up and in an operating state. I often find that sometimes I need to shift gears slightly just to keep things interesting. Quite often I enjoy sneaking in side projects to break up the action a bit and keep the creative juices flowing. In the case of the plasma CNC build I was at a good stopping point to step away for a couple weeks and doing a few side jobs.

For 5 years now I have been walking into my daughter’s school to pick her up and for 5 years I have been staring at the same “remove your shoes” sign perched at the entry way asking people to do their part in keeping the school clean. The other day when I saw the sign, again, it finally dawned on me that there has to be something better and perhaps it was time for an upgrade.

The schools in my area operate on a tight budget and there is typically no money to be spent on “frivolous” items, especially “remove your shoes” signs. I talked to the principal and asked if I would be able to donate a couple of new signs that would replace the old ones. She was happy to accept the offer.

So this is where one of the side projects come in. I didn’t have a clear game plan and all the ideas I generated started to get to complicated and expensive. The one aspect I did know is that I was going to give my new shop equipment, a vinyl plotter, a workout and use it for all the art work. I decided to just head into the garage, see what metal I had laying around, and start cutting and welding.

I finally settled on a chalkboard/sandwich board retro theme. Everything was going to go black and white to give it a bit of an old school look. Since there are 2 main entrances to the school I offered to double the recipe and build two signs at the same time. As usual the documentation of the project was done in picture format and is available below for your viewing. I am happy with how they turned out and I am even happier that I completed the entire project “in house”.

This is one of the original signs that I have been staring at for the past 5 years. Although effective, and polite, an upgrade was in order.

 

Started by building the blank slates. I had some scrap 10 gauge mild steel so I carved out a couple chunks with the plasma torch. Starting size was 14″ x 21″.

 

90 degrees can be boring so I bent a section of round bar to act as a plasma guide and gave the tops an appealing curve.

 

To give the sign some depth, and to avoid sharp edges, I added some 1″ flat bar to the perimeter. It all got TIG welded into place on the back side.

 

I didn’t know what to build for legs so I just started to bend 5/16″ cold rolled steel and eventually came up with this design. I have no pictures to showing the machining of all the mounting pegs. 2 pegs are built to support the sign and the other 2 accommodate the feet. The pegs were cut from 5/8″ cold rolled, drilled and threaded on the lathe and then cross drilled on the mill.

 

All the support pegs were neatly TIG welded into place. I love TIGing!

 

These are all the rough sign components that have been fabricated. I will not explain the details since the remaining pictures will clear it all up. Onto the finishing stage.

 

The dimensions of the sign were determined by 1 thing, the size of my powder coating oven. Before I started the build I measured the oven to see what I could fit in it. It turns out a 21″ tall sign will give me approximately 1/2″ of clearance in the oven. Here I am wiring the sign to my oven rack to get it ready for the powder fogging.

 

Sign was coated with a matte black powder coat and is now ready to get baked at 375 degrees PMT for 15 minutes.

 

Matte black sign finished baking and hung for a cool down.

 

The legs were coated with White Glacier Full Gloss to give them some contrast.

 

Here the 2 blank canvasses are set to accept the artwork.

 

Using a combination of Draftsight, Inkscape, and WinPCSIGN software I designed the main artwork. The idea was to go for a chalk board/sandwich board style design.

 

The decals were cut out on my vinyl plotter using white vinyl. The decals were then prepped and transfer tape was applied.

 

My daughter had requested happy faces and I didn’t want to disappoint. I sliced a couple out of yellow vinyl, they are approximately 9″ x 9″.

 

Final product. Decals applied and legs bolted on. Clean, simple, and hopefully, and effective design.

 

I think the white legs with the white decals was the way to go. I purchased the stainless steel feet and added a rear cross brace between the rear legs to help with stability. An interesting build fact is that I calculated the angle of the sign so that it would be perpendicular with a persons line of vision at a viewing height of 5′ 6″ from 7 feet away.

 

The happy face satisfied my daughters request. I also figured that because the entire sign was donated I was entitled to give my blog a free plug. If the school doesn’t like it they can peel the decal off.