On 2010-04-29, Wes wrote:
steamer wrote:
--I could file and polish the dings off of the spoons, forks, etc
that went into the garbage disposer.
It is rather anoying, I have a shop, decent sized lathe and mill and have yet to use them
to fix something at home. Now the machines at work on my time, I've used them often to
help me fix things at home before I had my shop up and running.
While I wind up making parts for things at home -- including
things which I doubt that I could buy anyway. Especially, things which
I have designed to fill a need, such as the mast for the new weather
station's sensors.
The sensors are battery powered, so I could use an insulating
support mast and not have to worry about lighting damage, but because of
the batteries, I will need access to them from time to time to change
cells. I don't particularly like climbing 24' in the air to reach the
housings -- especially in the kind of weather during which the cells are
likely to fail (cold, perhaps freezing rain, etc). So, I got 20' of
Sched 80 PVC pipe, turned up a knuckle to fit in the bottom and to pivot
on the mount to the wall, and machined a double pulley which straddles
the pipe at 19' off the ground. A rope goes half way around the pipe,
through the pulleys and down to the ground. Another rope is attached at
the same height to the pipe to pull it out from between the pulleys and
control it (with the pair which go through the pulleys) to guide it
around tree limbs on the way down and up. I can use the combination of
ropes to lay the pipe down on an old B&D Workmate while I change the
cells.
Since the rope will degrade while exposed to weather and UV, I
also planned how to replace it without having to climb up to the pulleys
again. Since it goes through two pulleys and around the pipe, I can
(thermally) splice a new rope to the aging rope, use the old rope to
pull the new up through the first pulley, around the pipe, and back down
through the second pulley. Then I simply cut off the old rope, and tie
off the new.
The other rope can be replaced while the pipe is laid down to
change cells.
The pulley sheaves are made from leftover Delrin from the
fabrication of the knuckle. The frame holding the two sheaves is
machined from aluminum bar stock (about 2x3" stock, IIRC). There is also
a Delrin size adaptor to adapt the ID of the 2" Sched 80 PVC to the OD
of the 32mm PVC pipe which was supplied with the station in three pieces
to stick in the ground and hold up with guy ropes. There is no place
which is sufficiently in the clear to use the ground level mounting.
Where it is, it is a couple of feet higher than the top of the roof.
Where could I buy the custom pulley assembly with a rigid
bracket to cradle the PVC pipe? What about the knuckle/pivot for the
bottom of the PVC?
Granted, only the pulley bracket and pins are actually made from
metal (not counting a bunch of factory made 1/4-20 setscrews), but the
knuckle, sheaves, pins and step-down adaptor were made using
metalworking tools (lathe, horizontal milling machine, shaper and drill
press).
This way -- I only needed to climb the extension ladder to the
19' height *once* in nice weather to attach the pulley assembly to the
house just under the eaves. (Of course, other things will have me on
that extension ladder from time to time, but not this. :-)
Also -- other tools, the ultrasonic cleaner (with some xylene)
and the air compressor helped me get the lawnmower running again after
the carb clogged up over the winter.
Strong UV source killed off a fungal infection over the winter.
Mostly, I don't think about the tools -- I just see a problem
and use the tools to fix it. :-)
Enjoy,
DoN.
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