I never guessed there were this many steps in making a car wheel -  btw, no one loses a hand in this film, but I cringed a few times when saw how close the workers hands got to some pretty dangerous operations.   OSHA would not have been happy.   https://youtu.be/yqGA92D7B6g

Well, I’ll give another try at posting a pic. Quickie project, slapped together with scrap in my mom’s garage.

My mom had shoulder replacement yesterday, so she’s one-armed for a while. I made a bench hook-style fixture to clamp jars so she can open them with one hand. Works for quart jars down to pill bottle size. She indicated that it might continue to be useful after she’s recouperated, in which case I’ll make a nicer one.


https://pilotsofamerica.com/community/at...eg.131537/

Well, I got a link, but still can’t figure out how to get a picture in here.

Got to the sale about half an hour early...standing outside in the driveway with 40 other people...and I could smell the rust coming from the Garage!

10am sharp, was walking through the garage...looking for stuff I did NOT already have in MY shop...Drawknives? got 2...Braces?  Got 15.....however..
I will make an exception for..
    Maybe a Stanley No. 80 Cabinet Scraper...even though I do have 2 in the shop..

Next, sitting right beside this was..
   
An 1-1/2" wide Rebate plane

and..
   
Wood bodied Spokeshave...and
   
An Ohio No. 0 5 Jack plane...

Spent $16 for all of this Treasure...looks like I will have to open the Rehab Shop, soon..

No markings on the rebate plane, nor the spokeshave...spokeshave has an added Brass wear strip ahead of the cutter...and sits a bit too high...
Under the hood of the Jack..
   
Under the frog..
   
And the front knob..
   
Might take a wee bit of cleaning up?

Stay tuned..

Our 125 year old house has basement walls of limestone. The stone and the mortar are in good shape, but there is a lot of effervescence and sand continually drops to the floor. We sweep up a quart of sand every few weeks. And bugs crawl out of the cracks. 

I want to hand-trowel on a new mortar surface. It won’t get painted as there is always moisture in the stone. So my QUESTION IS:  What kind of mortar?  Do I need to prep the stone with something so the new mortar adheres well?

Thanks for your help. —Peter

Trying to contribute something in my meager way..

..this is a short explanation of a negative rake scraper I built using a cheap HSS blank (see also thinshavings' thread of a similar name)

I started with a Chineseium HSS blank off Amazon..


I wanted about 3" of the tool inserted into the handle. Rather than lose 3" of good (ish) tool steel, I opted to grind in a 1" long shank on one end. Made fairly quick work of it with a cutting wheel in an angle grinder.

That shank got inserted into a 5/8" x 3" mild steel rod made from a garden variety 5/8" hex bolt (I chopped the head and threads off the bolt and slotted one end to receive the HSS shank). Fitting the HSS shank and the mild steel bolt..err rod..took probably an hour of mucking around (grind, file, hit with hammer, repeat).

Once I was happy with the fit, I preheated with a propane torch, then fluxcore welded the two together..and tada. Looks like it stuck together despite my terrible welding skills.




I had planned to make a Hosaluk-style insert (above), but after I turned one on my metal lathe out of a scrap bolt, I decided it was too heavy. Instead I made an insert out of scrap 1/2" black pipe - the ID is just under 5/8", so easy to bore to the full 5/8 ID. Readily available at the local big box too.

Bought a replacement post-hole digger handle for a tool handle. Bored the end to take the steel insert and gave it a very light profiling. Then epoxied the DIY insert into the wooden handle. Normally there should be some method of securing the tool's shank into the insert, like set-screws but the surface finish on the tool's shank was rough enough that a jam-fit worked fine.

The wooden handle unfortunately is not ash, but cuts like some sort of cheap imported hardwood. Check carefully before you buy replacement garden tool handles if that's important to you.

Next step for the scraper was to spend a lot of time profiling it at the grinder. I opted to make it a so-called negative rake scraper (NRS) to remove tool marks from the interiors of bowls.

This one I ground for an interior curve with 70 degrees on one face and 20 degrees on the other (for a 90 degree included angle). That is a sexy grinding job - look at those curves!

Cutting is done with a burr you raise on the edge, just like a cabinet scraper - you can just barely see it glinting in the picture above right. One can raise a burr by regrinding the edge or by using a burnishing rod. For better or worse, this Chinesium HSS steel comes from the factory with high hardness - like Rc-65-ish hard (my Rc-65 file makes light scratches you can see, but not feel).


For burnishing I tried a rod style burnisher, but wasn't getting a great burr so I switched to using a Veritas carbide jig that I've had for ages.

It did much better raising a burr. It uses an angled carbide rod and when clamped in a vise you can apply a lot more pressure. Will save the rod burnisher for my card scrapers.


So how does this Frankenstein perform at the lathe? Pretty good - it takes very fine shavings and the sweeping curve eliminates those pesky toolmarks from the interior of bowls. Probably ready for 220 grit?

Unfortunately the burr is very short-lived necessitating removing the old burr with a stone and raising a new burr. This is definitely a finishing tool.

Lessons learned:
*The method I used to join the tool steel to the mild steel 5/8" rod had a number of problems including being fussy to cut, hard to align and hard to regrind to roundness. In the future, I'll try simply cutting a 1"x5/8" notch into the HSS blank and weld the mild steel rod into that notch.

*Grind the same bevel angle on both sides of the tool. I got the idea for the 70/20 grind angles from D-way Tools, but in retrospect, it was not a great choice - as it requires two different grinding set-ups. Over time, I'll change to use the same bevel angles on both faces. That'll probably let me raise a bigger burr too.

*Really like being able to remove the tooling from the handle - it makes grinding much easier.

*Use a different style of insert holder to (continue to) avoid setscrews. I'm thinking about using NPT pipe and cheap 5C collets. If I use collets, I may have to switch to proper steel rod and not the cheap bolts - as the bolts are undersized .614 versus a true .625 and may not be held properly in a collet.

-Mark

Daughter & s-i-l house, new to them.  

switches for all lights original to the house are low voltage switches.  Lights are standard 1950's - 1960's fixtures on 110-120.  

several circuits have more than one fixture illuminated by a low voltage switch.  Where is the relay for this situation?  one for each fixture? one relay for all on the circuit?  

I have never seen lighting wired with low voltage switches.  There must have been a reason to this wiring, although it makes no sense to me.  Is/was there a logic behind this wiring?  

thx for any input

tom

Anybody have any Amazon day deals on tools?

Saw a video from a guy who 3d prints different dust collection shrouds for various miter saws.

He finally did one for the Dewalt 779/780 sliding miter saws. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t1JGEnr020&

One of my ww'ing friends bought one and said the dust collection with the new shroud is much improved, so I bought one.

Its not perfect, dunno that given the nature of miter saws, any dust collection is going to be perfect for all cuts, but the dust collection with the new shroud is much improved.

DeWalt DWS779/780 Sliding Miter Saw Dust Collection (shopnationstore.com)

not cheap at $50.  but I think its worth it.

Right now the furnace has just the two pipes outside the house, one intake, one exhaust. There are no covers or screens for these.
I see they can be purchased, but I also see that they are not recommended as they restrict airflow. Of course a wasp nest will restrict airflow too! 
I saw one outfit that has a kit where you have to change out the screens twice a year which I don’t like as it’s just one more thing for me to remember(forget).

R Clark’s post prompted this. I need to install smoke detectors in our house. I have avoided it as it has been an ongoing remodel and I was afraid that dust would cause issues. It is now time….
Single story, two bedrooms and bath on a hallway. Mechanical room is off the hall near the center of the house. Kitchen and living room are on the end of the hoff ur de opposite bedrooms. They are separated by a 12 inch beam.

Where do put the smoke detectors? These will be battery operated as I am not interested in wiring them due to a very low roofline and poor attic space