Friday, May 6, 2016
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Zero Effort Motor Mounting
This is the 4th motor I have mounted like this, and all four were done with just one can of spray foam. Almost zero effort, and me likes that mucho. The foam cures overnight and is strong, yet can be pried off the mounting surface with a crowbar if need be. So far the foam has stuck well to all surfaces I have tried, which include metal and wood, also plastic. In fact I have not found anything it won't stick to yet. This trick kind of reminds me of the Rastafarians in the Neuromancer novel, growing pot in orbit and plugging leaks in their salvaged space station with caulk. If there had been spray foam at that time I am sure Bill Gibson would have worked that in, although the caulk was comic relief as well as good sci-fi. That novel has come closer to reality than just about any other prognostication I have come across, and I assure you they are many. FYI and read it if you get a chance.
The real trick to this is using the can of spray foam more than once. If the can is not emptied, then the foam will harden in all the nozzles and make it so the rest of the can is wasted. I learned to get multiple uses from my spray foam cans by using twigs wires and nails inserted all the way into the various orifices that are subject to clogging with the hardened spray. Once the foam is cured in these orifices it is a simple matter to clear them by removing the nails, wires, or whatever you have used to capture the foam plugging the orifices. Pull these make-shift inserts out and usually the hardened foam comes out in its entirety, clearing the way for another use. I regularly get 3-4 sprays out of each can, depending on the jobs I am doing. NOTE: when inserting your nail or wire into the top of the can do not press hard, just make sure it is all the way in. If you press too hard you could damage the rubber at the top of the can and cause it to stop working, or worse you could get a spray of foam you did not want, and this stuff is not anything to play with, once you get it on you, it must where off. I have also used small amounts to suture fingertip cuts from blades or grinding wheels, and it works. If you get it in your hair though, you will be cutting your hair, so it would be a very good idea to wear protective clothing, gloves, safety glasses, hat and apron. The bottom line is: if you get this stuff anywhere,other than where you want to put it it can be a big problem. Spots on the floor or other unwanted places should be left to harden then popped off once it cures, becomes hard.
I use the lightly expanding stuff, it is better suited for my purposes. You can try different foam/expansion ratings, though I am a super shopper because cost is my ultimate motivater in all things that require cash. Not all things require cash, thankfully, because I would have been dead a long time ago using the federal reserve paper to get things done. And my quality of life would be about that of the 3rd world, which was the plan behind the foreign federal reserve in the first place methinx. It is a slavery machine (Slaves, Obey Your Masters--the Bible). It was made that way on purpose. It is not American.
Good Luc, and may beauty come to mean many different things to you too.
b
The real trick to this is using the can of spray foam more than once. If the can is not emptied, then the foam will harden in all the nozzles and make it so the rest of the can is wasted. I learned to get multiple uses from my spray foam cans by using twigs wires and nails inserted all the way into the various orifices that are subject to clogging with the hardened spray. Once the foam is cured in these orifices it is a simple matter to clear them by removing the nails, wires, or whatever you have used to capture the foam plugging the orifices. Pull these make-shift inserts out and usually the hardened foam comes out in its entirety, clearing the way for another use. I regularly get 3-4 sprays out of each can, depending on the jobs I am doing. NOTE: when inserting your nail or wire into the top of the can do not press hard, just make sure it is all the way in. If you press too hard you could damage the rubber at the top of the can and cause it to stop working, or worse you could get a spray of foam you did not want, and this stuff is not anything to play with, once you get it on you, it must where off. I have also used small amounts to suture fingertip cuts from blades or grinding wheels, and it works. If you get it in your hair though, you will be cutting your hair, so it would be a very good idea to wear protective clothing, gloves, safety glasses, hat and apron. The bottom line is: if you get this stuff anywhere,other than where you want to put it it can be a big problem. Spots on the floor or other unwanted places should be left to harden then popped off once it cures, becomes hard.
I use the lightly expanding stuff, it is better suited for my purposes. You can try different foam/expansion ratings, though I am a super shopper because cost is my ultimate motivater in all things that require cash. Not all things require cash, thankfully, because I would have been dead a long time ago using the federal reserve paper to get things done. And my quality of life would be about that of the 3rd world, which was the plan behind the foreign federal reserve in the first place methinx. It is a slavery machine (Slaves, Obey Your Masters--the Bible). It was made that way on purpose. It is not American.
Good Luc, and may beauty come to mean many different things to you too.
b
Friday, October 2, 2015
5 Tire Tumbler
Finally, something really cool to do with
old tires, wear them from the inside out, too.
These tires will give many more miles on this tumbler set up.
This tumbler has been on a back burner
for a few months now, waiting on parts, the bearings were the hardest for me to
scrounge, I found them on worn out machines and they were still good enough for
this duty. I also found that taking a
little extra time allowed me to really think things through; assembly went
well. No hurries, no worries. The entire unit is made from salvaged
materials, reconstructed. Ehhhhhhh
....Stimulating.
The RR ties were cut in half and about 2
feet are buried in the ground to make good long term posts. Notice the radiator hose sheathing on the
long shaft, the tires run better that way.
This is a key point really, and I got my hose out of a junked schoolbus,
there was 80 feet of it running to the various heaters in the back. The only real problem I have is adjusting the
water levels of each tire load, because splash will wet the heater hose
sheathing on the shaft and there is slippage of the tire. On some of the loads I keep an almost muddy
consistency in the slurry to avoid a lot of splash.
This version of my latest tumbler ran fine
before being fastened down even, and I
am kind of proud of the balance. I could
turn the shaft with tires on it easily with my fingers. My 1" steel shaft was half of a drive shaft
from a junked windmill dumped in the desert.
It was cut with an angle grinder fitted with a metal blade. It took some sanding to get it smooth enough
to accept the bearings and other hardware, but it worked.
The motor got strapped to the ground after
it was balanced a bit more. Stakes and
kevlar, yum. The motor is a 115vac 1/3hp
1725 rpm which is a good strong motor.
The shaft speed is stepped down with a large pulley, and a very small
pulley on the motor. 30-60 RPM max. Slower is better. I am using a 10" pulley on the shaft and am searching for a
12" now to slow my rotation down a little more. The pulley at the motor is a 1&1/2",
and could be slightly smaller too.
The bearings were only lightly nailed to
the top of the posts, Just to eep them from moving, because I will need to get
at the tires and do maintenance on occassion.
Ease of maintenance is worth planning for, these large machines really
produce but also take a beating over time.
Everything needs to be adjustable, and balance is what lasts....once
something wears and the system gets out of balance it starts to lose
efficiency, leading to break down if not addressed. The more quickly a problem is addressed the
easier it is to remedy, and the less adverse wear on the parts around it. A good shop tool is the laser type
temperature pistol which has come down in price a lot. You aim it about 8" away from whatever
you want a temp measurement on, and it does it very accurately. A hot spot detector. Invaluable when working on machinery of all
types.
This is the third of these tumblers I have
built, the other two were single tire experiments and for materials like glass
and shell, and even metals (WORKS VERY WELL FOR METALS), they are really
aggressive. For agates and quartz things
they work well too but require harder grits than quartz sand, and it takes
longer of course. To actually polish
materials different tumblers need to be made and dedicated to different grits,
because grit contamination is a sure thing with these unless care is taken to
avoid it. There is usually a fair amount
of splash and I constantly add water to my loads during their tumbling
processes.
These tire tumblers are also great for
cleaning most kinds of mine run materials used in lapidary endeavors, and they
can be employed as ball mills to pulverise rock. I only run my tumbler when I can be there to
supervise, and this rig will grind about 60-80 pounds fully charged, which
means around 10-15 pounds per tire.
Thanks for checking this out. Good Luck.
Monday, April 6, 2015
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Quickie Tire Tumbler
Friday, March 27, 2015
High Grade New Mexico Rock For Sale
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| White Tiger Orthosiderite, $1.00 per gram rough. WRITE LUXEFAIRE@GMAIL.COM. This finished bead is sold. |
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| White Tiger Rough, water wet. $1.00 per gram. |
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| White Tiger Orthosiderite, rough, dry, $1.00 per gram |
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| Hachita Turquoise, with or without brown matrix, natural stone, $.30 gram, rare hard to find stuff. WRITE LUXEFAIRE@GMAIL.COM |
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| New Mexico Pyroxene Feldspar, cuts like jade, very colorful, $30.00 per pound. These are finished beads not for sale, showing the materials attributes, very nice to work with takes super polish with diamond. Lots of patterns. |
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| White tiger beads, and Tiger King beads, the brown is tiger king, dendritic psilomelane, 5.0 hard, works like turq, $40.00 per pound. Below are more examples of the finished white tiger orthosiderite. WRITE LUXEFAIRE@GMAIL.COM |
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Friday, November 28, 2014
Latest Beads
The diamond core bits on ebay are real cheap from china and some work well. I used them to punch these beads out and drilled the holes by eye, some you can tell, some not. The material is stuff I collected in Hachita. I then used pins in small pin vises to hold the bead against a vertical 6" diamond flat from Lopackis rotating at about 600 rpm to rough them in and homemade sanding wheels of the flap design to sand down to level where I could finish with diamond powders. See his bead tutorial at lopacki.com for information on how the bead works. The bottom pix is before polish at about 200 grit sanding level....b
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