Dusting off the cobwebs

[Sean Powell]

Mac.

Please start a new thread for your casting projects. We'd all like to see the process and design work

I'm going to second this but probably in a different thread. I learned a lot from watching you make molds for pewter.


Sean

[Mac]

Mac.

Please start a new thread for your casting projects. We'd all like to see the process and design work

I'm going to second this but probably in a different thread. I learned a lot from watching you make molds for pewter.


Sean

I may well be too busy to blog on the pewter process. We'll see. Right now, I'm just casting in molds we already have.

Pewter prices are down, so I just ordered 100 pounds, rather than the 50 that would take us through Pennsic.

Mac

[Ian L]

I may well be too busy to blog on the pewter process. We'll see. Right now, I'm just casting in molds we already have.

Pewter prices are down, so I just ordered 100 pounds, rather than the 50 that would take us through Pennsic.

Mac

Is there any chance of the triumphant return of the beakers and/or trenchers??

[Greylond]

Pewter prices are down, so I just ordered 100 pounds, rather than the 50 that would take us through Pennsic.

Where does one order 100 pounds of pewter from?

[Cet]

http://www.rotometals.com/
http://www.atlasmetal.com/
http://www.osterpewter.com/

[Galileo]

http://www.neymetals.com/

[Gryndar]

AAAAArrrrggghhhhhhh. Im jonesin for a Mac Fix......Cmon August.......

[Mac]

Sorry about the hiatus.

Mac

[Gryndar]

Not rushing you Mac, take all the time you need. I just didnt want this thread to get buried too far down. And I AM jonesin for another episode of 'Mac Says'.....

[SchwarzeRitter]

Wow, what a great thread. I am already learning a lot and I'm only on page 7. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge and experience with us!

[Mac]

Thank you, SR! I am glad when others can learn from my experience.

Mac

[Alex Baird]

Why isn't this thread stickied? Paging JT!

[Mac]

I'm back from Pennsic, and have (mostly) unpacked the van. Experience shows that despite the best intentions to "get right back to work", it will take me between 12 and 14 days of sitting slack-jawed to decompress. During that time I will try to pick up some loose-end projects and deal with things that will make next year's Pennsic go more smoothly (while they are fresh in my mind)..... I may even mow my lawn.

Mac

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Welcome home, Mac.

[Gryndar]

Yay!!!!!!!!! Mac is back.....let the bells ring out and the trumpets peal...school is back in session.....um......ahem..... welcome back Mac. How was Pensic?

[coreythompsonhm]

We have been lucky over here, everything is too dead to grow

No lawn mowing, more project time!

[Tom B.]

I just ordered up some 2 1/2" webbing, so I hope it will do the trick. My concern is that it might be a bit heavy.

Mac

I am needing to "belt up" a couple brayettes and some skirts, so I was wondering if that 2.5" webbing you ordered looked good or not.
Have you had a chance to take a good look at it?

[Kristoffer]

Curse you for bumping this thread and make me all happy in my pants believing that Mac was back posting updates!

[Kalle Ommer]

Well, I think it is time for another bump

[Mac]

I will be returning to this project pretty soon. There's a little home improvement wiring project that has my attention right now, but it should be wrapping up in the next couple of days.

Mac

[Johann ColdIron]

I will be returning to this project pretty soon. There's a little home improvement wiring project that has my attention right now, but it should be wrapping up in the next couple of days.

Mac

Looking forward to it Mac but take your time with the wiring. It's kinda important to get that right!

[RandallMoffett]

MAC I am starting to think you know how to do everything.

[Mac]

I will be returning to this project pretty soon. There's a little home improvement wiring project that has my attention right now, but it should be wrapping up in the next couple of days.

Mac

Looking forward to it Mac but take your time with the wiring. It's kinda important to get that right!

I thought I was just going install a couple of motion activated lights on the back porch, and move the switch so that it was inside the house. Unfortunately, nothing is ever easy when it involves dealing with things the previous owner did. It turns out that these motion activated occupancy switches will not function at all if they don't have a nice clean ground, and everything in the porch and laundry room is fed by old two wire armored cable. A couple of good days were spent trying to find out why I seemed to have voltage in my ground. Tightening a loose cable clamp in a junction box up in the suspended ceiling did the trick. It was sort of anticlimactic, really.

By the time it was all done with this campaign I had....
--Installed new light on the porch with a motion sensor
--Installed a GFCI in the first of the porch receptacles which protects the other three.
--Removed the visibly toasted and non functioning GFCI and replaced it with a damp location/covered receptacle
--Replaced the other similarly situated GFCI . (both of these are subject to wind blown mist if the porch windows are open)
--Rewired the porch ceiling fan (The Meatball had used the green wire as a neutral)
--Replaced a plastic switch box that feeds a couple of outside lights with a metal one so that the two-wire armored cable could be bonded to something grounded.
--Moved the porch light switch to our side of the locked back door. (this involved drilling through the wall plate from up in the suspended ceiling of the vestibule... and ruining my good three-flute bit on a nail)
--Pulled new wire for the fan switch (this required opening a piece of wall, which I have yet to close back up)
--Replaced the vestibule light switch with an occupancy sensor. (which finally works, now that the ground is clean)
--Replaced a length of two-wire armored cable in the ceiling with 12/3 Romex to insure a real ground.
--Connected up all the ground wires in the boxes in a way that respected the electrical code.

I still need to convert the outside lights over to motion activated ones, but that will have to wait a bit. Their cables are grounded now, but I need to come up with a bond the armor sheathing to the fixtures. The boxes are plastic, and buried under vinyl siding. "In the house of The Meatball, there is no easy peasy"

Mac

[wcallen]

I don't think you own the only house formerly owned by a meatball. I know for sure both of mine in NC have some really nutty wiring, and I suspect the same of our house in KY. I think once you get to a house that has had several owners, the change in "normal" practices and the fact that some percentage of people are meatballs, you end up with at least one set of nutty things going on.

Any time you open up electrical, or plumbing you are likely to find something crazy.

Wade

[Haldan]

Any time you open up electrical, or plumbing you are likely to find something crazy.

Wade

THIS!

And it applies even to 'new' houses.

Russ

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Any time you open up electrical, or plumbing you are likely to find something crazy.

Wade

THIS!

And it applies even to 'new' houses.

Russ

Gospel truth.

[Mac]

Our house has had only four owners since it was built in 1895....

--The first owner had knob and tube installed sometime around the turn of the 20th c. One can see where they tore up the floor boards to do it. So far as I can tell, none of that is currently energized.
--The second owner had the electrical system extended into the summer kitchen and basement in the mid century. Some of that is two-wire armored cable, and some is early three wire non-metallic. It's mostly still OK where it has not been messed with, although some of the insulation on the conductors of the NM is looking tatty.
--The third owner (The Meatball) "rewired everything" with between the mid 70s and 2010. He mostly used Romex, but he put some two-wire and three-wire metallic cable in mouse-prone locations. His work is a very mixed bag. When it is good, it is very very good, and when it is bad it is shocking.

I suppose that pretty much everyone has bad wiring somewhere. That's why anyone bothered to write an electrical code. Still; it's hard not to feel singularly and uniquely put upon by one's own personal Meatball.

Mac

[Jeremy.G]

... and when it is bad it is shocking.

Ba-dum bum.

[Mac]

I am reviewing the last few pages of this thread to see if I can't remember what I was doing before the break. Hopefully, that will tell me where I need to pick it back up.

I have a sort of dreadful feeling that it's time to start preparing for hardening. I have not done any heat treating since I moved to my new shop and there is much to do to prepare.

--My quench tank has rust-through at the water line, and I have been using it as a convenient horizontal surface to set the table saw. I will need to move the saw and weld up the holes in the tank.
--The polymer quenchant has been sitting in a stack of 5gal orange buckets for about five years. Once the tank is repaired, I will see if the quench is in good shape or if it has molded.
--The kiln is plugged into a dedicated receptacle with its own breaker, but I have not run it. That will need testing.
--The ceiling above the kiln is like the rest of the shop ceiling. That is to say there is nothing covering the paper-faced insulation up between the joists. I fear that opening the hot kiln could ignite that paper, so I will either need to get some drywall up in that location, or put some sort of temporary shield in place.
--Each of the components will need to be braced and wired for heat treatment according to its needs.

The whole idea of heat treating seems a bit daunting now, even though it was more or less routine before I moved. I need to simply summon up some balls and deal with it.

Mac

[Mac]

So... Here are some pics of the sad state of affairs that my heat treating operation is in.

First of all, my quench tank had got some rust-through.



I knew there was trouble, but having wire brushed off most of the rust inside, I see that the holes are a good deal larger than I had thought. The plan had been to gas weld the holes shut, but it looks like I'll need to weld on sizable patches instead.



The polymer quenchant is in these 5gal buckets, and has been since we moved the shop in 2010.



These were brand new buckets then, but some of them are starting to leak.



At least one of the lids is visibly cracked, and it's a good thing I'm about to deal with it.



I will repair the tank before I open up the buckets. I fear that disturbing them at all will necessitate emptying them into something.

The other pressing issue is about the kiln. As far as I know, it's wired and ready to go....



... but the ceiling directly above it has paper covered insulation between the joists.



I don't know if opening the orange-hot kiln a mere seven feet below this paper will create a problem, but I would rather not find out. There will have to be something between the kiln and the insulation. I'm not ready to sheet-rock the ceiling yet, so perhaps some sort of shield interposed between the two will be the path of least resistance. A sheet of plywood hanging from wires at its corners might do the trick.

Mac

[Keegan Ingrassia]

They make a foil-laminated OSB sheet for radiant heat barriers under roofing. Your local big-box hardware store will likely have it. Might be more effective at resisting the heat than a sheet of plywood.

https://shop.mccoys.com/building-materi ... osb/p.2086

[Zanetto]

Mac,

Before you start welding patches on your quench tank, you might want to try JB Weld. When my steel tank started to get holes at the water line this is what I did. It held up just fine.

Rob

[Aussie Yeoman]

Just how expensive can it be to get a new tank? Not just the dollar amount of it, but in the context of the time taken to repair the old one.

[Mac]

Mac,

Before you start welding patches on your quench tank, you might want to try JB Weld. When my steel tank started to get holes at the water line this is what I did. It held up just fine.

Rob

Too late, I fear, Rob.

By the time I saw your post I had already cut away the rust around the holes. I will keep this in mind, though, for the next leaks. I am sure there will be more.

Mac

[Mac]

I opened the holes up with a snips until I was in sound metal. I was thinking that it would be .042" or so, but it turns out to be only .029". I found some .032' stock to make the patches.



Here is what a typical patch looked like just before the welding....



...and after.



It all went OK enough until I set the barrel up on the bench to give the insides a "once over" with the torch. It turned out that the corner of the bench was too close to the welding. After I extinguished the smouldering bench top, everything went smoothly again.



These are not pretty welds, nor strong ones, but all they have to do is hold water. I wish I had a clever and convenient way to test them without filling the whole damn thing up.

Mac