A few years ago, we built a forge based on Larry Zoeller’s designs. We’ve used it a few times and now it’s time that the forge itself gets a bit of maintenance. This is nothing more than recoating the inside with a refractory coating to help keep the insulation in good shape. We did a quick test fire after letting it dry for a week and all was well.
Machining Brass
The cooker door wouldn’t snap closed properly. A quick disassembly of the hinges showed that a brass disc had a flat spot from years of wear and tear. Replacements were no longer available. Time to make some new ones on the lathe.
Took some measurements and started with a length of brass stock. Turned it down to the required diameter, then drilled a 4mm centre hole. Next cut a groove and parted off the new disc from the bar.
Brass is interesting to work with. It kinda crumbles off in fine particles, unlike steel. Drop in sometime and have a look at the lathe.
September Open Social
On Saturday 17th September we will be holding our regular Open Social evening. If you’ve never been to our Social, you’ll find it a great alternative Saturday evening in town. Look around….talk to members and visitors about projects or things you’d like to do. Talk about beer brewing to some of our brewer members or about locks to our lock pickers. Have a look at our laser cutter and our motorbike that we’re restoring. Ask about joining as a full member.
Hopefully there’ll be, caint, ceol agus craic as usual. The space stays open until the last member is left……usually the small hours of Sunday morning. The evening is free to attend for members and visitors alike. No booking is required…. just turn up. You can drop in for 10 minutes, or stay the whole night. We have parking available. Bring beer, food, gadgets! Our doors will be open from 7pm. Hope to see you there.
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Super Fly Trap
This time of year, everyones kitchen seems to be buzzing with tiny fruit flies. If you were taking part in a hackathon to build a fly trap, this one would probably win….. and there’s not an Arduino or a line of code in sight. But what is the mystery mixture in the glass? We hear rumours of beer and vinegar. Drop in to our kitchen to have look.
Swollen Lithium Batteries
Lithium batteries are in the news for all the wrong reasons at the moment, and not for the first time.
We noticed that one of our batteries was a little swollen compared to the others. It seemed to be working OK though. We decided to open up the outer wrap to see if it was one cell or all of them, and to see if anything was obviously wrong. The battery was an 11.1V 1300mAHr LIPO. Check out some pics of us cutting off the outer black covering, to reveal that all three cells were swollen. There appeared to be no external sign of damage however. The cells feel as if they are swollen with gas.
We hooked it up to the IMAX charger to see what kind of capacity our battery had. This battery is about five years old. Its nominal capacity is 1300mAHr. We fully charged it and then discharged it. We were pleasantly surprised to find it at 1095mAHr. That was discharging it at 200mA which is about C/6. By the time the charge and discharge was complete, the pack had swelled even more.
The question now is what to do with this battery. The Internet is full of videos of people doing all sorts of crazy things to lithium batteries too. We won’t be doing any of that here. We won’t be keeping this battery indoors, thats for sure. It could still be useful for some completely remote outdoor application, away from any kind of combustible material. We should probably dispose of it safely though. Note that all of the disassembly, charging and discharging was done outdoors and with lots of PPE.
Wooden Bicycle Pump
Well not quite, but a wooden handle anyway. We don’t just do bits and bytes at TOG! The bicycle pump handle broke and it seemed a shame to dump an otherwise perfectly good pump. So with a bit of nice round wood cut from an old roller blind pole, we made a new handle. Drilled a hole in the handle and a couple of small holes in the metal shaft of the piston to give the glue a bit of grip.
We wanted to use some glue with a little bit of flexibility or “give” in it, instead of something that set rock hard. That seemed to be the way the old handle was fitted. So our old reliable hot glue gun was fired up. It sets hard, but not rock hard. Pump is back in action, good as new, and it even looks a bit rustic with its new wooden handle. We have lots of members interested in bicycle things at TOG. Drop in and see what we get up to. Pics here.