Scratch Build – Complete ⭐ The Iron Turnip--6-2019-complete. final pictures on page 29

No abbreviations this time !

Just good to see you back at it

 

woohooo

 

Thanks, everyone. I know you are all shocked that it wasn't a full 6 months this time, but don't get your hopes up.
@adidan - There's an entire desk I can't clean until this is off of it. The parts and junk that accumulates for my projects is staggering.
@The_Crapman - Indeed. We have a contractor/friend working full time on stuff I can't get to. If I could find a lawn crew that didn't treat grass like it was their mortal enemy I'd have it a lot easier.
-anyway, I've BEEN at it, just at an insanely slow pace.

 

I can relate to the Desk clean thing

 

Hang in there cheaps. Maybe we can finish together

 

Hang on! that's what i say to the missus

 

when the apocalypse happens everyone wants a doctor etc what they really need is a cheapskate (is a compliment, a huge one)

you should bring out a book lol,

on the accommodation thing, in the uk we have estate agents for problems with tenants etc do they do something similar in the us? as it would be less headaches for you if you could go down that route,yes it would cost but they are suppose to keep an eye on property for you as you are paying them and you may not end up with the mess you get left with hopefully.

 

And here I am coming in from making an off-color comment in Vault's project log. You two win.
@jenners - That's pretty much what we do. We are down to about only 14, but 7 are ours. Then I have an elderly relative I do a lot for too.
The upkeep catches up with you over time, and that's a big part of why I've been busy. I just finished one to go on sale. The doors and trim hadn't been painted since it was built.- same with a few of the closets. This month included 2 roof replacements and a foundation jacking. I'm currently dealing with what the jacking messed up, and 5 yards during one of the wettest years ever.

 

I had forgotten how cramped the computer was.

 

Oh god, Monkey man! This log is like a treasure chest waiting to be opened. It's so long... It's so vast... Must... not... give... up on reading. Every page looks epic

 

Thanks.
@Dr. Coin - It turned out to be a good thing I received a non-reference graphics card. Fiddling with the board requires dental tools, though. I do seem to like to torture myself with cramped setups.

@Vognen - I aim to entertain. It seems intimidating, but the print is big, and the words are small. Should I title the next one "The Great Graspberries" ?

 

I have jack all finished, but I felt a need to update during the quiet.



-Remember this half-piston head? Me neither. I wonder where the rest of it went. I hacked it down the middle here-



-Because I found a good spot for an access panel. The original fuzzy plan was to connect case wiring to the system via long cables and hope they didn't jam up sliding the core module in. THAT PLAN WAS CRAP. What do you expect from vague fuzzy planning? With a big hole in the front I can hook up all the LED wires after the core is installed. I should probably remind myself to make it removable from the outside... Velcro?



-Here it is post sanding an epoxying.



-After some more hacking to make it sit lower, I noticed it doesn't exactly cover my planned hole. Hmm... Now you know why I'm wondering where the rest of that piston head is.



-Don't think I haven't noticed this thing is getting front-heavy.



-Anyone here still keeping a parts list? I've been eyeing these for a while: Minivan luggage rack extrusions. They came off as soon as it was discovered they whistle above 50 mph. They scream even louder in the chop saw.



-Mix up some epoxy and mash 'em in to it. The brass pipe came from trimming a towel rack.



-Dry, sand, and BOOM! Fancy enamel end-caps. Did you notice these look like fins? I have to remove the anodizing later to match the grimy metal color scheme.



-One more random part: This is part of an abandoned meat grinder. It came with a backyard pot full of boiled deer skulls and a gruesome spot in the floor of the storage shed. I'm guessing the lure of 'free duuhr meet' died as soon as they found out cleaning the deer was actual work. Something the size of a dog isn't much of a bountiful harvest either...

ANYway, I marked this up for cutting.



-And did some dremeling with a bit of coping saw work around the tube area.


-Yay! I finally got rid of that awkward spot in front if the fan grill.



-I did some 'fit, mark, grind, repeat' until it was fairly flush.



-Around this time I noticed the outside was lacking in brass accents. To make matters worse, my choices are getting slim. I'm pretty sure I can't add that bottle opener. The copper pipe is usable, though.



-Intermission- The drive in the Ion Cube started acting up, so I had to swap that out. The problem is the drive smack in the middle of the system. Someone remind me not to design like that again.

Thanks for your patience, sponsors and viewers alike.

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Oh yeah, the ION Cube was like a puzzle to dismantle and re-assemble.

Nice progress btw

 

love the end caps.

 

You may actually finish this before mine

 

Thanks!
@Bill - This rig is 10 times worse, but I can at least access everything.
@Coin - Thanks.
@def- You jinxed it. Nah, I need to paint stuff to finish. It's rained like mad since I bought paint, (I mean, the entire city flooded at one point, ) and winter just started. -Not one of those 95 degrees at Christmas winters, a real one.

 

This is starting to look like a beast!

 

Thanks.

 

There's another flood warning in effect. I think they do that every time it rains now, you know... just in case. Anyway, it gives me an excuse to update!

-Rejoice! For I have found more crap! I thought it was weird I only had half of a motor block, so I did some digging around. It turns out I have TWO scrap buckets. -Huh..

-I chopped a bit of the mower motor casing and filed it down to a fairly flat plate.

-I got some cheap LED strip and wired some up to go behind the fan clutch in the front. I made a mistake and got the stuff encased in soft PVC. That was some NASTY smoke coming off the soldering iron this time. There's some connectors coming in the mail for my electrical junction board via rowboat or something.

-I still don't know how people can strip the chrome off sink hardware like this. I chopped the choice bit off of this drain flange and sanded it flat.

-I then spent an hour or so sanding the chrome off the underside. I got it together with ANOTHER ruined sink drain from earlier, and gave them both a dose of oven cleaner. It doesn't tarnish the brass right away. It waits until you've forgotten to work, so you come back to find the parts completely black.

-Next I masked off the fan grill, taped the meat grinder part from the previous update in place, and epoxied the new brass ring on it.

-Later...well, today, I filed the extra goop off and hit it with oven cleaner again. I have a purple disc to glue in the middle.

-Since I'm doing all this plumbing-related stuff, Here's an off-topic tutorial:
If you've bought a bathroom faucet in the past 20 years, you know they almost all come with a cheap Chinese gray plastic drain assembly. What you might not know is the lever for the drain plunger on these are made of soft plated steel. Older or more expensive versions were properly made of brass, but these cheap units generally rust away in one to five years.
-anyway...

-I have been replacing the steel since it's faster than rebuilding the sink. Here I've sawed off the rusty end and filed the end smooth. To free the ball/bushing I put it in a board with a hole drilled in it. The back end of the rod is in a vice, so by smacking the board, the ball is freed.
In back you can see a set of stainless steel rods I have for replacements. I made sure they were larger than the rusty crappy ones.

-Being nice to your nylon ball is important. Any scratching or distortion will make it leak. I made sure the clamping here didn't squash/flatten the hole in the middle before drilling. The bit is slightly smaller than the replacement rod. The fit has to be tight, or it will leak. Potentially, you could glue a stainless rod in, but this is best.

-Back to the board with a hole in it. Use this to tap the ball onto the new rod.

-And it's ready to go back in the drain assembly.

Thanks for watching. Buy stuff from the following

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Most of the time I don't even understand why you're doing what you're doing. But I love it!