The Mad Industrialist Part 4
Today was an awful day. It was long, hot, and difficult.
What’s worse, I could not get into the swing of welding at all. Laying down loose welds, full of holes, spatter everywhere…
Got many many sparks inside the helmet, got a spark right down my back. That hurt. Caught weld flare twice. That sucks more than anything.
Did I not enjoy today?
Don’t get me wrong, I love welding. But when you can’t get into a rhythm on it, it can be a punishing mistress.
Click through for more pictures.
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The Mad Industrialist Part 3
Back to work.
This week we were doing multiple layers of weld on single joints. The top weld in the picture is a single weld, the bottom joint has one weld on top of the other, and there’s a third one to come.
Check out more pictures after the jump.
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Today, I’m just like everyone else
No Mad Industrialist today. One inch of snow and they called the whole thing off. I’d say all of us lads on the course would have made it. We love our welding, and I’d say we’re all pissed that we didn’t get to go in today.
Here’s an old snow picture. Like it’s a consolation.
The Mad Industrialist Part 2
Week two of my welding course and today is the first day that we joined two pieces of metal together with both tack welds and fillet welds.
The line where the top plate joins the middle plate has been tack welded. One tack welds something so the pieces of work do not shift during the heavier welding.
The bottom and middle plate are permanently attached (thanks to me) with a fillet weld. The trick is to weld slowly. I love welding, I really do.
More next week. And a close up picture after the jump.
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Today I became…
The Mad Welder!
This here’s my booth. After the jump the first pictures of my first welds.
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Prospective project #1
I have the house to myself this weekend. I’m considering doing a project. Google sketchup is a fantastic program to use when you’re thrashing out some details. The picture is of a craft table I’m considering; I could build the skeleton quite easily in a weekend.
The drawer fronts could be plastic, coloured with a tinted sheet. I really like this design so I’m going to keep going on it, and maybe I’ll build it one day.
I’ll probably make myself a desk this weekend though as I am in bad need of one.
Here’s an idea, since this is a first prospective project, maybe I’ll design 4 or 5 things then you, my loyal readers can vote on them.
Tool Review: Challenge Xtreme Impact Drill
Hello there are welcome to the second of The Mad Carpenter’s tool reviews. Today we have a look at the power drill, one of the corner stones of the woodworking world. You need a drill these days; either for driving screws, drilling pilot holes or drilling… larger holes. It seems really limited, but trust me, it gets you out of a lot of work at times.
I splashed out 30 euros for this drill, which isn’t a lot to some, but I’m on a very fixed budget. There was one for half the price of this one, but it didn’t include a carry case, and I thought I’d splash out a bit.
More pictures and reviewing after the jump.
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BP Thursday
So today is bit devoid of information, so I’ll give you something else:
Autocad design after the Jump.
It’s a coffin.
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New Project Monday
Hello there my dozens of fans, readers and well wishers. After getting back to Letterkenny with my workbench, the rest of my tools and clean laundry (Thanks for the lift Ma) I got started on a small project.
Not going to tell you what that project is yet, but I’ll give you a tasty hint in the form of this picture.
*Rolf Harris voice* Can you tell what it is yet?
Spent most of the day consumed with the project, and spent the rest of the day doing very little. Nothing like a bit of tinkering to while away the hours. Has anyone out there started any projects recently? I’d love to hear from you.
Drop a line in the comments section down there, feel free to give me some links. Might even include them in the project post later in the week.
Tool Review: Challenge power screwdriver
Hello and welcome to the first of, hopefully, many tool purchases and reviews. As an amateur carpenter there is seldom greater a joy than purchasing a new gizmo or whirlygig with which to make working with wood and metal not only easier, but more fun. Who doesn’t love a good gadget?
Today’s tool is a 3.6V power screwdriver from the budget tool range Challenge which I’ve only ever really seen stocked at Argos, a strange mix of warehouse and retail shop.
Just to explain Argos to the those of you out there that don’t know; you walk in, look through the laminated catalog of dreams, fill in your slip with the tiny pens provided, then wait for the great computer God ARGOS to call your number and deliver you your wonderous delights.
Enough of that, on to the screwdriver.
This is the little box that it came in, promising lots of goodies and joy inside. However for you kiddies, the goodies and joy are after the jump.
The Mad Carpenter: tech hacker
Ok, so I’ve been geeking on tech-hack all night, and I’ve been reminded of something I’ve wanted to do for months.
I bought an old camera in a charity shop, and was devastated when I found that they no longer made film for it. Hours of searching on the internet revealed that some people modified the old film canisters to take 35 mm film. Now, for a camera designed to be ridiculously simple, that seems complicated.
So I came up with an even more complicated idea! Why not strip out the innards and replace them with the innards of a digital camera? Then you’d have the look of a classically designed old camera, with the functionality of a digital camera.
I’ve never tried a tech hack before, but it seems right up my street. As soon as I gather all the relevant materials: digital camera to be wrecked, jewelers tools set, super glue and the instamatic body.
I’ll keep you posted as soon as I get started.
The mario cube project is still on hold, I don’t have paint supplies or a work bench…
Also planning on building a workbench. And I’ve been commissioned to build another coffin, so it’ll be fancier than the first. I’m thinking gold accents. It’ll be great
Seems like the mad carpenter is going to be very busy in the coming weeks and months. Thanks for the support.
Tech-hacking, a marvellous source of inspiration
I’ve been geeking all evening over at some weird blogs based on people who like to tech hack, and tinker with things.
I’m watching a video right now about an elliptical trainer/bike cross. You use an elliptical trainer motion to propel the back wheel, so you’re gliding along and standing upright. I think it’s genius.
They call it the Elliptigo glide bike. Check it out.
Today’s picture.
Proof once more, than blokes in shed are geniuses. Have a wonderful geeked out day.
Fix it day
If I look contented in this picture, it’s with good reason.
I love doing things, especially handyman sort of things, so today, after getting back from collecting some money from the government; which had been lying in the post office since last Thursday, and no one mentioned to me until I trekked across town in morning traffic on a bike by the way… I’ve forgotten my point…
Oh yeah! The handle on Mary’s door was all keh-fucked, and I had offered to fix it. So after taking it apart and swapping handles between doors I thought I had it sorted. I moved the handle, and a god awful squealing chilled my handyman soul. I needed to lubricate the handle, but I didn’t have any WD-40, so I did what anyone would do…. Looked for another type of oil. I found cooking oil, and it worked really well.
Feeling full of man-pride, I decided to tackle the doorbell. For some reason, it just wouldn’t ring. Took the button off the door and found a little fuse looking thing which had, well… fused. It was broken. It was glassy in the middle though, not like a household plug fuse, so I set off walking into town as the sun was shining and I was being carried by my man-pride.
I showed my little metal and glass trinket to every shop employee I could find that worked in a shop relating in any way to hardware or electricity. Walked at least 2 miles back and forth around town, each shop assistant telling me to go to a different shop. Cut to 5 shops later. An hardware wholesaler, Irwin’s Electrical on the port road.
And say what you want about customer service these days, but those two old guys were helpful beyond belief! They took their time examining the little thing I showed them, and they told me it was actually a little light for behind the doorbell, and since it was fused, it wasn’t completing the circuit. Sold me a replacement, after making sure it was as close to the right thing as they could sell me, and then give me a receipt. Told me to come back if it was the wrong thing for money back and everything.
Got a taxi home, for I had the feet walked clean off me, and started working on the doorbell again. The copper contacts inside were grubby, the plastic casing was full of dead spiders, the wiring was corroded… nightmare.
So I bent the copper into the right place after cleaning it, stripped the flex cover off to expose clean wire, reassembled the unit, slotted the little fuse-bulb into place and pressed the button with gritted teeth.
My heart has never swelled more at such a simple “Ding-Dong”.
I had a moment of man-triumph today. And damn it all if it didn’t feel fantastic. It’s the simple little jobs that take the longest, but it’s so fulfilling to have something WORK after you’ve put in so much effort.
Oh and on a side note, I bought a decanter today, Put a deposit on it two weeks ago. It’s worth 150 euro, I got it for a third of the price. I’ll do a post about it tomorrow.
The moral of today’s story is: If you can fiddle with it until it works, why would you call someone to do it for you? It’s so satisfying to wipe the rust and grime off your hands knowing that something works better now than it did before you decided to fix it.
Happy tinkering carpentry fans
Flying car off to Timbuktu
Oh you are going to love this one. I know I do.
A FLYLING FUCKING CAR is setting off from London to Timbuktu in Africa.
Some complete nutter decided to build himself a flying car. And it works so, naturally, he’s flying to Timbuktu to prove his point. This is a fabulous innovation and crazy people always get the best things done. I’m immediatly a big fan of this guy, because he’s a self tought engineer, and I’m trying to be a self tought carpenter. I’ve got an affinity to this dude in a big way.
The nutter element of society: those guys trying to build the space elevator, flying cars, the fellas farting about that designed atomic bombs and neuclear fusion…
Men in Sheds: Changing the world since the wife told them to stop using the kitchen table as a work bench.
