What non foundry project did you make today?

Nah. They get pretty large and are quite nippy with other fish. They also dig and tear up plants so they aren't good candidates for planted tanks which is the only kind of tank I keep. I steer clear of oscars, red devils, fire mouths, green terrors. Very pretty fish but not suitable for planted tanks.

I've bred many many species over the years. 5 or so species of apistos, kribs, rams, acaras, nannacaras, discus, plecos, all the live bearers like mollies/guppies, pygmy sunfish, tetras, killi fish, gouramis, african cichlids, shell dwellers, etc etc etc.

 

A few pics of my old tanks.

 

you got plecostomas to breed? amazing. didnt know that was possible in captivity. I cut a foot long pleco up for my piranas... even they wanted nothing to do with that thing. You should have smelled that fish when I sliced him up on his belly. And it was still live!

 

pretty tanks, I kill live plants.

 

Sorry about the delay, I was unable to log into the forum for several days and couldn't find any administrator emails I could find to contact anyone about the problem: the website said I needed to enable cookies even though they were enabled in Firefox.

In answer to your question it's a quick dry enamel simply named "metallic red" (looks like Iron Man red to me) in a rattle can. I made a mistake machining the left hand side spacer and it was rubbing the outer race, which you can hear in the video, once that was fixed it was even quieter and smoother. I was able to balance a 12 sided Aussie 50 cent piece on the housing for a minute or so at a time. A smooth running bench grinder is a whole new experience, I can't go back again all you hear now is the motor and the hiss of the grinder wheel in air.

 

Zap - I'm trying to get a couple firearms lined out for hunting season this fall but the aquarium is next on my dance card. I've had a 65 gallon since 2015 that I got just before I moved and had to keep in storage. It's time to break it out. I'm looking into doing a planted aquarium that favors small, schooling South American fish.

 

65 g has a good shape. Nice and square, makes it easy to do a proper aquascape. Post pics when you start on it.

Glad your back mark, I couldn't log in to aa a while back. Any pics of the inside of the casting? Did you bore it out and set bearing in there?

 

The casting had a nasty hidden bifold defect about 3/8" diameter on the outside that was covered by a thin bit of metal, on bead blasting it bubbled up and I had to file it and epoxy fill it. The inside was bored for a 6204 bearing (47mm) and looked pretty good:

 

Who thought the word bifold was suitable for this issue? It means twice. Is that the best we could come up with?

 

Whatever it's called it, means I need to use some of that brass/bronze flux to gather the oxides and cover the metal... skimming is just not enough.

 

Nice project Kelly. No doubt there's a lot of cutting there. I wouldn't worry about filling it up. They tend to fill up naturally on their own soon enough. It sure is nice to be able to see what you've got without so much sorting and digging.

Pete

 

That is a nice storage rack you built there.
(making a mental note about that)

I bought this for transporting the foundry to shows, and perhaps to just store all the stuff together out of the way.
Size is 4'x8", and with the pointed front, I think it will hold entire 4'x8' sheets of plywood.

It is shorter than the minivan that I drive, and so it really tucks in out of the wind.
I can't feel it behind the car, and it does not affect the cruise control either, so that is a real plus.

I wanted a back door and a side door because by some law of physics, the item you want is always at the opposite end of the trailer.

 

Nice trailer...

Now I can hear you clowns laughing at me already, but I had a ton of drilling to do through some thick bronze. I can sharpen a bit on the grinder pretty damn good, but it was getting tiring. So I did the unthinkable and tried the drill doctor. AGAIN. I owned a cheap blue one from HD and it was a real piece of shit. I could never get that thing to work right so I took it back.. I rolled the dice once more and bought the 750x. I gotta say, after putzing with it for a couple of hrs, I've got it dialed in for sound. I got it off Amazon on a credit I had from the very disappointing ring pro I tried. Now that thing was a joke. Too bad, I wanted it to work.

Yes I saw AvE's video on the blue one. He was right. gaaabage

 

Been using my 750x for years and years. Works very well. One diamond wheel will sharpen hundreds of bits.

Denis

 

Good to know Denis!

I thought for sure I'd receive a rash of crap for buying one. When it comes to the drill doctor, you either love it or hate it. Funny how that works.
This one is starting to make me a believer.

 

I did the inlay cutting and text cutting for a gift to a friend. He's a tree guy. The bronze tree still needs buff/patina and final plug-in and I still have to decide on letter and edge color. I bought a solid plaque blank from a local awards company.

 

Nice work petee.

 

I buy the diamond drill doctor grinding wheels. I have an arbor for them and I mount it in my CNC router spindle. Then I have a fixture to allow me to sharpen drill bits from about 5/8” to 2” diameter.

I have never drilled bronze but I have drilled copper and brass. For both of those metals you don’t want the ‘hook’ relief that you have on standard drill bit. Take a stone and stroke it parallel to the drill axis on each flute to remove the hook. This prevents the drill from feeding itself into the material and the hole will be much better.