Daily Fabrication Thread

[caveman]

One of my ag mech students texted me a picture the other night and asked if I'd help him build a golf ball retrieval disc to fetch golf balls out of lakes.  I've known this kid since he was born.  His dad is my teaching partner and one of my best friends.  

We drew it up on the cnc machine and cut out a few discs to get the design and spacing figured out.  After determining the spacing, we set up to cut standardized parts and built a frame.  The first afternoon they pulled it, they got over 400 balls.  This morning they got north of 800.  He now wants to make a smaller one that is not so heavy when loaded with muck off of the bottom.  I suggested he take a junker boat, add a small outboard, davit and a winch and go bigger or pull more.  

 

[newoodguy78]

Good to see some young guys coming up with ideas. I agree with you , go big or go home  :D

[Walnut Beast]

Good job! Seen a show where a guy was retrieving balls like that and reselling and making good money 💰 

[caveman]

He's cleaning them, sorting them and selling them.  Some of these are expensive balls.  The cool thing is that this is like catching fish from a barrel that is constantly being restocked.  

I gave him an idea on a how I would make a ball washer, but we'll see if he pursues that.

The first day they went, his dad took a bucket to put balls in.  He assumed that would be a good haul.  Within an hour, they had filled the bucket and the livewell on the boat.


 

[Walnut Beast]

How about a old washer with a few towels in there and the balls

[Peter Drouin]

 

[caveman]

How about a old washer with a few towels in there and the balls

Funny you should say that.  I suggested buying a washing machine off of CL.  They can be had for $35-$75 locally (I checked).  I told them that I would try zip tying a few brushes to the agitator and a few more to the tub and putting the balls in small laundry bags.  Both the dad and the boy thought that that would not work very well.  They can keep hand scrubbing their balls.  I do not see any reason why it would not work well with brushes or towels.

[whatwas]

i was maintenance guy at a old time summer resort here with a 9 hole course and driving range.
I made up a ball washer out of a old ringer style washing machine by drilling the agitator putting in a couple pieces of re-bar in and lining the inside of the drum with fake green grass carpet.
you could wash a couple 5 gal pales of balls at a time but the noise was wild!

[realzed]

A golf course nearby had a guy pulling balls from the many ponds on it - and I mean pulling.. He looked like Popeye after years of pulling that contraption by rope through those ponds! 
He obviously needed permission to do this - and I heard he also had to pay a sort of retrieval fee back to the course owner for the rights to do it.. but it must have been profitable enough because he worked at all 5 of the courses owned by the same guy, doing it.. 

[kelLOGg]

I scavenged for golf balls by hand as a kid in a creek that traversed a golf course in Charlotte. Once one plopped nearby and I grabbed it quickly and stuffed it in my pants. Later the golfers appeared an asked if I had seen a ball land and I said, "no sir". Just then it fell out of my pants and plopped back in the water. "Oh, here it is" I said trying to save face and threw it up to them. 

[Crusarius]

Had a guy I know give me a trailer jack and ask if I could turn it into something to lift the snowmobiles a little easier.

I use complete piles of scrap and slapped it together in about 4 hours. It is ugly but feels alot more stable than I expected. Now I just need to test it on a real snowmobile.



 

[Stephen Alford]

   Had a tire issue on my go to half ton.  Went to get the spare up under the box .  What a corker of a spot to put a spare. No risk of theft that thing was rust welded in there solid . Laying in the muck looking up at it did not make for a pleasant moment.  Got it removed but its not going back under the truck . Nothing there to attach it to any more   .  Just chucking it in the back would be fine but when the atv (ol ruby) is there not much room .  So welded up a carrier of sorts and stuck it in the trailer hitch. 
    Seems to be a great spot ,adds nice weight to the rears ,blocks headlights from behind, lisence plate is visible and oddly enough do not seem to have anyone tail gating me anymore . :D   If this works I will hinge it so it will just fold down to open the tailgate.
      Just wondering if others have done this and if so did dot have anything to say about  ???


 

[Crusarius]

it is much nicer to hinge it to swing to the side. But it is alot more work to do that.

[Stephen Alford]

    Thank you for your input Mr Crusarius  .  Similiar to what's on a jeep . I will take some measurements .  There seem to be more vechicles with tow hitch add ons like bikes  and lately I saw a snow blower .   The tire does look a tad odd on there .  Just don't want to interact with dot any more than I have to . 🫣

[Crusarius]

search for hitch mounted swing away tire carrier. will give you lots of ideas

[Don P]

I've been trying to clean up my empire, its amazing how much crap a boy drags home. So I started the day with a scrap run, which filled the gas tank for the return trip. And I uncovered a couple of transmission cases in my scrap. I decided to cast a few more post bases and figured someone else might get inspired to cast something cool. I've been debating some cast truss heels like old industrial timber trusses had, maybe next time.

Should probably wear a helmet and goggles if busting cases with a logsplitter. Luckily I have a hard head  :D.

This is my high tech furnace towards the end of the melt, it was about full of charcoal when I lit it. A trash can with a tire rim in the bottom.  I drilled a 2" hole in the lower part of the rim and can to accept a pipe I have hooked to a small fan. There is firebrick around the walls and then fireclay lining from an old furnace around the top.  That 4" pipe with a couple of chain links welded to it is my crucible, one high and one low to hook and tip. Wouldn't work for high heat but sort of serviceable for aluminum. Make sure the pipe and fan are above the floor of the furnace. If the crucible leaks, say if you think an old plumbers propane cylinder would make a useable crucible, that molten AL is going somewhere. I looked in my crucible and it was empty ???. That was a few years ago, happily the blowing fan froze a long tongue of it and it stopped just before ruining it. A loose scrap of tin over the top of the can when not working helps to hold the heat in.


 

Lightly damp sand, just enough to bind it, I've got a very little bit of clay and ash in it as well, just damp enough to hold a ball, steam explodes if it cannot escape fast enough, don't make more than you gotta. I ram fairly tight tap the form every way and remove. If it doesn't work, try again. Level it, liquid aluminum is just like liquid water, it will lay level. Anyway, fun stuff and sand cheap  


 

Edit after da boss got home.
Not as hard as I thought, she said "check your hat". Off to da showers  :. Prolly throw a quilt over em next time I split chunks.



All good, Could be the wrong thread  :D

[aigheadish]

Man, I got so mad when I found the spare tire under the minivan when I had that thing. Welded on was right. I'm not sure I've ever been so mad at a crazy design and I think for mine it was the stupid cable thing that was welded.

Don that casting setup is nice! I had thought, with zero experience, that I would make a wedding ring for my wife before I proposed. I didn't get past the molding stage, even with purpose built casting sand and the like. I think I was aiming for much too intricate for the lack of experience. It's still fun to play around with the little forge. Mine is made out of one of those feed buckets that I lined with a concrete and vermiculite mix (if I recall properly), and heated with propane that I've never got adjusted just right. I can melt aluminum but that's about it with how it's setup now. I may need to add some air to it and my gas nozzle is just a pinched copper tube. I don't think the Venturi effect ever Venturi'd enough (is that the right word?).

[Peter Drouin]

With all the salt in NH, that's one of the first things I did to my 2500 truck. Drop the spare and grease the whole thing up.
Works find.
I'm good at keeping my stuff in working order, too much $$ otherwise.


An 06 with just a little over 100,000 miles on it. And no rust

[Stephen Alford]

   Checked out the swing away tire carrier some good concepts for sure. Working on a hitch mount to hold a vise now.  I think i got my answer on the tire carrier yesterday. Had a RCMP cruiser pull up behind me on the TC, then paused by the back quarter and moved on .   Check. :
   That is quite the melting pot, a friend of mine melts wheel weights to make a great canoe anchor. 



  

[Crusarius]

Stephen if you really want to get crazy with the tire carrier and you have enough space on the hitch you should make one that slides on over your hitch and still allows for a hitch to be installed into the receiver. Then you would not have to remove it to use a trailer.

[Stephen Alford]

    I like that idea.  I am always working on some one private property so the atv in the back keeps things tight.  But that idea would enable me to use the hitch d link insert.



 

   Got to say Mr Peter you have given me a bad case of man  cave envy . Mine is a tad more rudimentary.   :D



 

[Peter Drouin]

We all do what we have to do to keep the rust away.

[711ac]

This "roof rake" may not be a candidate for "daily fab" as I built it 5+/- years ago, but I haven't used it in almost that long until yesterday. 
I'm working up firewood and the snow just wasn't coming off the roof except by the drip, lots of them. 

 
 

 
What I couldn't reach slid off soon after. Actually the other side landed on me and the tractor. 


 
I built the yellow jib pole probably 20 years ago. Very handy but the best fun was tying a rope to it at the edge of the pond for a rope swing. It'll reach 30' extended with the loader arms topped out.👍

[wisconsitom]

Now that's a snow rake.  Heh, in the photo, it even looks like a squirt boom!

[Walnut Beast]

Are you worried about the weight on the roof?

That's a dandy building 👍

I bet that V plow works like a dream 💪