Housebuilding in Finland

[Sea Skimmer]

Why not gear down the current motor? Or install a resistor perhaps.

Suggest soaking the bolt on that tank in penetrating oil sooner then later, even if the tank isn't rusted beyond use I'm sure the screw threads are rusty. Be impressive otherwise for something that looks like my grandfather threw it out before he joined the navy. In 1942.

[His Divine Shadow]

It's a direct drive bandsaw so the motor speed determines how fast it goes, a design with pulleys and belt would've made it a lot simpler. I don't know about using a resistor to make an induction motor slower, never heard of such a thing, only in relation to braking. One thing I was contemplating was a Variable Frequency Drive, that would have been a solution, or conversion to a belt driven design.

I got the compressor block apart and drained of oil last night without too much trouble though.






Based on the stroke length and area of the pistons and just wildly guesstimating it rotates around 500rpms, it only does like 50 liters a minute. Which is piddly. My current tiny compressor does 190l/min. Not sure it's worth putting back together for that capacity.

[Sea Skimmer]

Just based on the fact that it has a big flywheel I think you can be be certain that it is slow revving as balls, said wheel would have no possible reason to exist otherwise! That's why you see giant ones on old 100rpm steam engines, and tiny ones on a modern car.Reusing the tank alone sounds like the way to go.

A resistor should drop the speed under load, it's not an ideal solution certainly but I don't care to think about electrical engineering any more then that. Band saw I used to use at school for a couple years was pretty damn fast though, and cut half inch aluminum barstock like it didn't exist, so fast is a relative thing I suppose. Does it have a brake you can set?

[His Divine Shadow]

It used to have a manual brake with a lever. I removed the brake pads because I wasn't sure they weren't asbestos and even so I don't like the idea of all the crap it throws out when in use. A VFD would also give me electronic braking, there are also separate electronic braking units, but I haven't needed it really.

Also not sure about the tank either, looks old as balls too and it was full of water. I will need to fill it with water and pressure test it to like 12 bars to make sure it's safe. Might just put the compressor back together for the fun of it. Dunno, maybe someone wants it.

[Elheru Aran]

I'm sure if you clean it up, put it back together, make sure it runs, someone will be interested. Plenty of people out there who LOVE the old iron. Hell even as it is you could probably find a buyer if you advertise in the right places.

[His Divine Shadow]

I've decided to clean it up and put it back together, I'm mostly done with the top of the compressor block and it could do with a coat of hammerite paint. I noticed three layers of paint on this. Soaking the parts in caustic soda and also a tablet of machine dishwashing detergent in my bigger ultrasonic cleaner makes the paint just shrivel up and peel away. Sadly I'm not getting anywhere yet with the crankshaft housing because to open it I need a 3/8s hex key and all mine are metric, the 10mm one is slightly too big, which tells me it's a 3/8".

What I think I will do is what I was suggested by another guy, hook up the tanks to each other and set the older compressor so it starts first in a pressure drop, if it can't cope and pressure drops even more, the 2nd one will fire up too.

The single most important thing however is to pressure test the tanks, hydrostatic testing that it. My "new" tank will need it to, said compressor is from the 80s and while the tank seems to be stainless I looked into it and saw some pitting. The old one doesn't look too bad either, probably because it was literally half full of oil and water sludge. Jesus.



If both tanks fail the pressure test I guess I will have to find a new one, and hook both blocks up to that.

[His Divine Shadow]

I also got a new welder this weekend, here it is at my dads place. 300A DC only stick / TIG welder with some advanced functions (Hf start, lift-arc, anti-sticking settings for stick welding, TIG tack-welding functions, slope functions etc), also a remote for stick welding:


I added up the costs and pros/cons of restoring my dads gas welding set and this was cheaper and more useful. My dad got my old welder instead. I might still go for an oxy/acetylene setup in the future though, but it's on hold in favor of learning TIG welding, and tig brazing with silicon bronze sounds like a super useful skill.

Wasn't able to test it since it had a 32A plug fitted and I only have 16A sockets (a 16A socket is what it's specced for though).

[His Divine Shadow]

I have to say I feel unsure about my ability to gague if the tank is OK or not, and after reading more on how tanks are really pressure tested and what goes into it, I don't think I could do a proper test at home, the tank could yield more than it should and I would not detect it. And the pitting see in my current compressor makes me wary of using it again as well. I'm thinking of buying a new 100 liter tank instead, if I can find one for a decent price and hook both compressor blocks to it.

[His Divine Shadow]

Got my hands on a real hydrostatic pressure tester now, used, gonna go get it later today. I feel a bit more secure after reading most pressure vessels don't fail catastrophically at least. Still I think i wanna go get that 96l 26 bar (380psi) tank and build a proper compressor setup around it with automatic drainage.

[His Divine Shadow]

The tank was junk btw, several leaks in it, no wonder it never built up pressure.

Needed somewhere to put all these spice bags laying around the spice cabinet so I made a box


Filled to capacity at once, infact there's still stuff left.


European walnut, finished with a linseed oil and wax emulsion and buffed out. I tried first with a water based poly but what a PITA and it didn't come looking as nice.

[Elheru Aran]

That's pretty nice. Finger joints though? Dovetails will change your life man

[His Divine Shadow]

I like finger joints, simple and easy to make, I cut all 4 parts in my jig at the same time so it goes very fast. And they're stronger than dovetails. When I do make some dovetails it'll be by hand and sometime when I don't have this need to get things done and feel I can relax with a project.

[Elheru Aran]

Oh, I was (mostly) teasing. A finger joint is pretty efficient to cut with a table saw and it's definitely quicker and easier when you do it that way. I'm just a hand-tool snob

[His Divine Shadow]

Time for an update. From now on it's phone pics only, sold my D7000 and got a new phone, Moto G4+, to replace my Samsung Galaxy S2 (bought around 2011/12).


I made a welding table from scrap:


With metal top:



I also built a metal vise:




Currently I am building a TIG pedal foot controller. Because kemppi prices in finland are crazy, 800€ for a pedal. I got a schematic from kemppi though and I'm making my own. It's going to be a whole lot more heavily built too.



TIG welding is hard


Two pots will go on the front, they set the upper and lower values for the amperage range. It's how kemppi machines work, unlike most americans where you just set the max value on the machine. This is more fiddly but also more versatile.


Starting to look like a pedal. Need a stronger spring and some proper steel wire.


Also pizza:

[His Divine Shadow]

I made a roubo bench for the kids:




Also a small compass:

[Elheru Aran]

That is a very nice little Roubo. I'm almost jealous of your kids

My own bench is a Moravian type inspired by this article: http://tmaking.wkfinetools.com/01-shopA ... nch-01.asp

[His Divine Shadow]

Thanks, I want a roubo myself some day. Figured I would gain some useful experience by building a small one.

Last night we got back from Tampere, the boys had their 2nd round of hand surgeries and everything went well.

They sure made an impression at the ward as usual. It seemed a pretty quiet place until the kids livened it up a bit. Once they where off the IV they kept escaping and doing mischief and charming and playing with the nurses and other kids, we spent a lot of time running after them....

David came running with a box of paper clips and two nurses chasing him, he'd just walked up and *yoink*. Think he just wanted them to chase him so they could catch him and give him hugs. I dunno if it's just paternal bias but these kids seem special in how they are able to lively up a place, charm everyone and bring a smile to peoples faces.

[LadyTevar]

That's so sweet. I'm glad they are coming through the new surgery

[Tsyroc]

It's nice that they have them in the same bed. I see that a lot with babies who are twins but not children. It's possible that they do that where I work but I don't usually go into the pediatric rooms but I am in the NICU fairly regularly.

[His Divine Shadow]

Actually they came in separate beds at first, once they got all the wires unhooked after the first day we put them in the same bed.

[His Divine Shadow]

Got the boys bandages removed last friday.

4 hour taxi rides are boring




After they removed the bandages they put these custom made splints on, but they only need them during night:


Everything is still a bit swollen and such, it took months the last time before any proper usage was to be had




But Daniel has gotten very skilled with his right hand, he loves this round metal flask we have in a display cabinet and I taught to screw/unscrew the cap:


In other news I am making pastrami from scratch, the 1st step is to make corned beef, i.e. curing brisket in brine with prague powder. First to trim it and cut this 10lbs piece into bits that'll fit my containers, the cat got so much beef she ate until she couldn't force anything more down:

I love having 14 inches.... Of knife.



Firing up the smoker for a cleaning burn, hopefully this friday or saturday I'll smoke it.

[His Divine Shadow]

Well it's a sunny friday morning and I gotta take a walk for my backs sake (I'm on sick leave due to lumbago), so I snapped some shots as I made a little loop around the area.

Fired up the smoker before I went, when I get back it should be ready for smoking my pastrami...



Lots of new construction in this area, it's basically entirely new


The cables sticking out of the ground is for future stree lightning. I'm sure there's also fiber there somewhere.




This path takes me off the new area and into an older one from the 70s/80s




Lots of fields here, lots of farmers here still, farming in Finland is still mostly family sized businesses and not mega-corporations, though the amount of farmers is going down and farms are increasing in size. Once I get out on the road the wind was hell and I din't take any more photos:


Coming back up the hill, finally some forest to stop the wind.


Home sweet home...


And the smoker's ready and stacked with soon to be pastrami:



Also making some NY style deli bread to go with:


Gotta keep busy, on my feet, and not sit so much.

[His Divine Shadow]

Pastrami tonight:


And with homemade katz style deli bread (or so the recipe claims)

[His Divine Shadow]

Stuff I've done over the summer.

Outdoor kitchen:







More plaster still to come.


Pergola swing












Cyclone separator for shopvac




Veteran Tractor fair, Daniel loves tractors


Traditional tar pile burning, yielded 400 liters of high quality pine tar, end of august they will open it up and harvest the charcoal.

[His Divine Shadow]

Also spent some time at the local marina, has beaches and ice cream: