Bigbody79's Questions and Ruminations

BigBody79

BigBody79

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Location
Lumberton
I have lots of silly ideas, questions, and rants.

Instead if starting a bunch of new threads I'll just numb this one when I have something new.

Here is the first.

I need to drill a (2)5.5" holes in my boat for a pair of speakers.

I have to spend money on each of these methods. Unsure where to go on this.

A. Jigsaw. I need a new jig saw ~60ish
B. Hole saw ~45ish
C. Router w/ circle jig. ~25-~50ish
D. ?

A. I'll have a jig saw for a long time.
B. Perfect circle one time use
C. I'm a little weary about this. Could go good or go very poorly

I did make these replacement rings for the front speakers. Left old/right new. But can't use the router table in the boat.
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Could always mark it and cut it with a jigsaw. It doesn't have to be perfect as the bezel around the speaker should cover it. Just a thought.
 
Jig saw.

Cut it proud and then use a barrel sander to get it right.

You do have to worry about the jig saw marring the surface around the hole you will cut. Cover with painters tape before you start cutting to protect the surface



Another option is a zip saw.
 
Another vote for hole saw. Its the easiest so do that.
 
I'm late, but another vote for hole saw. Less risk if it jumping out and damaging any surrounding area.
 
If you're cutting fiberglass, a carbide grit jigsaw blade is about the smoothest cutting tool you can use. No gelcoat chipping and no fiber tearout on the back side or front side.
You can also get carbide grit hole saws but they're pretty expensive, and you'll be covering up the hole anyway. Same thing with router bits with composite-specific flute geometry.

Circle jig on a router works great though, I've been doing that for years for speakers and sub boxes. You can infinitely adjust for speaker diameter and aren't limited by available holensaw sizes (or finding a HUGE holesaw), and don't have to worry about a hole being out of round like you do with a jigsaw.
 
red speaker.jpg blue speaker.jpg

Got my speakers and speaker wire in yesterday. Pretty exciting getting an email at noon saying your parts have been delivered. Hole saw looks to be here on Monday. Hopefully in the boat sometime soon!
 
It's all in. Working so far.

Hole saw worked good. Glad I went that route. Seriously took less than 3 min a hole.

On to the pictures.

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uploadfromtaptalk1439614549568.jpg
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New question.

I'm building a windmill for yard art. The frame is going to be 2x2x.25 angle iron.

I have about 112 feet that needs to be prepared for paint. I need to clean it to weld i t as well.

Looking like it's going to be about 17-18 feet tall with a 6'x6' base.
 
Scotchbrite surface conditioning discs to get rid of the mill scale, then a wipedown with acetone or bodyshop wax and grease remover. The Scotchbrite discs work well because they don't clog and they don't remove much material, come in different sizes and grits, flexible, easy to change, cheap, etc.

If you can, its probably easiest to do a lot of the prep after you get everything cut to length, then you can clamp the pieces down to a bench and get rid of the scale. Then after welding to can touch up around the welded areas and won't have to do gymnastics to get a disc into all the angle channel. The more prep you can do before assembly, the quicker and easier it will be.

I'm assuming you're going to rattle-can it, so start with an etching or epoxy primer which also comes in rattle cans.
 
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Sandblast.

Or put a huge flapper disc on a 7" grinder to knock the mill scale off


Or buy stainless and not worry with it


Or use a cold rolled metal and just wash the oil off of it.
 
I'm trying to create a powered axle for a wagon. Let's say the max this wagon will weigh is 150lb. I want the wagon to go about walking speed 3.0mph max

Basically I have scavenged a 100w motor from a scooter that turns 2500rpm. I know I haven't really covered all the options with this spread sheet. Nor do I know if the math is right.

Please feel free to correct anything that you see as not correct.

I'm in over my head.
Gear Ratios.png
 
I'm not going through the math because it should be pretty simple, and it looks like everything is intuitively right.

I would recommend going with the largest sprockets for the desired gear ratio. With the larger sprockets the chain links will have a lower rate of angular velocity and angular acceleration as they wrap the sprocket, so you will gain some free efficiency through reduced friction.

So I would pick the 13 tooth if the larger sprocket will give proper ground clearance, etc. The extra sprocket and chain weight won't be worth worrying about.
 
Why do you not see more places that offer a shop bay rental by the hour/day?

seems like there are lots of diy people who could use this service.

How much would you pay to have access to a shop with a lift and air and specialty tools?
 
BigBody79 said:
Why do you not see more places that offer a shop bay rental by the hour/day?

seems like there are lots of diy people who could use this service.

How much would you pay to have access to a shop with a lift and air and specialty tools?
Click to expand...

Liability and maintenance costs. You can't have anything nice anymore without people breaking it or suing you.
 
Fabrik8 said:
Liability and maintenance costs. You can't have anything nice anymore without people breaking it or suing you.
Click to expand...

Bingo

that said - most U.S. DoD posts have something like this. I use the one at APG all the time.
And there are private places, there's one here in White Marsh, just outside Baltimore, and another that just opened in Aberdeen. $8/hr to rent the bay.
 
There used to be one down here on Cherry Rd in Rock Hill. (I think it was Cherry Rd) Every time I passed it it was full. It may still be there.
 
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