05:25 PM
“Grind Tent”
Busy afternoon. So far, I haven’t done any engraving. Didn’t feel good breathing in all those dust while I was grinding away at my gravers yesterday. That made me make a little “tent” to do my future steel grinding in, in an effort to reduce those invisible specks of dust from flying all over my room.
Not sure how effective it is, but it’s better than having nothing I’m sure.
Using what I already have in my room, mounting boards and this old plastic file, my original idea was simply to have some kind of window between me and the grinding. After I cut a window in my mounting board and taped down the plastic, I realised it will be better if I “contain” the entire grinding process. So I bent the mounting board and taped the bottom, leaving the sides opened for my hands. And on these opened ends, I will be covering with wet towels, using them as curtains to reduce any dust from escaping, as I grind my gravers in the middle of the “tent”.
Haven’t actually put it to the test, but in my mind, the concept seems to work. I will update its efficiency the next time I grind something.
Modifying The New Tire Inflator
After constructing my “Grind Tent”, I started working on modifying my new tire inflator. I removed the top cover to expose the piston within. Like my previous tire inflator, the top cover is attached to the pressure meter and outlet hose, which I saw off with my jeweler’s saw (same saw blade, didn’t break either 😉 *showoff*) .
This model of tire inflator looks exactly the same as the one Mr.Shaun Hughes uses in his videos. However, when I tried to drill through the top of the cover, I was only able to drill slightly more than halfway through the cover, unable to go all the way through. It was almost like the bottom is made of a different metal, which is strange because there are no joints to be seen.
Since I’m going to use the existing outlet which led to the pressure meter and hose, just like last time, I had to remove the tiny rubber and spring mechanism built within the cover. This little bit of rubber and spring bit is what stopping air from going backwards. I spent a good 40 minutes stabbing the hard rubber with my pointy steel burnisher to break it apart and bit by bit, scrap them out of the tiny hole. It certainly didn’t helped that the whole thing is greased up and, as the form of a small round button, the hard rubber spun round and round to thwart my attempts.
I can’t tell you how satisfying it felt when I yanked out the last of the annoying rubber which was just big enough to offer me that final, but futile resistance. The spring remains inside, it won’t affect anything.
As I’m working on this post, my 3D printer is printing the same valve (with small amendment) I used on my current inflator, which should be ready in another hour’s time and I will glue it on before I go to bed and leave it to dry overnight.
With the top cover out of the way, I worked on the pistol. It looks nothing like my current tire inflator. I reckoned I will need to cover the 6 holes on the top. After pondering quite a while about the best way to seal things up, I decided to do it by stuffing blue tack into the holes and covered everything with epoxy resin. Let’s hope that it works.
Now all that is left is the wiring.
Ian KHF 