Bike builders that have machine tools/shops

[MEASURE TWICE]

I have found a vice-grip works well clamped onto my "possibly 1 horsepower" belt sander belt release tab.

I was thinking the thing was jammed.

The thing is so powerful, that I suppose that is why the springs in the belt tensioner, take a lot of force to release the belt to change to a new sanding belt.

I already have planned on getting surgery on one elbow for the pinched nerve I have had for more than 6 years.

I do not want to hurt my hand or the elbow anymore. Funny bone surgery is probably not going to be funny, but is what I need. My hand is where the pain is referred to, since the ulnar nerve from brain to fingers has its path through the cubital tunnel in the elbow. Could be I need cervical spine also done, but this is hopefully will be all that is necessary. If not then decide along with both peripheral and spinal surgeons once I am healed of the first attempt.

First, I had used a long screwdriver as a lever to un-jam the mechanism. Then I realized nothing was jammed anyway. I think this is a tool that will be in storage for a while like probably most of my hand and power tools.

I had the idea to smooth out the edges of a cast iron skillet.

I have noticed my hands just like everything rounded off. Another of the same Lodge brand has not just rounded off edges, but the cooking surface is not even the slight bit rough, it is like a standards lab polished surface.

Last time I used the sander, I was cleaning off a quarter cooking sheet I use in the oven to catch drips. The drip tray is easier to clean than the oven floor. Raised edges can stop more than just lining with aluminum foil in the oven.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Briefly in the shop today, put the cartridge filter and bag back in the Shop Vac. I am way over due on house keeping in the shop. Dang mice crap! I hate mice crap.

Tom

I had gotten rid of mice with old Victor traps with bread bait. I never used poison as then more of a chance of in wall inaccessible rot stinking mouse.

A few days ago, I heard something I though was mice rattling. I could not see anything at all and looked all around. No sign of torn of paper or any food eaten.

A year or so ago, I did have that last time and the 3 dead in the trap was the last I knew of them. So, after a while some things I was able to take out of the cabinets that mice mess with. The TP and paper towels. Maybe a loaf of bread on the counter.

I went back to stuff in cabinets. A few days after not seeing anything a foul, a foul odor starts.

Emptied two closets and looked for mouse droppings after all that work nothing.

Then I noticed the smell on the other side of the hall by the rear house door. I could not see anything. I checked in the breaker panel. Mostly I though it just emanates through the wall.

I went outside to the access to a closet attached to the house that has the boiler for hot water and floor heat (this uses hot circulating water under the floor).

The area where the stink was emanating even stronger from, was where the multiple pipes with the recirculating water went down in an area that is not blocked off entirely.

I expect a mouse liked the warmth there. So maybe it got stuck there. I mean what a stupid mouse. I did not see anything and I don’t own, just rent. It I suppose must just stink until it dries up enough to not be a problem anymore.

The area otherwise cannot be simply disassembled to get access. The landlord is …. Well …. You know! I would inform, but right now I just would see if two weeks it is gone.

Splashing 10 percent solution bleach in the area I read about, but am not sure if it could damage further what is already rusting away, so I do nothing.

In washing laundry, when it is time to run the dryer which is near the rear door and the stink, I open a bathroom window. This allows my clothes not to draw smelly air, when so much fresh air is closer by.

I have set traps and am to buy more. I also ordered a five pack of the electronic devices that deter.

Oh, the fun of this. Many of you probably are OK with a house temp of 62F, I like 72F.

I may try when it is not raining to put a fan drawing air away from the boiler area and have the floor heat turned on only then.

If the floor is already warm, then the heat for hot water is only for the tap and not the floor. The pipe area in the outside cabinet, before it goes into the floor slab, should cool off and maybe less smelly when cooler. Though the floor retains the heat from the water in the floor slab pipes. No stink and some heat!

So, again why did I hear rattling sound, did it not find its way out and freaked out?

I did fumble setting one trap and got a glancing blow to an index finger on my bad side. It is all better after a few hours, so nothing big. I don't see any mark either. If it would have been more to the other side of my bad hand (actually the cubital tunnedlin elbow causing hand pain to nerve issue), I would have hit the ceiling.

I suppose I was in a hurry. When setting the traps, you have to take time. I do always look to position the trap in a way that the mouse can't be trying to eat the bait from the side and only get a glancing blow. Sort of the opposite of what I mistakenly had done to myself.

MT

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Best mouse traps bar non is the relatively new to me, Victor Quick Kill. Very simple set.
Victor® Quick-Kill® Mouse Trap (victorpest.com)

Tom

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

I think it is solved as best can be so far.

Pictures shows sealing with duct tape base board to floor of wall that is adjacent to the outside cabinet with boiler that has the hot water manifold that has the hoses going to floor heat. A fan is next to it while not raining as it is outside and turned-on high drawing away the stink.

Multiple wall outlets taped. The washer I will have to un-tape the outlet as I use it, but OK for a while. The breaker panel I can rip the plastic bag off when in an emergency. A smoke alarm taped hanging to the wall with wall power and battery backup is also sealed.

Most the smell was from the baseboard gap to the floor. (Maybe I get out a saws-all, not) Not my home only rent!

A neighbor explained how the rattling happened of a mouse in a wall. The insulation of fiberglass mat was probably not only used for a nest, but also eaten. Now I expect that the sharp glass is sort of fun, just as John Belushi when ranting on Saturday Night Live, a Not Ready For Prime Time Player, saying "Bag of Glass, Bag of Glass, oh what fun Bag of Glass.

Only at some point the mouse did not really think it was fun and was not at all in the right mind (Lucid), to navigate out and away from within the wall to die somewhere else as I would have preferred.

Waiting on getting the traps and the high frequency sound deterrent.

Some of the reviews of the newer traps by Victor with the fake cheese that has a fragrance that attracts the mice, was not sure I was looking for. Some, not most, but some said the new traps would be hard to set. There was one person who showed finger bruised.

The ones that in past part of this thread on Shop Tools, had the same link. Maybe one day try those, but for now am good.

The other Victor new type of traps that they carry made of plastic but no fake cheese, maybe someday I might try them. As long as I only set the traps when I am lucid, and am using these familiar traps of old standby, I guess I'm alright.

I got one mouse outside. and zero inside. I only have 2 traps now, but will have 12 more in a week along with the 5 noise makers that I won't hears but the buggers will.

You can see the fan is a tool and Duct Tape and Plastic Bag are also tools.

MT

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

I was a owner of a 36 unit apartment complex in the 80"s in Aurora, Illinois.
That water manifold would not pass inspection.
Steel wool filling gaps where mice might get in is the only real deterrent.
The sonic gadgets are just that.
The link I posted of the new Victor traps. Ditch the rest and buy some.
My wife who will not attempt to set an old style mouse trap, finds the Quick-Kill very easy to bait, set, and release the hammered rodent.
Dumb question. Does the Landlord know there are rotting rodents in his property?

Tom

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

With the probability of voluntary snow boundness Friday, I have a commission to machine some railway telegraph line insulator display bases. I am already making steel chips. Photos soon.

Tom

 

[curtisfox]

Sounds good, I am working on a gas tank made out of fire extinguishers, for a motorbike. Pictures later.........Curt

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

This guy is a menace on our highways

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

I always wondered Curt, was it a chick magnet?

Tom

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

With this dandy blizzard going.
Put a Leiney's in each jacket pocket and shoveled a trail down to the shop. Got one steel display base turned to 5.25" dia. and one more of the steel ones to turn. There is a Roman Ogee contour need to be cut into the O.D. , the lathe cutter bits are set aside. There is a brass base to be faced and contoured also.
That is just the bases.

Tom

 

[curtisfox]

LOL. Got married right out of high school 62 years now, come June. Had to make up a couple more classes + took more shop, and art so had 4 years of high school.............Curt

 

[Tony01]

LOL. Got married right out of high school 62 years now, come June. Had to make up a couple more classes + took more shop, and art so had 4 years of high school.............Curt

Man… back in the dark ages.. before the internet… a quarter century before widespread use of answering machines…

 

[curtisfox]

Ya you guys don't know the fun you missed, make anything and do just about anything, as long as you had a hammer, a screw drive, pliers, and a hack saw. Most of my neighbors along with my dad worked at the rail road, and some had welders. I had a paper route so was able to pay them ( wish it was that cheep now days ). Most of the side streets were dirt so when we played ball all the neighbors went down a block to avoid interruption. In the spring right away when it was wet we shot marbles, and if you had any neighbors that worked at the RR you got big stelae's for shooters.
Sorta not a care in the world, somewhat, as long as you did your chores, then the restrictions come to tame the wild and wooly. I remember one was you couldn't ride double on a bike, that tall bike I had 4 on it, and was suppose to take it to the impound, but parked it instead. I was driving by then anyway, and had another bike.
It was poor time but still good old days .........Curt

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Back when, I found fun in the huge 3 channel crystal controlled CB-Walkie-Talkie, that a friend had let me borrow. 5 watts using some 20 double A batteries, the thing weighed a bit.

Now having a StarLink Panel Antenna with servo motors self aligning X & Y axis when first setting up had me think it was alive.

Grab a stick and you have dirt, probably still someone doodling.

MT

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Back when, I found fun in the huge 3 channel crystal controlled CB-Walkie-Talkie, that a friend had let me borrow. 5 watts using some 20 double A batteries, the thing weighed a bit.

In 1967, it was a toss up between a 5 watt walkie-talkie or a Springfield .22 cal. for squirrel hunting.
I like eating squirrel.

Tom

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

At the tender age of ten, my granddaughter desires to be a robotics engineer making robots. I told her Dad that by the time she matriculates. she will design robots that make robots.

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Finally putting some time in on my buddy's telegraph insulator display bases.
O.D.'s turned to 5 1/4". Next up, facing them to 5/8".

Tom

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Curt started this, just for the record.

A new faze of life begins today, and in the nick of time.
In my twenties and thirties I was an active athlete. Marathon canoe, kayak flat water racing, and bicycling Then I got distracted. I turn 73 in March this year. And I am unfit. What to do has been on my mind for many years. I have had a fascination with recumbent bikes from the very first instance, and over the years recumbent trikes of various configuration have developed and been perfected.
One trike builder in Michigan WizWheels Inc. got my increasing interest Terra Trike models but especially the Rover.
Been at least two years that I have been lurking Craigslist and FB Marketplace, and this list week two Rovers turned up some what local. Waukesha and Port Washington. Waukesha never replied.
Port had been fluctuating the asking price to keep the add active and when went low, I got em. $550 and the trike is almost unused at 1/3 of retail. The kicker is it would not fit in Mona's Ford Focus.
He delivered free too!

 

[curtisfox]

KOOL! I have a Worksman trike all ready to go when I go to wabbly LOL.

even have a differential axle if I decide to motorize it.............Curt

 

[Tony01]

KOOL! I have a Worksman trike……
even have a differential axle if I decide to motorize it.............Curt

I motorized a clone once as an electric. It was fun to drive on two wheels (1wd).

I can’t find pictures of it I’ll post them later. A little mid motor about 4x4 hanging off the axle housing.