Dot Matrix Printing

Lots of updates today.  This Commodore MPS1200 printer works well, the ribbon has been restored by emptying it out into a bag and spraying it with WD40.  I used a drilling machine to spool it back in and run it around a bit.  I read that water of any kind (including water in stamp pad ink) just causes corrosion.  The ribbon did not work at all at the start and the smearing shown in the video abated after a few pages 🙂  Commodore 64 fun.  Under the covers it is, I believe a Citizen 120D which is what I had when I was a kid.

Drill press depth stop holder replacement

So the cheap plastic depth stop holder (and chip guard) on my dirt cheap drill press shattered.  I nearly forgot about having a depth stop and then decided I would go to the trouble of making a new one out of polyethylene.  The chuck had a taper and came out after wobbling and tapping a giant allen key (hex key) held in the chuck jaws.  The new holder is shown in the photos below.  I cut the big round hole with a forstner bit.  My bits are cheapies from ebay, they are at the bottom of the first photo.  The quill measured at 40mm, the bit was about 41mm.  It clamped very tightly indeed and provides for a rock solid stop.  I now no longer have a spring loaded chip guard (not that I trusted it all that much) and will have to be extra sure to use safety glasses.

My first attempt is on my vice.  The material around the hole was not thick enough.  The plastic was stretchy but had little elasticity.  That is, it would stay stretched.  In thicker sections it rebounded better and was harder to stretch around the quill.  Tricky stuff.

Also tricky was getting the depth guide hole in the right spot.  I did it by mounting the holder and marking through the hole.  Measurements did not seem likely to work.

As always, this is not a how to guide.  Just a record of what I did.  Emulate my work at your own peril.

Stanley Plane reconditioning

I recently picked up a couple of Stanley planes from a ‘dump shop’.  Complete but in miserable condition.  They are now working well.  A short video shows how things turned out.  Hopefully the bee’s wax furniture polish I applied to them keeps the rust at bay.  I have produced an even better edge on the No.4 blade.  I am thinking about a white aluminium oxide wheel for my bench grinder and a custom jig.  Reshaping these blades by hand is too much work.

 

And here is a box I made for the No.4.

It has a little block of wood in the front corner so I can put it away without retracting the blade if I like.

Drop saw blade

I have a 255mm (10 inch) drop saw.  It does not slide, I figured it was dangerous enough without the whole slide thing.  Plus at the time I could afford a nice (Makita ‘green’ or these days Maktec I think) non sliding model or a wobbly sliding variety.  The Maktec has been great.

Anyway it shipped with a 40 tooth wood blade.  It produced clean enough results if its eagerness to dive into the cut was resisted a little and could cut up wood for construction like a champion.

Results on aluminium and plastic were not as good (and nor could I have expected them to be, use of wood blades on such materials is outside the blade’s specifications and possibly safety tolerances) with plastic sometimes chipping and aluminium looking quite rough.

As a result of a Bunnings gift voucher I have now installed an 80 tooth Aluminium cutting blade from Irwin that also claims to cut wood and plastic.  The teeth are a very different profile in comparison to the wood blade and cuts into wood happened slowly in comparison to what I was used to (but still quickly overall).  However, the resulting cuts are akin to what can be achieved by shooting end-grain with a bench plane.  Very smooth and clean.  How much of this is the tooth profile or the extra teeth I can’t say.  I do like it though.

I am yet to try aluminium (with cutting lubricant) or plastic but my expectations are high based on the results so far.

EDIT: Great results on polyethelyne.  Edit: capable on aluminium too.  I have also noticed the blade has a tendency to ring like a bell during use on my saw. I wear hearing protection anyway but it is quite pronounced.