Gerald,

Stucco is a big thing here. Almost every house built today in FL has Stucco on the outside of the cement block.

Have just just discovered that your "stucco" and our "plaster" are basically the same thing, just with a different name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stucco "Modern stucco is an exterior cement plaster wall covering. It is usually a mix of sand, Portland cement, lime and water"

I guess your stucco is premixed and sold at a higher price than our way of mixing up the cheap ingredients ourselves.

Houses in Florida built of cement block? I thought you guys only parked trailers on cement blocks and build your houses of matchsticks - at least, that is what CNN shows us after a cyclone passes through there. ;)

Most houses are built of cement block. When there is a hurricane or some other weather condition that destroys most of the houses in the area, the US Government brings in trailers for people to live in while they recover. The trailers seems to stay around for a long time.

There are some houses built out of wood. The second story is all wood construction. The construction requirements have drastically changed in the last 5-8 years. Now from the foundation to the roof every thing is tied together with straps. All the trusts for the roof are strapped to each other and then strapped to the walls. It is partly why the cost of houses have gone up. In the past when a shingled roof was installed there were only four nails placed in each shingle. Today there are 6 and the nails are much longer. They must penetrate through the sub roofing material. The windows must be able to with stand 150 MPH winds at least in most locations in FL. when I replaced the windows in my house, I could only buy 150 MPH windows and I had to use 11 screws in each window to hold it in place.

The construction changes have reduced the number of homes that fail during hurricanes but there is only so much you can do when you get one of those things in your neighborhood. Many times it is not the wind that does the damage but the trees that fall or the material that is being hurled by the winds. The year that we had 3 hurricanes come through, most of the damage was done by the large number of large oak trees that fell. In some neighborhoods almost every tree was damaged or upturned.

I am glad we do not have any hurricanes here Nils. Must be a frightning experience. The worst was a few years ago when hail as large as golf balls hit us!

Hi John,
Will you be working for the same company in Auckland?
Are you too English for the All Blacks in Christchurch or did you promote the Blu Bulls too much? :D

Johan,

We get hail also. In 1986, we had a hail storm that did so much damage many cars had to have body work done on them. One of my friends had to have the front and rear windows on his car replaced. Many people had their cars repaired and two weeks later we had another hail storm and many of the same cars got damaged. Some people didn't have their cars repaired and I remember for years seeing cars with dimples in them.

Mother nature is a powerful forces.

Johan,
Thanks for the info. Up here in Canada we primarily use asphalt shingles for roofing material. Slate tiles, cedar shingles, steel roofing, membrane roofing (for flat roofs) are also used but the asphalt shingle is the most common.

http://www.iko.com/products/residential/residential.asp

Here is a update on my table that I am busy with at the moment.

Attachment 5164

It is amazing how fascinate we all are about the MechMate. My friend Jan offer to help on the construction. He refused to take no for a answer.

Attachment 5165

He even brought his own helper with. Here he is busy spraying primer on the crossbeams.

Attachment 5166

The thick wall piping that I manage to get at no charge was a nightmare to flatten in its cold state. We connect it with end plats as shown.

Attachment 5167

We even had time to weld the y-car up.

dit begin vorder !

Dit lyk goed.

I found this little program, Tube Mitre, very useful when joining my pipes, just enter the parameters, print out the templates, wrap them around the pipe and grind to the line - gives a very neat finish.

(5th program down on the list)

Johan,

That's the kind of friend I need. I had virtually no help building mine except from the great guys on this forum.

Is that your dog in the picture? I bet he's pretty good keeping the snake population down around your house. He looks like a Jack Russell terrier. My wife and I love that breed. Lot of energy!!

Nice to see the progress Johan...keep it up before it gets too hot and humid to work again

Thanks all.
It is strange and pleasant at the same time not to be alone in the workshop.
I am going to do my best to have it running before mid November. Thats when the humidity starts building up Kobus.
Thanks for the pointer Alan. Nice site! We were thinking to mitre it like that at first but settle on our plate connections in the end because of the time saving.
Yes Doug, he is a Jack Russell with the name of Mufasa(The lion King). That is a good description for him. He keep and catches everything around the house. Talks to us as well, if he want something or he want to go somewhere. He is suppose to be the son's dog but he descided that I am his boss. It was a full time job to keep him away from the grinding and welding. He keep coming back to stand guard over me with the 'strangers' in the yard. :)

Wall is red, grey and blue - sorry not white!
 

The small compressor was build by my Dad about 25 years ago.
It consist of a fridge motor, gas bottle and a truck compressor.
The air pressure drop rather quickly. When this happen then Jan, my friend comments: " Lets give Grandpa time to catch up" the same time reaching for his beer!:D


I really like this blue! :D

Jan was very unhappy when we bolted the board into position.
It was hiding his nice steel work!:)

Here are pictures of my skate with JR's modifications and other suggestions.


I used M4 screws to keep the bearing shafts in position.


It might be easier to drill and tap into the bearing shaft as shown in the direction of the red line. The dxf will have to be adjusted to move the raduis away a little bit so that one can drill into a flat surface.
I did not have a M10 tap for the grinder handles, so I tack a M10 Nut in position. It lifts the bottom of the handle up so that it doesn't interfere with the top plate adjustment.
I still need to test it.

Nice going Johan, Now I know that you are really building a MM..previous it was just hearsay...:D

Nice job Johan (& Jan)!

Thanks!
There are still a lot of work to be done and it would be a number of Saterdays before I see the end.

How much space between the MM and the walls....will your stepper motors not scrape against the wall ? Can a SA male with a boep get in there to pick up the cut pieces or will you do what I have to do...on my knees on top of old BBB to retrieve the pieces at the far end...:confused:

I hope you keep that kitchen door...or is it the garage door closed when you cut...or have a good extractor...

It is not perfect. On the left and rear I have aprox. 450mm with the right hand side 800mm(at the door). This wall will have to take my control box as well. Camera position is at the roll-up door. I still have to put the single door on the frame, but will use some rubber seals between that and the garage next door. I hope my wife is going to sponser me the money for the dust extraxtion out of her retrenchment package. :)

Very tight space you have... For the sake of safety, please give 600mm minimum space for passage.

Retrenchment...that sounds bad. Is Bell downscaling or shutting down over there?

Dit lyk goed oom Johan,now I can see why you want to put your computer in the room next door.I have done those bushes for you Need to do the one for the Y-car still would do it this weekend.I am visiting Cape Town from Wednesday you know there where the other uncle stays would pick him up for a pub lunch.(he doesn`t know that we are going to do some shopping for my next MM)

Ken, if I have to do something at the back the machine will be isolated. My 0,0 set up point is in the front with plenty space.
Kobus, Bell is in deep trouble. John Deere own 30% and I think Bell hope that Deere is going to buy them out. My daugther also work for them and she will know early next month if she will be going or not. It was the wife's decision to take it. She needs a new challange and the MechMate is going to be it.
Hennie, dankie vir jou hulp Ou Boet! Kry vir Oom Gerhardus om bietjie van jou 'shopping' te finansier.:)

Ek wil kyk watter rooiwyn hy aangeskaf het die naweek.:D

Ek kry die idee dat 'n iemend hier met hoed in die hand gaan opdaag . . . .

Vertel my meer, Hennie - wanneer, waar?

he he. Uit gevang boetie, uit gevang!:D

Beautiful work Johan. Top notch quality. Next time, put your son's dog in the picture. :)

Thanks Doug, I will do.

I did the rail height cutting yesterday and it went well. I really enjoyed myself!

Attachment 5576

Attachment 5577

Attachment 5578

I stop the grinder at the point when I start to feel the cutting disk want to bit as the off cut piece close down on the disk. I bend it open with the water pump plier as shown. It took only a fraction of a millimeter to release it.


I had an unforeseen problem with the grinding jig when I tried it out.
I ran out of grinding disks and had to go and buy a cheap one at the local hardware. To much vibration! :eek:
Second problem was the cantilever caused by the mass of the grinder when I tried to adjust. As soon the clamping bolts were released the top plate started to angle up making it difficult to get a fine adjustment.
I will have to add a piece of flat on both the upper and lower plates to form a slide as indicated below. Fitting a third bolt bolt as noted on the pic.

Attachment 5579

Johan, I reckon you will have much better adjustment with the rubbing bolts than with the fixed rollers.

I agree but I started to help JR with the new idea and want to give it another try. The problem was right in front of me when I draw it up...and missed it. :(

Update
 

Attachment 5973

The rails is cut and drilled. I still need to line up everything properly.

Previous photos shows the jig that I have made for the z-plate on a old Millers Falls saw table.
Who can still remember the Millers Falls combination?
My dad used to have one and gave it to me with the large piece of I-beam where I mounted it on. Brother sold it years ago for extra cash.
A friend gave me this set in the photo a month ago and after 35 years it is standing on the I-beam again.

Attachment 5978
Old Millers Falls

I am very sentimental about old tools. In the previous post is a photo showing my grandfather's hand drill with my father's below that and my Stanley below his.

Johan,

I spotted your old tools on the wall before I read your second post. I love old tools too. Thanks for the picture of your dog!! When I move, I'm getting one just like him. My whole family has been admiring him. I guess it is rare to see a Jack Russell relaxing.

You are getting there Johan...well done.

Doug, I think that Jack Russel is FULL of nice titbits and is taking an afternoon nap in the heat that is common in that area where Johan lives

Yeah. I think you're right. I noticed that Johan has been feeding him pretty good. :)

Yes, the dog is spoilt. He was not sleeping, just waiting for the next belly rub! The only way to keep him still to take a photo.
It is the best time of the year, weather wise. Still low humidity but starting to get nice and warm from sun up.

Ask Johan what happened to him with some of those taxi`s