First Post - Introduction

This blog page is a collection of Idea's of things I would like to try in my shed. These will mainly centred around metal working and automotive things.

Wish List:
- Working with Carbon Fibre, vacuum forming, using fridge compressor for vacuum forming.
- Getting a couple of old ovens removing elements and creating large oven big enough to bake large carbon objects.
- Setup Electro plating to be able to plate with Nickel, Copper, Chrome.
- Try some anodizing of aluminium.
- Attempt to chrome plate plastics.
- setup a plastic injection mould using a drill press (get a drill press)
- build a gas furnace with refactory cement to smelt aluminium
- Learn how to TIG weld.
- Get a lathe and mill.

The Shed
I completed the construction of my shed some months ago but currently have 8 pallets of pathers in there from the drive way that are waiting to be relayed following the construction of the drainage. The shed is 7X7 meters having one single large 5m long roller door for access.

After Digging out the backyard

The end result.

Layout As space is somewhat restricted I'll be trying to setup the shed into a series of functional areas. I.E welding, Soldering, Metal work, Wood Work, Mould making and Painting. Obviously as space is limited I'll need to make some of the areas multifunctional, however I'll try to group activities with similar levels of function and cleanliness together.

Comments

Finished design of front suspension Rx7 FC to 323 sub-frame

So I threw out the original design as I didn't like a few aspects of it, mainly being that it was overly complicated, not as flexible with the position of the steering rack to the Lower Control Arms(LCA) and not as strong. To address some of these design flaws i re-designed it around some 25X50X2.5 rectangular stock I had in the shed. I also changed the design of the brackets for the power steering rack to make them easier to position providing more flexibility during construction. I've made the height of both the the LCA's and the steering rack adjustable by 60mm in three 20mm increments. The I've sent the parts of to the laser cutters to be cut in 3mm mild steel with all the files available here . Once they are back I'll mig weld them together as I don't posses a TIG welder at this time. New Sub-Frame Design Old Sub-Frame Design I built the old design in cardboard after printing it on paper sticking it to the cardboard and cutting it out. This...

Parts Shaker

I've build a parts shaker to knock the edges and burrs off the laser cut parts. I used an old thermo fan from the Mazda and cut 3 of the blades of to unbalance it. I screwed this to a piece of wood with 20ltr bucket on it that hangs from the roof. I'm running the thermo fan from an old ATX power supply that I had lying around. I experimented with both wet and dry sandblasting grit as a medium, the wet medium seemed to work quicker but also the part start to rust. I left the parts in the shaker for about 4-5hrs by which time the edges where smoothed off and some of the surface treatment had lifted. I then coated the parts in Phosphoric Acid (Rust Remover) and coated them in Pentrol pending welding together once dry. If funds allow I'd like to purchase a powered coating gun and powder coat the sub-frame as I have an old oven in the shed I can use to cook it off.

The Journey continues

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" C.Dickens Long time no blog post, I guess most of the time I post on Instagram and neglect to come on here. In some ways it has been a good time for the shed and in other ways not so much. After moving house and getting a bigger shed I have more space, I've managed to purchase a Mill and a band saw as well as some other tooling. I've spend a fair bit of time mucking around with the front suspension and I think I have it how I want it now. Unfortunately with four children, the property, kids sport etc there is not a lot of time to spend in the shed, mostly later in the evening once everyone is in bed. I made a bit purchase and brought an RX7 FC, S5 13B motor in unknown condition with a MicroTech LT-9c for $3,000. I've started stripping it down and will clean it up and rebuild it, with the view of running it on E85. I've reworked the design of the steering rack location to have it correctly in f...

Sams Shed

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