Stupefyingly simple DIY

1
I'm in the process of learning to make knives worthy of sale and I've been trying to master at least one new skill per day.

Yesterday it was how to chemically apply a satin finish.
Today it was how to etch a logo into the hardened steel of the finished knives.

When I started my ewe-toob search for how to videos
this morning I was expecting to need to either visit civilization at best or online order at worst.

In the end I achieved unbelievable results, 1mm into the 1095 spring steel, using electrical tape, a saturated salt solution, two 8" aligator leads, a thin offcut of steel with a small piece torn from a paper towel taped to one end, 1" of 40A copper wire and the totally unmodified 12V 1A power supply for my old Cannon scanner.

I put the wire into the positive socket on the plug and clamped one alligator lead from the wire to the test piece of metal, clipped the other lead to the negative ring on the plug and the offcut.

I cleaned the steel with methylated spirits, taped an area, used an exacto to cut a rough M into the tape, dipped the towel end of the offcut into the salt water, turned on the power and applied it to the cutout.
5 minutes, some rubbing and redipping in the salt and it was finished.
20200620_145106.jpg
I've been gigling like Trump at a kitten roast ever since.

Anyone else learned or invented some laugh out loud simple way to do something that seems at first glance hard?
Fidelis ad mortem

Re: Stupefyingly simple DIY

4
CDFingers wrote: Sat Jun 20, 2020 8:16 am Whoo! Nicely done. Very clean.

Cannot unsee the kitten roast. :lol:

CDFingers
W.C. Fields said "Any man who hates animals and small children can't be all bad!" But that was all an act for his character, like Harpo's mute, and Groucho's lechery. Trump, it's no act. He really hates animals and has no use for small children.

BTW, got a zoomed out view of the "M" on the knife blade?
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Stupefyingly simple DIY

5
Gaznazdiak wrote: Sat Jun 20, 2020 3:26 am Anyone else learned or invented some laugh out loud simple way to do something that seems at first glance hard?
Here's the DIY that's had me on cloud nine for about a week.

The back story. I've got a small hobby farm and have pretty marginal mechanical abilities. Last fall my brush hog was disconnected from tractor and sitting in what has always been a dry field. Craziest flash flood I've ever seen flooded out the field (only been in the area 5 years, but locals say have never seen anything like it, but nah there's no climate change). PTO drive shave completely seized up. Thought I'd have to drag it to implement dealer to get fixed. Friend said, nah you can do it. Waterhose, 2 cans of WD40, 3-pound sledge hammer, bloody knuckles. Brush hog working.

Best part. It got me confident to fix other "unfixable" things. Brush hog never had a level cut and kept popping out of upper hook on 3-point hitch whenever I hit uneven ground (every 5 minutes). Had dealer come out 2 years ago and local farmer come by to help me get it right. No luck. So after my PTO drive shaft success, I went and got some big wrenches, every leftover pin, bolt, nut and washer I could find, and another can of WD40. More bloody knuckles. Got it solid and adjustable to however I want it.

My wife can't get me off the brush hog ever since. The fields have never looked better. I'm on a roll to fix everything I couldn't fix before. Even went out to try to fix the sights on my M&P 22 compact. I did, but I still can't shoot that thing. It's gotta go (it doesn't have enough iron and wood anyway, no soul :D ).

Gotta admit, current events have me stressed, so these little victories are good for my sanity.

Re: Stupefyingly simple DIY

6
YankeeTarheel wrote: Sat Jun 20, 2020 8:34 am
CDFingers wrote: Sat Jun 20, 2020 8:16 am Whoo! Nicely done. Very clean.

Cannot unsee the kitten roast. :lol:

CDFingers
W.C. Fields said "Any man who hates animals and small children can't be all bad!" But that was all an act for his character, like Harpo's mute, and Groucho's lechery. Trump, it's no act. He really hates animals and has no use for small children.

BTW, got a zoomed out view of the "M" on the knife blade?
Apparently ol' William Claude would drink vodkamaybegin on the set, hiding it in a thermos he said contained pineapple juice. A new stage hand noticed it empty one day and dutifully refilled it. Fields later took a sip, spat it out, and in his stage voice howled, "Who put pineapple juice in my pineapple juice!?"

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Stupefyingly simple DIY

7
YankeeTarheel wrote: Sat Jun 20, 2020 8:34 am BTW, got a zoomed out view of the "M" on the knife blade?
It's just on an offcut, I didn't want to risk a finished blade until I knew it would work, that little M is the very first try.
It's way too big and clumsy, I have spoken to a sign writer who can cut disposable stencils from vinyl and can make it small, I just have to come up with something that's small but legible.
The second pic is with flash, it shows the depth better.
20200621_100411.jpg
20200621_102601.jpg
I'm still at the stage where a single blade takes days or more, I started a double edged pig sticker 2 weeks ago but getting things like lines and curves to go where I want when I'm grinding is one of the things where I just have to go by trial and error.
Fidelis ad mortem

Re: Stupefyingly simple DIY

10
cooper wrote: Sat Jun 20, 2020 9:49 am
Gaznazdiak wrote: Sat Jun 20, 2020 3:26 am Anyone else learned or invented some laugh out loud simple way to do something that seems at first glance hard?
Here's the DIY that's had me on cloud nine for about a week.

The back story. I've got a small hobby farm and have pretty marginal mechanical abilities. Last fall my brush hog was disconnected from tractor and sitting in what has always been a dry field. Craziest flash flood I've ever seen flooded out the field (only been in the area 5 years, but locals say have never seen anything like it, but nah there's no climate change). PTO drive shave completely seized up. Thought I'd have to drag it to implement dealer to get fixed. Friend said, nah you can do it. Waterhose, 2 cans of WD40, 3-pound sledge hammer, bloody knuckles. Brush hog working.

Best part. It got me confident to fix other "unfixable" things. Brush hog never had a level cut and kept popping out of upper hook on 3-point hitch whenever I hit uneven ground (every 5 minutes). Had dealer come out 2 years ago and local farmer come by to help me get it right. No luck. So after my PTO drive shaft success, I went and got some big wrenches, every leftover pin, bolt, nut and washer I could find, and another can of WD40. More bloody knuckles. Got it solid and adjustable to however I want it.

My wife can't get me off the brush hog ever since. The fields have never looked better. I'm on a roll to fix everything I couldn't fix before. Even went out to try to fix the sights on my M&P 22 compact. I did, but I still can't shoot that thing. It's gotta go (it doesn't have enough iron and wood anyway, no soul :D ).

Gotta admit, current events have me stressed, so these little victories are good for my sanity.
I reckon it's time to buy WD40 stock, the share price is going to double when they report this quarter's earnings.
Image
Image
Image

Chamber's empty, magazine's full, safety's broken.

Re: Stupefyingly simple DIY

11
@cooper

Well done, I love fixing stuff myself. Not unhappy with the money I can save either.
I also love making things.
From decades of Land Rover ownership I have a collection of what look like weird welded steel bodge ups hanging in my shed.
They are actually the results of reading the workshop manual while performing repairs or upgrades to my old Range Rover and coming to the dreaded words "Using Land Rover special tool # xyz....." and rather than try to track one down I've had to stare at the piece needing removal while I picture what special tool # xyz might look like and go hunting for bits.

If you like tractors, you'll love this, I don't own the grazing property on which I live, it's waaaaaaay out of my league, ~6,000 acres of some of the best wool producing country in the world.
In fact about 85km in a straight line from here is a grazier who produces THE finest wool and regularly breaks his own world record for price. Last I heard it was over $200/kg.

But I digress, I do a lot of the ploughing and planting and have been using the farm's small 90hp Chinese tractor.
Not bad but had to work too hard with the inevitable results, something let go in the 4wd system under load and shredded many expensive things in it's guts.
While it was dragged off the owner hired a tractor for me to do this years winter planting. He was so impressed with what I showed him he could do with it, he bought a brand new one🤗
images (42).jpeg
A CLAAS Arion 430, like stepping out of a clapped out Daewoo into an S class Merc.
Guess who's gagging for the ploughing now.🍻
Fidelis ad mortem

Re: Stupefyingly simple DIY

12
YankeeTarheel wrote: Sat Jun 20, 2020 8:50 pm Looks great!
What still amazes me even though I know what's going on, electrolysis in the saturated solution produces chlorine gas which eats the metal, it's that the incredibly small amount of chlorine bubbling out of the solution could be so corrosive so quickly that I find most amazing.

That's with DC current, apparently you can use AC to mark the steel after you've etched it.

I just bodged things together as proof of concept, next trip to town I'll get the bits to do what knife maker Dave Erving demonstrates in the video below.
I'd love to meet Dave, he seem like my kind of guy, if I can ever produce anything remotely close to his work, I'll be a happy puppy.

https://youtu.be/YTlKDLpy4eI
Fidelis ad mortem

Re: Stupefyingly simple DIY

14
@gaznazdiak. Jealous of the tractor. Mine's a little 30 hp Kubota. Got it stock in soft ground 3 years ago and my neighbor (a real farmer) came and pulled me out with a tractor with wheels larger than my tractor. I felt pretty silly that day...about the same as when I took apart my Mossberg 500 and couldn't get it back together and the wife walks in and says "it goes like this" ... but I digress.

Where are you? I'm guessing Australia?

Very nice work on the metal. And thanks for starting this thread. It's crazy how these little successes feel so good. Hoping others share some successes.

Re: Stupefyingly simple DIY

15
cooper wrote: Sat Jun 20, 2020 10:26 pm @gaznazdiak. Jealous of the tractor. Mine's a little 30 hp Kubota. Got it stock in soft ground 3 years ago and my neighbor (a real farmer) came and pulled me out with a tractor with wheels larger than my tractor. I felt pretty silly that day...about the same as when I took apart my Mossberg 500 and couldn't get it back together and the wife walks in and says "it goes like this" ... but I digress.

Where are you? I'm guessing Australia?

Very nice work on the metal. And thanks for starting this thread. It's crazy how these little successes feel so good. Hoping others share some successes.
I'm with you on the jealousy, I'll only get to operate it once or twice a year until his son finishes university, then he'll be on the farm permanently and that's me done.

Nothing wrong with a Kubota, good tractor. I had a Thomas skid steer that had a Kubota engine, never missed a beat in the 5,000hrs I put on it.

I think the business with the Mossberg is a man thing, I do it in supermarkets, can't find something, ask and they say "What, that there?" and point to the product in front of me.

Yes mate, south east New South Wales, on top of our Great Dividing Range, which is neither great nor much of a range by US standards. Our highest point is Mt. Kosciuszko, 2228m, more a big hill on a plateau, nothing like Mckinley.

No credit due me on the idea, I was just blown away at how simple it was to put into practice, I was finished 15 minutes after watching the video.

Starting the thread is not entirely altruistic on my part, I hope to plagiarize shamelessly, but you're welcome.
Fidelis ad mortem

Re: Stupefyingly simple DIY

16
Time for some gratuitous bragging and boasting in the guise of an update on the DIY knife blade etching.
We seriously need a fingernail buffing emoji :D

After much reading, ewe_choobing, itinerant brain picking, blatant plagiarism and surprisingly few dinero, I can now etch not only logos but pictograms, clipart etc with my Etcher 2.0.

The etcher was simple.
The stencils were driving me postal until a chance click on ewe-choob led me to someone else's epiphany.

I built a proper etcher, blew it up learning how not to use it :roll: , then built a bigger more powerful unit.

The stencils turned out to be forehead slapping easy.
A major printer brand make a label maker that can also print out stencils on special tape. You simply load your logo or graphic via PC or Mac and push "Print" and out pops your stencil, ready to etch.

With the DC current I can etch as deep as desired into the steel and with the AC I can permanently blacken the surface.

Below are the first etches, I was unsure how long I needed contact and overheated the stencils, hence the artifacts. These were etched and marked
crop.jpg
This one is etched only.
crop2.jpg
This one is marked only.
crop3.jpg
All with 12V and salt water, ain't science just peachy?
Fidelis ad mortem

Re: Stupefyingly simple DIY

19
More simple DIY made from scrap.
A blade and edge center scriber, made from some old square tube, brass knife handle pin, a broken drill bit and a bronze T piece that was one of several that were in an old naval weapons container I bought many years ago.

If you are a hoarder of stuff that will be useful for something, sometime, it's amazing how disparate bits of what others see as rubbish can be given another life.
20200714_115838.jpg
Fidelis ad mortem

Re: Stupefyingly simple DIY

20
Another DIY that worked so well I'm still chuckling.

I'm making a small hunting knife for someone and wanted to include a gut-hook, for which I needed a file guide.

I took some 10mm 1095 spring steel, heated it to 1600*F for 45 minutes(on the right in the forge), then buried it in sand to cool so I could work it.
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When everything was cut, drilled, faced and fitting like the proverbial finger, I heated the jaws to 1750*F, quenched them in water which made them glassy hard, reheated them and quenched them in hot vegetable oil then gave them 2 hours at 350*.
A test with a new file just skated off like fingernails on glass, I welded in the bolts and guide rods (HSS drill bit shafts) and tried it out on the gut-hook.
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Anyone else tinkering?

Anyone got a DIY wanna-be project, a woulda-coulda-shoulda?

:drunklep:
Fidelis ad mortem

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