A new Toy I built

[erice 732]

boat porn can ruin your relationship 

 

can leave you with unrealistic expectations

 

and is responsible for many grown men chasing around after glossy magazine fare

 

while their formerly loved craft

 

sits neglected

[too_tall 15]

Wheels, try making a "tent"  out of a white sheet  and sit it by a south facing window, or, in the morning, west facing or afternoon, east facing, and put the item to be photographed inside that. It will flatten the light out and should make photography a lot easier. A tripod helps immensely also so you can use a higher F stop if your camera supports this to get a greater depth of field ( range which is well focused ).

[erice 732]

^

 

you saying the man could do with a little more polish?

 

coming from your own 'rough diamond'

 

that's gotta sting

 

[wheels 543]

 

But will Wheels try to rearrange himself with it is the question we have.

I spent a lot of effort in trying to find a mix that was safe, both for me and for the environment. I did want something safer than I have ended up with, but what I am using is still pretty good, when compared to what some commercial guys use. One particular nasty the commercial fellas use has a nasty habit of becoming unstable and can explode. So they have to monitor the mix all the time. As fun as that sounds, I figured I better act all grown up and go for something that won't blow up in my face and turn me into the "Toxic Avenger". I did try Citric Acid and it had promise, but I couldn't get the result I wanted. I may one day come back to that and play more.

The end result is that I have two acids, that while really powerful, are not horribly toxic. There are no fumes (either that or my sense of smell has been destroyed) and no obnoxious smells. It lasts a lot of cycles before needign replacing and is not enormously expensive. It gives a great result as well. Many Commercial guys use their own mix ratios using these two Acids. It's a real art and does take a lot of experience to get the results perfect. It's important to have the right ratio, right Current, right temperature and right length of time. Any alteration in mix ration alters all the others. I know my operation does not produce the results the pros likely get. But it's better than just Machine polishing.

[ScottiE 174]

how do you dispose of the spent acids?

[wheels 543]

Excellent question. The Acid part itself is quite easy. You neutralize it with a strong alkaline, such as Sodium Hydroxide,Soda Ash, or Lime. But that does not mean you can pour the stuff down the drain. After a lot of use, Metal Salts build up in the electrolyte. So it has to be disposed off as a Toxic waste. But I only have ruffly 40ltrs total, so it's not too expensive to do so. The commercial guys that have huge tanks of the stuff can use electrolysis to pull the metals out of the solution and reuse it.

[smithy09 50]

Saw the finished items at KMs the other day Wheels! Very nice indeed. Bugger doing those inside TIG welds on the 8mm ones. Micro torch?? Nice work!

[wheels 543]

Thanks smithy.
The real big ones are in the way up to him now. He should have them Monday if you are around his neighborhood. But yeah if you ever come across some little kind of TIG torch, et me know. The only other way to do this would be to have them Cast. But I have no idea if the inside surface could be cast nice and smooth.