Featured Game
Always interested in wind power I made this tiny non directional windmill prototype from balsa wood that my wife bought me for Christmas in the early 80s. I want to make a full size version soon. This small one runs guite well from a gentle blow from any direction.
Radios have always been a passion of mine. I love the real old regenerative sets
.BOTTOM RIGHT Here is one I bought at an aution sale for the now defunct Spraque Telephone Company. It is the oldest radio I have ever seen. As near as I can determine it is from about 1916-1917 and was made by Starr in Toronto as a premium for telephone companies who bought equipment from them in the early days of telephone. I brought it home from the sale and cleaned it up. I fixed some minior problems inside , tested the 01 tube filiments with a meter and everything looked good. Two of the coils were missing so i took the number of turns from the remaining one and did the math to see what the tickler and anntena coupling coil should have. I still had the coil bases so i fabricated new coils and made them exact matches visually as well. I have a couple of sets of Brandes earphones so I plugged a set in and hooked up a short antenna. When I hooked up the batteries (6v and 90v) I was shocked to be immediatley listening to the Belleville Bulls hockey game on Belleville Radio station CJBQ. I paid fair amount to get this radio but it would take a LOTTA gold to pry it loose now. I am confident I will never see another one, much less a working one.
BOTTOM LEFT This is a Maconi Radiola II from about 1919. It is in working condition but needs two tubes WD11s which are very expensive so I did not buy them yet. My father gave me the radio. He bought it an the Ostrander auction sale here in "The County" about 1970. Both Linda and I are related to the Ostranders who immigrated from Middelburg Holland to Canada a couple of hundred years ago . My great grandmother was an Ostrander and so was Linda's great grandmother. They were actually sisters!! We did not know this untill May 2006, just two weeks before going to Holland and visiting Middelburg. So now,we both have a strong conection to this old Ostrander family radio.
TOP LEFT This is a one tube regen I built about 10 years ago. It uses a 6SN7 and is battery powered. With a 5 ft wire hanging from the curtin rod you can pull in Shortwave stations from around the world.
Re B battery 45 or 90 volt. A" B" battery of these voltages or more can be easily made by snapping 5 for 45v or 10 for 90 v 9 volt batteries and will last for over a year (maybe much more.)
DIE UNBENDER
I invented and built this tool this year. It is used for minor straightening of Dragster and tube chassis race car tubing. Because of the nature of these cars they easliy receive minor bends from a missed chute opening or a failed brake calipher etc. Often the only repair was to leave it or cut out the offending part and replace it. Now by using the DIE UNBENDER minor bends a can be removed safley and firmly. It allows for a bit of an overpull as well which tubing often requires. This one is made for 1.1/2 inch tubing but it can be made for whatever size you want. Cost is $399.00 in US funds.
NOT for kinked tubing, minor bend removal only.
This has been tested on a moly tubing RED and on a nostalgia mild steel tubing (1/8th wall) dragster. The amount of effort required to straighten tubing is surprisingly little. It seemed that it needed less force on the nuts than would equal normal bolt tightening. A very good working tool!
Slant 6 racing pistons
I have decided to try my hand at casting a real set of pistons and have begun working on the steel piston mold. Here is how far I have gotten today. Will it work? I dont know but I am going to try! (3.6 diameter casting)
THE VANDUL WOOD STOVE
Of all the things i ever designed and built this is the best. Built in 1986 by me, Jake , Jamie and Darren Vandervelde. Jamie did by far the most welding while Jake looked after measuring and cutting (and paying ,about $600). I did a bit of the welding but mostly design and electrics. Darren was just a young fellow then and got to go fetch. The stove is made from 2 x 6 1/4 inch steel tubing with a 3/8 thick flat floor. The fire box is quite large and uses a carb type throttle blade in the snout below the door. This is controlled by a stepper motor which is controlled by a baseboard heater thermostat which controls the 110 volts to the stepper motor transformer. The stove is only 3/4 firebox. The tubing is relieved behind a steel plate 3/4 of the way rearward and a furmance fan assmbly is mounted in the hole. A stack control controls that, turning the fan on when the tubing temp get warm enough for heating. It can be and is also run manually with fan on constant and a sliding vent in the door providing air for the fire. Either way it works perfect.The shop is 80 x 40 feet and has 16 ft ceilings. It was not insulated when we built this stove and the day we fired it it was -19F.Within about 40 minutes we were down to T- Shirts despite the bad outside weather. That was 1 month short of 20 years ago and it is going strong this very day with no repairs. How warm is it? Well they run a paint and body shop in there in the winter and it is warm enough for that. When on manual it is often almost too hot making you sleepy. Plans available for $15, just email me.(big-d@sympatico.ca) If you like a warm shop this is your unit!! Where does the name come from ? VanDul stands for Vandervelde/Dulmage of course. We would appreciate it if all copies carried the name in weld on the front, thank you.
What did you think it would look like after 20 years of hard use?
Steel Crossram/Tunnel Ram homebrew.
I started to make this intake about 1990. Then I found the Weind sixpack superstock and went with it with the cast top. This one I believe it a good intake too and I have dusted it off in the basement Archives. I intend to revive the project. Here is is with the mold plug/plywood top I used for the other project. While not an exact fit it is so close it is scary.
Welding Experiment TIG with a Stick welder
I KNOW IT IS FAR FROM PERFECT BUT IT DID WORK. WITH GAS AND PRACTICE, WHO KNOWS?
I had heard TIG welding was similar to gas welding. Having become an accomplished gas welder with OXy ACet I was interested in trying TIG. Unfortunaltely they are not cheap. I thought about it and reasoned maybe it could be done with my stick welder, a good quality Miller AC DC machine. I knew TIG normally has Hi frequency but realized that is to make the arc easier to start and sustain. I had no gas either but decided to try and see what happened. I WAS SHOCKED! Using 40 amps Dc with conventional polarity and a lananiated 1/16 tungsten rod i was able to weld 1/8 steel with a reasonable bead just like I weld with gas although 1/8 would be not easy with a standeard torch set up being a bit on the thick side. I reversed polarity but that doesnt work. It just eats up the tungsten rod. I put it back and tried again. Worked even better as i got used to it. You have to scratch start the arc and then wait till the puddle starts but once you get that going you can weld for a relatively long duration using the same techniques for your puddling as wth OXY Acetalyne. I would like to try it with Argon and may make a torch of sorts for it on the lathe with a gas nozzle, cup and sprout for the arc handle clamping. Arc was easily sustainable and weld was very localized minimizing heating and distortion. Once puddle forms and arc is going smooth the tungsten rod settles downand runs relatively cool . This is to me very interesting stuff. I see a real TIG in my future but this is fun for now.
Electrolysis Cleaning.
I learned of this technique developed by a Nova Scotion and list on their Antique tractor website.
Using laundry soda and a car battery and charger results similar to a modern hot tank were obtained. No wierd chemicals, no heat and scum accumuates on a scrap iron bar. Can be srapped of and put in the garbage. I am most impressed. try it you will like it.
ALUMINUM WELDING
I tried the low temp aluminum welding rod from TSC today. using a propane turbo torch and following package instructions very good results were obtained. I would recomend it for thin aluminum. I was sucessful first try whch always impresses me on a product.
