McGyver resource: The Circular File

Larry Jaques wrote:
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Yup. That you did.
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That's what 1/16" drill bits are for. They tend to equilibrate differentials. I doubt the emptied can has much in the way of pressure, by definition.
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Heck, the seam at that point is ~0.064" thick. Hardly a 'razorblade' trick.
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Sorta Kinda. I see that it wouldn't necessarily work for 2.4 GHz due to it's small diameter. Be OK for 5 GHz though. Hmmm.
http://www.saunalahti.fi/elepal/antenna2calc.php
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There's a joke in there somewhere....
--Winston

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    So the reason for wanting submissions from others is to get other ideas of what to enter in your personal copy of the list -- not to find items in other's collections.
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    O.K. But you also have to remember to remove it from the list (or perhaps add a "count" field, and decrement the count to zero when you take the only one -- that way, the entry is there for future additions of more of the same. This could save the number of lines needed when you have several (or many) of identical or near-identical items.
    Another interesting (and possibly useful) field would be "personal/for-trade" to remind yourself that you want to hold on to something, or to let someone else nearby (say another member of the local metalworking club) know that there is a possibility of exchange for a given item.
    Hmm ... perhaps with provisions for a "many" entry instead of a numerical count -- for things like crimp terminals of a given size in a plastic bin. (I've got insulated crimp ring, fork, and spade terminals in wire sizes from 28 Ga to 4/0 and lots of different hole/slot sizes.)
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    Also -- scrap left over from aluminum siding on a house is fairly thin, with a fairly tough plastic skin. I've got one strip of this stapled to the wall to the left of my surface grinder with the bottom two inches folded up into a 'V' to capture the grinding dust otherwise slung against the wall.
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    O.K. Because if I started entering my hex and round bar stock in about 6' lengths, especially the 12L14 -- that would not be going anywhere. It is for *my* future (and as yet unknown) projects. :-)
    Same for the 5" long 6" diameter 12L14 cylinder -- left from a 6" long one bought from an on-line drops source to make a part for my Nichols horizontal mill. I don't know what it will be used for, but I do remember that it cost more in the shipping than in the material cost.
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    Hmm ... my (Fluke) DMM leads appear to be tin-plated brass, so the strongest magnet around would do little to hold them. :-)
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    Of course it would -- as long as you wanted the data which was on them to be gone for security reasons. :-)
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    At a recent gathering of the local metalworking club (combination yard sale and picnic) I picked up a 1 gallon can which had held "Flux-Off" (for cleaning printed circuit boards after soldering them), and which came with a right-angle faucet. I expect to (after running some compressed air through it for a while to get rid of the remaining solvent dregs) pour in one of my remaining two gallons of Vactra No.2 waylube and store it on a shelf where the faucet can be used to deliver just the right amount without having to lift and tilt the container. (Some 2x4 will be cut to form supports to match the curve of the container.) So -- this is yet another thing which (could go in the list -- except that it already has a planned use. I knew what I was going to use it for when I bought it. :-)
BTW    As the list grows, it might be good to have a web site, or an     FTP site to save it for downloads, and just post the URL.
    Enjoy,         DoN.

DoN. Nichols wrote: (...)
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That is almost exactly right.
Right now, I see that my 'personal copy' of the list will be virtually the same as everyone else's copy. Perhaps as much as one revision later than everyone else's -- but that only means I have one or two more items listed than those shown on the distributed list.
I figure that Monday afternoon, I will want a free - or low cost part for a project. I won't necessarily know that I already own several of these parts because they are cleverly disguised as something else. I will end up driving to my local store to pay full list for a tiny bag of parts which are duplicates! That is hugely inefficient in terms of time and money. The Circular File will reveal how I might be able to uncover these parts without ever having to turn the ignition key.
I am not interested in the actual physical parts in your collection. Even if you agreed to be my parts warehouse for free, it would be a non-starter because the cost of shipping tends to be some huge multiple of the value of a typical part. I would be time and money ahead just by picking up those parts during a grocery run.
I'm keeping my eyes and ears open to ways to change that equation so that I can trade my box of 10-32 socket head machine screws for your box of 6 mm hex nuts, without having to pay shipping, but I don't see how that is even possible; it is not my reason for the File right now.
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I did not envision the Circular File as an inventory, local or global. The only reason that a Circular File entry would fall off the list is if that source dried up for a significant number of users.
When most soft drinks are packaged in pure plastic cans, our note about the 4 thousanths aluminum sheet source will disappear, for example.
If the Circular File evolves into a Global Inventory, that's fine. There are significant stumbling blocks though and as we've seen, most of them are huge show-stoppers. I admit I just don't see that happening.
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That's far outside the 'project charter' as it stands right now.
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Have a look at Jim Wilkins' File entries on pipe. He shows us that we can make assemblies that telescope or form axles using a very inexpensive part which many of us already have.
You probably could combine his entry with a bicycle inner tube to form a rolling - seal pneumatic actuator for (all together now) No Money!
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Excellent! How wide is it and how thick? What is a typical length? What are some trade names for that material? How did you locate the piece you have and what advice would you give to someone who needs to locate a couple feet of it next week?
I see folks using that stuff to make a control panel, for instance.
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Good!
So tell me how you used a discharged fire extinguisher bottle as a plant sprayer! That's the kinda thing I'm looking for.
Oh, I see you kinda did, below.
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I have my DMM leads looped over the protruding end of one of those magnets. Works Great!
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Write Only Memory? Kewl!
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It should go in the Circular File anyway. The idea is to make others aware of your novel use of this can!
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I agree. Any takers? :)
--Winston

On Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:29:28 -0800, Winston wrote:
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The rec.crafts.metalworking wiki at <http://www.metalworker.org/ allows file uploads and would be an appropriate site for such files in .csv and/or .ods format. For wiki file upload instructions, see <http://www.metalworker.org/Uploading_a_PDF . Perhaps you could get iggy to create a new-entries web page with a submissions form and a CGI application to merge new entries into the cumulative spreadsheet or database file.

James Waldby wrote:
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I get an error on that: (".csv" is not a recommended image file format.)
For wiki file upload
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That might turn the File into an inventory. That would not be good, IMNSHO.
--Winston

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    O.K. If you want another suggestion for recycling parts, consider the caps from jug-filled water coolers in offices and such. They slip over the neck of the bottle and then their skirt is heat-shrunk to grip the bottle neck, and to open it you tear along a pre-made weak line from a tab. Normally, the cap just goes in a nearby trash can when it is removed. I started collecting them back before I retired. Cut off the remains of the skirts, and you have a collection of small-parts trays (screws, etc) to use when disassembling something. I've got red, green, and blue ones to keep parts from different sub-assemblies separated. Two of them stay in the carrying case for my Milwaukee power screwdriver (the small style used to be AEG, now Milwaukee and Panasonic based on MSC catalog entries. I would have three different colors there if there were room.
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    Time to work on the project of duplicating the Enterprise's transporter. :-)
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    O.K.
    O.K.
    Certainly for national or world-wide use -- but for a local metalworking club were things get shared around it could be a different matter. Ours covers Northern VA, DC, and Southern MD, and there are often posts of "Does anyone have X -- preferably in Northern VA?" on the mailing list.
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    :-)
    That is determined by the area from which it was a remnant.
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    O.K. The house was expanded by a contractor some years ago (near fifteen now, I think), and I kept the scrap left over from putting aluminum siding over the existing house and the new part. Most of it comes pre-crimped to look like clapboard, but there are pieces used for covering the trim. I think that my widest piece is 12 or 18" wide. And I think that it originally comes in long rolls. So the source would be a construction site. It might even be what is rolled to form gutters by the machine towed behind a truck on a trailer.
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    O.K. The white version would take a nice set of Kroy labels for the controls. If you use thick aluminum you can engrave labels in it, but if you simply want something to cover extra holes in the panel, this would be great.
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    I don't have one of those -- yet. :-)
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    And the use above for water cooler bottle caps.
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    O.K. I've got two Fluke DMMs -- one is the 27, and that lives in a carrying case with the probes, extra leads, and the clamp-on ammeter head. The other is the 37 (same functions) but it is designed for bench use and has a storage compartment for the leads and other accessories (including the temperature probe head, which used to live in the other case.)
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    :-)
    O.K.
BTW    I also save the wax off Gouda cheese, melt and save it, and     use it for protective dip for cutting tools at need.
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    That would hit problems here -- the incoming copies in e-mail would quickly grow over the size of my incoming e-mail limit -- to keep viruses out of small mailing lists hosted on my systems. It is already up to 10,877 bytes, and my limit is 30k -- so we are a third of the way there. But either an FTP site or a web page could serve.
    Enjoy,         DoN.

DoN. Nichols wrote:
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Excellent! O.D.? I.D.? Thickness at the middle of the crown? Is that HDPE? Generic 'plastic'?
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A.D. 2015:    "Engineer DoN. Nichols demonstrated the first reliable         Matter - Energy - Matter Codec this afternoon.         Attendees celebrated as Mr. Nichols announced the end         of the fifty - cent hex nut."
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We have a small price / performance issue here. Who arbitrates disagreements about:     * quality     * quantity     * description accuracy     * finish     * availability     * condition     * location     * delivery date     * yada yada yada?
To quote a great philosopher: "It ain't me, babe." :)
Feel free to start a Geek 'Tradio'. I agree that it would be very useful.
It is much too big a 'Mission Creep' for me.
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Thank you!
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You *are* good!
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We are in violent agreement.
--Winston

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    You keep asking these questions (or at least I see them) when I am upstairs at my computer -- not downstairs with the shop. And I had a major schlump blocking access to the shop door earlier, when I pulled out a metal suitcase full of crimping tools. I just had to dig that out sooner than I had planned, to get my digital calipers.
OD:    2.258" ID:    1.997" (at bottom of lip, which is like a pair of "( )"         separated by about 2".)
THICKNESS:    0.102" (at center where there is a plastic pimple         0.063" (closer to the rim).
HDPE?        Who knows? It is a flexible plastic, even fifteen         years after collection. It has heat-shrink capability         to shrink the skirt against the neck of the original         bottle.
        Only visible marking is UL12 (for the blue one in my         hand at the moment.)
    I've also nipped a hole in the rim of one, and used it as protection over the positive terminal of a large strorage battery in a UPS whose metal lid was too close to the terminals.
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            it is adequate for his purposes. (Most often it             is whether it is large enough and the right             material for the project.
            One example was someone looking for an old             water heater to make a digester for bio-diesel,             and I had just replaced one, and wanted a home             for it. he came by and we got it out of the             cellar and up the steps to the ground level             together. He knew that it leaked, and it was             still what he needed.
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            may be carried to the monthly meetings (I'll be             at one tomorrow night, and may not have time to             answer).
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            drives to the home of the person offering it.             (I did this quite recently for a foot of             railroad rail, to make a small anvil.)
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            good will. (Typically, this starts with a post             to the club's (e-)mailing list saying "Does             anyone have 'X' at least Y x Z in size, and             someone else says "no -- but can you use Q?"             and another says -- "Yes -- but I'll need help             to dig it out."
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    This is just a possible use for your tool -- to help people tell whether they *do* have what is needed -- and can spare it.
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    It already exists.
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    O.K. It is just a way that people might use what you have started.
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    That nice red wax is not something to waste. :-)
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    O.K.
    Enjoy,         DoN.

DoN. Nichols wrote:
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Thanks, DoN. It's in the File.
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That is terrific!
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It's in the File! I wonder if anyone has made candles using that stuff?
--Winston

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I saved a lot of those but never found a good use for them.
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The urethane wax in a toilet bowl ring is more flexible than paraffin wax.
In the (cheap) kitchen department there are cutting boards for thick plastic, strainers with stainless steel screening, and SS pots and pans. $1 pots made good front hub dust shields for my old truck; http://picasaweb.google.com/KB1DAL/Parts #
Grade 5 and 8 bolts can be turned and threaded with HSS on a lathe and can save a lot of rough turning when you need a large-head on a smaller shank, for instance to make a saw arbor or milling cutter holder.
Jim Wilkins

[^ original, the rest copied and pasted from a .txt file. Michael, try replying to this.]
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This is the table I use most. Rather than a spreadsheet it's on a CAD drawing with full-sized section drawings to cut and paste. Brass pipe seems to be very close to these numbers. Iron pipe is sloppier and not always round, especially at the weld line, but it's easy to buy locally on nights and weekends.
The numbers are from Machinery's Handbook 23, pp 2380, 2381, which also give Moment of Inertia, Radius of Gyration, Sectional Modulus, etc.
Notice that 1" fits easily into 1-1/4", also 1-1/2" into 2", and 3/4" may be a tight fit into 1". To make then telescope well, bore a cap for the larger pipe and turn one down for the end of the inner one.
1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" brass pipe nipples can be bored to make bearings for 3/8", 1/2" and 5/8" shafts.
Pipe OD ID 40 ID 80 1/8 0.405 0.269 0.215 1/4 0.540 0.364 0.302 3/8 0.675 0.493 0.423 1/2 0.840 0.622 0.546 3/4 1.050 0.824 0.742 1 1.315 1.049 0.957 1-1/4 1.660 1.380 1.278 1-1/2 1.900 1.610 1.500 2 2.375 2.067 1.939
Jim Wilkins

Jim Wilkins wrote:
(Pipe information)
Thanks Jim!
Here is the updated file:
*****Copy and save the following as 'CircularFile.csv' then import it ******
"This is The Circular File",,,,,,,,,, "A source for Inexpensive Materials",,,,,,,,,, "All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.",,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,, ,"Nom. Outside","Nom.","Nom. Inside","Nom.","Nom.",,,,, ,"Diameter or Width","Depth","Diameter","Wall Thk.","Length",,,,, ,"Inches","Inches","Inches","Inches","Inches",,,,, "Material","+- 0.003”","+- 0.003”","+- 0.003”","+- 0.002”","+- 0.2”","Shape","Notes","Source","Posted","By" "Steel",0.045,,,,36,"Solid Wire","Copper plated","ER70S-2 TIG filler rod (0.045” size)",11/18/2008,"Winston" "Steel",0.062,,,,36,"Solid Wire","Copper plated","ER70S-2 TIG filler rod (1/16” size)",11/18/2008,"Winston" "Stainless Steel",0.1875,,0.1675,0.01,4.5,"Pipe","Light oxidation one end","Solder cartridge from Metcal MX-500 and SP-200 MX-RM3E handpiece",11/18/2008,"Winston" "Steel",0.366,,0.27,0.048,9,"Pipe","Available in many lengths","NPS 1/8” pipe. An electric lamp part, between the base and harp",11/18/2008,"Winston" "Steel or Brass",0.405,,0.269,0.068,120,"Pipe","SCH 40 1/8” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",0.405,,0.215,0.095,120,"Pipe","SCH 80 1/8” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",0.54,,0.302,0.119,120,"Pipe","SCH 80 1/4” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",0.54,,0.364,0.088,120,"Pipe","SCH 40 1/4” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",0.675,,0.423,0.126,120,"Pipe","SCH 80 3/8” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",0.675,,0.493,0.091,120,"Pipe","SCH 40 3/8” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",0.84,,0.546,0.147,120,"Pipe","SCH 80 1/2” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",0.84,,0.622,0.109,120,"Pipe","SCH 40 1/2” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",1.05,,0.824,0.113,120,"Pipe","SCH 40 3/4” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",1.05,,0.742,0.154,120,"Pipe","SCH 80 3/4” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Aluminum",1.244,,1.188,0.028,1.93,"Cup and Lid","Matte oxide finish","Metal 35 mm film canister W/ threaded lid",11/18/2008,"Winston" "Plastic",1.26,,1.16,0.05,2.013,"Cup and Lid","Light Gray body, Black cap","Plastic 35 mm film canister W/Snap Lid",11/18/2008,"Winston" "Steel or Brass",1.315,,1.049,0.133,120,"Pipe","SCH 40 1” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",1.315,,0.957,0.179,120,"Pipe","SCH 80 1” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",1.66,,1.38,0.14,120,"Pipe","SCH 40 1-1/4” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",1.66,,1.278,0.191,120,"Pipe","SCH 80 1-1/4” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "HDPE",1.67,,1.604,0.033,1.67,"Cup","Translucent white color","Protective cap from a 200 mL dispenser of GoJo Provon Antibacterial Handwash",11/18/2008,"Winston" "Steel or Brass",1.9,,1.5,0.2,120,"Pipe","SCH 80 1-1/2” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",1.9,,1.61,0.145,120,"Pipe","SCH 40 1-1/2” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",2.375,,2.067,0.154,120,"Pipe","SCH 40 2” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" "Steel or Brass",2.375,,1.939,0.218,120,"Pipe","SCH 80 2” Note 1","Black or galvanized “Iron” also brass pipe",11/19/2008,"Jim Wilkins" ,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,, "Note 1: “Black” and galvanized Iron Pipe, Brass Pipe",,,,,,,,,, "Brass pipe seems to be very close to these numbers. Iron pipe is sloppier and not always round, especially at the weld line, but it's easy to buy locally on nights and weekends.",,,,,,,,,, "The numbers are from Machinery's Handbook 23, pp 2380, 2381, which also give Moment of Inertia, Radius of Gyration, Sectional Modulus, etc.",,,,,,,,,, "Notice that 1"" fits easily into 1-1/4"", also 1-1/2"" into 2"", and ¾"" may be a tight fit into 1"". To make them telescope well, bore a cap for the larger pipe and turn one down for the end of the",,,,,,,,,, "inner one. 1/4"", 3/8"" and 1/2"" brass pipe nipples can be bored to make bearings for 3/8"", 1/2"" and 5/8"" shafts. Jim Wilkins 11/19/2008",,,,,,,,,,
*****Copy and save the preceding as 'CircularFile.csv' then import it ******
As always, I look forward to your helpful record entries, corrections and suggestions.
Thanks!
--Winston