Storing Acids and Materials Containing
Acids
Anytime I have to store acid materials, I
always try to contain the product in some
sort of plastic bag or bucket.
Bag your acids, but keep your eye on
them.
This also goes for lead acid car batteries
(non-sealed type). This type of battery
left near raw steel will attack it and soon
form a nice coat of rust. Now I just leave
my car batteries outside until I can
dispose of them. I learned this the hard
way and had to clean up all my U-bends I
had stored on a shelf above the battery. I
also found out that plastic bags don't last
forever. I had a can of flux packaged in a
sandwich bag. It has probably been in the
same bag for 5 years. I never dreamed that
the plastic would start to disintegrate and
leak the acid onto the drawer. The really
bad news was the drawers had holes in the
bottoms for dividers. Yes, it leaked all
the way to the bottom when one of our
summer days started cooking the paste.
One of the drawers the acid leaked
through.
Even the bag storing these adaptors
broke.
So, even with a baggie, I will still put
all of the acids in some sort of Tupperware
box. Moral of this story, "Never trust a
baggie."
No Surface Grinder?? No Problem
I recently had to remove .003 from a shim
to get the proper bearing clearance. My
surface grinder was in the process (3
months) of being moved so I had to come up
with an accurate way of removing a small
amount of metal to get the clearance I was
looking for.
The first instinct is to grab it with your
fingers and start sanding. Doesn't work.
First of all you fingers will get shorter
and the part will not be evenly ground.
I chucked up a piece of plastic and
machined a boss to retain the shim while
lapping it on my plate.
Make sure the retaining boss is shorter
than the shim.
Next I marked the holder so while I'm
lapping the shim I would rotate it to get
the part even in thickness.
Wipe the shim clean and mike it frequently. Check a few locations to be sure you are getting it even.
I took off the .003 and the shim was ready
for use.
The sample I used was a ring, but a disc
could be shaped in the same manner.
Wipe Your Chucks
Before you install a chuck onto to a lathe
or any piece of equipment, wipe it down.
This could be your R8 collet or any piece
of tooling about to be inserted into a
holder.
I wipe down both sides. That chip or piece
of whatever could be hanging out anywhere.
You probably do this already, but use some
kind of protection for the ways and your
fingers when installing your chucks. It
doesn't matter how small the chuck is, just
do it. The penalty for dropping one is
"dinged ways" You can always tell the
amount of experience a lad has by the
conditioning of his equipment.
Blow Out the Dust
Depending on what your shop conditions are
like, you need to blow out your electrical
equipment every so often. The frequency
will depend on how much dust is observed
during the "blow out." I know when I'm
doing any kind of sanding or blocking of
panels, no matter how hard I try, the dust
is all over the place. Then of course you
start up your welder and immediately the
fan starts sucking dust right through the
welder. Even though it's a bit of work,
drop the side panel and blow out that
welder. Same thing goes for hand tools.
Hey, the tool you save may be your own.
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