Thread: Conundrum Curiosity Complex.

I'd say it's not going to work. Unless, you are able to imregnate the chalk to the point that it becomes like a barber's hone. That being said, some sort of binder and a solid burnishing of the peaks of the high grit areas. Now making your own hones... crox and feox in binders... hmmm

*A disclaimer on my grammar with regards to this scheme*: I frequently refer to the two sided utility sharpening stone as simply as "the stone". This is because I don't consider that stone worthy of being called a "hone". It shouldn't be confused with the welder's chalk, which I sometimes call "soapstone" or "chalk".

Moving on...

Well, in playing around with chalking the utility stone, I've made a few conclusions.

The stone by itself works better when wet, like soaked in water for 5 to 10 minutes. But when soapstone is applied & rubbed in; if the stone is wet, the muddy chalk residue is easily pushed away. That means it is mostly a futile effort to chalk it & then try to hone on it while wet.

Conversely, the welder's chalk doesn't go on too well if the stone is completely dry. When the stone is only slightly damp is when the it is most optimal to rub the chalk in to a consistent, even layer. Once I'm satisfied with loading the chalk on the stone, or it won't really load anymore, I set it aside to dry out completely.

I haven't had much of a chance to mess with it after that, but obviously I would be using the loaded stone dry. Otherwise, the chalk would not stick around long enough to see noticeable results... a difference in the blade edge.

I wish I had a USB microscope, so I could try to get images of various grit sizes of whatever material strikes my fancy. Maybe I'll splurge on one when/if my refund comes in.

Could create a chalk paste and then brush it onto the stone. I've heard of people making their own chalk, could coat in different mixtures. It would be easier to control density and thickness this way, easier benefits seen with a microscope though. This brings me to my next point.

One thing I was thinking about was making hones. I wish we could get the old Swaty recipe that is supposedly "incomplete". I figure at least 5-10 people would experiment with me to try to make them the way they're supposed to be done. It would be interesting to try to make one, maybe try to improve on it. All hones are essentially grit and binder, when lapping it always seemed like the binder was chalk... Maybe see if garnet (or other stone) dust is available in bulk from a stone cutting plant to impregnate in a binder. Although purity and uniformity would be a concern with cast-offs....

Super stoked... 'ish. They finally replaced the two super-long cogged v-belts on the lid line at work. I didn't find out until like two or three days afterwards, so it's a good thing the maintenance guys don't empty the trash in their workshop very often! Had to move a few spent coffee filters full of grinds, but there they were! Also snatched up a 1" wide double cogged flat belt... cause... it was there in the trash, and the supervisor said I just needed to inform him of what trash I took .

Anyway. I'll try to get a few pics later. Onto my next "dash of crazy/why the heck not!?!"...

Ya know those flexshaft attachments for Dremel tools? I'm gonna try to make my own. Found the segment that Discovery channel did on them in that show where they do a teardown/disassembly of one doodad or another. The flexshaft is basically several layers of five wires wound in a helix around a solid core. Each layer of spun wires is done so in the opposite direction of the layer beneath it. Find the clip (<9 minutes) on YouTube, they explain the physics of it more efficiently than I can here.

Parts I have at my disposal:
A spool of wire that I bought at the army surplus (olive drab tripwire, 20 guage?...)
DC motor with all the "guts" & cord, salvaged from a massager my wife used on her calves when she gets frequent muscle cramps because of low potassium (bearing in the working end is shot, sounds like gravel, motor still fine).
Aluminum discs, roughly the dimensions of a nickle.
Assorted hardware: nuts 'n bolts, cordless drill, drill bits, stuff I'll dig out as the need arises...

I will start by making a spiraling jig with the aluminum discs: a hole in the middle for an arbor mandrel, then five holes close to the outer circumference of the disc. Thinking about it, I'll probably make two or three of these jigs. I've got around 50 or more of these discs in a box of random metal. Stack 'em, clamp 'em, drill 'em!

That is probably about the only quantifiable preparation I'm gonna do to make this. Everything else will happen via improvisation & problem solving.

I have no idea if the metal in the "tripwire" is suitable for this, but I want to try it! I want this as a step up from hand sanding & a toothbrush with MAAS o it to get my sharp 'n shiny things all shiny 'n junk. This motor might be as big as some dremel tool motors (pics to come). Also, I don't have any teeny tiny pulleys with the appropriate belts to run this like a bench buffer that you could fit in the palm of your hand.

Later, I'll use nuts, washers, and a bolt ran through a few "facial scrubbing pads" commandeered from my wife's beauty supplies to make a little bitty buffing wheel.

I may be forgetting thoughts. Oh well. Phone is at 7% anyway. Thanks for tuning in!!!

For coiling 20 ga wire, look up "clapton wire build", it's a popular technique that many vapers use. They will have good tips. How much wire do you have?

It's been a while, but I finally caught back up with this thread.

To answer a few of your questions...

About contacting saw blade manufacturers:
Try contacting Diablo Tools. They have a full on engineering department for blade design and probably know the answer, if not, they would probably find it intriguing enough to do the engineering to find out. The question that you want to ask is "What is the maximum radial shear stress of the blade? And at what RPM does it occur at?"

About what happens above the speed of sound:
Lots of weird things start to happen. The one of importance in your case would be rapid heating of the blade. The edge of the blade would melt and start flinging molten metal - if it has carbide teeth welded to it, the welds would melt and throw the teeth at you as well. The hot blade will then start bending into a cup shape (I think it is hoop stress that causes that). If the hot blade doesn't cause the bearings to fail, a cup shaped blade will definitely rip the bearing apart (tangential stress). General Electric turbine division has some good technical papers on it which all boil down to - don't let RPM exceed the speed of sound because weird stuff happens.

I doubt soapstone will sharpen or polish metal, but you can use it as a dry lubricant between two metal plates.

If you want to build your own Dremel flex shaft, I think Popular Woodworking or maybe Popular Mechanics put out a how to back in the early 1980s or late 1970s. IIRC they used a bicycle speedometer cable as the flex shaft.

Originally Posted by Crawler

...
Aluminum discs, roughly the dimensions of a nickle.
...

First of all, these discs are almost exactly the same dimensions as a nickel. The diameter of a nickel is just a hair wider than these metal discs that I have. On a related note, I weighed four (4) of them on our digital kitchen scale. The total weight of the four discs was 18 grams.

I weighed them, partly due to curiosity, and partly in an attempt to figure out what kind of metal they are! It turns out, my knowledge of metallurgy is weaker than I thought. I knew that aluminum, and other obviously non-feric metals were non-magnetic. I did not know that lead, and some stainless steel varieties were also non-magnetic. These discs are, frankly, too small for me to be able to judge the density as yes/no lead (as I would be able to do with a length of pipe). All that being said, I still believe these to not be lead. IIRC, lead tends to be a darker shade of grey than aluminum & SS, especially after a bit of time to oxidize/patina.

I don't know if it will point to what type of metal, but these have ever indication of being punch-outs, from a large sheet of source material.

I think I can further differentiate between alum. & SS by cleaning them at the kitchen sink. Previously, I've noticed that one cookware (alum., IIRC) will cause the dish suds on it to turn grey easily, when scrubbed with a green scratcher pad (not submerged, just a good amount of dish soap & just enough water to keep the suds wet). The other cookware will not do this, or at least not without a ton of effort, lots of sweat, and a fair bit of cursing!

What a conundrum...

With regards to the DIY flexshaft, here are some pics with measurements, size reference pieces, and some of the random nuts & bolts that will likely find a use in it.









Just showing you folks some of the "parts" I will be using to pull a flexshaft out of my... "hat" .

Hahahahaha, that's great.

My father used to used that green wire for gardening, if you need more you should be able to get it from Stein's or similar gardening supply store

Originally Posted by dinnermint

Hahahahaha, that's great.

My father used to used that green wire for gardening, if you need more you should be able to get it from Stein's or similar gardening supply store

That particular spool, I believe, is one of few items that were remotely masculine that I grabbed at an estate sale last year. The wife dragged me to it because of more than a dozen tables of crafting items, most of which were cuts of fabric. I might have paid something like $0.75 for the three or five items I found for myself. I think the army surplus sells spools smaller than this one for about a buck fifty, IIRC.

Anyway. I've been thinking about seeing what kinds/guages Home Depot or Menards has, and for how much. But that might ruin all the fun I'm having pulling fanciful gadgets out of me arse, with only what I have lying around!

Should I ever be lucky enough to have a room/workshop to toil away on my curiosities, I think I will make an honorary sign to hang over the workbench. It will read: "MaCGyver's Workshop".