Retooling my Shop

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Marko Tsourkan

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I will be retooling my shop in the next three months. I will be adding 3 grinders, two salt pods, and if everything goes well, an inert gas oven. I will be putting up my TWSG-1 and TG-92 disk sander with a miter attachment for sale.

If anybody is interested in purchasing these, please sent me a PM.

Thanks
 
I think you guys know by now that tools is my "bug" and that I can't have enough of them. I am going to brag here my new acquisitions. )))

This tool is called "prism" - a very handy tool for metal work and wood marking (on the boards) and many other uses. this hunk of metal weighs 45lb. Cast iron, precision ground on all 8 sides.

prism.jpg

A coolant chilled system is coming soon, as well as a wood stabilizing system.
 
What do you do with that thing?
 
It's precision ground on all eight sides. One can use it with combination of a small vise or a clamp for drilling, clamping, marking, welding, setting an angle. I need a good support, for example, when I mark my cutting boards, so I just will clamp the board for edge marking.

PS: and while I have your attention, Rick, I have the A2 test knife ready.
 
I have a friend physicist on board, helping me to design a fast wood stabilizing system with all bells and whistles - liquid nitrogen traps for water vapors, high-rate vacuum pumps, high vacuum cylinders that are normally used in labs. In all, super exciting stuff!!! I feel like in a science class again. Actually, there is a quite a bit of science to wood stabilizing, and understanding the process is a key to fast and efficient stabilizing. Here is the glimpse at the components that I will be using

Vacuum chambers
cylinders.jpg
 
You have a mad scientist knife making laboratory there!:doublethumbsup: Dr. Frankenstein would be proud.

Thanks, but not really, just trying to make process the right way and it helps to know people who understand how things work and what's needed to make things work. I was OK with science, but not a wiz.

I expect the outcome to be on par with commercial stabilizing and in part it means setting up the right equipment: pumps, vessels, gauges, controls, etc.

I am serious about retooling my shop and make my work more efficient and to get to the next level (damascus, integrals) and that mean to innovate some processes and think outside of the box.

Matus, when I saw the prism for the first time, the X-Files immediately sprang to mind.
 
Marko your attention to detail and perfection are exactly the same as when I met you. You were only doing sayas then and at that time you were talking about getting the best tools to get them perfect.
 
Marko your attention to detail and perfection are exactly the same as when I met you. You were only doing sayas then and at that time you were talking about getting the best tools to get them perfect.

What can I say? I find tools exciting, and try to get best tools I can afford.

The wood stabilizing setup is going to be really cool. I am using all lab grade equipment and controls, that's about 10 times more powerful than wood stabilizing setups (pump and chamber) available through the likes of Woodcraft. The stabilizing process would consist of both, vacuuming and pressurizing stages, before wood is cured in an oven.
 
Here is snap shot of a wood stabilizing post I am building (in the picture you see just a part of it, the whole system will be much more complex). Building a station for it at the moment, will assemble it early next week and do a test run later that week. Been sitting on a pile of wood for some time now. I am very excited about doing in-house wood stabilizing.

IMG_0268.JPG
 
I am using quality lab equipment and aim to at least replicate commercial stabilizing, but quietly hopping that I can do better. Will know next week)))
 
If I could only figure out how to make money with them))) But I admit, tools make things pretty exciting, and the list of tools I want to own is quite long.

Marko
 
Marko - let me know if you ever want to get in the space test buisiness ... You would love tearing apart/re-building cryo / turbo pumps and setting up-running TVAC chambers. When you get bored with that I can introduce you to RF, EMI, vibration and acoustic testing ... Nice to see the 'mad scientist' and his devilish plans coming in a nice WIP ...

Here is snap shot of a wood stabilizing post I am building (in the picture you see just a part of it, the whole system will be much more complex)

View attachment 31849

TjA
 
So, how does it work? Without revealing any secrets of course. I'm guessing bath in hot stabilizer to open pores then placed in a sealed container which is then rapidly cooled with liquid nitrogen to form a vacuum to draw the stabilizer in.
 
So, how does it work? Without revealing any secrets of course. I'm guessing bath in hot stabilizer to open pores then placed in a sealed container which is then rapidly cooled with liquid nitrogen to form a vacuum to draw the stabilizer in.

It's not a secret, an amateur setups are available at the places like of Woodcraft, Rockler and so forth.

The idea is to remove air and water vapors from the wood, and replace it with polymer. That is achieved with a vacuum setup where wood is submerged in polymer. Once the chamber is brought back to the atmospheric pressure, wood absorbs the polymer. How much it absorbs can be calculated by the weight of the wood before and after.

So that's a snapshot. The trade secret lies in how to make wood absorb the most of the polymer (more polymer = more stable wood). Even commercially stabilized wood moves. Polymer itself is not as important, thought it has to be off a specific viscosity and cure in an oven (as opposed to air cured molding polymers)
 
Is this constructed from some swag from Lucretia's NASA days?:D

My first thought was that it looked REALLY familiar!

Marko - let me know if you ever want to get in the space test buisiness ... You would love tearing apart/re-building cryo / turbo pumps and setting up-running TVAC chambers. When you get bored with that I can introduce you to RF, EMI, vibration and acoustic testing ... Nice to see the 'mad scientist' and his devilish plans coming in a nice WIP ...

One of the most fun (for me) tests was doing a vibration test on a running turbo pump to evaluate it for use in a shuttle launch environment. Pump sounded like maracas afterwards--and all those tiny little turbine blades came pouring out when it was opened up. Bwah hah hah.

On the serious side--do you have any sort of filter or trap to keep polymer vapors from getting into your pump? You might not need one depending on the vacuum you're pulling and the characteristics of the polymer, but just wanted to throw it out there as something to consider.
 
My first thought was that it looked REALLY familiar!



One of the most fun (for me) tests was doing a vibration test on a running turbo pump to evaluate it for use in a shuttle launch environment. Pump sounded like maracas afterwards--and all those tiny little turbine blades came pouring out when it was opened up. Bwah hah hah.

On the serious side--do you have any sort of filter or trap to keep polymer vapors from getting into your pump? You might not need one depending on the vacuum you're pulling and the characteristics of the polymer, but just wanted to throw it out there as something to consider.

I am going to be using a liquid nitrogen trap. I always have LN2 on hand.
 
Well, it has been a while since I posted here, but I wasn't exactly idle all this time.

In the past few months, I optimized some equipment, added a few machines, built a pretty complex vacuum/pressure system for wood stabilizing (pressure chamber that can withstand 5000psi is being currently built), adding a couple of new grinders, better lights, and putting a dust extraction system in place. This has been long overdue, and badly needed, as I work with wood and metal, and generating dust is a part of the process.

This is the unit that I am installing in my shop. US made equipment. Need to install the duct, and power up this baby. The motor is 3/4 HP, but running on three phase. The cyclone should generate enough extraction, so I can probably work without a mask.

My next project, a super efficient Heat Treatment setup.

Donaldson.jpg
 
Makro, between the grinders, re-tooling, wood stabilisation and zillion other things that all cost you time, I can not stop but wonder how do you find time to make knives Do you actually sleep or just reserve the less demanding tasks for the night hours? :)
 
Makro, between the grinders, re-tooling, wood stabilisation and zillion other things that all cost you time, I can not stop but wonder how do you find time to make knives Do you actually sleep or just reserve the less demanding tasks for the night hours? :)

Making knives more efficiently while preserving quality HT, and quality grind is my end goal, so I am willing to sacrifice some time now to retool my shop. And I like to do everything in the house. It's not as much about saving, as about convenience. Plus I like to control all variables.

The grinder project took longer than expected, but it has been worth it. The machine we offer might not be for everybody, but a few of you will appreciate it. For me personally it has been a super fun project to help design, and to get a machine/s with features I want in my grinders.

Wood stabilizing has been an interesting project, and I have learned quite a bit along the way about things I knew nothing about, and still learning. I get a very good results with equipment that I have, and am wondering what the result will be once I get my super high-pressure chamber delivered. I am also experimenting with different polymers, so it's an ongoing project.

As for making knives, I made some, but not at the rate I am capable of making them. Once everything is in place, I will double my output, but now it's pretty modest (new work) as I need to deliver work that has been bespoken.

I have a dust extraction project left, but it's a weekend project, so I am almost done!

So all in all, to stay interested, one has to spice the work life with fun projects and in my case, they are all related to knife making, and I plan incorporate what I have learned into my overall process of knife making.
 
This Big Boy might be heading to me very soon. 175lb ram, self contained power hammer. Weights almost 7000 pounds.

PowerHammer170.jpg

This one was my first choice (350lb ram), but unfortunately, I won't be able to get it into my basement workshop, plus I would need to excavate, and pour concrete for the anvil. Once I move into my own workshop in couple of years time, I will get one like this for sure.

PowerHammer350.jpg
 
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