Jim O'Neil's photos with the keyword: Craft

This is about 8 gallons (30 liters) of instant beer, my White Nights Stout. Just add hops, water, heat, yeast, and about two weeks time and it's ready to drink!

Yes, yesterday was brew day and here's the grain ready to be milled. Behind it is my mill, I made the large wood pulley to drive it.

Yesterday was brew day. Some years back I got tired of turning the crank on my grain mill so I motorized it. To do so I needed a rather large pulley, some 2 feet ( around 61 cm.) in diameter. OK, OK I could have bought one but it was more interesting to make my own pulley out of wood and it worked just fine over the years.

Now it's clamped, cooling and drying. I'll leave it clamped to the form for about a week.

After 2 hours of steaming, I clamp the wood to the form, bending it into the required shape.

This shows my steam generator and the hose leading the steam to the wood to be bent.

Around 99° C.

The steam enters at the close end and exits at the far end.

Of course using steam produces condensate, water, so provisions must be made to drain same.

Last week I did my first lost foam aluminum casting using the electric furnace that I built to melt metal. Furnace interior, heating element is a nichrome coil removed from an $13.00 fan heater.

Last week I did my first lost foam aluminum casting using the electric furnace that I built to melt metal. Furnace (left), temperature controller (right)

Last week I did my first lost foam aluminum casting using the electric furnace that I built to melt metal. Crude lost foam casting, proof of concept.

Last week I did my first lost foam aluminum casting using the electric furnace that I built to melt metal. Measuring the amp draw of the heating elements in my furnace. My furnace draws around 12 or 13 amps giving me around 1300 watts and no problem bringing the furnace temperature as high as 1700° F. (927° C.).

I just finished mounting my second attempt at casting with aluminum. For those who want to give it a try, here's the procedure: First you drink the beer, second you carve the model out of Styrofoam, third you melt the beer cans, fourth you bury the model carved out of Styrofoam in sand, fifth you pour the beer cans (now melted aluminum) in the sand and.... Poof! The hot metal evaporates the foam, the metal replaces it and vola! You've cast a statue! Now that was easy, wasn't it? :-)

I just finished mounting my second attempt at casting with aluminum. For those who want to give it a try, here's the procedure: First you drink the beer, second you carve the model out of Styrofoam, third you melt the beer cans, fourth you bury the model carved out of Styrofoam in sand, fifth you pour the beer cans (now melted aluminum) in the sand and.... Poof! The hot metal evaporates the foam, the metal replaces it and vola! You've cast a statue! & oh, by the way, soft drink cans work just as well as beer can. ;-)

I just finished mounting my second attempt at casting with aluminum. For those who want to give it a try, here's the procedure: First you drink the beer, second you carve the model out of Styrofoam, third you melt the beer cans, fourth you bury the model carved out of Styrofoam in sand, fifth you pour the beer cans (now melted aluminum) in the sand and.... Poof! The hot metal evaporates the foam, the metal replaces it and vola! You've cast a statue! -GRIN-

What do you do when you need a large double pole, double throw knife switch and you start searching for it and realize that such large a switch is hard to find and when you do find one it's incredibly expensive? Well, if your me, you build your own. This one is almost finished, I've still two screws to copper plate and some oiling and finish work on the wood