And a great dog grooming stand.

You know, if word gets out that your such an accomplished carpenter you'll be busier than you know what....

 

Put a liquid-tight cabinet on top and repurpose a dishwasher control board for a bona-fide dog washing machine. There's a market for that... in Japan at least.

 

I'll bet there is a market for dog psychiatrists in Japan, too!
What can be going through this dogs head during the spin cycle, I mean besides suds?

 

Seriously, guys and girls...all this carpentry stuff is a flat piece, 4 legs, at least 3 diagonals for stability, and enough long pieces to keep it from bowing in the center, depending on how long the flat piece is and how much weight it has to carry. I must have a carpentry gene because it's so simple for me that I don't understand why everybody can't do it.

For details, you have to consider what quality the surface of the flat piece is, depending on whether you're making a dog house or a writing bench. If I was trying to go "retail", I'd have to calculate how much less money and how much more stylish I could make it by using one by somethings in hardwood instead of $2 for an 8 foot, pine, two-by-four. The stuff I showed here is just, "thrown together" from a piece of plywood and some grade 2 "studs". Real quality is made of thin panels of hardwood, like 1/4 to 3/8ths of an inch thick, with dovetail joints, dowel joints, half laps, and such as that. Modern drawer glides, hinges, knobs, locks, and stuff like that go into "real" quality work. My stuff is workbench quality. It gets jealous when it sees lathe turned legs and inset panels.

 

It gets jealous when it sees lathe turned legs and inset panels.

Cabinet porn?

 

Cabinet porn? You ain't seen nuthin' yet. I was keeping it clean when I spoke of a half lap joint. Wait until you find out about what a full lap can do to a dowel joint, and a blind dovetail is not what happens when you turn the lights out!

 

I tried getting a couple of dogs to walk up and down the ramp. They did well enough going up, if a bit timid, but they mostly slid on the way down, so I put some cleats on the ramp. (For the non-carpenters, that's a real word, and the right word for this application.) The dogs were calm and cooperative after they were on the level part, so, the next move is paint.

You never know what a dog will do in a bath, and this one is starting with 13 different dogs. Some will love it, some will shake like they're terrified, some will want their belly rubbed, some will just act bored. What if I have a panicky one...or more? I'll have to actually see what happens before I will know how to change the design to make it safe. I don't know if they will try to jump off the platform and hang themselves, bite the human, take a dump, blow a fuse, or need a ctrl-alt-del.

What the heck. It's interesting, doesn't require a lot of brain power, and I'm good at it. Just wondering if the mods are secretly discussing revoking my membership because this isn't a carpentry forum...

 

What the heck. It's interesting, doesn't require a lot of brain power, and I'm good at it. Just wondering if the mods are secretly discussing revoking my membership because this isn't a carpentry forum...

Add some lights so it then becomes an electrical project.

 

Add some lights so it then becomes an electrical project.

Absolutely brilliant idea! Does anybody know at what rate to flash the LEDs to mesmerize the dogs? Perhaps a cat face with glowing red eyes so the dogs will just cower in fear of the demon?

Whew! I think I shouldn't have painted with the door shut!

 

For the premium upgrade, what about a Photo display or even a TV (with a waterproof cover of course..).
Seriously, our little dog watches TV with us .. he prefers Dog Whisperer

 

I remember seeing an invention by a 10 year old using small PVC pipe. It was a large cube of PVC (rectangle) that had small holes inside the PVC so the dog would receive a gentle spray all over with a hose connector on the bottom rear. The PVC also provided anchor points to leash the dog, front and back. It was interesting.

 

This "dog wash" is strictly, "to order" work. None of my business to design it.
Then, today was worse than usual...rebuild a toilet and replace a kitchen faucet.
Scotch Brite brand scrubber pads are just right for getting the sewage out of the skin on my hands.

Hopefully, the person that wants a door installed will phone tomorrow. I prefer chiseling a dado out of nice smelling wood to scrubbing off what you find in the pipes under the sink.

I wonder...if I was up to date in electronics, could I program an MCU to build a desk or a dog wash, install a toilet fill valve, or a kitchen faucet?

Oh well. Work is where you find it and the money spends the same whether you're trying to squeeze $80 out of a vertical drive transistor or a fill valve and a flapper.

 

I'm starting a thread here so we can play, "How big is it?"
[...]
How big is yours?

100HP.

I'm not a carpenter but I think my latest project fits the thread description. I don't have the time to re-post it over here, but you can check out last week's 100HP DC drive retrofit project over on hobby-machinist.

 

Won't let me in to see the motor.
Little help here, strantor?

 

Won't let me in to see the motor.
Little help here, strantor?

hah? Crap I forgot they don't let just anybody in there .

I would make a duplicate thread over here, but AAC makes me resize my images and I don't feel like doing all that. So here's a PDF of the thread, with pics.

 

That thing has more hocus-pocus in it than a medical X-ray machine! Has it crossed your mind that 100 hay-burning horses might be a simpler solution?

 

That thing has more hocus-pocus in it than a medical X-ray machine! Has it crossed your mind that 100 hay-burning horses might be a simpler solution?

I'm thankful that my involvement was limited to the DC drive and associated controls, and not the Fanuc system. That Fanuc system is pure sorcery!

 

In my line of business, I have always been told: "Put it back the way you found it". Don't change ANYTHING or we lose our UL certification and pay for every house that burns down, even if you made a change that was correct, safe, and effective. Thou shalt not re-design a retail product.

Perfect example: a 2 horsepower air conditioner with a 1/4 horsepower fan motor that costs $500 (wholesale) because it's a variable frequency drive, DC motor. Factory Authorized repairmen have to put it back the way they found it, but the unlicensed, shade tree mechanics just put in a $75 AC motor and replace the drive board with a relay, and it works.

Now I'm considering your work. You walk in on a machine that is so old that serial data had not been invented and make it work with modern parts and systems. How do you do that, legally? I'm sure you didn't submit 3 samples to Underwriters Laboratories for certification. Who pays for the damage if it burns to the ground, taking maybe 30,000 square feet of building and half a dozen dead workers with it?

Please do not limit yourself to exactly the question I asked. I'm sure there is a lot more to it than I can imagine from here.

 

In my line of business, I have always been told: "Put it back the way you found it". Don't change ANYTHING or we lose our UL certification and pay for every house that burns down, even if you made a change that was correct, safe, and effective. Thou shalt not re-design a retail product.

Perfect example: a 2 horsepower air conditioner with a 1/4 horsepower fan motor that costs $500 (wholesale) because it's a variable frequency drive, DC motor. Factory Authorized repairmen have to put it back the way they found it, but the unlicensed, shade tree mechanics just put in a $75 AC motor and replace the drive board with a relay, and it works.

Now I'm considering your work. You walk in on a machine that is so old that serial data had not been invented and make it work with modern parts and systems. How do you do that, legally? I'm sure you didn't submit 3 samples to Underwriters Laboratories for certification. Who pays for the damage if it burns to the ground, taking maybe 30,000 square feet of building and half a dozen dead workers with it?

Please do not limit yourself to exactly the question I asked. I'm sure there is a lot more to it than I can imagine from here.

When I was working for myself, I was an LLC and I had $2M general liability coverage, so as far as I know, my a$$ was covered and I didn't really sweat the finer details. Now I'm working for someone else, so I care even less about the legal aspect of these things. If they don't have all their ducks in a row, that's on them, not me (sure I might lose my job, but I'm not going to prison). I'm sure there is some sort of liability insurance involved and probably an additional warranty/guarantee and/or release/limit of liability agreement over and above that, but I don't know.

To be honest, I haven't informed myself of the applicable laws or procedures to a very great extent in these cases. You do inspire me to do so, however not to a very great extent. I just do what I'm told - one of the benefits of not being self employed, I don't have to worry about it. I'm sure as I stay with this company for a while I will learn how it all works in the big picture, and when I do, Ill let you know.

EDIT: in addition, this specific machine came from Japan in the early '80s, who knows if it was every subject to UL specs to begin with? And I've worked on Chinese machines too, which I can guarantee were never EVER signed off on by any competent regulating body.

 

I just realized that "variable frequency drive DC motor" is probably a fantasy generated by seeing 400 volt electrolytic capacitors inside the variable speed motor. Please forgive my oversight.

I am convinced that you are doing work with skill levels that seem to be magic to the uninformed. If something goes terribly wrong, I expect your work will seem to be magic to the insurance adjuster. I really, really hope you don't end up the sacrificial goat just because nobody understands what you did to get the machine to work. I fear that it is much easier and cheaper to hang you than to hire someone smart enough to confirm your design.

What you do is so different from what I do that I have difficulty imagining the magnitude of problems that could happen. I'm not allowed to splice in 3 inches of blue wire where a black wire got corroded. You cut the guts out with a Sawzall and start over. Amazing!