My Dad’s Old Yellow Screwdriver

I discovered this ratty old screwdriver in a box of my Dad’s old tools.

It seemed appropriate to restore it to its former glory.

Over the years he used it, this was probably not used so much as a screwdriver, but more as a general purpose – poke – lever – tweak – stir – device!

I cleaned off all the layers of paint and rust and grime, filed the pointy end back nice and square so that it worked as a screwdriver again, sanded it with fine paper, and applied WD40.

A simple little project, but a nice memory to have of my Dad, who taught me how to work with tools when I was very young.

Experiments with Rust

This weekend, I discovered the joys of electric rust removal.

I used a glass baking dish, a battery charger, some plain tap water, washing soda, and an old bit of steel.

The results were really quite amazing.

The rust just disappeared in a flurry of bubbles.

A little bit of brushing and light sanding brought it up all nice and shiny.

A lot easier than rust converter.

$3.85 for 1kg of soda. I probably used 1/50th of it, roughly 7cents.

Restoring a Cold Chisel

This weekend I revived my father’s cold chisel. Not a spectacular device, but amazingly useful.

A cold chisel is traditionally used by blacksmiths to cut into cold steel – mainly for cutting thick steel sheet.
(A “hot chisel” is used to cut iron and steel while still in the forge or soon after)

My father had used this for various projects over the years – he probably bought it some time in the 50’s or 60’s – and I recently came into possession of it. Banged up well and truly – mushroomed on the top, and dented at the cutting tip.

I used an angle grinder to remove the mushroomed top, and the bench grinder to shape the hardened tip.

Blue “hammered finish” paint was the best finish for this project as it hides the dents and scratches really well, as well as being a very traditional finish for tools like this.

7 Attempts to De-Rust

Restoring Vintage Sheep Shears

This weekend I learned some important lessons…

(1) If something is really deeply rusted, think twice about starting a restoration.

(2) If you decide to start, then start aggressively – use power tools – don’t dither about with rust converter.

(3) Once you’re back to bare metal, it’s rather enjoyable.

(4) If the rusty old thing belonged to your Dad, then it’s worth spending 3 weekend sessions on it.

I ended up using a wire brush, a scraper, rust converter, a wire wheel, a disk sander, an orbital sander, hand sanding, polisher wheel, buffing compound, and WD40.

I will probably never shear a sheep.

In fact I’m sure my father never sheared a sheep either.

There’s a possibility that he got them from his father… who coincidentally probably never sheared a sheep.

Ain’t the world an odd place?

New Power Sander

For my vintage shears restoration, I needed some sort of power sander with coarse grit papers.

I went to the hardware store and had 10 sandpaper disks in my hand (only $2 each – I was planning to use my sanding disk in the drill)

To my delight, I found this little beauty that comes with 20 sheets ranging from 60 to 120 grit.

Perfect. $34.

Quick math meant that for $14 extra, I got the power sander.

Vintage Soldering Iron

This weekend, I gave new life to an old soldering iron.

It belonged to my grandfather, then to my father – I remember him firing up the kerosene blowtorch when I was a kid.

It’s a remarkably simple tool. Basically a lump of copper on an iron stick with a wooden handle so you don’t burn your fingers.

I was surprised how difficult it was to file the copper. The steel shaft could have been made shinier, but at some point I realised it would look better with a few little dings and pitting, than trying to make it look new.

I was originally going to finish the handle with polyurethane or epoxy. Nope, I thought that beeswax was a better finish for the vintage.

blowtorch

Now I’m on the lookout for an old blowtorch like this !

Fixing a boot zipper

The technique I used was very expedient (i.e. quick and dirty) but the upside is that you can do it with almost any kind of zippers – boots, jeans, backpacks, dresses.

The basic idea is to take the “end stop” off one side, and thread the teeth through.
Once you have the zipper back in roughly the right place, you can zhoozh it back and forth to settle the teeth in the right formation, then replace the “end stop” with a few windings with needle and thread.

The (what should be closed) bottom end has a nasty habit of re-opening from the wrong end sometimes when the zipper is closed. So we sew that together as well.

This week, my daughter got a pair of boots delivered with the zipper only attached to one side of the teeth. Perfect example. So I made this video in roughly half an hour.

I used some magnifying glasses, and some tiny pliers this time, but I’ve done it many times before with almost no tools except a regular needle and thread and some brute force. Broken a nail or two doing it as well, hence the pliers this time 😉

Starting an Aberdale 1947 motorbike after 62 years in a shed

After 62 years in a shed, we get an Aberdale Autocycle to run again!

It might look rough around the edges, but it is now officially a running machine.

Built by the Aberdale firm of London between 1947 & 1949, this Villiers Junior powered 98cc autocycle was typical of lightweights built during the immediate postwar era.

The 98cc Villiers engine hung from the frame and it had petroil lubrication, direct lighting and blade girder forks.

It had basic brake, clutch, throttle, decompressor controls, a bulb horn, drum brakes and a speedometer.

The motorcycles were manufactured in the Bown factory in Tonypandy in Wales. In 1949 they were re-badged and marketed under the Bown label.

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Prescription Motorcycle Goggles

I ride my old custom motorbike to the office every day.

If I wear my long-distance driving glasses, then I can’t read the speedo or see in the rearviews very clearly. Conversely, if I wear reading glasses, I can see perfectly in the mirrors, but the general traffic is a little blurry. What I really need is bi-focal glasses.

Additionally, with winter coming up, I’ve had a couple of drizzly commutes lately where the rain gets into my eyes or the glasses get cold and fog up. So goggles would be an answer to that.

How to get everything I want? The solution is obvious – make a pair of goggles that have both long distance and reading distance lenses all built in. I don’t have to settle for narrow bands either – I can use full lenses from my previous old pairs of glasses. Not ideal prescriptions any more, but perfect for the commute.

Sheet metal Reaver

Office Battlebot #3

This weekend, I built version 3 of my Office Challenge.

And this time, I’m building a lighter weight sheet metal version, and powering it with an old toy car.

The challenge

My coworkers thought it would be fun to build and compete with some indoor battle-bots.

If you’ve seen the earlier videos in this series, you know that I previously built 2 unassailable test versions using cement and concrete.
One fell apart, and the other weighs almost a metric tonne and couldn’t move under its own weight.