The giving washer

I’m sure most people have heard of the children’s book The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. In it, a boy and a tree have a lifelong relationship where the tree gives of itself to help the boy. At the end (spoiler alert) the remaining stump of the tree gives the now old man a place to sit. I’m starting to view the old dishwasher I’ve dismantled as a little like the giving tree. Though I have no illusion that the dishwasher holds me in high regard as the tree did the boy, it has been useful in many ways. Naturally, it started out as my dishwasher, providing many years of satisfactory service. As of now, the tub is part of an almost finished centrifuge unit. (more on that later) I’ve cut a piece out of one of the sheet metal parts to be the top of the little stand that holds the crock pot oil heater. I’m sure the rest of the metal will find use somewhere. The water heating element may find its way into my oil storage system somehow. And now, a part that I thought even I was crazy for hanging on to has proven its worth:

One of the racks fits perfectly on top of one of my storage barrels, allowing me to completely drain oil from the bottles it came in.  Honestly, I doubt I could use the rack for much else. There are some seriously rusted parts of the rack, and it’s not worth my time to strip the plastic off to find the good stuff left.

As for the centrifuge that the oil is going to go through, I am so close to being able to run oil through it I can almost taste it. (eeewwww!) The bowl is about as balanced as I can get it. I mounted it via face plate on my lathe and sanded, filed, and ground down areas until it spun without too much wobble. But when I mounted it back in the tub, I still got too much vibration. Closer examination of the problem revealed that the shaft I fabricated was not as straight as I thought it was.  So I fabricated a new one and it seemed to work better. I’ve also installed an idler pulley system that works ok, but needs some tweeking. I’ve also ditched the blower housing. The current motor has a side mounting bracket so it is directly attached to the frame.

That’s about it for the update of the weekend’s activities. I’ve got some intriguing ideas for future updates but they may be a while. I’m not sure if much of anything will get done this coming weekend. The boat, dock, and hoist need to go in the water and apparently I’m the entire labor force. Then there is that whole “enjoying the holiday weekend” thing.:) Speaking of which, y’all have a good one yourself.