Funny story about a snow shovel mod I did!!!

[mr.radon]

 

 

Well, old Mr.radon here claims to have been a good machinist at one time or another. Mr.radon has been so convincing that his friend Mr. X asks him to do something simple, like shorten the shaft of his snow shovel's handle. Mr. X's snow shovel handle has never fit into the shovel very well.

Late one night Mr.radon sets his little mill up to lop about .25" off the handl’s end; the handle's shaft being made of soft aluminum. Now Mr.radon has a basic mill, no auto feeder or anything fancy like that. Mr.radon gets the round shaft set up in the mill's high quality vice, selects the right bit and adjusts the speed of the cutter.

Mr.radon's first cut went well. Mr.radon was happy he had selected the correct speed and feed rate. Mr.radon safely backs the cutting head up to start another cut. This cut is to lop off close to the final cut. Mr.radon runs the mill forward on the second cut, gets to the end and takes the shovel handle out of the vice without turning OFF the mill. The mill is happily spinning at 7,000 RPM while Mr.radon test fits the assembly. Mr.radon marks how much of the shaft still needs to be removed. Mr.radon, who does note that the mill is still running, says to himself, "I'll just be careful." As Mr.radon is thinking this the tip of the handle's shaft accidentally contacts the cutter. Well pure physics takes over from here.

The moment the cutter gets its first bite into the end of the handle it imparts enough force to feed the handle through the vice, the second cutter blade gets more contact now, then the third, the fourth,,,, soon the handle is feeding through pretty fast. The cutter, vice and soft aluminum acting like a rack and pinion steering assembly. Around this time Mr.radon shows some reactions to the events quickly unfolding.

These reactions are a bit slower then the mill's ability to accelerate the handle. First, Mr.radon's eyes get wide as he sees the shovel handle accelerate laterally very rapidly. Second, he pulls his ten, intact, digits back. Third, Mr.radon's ears note the mill making a slightly different noise as it happily feeds the handle through the vice.

However, as Mr. X knows, there is a "T" on the end of the handle's tubular body. This didn't exactly fit through the vice. So physics once again takes over.

As the "T" handle makes contact with the vice body, it decelerates the shaft. The plastic to metal contact also produces large pressure oscillations in the air; more commonly known as sound. At the point Mr.radon hears these pressure oscillations Mr.radon is still trying to figure out what made the handle move so fast and then stop even faster? The noise obviously wakes Mr.radon up.

Belatedly, Mr.radon notes the mill is still ON and kills the motor before too much "cosmetic" damage occurs to the handle's shaft. Now Mr.radon needs to figure out how to break the news to Mr. X. Better to sleep on things like this.

After further inspection of the shaft in the morning, Mr.radon notes that the handle's design has been improved upon. The texture gives extra grip to the normally slippery shaft and it reduced the weight of the part.

 

So Mr. X, can I charge extra for the grip texture I added to the shaft of your snow shovel handle?

 

BTW, the assembly fits together like a glove now.

Edited April 6, 2004 by mr.radon

[MrDoolittle]

 

Fucking funnny, dude! Just give Mr. X a nice pair of leather gloves, and he'll be OK!!

[catbirdseat]

So funny I suffered a coughing fit.

[lummox]

ingenuity

[thelawgoddess]

[boatskiclimbsail]

7000 rpms!! Geez what kind of mill do you have?

 

I did the same thing once building a tubular car frame once. We had the vice locked down but the rotary base the vice to which the vice was mounted was loose. We ended up cutting a convex contour in the end of the tube (as the vice rotated with each spin of the cutter) instead of the concave shape of the tube to which it was to be welded. Got quite a laugh out of it.

[Jedi]

Glad all fingers, limbs and eyes are intact. I use to work at a paper mill. Lots of stuff rotating, pinch points and other things to get hurt on. Use to hear of too many times something rotating grabbed fingers arms people and did not let go.

 

I made a mod to my alum BackCountry Access shovel. handle and blade weigh 16oz and fits well in my pack.

jedi

[mr.radon]

7000 rpms!! Geez what kind of mill do you have?

That was sorta tongue in cheek. I checked the label plate, 1080RPM.

[TBay]

could that handle double up as a snow saw now? if so, can i mail you mine.

 

speakin' of snow shovel handles... back in the early 90's, i once labored in a machine shop along side a tele-wook. on break Mr. Wook decided to tap a coupla extra holes into his shovel handle, why, i dont know, maybe a backcountry bong or for a backcountry 'native american fluting' experience. anyways, a jerry garcia solo kicked in on his music box, so he leaned forward resting his head on the top of the drill press and began rolling his head back and forth with the rhythm (or whatever you hippies do during a JG solo). the dude was reallly gettin' into the jerry thing.

 

well the dumbass forgot to turn the press off!

 

Question?

have any of you ever happened across a (live) deer-elk-antelope hung up in a rancher's fence, flopping around, high pitched screams, the look of absolute terror in their eyes?

 

well picture this, his long nappy hair once tucked behind his ears ended up in the proverbial rancher's fence.

 

First came the blood curtling screams.

 

Secondly i saw a body floppin' around like a gaffed fish.

 

Thirdly the stench of burning hair (burning pachouli?).

Luck for him, what bound-up hair that didnt get pulled out was greasy enough to allow the drill to continue since he didnt feel like pushing the big red STOP button.

 

Upon approach i gained visuals of an 'effed-up' right hand (an initial reaction to not hit the BIG RED BUTTON but rather he attempted to grab the actual drill).

 

he lived.

 

not too sure if he ever punched holes in his handle. if anyone offers you a rip from a snow shovel handle up at roger's pass ask to see his right hand and head.