We have our very first contest winner.
David Gelinas of
Dave Gelinas will recive:
The Copper pads are being sponsored by
One quart of adhesive and a can of ager has been added to the pot by Tenax
Two days of hotel accommodations and 1 web site has been added to the pot by
Nine pounds of 5X has been added to the pot by EMS
Dave Gelinas entree:
"I had the opportunity to talk with Josveek one day while I was in the office; this was a week or two after he posted about the contest. While we were talking I told him about two of my “Inventions� that I made and that have worked really well for me and he said I should enter them into the contest. I said, “That’s not a repair.� He said it didn’t matter; the idea of the contest was to bring out anything you have done that is “Out of the ordinary, that someone else might be able to benefit from.�
Well, here are my two offerings. I hope they are able to help you out some. Either directly or cause you to think of some way you can improve on them and make your job just a little bit easer.
A Simple, Effective & Affordable Splash Guard.
It’s not a lot to look at but you will find that it really cuts down on your overspray and your clean up when you’re working in someone’s home. Not to mention it keeps the overspray off of you if you’re doing countertops.
This splash guard started life as an irrigation sprinkler valve box. This one I bought at Home Depot, I think it was about eight or nine dollars. It’s about ten inches across and was about ten and a quarter inches high when I started with it. One nice thing about this is the weight of the plastic. Yes, sometimes it can ride up over the diamond but for the most part it stays on the surface and just slides back and forth as you work with your grinder
I cut it down to a little less than 2 inches high. You’ll see in some of the pictures that it is short enough not to interfere with the operation of the grinder. Yet it is still higher than the backer pad so it catches any overspray.
I also cut a large hole in the lid so that I can take the backer pad off of the grinder, place the lid over the shaft and then put the backer pad back on.
If I would have made the hole only large enough to fit the shaft of the grinder through, the lid would have prevented the diamond from going all the way over to the side of the splash guard, limiting my ability to get to edges. By the hole being as large as it is it allows the diamond to be able to go from one side to the other of the splash guard.
Then you can lock the lid on to the splash guard. That is an ideal setup for doing vertical surfaces.
The one draw back to the lid is that it can impede your ability to see what you’re working on to a certain extent.
Here are few pictures without the lid installed.
Another variation for face polishing an edge in the field would be to take a 2 liter soda bottle and come down a few inches into the body of the bottle and cut the top part of the bottle off. Then take that top part that you just cut off and cut an inch and half wide slit (or how ever thick the stock is you're working with) up towards the nipple or mouth of the bottle, cut it just slightly higher than where your pad would be. You're going to want to cut another identical slot directly opposite of the one you just cut. Slip this "skirt" over the shaft and reach up inside and screw on your backer pad and diamond. Slip this slotted skirt over the edge of the material you're face polishing and go to town. It should catch most of your overspray and still give fairly good visibility of what you're working on.
Give these a try and let me know how it works for you. I think you’ll find that they will make your job just a little bit easer.
The Tiny Tot Floor Machine
This machine comes in real handy when you’re working in tight areas like bath rooms, marble tops, stairs or any where you need something bigger than an angle grinder and smaller than a swing machine. My original intent was to use it on stairs for powder polishing.
One of my commercial floor care customers is a thrift store. I was there doing the floor one night and noticed that someone had donated an old 175 rpm swing machine. I asked the owner if he had decided on a price for it yet and he said I could have it if I wanted it. It was an old Polmin Holt, 20� swing machine. It had been around the block once or twice but it still ran strong. After all, it was for an experiment and I couldn’t beat the price. Chances are you have an old 175 – 300 rpm machine laying around somewhere just collecting dust that might make a good candidate for this. It will also come in handy if you find yourself doing floors in the Land of Lil’aput.
I first took the handle and switch combo off of the shaft or up right part of the handle. I also pulled the wire out of the handle so I wouldn’t cut through it when I shortened the shaft. I cut it down to about 24 inches and then reinstalled the wiring and top part of the handle.
I next cut the base or bell housing down. If you notice, I cut it all the way back to just slightly wider than the actual motor. I also cut the pad driver down as well. It is just slightly wider than the base is now.
Now before you start cutting up a machine make certain that where you cut it won’t affect its function.
With this machine as you lower the handle, the wheels raise up out of the way.
If you want you can make a splash guard for this as well. This splash guard is made out of the black plastic edging you’d put around a garden. Hey, wait a minute. That’s a third “invention�, no fare. Oh well, feel free to use this one two if you want. I have a similar one that I use on my Cimexs.
As you can see, this little guy will fit into some of the smallest places.
I know it’s not the prettiest thing out there, but neither am I. Like me though, it gets the job done. If you have an old swing machine that you’re not using give this a try. You might find out that it will work nicely for you too. The one slight difference I would make in the future is that I would make the handle about six to ten inches longer. Keep in mind I originally made this for doing stairs. As you’re working on the stairs the machine is higher than you are on the stair case so as you’re working, the handle is just about where it should be. But if it were a little taller it would make rolling it in and out of jobs a little nicer or when you do work with it on a floor it would make it a little more comfortable if it where just a bit taller.
I hope these few ideas help you guys out some. If you have any questions about any of it, give me a holler and I’ll be glad to talk you through them."
David Gelinas
Marbleguy