Father’s day gift

[Beardy MikeParticipant @beardymike]

Rail slice bottle opener

[Beardy MikeParticipant @beardymike]

On Monday I picked up a 6×4 bandsaw for a good price, so decided to do a it of last-minute gift making for father's day. I've had some bits of rail lying around for a while waiting for a project, I figured that a slice would make a good bottle opener.

The bandsaw seems well set up and cut nice and square giving a nice event 5mm slice. That was until the blade snapped; too be fair the tooth count was far too high to be cutting the 5in web and I have no idea how old it was to start with.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a new blade same-day anywhere nearby so had to crack out the hacksaw. Luckily the bandsaw had the cut well established square and had just about broken all the way through on the central web. The hacksaw cut didn't take as long as I feared and came out just as square.

After a quick clean up with a flap disc and wire cup brush it was off to the CNC mill for the bottle opener cutout. After a couple of attempts in a scrap of steel to get the shape right I had a geometry that worked well. The Sieg KX3 happily drove a 6mm end mill through it leaving only minimal burrs.

After a final deburr and clean here's the finished article:

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

A genuinely useful item for multiple generations

Use the cnc to engrave some history onto it. what year. what railway. etc

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Ah! Now I know what to do with a similar slice of rail for my son who is in the business so to speak.

Last year he gave me a rivet that was recovered from the Sydney Harbour bridge during the repairs. Always good to get something useful !

[Beardy MikeParticipant @beardymike]

Engraving was part of the plan, along with letting my 3 year old boy stamp his name with the fly press (currently his favourite thing to do in the workshop). Unfortunately it was 11pm when I got it this far, so that'll have to wait for future items.

Feel free to give me a shout if you want the bottle opener geometry – I'm more than happy to save you the faff of figuring it out. You will of course still need to test that it works before final polishing

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

Our club is located next to a train line where they are doing a major upgrade and we sell fire pits, made from the old parts that are scrapped (rail base plates, clamps, etc).

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

'Our club is located next to a train line'

No, sorry, it is not. It is located next to a railway line that may have railway stations, not train stations, and the trains might be hauled by a locomotive and not a train engine. Please, lets not corrupt our wonderful language with the ignorance of 'yoof' that we seem to have to tolerate these days. Now, where's my tin hat?

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Chris, I agree with what you are saying, too much western foreign sayings creeping into ours, they'll be saying you need to walk down Train Road next.

Regards Nick.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Had a similar idea to Mike but these are for petrolheads!

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Chris Crew on 20/06/2023 19:09:57:

'Our club is located next to a train line'

… Please, lets not corrupt our wonderful language with the ignorance of 'yoof' that we seem to have to tolerate these days. Now, where's my tin hat?

I blame the parents. My dad bought me a train-set…

Dave

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

"I blame the parents. My dad bought me a train-set…"

Yes, I had a trainset bought for me too but from that humble beginning I built a model railway layout, as I would think a lot of children of the 1950's & 60's did, but we always boarded a real train at a railway station.

But I kind of, like, sort of, take your point. It was like, sort of, kind of bound to be up-coming from someone. No worries!

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Chris Crew on 20/06/2023 21:58:47:

"I blame the parents. My dad bought me a train-set…"

… from that humble beginning I built a model railway layout,…

We called ours a train board. Years of fun. Happy days.

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