What is this thing?

can't use the angle grinder because i won't get to visit my mate before Sunday, so I'll try to get some progress with the file during the next week(after I bought a new one)
but here's where it's at for now, needs longer threads for the counterweight, but the center of balance is much better now and should be near perfect when it's done.
But the counterweight is only reasonable with the long handle, doesn't change much with the shorter one.
IMG-20240518-154627.jpg
 
little update
to the surprise of absolutely noone, the layers of the plywood at the core seperated due to bad adhesion
since generally good glue joints are stronger than wood itself I pry the pieces off that still stuck on and glue everything back up
I'm contemplating if I should just try it again after gluing it together or add additional reinforcement
the blade is still way too heavy for one hand, even after removing 500 gramms (1 pound) with files
but I'm not going to remove any more material with filing because it's just not cost effective

however, what little cutting I could do with 2 hands showed good potential

removing more material, grinding a bit of a distal taper and flattening the primary bevel some more (currently it is at about 12-15°) should make this a decent chopper
20240529-151005.jpg
 
Cranky_Doodle said:
little update
to the surprise of absolutely noone, the layers of the plywood at the core seperated due to bad adhesion
since generally good glue joints are stronger than wood itself I pry the pieces off that still stuck on and glue everything back up
I'm contemplating if I should just try it again after gluing it together or add additional reinforcement
the blade is still way too heavy for one hand, even after removing 500 gramms (1 pound) with files
but I'm not going to remove any more material with filing because it's just not cost effective

however, what little cutting I could do with 2 hands showed good potential

removing more material, grinding a bit of a distal taper and flattening the primary bevel some more (currently it is at about 12-15°) should make this a decent chopper
20240529-151005.jpg
Click to expand...
Not too shabby! It's a tank but who cares? You made it and honestly imho it looks pretty dang good.
 
no use in having a tank if you can't use it well
I will attempt the method with pipes I mentioned previously.
basically, open up the bores in the handle to 8mm, an 8x1mm pipe goes trough the handle and should do the heavy lifting for structural integrity, the handle is just fixed over the pipes with a spacer, I will open up the lead "counterweight" and use that to clamp the handle over the nuts.
I will first try with aluminium, mainly because it's cheaper and easier to work with, but also because the only other option is stainless steel
for some reason they didn't have mild steel pipes in that size and I really dislike working with stainless steel a lot
 
this is the current construction concept
it feels much stiffer, the pipes can be clamped much harder than the handle
thinking of switching to steel tho
or perhaps shove a steel pipe over the aluminium one, so 8x1mm alu, 10x1mm steel over that
might be good enough

but then I was thinking...
there's not much material holding the wood together at this point
perhaps insert some screws or rivets to hold the handle together
I could glue up a handle with beech and additional aluminium reinforcement layered near the outside

many, many more ideas later I think I may have arrived at a conclusion
I can shove 10x1mm square tube over the aluminium pipe, that should be sturdy
I then could push a 6mm square rod between the 2 bits of square

then just tack everything in place, see if it slides on and off easily to check for warping and just weld everything up nice and good
sand the outside with coarse grit sandpaper, glue some beech on with 2x epoxy, shape the handle and I doubt that handle would ever break.

I may consider to try the 10x1 round pipe first, it's more pricey but much less effort



20240530-190027.jpg
 
Final update

I pried apart the affected layers and glued them back up as it seemed the wood itself did not fail
Replaced aluminium with steel pipe
upgraded from 4.8 to 8.8 rods
pipes glued in to the long handle to minimize any remaining bending or flexing
added sleeve nuts for added reinforcement
if the handle fails and these rip out at least I know it would help with the next generation

The spine has a slight taper now, 13mm to 9mm from hilt to tip
flattened the primary bevel further, blended the transition

in total about 1Kg[2 pounds] has been removed now

it "could" be wielded with one hand now and "could" be refined some more, but I have to put the project on hold for an extended period of time due to health issues.
currently I have mounted the short handle for storage and beacause it seems to be holding up well
also applied phosphorous coating and anti-corrosion paint as it may be a while
I can not even test it myself until these "issues" are resolved

to the handful of people watching, thanks for your feedback
IMG-20240605-182126.jpg
IMG-20240605-182150.jpg
IMG-20240605-182644.jpg
 
Hope your health improves soon, so you can go out and put that thing to work.

Parker
 
so, according to the specialist there is no immediate danger for long term damage, my general practicioner recommended me some "nutricional supplements" that where very effective(and in some cases are more effective than prescription medication) and the specialist said "just keep taking the pills and when it gets worse we'll see what we can do".

at any rate, not really a big project coming up, but my mother has a lot of property that needs some type of invasive tree removed from the hedges, I'll be able to test it there.
I also got a machete where the handle desintegrated, not that it really was attatched at all from factory, so I 3D printed a handle I quickly threw together in freecad from ABS, metal pipe in the 2 holes that also go trough the handle for extra stability and attatched the halves with 2k epoxy, my first time trying this(as in designing a handle, printing ABS and using 2K epoxy for something like this)
I made the walls pretty thick and used 50% infill because the handle scales are kinda important for the structural integrity of the handle.

comparing an actual machete to the "thing" I made really puts things in perspective
the actual machete makes a nice whistle sound when you swing it, I can't even get close to that with my green thing using 2 hands.

I did smoothen the surface with a dremel, it doesn't feel too bad, but I wonder if there is some kind of "grip tape" I can use?
the material is kinda slippery, so self welding insulation tape perhaps?

IMG-20240620-104833.jpg
 
final update(propably)

both items worked perfectly fine.

the green chopper is still a bit on the heavy side, but it cuts, did some light work cutting up branches from the last storm
after I re-glued the individual layers of the handle it seems to hold up just fine.
no cracks, no wobble, everything is pretty solid now
might reprofile the blade to make it shallower and have more of a distal taper some time in the future, or maybe not
that cheap army paint is surprisingly tough tho, they should paint cars with that stuff

3D printed grip on the actual machete works pretty well too
the original handle was shorter and did not stabilize the blade at all, so it had a lot of flex and that's why it broke
the new handle makes the entire blade more solid because I didn't cut it off at the tang, but let it protrude a bit to the blade
also sanded off the clear coat because that rubbed off easily, then made some phosphoric acid paste to passivate the surface


a lot more branches and even a small tree that was knocked down on the other property still need to be processed, so I'll have plenty of work I can use these blades for
 
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