# POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?



## wachuko

Espresso machine lever was rough... I have taken it apart several times to polish the main lever cam shaft... replaced all valves... and it would be smooth for a few shots and get rough again...




Well, today I decided to figure out what the problem was.  Turns out it was a simple fix.  This stud, that the lever rides against, had some raised areas around the slot for the screwdriver... seems the previous owner was not careful when installing.

Removed it, filed down the raised areas... placed it on the lathe and use some fine sandpaper to smooth it out.  Finished with a 3000 grit then to the polishing wheel...  Also took the time to polished the lever cam shaft again...




All working fine now... I will be able to confirm if I found the culprit if it continues to work smoothly for the rest of the week...


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## frugalguido

Made a hub wench for the Deckel clone grinder, then blacken it.


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## rdean

My outdoor Christmas tree had several strands of lights that didn't work. You know the ones if one bulb goes out they all go out and I never can  seem to find the bad bulb.
So this year when I took the tree down I decided to replace all the lights with new LED bulbs that won't go out if some are bad.

That's 600 bulbs and 250 wire ties and I am worn out so maybe next year they will all work.




Thanks for looking
Ray


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## woodchucker

rdean said:


> My outdoor Christmas tree had several strands of lights that didn't work. You know the ones if one bulb goes out they all go out and I never can  seem to find the bad bulb.
> So this year when I took the tree down I decided to replace all the lights with new LED bulbs that won't go out if some are bad.
> 
> That's 600 bulbs and 250 wire ties and I am worn out so maybe next year they will all work.
> 
> View attachment 390610
> 
> 
> Thanks for looking
> Ray


you didn't just buy a new light strand, you manually replaced the bulbs???


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## wachuko

Made this for a friend…he wants to be able to strap a base to a tree and mount a winch… Not my idea.  Found the idea on YouTube… 






Winch base comes out and can also be use on any hitch…




Holes were made based on a template he sent me… winch base should fit those…



Welds are ugly as heck… it has been years since I have used a welder…. But they should hold fine…


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## Brento

This is what i did in the shop today. Also posted the 2 endmill drawers that were finished friday. One drawer is all HSS and the other is all carbide or roughing tools.




Anybody have an idea what all these little cutters would be for? I have soooo many i could swim in them. Sharpie for size comparison.
	

		
			
		

		
	




Also i am looking to see if anyone has any palmgren vises around? I have a swivel base for one.


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## brino

rdean said:


> That's 600 bulbs and 250 wire ties



Can you fit your lathe right in the middle? I think that would provide optimum visibility with no shadows from any direction!


-brino


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## brino

wachuko said:


> Made this for a friend…he wants to be able to strap a base to a tree and mount a winch… Not my idea. Found the idea on YouTube…



@wachuko

I know it is NOT your video, and I don't want to be a safety nazi here........ but..........<sigh>....

I have never seen ratchet straps rated anywhere near the rating of that winch (even if that could be believed!)
Certainly not common straps of that width.

The rope used in the video is also questionable, and the wrong rope can hold so much elastic energy it's just not worth the risk!

I like the concept, but why not use a tree strap around the tree for less damage to the bark?
https://www.amazon.com/winch-tree-straps/s?k=winch+tree+straps

okay some positives:
-your welds are definitely not the weak link,
-I like the idea of a cooler for storage; it's a nice strong box that the bottom won't drop out of.

Of course, my current mindset is for building a trailer hitch for the back half of my old pickup truck, so maybe I'm over-engineering this..... but that is my preference....

Be safe (........and be sure your friend is too!)
Brian


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## wachuko

brino said:


> @wachuko
> 
> I know it is NOT your video, and I don't want to be a safety nazi here........ but..........<sigh>....
> 
> I have never seen ratchet straps rated anywhere near the rating of that winch (even if that could be believed!)
> Certainly not common straps of that width.
> 
> The rope used in the video is also questionable, and the wrong rope can hold so much elastic energy it's just not worth the risk!
> 
> I like the concept, but why not use a tree strap around the tree for less damage to the bark?
> https://www.amazon.com/winch-tree-straps/s?k=winch+tree+straps
> 
> okay some positives:
> -your welds are definitely not the weak link,
> -I like the idea if a cooler for storage; it's a nice strong box that the bottom won't drop out of.
> 
> Of course, my current mindset is for building a trailer hitch for the back half of my old pickup truck, so maybe I'm over-engineering this..... but that is my preference....
> 
> Be safe (........and be sure your friend is too!)
> Brian


Very valid points.  And I rather you call those out.  Thank you for doing so.

My friend will be using 2 - 2" straps rated at 3,300 lbs each.  No way he will be using the straps you see in that video...

Good point on the rope.  He is using what the winch comes with.  The distance he needs this for is within the length of what the winch has.  No additional rope will be used.  All good there.

Not sure that he will go for a tree strap... he will need this secured well to the tree.  It is in his backyard...


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## Winegrower

Yesterday I took apart most of an Albrecht keyless chuck I got in a deal.    I got it to where I could not figure out how to get the bolt head that lifts the jaws out from the jaw guide cage.  So in disgust I made it into an ashtray.  Overnight, it occurred to me how it must work, and today I finished the project, and made an ashtray into a really nice Albrecht chuck.  Wow, is it smooth!


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## francist

Brento said:


> Anybody have an idea what all these little cutters would be for?


I have some like that that I got many years ago from my dentist. At least the peculiarly-shaped end looks the same and is what caught my eye in your photo. When I got mine they were already a little rusty (compared to a lot of smaller ones I got from the same guy) so it made me suspect they were maybe for an old-style hand piece that wasn’t used much anymore. I still use the smaller burrs I got from him for hand engraving and micro-routing, but the larger ones I never have used — the shank is a weird size at about 0.090” so none of my Dremel collets fit.

-frank


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## Brento

Yea i have so many. Alot are also rusty. But i will maybe save them for engraving as well. Thanks @francist


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## jwmelvin

I made some parts for a leaf-shredder upgrade:


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## GoceKU

Today was car washing day, both 6 series peugeot's are very dirty. It took me 3 hours to get them clean inside and out, also found some damage from 3 weeks ago, when i new coworker from work thought he can keep up with me in the 605. To make a long story short he decided to pass me in a corner in the rain, mid corner got scared and tap his brakes at that point his Audi span around and bump my back bumper. My car weighs almost double than his also i know its limits so i quickly got it under control and stopped to watch him go backwards in a deranged dich, he broke 3 of his rims and damaged his suspension. He was lucky he did not flip, but he managed to throw gravel at me. The gravel chipped my hood, the white spots are missing paint and my back bumper has deep scratches. All things considered it could been worse.


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## rdean

woodchucker said:


> you didn't just buy a new light strand, you manually replaced the bulbs???


I installed 6 new strings of lights each having 100 bulbs and measuring 33 feet long.



brino said:


> Can you fit your lathe right in the middle? I think that would provide optimum visibility with no shadows from any direction!


That may be something to think about.   

Ray


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## finsruskw

Thought I'd try my hand at making the two tiny parts for the "TEE" nut for the SB 9a that are missing, hoping to lose a few thousands of back lash. 
The slug represents the leg of the tee and turned to the same dia. The flat represents the body of the cross slide and is bored to accept the tee leg, the small hole was to locate the pin location.
And, it works to my surprise! Now to disassemble the SB far enough to install them and hope for the best.


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## NCjeeper

I made a fire does that count?   It was in the mid 20's today and we had 6-8 inches of snow on the ground. I got the shop nice and toasty.


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## Dhal22

NCjeeper said:


> I made a fire does that count?   It was in the mid 20's today and we had 6-8 inches of snow on the ground. I got the shop nice and toasty.
> View attachment 390797



I burn at least a cord a winter in my fireplace.   My shop needs a wood burning stove.


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## finsruskw

*I'm sure glad I did the re-model on my shop a couple years back before I got my mill and lathe.
Now that I spend a lot more time in there at about 68 degrees and the furnace will only kick in a few times.*


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## eugene13

I shoveled 700 lbs of coal, 150 lbs of ash, it was +7 with a 12 mph wind, I wore Carhartt Arctic overalls and a bomber hat and I greased my face with Bag Balm.  I know, no picture it never happened, boy that hot shower felt good this evening.   Ok, here's a picture.


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## Brento

Where are you located bc ouch!


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## BGHansen

eugene13 said:


> I shoveled 700 lbs of coal, 150 lbs of ash, it was +7 with a 12 mph wind, I wore Carhartt Arctic overalls and a bomber hat and I greased my face with Bag Balm.  I know, no picture it never happened, boy that hot shower felt good this evening.   Ok, here's a picture.


Glad you're not burning cow pies!

Bruce


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## Shootymacshootface

I just finished a jumbo fly cutter. It will cut 9 1/4" in one pass (hopefully).


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## francist

killed a bit of time in the afternoon today and made this French curve. I have a set of curves in my old drafting set but they’re small and for fooling around with garment patterns some larger sizes are more useful. And as usual, yes you can buy these, but where’s the fun in that?


I had some scrap polycarbonate on hand that I figured would be good and there are numerous places on line where you can download printable French curve templates. So I printed one off and rubber-cemented it to the Lexan. Twice. The first time of course I glued it on the usual way with the printed side out but that wasn’t going to work — I needed to see the printed side through the Lexan. Duh.




Anyway, cutting the shape was simple on the bandsaw and I cleaned up the edges with some 180 sandpaper. The graduations came next with the shaper getting the nod to accomplish that. Astute persons will know that because I’m registering the piece across two work stops the length of the hash marks will not be consistent along the full length because the curve itself is not constant along the length. But I decided I could live with that in the interest of keeping the process relatively simple. I have a nice hand wheel on the shaper which makes doing light cuts like this very easy, no need to power the motor at all.







Rubber cement peels off cleanly so all I had to do to finish up was a light polish with some Novus #2. For the numerals I just engraved them in freehand with a small dental burr in my Dremel tool. 




All in all it came out okay. As I’m writing this I’m realizing I forgot to drill in a hangy-hole at the top but I think everybody probably knows what that would look like. Thanks for watching.




-frank


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## f350ca

Very nice Frank
Have some large ones for seamstress work, Mostly very gentle curves, but come in handy some times.

Greg


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## devils4ever

I made some guides for my dividing head. The factory ones don't fit the slots in my mill table. I made them long to increase accuracy. They are a really nice tight fit. The factory ones are to the right.


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## Bi11Hudson

francist said:


> I have some like that that I got many years ago from my dentist. At least the peculiarly-shaped end looks the same and is what caught my eye in your photo. When I got mine they were already a little rusty (compared to a lot of smaller ones I got from the same guy) so it made me suspect they were maybe for an old-style hand piece that wasn’t used much anymore. I still use the smaller burrs I got from him for hand engraving and micro-routing, but the larger ones I never have used — the shank is a weird size at about 0.090” so none of my Dremel collets fit.
> 
> -frank
> View attachment 390670


There is a tooling size of 3/32 inch (I think) that is 0.092xx. Would that be close enough? 3/32 says to me a dentist tool most likely.

.


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## woodchucker

Bi11Hudson said:


> There is a tooling size of 3/32 inch (I think) that is 0.092xx. Would that be close enough? 3/32 says to me a dentist tool most likely.
> 
> .


not dentist. I have dental burrs, I asked my dentist for some that were no longer good for him.
they work on ceramics and they go quick. He was glad to give me a few.  They turn out to be way too small for me to use, even in a dremel, I can barely see them.

These are for shaping caps and veneers.
not for in the mouth.



The one to the left is the smallest I have. What goes in the mouth is smaller.


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## Bi11Hudson

Brento said:


> Well as of now im trying to not go as a business unless i get more jobs. I dont want to deal with taxes and such if i have no work. Since i opened up shop in August i only got one job granted i did not really push to find any either


That *could* turn out to be an expensive move. Lawyers tend to be a greedy lot on good days and the situation can go south in a hurry. I am no longer in business for several reasons, old age and medical not near the complete list. But the business, without any assets any more, is still viable (I think) and serves as a buffer between me and the cold, cruel world. I was am an "Inc" corporation. It is more expensive than an "LLC" but served my purposes at the time. An "LLC" has a similar disconnect to an "Inc" in separating personal property from the business. 

If you bought something with your personal money, it is not corporate property, even if it is used for corporate purposes. With no assets now, I can tell any lawyer to go fly a kite if anything ever comes up. I doubt it ever will, but having that in the background lets me sleep better. Disclaimer: *Not legal advice by any means* but worth looking into. I obviously don't like lawyers, but they do serve a valid purpose. Just my misfortune to have had several bad experiences with them.

.

.


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## Bi11Hudson

woodchucker said:


> not dentist. I have dental burrs, I asked my dentist for some that were no longer good for him.
> they work on ceramics and they go quick. He was glad to give me a few.  They turn out to be way too small for me to use, even in a dremel, I can barely see them.
> 
> These are for shaping caps and veneers.
> not for in the mouth.
> View attachment 391010


The collet size is either 3/32 or 2.5mm. I specifically remember the 3/32 as a size for sale somewhere in my past. If they are not dentist tools, they *are* for something. I don't like collets on a Dremel because I am swapping tools so often. My Dremels (3) are fitted with small 3 jaw chucks that are available(?) from Dremel. When I bought them, anyway. . . I have fitted them to my full sized machines as well.

.


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## woodchucker

Bi11Hudson said:


> The collet size is either 3/32 or 2.5mm. I specifically remember the 3/32 as a size for sale somewhere in my past. If they are not dentist tools, they *are* for something. I don't like collets on a Dremel because I am swapping tools so often. My Dremels (3) are fitted with small 3 jaw chucks that are available(?) from Dremel. When I bought them, anyway. . . I have fitted them to my full sized machines as well.
> 
> .


I still have a Dremel from the 60s  A 280.. They don't die. My hobby shop years ago, said that the new ones don't last , but my model (ball bearing) was the most solid ones made.  Made in Racine Wisconsin.. It has had brushes replaced, and I had to solder the wire back to the holder twice. Other than that, I blow it out once a year during maint.. and it's good to go.


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## Bi11Hudson

I am very fond of my Dremels. They're too fast for most of my drilling work, but with metal cutting discs work wonders. Two are sorta old but have a variable speed controllers so not *that* old. The third I just acquired in a "horse trade" and is a recent model. I haven't used it yet, beyond checking that it does run. We shall see. . . 

.


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## woodchucker

Bi11Hudson said:


> I am very fond of my Dremels. They're too fast for most of my drilling work, but with metal cutting discs work wonders. Two are sorta old but have a variable speed controllers so not *that* old. The third I just acquired in a "horse trade" and is a recent model. I haven't used it yet, beyond checking that it does run. We shall see. . .
> 
> .


yea, I have never been able to drill with them, like you said too fast. Even a #80 burns... I got it for my birthday as a kid, I was building model planes. It didn't have the speed controller. I said to my dad, lets just take a light dimmer, he said I needed a motor controller as he read the amps wrong...  it's  0.9 amps, but he read 9 amps. So he picked up a motor controller.. Made our own box, still have it... I guess it was a controller for a fan or something. Quite expensive... took me months to pay off.. paper routes didn't pay much.
Cut offs, sanding drums, burrs, polishing,  ,wire wheels, and grinding are it's most useful features.  It has gotten me out of spots that no other tools could fit.


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## GoceKU

Today my brother's astra is in the small garage. It needs a new radiator, finding radiator wasn't hard but replacing it was a struggle. It seems this car isn't made with servicing in maine. I had to remove 2 Fans, intercooler and lots of pipes, battery and its tray just to change the radiator. Not a fun job and it took lots of time. I also added new coolant and fix some wiring and added a hand full of fasteners to the front bumper. How ever worked on it last used zip ties only not bolts.


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## woodchucker

wow a pellet driven car... what a concept   

does your brother and sister pay you?


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## GoceKU

woodchucker said:


> wow a pellet driven car... what a concept
> 
> does your brother and sister pay you?


No, pallets are just stored in my small garage. I don't have a sister, my brother sometimes pays, but i don't care, he is my blood.


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## Bi11Hudson

GoceKU said:


> Today my brother's astra is in the small garage. It needs a new radiator, finding radiator wasn't hard but replacing it was a struggle. It seems this car isn't made with servicing in maine. I had to remove 2 Fans, intercooler and lots of pipes, battery and its tray just to change the radiator. Not a fun job and it took lots of time. I also added new coolant and fix some wiring and added a hand full of fasteners to the front bumper. How ever worked on it last used zip ties only not bolts.
> View attachment 391023
> View attachment 391024
> View attachment 391025


it has been my experience that anything made from the early 1970s is a PITA to work on. And the older I get, the farther back that estimate goes. Most of the work you do equates to a "good" shade tree mechanic in the States. I commend you, Sir, even if you do have a place to work that is out of the rain.(and snow) 

Several years ago (long ago) I was doing some electrical work for a small independant shop out of town in a small community. He had a car, GM I think, up on a rack. They had dropped the vacuum lines and electrical connectors and removed *4 bolts* to set the entire engine and drive train on the floor.(front wheel drive) Made working on both the auxilliaries and the engine a walk in the park. He had disassembled the valve cover, changed his part, and reassembled the whole thing before lunch.

I think most cars are built for that type of repair these days. Parts that are hard to do in place are a piece of cake when the engine and associated parts are dropped out of the way. Just having room to stand in the engine bay says it all. When you were working on that Russian Jeep like thing a while back, think how much easier it would have been to roll the body over to get to the underside.

I commend your determination, Sir. You are doing what you need done. Carry on. . .  

.


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## Bi11Hudson

woodchucker said:


> yea, I have never been able to drill with them, like you said too fast. Even a #80 burns... I got it for my birthday as a kid, I was building model planes. It didn't have the speed controller. I said to my dad, lets just take a light dimmer, he said I needed a motor controller as he read the amps wrong...  it's  0.9 amps, but he read 9 amps. So he picked up a motor controller.. Made our own box, still have it... I guess it was a controller for a fan or something. Quite expensive... took me months to pay off.. paper routes didn't pay much.
> Cut offs, sanding drums, burrs, polishing,  ,wire wheels, and grinding are it's most useful features.  It has gotten me out of spots that no other tools could fit.


The Dremel chuck fits a threaded shaft as well as the Dremel. I acquired a piece and cut and threaded the shaft to accept the chuck. The shaft is some 4 inches overall and fits my larger size machines. It is a 1/8 inch to zero where most of the chucks on my machines are whatever to 1/32 or so. Basically, it allows me to mount a 80 drill on my 12X36 lathe. Most times when I use small drills, #55 and smaller, they are fitted to a pin vise. I still bend and break them but can only blame myself when I do. Can't throw it off on the machines.

What you are referring to is sold as a "router speed control". The Dremel is a "series universal" motor. Essentially a sewing machine motor in a smaller package. I have used router speed controllers and lamp dimmers as well. But the way I'm set up now is an old fashioned sewing machine controller which is just a heavy resistor. (a rheostat) I have used a Variac (variable transformer) but it's such a PITA to set up and really isn't necessary. In the past, I have tried an old Lionel transformer (AC trains) but it only put out 32 volts max so wasn't really useful.

.


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## woodchucker

GoceKU said:


> No, pallets are just stored in my small garage. I don't have a sister, my brother sometimes pays, but i don't care, he is my blood.


I knew the pellets were just stored, but you put the radiator in front of it, and intercooler. if you look at the pic, it looks like an engine.
I thought you had a sister too... 
He is your blood, but he seems to be sucking your blood... tell Dracula to stop beating his cars to death..


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## Alcap

I got this BS-0 clone dividing head last month and thought instead of putting it back in the cardboard box I would try making a wooden box form scrap wood.


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## woodchucker

Alcap said:


> I got this BS-0 clone dividing head last month and thought instead of putting it back in the cardboard box I would try making a wooden box form scrap wood.


where are you handles? That weighs a bit doesn't it?
make sure that paint is fully dry maybe a week b4 putting it in.

A hint, I use shellac to store most tools. It cures quickly, it SEALS the wood.  Bin primer is a shellac based primer and also seals the wood. But I like shellac , it's super fast, and since I use alcohol to cut it, no water..

Did you glue it or just screw it?


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## Firstram

woodchucker said:


> where are you handles? That weighs a bit doesn't it?
> make sure that paint is fully dry maybe a week b4 putting it in.
> 
> A hint, I use shellac to store most tools. It cures quickly, it SEALS the wood.  Bin primer is a shellac based primer and also seals the wood. But I like shellac , it's super fast, and since I use alcohol to cut it, no water..
> 
> Did you glue it or just screw it?


I love some shellac with a coat of wax! If you have any Fluid Film spray the areas of the box where the bases sit, it will keep the bases from sticking.


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## Alcap

Just screws , I put everything back in 5he oily plastic bags it came in . I was afraid the pint might stick. No handles , it’s not too heavy .


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## woodchucker

Alcap said:


> Just screws , I put everything back in 5he oily plastic bags it came in . I was afraid the pint might stick. No handles , it’s not too heavy .


can you take it apart and add some yellow glue it will help keep it a solid case, rescrew it back after gluing.
+2 on the fluid film in the BAGS..

Latex paint is water based, so again, if you can keep it out of there for a week or 2.. Even in the bags.. Just too much moisture.
Get some Desicant and put it in the box too. if you get the rechargeable can you just heat them to regenerate them.


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## eugene13

Brento said:


> Where are you located bc ouch!





BGHansen said:


> Glad you're not burning cow pies!


Some where in the middle of Montana, about 130 miles east of Billings, we're having some below zeros, but glad to have the snow, as for cow pies, I don't think I could keep up, no where as energy dense as good old Montana Coal. I will be doing it again tomorrow, I heat two big places, my home and shop, I look at it as a good upper body workout.  Oh yeah, project; My son bought this tool from some internet deal, it was supposed to be a 5/8 X 5/8 threading tool, you can see it's not and also it's 3/4. I spent the afternoon whittling it down to size, it's made from from some tough material but cut well with carbide, looked like a fireworks show if you took too much.


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## silverhawk

I finally finished my big project.  I started this back in August (when it was still warm).  My brother in law (divorced with 5 kids) has a table that is 36" diameter, round, and very wobbly.  (it was from the 80's.)  He has his CDL, but works primarily as a crane operator.  So, I tracked down someone with some old beams used to haul stuff on semi tractor trailers.  The beams were 3.5" x 3.5", about 8'-9' long.  Beams were re-sawn into boards, jointed, planed, and cut to widths.  Splits were actually preferred - those and knots (and other divots and holes, because his girls wanted it to look like screws were in there) were all filled with copper metallic epoxy.  I won't do an epoxy-resin "river table" because of wood vs. epoxy expansion rates, but I was willing to do this one.




The result is something I seriously want to talk him out of and keep for myself.

My wife thought I was nuts (and my neighbor) when I set out using a straight edge and a square on the legs.  Probably the first time I did "scraping" on wood - marking where the edge touched the legs and sanding down the marks until it was both square and parallel.  Woodworkers who are machinists must be a special breed because they have to hit a point of "eh, close enough".  The full build was chronicled at http://www.silverhawk.net/2022/01/i-should-table-that-project.html - but I'm definitely glad this one is done and I can move on.


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## brino

@silverhawk ,

I just went thru the entire build on your website.
Great work!

Brian


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## Gaffer

I did too. Amazing work, and with minimal tooling it seemed. You are a true craftsman!


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## silverhawk

Definitely not a craftsman here. I just get bored and that results in new things to learn. I love seeing people build things out here, and all of you just flabergast me with stuff you've done. 

Sent from my SM-T500 using Tapatalk


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## dkemppai

silverhawk, Nice table. Big woodworking projects need big space, don't they? Should be a nice sturdy table for a house full of kids! 

So, in the shop here, aside from completely destroying my truck to get it fixed...



...The old TIG welded a few peices of 3/16" steel to a 3/16" x 1" bar, which was cut into an oddball spanner for the new hubs for the import surface grinder. The pin size is 6.5mm, so welded a couple pieces from some grade 8, 1/4" (6.35mm) bolts into the spanner for pins. Should last longer than the grinder!

Then the little CNC mill drill cut the oddball M16x1.5mm Left Hand metric thread to make a nut for the same grinder. (Still not sure why I don't thread mill more often. Even if I had the tap, that milling cycle was only 45 seconds!) 




I don't always mill threads, but when I do, I prefer Dos E... er... prefer to thread mill...  lol


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## brino

dkemppai said:


> So, in the shop here, aside from completely destroying my truck to get it fixed...



Wait, what was the intent?

Sure, that truck has no interior or dash, but the last time I had to strip one down that far was the heater core...... was that your goal too?
I am sure that a heater is required in Michigan!

Brian


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## GoceKU

Yesterday was christmas here, so happy christmas to those that celebrate it at this date. After a full day of rest i decided i need to make a bench to leave in the cemetery at my mothers grave. So i look thru my square tubing and found couple of pieces that will work. Also i send my father to go and buy a wooden board for the top. A made two A structures and welded couple of tubes in between them, then used 6 stainless  steel bolts to bolt down the wood and sanded it smooth in place. i also paintet it with quick drying paint. Then i took it there.


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## mmcmdl

Crafts for the daughter . Cut quite a few Grey Goose bottles with the bottle cutter last night . Today will be be cutting wood bases ( round and square ) for something else she is making . Hopefully , she'll spend an hour or so to learn how to work the saws safely .


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## pdentrem

Pulled one of the Wire EDM circulation pumps to rebuild the pump section while the motor gets new bearings. Doing this at home today to be ready Monday morning to get the EDM up and running.

The screen was half plugged of course. Removed the 4 straps, the motor coupler and the drive pin. Pull the stack off and replace the seals. 2 rings and seal. Cleaning the reused parts and reassemble. The shaft has a little wear and now that cleaned it will likely leak of course! One tip is to soak the new paper gasket in water to make it swell a bit. Makes it easier to slip it on the housing.
Pierre


.


----------



## Fermic

I did make a holder for my insert 90° shoulder endmill ( free gift ) out of junkyard steel and I might have issues at milling given my mill head isn't trammed. On visual, the runout seems to be okay. But the surface contains multiple steps according to my finger test, but the finish is kinda decent for me.


----------



## devils4ever

I made this puzzle from a YT video I saw. I had to play with the dimensions a bit to get a tight fit of the 10 pennies when arranged the correct way.


----------



## vtcnc

For my Sanford Surface Grinder:








Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## FOMOGO

Nice. You might want to de bur those sharp edges a little. Mike


----------



## f350ca

A break from the shop, went ice fishing, no fish, 3 month old Lucy was happy to warm up between runs around the lake and bush.



Greg


----------



## brino

f350ca said:


> 3 month old Lucy was happy to warm up between runs around the lake and bush.



She is growing!
Brian


----------



## finsruskw

One of 10 I will be making
2"od x 1.108" id x 3.25"
One end gets an inside taper 1/2 way to fit a bale fork tine.
It's a long trip through the center.
Three passes the last with a 1" bit in the Mill.


----------



## Steve-F

Well, it's a project that has been taking to long , but now I'm getting somewhere! My wife's 1966 Porsche 912 long block, got it dialed in now at 9:1.3 C/R :<) Should be a fun little canyon driver!


----------



## f350ca

Growing alright, had her to the vet last week for her second set of shots, she'd doubled in weight in the 4 weeks we've had her. lol
30 pounds at 3 months, going to be a big girl.

Greg


----------



## mksj

finsruskw said:


> Three passes the last with a 1" bit in the Mill.


If you can get a 1" x 2" long annular cutter, you can core the hole form both sides, saves a lot of time. When I make lathe spiders, I use the annular cutters for solid round stock, takes 1-2 minutes from each end (usually on the lathe), then I follow with a boring bar. You could also do it on the mill if you have a jig/stop system to keep the alignment.


----------



## NCjeeper

I made chips today. Fired up the ole G&E shaper. Cutting down some aluminum. .150 DOC and .030 step over.


----------



## addertooth

Something simple.  The Kickstarter project by YesWelder came in a few days back.   It does MIG, Flux-Core Wire welding, Stick, TIG and Plasma Cutting.  We set up the plasma cutter to slice a 4 by 8 sheet of 12 gauge steel to a more manageable pair of 4 by 4 sheets.  

Current was 22 amps, 35 PSI (0.24 MPa).  It cut the steel like butter.  The angle iron was a fence, to ensure a straight cut.  

The step son was testing out his Christmas Gift.  He is attending welding school.


----------



## wachuko

I needed a small vise for the Walker Turner drill press... turns out I had this piece of carp in a corner... It has never been used... Figured, to avoid spending on a new one, that I would at least give it a try.




Needed a lot of cleaning to remove all the factory grease, surface rust, deburring everything,  etc. 






I still need to clean the threaded rods. 

Then decide on what color I will give it before assembly...  But it is at least cleaning up nicely... still carp, but working carp...


----------



## brino

addertooth said:


> The Kickstarter project by YesWelder came in a few days back. It does MIG, Flux-Core Wire welding, Stick, TIG and Plasma Cutting. We set up the plasma cutter to slice a 4 by 8 sheet of 12 gauge steel to a more manageable pair of 4 by 4 sheets.
> 
> Current was 22 amps, 35 PSI (0.24 MPa). It cut the steel like butter.


Thanks for the review, please keep 'em coming as you test all the functions!
Brian


----------



## dkemppai

addertooth said:


> Something simple.  The Kickstarter project by YesWelder came in a few days back.   It does MIG, Flux-Core Wire welding, Stick, TIG and Plasma Cutting.  We set up the plasma cutter to slice a 4 by 8 sheet of 12 gauge steel to a more manageable pair of 4 by 4 sheets.
> 
> Current was 22 amps, 35 PSI (0.24 MPa).  It cut the steel like butter.  The angle iron was a fence, to ensure a straight cut.
> 
> The step son was testing out his Christmas Gift.  He is attending welding school.


Hadn't heard of that one. Yeah, plasma is really really nice for some things. It's second only to sending CAD files out and having parts laser cut for you!  

So TIG is lift start...Assuming it's a DC only type machine? (Didn't see any mention of aluminum). How fast can you switch out between processes?(stingers, etc) Will it run on 120 and 220, or fixed voltage? 

 A couple years back, I looked into an all in 1 machine. Didn't go that route, but they sure are appealing for size, etc. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts after using it a while. It's certainly in a nice small box!


----------



## addertooth

Yes, the TIG is lift start.   It is DC only, so TIG welding aluminum is not on the menu.  It does 110/220.  For heavier welding 220 is required.  Most hobby shops will probably not have a critical need for 220v, but your milage may vary.  

I have a couple other welders in the shop as well.  The most similar one is an Amico, which does all the same things except Plasma.
It is my standard for expected behavior.  It is solid. 

Over time I am going through all the various processes it can do.  I have some good test equipment to look at it in detail (dual trace digital scope, fluke meters, amp-probes).


----------



## Shootymacshootface

Did some finishing touches on the jumbo fly cutter. I trued up the od and adjusted the counter weight right in the spindle. I made a few test cuts. I ran it at 150rpms initially, but was getting a little chatter. I increased rpms to 200, and it started to cut smoothly. This cut was with koolmist for a lubricant. After I get the mill trammed I will try it with WD40. I looks like it might work.


----------



## wachuko

Vise done... painted the same anvil gray as the drill press.




Everything nice and clean.  Way oiled... Adjusted the gibs.  Working fine...

4" wide jaws.  3-3/4" max opening.  Maybe make some jaws with the V grooves...


----------



## finsruskw

mksj said:


> If you can get a 1" x 2" long annular cutter, you can core the hole form both sides, saves a lot of time. When I make lathe spiders, I use the annular cutters for solid round stock, takes 1-2 minutes from each end (usually on the lathe), then I follow with a boring bar. You could also do it on the mill if you have a jig/stop system to keep the alignment.


I have 2 of those cutters, thanks to the "pass around box" last spring but one is 1.5" and the other is 2"!!
Will use the 2" to drill the holes in the 1/4" wall square tube to receive the sleeves.


----------



## davek181

One of the things I love about having a mill and lathe is the ability to build or rebuild things in our everyday life. This last weekend I was using my snowblower once again due the the lousy weather we have been having.  Just before finishing up the handle that moves the chute assembly for aiming where the snow will go broke.  The handle just came off the one end and dropped out of the handlebar assembly.  It was not a big deal as you can still turn it manually to where you want but you have to stop and walk around the bars to move it.

I took it apart and found that the pinion gear that hooks to the handle had broken off of the gear.  Thus a project was born.  The original gear had a short sleeve that slipped onto the handles shaft and was clipped into place by a hole drilled through the sleeve and shaft. 

I took the original gear and faced off the broken parts and milled the hole through the center to 17/32".  I built on the lathe a longer sleeve to fit the rod the same diameter as the bushing it rides in and the friction washer that hold it all in the bracket, center drilled it to fit the shaft of the handle.  I cut a step on the end the same size as the hole I milled through the gear and pressed it into the gear.  I further drilled the gear and installed a 1/8" friction pin to prevent turning.  I then drilled the sleeve i had built to accept the original through clip that held it on the rod.

Assembled it all together with the bracket, fibre washer, press on friction washer, and slipped in the rod and installed the through clip.  project complete and much more robust than the original being much longer with better purchase on the rod and made of steel.  I think the original part was cast iron judging by the chips.    I didn't take any before or during pictures, only an after shot.  You can see in the pic the broken piece of the original and how short it was, all in all it probably had only 3/8" or so purchase on the end of the shaft.  No wonder it broke. 

It is so nice to be able to improve the part rather than buy a replacement that might take weeks to get and would definitely break again in my opinion.  So in the end I spent a couple of hours time and some scrap rod to build a part that probably cost $25.00 or so, but what fun is that?  Besides I like my improved version much better.


----------



## pdentrem

Made a simple extension to the back gear lever. It was so short that the guys with bigger hands had trouble. Simply a 3/4” piece of brass with a internal and external threaded of M16 x 1.5 and a through hole using a “S” drill to fit a scrap piece of round stock and the original spring. Cleared the area on the door and no more needing to open the that door and call it done.
Pierre


----------



## Nogoingback

Santa brought me a Pit Bull stand for picking up the front of my motorcycles.  Included was a sort of universal pin
the fits up into the hole in the bottom of the steering head.  Of course, it was too large for one bike and too small
for the other, so I made a couple of new ones.  I used material on hand, which is why one is stainless and the other
is blued.


----------



## brino

Nogoingback said:


> Santa brought me a Pit Bull stand for picking up the front of my motorcycles. Included was a sort of universal pin
> the fits up into the hole in the bottom of the steering head. Of course, it was too large for one bike and too small
> for the other



Yeah, I hear that his reindeer's noses aren't all identical either!


Brian


----------



## GoceKU

Today i was finally able to get up out of bed, i've haven't had a cold since the pandemic started. I had to get tested for covid, thankfully i'm negative but spending few days indoors and eating all the time, i've become fatter than ever. So this morning with a small fever i got down in the small heated garage to get some work done. First to be repaired is my brothers Astra, It has a major oil leak on top of the engine around the injectors. So 4 new gaskets and i apply silicone sealant as an insurance. Then the annoying issue, it has a good battery and it keeps dying, there is no parasitizing draw but whenever you turn the ignition on headlights come on and stay on even when cranking. Being a diesel it need lots of power but the battery tray is very small so this is the biggest battery it can accommodate. Lot of people rewrite their headlight to the ignition ( lazy people). So i took apart all the wiring to fine where has someone cut the wires. I looked and looked but no spaces, when i put everything back together got my diagnostic out and seen it's the ecu that commands the lights on with the ignition on. I also tried finding the fuse or relay and guess what there is no fuse or relay it all goes thru the BCM. As stupid as it sounds it's a daylight running lights strategy, i tried to change it but it needs a Car Pass code which i don't have. And this being a GM product there is only one dealership, their service is awful and they simply don't pickup the phone. So this issue remains, one of the issues why i don't like GM vehicles is they always have something wrong with them. And there is no dealership support, If this was a Peugeot, Citroen i'll be done, one phone call or an e-mail dealers have access to the code thru the vehicles vin.


----------



## woodchucker

GoceKU said:


> Today i was finally able to get up out of bed, i've haven't had a cold since the pandemic started. I had to get tested for covid, thankfully i'm negative but spending few days indoors and eating all the time, i've become fatter than ever. So this morning with a small fever i got down in the small heated garage to get some work done. First to be repaired is my brothers Astra, It has a major oil leak on top of the engine around the injectors. So 4 new gaskets and i apply silicone sealant as an insurance. Then the annoying issue, it has a good battery and it keeps dying, there is no parasitizing draw but whenever you turn the ignition on headlights come on and stay on even when cranking. Being a diesel it need lots of power but the battery tray is very small so this is the biggest battery it can accommodate. Lot of people rewrite their headlight to the ignition ( lazy people). So i took apart all the wiring to fine where has someone cut the wires. I looked and looked but no spaces, when i put everything back together got my diagnostic out and seen it's the ecu that commands the lights on with the ignition on. I also tried finding the fuse or relay and guess what there is no fuse or relay it all goes thru the BCM. As stupid as it sounds it's a daylight running lights strategy, i tried to change it but it needs a Car Pass code which i don't have. And this being a GM product there is only one dealership, their service is awful and they simply don't pickup the phone. So this issue remains, one of the issues why i don't like GM vehicles is they always have something wrong with them. And there is no dealership support, If this was a Peugeot, Citroen i'll be done, one phone call or an e-mail dealers have access to the code thru the vehicles vin.
> View attachment 391876
> View attachment 391875
> View attachment 391878
> View attachment 391877
> View attachment 391879
> View attachment 391880


first, take care of yourself, drink plenty of water.
that sucks about the code, can't you put a relay in between using a switch and relay to turn them on, or a relay and timer, let the car start, then turn on the lights after 15 or 20 seconds.


----------



## davek181

I finally got my hands on a VW Beetle line boring tool.  The guy that had it before took very good care of it and it is in excellent shape.  In fact I used to have him do our boring when needed so I trust the machine.

He had made an adapter to use a drill to power the bar, apparently the original got lost somewhere.  I didn't like the look of his adapter and figured I could make one a little better.  There is a hole drilled in the back of the bar and a steel pin near the edge.  The tool slides into the hole and around the pin to drive the cutter.  I made my tool to go nearly to the bottom of the hole and fit pretty snugly so there wouldn't be much movement there.  I also made the drill end a little smaller to be able to use a 3/8" drill on it.  Most guys use a 1/2" drill on it to keep the speed low for cutting, and I have one of those old gear drive drill, but I hate the wind down time on them.  I figure I can moderate the feed speed with a variable speed 3/8" drill well enough, or if not I can use the 1/2" instead.  Both will chuck up on the end of the adapter.


----------



## Suzuki4evr

wachuko said:


> I needed a small vise for the Walker Turner drill press... turns out I had this piece of carp in a corner... It has never been used... Figured, to avoid spending on a new one, that I would at least give it a try.
> 
> View attachment 391702
> 
> 
> Needed a lot of cleaning to remove all the factory grease, surface rust, deburring everything,  etc.
> 
> View attachment 391703
> 
> View attachment 391704
> 
> 
> I still need to clean the threaded rods.
> 
> Then decide on what color I will give it before assembly...  But it is at least cleaning up nicely... still carp, but working carp...
> 
> View attachment 391705


So I guess you're polishing a "trud"????


----------



## woodchucker

davek181 said:


> I finally got my hands on a VW Beetle line boring tool.  The guy that had it before took very good care of it and it is in excellent shape.  In fact I used to have him do our boring when needed so I trust the machine.
> 
> He had made an adapter to use a drill to power the bar, apparently the original got lost somewhere.  I didn't like the look of his adapter and figured I could make one a little better.  There is a hole drilled in the back of the bar and a steel pin near the edge.  The tool slides into the hole and around the pin to drive the cutter.  I made my tool to go nearly to the bottom of the hole and fit pretty snugly so there wouldn't be much movement there.  I also made the drill end a little smaller to be able to use a 3/8" drill on it.  Most guys use a 1/2" drill on it to keep the speed low for cutting, and I have one of those old gear drive drill, but I hate the wind down time on them.  I figure I can moderate the feed speed with a variable speed 3/8" drill well enough, or if not I can use the 1/2" instead.  Both will chuck up on the end of the adapter.


Is the line boring tool the one that removes the landing at the top of the cylinder where the ring wore up to? I'm not familiar with the name..


----------



## davek181

The line boring tool does the case.  You bolt it into the empty case and it has 4 discs with brazes carbide bits in them.  You drive it with a drill and it has a feed lever you engage to advance the cutters.  It bores the case and trues it up, then you get bearing to fit the case and crank.

Here are a couple of pics of the tool.  You can see the tool with the feed unit and guides to fit into the case.  Next shot is the cutters.  Third shot shows the end of the tool that my my new adapter fits into.


----------



## woodchucker

davek181 said:


> The line boring tool does the case.  You bolt it into the empty case and it has 4 discs with brazes carbide bits in them.  You drive it with a drill and it has a feed lever you engage to advance the cutters.  It bores the case and trues it up, then you get bearing to fit the case and crank.
> 
> Here are a couple of pics of the tool.  You can see the tool with the feed unit and guides to fit into the case.  Next shot is the cutters.  Third shot shows the end of the tool that my my new adapter fits into.


ah, so  just like using the lathe, and carriage to line bore. Gottcha , wasn't thinking like that, was thinking about tools I used when I built an engine back in the day.

edit: a Tool like that would help me replace my headstock (cast iron bearings) with new bronze bearings.. I could true up the head stock and be confident.. But it's probably easier to replace the lathe.


----------



## davek181

There is another case tool for if you replace the cylinders with oversize versions.  You bore the jug holes in the case and the head to match for the bigger jugs.  you use the drill press for it.   I also have that tool, but it is almost easier to mount the heads and case halves on the mill and use the boring head , at least on the heads.  You get less chatter and better control on the mill.


----------



## Nogoingback

Yesterday I made an M6 bolt with a magnet in it: this is the trigger for a speedo sensor on one of the motorcycles.  I know these can be purchased, but I couldn't find what I wanted so...

The challenge was to mill the pocket in the end of the bolt.  I don't have a mill, but I do have a few end mills I've picked up along the way,
so I started experimenting.  With the end mill in my tailstock and the lathe in back gear and dead slow, it cut perfectly.  Used JB Weld
to secure the magnet.


----------



## silverhawk

I bought some Harbor Freight "roller stands" for the table project I'd posted earlier.  While the stands did the job at hand, I ran into some issues.  One issue is that the nuts holding the "feet" on keep sliding to the side and the feet come loose.  Not too worried about this one right now, as it can be resolved with a drill, tap and some machine screws to lock them into position.

The other issue I had is that these things roll the material on top, even when you don't want it to.  There are small divots on the sides of the rollers that might be able to be used, but that's a plastic surface that might not last for a while if I use a pin to keep them from rolling.  I had an epiphany and measured the outside diameter of the rollers themselves (1.974"), and realized 2" PVC pipe has a 2" inside diameter.  So I cut some the lengths of the rollers, and ran them up the table saw to put a length-wise slot in the pipe to get them past the roller frame (slot was just big enough).  _Just a note - PVC pipe is under tension.  As soon as the first cut was made, the pipe clamped down on the table saw blade and I panicked just a bit._  The pipe sizes did compress once the slot was cut, but they ended up fitting pretty well.




I drilled and countersunk the pipes from the inside (not perpendicular to the slot - I wanted it offset so part of the pipe would stay between the roller frames so nothing would slide off), and then screwed them to a backing wood.




I screwed a "table top" (1/2" plywood) down onto those (no glue, I want to be able to replace the top), and the surface was MUCH more stable.




Now I have a multi-purpose tool - they can be the out feed rollers when I need, and can also instantly become a fast work bench when needed (though I wouldn't use a hammer - I don't fully trust the efficacy of the holding power even though I tested it pretty thoroughly on the table project).


----------



## dkemppai

For some reason, I really hate aluminum. I think it's the mess, and the possibility of galling up on a cutter...

Went back and forth on how to make this part. Couldn't decide between lathe job, or Mill. CNC mill won out. Milled pocket for a 26mm OD bearing, and clearance for a bunch of other stuff. And, yeah, I didn't deburr on the mill. Feeling lazy. 




Of course, it's far from done, but just glad the bearings fit snug. What really made me decide on the CNC mill was the need for two identical units. G code once, mill twice was faster. 

Any guesses on what this is for? 





I you guessed diamond wheel dresser for the surface grinder, you'd be correct!  Started thinking about cheaper options than the drag or powered wheel dressers that seem hard to find used. Bench grinder was what came to mind. After a quick youtube search, I found a guy who used a cheapie 3" grinder, so the concept seemed reasonable. However there was almost no rigidity in this $30 grinder. So, if you're going to over engineer something, go all the way! 

Need a bunch of clearance for what's left of the base and around where the wheel guards go. Then a few holes for the steel plate that this aluminum will bolt to. But in general, Good enough for who it's for!


----------



## brino

dkemppai said:


> However there was almost no rigidity in this $30 grinder.



There sure is now!



dkemppai said:


> if you're going to over engineer something, go all the way!





Brian


----------



## jwmelvin

I made a small vise stop.


----------



## tonydi

What are the two pins for?


----------



## NCjeeper

tonydi said:


> What are the two pins for?


Alignment.


----------



## jwmelvin

NCjeeper said:


> Alignment.



Yep, to keep the jaws parallel. Though the brass is a little flexible for my taste. It locks quite well but I’m thinking of adding some undercut to the jaws so only the tips touch.


----------



## woodchucker

jwmelvin said:


> Yep, to keep the jaws parallel. Though the brass is a little flexible for my taste. It locks quite well but I’m thinking of adding some undercut to the jaws so only the tips touch.


use dowel pins. they are hardened.


----------



## jwmelvin

woodchucker said:


> use dowel pins. they are hardened.



I may switch them. Probably I’ll leave it alone unless it bothers me. But I do agree dowel pins would be much better. I just didn’t have any long enough.


----------



## pdentrem

I wouldn’t worry about those pins. Even a life time of use will have no meaningful wear as the movement is so slight. A little grease goes a long way.
Pierre


----------



## jwmelvin

pdentrem said:


> I wouldn’t worry about those pins. Even a life time of use will have no meaningful wear as the movement is so slight. A little grease goes a long way.
> Pierre



I was thinking of steel for its higher modulus than brass, and a dowel pin only because it has a nice consistent diameter. I made this for the 6mm rod I had, though I do have some stainless also. I’ll probably leave it. It locks tight with little load.

I used it to hold some laser-cut flanges for me to counterbore for the round bar to get welded in:


----------



## silverhawk

I finished this one up yesterday, but Saturdays are my days to crank through projects, so I started another project after finishing this one up.

My father-in-law has been looking into turning rings on his wood lathe.  Unfortunately, that usually means I have to figure it out, too, so he has someone to bounce ideas off of.  The results of that are more tools.  I bought a ring chuck (I don't like the expanding arbor chucks, so I got the bushing style), and then started looking for a boring head.  With my wood lathe being 80 years old (previous to "MT2" tailstocks becoming a de facto standard for wood lathes), it meant I needed a boring head with an MT1 shank - and those don't exist.  The 2" boring head I picked up had an internal 1 1/2"-18 thread.  That was easy enough.  I needed an internal threading tool that a MT1 adapter could fit (I found a 5/8"-16 MT1 threaded adapter), so when I finally got the small internal threading boring bars, I could start.  I wanted it tight - using heat/cold differences to increase sizes so I didn't need Loctite.  That failed on the external thread, but worked well on the internal thread.




The external thread was a bit looser than I wanted, so I ended up having to Loctite that one.




But, it means that I can now start turning some rings on the old wood lathe.


----------



## NCjeeper

Nothing fancy. Just a thumb wheel trying a different type knurl.


----------



## f350ca

Thought I'd contaminate the site with some wood.
Just delivered the end tables today. Got the coffee table out for Christmas.
Oak whiskey barrels. Dismantled and sanded the barrel for the coffee table. The top and cradle are Butter Nut, now a protected species.
Sand blasted the barrel for the end table, gave an interesting texture.
Again Butter Nut top.









Thanks for looking

Greg


----------



## francist

Nice! I really like the looks of the coffee table. You need some jumbo sized plastic monkeys to store in there now..
Never worked with butternut, I don’t think it ever saw it for sale around here. Supposed to be nice for carving, I didn’t realize it had become a protected species now. Makes a great compliment to the oak barrel.

-frank


----------



## f350ca

Thanks Frank, the monkeys are a great idea. On the same line as my skeleton in the closet.


Which coincidentally is on a Butter Nut door.
An old friend of mine has a large bush lot, he would tell me if a Butter Nut tree went down in the wind. Ended up with about a 1000 board feet of it in the shed. Not hard, but a lovely wood to work with and a gorgeous aroma in the shop.

Greg


----------



## JRaut

I made up a little 3/8" square lathe tool bit holder for my Kuhlmann (Deckel-type) single-lip cutter grinder.

For my current project, I'm needing to put a nice radius on the back side of some SS valves. The cutter grinder is much more capable of grinding a smooth curve than I am over at the bench grinder.

I had some nice pre-hard material (4140 maybe?) on hand in the right size, so that's what I used.


----------



## woodchucker

f350ca said:


> Thanks Frank, the monkeys are a great idea. On the same line as my skeleton in the closet.
> View attachment 392824
> 
> Which coincidentally is on a Butter Nut door.
> An old friend of mine has a large bush lot, he would tell me if a Butter Nut tree went down in the wind. Ended up with about a 1000 board feet of it in the shed. Not hard, but a lovely wood to work with and a gorgeous aroma in the shop.
> 
> Greg


Very much like Walnut. I have not had the pleasure of having a large amount.  I thought the door was cherry when I first saw it. Nice.
what did you finish the door with?


----------



## f350ca

Been too long ago to remember for sure, but probably, Tung oil, then hand rubbed spar varnish. Made all the interior doors for the house in one go. 
My cheap camera buggers the colours at times, its more of a brown than red,
Far softer than Walnut

Greg


----------



## woodchucker

f350ca said:


> Been too long ago to remember for sure, but probably, Tung oil, then hand rubbed spar varnish. Made all the interior doors for the house in one go.
> My cheap camera buggers the colours at times, its more of a brown than red,
> Far softer than Walnut
> 
> Greg


it looks brown, it just has a cherry look. I have a bunch of cherry, that looks brown, it ages that way.  Some of it ages more red. I guess it depends on how much sun it gets. 

Your tables are great looking. I've always appreciated your work. Always top notch.


----------



## jwmelvin

I made a little aluminum v-block with a center pocket to align parts for welding:


----------



## ShawnR

JRaut said:


> I made up a little 3/8" square lathe tool bit holder for my Kuhlann (Deckel-type) single-lip cutter grinder.
> 
> For my current project, I'm needing to put a nice radius on the back side of some SS valves. The cutter grinder is much more capable of grinding a smooth curve than I am over at the bench grinder.
> 
> I had some nice pre-hard material (4140 maybe?) on hand in the right size, so that's what I used.
> 
> View attachment 392825



Very nice. Being kind of new at this, may I ask for a brief description of your order of operations or how you did that? I am guessing turning the outside diameter first, then splitting it somehow? Slitting saw? How would you hold it? But then to mill the tool slot, again, how would you hold it? Or did you start with a longer piece, thereby having an area to clamp, and only cut to length when all other operations were complete? Or, typing as I am thinking, cutting the square hole into the round stock with a rotary broach, then splitting it after?  Or a variation of those?

Thanks
Shawn


----------



## JRaut

ShawnR said:


> Very nice. Being kind of new at this, may I ask for a brief description of your order of operations or how you did that? I am guessing turning the outside diameter first, then splitting it somehow? Slitting saw? How would you hold it? But then to mill the tool slot, again, how would you hold it? Or did you start with a longer piece, thereby having an area to clamp, and only cut to length when all other operations were complete? Or, typing as I am thinking, cutting the square hole into the round stock with a rotary broach, then splitting it after?  Or a variation of those?
> 
> Thanks
> Shawn


Yup, order of operations was the hard part.

I actually made up each half individually:

1) Turn up a blank to the correct diameter in the lathe
2) Clamp it in a mill vise end-wise. I could only grab it by the bottom ~100 thou because so much meat would be coming off of it
3) Use an endmill to lop off the top half of the blank (+30 thou to achieve the gap between the halves)
4) Use a smaller endmill to mill out the slot for the 3/8" blank
5) Clean up / debur
6) Repeat steps 1 - 6 for another blank to get the other half
7) Back to the lathe with both halves and a 3/8 cutting blank, I chucked it up and cleaned it up to length on both ends

I would have preferred if the square slot was rotated 45* with respect to each half, but that would have gotten even more complicated to grab onto. I'm sure this will work just fine.


----------



## ShawnR

Nice! Thanks! I would not have thought of that method.


----------



## woodchucker

\


JRaut said:


> I would have preferred if the square slot was rotated 45* with respect to each half, but that would have gotten even more complicated to grab onto. I'm sure this will work just fine.


yea lining up the 2 cuts would have been tough as well. you could have marked it while together.. but it sounds like you grabbed it on the ends in the vise to mill, and if you did your mark would disappear also.

I wonder if you made a holder, turned it on the 45, then glued it with C/A  would have worked, still alignment being key.
The holder would be a block drilled out, then a quarter cut out.
All still more work, and probably not needed.. just thinking (dangerous) out loud.


----------



## mmcmdl

Made another mess as usual , but I also organized a bit .   Cemented carbide , HSS bits , countersinks and taps separated . Only a few more boxes to go .


----------



## paradox_pete

ShawnR said:


> Very nice. Being kind of new at this, may I ask for a brief description of your order of operations or how you did that? I am guessing turning the outside diameter first, then splitting it somehow? Slitting saw? How would you hold it? But then to mill the tool slot, again, how would you hold it? Or did you start with a longer piece, thereby having an area to clamp, and only cut to length when all other operations were complete? Or, typing as I am thinking, cutting the square hole into the round stock with a rotary broach, then splitting it after?  Or a variation of those?
> 
> Thanks
> Shawn


Harold Hall has a page or 2 on his website on the subject of making square collet adapters.

His website is WELL worth a look.  There is a boat load of useful info for the home machinist.


----------



## JRaut

JRaut said:


> I made up a little 3/8" square lathe tool bit holder for my Kuhlmann (Deckel-type) single-lip cutter grinder.
> 
> For my current project, I'm needing to put a nice radius on the back side of some SS valves. The cutter grinder is much more capable of grinding a smooth curve than I am over at the bench grinder.
> 
> I had some nice pre-hard material (4140 maybe?) on hand in the right size, so that's what I used.
> 
> View attachment 392825
> View attachment 392826
> View attachment 392827


Well, I had a partial success.

I ground out a tool with dead-accurate cutting angles.

Only problem is that the nose radius didn't come out right.

The baseline formulas provided by all the D-bit manuals are based on the assumption that you're cutting the nose radius at the edge of a D-bit, and (because the D-bit is split half-wise down the middle) located exactly at the centerline of the grinding head.

The nose radius I was trying to cut was (1) not right at the edge of my 3/8" tool blank, and (2) all the way at the _top_ of the tool blank, i.e., 3/16" above the centerline of the grinding head.

So I've got some more geometry to work out before I'll be able to get the nose radius correct.

Either way, this'll make a damn good cutting tool. It's so sharp that I sliced my thumb when checking the edge...

I might make up a separate thread on the topic, as I'm sure I'll have to break out Soh Cah Toa to get things sorted out.


----------



## dkemppai

JRaut said:


> I ground out a tool with dead-accurate cutting angles.
> ...
> I might make up a separate thread on the topic, as I'm sure I'll have to break out Soh Cah Toa to get things sorted out.



Maybe a CAD drawing will get you there without Trig? A lot of times doing a to scale cad drawing can get you numbers without math. (I don't mind doing the math, I'm just lazy! ) 

Second. That's a darn small valve drawing! Model engine?  

Also, not even the 'professional' tool grinders always get the radius correct. Had a bunch of work on 1/2" delrin bars a while back. Made soft jaws with a groove milled by a 1/2" ball end mill. The 1/2 end mill end radius was quite a bit oversize. Ended up CNC milling some tool steel to the 1/4" radius, heat treating it, and making a fly cutter to hold it. Then milled the soft jaws, and it held the delrin perfectly.  Not sure if CNC and heat treat are an option for you, but if so it may be another way to skin that cat.


----------



## JRaut

dkemppai said:


> Maybe a CAD drawing will get you there without Trig? A lot of times doing a to scale cad drawing can get you numbers without math. (I don't mind doing the math, I'm just lazy! )



Papa Bear on the left, Goldilocks in the middle, and Baby Bear on the right.

I drew it up in Fusion 360 and I derived a big long equation that matched the Fusion drawing.

But that didn't work in practice. The actual nose radius is extremely sensitive to small variations in any of the tool geometry angles.

So I just did a bit of guess/check and crept up on a reasonable looking nose radius compared to a gage pin. No measurements or anything, but it'll be plenty good enough.

Also good to know that it ain't worth trying to be too finicky about setting angles or offsets on the D-bit grinder; just get it close and then creep up on the radius you want.



dkemppai said:


> Second. That's a darn small valve drawing! Model engine?


Yup! I'm building a 5-cylinder radial motor. Check out my progress here, it's coming along nicely:








						Edwards Radial 5 build thread --- PHOTOS!
					

Episode 1 || Introduction to My Build Thread   Background After a brief search through the H-M.com archives, I was a bit surprised that nobody had documented their journey building an Edwards Radial 5-cylinder engine. These engines are reasonably complex and time consuming to construct, but as...




					www.hobby-machinist.com


----------



## NCjeeper

I finished building my cutter grinding fixture. Now I need to study up on the relief geometry. I made it so it can accommodate up to 6 inch cutters. And up to 5/8's wide.


----------



## GoceKU

Today was garage cleaning day, but i failed badly. In Fact i bought another car. It all started with me filling about 10 big garbage bags and not having anything to transport them. The littel niva is not in operation and i don't want to put them inside any of my cars. So i searched for vans and mpvs close to me and this was the cheapest. It runs, has one week of registration but the engine is knocking and some one cut off the catalytic converter, so it sounds like crap. Call the guy, he was 10 min from me so i went there seen that is not rusted it has the engine that i thought so i bought it. He was tight on price would not budge so i negotiated a free tow (he has a tow truck) free fog lamp he had a parts car there and half of the notary fees. So 5 min to get the title transferred, and 15min to get it loaded in less than an hour i bought an POS to get the job done. I clean a patch on the windscreen so i can see when driving, loaded it i did lay down cardboard that i throw away at the dump and get rid of all the garbage. Driving it straight piped and all muddy and knocking was sight to be seen. At the end of the day i free almost the same space the vehicle that i bought takes so in that sense i failed. I have two spare K series engines for it so i'll be changing the engine and probably just sell it, now prices of cars are higher then ever.


----------



## brino

GoceKU said:


> Today was garage cleaning day, but i failed badly. In Fact i bought another car.


Goce, you really cracked me up with that one.......

Brian


----------



## Brento

NCjeeper said:


> I finished building my cutter grinding fixture. Now I need to study up on the relief geometry. I made it so it can accommodate up to 6 inch cutters. And up to 5/8's wide.
> View attachment 393198
> 
> View attachment 393199


Love to see how that works out


----------



## woodchucker

Forgot to put a center on my steadyrest project ... was taking big honking cuts. Using my 4 jaw (the one that crashed) The 4 jaw had no issues, the problem was the bore in the back of the 4jaw was not allowing the chuck to sit on the spindle landing .  So big cuts, no center...
For this video, I backed off on the cut, admittedly, I didn't want to have egg on my face, or the part flying. I was taking a 40 thou cut, I backed it down to 20 for this.


----------



## extropic

NCjeeper said:


> I finished building my cutter grinding fixture. Now I need to study up on the relief geometry. I made it so it can accommodate up to 6 inch cutters. And up to 5/8's wide.



Nice project.

I'm wondering what material it's made from?
Also, what is the brass looking disc inlayed into the top of the base?


----------



## NCjeeper

extropic said:


> Nice project.
> 
> I'm wondering what material it's made from?
> Also, what is the brass looking disc inlayed into the top of the base?


I used 7075 aluminum because that is what I had on hand. The brass disc is my stamped logo maker's mark.


----------



## wachuko

Making a bracket for the tailstock... to hold the inexpensive DRO on the Grizzly G0709 Lathe...

The lathe is at the other house... so I still need to cut it to length when I get there...

I have a lot of pieces of Delrin to practice, so used that for it...


----------



## GoceKU

Today i had the day off work so i spent it working on cars. First on the list was to move couple of cars. The new to me Scenic got moved to the small garage and the W210 went back in the big garage. I needed to fix the trunk lock, it was broken into pieces, i had to take it apart and weld the cage together. But at the end i found out the central locking module has been changed with a module that doesn't have air open trunk so i had to sneak a small cable to be able to open the trunk. I also did a quick clean up on the interior. And drove it to storage. By this time was middle of the day so i got the pressure washer out and gave the new to me Scenic a good wash, engine bay and out side. I leaf it to dry in the heated garage and tomorrow i'll be inspecting it over the inspection pit. If the under is solid as the outside it will get a new engine in a day or two.


----------



## slodat

Made an air bladder system for the new CNC plasma. It raises, lowers, empties, and fills the water table. Gravity down, a little air pressure to go up. Works extremely well.


----------



## woodchucker

good luck with those valves. I have a pool, and when I use those they always fail shortly ... They won't turn, the handles break off.  But sometimes I can't get a Jandy valve. They seem to do better.    
Nice design, can you explain it, how it works?


----------



## slodat

woodchucker said:


> good luck with those valves. I have a pool, and when I use those they always fail shortly ... They won't turn, the handles break off.  But sometimes I can't get a Jandy valve. They seem to do better.
> Nice design, can you explain it, how it works?


I had read similar online about the pvc valves. The 2" tank isolations are never operated. They are there in the case I want to isolate a tank. Mostly for testing the connection to the tank prior to assembly and installation. The water table isolation is a brass full port ball valve and should last the life of the table. 

Operation.. starting with table is empy and fluid is in the tanks. As I mentioned, I leave the tank isolations open. Table isolation valve is open from previously draining table into tanks. Close air vent valve, open air regulator outlet and then inlet isolation valve. Water will flow into the table. When table is full close regulator inlet, table isolation and regulator outlet. To drain, open air vent valve and table isolation. 

It works remarkably well. Takes a few minutes to fill and much less to drain.


----------



## woodchucker

slodat said:


> I had read similar online about the pvc valves. The 2" tank isolations are never operated. They are there in the case I want to isolate a tank. Mostly for testing the connection to the tank prior to assembly and installation. The water table isolation is a brass full port ball valve and should last the life of the table.
> 
> Operation.. starting with table is empy and fluid is in the tanks. As I mentioned, I leave the tank isolations open. Table isolation valve is open from previously draining table into tanks. Close air vent valve, open air regulator outlet and then inlet isolation valve. Water will flow into the table. When table is full close regulator inlet, table isolation and regulator outlet. To drain, open air vent valve and table isolation.
> 
> It works remarkably well. Takes a few minutes to fill and much less to drain.


The Jandy's are pvc but might have a different ball. They last much longer, and they come apart.

So why are you doing this? is it required to empty the table everytime you use it?  I always thought you just left the water in the table.. Over time the water loses it's free oxygen and will stop any rusting. You can also add an additive that removes the free oxygen to stop oxidation.


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## slodat

I don’t want a 45 sq ft lake in my shop evaporating and rusting machines, tooling, etc. I will drain the table at the end of every day I use it. And, there are times it’s nice to lower or raise the water level while using the machine. This makes the water level adjustable as well. I am using a plasma additive in the water.


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## GoceKU

Today i did look thru the Scenic and by some chance it has 257000 km on the clock the same as the 607 when i bought it. Also it due for the a timing belt replacement, it has 3880km on this oil but it looks dark. One thing i could not check was to find the stamped Vin number and after 2 hours i finally found it under the LPG tank at the bottom of the spare tire wheel well. On the inspection pit i was suprase the floor is in excellent shape no rust, some one did cut the catalytic converter and front muffler. It need CV boots on both sides, but it's a solid car with no rust i'll take it to the big garage to start changing the engine, i wanted to take the oil pan down but there is too many thing in the way. But i'm sure from the sound it has a crank or con rod broken. Let's hope it makes it to the other garage.


----------



## FOMOGO

slodat said:


> I don’t want a 45 sq ft lake in my shop evaporating and rusting machines, tooling, etc. I will drain the table at the end of every day I use it. And, there are times it’s nice to lower or raise the water level while using the machine. This makes the water level adjustable as well. I am using a plasma additive in the water.


I'm setting mine up to drain into a plastic drum after going through a coarse and fine filter, and then pumping it back into the table for the next use. My main reason for going this route is the dry climate, and resultant evaporation. I treat my water also. Mike


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## Tio Loco

A while back I milled, drilled and tapped a fixture plate, but then just set it aside and hadn't done anything with it. My intention was to make some mini clamps to complement it, but you know... 'Oh look, there's a squirrel!'.

Recently however I saw a video by MrPragmaticLee, who thought he got the idea from Oxtools, but he wasn't sure. Anyway, I got inspired and jumped back on the project. Added 3/4 of a 1.5" round stock, cut some slots for a back stop, and drilled and countersunk holes to mount it to my rotary table.

This means it can be used in a traditional way to mount to the table, or on the rotary table, or in the vise as a "poor man's sine plate". I picked up some steel bar and whipped up the clamps, using my newly fabbed fixture plate to mill the angles on the toe of the clamps (is that incestuous?)

This is where I kinda went off the rails. I've never done any bluing and was thinking about that for the toe clamps, (Florida is not kind to untreated steel), when I struck on the idea of powder coating them. Not sure how the powder coat will hold up over time, but otherwise, I think they came out pretty good. Hopefully the color is bright enough that I won't accidentally mill into them.


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## Brento

I love that. I may steal this one from you. @Tio Loco


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## f350ca

FOMOGO said:


> I'm setting mine up to drain into a plastic drum after going through a coarse and fine filter, and then pumping it back into the table for the next use. My main reason for going this route is the dry climate, and resultant evaporation. I treat my water also. Mike


Thats what I did. Have a submersible pond pump in the tank to pump the water back to the table. Didn't bother with any filtering, thinking the tank will act as a setting pond. Haven't bothered to clean it out yet, have only been using it 7 or 8 years.

Greg


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## Tio Loco

Brento said:


> I love that. I may steal this one from you. @Tio Loco


By all means, help yourself!


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## Winegrower

Parting off small parts and having them disappear forever in the chip tray is always embarrassing.   Today I had a scrap sheet of aluminum and made a simple tray to fit between the lathe ways below the chuck and along under where the carriage would normally be for a smaller piece.    It just slips in.   I have a DiAcro corner notcher that makes simple sheet metal work very easy.


----------



## tq60

BBQ pipe base...

So we picked up a BBQ at the scrap yard that looked like it was in acamp ground but rust got part of it, there were a few and we got the best one that just had rusted out bottom.

Cut out the rust, replaced and good, no photos of that.

Normally these are mounted to a tube that is planted in concrete, this one had the tube so good to go but do not want to concrete in the yard.

We have collected a few fire engine brake drums and a couple hubs so on a recent trip to scrap yard we scored a 1.25 inch thick torch or laser cut disk 9 inch diameter, perfect.

We chucked it lathe and with 3.5 inch hole Sal in tailstock with chuck pinned with key we cut out a slug.

Then bored out to fit tube leaving the last 1/8 inch at bottom for a bottom stop.

Gripped from inside and cut outside to round, still had the spot where the laser started but bondo will fill that.

The disk is too thick for the bolts so removed 1/4 inch, leaving a center hub that just fits inside the hub.

Could not find the data sheet for the hub, measured as 7 inch diameter bolt circle.

Had ordered a rotary table for this and other projects. Wonderfull tool.

Cut out a chunk of plywood and repeated same center hole and place in lathe.

Used pencil to mark to get a 7 inch circle.

Transfered to mill in rotary table, drilled 1/16 holes allow for matching the circle.

Used a 3/4 end mill to make the holes and test fit perfect.

Placed steel disc on table and used a 1/8 bit in collet only 3/8 long as spotter then worked up to 3/4 inch for the bolts, used a 3/4 end mill as final cleanup as the drill vs the rotary table with chuck on top was moving a bit.

The end mill insured holes were straight and on correct spot as it cuts on end so corrects and drill bit errors, did not cut much but it cut some.

Test fit is interesting, it will not go on the hub with the bolts in place but the bolts will go in if it is on the hub. Alignment is critical, bolts fit with little excess in the holes to unless perfectly level it does not align.

The last step was to drill a 1/4 inch hole from edge into center then drill about 3/4 of that to tap 5/16.

This will allow a 1/4 inch rod to be used to secure the tube with a 5/16 setscrew applying pressure.

The tube will be inserted in the disk 1.125 deep with a minimum clearance so no wobble there.

Will use some screw clamps with wax paper to create a mold for the hole along the edge.

Will fill with bondo then paint.






























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## RJSakowski

I shoveled the new fallen snow today.  There was only an inch so I didn't want to bother with the tractor.  Our driveway is more than 5400 sq. ft so I figure that I moved 450 cu. ft. of snow.  That's almost 17 yards of snow.  A solid dump truck's worth.


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## FOMOGO

You be the "Snowinator" my friend. I should be back home in snow country in ten days time. I'm guessing I'll have 2'or so on the ground. Think I will call my young friend down the road, and have him plow me out down to the bridge where the gate is locked, and go up to the shop and plug in the block heater on the backhoe for me a day or two before I get back. Gonna go for my beach walk now. Not too many warm days left, but I'll be back in the shop, which I'm really looking forward to, and spring will be here before we know it. Cheers, Mike


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## Winegrower

RJ, right, who would bother with a tractor for only a solid dump truck‘s worth of snow?


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## Cadillac STS

I use a Snowcaster for less than 3 inch snow.  It is great.  Just pushing and no lifting.

You see him flipping the shovel each turn.  That is because it works like a plow and it is tilted.  For me I have a long driveway and I just push one way all the way to the end and without flipping just come all the way back and dump at the end.  Repeat for me 8 times and it is cleared.  Then do walkways flipping if needed.

Also it does push the snow to the sides which can build up.  The Snowcaster only works with snow under 3 inches or so and there are times when I need to get the snowblower out and at that time I make a pass at the edge of the driveway throwing all the snow further away. We have a plow service that comes and does the main plow if it is deep and the Snowcaster is helpful for walkways and tidying up the commercial plow work.


----------



## davek181

I agree, only a dump truck's worth...  I don't have a tractor but I do have a snowblower  and it would definitely get started and used for a lot less snow.  Although when I lived in Montana before global warming, one inch would have been classed as unmeasurable trace amounts of snow.


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## extropic

Winegrower said:


> RJ, right, who would bother with a tractor for only a solid dump truck‘s worth of snow?



Exactly.


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## WobblyHand

extropic said:


> Exactly.


I don't know.  Have often shoveled out small snowfalls when I should have fired up the snowblower.  Sometimes I find it a lot more calming to put in some manual labor of the shoveling sort, than firing up a noisy machine.  Large snowfalls, yeah, going straight to the machine.


----------



## RJSakowski

The tractor is a diesel and I have to plug in the heater for a couple of hours before starting in cold weather.  If the snowfall is light, it is often less trouble to shovel or sweep than staring the tractor.  Timewise, not that much difference.  Our firewood stash is located at the barn about 100 yds away and my wife has taken on the chore of replenishing it.  I have offered to bring the wood up with the Ford tractor.  It has a box on the 3 pt. that holds a sixth of a cord so a couple of trips is good for a week of cold weather. Her weapon of choice is her wheel barrel.  She says it is her workout routine.  

This morning, she was going to bring in fresh firewood and I don't like to have anyone or anything track through the snow before it is cleared so I needed to clear a path for her before the tractor could warm up. As long as I was going to clear a path for her anyway, I just decided to do the whole job.  We don't need a Silver Sneakers subscription or gym membership. 

@Cadillac STS , I have a shovel that functions much like the Snow Caster bur without the wheels.  It works well but I still have to lift the snow over the bank on the side.  Otherwise, by Spring, the driveway would only be inches wide..


----------



## GoceKU

Today after work i continued on the scenic, tried to drive it to the big garage but the engine lock up on me. So i had to drag it with the 605, my neighbors are used to seeing me in all vehicles but they usually run. One thing i did noticed the oil pan it has a big dent on the bottom maybe it has something to do with why this engine failed. I also took a picture of the CV joint, this cars has those french CV that are pain to work with. I also spent an hour taking apart the engine bay, i disconnect the wiring and all the hoses. Working on a non AC car is much easier less staff in the way. One thing i forgot is those engines come out from the bottom, it's been awhile since i've had to swap a K series engine


----------



## aliva

This what I use. I've posted this before but can't find it, Here's the link




I also added a linier actuatorand wiper motor for chute control


----------



## Nutfarmer

Snow? It was 60 degrees today in January! Bright and sunny.


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## NCjeeper

^^^
But it will be 110 in the summer there so I think I will stick with the snow for now.


----------



## GoceKU

Nutfarmer said:


> Snow? It was 60 degrees today in January! Bright and sunny.


Yesterday i was pressure washing a car outside at +15C, today it's -10C and snowing.


----------



## GoceKU

Today was one of the coldest day of the year, but the ground is still warm and my garage is almost entry in ground so i could continue working. So after work i got straight to pulling the engine out of the scenic. Or in other words pulling the scenic off the engine. It did not go as smooth, passenger side rear bolt was stuck so i had to cut off the head and it still would not let go I struggle with it for 2 hours but finally it let go. Then i had to lift and wheel away the body, before my back injury i used to do it by hand but now i used my floor jack and a piece of wood. As sketchy as it looks it felt even worse, but i managed to do it with no misheps. I chose to do it this way because it has been design to be removed this way the chassis legs are narrower than the engine and box also the hood is very small opening. And in typical french fashion the engine is not bolted to the body only to the front subframe. I'm curious to see what let go in this engine.


----------



## thomas s

Wow that was a lot of work. I think the auto makers try and make repairs as hard as they can. So we have to go back to them.


----------



## dkemppai

Cadillac STS said:


> I use a Snowcaster for less than 3 inch snow.  It is great.  Just pushing and no lifting.



For less than about 10" of snow, we just drive over it! Of course with the rental unit and the long driveways we're clearing nearly 25,000 sq ft (Had to measure it in google earth, was curious).  Of course being in a snow belt, we get around 300" per winter. Which means moving 625,000 cu-ft of snow per year.  

I guess I should get around to rebuilding that worn out $700 gear box from the front of my blower as a spare...  OK, stop this! You guys are depressing me!


----------



## GoceKU

thomas s said:


> Wow that was a lot of work. I think the auto makers try and make repairs as hard as they can. So we have to go back to them.


This is easy but i don't have the right equipment, but new cars are made to be as difficult as possible to fix especially in the electronics department.


----------



## davek181

Sometimes you wonder about car designers.  I work on imported cars for a living and some just defy logic and wisdom, like having to pull the engine and transmission assembly out the bottom on some Tourags just to change the alternator or starter.  Sure they made it come out fairly easily but still it is a 10 hour job.  On the starter replacement you have to remove the exhaust manifold and loosen the motor mounts and jack the engine partly out of the removed subframe to get the starter out.

The common comment is that they should make the engineers work on the thing before they release it to the public.  Maybe they would change a couple things to make it easier if they could see the whole picture.


----------



## woodchucker

davek181 said:


> Sometimes you wonder about car designers.  I work on imported cars for a living and some just defy logic and wisdom, like having to pull the engine and transmission assembly out the bottom on some Tourags just to change the alternator or starter.  Sure they made it come out fairly easily but still it is a 10 hour job.  On the starter replacement you have to remove the exhaust manifold and loosen the motor mounts and jack the engine partly out of the removed subframe to get the starter out.
> 
> The common comment is that they should make the engineers work on the thing before they release it to the public.  Maybe they would change a couple things to make it easier if they could see the whole picture.


well they are trying to squeeze 100lbs of **** into a 5lb bag.


----------



## Navy Chief

The recommended procedure to change the rear brake line on a Land Rover LR3 is to remove the body.... 

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## woodchucker

Navy Chief said:


> The recommended procedure to change the rear brake line on a Land Rover LR3 is to remove the body....
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk


NO WAY!!!!
REALLY!!!!


----------



## Navy Chief

woodchucker said:


> NO WAY!!!!
> REALLY!!!!


Yep, no joke. I am currently working on one that the rear brake line rusted through above the rear axle. I am not removing the body but I have dropped the exhaust to access the heat shields that the brake line is behind so I can find a good spot to cut the existing line and patch a new line onto.


----------



## RJSakowski

In the days before unit body construction, the body was added after the engine and drive train were added to the frame.  This made for some interesting repair situations.  I recall separating a Buick transmission from the engine and using  a half a dozen short extensions plus a universal joint to snake a socket up between the firewall and the upper mounting bolts.  The thought had entered my mind to cut holes through the firewall.  

On a Dodge minivan, the ABS unit was located inside the unibody frame with flared fittings which were virtually impossible to access.  Their solution was to use flexible hose with a ss braiding for protection.  The braiding was clamped to the steel lines which, along with road salt formed great corrosion couple.  The line ruptured on a e -stop; fortunately it was a rabbit and not a kid on a bike.  The end of the steel line had a perfect chamfer from the corrosion.  Apparently the mechanical engineers in the auto industry don't talk to chemical engineers.

I learned how to swear waiting for a school bus in -20ºF weather but my vocabulary increased greatly working on cars.  Not that they are the only issue.  In order to work on the brakes on our Nortrac tractor, I have to pull the fuel tank.  To remove the fuel tank, I have to pull the rear wheel off.  To access the fitting for the fuel return, I have to pull the fuel tank.  To adjust the clutch, which the manual says should be done on a regular basis, I have to pull the front end loader frame which means pulling the front end loader off. which means disconnecting the hydraulics.    

Clearly, design engineers should have to run through all repair procedures before the design is accepted.


----------



## FOMOGO

Often a fire wrench, plasma cutter, or ginder can shorten "repair by the manual" procedures. I've done many post production engineering changes for ease of maintenance. Mike


----------



## Navy Chief

RJSakowski said:


> In the days before unit body construction, the body was added after the engine and drive train were added to the frame.  This made for some interesting repair situations.  I recall separating a Buick transmission from the engine and using  a half a dozen short extensions plus a universal joint to snake a socket up between the firewall and the upper mounting bolts.  The thought had entered my mind to cut holes through the firewall.
> 
> On a Dodge minivan, the ABS unit was located inside the unibody frame with flared fittings which were virtually impossible to access.  Their solution was to use flexible hose with a ss braiding for protection.  The braiding was clamped to the steel lines which, along with road salt formed great corrosion couple.  The line ruptured on a e -stop; fortunately it was a rabbit and not a kid on a bike.  The end of the steel line had a perfect chamfer from the corrosion.  Apparently the mechanical engineers in the auto industry don't talk to chemical engineers.
> 
> I learned how to swear waiting for a school bus in -20ºF weather but my vocabulary increased greatly working on cars.  Not that they are the only issue.  In order to work on the brakes on our Nortrac tractor, I have to pull the fuel tank.  To remove the fuel tank, I have to pull the rear wheel off.  To access the fitting for the fuel return, I have to pull the fuel tank.  To adjust the clutch, which the manual says should be done on a regular basis, I have to pull the front end loader frame which means pulling the front end loader off. which means disconnecting the hydraulics.
> 
> Clearly, design engineers should have to run through all repair procedures before the design is accepted.


Sounds like the same engineer that designed the Buick Transmission mount was involved with the design on Jeep Cherokees, I remember going through the same thing to get to the last bolt to drop the bell housing, of all of the bolts holding the bell housing only the very top bolt was the only one that faced the front of the truck, it was also the only one that was a reverse torx bolt. This is SUPER fun to figure out when it is absolutely impossible to see the bolt without pulling the entire engine and transmission. I am pretty sure there were 2 universal joints and three different extensions involved in removing that bolt.


----------



## GoceKU

I'm pretty sure French are worse than any others, they do staff like run the throttle pedal rod thru the exhaust header, hydraulic suspension, brakes, steering all on one circuit, one of the 250 oil seals fails and nothing is working. In accessible parts, every fastener different size, that is the norm.


----------



## woodchucker

Navy Chief said:


> Yep, no joke. I am currently working on one that the rear brake line rusted through above the rear axle. I am not removing the body but I have dropped the exhaust to access the heat shields that the brake line is behind so I can find a good spot to cut the existing line and patch a new line onto.


OK, forgot about yesterday's CAR FUBAR...  My wife's Toy Rav 4 2017 threw errors saying it could not activate all wheel drive, reverting to 2 WD 2 weeks ago, but she was up at my son's helping with a Colicky grand daughter. She set up an apt for Monday. I get a call that the problem is it needs a new gas cap, that's why it won't go into AWD. I'm like do I look stupid to you.. ? He says no really the pre-check pressurizes the system and it's failing. So why does it turn off the AWD... He says no idea, it is stupid. How much... $135... For a gas cap? No $35 for the gas cap, and $100 to read the diagnostics.  Are you Fing ****ting me?

WTF are they thinking? It's like disabling the headlights because you have a canopy light out.  Arsehats design cars these days. Anything to make a buck.


----------



## davek181

Subaru will disable the cruise control if you have an active code.


----------



## f350ca

An engineer caught his wife in bed with a mechanic, and they've been paying for it ever since.

Greg


----------



## hman

This is not today's project ... not enen this month's.  But it' something I've worked on for about the past 5 or 6 months, and finished in early January.  I have a friend who owns a pet door company in Surprise, AZ ... about an hour's drive away.  He had askedme to build an animated demo, for display at his booth at home shows.  

Designing and building the demo involved lots of CAD work, metalworking, woodworking, electronics and Arduio programming.A friend, Rick Sparber (also a forum member) suggested I add a couple of safety features.  So I then addeda magnetic breakaway couplingto thethe in-and-out, just in case a potential customer(or his kid) were to put his hand inthe way of the mechanism.

When I took the video, I hadn't yet had time to make the final version on the dog house.  What you see is a cardboard mock-up.  The final version included a painted plywood dog house. 

My friend told me that the demo attracted a goodly amount of interest from show goers.


----------



## hman

This is not today's project ... not enen this month's.  But it' somethingI've worked on for about the past 5 or 6 months, and finished in early January.  I have a friend who owns a pet door company in Surprise, AZ ... about an hour's drive away.  He had askedme to build an animated demo, for display at his booth at home shows.   https://www.jgmpetdoors.com





Designing and building the demo involved lots of CAD work, metalworking, woodworking, electronics and Arduio programming.A friend, Rick Sparber (also a forum member) suggested I add a couple of safety features.  So the in-and-out motion includes a magnetic breakaway coupling, just in case a potential customer(or his kid) were to put his hand inthe way of the mechanism. 

When I took the video, I hadn't had time to make the final version on the dog house.  What you see is a cardboard mock-up.  The final version included a painted plywood dog house.  

My friend told me that the demo attracted a goodly amount of interest from show goers.


----------



## hman

RESET!!!!  It turns out that the movie I took with my phone is WAY too large for the forum.  I'll try to figure out how to reduce the file size somehow, then re-post.


----------



## hman

Here it is ...


----------



## rwm

Wait....my Schnauzer is dying to see the video of the dog coming out of the door???


----------



## westerner

FOMOGO said:


> post production engineering changes


Nice wording. I bet I could get that language past the Fleet Manager


----------



## MozamPete

Made a 3D printed spindle lock for my Grayson lathe.


----------



## hman

rwm said:


> Wait....my Schnauzer is dying to see the video of the dog coming out of the door???


Well, shucks!  I guess that the VLC software didn't just comvert the format, but also truncated the video after 21 seconds.  Guess I'll have to try again...


----------



## hman

Trying again...
View attachment DogDoor2.mp4


----------



## WobblyHand

hman said:


> Trying again...


Not working for me.   Third time's the charm?

Edit: working now.  Very cute!


----------



## woodchucker

hman said:


> Here it is ...


WTH, that's a useless video... we want action. we want action.


----------



## wachuko

hman said:


> Trying again...
> View attachment 393944



Very cool!!!


----------



## woodchucker

hman said:


> Trying again...
> View attachment 393944


Ok, that was better, That was a nice build..  

now we want to scrap your build, and show us your shop... 
And just a nice walk through the shop, showing us your cool setups.  
Can you set up a remote cam for us to control the camera too ?


----------



## hman

woodchucker said:


> Ok, that was better, That was a nice build..
> 
> now we want to scrap your build, and show us your shop...
> And just a nice walk through the shop, showing us your cool setups.
> Can you set up a remote cam for us to control the camera too ?


Thanks for the kind words!  

I'm so very ignorant of how to do video stuff that I cringe at the very idea of setting up aremote cam ... PLUS I imagine it would become a golden opportunity for hackers and/or thieves ...
.. not to mention that everybody here would see all my failures, false starts, goofs and blunders.  If I can get hold of a good video rig and editing software, I might nevertheless do a "shop tour" one of these days.


----------



## woodchucker

MozamPete said:


> Made a 3D printed spindle lock for my Grayson lathe.


I discovered how useful this might be the other day. I had to really tighten my collet draw bar as a part kept slipping. As I was trying to drill it kept getting pushed in. I have a spanner for my draw bar so I tightened down pretty good. Afterwards, I could not get the collet adapter off with the nose protector. Rather than drive it out with a rod, I took my bull gear guard off, and wedged a piece of wood between the bull and casting. It worked well. No broken teeth on the gear, so I am a convert to the idea that the plastic gear might be a good idea.


----------



## extropic

@hman

Nice proof of concept model.

From a marketing point of view, that controller box needs to be out of sight. I mean under the table, with a skirt around the table.
The pet door is a very simple (nonelectronic) device and seeing that controller box will give exactly the wrong impression to potential customers.


----------



## GoceKU

After letting this car sit for two days with its engine out it did not change by it self. To be honest i was busy at work, but today i had an hour or two to spare so i decided to take apart the old engine it needs to come apart so be stored and it will be easier to move when is in pieces. Started with the intake manifold, than the belts, sensors, brackets. Took the rocker cover off, its dirty but no broken valves, took off the 10 head bolts and the cylinder head came off. Can you see the problem one piston is higher than the others. Then i moved things around and got my engine crank out and picked the lump out of the subframe. On the ground i took off the pressure plate, clutch disk and flywheel, then the oil pan and pump come out and i found the problem. One Rod bolt nut has come loose and it was driven like that so the rod bearing and crank got destroyed. Now i need to dig out a fresh K series engine to take its place, i have two of them in the garage but they are at the bottom of the pile.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i spent 3 hours organising cleaning my spare parts just to get to my spare engines. I managed to get the engine out it has 136 000 km on it the other spare i have has even less under 100k but i need a full day of clearing just to get it out so this one will do. Other than the dust and the rust on the flywheel its clean. Few hours a day i should have it driving by the end of the month.


----------



## Dhal22

GoceKU said:


> Today i spent 3 hours organising cleaning my spare parts just to get to my spare engines. I managed to get the engine out it has 136 000 km on it the other spare i have has even less under 100k but i need a full day of clearing just to get it out so this one will do. Other than the dust and the rust on the flywheel its clean. Few hours a day i should have it driving by the end of the month.
> View attachment 394046
> View attachment 394047
> View attachment 394048




I think I would just buy a new car...............


----------



## GoceKU

Dhal22 said:


> I think I would just buy a new car...............


I've got a few good cars. The idea with this one is to get rid some of my spare parts that i'm not using to fix it and get rid of it. ( I hate selling car parts). There is always that guy that think he is a mechanic or he watched a video and your part did not fix it.


----------



## GoceKU

Today, i spent couple of hours working on the scenic. The new to this car engine got a new timing belt, it's valves adjust the clutch refited and got installed in the subframe. Just before refilling it the subframe also got its axle clean repacked with grease new boot fitted on the passenger side. I also drain the oil from the engine, installed a new oil filter mounted the power steering tighten its belt installed the original silver valve cover and then found the exhaust has a broken off stud. I don't remember this but now i have to deal with it. At This point i stopped i need to get some sleep.


----------



## Winegrower

I have a stainless steel lab table that had adjustable height feet but no casters.  And I had 4 left over casters from some other project, thought I would make an adapter to have adjustable casters.

The feet screwed in with a non-standard 13 TPI thread, but about a 0.760 screw diameter.  I made 4 steel adapters with a 13 TPI thread on one end and drilled and tapped on the other for a normal 3/8-16 matching the caster screw.   But to cut the threads, my lathe needed a gear change…13 TPI is the only omission from the QCGB, naturally.

It worked, but was messy…hope not to need to do that again for awhile.   A plus was using the Procunier tapping head for the caster threads, those spiral flute taps are terrific.


----------



## woodchucker

Didn't want to start anything big today, so fixed a problem that has been plaguing me for a long time.
I had a carriage stop that required me to remove the screw to fit it on. So it was annoying.. I made a dial indicator holder for the carriage a while back after getting annoyed with the magnetic one moving on me. When I made that one, I made it so I don't have to remove the screw or even back it out .. So I was going to do the same to my carriage stop when I said, nah, just modify it.

So I did.  No new metal was hurt in the process


----------



## woodchucker

Winegrower said:


> I have a stainless steel lab table that had adjustable height feet but no casters.  And I had 4 left over casters from some other project, thought I would make an adapter to have adjustable casters.
> 
> The feet screwed in with a non-standard 13 TPI thread, but about a 0.760 screw diameter.  I made 4 steel adapters with a 13 TPI thread on one end and drilled and tapped on the other for a normal 3/8-16 matching the caster screw.   But to cut the threads, my lathe needed a gear change…13 TPI is the only omission from the QCGB, naturally.
> 
> It worked, but was messy…hope not to need to do that again for awhile.   A plus was using the Procunier tapping head for the caster threads, those spiral flute taps are terrific.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 394190


how could they eliminate 13... 1/2 - 13 common??? Is that the Takisawa?


----------



## Winegrower

woodchucker said:


> how could they eliminate 13... 1/2 - 13 common??? Is that the Takisawa?


It is.  I’ve been told that some Asian lathes skip 13tpi also…anybody know about that?


----------



## woodchucker

Winegrower said:


> It is.  I’ve been told that some Asian lathes skip 13tpi also…anybody know about that?


superstitious?


----------



## woodchucker

just went down to the shop, and found my radius bits for the lathe. Not all, but the small ones I have been looking for. Damn, right in front of me, but I was looking for a bright and shinny cutter, and this was black, older steel.. DOH..
Also found my new pocket knife that I lost before I even opened it.

This must be my lucky day....   (anyone remember that line)?


----------



## Winegrower

I had an underutilized aluminum block about 14”x6”x1.5”, thought a mill pallet would make sense.   It just fits in my vise crosswise, has 21 thru holes tapped same as my mill hold down kit at 1/2-13 but only part way, so bolts can’t penetrate thru the bottom plane, possibly doing damage, and also so the bolts bottom out and tighten up readily.   The tapping head made this an easy project.


----------



## NCjeeper

I decided to try out my horizontal cutter sharpening fixture that I built to see if it is going to actually work. So I mounted up a used cutter and gave it a shot. I first ground the cutting edge, then ground the relief behind it. Gave it a test in a piece of 4140. .100 tho DOC and the cutter is .250 wide. It seems to have cut pretty well. Decent curled chips too. I am still learning this so any of you grinding guys please chime in.


----------



## NCjeeper

More.


----------



## ecords

Hi! My name is Erik and I am new to the site.

I made a couple of gib locks for my Rockwell 21-100 mill. The locks were not included with the mill.


----------



## extropic

@ecords

Welcome Erik.

You're invited to open a new thread in the linked sub-forum to introduce yourself and share what ever you want to about yourself.


			https://www.hobby-machinist.com/forums/introduce-yourself-welcome-new-members.170/


----------



## wachuko

I have this old Steelcase stool that I use in the garage.  Since I got it, the vinyl on the seat pad was torn... I have been meaning to recover it for a few years now...   Initially I was just going to use black vinyl again, but I had some leftover thick leather from another project and decided to use it to do this...








Done!!




I could have cover the back plate as well, but the vinyl there was in perfect condition... figured I would leave that alone for now.  I have more leather to cover later if needed...


----------



## woodchucker

wachuko said:


> I have this old Steelcase stool that I use in the garage.  Since I got it, the vinyl on the seat pad was torn... I have been meaning to recover it for a few years now...   Initially I was just going to use black vinyl again, but I had some leftover thick leather from another project and decided to use it to do this...
> 
> View attachment 394260
> 
> View attachment 394261
> 
> View attachment 394262
> 
> 
> Done!!
> 
> View attachment 394264
> 
> 
> I could have cover the back plate as well, but the vinyl there was in perfect condition... figured I would leave that alone for now.  I have more leather to cover later if needed...
> 
> View attachment 394266


It came out looking very professional. Nice job.


----------



## John O

Had an excess of cutting oil(bacon fat). Made some soap.
Dogs should love licking me now!


----------



## Nogoingback

ecords said:


> Hi! My name is Erik and I am new to the site.
> 
> I made a couple of gib locks for my Rockwell 21-100 mill. The locks were not included with the mill.


Welcome to the group Erik!  Your gib locks look great.


----------



## GoceKU

Today was a long day in the garage. All the finishing touches all the final assembly took a lot more effort. I had to clean the intake manifold twice because it was full of dirt also the throttle body was gunked up the drivers axle require me to drain the gearbox oil and take apart the lower ball joint to have enough space to remove the axle. But i did manage to get it all together even dealt with the broken bolt and moved over couple of the missing studs from the exhaust flange. I need to clean up my tools are all over the place and then drag the car over its engine.


----------



## jwmelvin

I replaced the platen on my little Sorby belt grinder with one holding a piece of pyroceram. 






The work rest mounts pretty high on this machine, but the new platen gives me a little extra working area, and hopefully better facilitates using the right-side edge of the belt. The main plate limits access to the left side.






It’s kind of a strange machine and I don’t like some things about its design. You can see the cylindrical reliefs I put in the platen for the bolt heads that secure it to the main plate on the left side. The bolts are quite close to the working surface so my thicker platen didn’t leave much room. Even with the reliefs it can barely (almost?) sit far enough back to align with the belt. I’m looking forward to using it a bit, and would like to make a mount for the typical drill-sharpening jig.


----------



## wachuko

Started to make the table for the WEN 3975T 5-Inch Metal-Cutting Benchtop Bandsaw....

First was cutting the bottom support for the table....  I had some material left from the project I made for my friend, so the material is overkill for this (2"x2" tubing used for making a hitch, but it was free)... one 45 degrees cut using the bandsaw...  I need to grind it to have better surface for the weld... but that came out nice!




I then needed to modify the bandsaw stop.  So it would allow it to tilt to 90 degrees...

Before:




Modification for that was easy... just moving the stop further out... measure several times... First center punch was not correct... so glad I measured again to double check...




Eyes played a trick on me... I thought it was 5mm but nope... had to change it to 6mm.  Drill and tap a 6mm thread... I know, I know... measure it!










After:







That is as far as I can take it today... I thought I had a 1/4"x12"x12" steel plate for the table... I do not... so I will need to buy that to be able to finish this project...


----------



## wachuko

I did have some time to weld the two pieces...  I have to say... a grinder still does not make me a better welder...  







Everything remained leveled... so no issues with the welding distorting the part.  

The wood panel is larger than the steel plate I will use.  I used it to validate the size of the steel plate I need to get and to validate that everything remained leveled in both directions.

I will go with 12"x14" plate and add a reinforcement/support from the bracket to the plate.


----------



## eugene13

Had to machine round ends on some 1 inch square stock, I used a lazer level to help out with the indicator.


----------



## extropic

@eugene13 

Watch this short video for a much easier way to indicate a square (or octagon) in a 4 jaw.


----------



## Doug Gray

Joe knows his stuff! That's an awesome tip.


----------



## Tim9

Joe Pie is such a wealth of knowledge. I just watched that and realized…forgot all about it.. 
this is what I posted-  
_Damm. I already watched this a while ago and I totally forgot about it. Only way I know I watched it is that I already gave it a “thumbs up. “
    Joe has so much and so many awesome tips that I can’t even remember one half of them.   Great Stuff as usual_.


----------



## Tim9

Anyway. I just picked up this tilting angle vise for my mill. It’s really an awesome vise. It’s got some deep pitting on a few spots but nothing that interferes with its functioning. I took it apart to clean it up. I update it with the finished product once I get back together.  It’s a very stout 4” milling vise. I’m not sure who made it.


----------



## Shootymacshootface

My first time welding cast iron. It came out alright. I'm not sure if I want to clean it up by hand or on the lathe. That machined surface might be tapered.


----------



## eugene13

extropic said:


> @eugene13
> 
> Watch this short video for a much easier way to indicate a square (or octagon) in a 4 jaw.


Thank you very much, I'm going to try that out tomorrow  .


----------



## Jeffro

Grease and chips and chips and chips. Cleaning up 77 bp 2j


----------



## Tim9

Shootymacshootface said:


> My first time welding cast iron. It came out alright. I'm not sure if I want to clean it up by hand or on the lathe. That machined surface might be tapered.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 394854


Looks  like it came out pretty good. 
If mine, I’d probably just clean it up with an angle grinder. Just working on the welded area, I’d sand it just a tad bit below the adjoining areas.


----------



## Tim9

Derusted the vise with electrolysis. 
Anyway, got the vise back together. Did a little digging and I think I have a Brown & Sharpe angle vise. The general consensus seems to think it was made for surface grinder. But, it’s definitely stout enough for light milling too. I’m psyched. I have a weakness for vises.


----------



## Firstram

That turned out great! Pulling parts out of the electrolysis tank always makes me smile.


----------



## woodchucker

Shootymacshootface said:


> My first time welding cast iron. It came out alright. I'm not sure if I want to clean it up by hand or on the lathe. That machined surface might be tapered.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 394854


I hope you are not using brakekleen to clean the parts before welding.

If I remember correctly, when heated in welding it releases phosgene gas, which can kill you. 
If it's just sitting there, it still might be a good idea to move it further away..

This PSA brought to you by someone who cares whether you live or die, so don't shoot the messenger please.


----------



## Watchwatch

woodchucker said:


> I hope you are not using brakekleen to clean the parts before welding.
> 
> If I remember correctly, when heated in welding it releases phosgene gas, which can kill you.
> If it's just sitting there, it still might be a good idea to move it further away..
> 
> This PSA brought to you by someone who cares whether you live or die, so don't shoot the messenger please.



Chlorinated Breakleen and welding will kill you.

Non chlorinated Breakleen is acetone and safe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Just for fun

woodchucker said:


> I hope you are not using brakekleen to clean the parts before welding.
> 
> If I remember correctly,* when heated in welding it releases phosgene gas,* which can kill you.
> If it's just sitting there, it still might be a good idea to move it further away..
> 
> This PSA brought to you by someone who cares whether you live or die, so don't shoot the messenger please.



Just for the curiosity sake of it.  Does it dissipate if you let it set for a while or not?


----------



## 682bear

Just for fun said:


> Just for the curiosity sake of it.  Does it dissipate if you let it set for a while or not?



It does, but if there are any cracks or tiny crevices in the material it may take a while to thoroughly dissipate.

IIRC, it only takes tiny amounts of phosgene to be lethal... something like 4 parts per million can be fatal...

I keep it away from my welding bench... and away from anything that I might need to weld on. I use acetone to clean parts for welding.

-Bear


----------



## woodchucker

Just for fun said:


> Just for the curiosity sake of it.  Does it dissipate if you let it set for a while or not?


no, I've heard about people that have been hurt or killed a long time (days , months) after spraying. Not sure why it doesn't, since it appears to disappear quickly. 

Better to use acetone, or carb cleaner if you are going to weld.  I use acetone, or alcohol.


----------



## Just for fun

OK, Good info.  I have never used it on anything I have welded.  I don't use it much at all really, I used it years ago to clean some bolt holes on a crankshaft under a truck.  I had an N95 mask on, but I also have a full beard.  I felt the effects of it for days.  I very seldom use it anymore and if I do I make sure I'm out in the open.  That stuff is bad stuff!

Tim


----------



## woodchucker

Safety Alert! Brake Cleaner = Phosgene Gas
					

Brew Bikes LLC 828-406-6668 Phone & Text. brewdude@brewracingframes.com BREW is a registered trademark and NO images or use without written consent.



					www.brewracingframes.com


----------



## Steve-F

I got hold of a 125# 5-groove pulley from a 200 HP electric motor they changed out at work, so I made a vise stand for my biggest vise


----------



## Shootymacshootface

I posted this in the Joke thread by mistake. I guess the joke is on me!

Post in thread 'Today's Joke' https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/todays-joke.57104/post-922298


----------



## Watchwatch

woodchucker said:


> Safety Alert! Brake Cleaner = Phosgene Gas
> 
> 
> Brew Bikes LLC 828-406-6668 Phone & Text. brewdude@brewracingframes.com BREW is a registered trademark and NO images or use without written consent.
> 
> 
> 
> www.brewracingframes.com



I read that article when it came out and never forgot.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## eugene13

extropic said:


> @eugene13
> 
> Watch this short video for a much easier way to indicate a square (or octagon) in a 4 jaw.


Used this method today, worked great, thanks for the tip.


----------



## Jeffro

I hope in the years I have left. I can achieve skills like so many on this forum possess. I drilled out all the Bijur metering valves (10 of them on bridgeport 2j. Reinstalled, pumped way oil to everything, moved everything back and forth. Reattaching the lines on that manifold are a major PITA. Moved on to 6F a b or c not sure which. It is fairly operational.


----------



## wachuko

I ended up with a 3/8"x12"x12" plate... 







All leveled and ready to tag weld....


----------



## WobblyHand

wachuko said:


> I ended up with a 3/8"x12"x12" plate...
> 
> View attachment 395177
> 
> 
> View attachment 395179
> 
> 
> All leveled and ready to tag weld....
> 
> View attachment 395174
> 
> View attachment 395175
> 
> View attachment 395176


That's coming out very well!  

Have to confess, had to stifle a laugh when I saw the carpenters level (having struggled with leveling my lathe).  A carpenter's level and a machinist's level are so different in sensitivity.  But for this use, a carpenter's level is fine.  Is the table that the saw is sitting on level?  Might want to check that first before tacking.


----------



## wachuko

WobblyHand said:


> That's coming out very well!
> 
> Have to confess, had to stifle a laugh when I saw the carpenters level (having struggled with leveling my lathe).  A carpenter's level and a machinist's level are so different in sensitivity.  But for this use, a carpenter's level is fine.  Is the table that the saw is sitting on level?  Might want to check that first before tacking.


Yes, yes... the table is leveled, hahahahaha... I did check that first     I laugh because I checked AFTER setting everything up... But yeah, looks like I did level it when I made it and installed it there... home made workbench... 

And yes, for this purpose, any level would have been fine... I just needed it in the ballpark...


----------



## Jake P

Made myself a carriage stop. 

Most of the time I’m not using the prox. stop that Mark made for me, and when it’s on the way it tends to activate when lots of chips are falling in its path.  So I end up keeping it hanging off the chip drawer below unless I’m using it. 

I wanted this stop mainly as a safety device just so I don’t inadvertently crash should I get side tracked, or as I did last time when I be grabbed the wrong handle 

I didn’t need the adjustable aspect of it, but I did need an offset so it’s not hitting the way wiper first.  Threaded it at 20 tpi so it’s .050 per revolution should I need to know for some reason.  Doubt I ever will, but it was fun to make the addition non the less. 

The block is aluminum and the plate is steel with a registration pin to keep it from spinning.  I just used the basic dimensions of the PM stop as a guide.

I am also going to put a lever handle bolt on the prox. stop as I'm tired of having to grab a wrench every time it needs moved.


----------



## wachuko

Jake P said:


> Made myself a carriage stop.
> 
> Most of the time I’m not using the prox. stop that Mark made for me, and when it’s on the way it tends to activate when lots of chips are falling in its path.  So I end up keeping it hanging off the chip drawer below unless I’m using it.
> 
> I wanted this stop mainly as a safety device just so I don’t inadvertently crash should I get side tracked, or as I did last time when I be grabbed the wrong handle
> 
> I didn’t need the adjustable aspect of it, but I did need an offset so it’s not hitting the way wiper first.  Threaded it at 20 tpi so it’s .050 per revolution should I need to know for some reason.  Doubt I ever will, but it was fun to make the addition non the less.
> 
> The block is aluminum and the plate is steel with a registration pin to keep it from spinning.  I just used the basic dimensions of the PM stop as a guide.
> 
> I am also going to put a lever handle bolt on the prox. stop as I'm tired of having to grab a wrench every time it needs moved.
> 
> View attachment 395185
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 395186
> 
> 
> View attachment 395187
> 
> 
> View attachment 395188


That came out amazing!!  How many did you make?  I need one...


----------



## wachuko

I am done for now... welded, edges deburred, corners rounded... I also filed in a v-shape where the blade enters... 







Later in the week I will remove it and then give a coat of paint to the bracket and under the table, leaving the top bare metal... 

Maybe later I will make some jacks to place in the back corners??


----------



## jwmay

I made another parting tool holder. I bought this insert holder years ago. I don't know what it belongs on, but at one time I had a holder made for it. I used to use it all the time. So when the larger lathe went away, I kept it. But evidently the holder it was on wasn't suitable. So I made this one today. I'm always looking to avoid anything extra on a tool. Building it to the correct height at the start, means I never have to set height again. It also means I avoided drilling and tapping five holes. I tried it already of course. It works like a charm. Thanks for looking.


----------



## Just for fun

Jake P said:


> Made myself a carriage stop.
> 
> Most of the time I’m not using the prox. stop that Mark made for me, and when it’s on the way it tends to activate when lots of chips are falling in its path.  So I end up keeping it hanging off the chip drawer below unless I’m using it.
> 
> I wanted this stop mainly as a safety device just so I don’t inadvertently crash should I get side tracked, or as I did last time when I be grabbed the wrong handle
> 
> I didn’t need the adjustable aspect of it, but I did need an offset so it’s not hitting the way wiper first.  Threaded it at 20 tpi so it’s .050 per revolution should I need to know for some reason.  Doubt I ever will, but it was fun to make the addition non the less.
> 
> The block is aluminum and the plate is steel with a registration pin to keep it from spinning.  I just used the basic dimensions of the PM stop as a guide.
> 
> I am also going to put a lever handle bolt on the prox. stop as I'm tired of having to grab a wrench every time it needs moved.
> 
> View attachment 395185
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 395186
> 
> 
> View attachment 395187
> 
> 
> View attachment 395188


Nice work Jake, looks great!


----------



## GoceKU

Today i found couple of hours to spare and spent them in the big garage working on the scenic. Little by little managed to drag the body over the drive train. Had to use pry bars to move it in place and managed to bolt it down. Now i need to connect everything to the engine.


----------



## devils4ever

I made a mounting plate for my rotary table so I could mount my 4-jaw lathe chuck.

Top of plate with chuck.



Back of plate.



Mounted on rotary table.


----------



## jwmay

Well I keep reading about how I should try American made insert tooling.  So, having a big pile of inserts from who knows where, I made a holder. So now I have an American made insert holder with an American made insert. It did work pretty well. 
After I had played with it awhile, I figured I ought to make the work into something, instead of just tossing it. So I used my home made tailstock die holder for the first time, to make a 1/4-20 knurled thumbscrew. The die holder worked amazingly well! If you knew the trials I've gone through trying to use dies on the lathe, you'd throw me a party. Then I parted off my new thumb screw with my home made parting tool holder.  So after all that, I'm feeling down right patriotic today. 
All kidding aside, the insert I used did "feel" smooth when turning. And DOC was seemingly limitless with a  slow hand feed, although I didn't push it under power feed. Pretty cool.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i spent almost the entire day assembling this scenic back together. I reassembled everything but could not get it to fire up. Sounds a bit weak in compression, checked spark, check fuel, timing but no fire, i'll mess with it tomorrow but it could have stuck piston rings, that engine has seat in my garage for around 9 years. Last thing i had to try was an original set of VW Imola 15" rims i have, those rims are very rare only 500 sets. They look nice against the blue paint.


----------



## GoceKU

Murphy's law just hit me, i spent couple hours trying to get this car to fire up. And no luck, i have 2,5 bar compression on cylinder 1 and 2. And 4,5 bar on cylinders 3 and 4. I apply compressed air and is leaking in the crankcase maybe is leaking in between cylinders but it could be just eho also i checked every part of the injection even replaced all the sensors. It tries to fire but won't light up. Now i'm at a cross roads i can fill the cooling system up pull it out of the garage and tow it in gear the higher RPM can break the piston rings free but they can also break and destroy the engine. I left them to soak overnight and will leave them till tomorrow if i can't get it started. i'll replaced the engine again or ili rebuild it in place.


----------



## wachuko

I sure hope you can get it to free up... specially after all that work


----------



## f350ca

I have a small Yanmar diesel that the rings would stick in. I'd pull the glow plugs and fill the cylinder with a mix of ATF and acetone and let it sit over night. Usually fired up the next day. They stuck 5 or 6 times. Expect it had ran a LONG time between oil changes before i got it and had simply gummed up. Has ran fine now for 3 or 4 years.

Greg


----------



## dkemppai

woodchucker said:


> Safety Alert! Brake Cleaner = Phosgene Gas
> 
> 
> Brew Bikes LLC 828-406-6668 Phone & Text. brewdude@brewracingframes.com BREW is a registered trademark and NO images or use without written consent.
> 
> 
> 
> www.brewracingframes.com



Since we're talking about PSA's.  Be very very careful if using any aluminum brightening cleaners (acids). Many of them available over the counter contain Hydrofluoric acid. Yes, HF, and at 10%-15%!  This stuff turns your bones to jello and doesn't stop. Really really nasty stuff. Sometimes it's listed as Hydrogen Flouride, but when mixed with water it becomes HF acid. 



			https://www.krownindustrial.com/msds/Aluma%20Brite-revised%20SDS.pdf
		





__





						CDC | Facts About Hydrogen Fluoride (Hydrofluoric Acid)
					

Information on terrorism and public health. Provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).




					emergency.cdc.gov
				




Wash your car or boat on Saturday, spend the rest of the year trying not to loose your arms kind of reaction.


----------



## GoceKU

dkemppai said:


> Since we're talking about PSA's.  Be very very careful if using any aluminum brightening cleaners (acids). Many of them available over the counter contain Hydrofluoric acid. Yes, HF, and at 10%-15%!  This stuff turns your bones to jello and doesn't stop. Really really nasty stuff. Sometimes it's listed as Hydrogen Flouride, but when mixed with water it becomes HF acid.
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.krownindustrial.com/msds/Aluma%20Brite-revised%20SDS.pdf
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> __
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> CDC | Facts About Hydrogen Fluoride (Hydrofluoric Acid)
> 
> 
> Information on terrorism and public health. Provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
> 
> 
> 
> 
> emergency.cdc.gov
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Wash your car or boat on Saturday, spend the rest of the year trying not to loose your arms kind of reaction.


My country is worst in the region about regulating chemicals. Anything is available even staff that has been banned since the 70's is imported and used. That's why johnson control and van hool buses come here cheap labour and no pollution control. Many of the catalytic converter for the US are made here about 10 miles from me, and that is all heavy metals. I don't use brake cleaner at all, mainly because of price, i use gasoline in a spray bottle.


----------



## Dhal22

f350ca said:


> I have a small Yanmar diesel that the rings would stick in. I'd pull the glow plugs and fill the cylinder with a mix of ATF and acetone and let it sit over night. Usually fired up the next day. They stuck 5 or 6 times. Expect it had ran a LONG time between oil changes before i got it and had simply gummed up. Has ran fine now for 3 or 4 years.
> 
> Greg




I have a yanmar excavator that runs like a top.   I wished they made skid steers.


----------



## f350ca

The one I have is in a John Deere mower. Built for JD. Looked into rebuilding it when I was having the problem. Yours is a far superior engine, it has sleeves, the JB variety is a bored block. Runs fine but not built for the life of a true one.

Greg


----------



## GoceKU

Today was judgement day for the K7M engine. It's not making compression, the starter motor got a good work out but wouldn't start. After thinking about it i decided i'll rebuild it in place. i have one more spare but if this one is stuck i'm sure it will be also. With only 2 hours to spare i took apart everything around the top end and managed to remove the cylinder head. The engine is much cleaner inside the cylinders than the rest of the engine, some one did not changed there oil on time. This engine has 136 000 km and as you can see the valves are like new , i haven't clean them or the pistons. Tomorrow i plan to get the oil pan out and remove the pistons also i'll take apart the cylinder head it needs a good resurface, valves ground, new valve seals. Working on a petrol engine is much easyer then diesel.


----------



## dkemppai

GoceKU said:


> Today was judgement day for the K7M engine. It's not making compression, the starter motor got a good work out but wouldn't start. After thinking about it i decided i'll rebuild it in place. i have one more spare but if this one is stuck i'm sure it will be also. With only 2 hours to spare i took apart everything around the top end and managed to remove the cylinder head. The engine is much cleaner inside the cylinders than the rest of the engine, some one did not changed there oil on time. This engine has 136 000 km and as you can see the valves are like new , i haven't clean them or the pistons. Tomorrow i plan to get the oil pan out and remove the pistons also i'll take apart the cylinder head it needs a good resurface, valves ground, new valve seals. Working on a petrol engine is much easyer then diesel.
> View attachment 395715
> View attachment 395716
> View attachment 395717



Is it just me, or is there damage to the intake on valve Cyl1, and exhaust Cyl2? Might be lighting in the image...


----------



## GoceKU

This morning i had few hours before work so i got to work, took apart both cylinder heads, one from this engine and the one from the original( one that i changed). Then come the hard part taking off the oil pan, oil pump and all 4 pistons. The crank and bearings look like new, the pistons are very dirty and the piston rings are stuck solid, nothing broken but i have lots of cleaning. I took both cylinder head with me to work and on my way back i'll stop by my friend to get them resurfaced. The machine shop that used to bore engines, resurfaces them closed up forever.


----------



## GoceKU

dkemppai said:


> Is it just me, or is there damage to the intake on valve Cyl1, and exhaust Cyl2? Might be lighting in the image...


That is oil spots the valves are OK.


----------



## dkemppai

GoceKU said:


> That is oil spots the valves are OK.


Ahh, OK. 

I'm used to looking at brand new engine parts. Sometimes we see parts that were run, but always cleaned up before we see them...


----------



## GoceKU

dkemppai said:


> Ahh, OK.
> 
> I'm used to looking at brand new engine parts. Sometimes we see parts that were run, but always cleaned up before we see them...


You can see the difference, the yellow box has the valves from the "new"(136K) engine the red box has the valves with (257K)on them.


----------



## wachuko

Benchtop bandsaw table done!

Cut off the excess tubing and painted with semi-gloss black and orange border.  I know it looks red in the photo but it is actually orange.







I also installed a 2"x2" plastic cap to avoid dirt/grit to get inside the tube…


----------



## GoceKU

After work i stopped by my friends shop he has a decent size mill, so he resurfaced the cylinder heads for me. He used a shop made a fly cutter with diamond inserts at 400 rpm at different feeds, the finishing pass was at 0,04 mm the finish is like a mirror. One of the head was bent like a banana, but with 0,48mm of the surface cleaned up.


----------



## wachuko

Got a set of short counterbore metric bits… and first time using the ER20 collect setup…



The task at hand was to ensure everything was concentric… When I initially did these holes, these were made manually as I did not have counterbore bits.  

With this done, I was able to dial in the 4-jaws chuck on the 9”x20” lathe!! Woohoo!  I know it is a photo... a video of me turning the chuck and seeing that the caliper stays still (well... .0005" movement) would have been better...




Next…to turn the hex rod into a key for the 5-C collect chuck….


----------



## Dhal22

wachuko said:


> Benchtop bandsaw table done!
> 
> Cut off the excess tubing and painted with semi-gloss black and orange border.  I know it looks red in the photo but it is actually orange.
> 
> View attachment 395799
> 
> 
> View attachment 395801
> 
> 
> I will install a 2"x2" plastic cap as well to avoid dirt/grit to get inside the tube…
> 
> View attachment 395858


----------



## wachuko

Let's do this...



The hardest part is done.  Only task left is to drill and tap the hole in the handle for the set screw.


----------



## Winegrower

woodchucker said:


> get that air pump working. You'll be glad you have it working. if it doesn't work, take it apart and work on it.


Tuesday I brought home this bandsaw:


It needs some attention, for one the belt driven air pump didn’t work, and woodchucker got on me about getting that fixed.   You know, eventually we get enough tools that no matter how complicated the task, we are confident we can mess it up.   So I took the pump out and apart.    It’s a pretty simple and effective looking design, with an impeller that holds four plastic vanes.  The impeller is a press fit on a shaft with two also pressed on bearings further pressed into a housing.  The impeller is also secured to the shaft with a blind roll pin.  Ugh.   I had to use a 1/8” carbide end mill to chew it out, then I could press it off the shaft.  There were two directions it could come off, and I chose the wrong one and buggared up the shaft.   Ordered new bearings, I’ll make a new shaft, the impeller and vanes are fine, so with a lot more pressing, it should work fine again.


----------



## Boswell

3d printed a holder for my transfer punches.  They no longer live in a cardboard box and now MUCH easier to find the one I need


----------



## dkemppai

Boswell said:


> 3d printed a holder for my transfer punches.


What a great idea! Having a 3D printer sitting unused 99.99% of the time, this would be a good excuse to put that machine to work. 

I even need some wrench organizers in my tool box...   ...hmmmmm. You may be onto something here!


----------



## wachuko

Done!




I made it so that a wrench could be place on top...




Notch done for the set screw




But thinking about making another notch higher... just in case I want the handle at its highest position... I do not think that I will be needing to use a wrench...

EDIT:  Now it is done!






There is no blue in my lathe... so I had to color match it to the lathe...  Hammered green it is!


----------



## Winegrower

A friend just got a 3D printer.   He's been making holders and brackets.   He told me now he's making holders for the brackets and brackets for the holders.   This terrifies me since it's almost irresistible.


----------



## Nogoingback

My son is currently in school to become a certified Solidworks programmer, and recently bought a 3D
printer.  This is  a part he printed for me the other day: a battery tray for a custom motorcycle.  I gave
him a basic drawing which he turned into a Solidworks file and then printed.  First time he's done that.
The part came out great.


----------



## FOMOGO

In my best Crocodile Dundee, " Now that's a band saw " Mike



Winegrower said:


> Tuesday I brought home this bandsaw:


----------



## woodchucker

wachuko said:


> Done!
> 
> View attachment 395952
> 
> 
> I made it so that a wrench could be place on top...
> 
> View attachment 395953
> 
> 
> Notch done for the set screw
> 
> View attachment 395954
> 
> 
> But thinking about making another notch higher... just in case I want the handle at its highest position... I do not think that I will be needing to use a wrench...
> 
> EDIT:  Now it is done!
> 
> View attachment 395955
> 
> View attachment 395956
> 
> 
> There is no blue in my lathe... so I had to color match it to the lathe...  Hammered green it is!
> 
> View attachment 395976


Jamie, you are SUCH A FASHION guru.. who knew.


----------



## Boswell

Nogoingback said:


> I gave
> him a basic drawing which he turned into a Solidworks file and then printed.


That is the beauty of 3D printing. From concept to part can be pretty quick with most of the time being with the printer while you can make something else or watch TV or drink beer. Also low cost material makes it practical for a little trial and error (successive approximation) style of design. In my first version of the Transfer punch holder, I did not oversize the holes quite enough but it was easy and quick to enlarge the holes slightly and print it a second time.


----------



## Wheat.Millington

Really simple little job for me today - took this old toolpost I saved from a workshop scrap bin and turned it into a solid plinth for my tool post. Just need to sort out a couple of T bolts for the back side.

Cut off the front corners for some clearance, resized some holes, and made a shaft for the whole thing.

edit: Oh and first thing was chuck it up in the 4 jaw to remove a few mm to get the height right.


----------



## silverhawk

After another request to re-saw some boards after seeing the table (you know how it goes, "if you did that for my brother, you need to cut me some boards because lumber is too expensive").  My fence I had cobbled together had warped, and I got tired of c-clamping boards to my miter gauge in order to set the fence in place.  For the first time in my life, I bought extruded aluminum.  That, with some angle brackets, became my new bandsaw fence (a MUCH smaller bandsaw than winegrowers a few posts back).  Checking for square, and the fence was not at 90 - it was 0.035" off over 3", and that was too much.  I used brass shims on the end (three layers of 0.012"), and re-tightened it all.  It's square.







Next up, the mitre gauge measuring hack had to be replaced.  I used some drop stock I had, and some thumb screws, to build the attachment.  Screw holes were measured to fit the mitre gauge face slots, and for the angle aluminum slots, I drilled lots of holes and filed them down.  The ruler was a craft-store ruler that had a plastic handle on it - that handle was softened using a heat gun, and then the ruler was trimmed and installed to the device.







Now I have an accurate way of measuring depth of cut, then setting the fence to square based on that depth of cut by using the attachment at each end of the mitre slot to set the fence position.


----------



## Awround

On the 3D printing theme, I decided to organize my center drills, ball end mills and taps.  Used a parametric model for the tool holders so that hole size, spacing and number of holes can be easily changed without having to redesign the model.










Cheers,

Adrian


----------



## Nogoingback

Boswell said:


> That is the beauty of 3D printing. From concept to part can be pretty quick with most of the time being with the printer while you can make something else or watch TV or drink beer. Also low cost material makes it practical for a little trial and error (successive approximation) style of design. In my first version of the Transfer punch holder, I did not oversize the holes quite enough but it was easy and quick to enlarge the holes slightly and print it a second time.


Exactly.  The second part we're working on is a cover for the battery.  I had to estimate a radius (since I don't own a gauge), so we printed a thin slice of the part to check if I got it right. I didn't, so we'll adjust, but the ability to do that saved time and material.


----------



## Shootymacshootface

Ha ha, I just fixed a broomstick!


----------



## GoceKU

Last few days i've been spending few hours a day cleaning parts from the scenic engine, it took 2 hours a piston to clean them good. I also file to fit new piston rings and bought new bearings and gaskets. i have almost everything ready to put the bottom end together, i'm debating should i replace the oil pump, its working fine and new one is rather expensive. The cylinder head still need a good clean and lots of work done to it.


----------



## extropic

@Shootymacshootface 

What tool did you use to cut the wooden threads?
I would expect a solid blade to result in a lot of tear out. Your threads look good.


----------



## BGHansen

extropic said:


> @Shootymacshootface
> 
> What tool did you use to cut the wooden threads?
> I would expect a solid blade to result in a lot of tear out. Your threads look good.


My junior high shop teacher made a wooden cradle to mount a router to the compound of a Rockwell 11" lathe.  We used it to cut a "V" thread in a wood round (4 tpi).  I recall it doing a pretty good job with a 60 deg. "V" router bit.

Our son inherited some exotic wood scraps from his high school shop.  We used a Harbor Freight 1/4" die grinder mounted to the compound of a Rockwell 10" lathe with a taper attachment to make some chop sticks.  It worked really well and gave a glass finish.  Idea was to spin the cutting tool instead of the work (though the work is still turning).  We mounted a shop vac hose at the router to capture as much dust as possible.  And for the safety nazi's, yes, we wore a respirator as some exotics are toxic.

Bruce

p.s.  I recall Sears selling a helical cutter for a router that worked with cables/pulleys.  Rotated the work as you moved the router along.


----------



## AGCB97

I usually make those freehand on the table saw. If the 1st doesn't fit cut it off and try again. Time spent, less than 2 minutes


----------



## woodchucker

BGHansen said:


> My junior high shop teacher made a wooden cradle to mount a router to the compound of a Rockwell 11" lathe.  We used it to cut a "V" thread in a wood round (4 tpi).  I recall it doing a pretty good job with a 60 deg. "V" router bit.
> 
> Our son inherited some exotic wood scraps from his high school shop.  We used a Harbor Freight 1/4" die grinder mounted to the compound of a Rockwell 10" lathe with a taper attachment to make some chop sticks.  It worked really well and gave a glass finish.  Idea was to spin the cutting tool instead of the work (though the work is still turning).  We mounted a shop vac hose at the router to capture as much dust as possible.  And for the safety nazi's, yes, we wore a respirator as some exotics are toxic.
> 
> Bruce
> 
> p.s.  I recall Sears selling a helical cutter for a router that worked with cables/pulleys.  Rotated the work as you moved the router along.


you remember correctly. I have one.


----------



## WobblyHand

Made a rectangular block of cast iron less square than when I started.    Hadn't intended that.
Have an idea what happened, hope to fix it tomorrow.


----------



## Shootymacshootface

extropic said:


> @Shootymacshootface
> 
> What tool did you use to cut the wooden threads?
> I would expect a solid blade to result in a lot of tear out. Your threads look good.


I used a razor sharp hss forming tool that I ground to match the threads on the broken off piece. The threads are 5tpi and they look like buttress threads. This was my second attempt at doing this. On first attempt, was taking  .010 cuts, it tore the wood out instead of cutting. On the second attempt, I only took 2-3 thou at a time.


----------



## Max Headroom

HMF said:


> *This is a new thread that I am starting. We want to know what you made in your shop today. No limits, just tell us what you did.*


Today I figured out how to remove the quill from my JET JVM-626 mill. Someone who had it before me managed to force the quill down with the quill lock tightened. It put a 4" vertical scar about .009 into the body of the quill. I don't really know anything about machining or the mill, so I am being very careful about how I go about trying to repair. Anyway, the plan is to drop the quill, smooth the scar so it won't impede smooth movement in quill travel. Then I'm going to clean it, chase all the treads with a tap and replace all of the screw driver head, threaded fasteners  with Allen heads. Then reassemble, check for run out and pray there isn't any.


----------



## eugene13

A neighbor gave me some used pistons from a 5.9 Cummins diesel engine and I turned them into ash trays, I gave one to my friend who smokes, and am hunting a good home for the rest.


----------



## WobblyHand

Made some tee-nuts for my new HV-6 rotary table.  Kind of an odd size slot, 11 mm.  Made 6 tee-nuts.  5 came out as planned.  Kind of spaced out drilling the last hole.  Hole is off by 1mm.  The nut is asymmetric, but it is still serviceable.  Think I will boil blue them.  Never tried blueing that way.  Have the peroxide, been wanting to try it.


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was bolting a power feed cable/chain setup to my circa 1948 DoAll 16” bandsaw. Most DoAll’s don’t have the power feed on them for some reason. Might be it was an accessory and not included with the saw? Regardless, really “tough” job to run three 3/8” bolts through the mounting bracket into the back of the table and attach the bottom cable pulley to the actuator arm.


My DoAll 16" ML bandsaw


Power feed installed.  Pedal down position here.  Releasing the pedal drops the feed weight and the actuator arm.  Cable is pulled down taking the work holder with it.




So why does this 3-bolt project warrant a post in the POTD string? I thought others may be interested in the “quaintness” of the power feed design. Quick version is it’s nothing fancy. The feed is powered by gravity via a weight inside the saw. Step down on the pedal at the base of the saw to lift the weight, position your work in the work holder, release the pedal and the cable/chain pull the work into the blade. The pressure can be varied by moving the weight along a pivot arm. This is done with the speed adjustment handle on the front of the saw. According to the manual, pressure varies between 25 – 80 lbs. You can also feather the weight with your foot on the pedal.


Step down on the power feed pedal to lift the weight.  Move the pedal sideways to catch lock it in the "ready to go" position.  Pressure is varied by the feed crank, 50 turns to go from 25 lbs. to 80 lbs.



Actuating arm on the back of the saw in the "ready to go" and "deployed" positions.  A length of braided cable goes through the pulley and up to pulleys on the mounting bracket.





The actuator arm out of the back of the saw has a pulley with a cable. The cable runs up to a mounting bracket with a pair of fixed pulleys. There are two removable pulleys that mount to the mounting bracket, these are just above the table top. The cable runs through the removable pulleys and terminate with either a hook or roller chain.


Feed pressure crank on the front of the saw moves the feed weight along a parallel feed arm.





I set up for a cut by leaving the pedal in the up position (end of travel), set the work holder up to the blade, wrap the chain around the work holder, double back the chain to expose a link pin, and engage the hook cable end. Usually go a link tighter than needed to ensure the cut is completed.


Pedal released or "end of power feed" position.  The cable on the left transitions to roller chain, one on the right end with a hook that links into the chain to set the loop length.



Ready for a cut!  Release the pedal and guide the cut with the work holder.




In normal use, the two removable pulleys are left off the mounting bracket as they set just above the table top. Naturally you can still push material into the blade with hand pressure, but the feed relieves you from having to apply pressure.



Thanks for looking, Bruce


----------



## BGHansen

POTD part 2 was making a couple of knurled bolts to attach the back cover to my DoAll ML saw. I don’t know what was originally used by the factory; my saw had a ¼” hex-head bolt and a cap screw in place. I only run them in finger-tight, but what the heck.


"As I got it" fasteners to hold the back cover on my DoAll ML saw




Material of choice was some ½” 303 stainless. Started with the knurl (Eagle Rock knurler). Then turned a shoulder to 0.244” and chamfered the end. Threaded with a die using the tailstock drill chuck to hold things square. Plunged in with a parting tool and chamfered both ends of the knurl, then parted. Cleaned up the nip from parting with a belt sander.


Eagle Rock knurling tool does a really nice job





Turned a shoulder



Chamfer the end prior to threading



Threading with a die using the tailstock/drill chuck to hold things square



Chamfering the knurled ends





Parting



Sanding the nib off the end



Final products



New bolts in place





Thanks for looking, Bruce


----------



## dkemppai

WobblyHand said:


> Made some tee-nuts for my new HV-6 rotary table.
> View attachment 396598



Nice. I have pretty much that exact rotary table. Bought it new, 23 years ago. I still don't have T slot nuts that fit it properly...   ...thanks for putting me to shame! lol


----------



## WobblyHand

dkemppai said:


> Nice. I have pretty much that exact rotary table. Bought it new, 23 years ago. I still don't have T slot nuts that fit it properly...   ...thanks for putting me to shame! lol


Well, you have a drawing - so have at it!


----------



## davek181

I went on a t nut building frenzy a while back.  Seems like everything I own that uses them is different from all the others.  Good practice, now I can knock them out pretty fast if/when I need more.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i was at work until dark but i wanted to make some progress on the Scenic, it's been in the garage too much time. Started by cleaning the engine block inside and out, from the top and from under. Then i oil the pistons, cylinders and new bearings i used my ring compressor and installed the pistons one by one and torqed them to specs. This was the easy part refitting the oil pump, new gaskets and apply silicone, to get the oil pan in place was very dificult  i had to remove both engine mounts and lift the engine and box much higher. Tighten the oil pan bolts and started my fight with mounting the engine and box. To mount it took almost 2 hours by the time i was done i had time to wash up and go again to work. I was focused on the work and my hands were very oily so i only took a picture when i was done.


----------



## Winegrower

I recently added a Jet VBS-900 bandsaw, described in another thread.   Noted inop problems were the air pump and the welder/grinder.   Everything else seemed to work appropriately, and actually really was quiet and smooth.

I got the pump working by disassembly (destructively, as it turned out), cleaning, making a new main shaft and replacing two bearings, facing the impeller, reassembly and disassembly a few times, then it worked.

The welder is more challenging.   The mounting panel for the welder/grinder is broken, and thinking to fix that, I looked inside, here's what came out:




I suspect the welder actually works, but the power came through a bullet connector that was disconnected.   And look at that wiring!   Could that be factory??  I have seen similar in other Taiwan products from the late 70's...no connectors, everything spliced directly or soldered.   I don't have a schematic, but really it's way simpler than all that wire seems to make it.   

The grinder motor...the shaft is bent, and while it's a three phase motor, they only use two phases and have a capacitor for the third phase.   I suppose the motor probably works too, we'll find out when the new main motor arrives and I can apply power with my phase converter.   For some reason a 1/3HP Leeson was installed, and that's being replaced by a 1.5HP.   Apparently the saw had a 1HP from the factory.

Also, there is no magnetic starter, just a three pole on/off switch for the main motor, and toggle switches for a grinder light and work light.

I am wondering how much I actually need a blade welder and grinder...any opinions?   Also, the blade cutter is missing both jaws.

Still, it was a good deal on what seems to be a terrific bandsaw.   And, it's a four speed!   With automatic transmission, too!


----------



## extropic

@Winegrower 

You've got the bones there. Absolutely, flesh it out and bring it back to full operation.

I think @BGHansen wrote, not too long ago, about his collection of blade stock and welding his own blades.
Keep an eye on eBay (or other) for blade stock deals. Then you can make the blade you want, when you want it.
YMMV.


----------



## Winegrower

extropic said:


> Then you can make the blade you want, when you want it.


I read in the manual, or somewhere, you can’t weld a bimetal blade.   If true, this seems like a limitation that pretty much eliminates the welder.


----------



## WobblyHand

Winegrower said:


> I read in the manual, or somewhere, you can’t weld a bimetal blade.   If true, this seems like a limitation that pretty much eliminates the welder.


McMaster sells a bandsaw blade welder.  It states it can weld bi-metal blades.  Don't know why your unit wouldn't be able to weld bi-metal blades.


----------



## extropic

Winegrower said:


> I read in the manual, or somewhere, you can’t weld a bimetal blade.   If true, this seems like a limitation that pretty much eliminates the welder.



Really? I'm not aware of that. I suspect a few hardened teeth, in the HAZ, would loose temper but that doesn't seem like big deal to me.

The cutter would probably be better with carbide shear blades.

If you find the text, I'd like to see it also. I guess I have a new Google search project. LOL


----------



## Winegrower

I appreciate your comments about blade welding.   Here’s a page of the Jet manual that covers a range of VBS-XXX bandsaws…looks like they all use the same welder, which seems to have the same weld/anneal/grind capabilities of all the other bandsaw welders I am aware of:


----------



## extropic

A little Google research indicates that some people have problems welding some sizes of bimetal blades on some welders and some people get some of it done OK. Too many uncontrolled/undefined variables (in the conversations) to be certain what to do next.

Maybe @BGHansen will pipe up regarding his experience.


----------



## BGHansen

Winegrower said:


> I recently added a Jet VBS-900 bandsaw, described in another thread.   Noted inop problems were the air pump and the welder/grinder.   Everything else seemed to work appropriately, and actually really was quiet and smooth.
> 
> I am wondering how much I actually need a blade welder and grinder...any opinions?   Also, the blade cutter is missing both jaws.
> 
> Still, it was a good deal on what seems to be a terrific bandsaw.   And, it's a four speed!   With automatic transmission, too!


My DoAll ML has a blade welder that I use, mainly because I have it.  I have a buddy at work who picked up a bunch of blade stock from a closed shop for next to nothing.  I did the cutting to length and welding, we split the blades (over 70 of them).  I've also picked up multiple rolls of blade stock off eBay for between $10 - $30 a roll (retail is over $200).  My saw takes 10' blades, standard coil is 100'.  Individual blades cost around $30.

Frankly, I will never use all of the blades or the stock I have.  I have a selection in width and teeth per inch that covers the full gambit.  I range from 1/8" - 1/2" width and teeth per inch from 3 (they look wicked) to 32.  I cut wood and metal on mine.  You could buy maybe 4 or 5 blades to cover the full gambit too.  They last a long time.

Bruce

p.s.  Every stinking wire for my welder is black which makes it really fun to trace leads.  At least yours has color-coded wires.


----------



## BGHansen

extropic said:


> A little Google research indicates that some people have problems welding some sizes of bimetal blades on some welders and some people get some of it done OK. Too many uncontrolled/undefined variables (in the conversations) to be certain what to do next.
> 
> Maybe @BGHansen will pipe up regarding his experience.


I've welded bimetal blades on my DoAll ML.  It's more of an art than a science.  My welder has one adjustment pot for blade width.  Don't quote me on it, but I believe it varies voltage (and current since resistance is determined by the blade:  E = I * R).  The blade ends are clamped in the jaws, butted right together.  Pulling the lever above the jaws down initiates the weld.  The RH jaw is cammed into the fixed LH one to get some sacrificial metal into the weld.  Weld time is not adjustable (though maybe internally?).

I anneal the blade immediately after welding.  This is all art, no science.  Push the momentary switch above the grinding wheel and hold it until the blade goes orange.  Repeat a few times with less hold down time to anneal the blade.  Then flip on the grinder and dress the weld joint.  Then back for a second anneal.  

I usually start with a couple of short lengths of the stocks to get the pot set.  Too high and the blade melts back.  Too low and it's a cold weld; blade snaps.  I coil finished blades into a 3-loop pattern which is a tighter coil than my 16" saw wheels.  Do a pre-curl to that loop size; if it holds, I weld the real deal.

Bruce

p.s.  My understanding is bi-metal blades are HSS at the teeth and spring steel or similar for the rest.  The two steels are welded together at the factory along the length of the blade and at the ends.  HSS and spring steel both melt at ~2600 F.  I don't know why you wouldn't be able to weld bimetal blades with a conventional blade welder.  All the welder does is hit the blade with current/voltage (P = I * E) to heat it up to the melting point and jam the ends together.


----------



## Winegrower

BGHansen said:


> My DoAll ML has a blade welder that I use





BGHansen said:


> Every stinking wire for my welder is black which makes it really fun to trace leads. At least yours has color-coded wires.


Well, I better stick with it then and get this welder working.  I watched a YouTube video on bandsaw welding, and the guy welds the blade, and then rather than using the built in blade grinder, he goes over to his bench grinder.   I wonder how effective these small blade grinders are?

And thanks for cheering me up about the wire colors.


----------



## Tim9

BGHansen said:


> POTD part 2 was making a couple of knurled bolts to attach the back cover to my DoAll ML saw. I don’t know what was originally used by the factory; my saw had a ¼” hex-head bolt and a cap screw in place. I only run them in finger-tight, but what the heck.
> 
> 
> "As I got it" fasteners to hold the back cover on my DoAll ML saw
> View attachment 396692
> 
> 
> 
> Material of choice was some ½” 303 stainless. Started with the knurl (Eagle Rock knurler). Then turned a shoulder to 0.244” and chamfered the end. Threaded with a die using the tailstock drill chuck to hold things square. Plunged in with a parting tool and chamfered both ends of the knurl, then parted. Cleaned up the nip from parting with a belt sander.
> 
> 
> Eagle Rock knurling tool does a really nice job
> View attachment 396693
> 
> View attachment 396694
> 
> 
> Turned a shoulder
> View attachment 396695
> 
> 
> Chamfer the end prior to threading
> View attachment 396696
> 
> 
> Threading with a die using the tailstock/drill chuck to hold things square
> View attachment 396697
> 
> 
> Chamfering the knurled ends
> View attachment 396698
> 
> View attachment 396699
> 
> 
> Parting
> View attachment 396700
> 
> 
> Sanding the nib off the end
> View attachment 396701
> 
> 
> Final products
> View attachment 396702
> 
> 
> New bolts in place
> View attachment 396703
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for looking, Bruce


I’d like some better pictures of that Eagle Rock knurler.  It really looks very capable.


----------



## Doug Gray

I was just thinking the same thing



			https://www.eaglerockonline.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5649/2017/09/Knurlcraft-K1-44.pdf


----------



## BGHansen

Here you go.  It's a quality tool, very meaty and beefy.  I don't recall what I paid, but they are around $200 now.

Bruce


----------



## GoceKU

Today i only managed to take both cylinder heads to get pressure washed, i was looking for a place that has hot pressure washer but did not found it. One car wash said they have 400 bar, but after using there pressure gun it seems to have same pressure like the one i have home. I used a whole bottle of oven degreaser and it did not clean too well the oil is very baked on.


----------



## dkemppai

After spending the time doing the LED upgrades on the optical comparator, it's finally getting used. FYI, the bright LED light allows me to use regular printer paper and get a good comparison. Don't really need transparency film to print on. 

My favorite pocket knife is a Gerber LST. But the blade material leaves something to be desired. Picked up a couple of bars of the new 'one size fits all' knife steel, MagnaCut. Looking for a good first test knife and decided it was time to start making a new blade for the old trusty pocket knife. Spent some time with a flat bed scanner, the optical comparator, and a measuring microscope to get some good measurements on the lock design on the blade. 

Here's the results from CAD compared to the lock end of the blade. Keep in mind the printed lines are about .0001" against the part being projected. Note, the camera skews some of the lines. By eye things are right on, but through the lens parts are slightly off. Getting it to this point meant tweaking line positions by tenths...





In general, it's really interesting to see the sizes of everything. I think this knife was designed in English units, as the radii, and measured dimensions seem to be in English. Getting down and dirty in the design it's pretty easy to see the decisions made when doing the geometry. A lot of things work out like radii being a 1/32" etc., distances being .150, .0625, etc., and angles seem to be nice whole degrees. 

Drawing the part is one thing, Reproducing it to tenths may be another matter...


----------



## extropic

@dkemppai

I missed your thread on the LED upgrade of the comparator but am very interested an will soak it up now.

The picture looks excellent above.


----------



## woodchucker

[How-To] - Clausing 8520, 8530 New Quill lock like a BP
					

Well, I didn't like the quill stop. it was not stable enough, and often fell out. So I was learning Freecad, produced a model. I have to say this is my first attempt working from the plans of the freecad drawing. I like it. I made quick work of it... I made one mistake with the dro, rather than...




					www.hobby-machinist.com


----------



## WobblyHand

Doesn't even rise to POTD, maybe POTH, but here goes. 

Tried rust bluing this afternoon.  Made up a solution of 1/4 cup of 12% hydrogen peroxide into 1/4 cup of filtered warm water and added a tablespoon of table salt to it.  Mixed it up in a little disposable kitchen container.  Threw in the 6 tee-nuts I had made for my rotary table.  I had previously soaked the tee-nuts in hot water and dish detergent overnight.  Actually renewed the water and detergent 3 times to try to get rid of any oil.  Solution started bubbling and turning rusty.  After a couple of minutes, I took out the tee-nuts and stuck them on a sheet of scrap cardboard.  Then using a hot air gun, dried off the solution.  More rust.  Kind of weird considering that all my life I have been trying to avoid it. Now I was trying to get things rusty. 

Using a old toothbrush, lightly brushed off any loose rust.  Then tossed the "carded" tee-nuts into a pot of boiling water.  Left it in the boiling water for 5 minutes.  Well, the magic of better living through chemistry happened, and that orange stuff turned dark black.  The first time through was a little splotchy, and a bit disappointing, but the process needs to be repeated.  I repeated 3 more times.  On the fourth time, there was no reaction, my solution was spent.  Mixed up another, and wow, pretty vigorous again.  Boiled the tee-nuts again and pulled them out.  Have to say, for less than an hours worth of work, they came out pretty good, much better than I expected.  Won't win the best blue in show, but perfectly nice for my rotary table.


I think the bluing isn't that good in the threads, maybe due to residual oil, but overall, have to say I like this.  Next time, I'll probably boil the parts in TSP first.  I didn't' want to do that with our kitchen pots.  Have to find a cheap pot somewhere.


----------



## woodchucker

WobblyHand said:


> Doesn't even rise to POTD, maybe POTH, but here goes.
> 
> Tried rust bluing this afternoon.  Made up a solution of 1/4 cup of 12% hydrogen peroxide into 1/4 cup of filtered warm water and added a tablespoon of table salt to it.  Mixed it up in a little disposable kitchen container.  Threw in the 6 tee-nuts I had made for my rotary table.  I had previously soaked the tee-nuts in hot water and dish detergent overnight.  Actually renewed the water and detergent 3 times to try to get rid of any oil.  Solution started bubbling and turning rusty.  After a couple of minutes, I took out the tee-nuts and stuck them on a sheet of scrap cardboard.  Then using a hot air gun, dried off the solution.  More rust.  Kind of weird considering that all my life I have been trying to avoid it. Now I was trying to get things rusty.
> 
> Using a old toothbrush, lightly brushed off any loose rust.  Then tossed the "carded" tee-nuts into a pot of boiling water.  Left it in the boiling water for 5 minutes.  Well, the magic of better living through chemistry happened, and that orange stuff turned dark black.  The first time through was a little splotchy, and a bit disappointing, but the process needs to be repeated.  I repeated 3 more times.  On the fourth time, there was no reaction, my solution was spent.  Mixed up another, and wow, pretty vigorous again.  Boiled the tee-nuts again and pulled them out.  Have to say, for less than an hours worth of work, they came out pretty good, much better than I expected.  Won't win the best blue in show, but perfectly nice for my rotary table.
> View attachment 397140
> 
> I think the bluing isn't that good in the threads, maybe due to residual oil, but overall, have to say I like this.  Next time, I'll probably boil the parts in TSP first.  I didn't' want to do that with our kitchen pots.  Have to find a cheap pot somewhere.


I always save pots for stuff like this. Also picked up a hot plate at a garage sale, so I can avoid doing stuff in the kitchen.
That almost looks nice, but there's a lot of pitting I see. Is that from the loose rust?  Anyway to get a nice smooth finish like a black oxide on a screw or any black ox tooling?

I might have to give that a try.


----------



## WobblyHand

woodchucker said:


> I always save pots for stuff like this. Also picked up a hot plate at a garage sale, so I can avoid doing stuff in the kitchen.
> That almost looks nice, but there's a lot of pitting I see. Is that from the loose rust?  Anyway to get a nice smooth finish like a black oxide on a screw or any black ox tooling?
> 
> I might have to give that a try.


Considering that I didn't polish the original tee-nuts to a mirror finish, it's hard for me to say if there is pitting.  The pieces were raw machined and deburred, but not polished.  I compared the finish to a commercial tee-nut and it is pretty close.  As I mentioned, I only used a nylon bristle toothbrush for the rust removal.  I didn't have any oil-free fine steel wool, which may have done a better job.  Most steel wool does have some oil in it.  Not good for this, since the oil will inhibit the chemical reaction.

Give it a try, it is incredibly easy. 

Do wear gloves.  It keeps oils from your hands getting on the pieces.  Also, the black oxide gets on things.  I took off my gloves too soon, before oiling the tee-nuts.  Bad idea.  Fingertips are darkened.  Some of it came off when I washed my hands!

Edit:  One of the faces wasn't even machined, just raw stock.


----------



## ddickey

I made some ER32 collet blocks without the bulky nut to get in the way. They're also accurate on all sides within .0002". I should say from the centerline.


----------



## dkemppai

WobblyHand said:


> I think the bluing isn't that good in the threads, maybe due to residual oil, but overall, have to say I like this.  Next time, I'll probably boil the parts in TSP first.  I didn't' want to do that with our kitchen pots.  Have to find a cheap pot somewhere.



I've had really good luck getting things clean with dish detergent in water in an ultrasonic cleaner. Like, get things to clean that stainless steel will rust type of clean. Even the low cost import ultrasonic cleaners are very good. $60 gets you a pretty nice machine... 

Nifty trick, use a plastic bag to hold the part, water, and detergent. And fill your ultrasonic with water then add bag of parts to top it off.  You waste less detergent for small parts, and save having to get soap out of the ultrasonic cleaner when done. I have a stack of polyethylene 'zip loc' bags, and run all sorts of solvents this way (acetone, paint thinner, alcohol, etc.)


----------



## woodchucker

ddickey said:


> I made some ER32 collet blocks without the bulky nut to get in the way. They're also accurate on all sides within .0002".
> View attachment 397148


that's thinking outside the box. Very cool.. So the knurled piece is basically the taper of an er32 and presses up against the front of the collet?
pics of the construction or pieces?


----------



## ddickey

woodchucker said:


> that's thinking outside the box. Very cool.. So the knurled piece is basically the taper of an er32 and presses up against the front of the collet?
> pics of the construction or pieces?


I wish it was my idea but no. I was thinking it would be nice to make a block with the nut not being bigger than the block like most of them are. I saw a video on Stefan Gotteswinter's channel of a really nice collet block so I made a couple also.
So yes the front of the block has a 30° taper for the front and the knurled piece has the 8° taper on the inside. As the collet is tightened it butts up against the front of the block then it is forced to collapse inside the knurled part. 
Found the video, starts at 18:55


----------



## FOMOGO

Have been back from the beach for two weeks now. Had two feet of snow to deal with, on both places. Got the water, and heat up and going, vehicles checked out. Had a pack rat in the shop, got him in a live trap and moved him five miles up the canyon. I think that thing sh*t on virtually everything in the building. My first project in the shop was to weld up some quick clamps I brought back from PR. They wouldn't fit in my suitcase, so I cut 3" off them, and presto chango, they fit in there just fine. Ground the ends, welded them up, and good as new. Mike


----------



## extropic

@WobblyHand 

Thanks for the detailed description of the process you used. I have one question, when you say "filtered warm water", please describe the filter you're referring to.

The T nuts look good from here.


----------



## WobblyHand

Activated charcoal filter - takes out chlorine and other stuff out of water.  Use it for filtering water for drinking.  Distilled water would work fine too.

We have an EverPure H104 filter for kitchen cooking and drinking.


----------



## Aaron_W

dkemppai said:


> I've had really good luck getting things clean with dish detergent in water in an ultrasonic cleaner. Like, get things to clean that stainless steel will rust type of clean. Even the low cost import ultrasonic cleaners are very good. $60 gets you a pretty nice machine...
> 
> Nifty trick, use a plastic bag to hold the part, water, and detergent. And fill your ultrasonic with water then add bag of parts to top it off.  You waste less detergent for small parts, and save having to get soap out of the ultrasonic cleaner when done. I have a stack of polyethylene 'zip loc' bags, and run all sorts of solvents this way (acetone, paint thinner, alcohol, etc.)



I've saved a bunch of small jelly jars, they work great for cleaning small parts in my ultrasonic cleaner.


----------



## Dhal22

WobblyHand said:


> Activated charcoal filter - takes out chlorine and other stuff out of water.  Use it for filtering water for drinking.  Distilled water would work fine too.
> 
> We have an EverPure H104 filter for kitchen cooking and drinking.



Great filter.   Or did I already say that here?


----------



## Tim9

I’ve got a couple of 12v cordless Hitachi rotary tools that I really like because they are just so damned handy. No cord to plug in and just a well made rotary Dremel type tool. Unfortunately, since Hitach is now Metabo… they dropped this cordless rotary tool.
The problem I have is that the collets are hard to find. They are also different than Dremel collets.
   So I have to make my own. I had planed to make hardened collets using O-1 tool steel. But after starting the project, I then realized that I’d probably screw the pup on the heat treatment process. I was afraid of warpage when cooling the heated steel on the dunking in oil.
   So I figured I’d just leave it in its annealed state. FWIW, I made a collet using brass a while back. It worked okay for a while.
    Since I have two units, I want one collet to be 1/8” and the other 3mm .
  After forming the front I then drilled the hole using a 2.8mm drill bit and reamed using a 3mm reamer. I purchased both of those on EBay just for this project.


----------



## Tim9

I then mounted it in a little vise and sawed using a jewelry saw.
   Everything was looking just great…. Took the little vise out of the bench vise… and then I dropped it. And of course, the vise/collet landed on the ground with the collet hitting the ground first. It totally bent the heck out of the collet.

I was bummed. Oh well


----------



## Tim9

So, I repeated everything and finally got it done.
The middle collet is the new 3mm one, the right one is the 1/8” collet, and the left collet is a worn brass collet that has been slipping. I’m not even sure what size the worn was supposed to be. It is a rough looking collet. I’m sure it’s one of. The brass ones I made at some point.  

  I’m happy with the results. It’s a tight 3mm collet which should serve me well for years. And I’m not going to try to harden it because I’m afraid it will warp.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i finally managed to find some free time to get some work done in the big garage. First i did some cleaning set up a work bench and began assembling the cylinder head for the K series in the scenic. First i used a wire brush on a drill to clean the valve seats than i used a bigger brush to clean all the valves and then i gave all of them a wash in my parts washer. Then i started to grind in the valves i used course then fine grinding paste, the intake side all took little effort because they were straight and concentric. The exhaust side is always worse but this time all the seats had a low spot next to the spark plug it took an hour each to get them to seal. I fill the chamber with gasoline to test then they all seal so i moved on install new valve seals and reassembled the valve springs. I stop at this point but this is a big step forward. I write my name on the top of the valves and the number in the left corner that way i don't mix up valves 6 with 9 in a 12 valve or 16 head. Its been more than a year since i've had to rebuild a head or an engine. This being an 8 valve one is one of the easiest, i hate doing the BMW straight 6 heads, they are 24 valve with big valves, my hands hurt for days after them.


----------



## FOMOGO

Looking good. I've done  a few low buck rebuilds, and have had pretty good results. Mike


----------



## wachuko

Finished the base plate where the Maxi Torque-Rite will mount...


----------



## Winegrower

In changing out my “new” bandsaw motor, the factory double pulley had a 22mm bore while the old motor was a 5/8” shaft.   Somebody fixed that by making a brass sleeve, that was stuck tight on the shaft.   There was very little clearance between the sleeve and the motor housing but no problem, I have a Kmart puller, use that.   Except while it would grab the sleeve on the shaft, the pull literally unfolded the thin L shaped arms.   I read a thread here on pullers, and ordered an OTC 1027, but it’s a few days out.   Then I started thinking that maybe the OTC arms would not fit anyway with the clearance limitation,   It did occur to me that with a shop full of equipment, something ought to be done.   So I made the deal below.   Two horizontal bars, the lower just fit between sleeve and housing, and my mill hold down kit supplied the threaded rods.   I tapped two holes in the lower bar 1/2-13 and milled a 5/8” slot partway through the middle to slip around the shaft, and the upper bar had one tapped hole in the center and 1/2” through holes to the outside.   I screw the rods into the lower bar, put nuts on top, and with some all thread and a vise-grip handle, it just slid off beautifully.   It’s already pulled up a half inch or so in the picture.

By the way, the tapping was so easy with the Procunier tapping head and a spiral flute tap.   I love that thing.


----------



## MikeInOr

I wasn't happy with the first base I made for my sliding table saw so I decided to start over.  Purchased the new steel a week ago.  Got everything all cut up.  Finally got really some good beads running (I was running the MIG too hot) and WHAM!  The MIG stops spooling.  Clean the ends, check everything out, sure enough... out of wire!  ARRG!


----------



## ttabbal

Over the weekend, I finished up some MLA kit projects. 

Boring/facing head. 





Die filer. 





I have to finish up the pulley for the filer. I think I'm going to use a treadmill motor and controller I have on hand. I have a belt for the stock pulley, so I'm thinking I'll use it and cut the pulley for the micro-v belt. It's a bit fast, but it's about a 1:5 reduction and has a speed control. I'll probably mount it and the motor on a board for portability. 

I also need to source some files. That will work for it. 

The boring head is good to go. I made a split bushing for adapting the 3/4" holes to 1/2" for my existing boring bars. 

I highly recommend both kits. Very good quality and directions/drawings. The cast iron is messy, but otherwise great to machine.


----------



## wachuko

ttabbal said:


> Over the weekend, I finished up some MLA kit projects.
> 
> Boring/facing head.
> 
> View attachment 397549
> 
> 
> 
> Die filer.
> 
> View attachment 397550
> 
> 
> 
> I have to finish up the pulley for the filer. I think I'm going to use a treadmill motor and controller I have on hand. I have a belt for the stock pulley, so I'm thinking I'll use it and cut the pulley for the micro-v belt. It's a bit fast, but it's about a 1:5 reduction and has a speed control. I'll probably mount it and the motor on a board for portability.
> 
> I also need to source some files. That will work for it.
> 
> The boring head is good to go. I made a split bushing for adapting the 3/4" holes to 1/2" for my existing boring bars.
> 
> I highly recommend both kits. Very good quality and directions/drawings. The cast iron is messy, but otherwise great to machine.


I am on his waitlist for the die flier… He had to switch the source for making his castings


----------



## GoceKU

Today i was very busy but cars don't seem to care. It was my brothers Astra H the starter died and it has over 10k on the oil it needs a service. I had to remove the starter which was a struggle i only had a small hole in which to get to some of the bolts and one i had to un do from under. Then i had to take it apart it needs new brushes, i bought them complete with the holder installed, grease the gears clean everything else assemble tested it and installed it, also i changed the oil, its filter , air filter, fuel filter, cabin filter. This car sits a lot but it's been for more electrical repairs than any of the others, must be a GM thing.


----------



## wachuko

You must enjoy working all the time in cars... Can't imagine doing all that work if you did not enjoyed it.


----------



## Watchwatch

ttabbal said:


> Over the weekend, I finished up some MLA kit projects.
> 
> Boring/facing head.
> 
> View attachment 397549
> 
> 
> 
> Die filer.
> 
> View attachment 397550
> 
> 
> 
> I have to finish up the pulley for the filer. I think I'm going to use a treadmill motor and controller I have on hand. I have a belt for the stock pulley, so I'm thinking I'll use it and cut the pulley for the micro-v belt. It's a bit fast, but it's about a 1:5 reduction and has a speed control. I'll probably mount it and the motor on a board for portability.
> 
> I also need to source some files. That will work for it.
> 
> The boring head is good to go. I made a split bushing for adapting the 3/4" holes to 1/2" for my existing boring bars.
> 
> I highly recommend both kits. Very good quality and directions/drawings. The cast iron is messy, but otherwise great to machine.




Ive thought about the boring head. How does facing work? Does the head need to be modified to set stops?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## ttabbal

Watchwatch said:


> Ive thought about the boring head. How does facing work? Does the head need to be modified to set stops?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



You grab the knurled ring to face. It trips a little gear on the feed screw as it spins. No stops on this one, just let go when you get where you want to go. I suspect you could add stops if you want to. Probably as simple as a couple of tapped holes then just let the ring slip in your fingers when it hits.


----------



## f350ca

Just received the castings to make mine. Now to find the time.

Greg


----------



## MikeInOr

MikeInOr said:


> I wasn't happy with the first base I made for my sliding table saw so I decided to start over.  Purchased the new steel a week ago.  Got everything all cut up.  Finally got really some good beads running (I was running the MIG too hot) and WHAM!  The MIG stops spooling.  Clean the ends, check everything out, sure enough... out of wire!  ARRG!



New spool of MIG wire, new tip and the weld practically lays itself down!  It is nice to be back in business.  Thank you for the sympathy and listening to me whine.


----------



## dkemppai

wachuko said:


> I am on his waitlist for the die flier… He had to switch the source for making his castings



I really need to get on that list too.  I've been wanting one of those fancy filing machines for years.  Its not like I 'need' one, but it's very high on the 'want' list!


----------



## wachuko

dkemppai said:


> I really need to get on that list too.  I've been wanting one of those fancy filing machines for years.  Its not like I 'need' one, but it's very high on the 'want' list!


Quick email to Andy is all you need to do.  Andrew Lofquist <mlatoolbox@verizon.net> ( Andy Lofquist, Metal Lathe Accessories (814) 234-3543 )

I do not have a boring bar for the milling machine...  Boring and Facing Head (MLA-7)... thinking if I should also order one from him...


----------



## projectnut

Just an FYI.  The older Delta scroll saws model 40-440 and similar are also capable of die filing.  I was interested in purchasing a commercial die filer some 15 years ago.  The ones I found were either worked to death or had outrageous asking prices.  I decided to see if I could modify a Delta scroll saw to do the job.  I purchased one with the intention of modifying it, but much to my surprise I found they came from the factory with this capability.  They could be purchased with a chuck made specifically to hold die files.

The chuck is simple to make and works well.  I've used my machine a number of times as a die filer.  I've yet to use it as a scroll saw.  These machines seem to be fairly prolific at used equipment dealers, and usually sell for around $125.00 or so.  There are a couple different models.  One has 4 speeds accomplished by changing the position of the belt on the pulleys, and the other had a crank adjustable variable variable width pulley.  The one I have is the 4-speed belt change model.

Here's a link to the 1940 Delta Power Tool Catalog on the Vintage Machinery website.  Scroll saws and accessories begin on page 21.



			http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/1141/20125.pdf


----------



## GoceKU

Today before work i had an hour to spare and knowing i'll be tired after work i did what i could to get stuff done on the scenic. Finish cleaning the valve train parts and reassembled them, i still need to adjust the valves and install the intake but i first need to make a new gasket, i did made a template from thin paper. I also did a quick clean on the engine block and check it, it's pretty bent but i' think it will seal.


----------



## BGHansen

wachuko said:


> Quick email to Andy is all you need to do.  Andrew Lofquist <mlatoolbox@verizon.net> ( Andy Lofquist, Metal Lathe Accessories (814) 234-3543 )
> 
> I do not have a boring bar for the milling machine...  Boring and Facing Head (MLA-7)... thinking if I should also order one from him...


Interesting project considering a Wohlhaupter boring/facing head is north of $500 off eBay.  Might be a nice retirement project.

Bruce


----------



## wachuko

projectnut said:


> Just an FYI.  The older Delta scroll saws model 40-440 and similar are also capable of die filing.  I was interested in purchasing a commercial die filer some 15 years ago.  The ones I found were either worked to death or had outrageous asking prices.  I decided to see if I could modify a Delta scroll saw to do the job.  I purchased one with the intention of modifying it, but much to my surprise I found they came from the factory with this capability.  They could be purchased with a chuck made specifically to hold die files.
> 
> The chuck is simple to make and works well.  I've used my machine a number of times as a die filer.  I've yet to use it as a scroll saw.  These machines seem to be fairly prolific at used equipment dealers, and usually sell for around $125.00 or so.  There are a couple different models.  One has 4 speeds accomplished by changing the position of the belt on the pulleys, and the other had a crank adjustable variable variable width pulley.  The one I have is the 4-speed belt change model.
> 
> Here's a link to the 1940 Delta Power Tool Catalog on the Vintage Machinery website.  Scroll saws and accessories begin on page 21.
> 
> 
> 
> http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/1141/20125.pdf


I have a smaller one... Model 40-530... I wonder if that one can be use in the same way... will check the next time I am at the other house.

Of course, now I am searching for a 40-440 and it will be super expensive because the secret is out...






But buying the ML-18 Filing Machine kit is not about getting a filing machine... it is about making one.  The process of getting those castings ready... and making the necessary parts to put it together... That is where the fun is for me...  I look a the photos of folks that have finished one and I want to try to do the same... I find it a thing of mechanical beauty...


----------



## wachuko

BGHansen said:


> Interesting project considering a Wohlhaupter boring/facing head is north of $500 off eBay.  Might be a nice retirement project.
> 
> Bruce


That is what I have been doing... buying all these cool kits to keep busy when I retire... (still have 10 years to go, but if I can do it sooner... yeah...)


----------



## woodchucker

projectnut said:


> Just an FYI.  The older Delta scroll saws model 40-440 and similar are also capable of die filing.  I was interested in purchasing a commercial die filer some 15 years ago.  The ones I found were either worked to death or had outrageous asking prices.  I decided to see if I could modify a Delta scroll saw to do the job.  I purchased one with the intention of modifying it, but much to my surprise I found they came from the factory with this capability.  They could be purchased with a chuck made specifically to hold die files.
> 
> The chuck is simple to make and works well.  I've used my machine a number of times as a die filer.  I've yet to use it as a scroll saw.  These machines seem to be fairly prolific at used equipment dealers, and usually sell for around $125.00 or so.  There are a couple different models.  One has 4 speeds accomplished by changing the position of the belt on the pulleys, and the other had a crank adjustable variable variable width pulley.  The one I have is the 4-speed belt change model.
> 
> Here's a link to the 1940 Delta Power Tool Catalog on the Vintage Machinery website.  Scroll saws and accessories begin on page 21.
> 
> 
> 
> http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/1141/20125.pdf


For modern day machines , think Dewalt Scroll saw.


----------



## Doug Gray

Finally finished my microscope stand. The plastic stand that came with this microscope made it almost useless. Every time you tried to adjust focus, the image would shift widely. I managed to incorporate the stand into the the base of a spotting drill I made up recently. The ridgid stand moves this microscope from frustrating toy to a useful addition to the shop. The unit displays the image via Wifi to your phone.


----------



## NCjeeper

Made a broach guide for a project using the horizontal mill.


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was replacing the shoe strings on my favorite work boots. The old laces had split the outer braided cover and were a PITA to tie. Problem #2 is a couple of leather eyelets have split taking them from 5 eyelets to 4. The shortest boot laces Walmart had were 54”, the boots needed around 40”. So, off to the shop.

Plan was to cut the strings to length and use short pieces of heat-shrink tubing to replace the plastic tips on one end of the strings. Yeah, could have cut both ends but biased the strings to put all of the extra length on one end, cut to length, flame the end of the polyester braiding to keep in from unraveling, slip on an inch of heat-shrink tubing and go at it with a Milwaukee heat gun.

Google tells me the tip of a shoe lace is called an “aglet”. I thought it should be called something like a “lace condom” or “londom”, or maybe a “lace p@nis” or “lenis”, but I guess we’ll stick with “aglet”.

Thanks for looking, Bruce


Boot laces from Walmart were too long



Biased all the extra to one side and cut them to length



Slipped on a 1" length of heat-shrink tubing and went at it with a heat gun



New "lenis" in place (aglet)



New "aglets" in place!



All set for some work.  And yes, I know you guys are looking at the grooves on the LH toe area.  Touched off a couple of times with a chainsaw.


----------



## mmcmdl

Those boots have some miles on them !   My favorites look the same , well broken in .  If the sun would stay out for more than 15 minutes at a time today , I'd put mine on and start the chainsaw up . I have 3 loads of logs in the back yard to take care of .


----------



## woodchucker

BGHansen said:


> POTD was replacing the shoe strings on my favorite work boots. The old laces had split the outer braided cover and were a PITA to tie. Problem #2 is a couple of leather eyelets have split taking them from 5 eyelets to 4. The shortest boot laces Walmart had were 54”, the boots needed around 40”. So, off to the shop.
> 
> Plan was to cut the strings to length and use short pieces of heat-shrink tubing to replace the plastic tips on one end of the strings. Yeah, could have cut both ends but biased the strings to put all of the extra length on one end, cut to length, flame the end of the polyester braiding to keep in from unraveling, slip on an inch of heat-shrink tubing and go at it with a Milwaukee heat gun.
> 
> Google tells me the tip of a shoe lace is called an “aglet”. I thought it should be called something like a “lace condom” or “londom”, or maybe a “lace p@nis” or “lenis”, but I guess we’ll stick with “aglet”.
> 
> Thanks for looking, Bruce
> 
> 
> Boot laces from Walmart were too long
> View attachment 398057
> 
> 
> Biased all the extra to one side and cut them to length
> View attachment 398058
> 
> 
> Slipped on a 1" length of heat-shrink tubing and went at it with a heat gun
> View attachment 398060
> 
> 
> New "lenis" in place (aglet)
> View attachment 398059
> 
> 
> New "aglets" in place!
> View attachment 398061
> 
> 
> All set for some work.  And yes, I know you guys are looking at the grooves on the LH toe area.  Touched off a couple of times with a chainsaw.
> View attachment 398062


That's a peeve of mine. I had a pair of laces last less than 2 days on a new pair of shoes. The eyelets are sharp edged , not like they used to be. And it doesn't matter if the shoe /boot is made in USA either, as many use Chinese eyelets.  And the laces are junk.  Good solution.


----------



## projectnut

Let's see, the laces are shot, the eyelets are shot, the top of one boot is worn through, and the left boot has been sawed.  If those are your favorites, I'd hate to see the ones you abuse.


----------



## stioc

A very quick and dirty tumbler reverse for my 9x20 lathe. Used a 3D printed gear and a couple of hours of work. For the one time I'll actually need a left-hand thread this will do just fine


----------



## woodchucker

stioc said:


> A very quick and dirty tumbler reverse for my 9x20 lathe. Used a 3D printed gear and a couple of hours of work. For the one time I'll actually need a left-hand thread this will do just fine
> 
> View attachment 398084
> 
> View attachment 398083
> 
> View attachment 398082
> 
> View attachment 398086
> 
> View attachment 398085


Your lathe doesn't have a reverse on the feed?  What kind of lathe?


----------



## stioc

woodchucker said:


> Your lathe doesn't have a reverse on the feed?  What kind of lathe?


It's a Grizzly G4000. It does have a reverse (as in the motor can run fwd/rev) but the leadscrew always runs in the same direction as the motor/chuck. With the additional idler gear now I can run the leadscrew in the other direction to cut left-hand threads.


----------



## BGHansen

projectnut said:


> Let's see, the laces are shot, the eyelets are shot, the top of one boot is worn through, and the left boot has been sawed.  If those are your favorites, I'd hate to see the ones you abuse.


Yeah, going to order a new pair!  These are Rocky boots that have seen 30 years of wear and tear(out).  Destined to be my shop boots.

Bruce


----------



## woodchucker

stioc said:


> It's a Grizzly G4000. It does have a reverse (as in the motor can run fwd/rev) but the leadscrew always runs in the same direction as the motor/chuck. With the additional idler gear now I can run the leadscrew in the other direction to cut left-hand threads.


I thought those had a tumbler in the back.  damn... I cut reverse and lefties often enough..


----------



## BGHansen

The boot tips getting touched by the chain a couple of times wasn't the closest call.  Here's a photo from around 15 years ago.  I was cutting a big maple tree that had snapped off about 8' up the trunk (~40" diameter tree).  Snapped off part was still on the trunk, top was naturally on the ground.  I was cutting the limbs at the very top working my way to the point where it was resting on the ground.  I was into limbs about 12" diameter; would make a couple of cuts and hit the adjacent limb.

My last conscious memory was leaning down making a cut.  I woke up on my back about 8' from my saw which was still idling.  As stupid as it sounds, the first thought that came to mind was "Why am I taking a nap in the woods?"  Talk about being punch drunk and having your bell rung (still have ringing in my left ear).  I had blood on the side of my head, was coming out of my ear.  I wear earplugs instead of muffs.  Apparently the tree came off the trunk and rolled.  A limb buried in the ground spun around and hit me upside the head.  It drove the earplug into my eardrum and tore it.  I could hold my nose and blow blood out the ear, sounded like squeaking air out of a balloon.  Got to spend part of 12/31 in the ER getting a CT before all of the New Years Eve partiers hit the hospital.

I have a lot of respect (no sh*t Sherlock) for the potential energy in standing trees.  Pretty much wait for nature to put them on the ground now.

Bruce


----------



## projectnut

Chainsaws can be dangerous beasts.  I know 2 guys that had run ins with them and in both cases the saw won.  One fellow I worked with had a nasty scar that ran from his forehead to his waist.  One day I asked what happened.  He told me he and his brother were building a corn crib.  When they put the roof boards on, they left the ends unfinished with the intent of cutting them all the same length with a chainsaw. 

He climbed the scaffold, started the saw and began cutting.  Just then the scaffold collapsed, and he went flying.  The saw followed him down bouncing off him as they fell.  It cut from his forehead to his eye, skipped over the eye and cut from just below the eye to his waist. In all he had over 300 external stiches, and several more internal stitches.

In another incident the brother of an ex-girlfriend had an encounter where he was cutting down a tree in a fence row.  In this case the tree had grown around a steel fence post.  He was about 6" into the tree when the saw kicked back and hit him in the face.  It made quite a gash and left a scar from below his left eye to his chin.

I've always had respect for those saws and try to be extremely careful when using them but unfortunately even the most careful people can get injured through no fault of their own.


----------



## extropic

@stioc 

Nice addition to your lathe.

What material is the new gear made of?


----------



## woodchucker

BGHansen said:


> The boot tips getting touched by the chain a couple of times wasn't the closest call.  Here's a photo from around 15 years ago.  I was cutting a big maple tree that had snapped off about 8' up the trunk (~40" diameter tree).  Snapped off part was still on the trunk, top was naturally on the ground.  I was cutting the limbs at the very top working my way to the point where it was resting on the ground.  I was into limbs about 12" diameter; would make a couple of cuts and hit the adjacent limb.
> 
> My last conscious memory was leaning down making a cut.  I woke up on my back about 8' from my saw which was still idling.  As stupid as it sounds, the first thought that came to mind was "Why am I taking a nap in the woods?"  Talk about being punch drunk and having your bell rung (still have ringing in my left ear).  I had blood on the side of my head, was coming out of my ear.  I wear earplugs instead of muffs.  Apparently the tree came off the trunk and rolled.  A limb buried in the ground spun around and hit me upside the head.  It drove the earplug into my eardrum and tore it.  I could hold my nose and blow blood out the ear, sounded like squeaking air out of a balloon.  Got to spend part of 12/31 in the ER getting a CT before all of the New Years Eve partiers hit the hospital.
> 
> I have a lot of respect (no sh*t Sherlock) for the potential energy in standing trees.  Pretty much wait for nature to put them on the ground now.
> 
> Bruce
> 
> 
> View attachment 398093


I've always been aware, Around 2010 or so we had an October heavy wet snow, ice storm... All the leaves still on the trees.  I was out there shaking the trees with a linemans pole, and a roof rake.  Just finished one tree, was working on the next, when the last tree split apart from the weight... guess I didn't do much... but the branches planted themselves into my deck.. I understand the big ones doing that, but even small ones pushed so deep I could not pull them out. I had to cut them at the deck... My deck is from 1987, so if you know wood, it can be very hard when it's old.  It's extremely hard putting a nail in that wood now, so it impressed me.

Glad you survived and are doing well. I also have the ringing, I have a bad case of tinitus...  Would love to have some piece and quiet....


----------



## stioc

extropic said:


> @stioc
> 
> Nice addition to your lathe.
> 
> What material is the new gear made of?


Thanks! the gear is made out of regular PLA. I was thinking of trying Nylon or ABS but decided to just try this idea out with what I had on hand. Worst case I can use a spare change gear I have or buy one if I don't want to take one from my set. In fact, the 40 tooth gear I printed is actually for the 7x14 lathes which I think are readily available in metal and have the same DP/angle etc just the center hole is smaller.

But so far there's absolutely no visible wear from the 30 min of actual use/testing etc I did. Again, just a proof of concept and one of those quick and dirty projects for 'if I ever need to cut a left-hand thread or two I can now'.


----------



## woodchucker

stioc said:


> Thanks! the gear is made out of regular PLA. I was thinking of trying Nylon or ABS but decided to just try this idea out with what I had on hand. Worst case I can use a spare change gear I have or buy one if I don't want to take one from my set. In fact, the 40 tooth gear I printed is actually for the 7x14 lathes which I think are readily available in metal and have the same DP/angle etc just the center hole is smaller.
> 
> But so far there's absolutely no visible wear from the 30 min of actual use/testing etc I did. Again, just a proof of concept and one of those quick and dirty projects for 'if I ever need to cut a left-hand thread or two I can now'.


I have seen some good reviews of printed gears. It's surprising, but maybe not.  Good luck, good solution.


----------



## finsruskw

The much traveled new belt finally showed up yesterday so the lathe is back in action.
Managed to get the tailstock die holder project I started several weeks ago plus tried some trial and error thread cutting on some 1/2 bar stock.
Was not too happy with the results. My inserts must be really cheap ones because the threads are usually pretty ratty. 
Is it normal to have to use a bench grinder and wire wheel to clean them up after cutting?


----------



## WobblyHand

finsruskw said:


> The much traveled new belt finally showed up yesterday so the lathe is back in action.
> Managed to get the tailstock die holder project I started several weeks ago plus tried some trial and error thread cutting on some 1/2 bar stock.
> Was not too happy with the results. My inserts must be really cheap ones because the threads are usually pretty ratty.
> Is it normal to have to use a bench grinder and wire wheel to clean them up after cutting?


Never had ratty threads after cutting correct rod diameters with a die.  So not normal.  What is the diameter of the bar stock, mic it, and the die is what 1/2-13?


----------



## savarin

I've used a wire wheel on threads cut into hot rolled rod to polish and smooth them out.


----------



## finsruskw

Mat'l is CRS, 1/2 OD
And yes, 13TPI
Seems to tear instead of cut after the 1st few .005" cuts.
How deep should the total cut be?
I think I went a little too deep as the nuts fit loose (edit)
 as does a die.


----------



## Nutfarmer

Single pointing threads in mild steel can be a challenge to obtain a good finish. I have run a die over them just to clean them up. Same goes for wire wheel ,three corner file,or steel wool. I am all in for what works.


----------



## silverhawk

I have had thread cutting dies strip threads out of the part if not backed off and chips cleaned when using cheap dies. It might be the dies, or the use. Try getting it started, then manual turning the spindle and making sure you back it out to clear chips. 

Sent from my SM-T500 using Tapatalk


----------



## woodchucker

finsruskw said:


> Mat'l is CRS, 1/2 OD
> And yes, 13TPI
> Seems to tear instead of cut after the 1st few .005" cuts.
> How deep should the total cut be?
> I think I went a little too deep as the nuts fit loose (edit)
> as does a die.


if you are using hex dies, they are not for creating threads. They are maintenance dies, made to chase, or re-form damaged threads.


----------



## WobblyHand

Rod diameter should be about 0.492", or less than 0.500".  A 30 degree chamfer at the start also helps.  Many hex dies are for chasing only.  Have no idea if yours are maintenance dies, or cutting dies.  If a cutting die, and the rod is 0.005-0.010" undersized, you should be good to go.  Turn, back off to break the chip, turn, etc. until done.  Use cutting oil!  It helps a lot.


----------



## finsruskw

Negative on the dies, not using them in this instance, mine are all hex anyway.
This was with a 60* insert tool, single point threading using the back gear.

Maybe turning too slow is what is causing my poor thread quality issue? I think the next highest speed on my lathe will be too fast, will have to check that out. It only has a single motor pulley so that cuts the available speeds down by 50%.
I need to find a double pully for it.

Just trying to get my head wrapped around this single point thing.

Single point should work on .500" CRS without reducing the OD, correct?


----------



## WobblyHand

Yes, it should work.  Have to ask, is the tool on center height?  The insert unchipped?


----------



## finsruskw

New insert, tool on center, compound set to 29.5 or as close as I can tell.

The SC 9A index marks are on the back side and a real PITA to see.

I just tried again w/the next higher speed, 740 rpm, and it seemed to work better. Got a free spinning nut on a fine 1/2" thread, still too loose though with .045 total DOC on then compound.

Will try again and stop at .040 and see how it works out this time
Also


----------



## WobblyHand

Max major diameter is 0.4985" so if you raise burrs, just run a file, or take a very thin cut to bring the OD to size.


----------



## WobblyHand

finsruskw said:


> New insert, tool on center, compound set to 29.5 or as close as I can tell.
> 
> The SC 9A index marks are on the back side and a real PITA to see.
> 
> I just tried again w/the next higher speed, 740 rpm, and it seemed to work better. Got a free spinning nut on a fine 1/2" thread, still too loose though with .045 total DOC on then compound.
> 
> Will try again and stop at .040 and see how it works out this time
> Also


Try 0.035" and sneak up from there.  Think 0.040 is too deep.


----------



## finsruskw

Where did this .4985 OD come from?
Is there a chart that lists the OD's for each size mat'l?

This last attempt came in at a hair under that but yielded a much better fit. A new castle nut spins right on, all the way but a "top'loc" nut only goes so far like it is supposed to.

I'm a happy camper now, Gonna try to make it a bit better though!!

Thanks guys for all the suggestions!


----------



## WobblyHand

finsruskw said:


> Where did this .4985 OD come from?
> Is there a chart that lists the OD's for each size mat'l?


Yes, there is a chart.  There are lots of them.  Machinery's Handbook has them.  You can pick up an old edition for very little money, like $20.  Or if I am lazy, I use https://www.engineersedge.com/screw_threads_chart.htm

Most people cut class 2 threads.  To accurately measure thread pitch, you can use thread wires, and a micrometer, or you can buy a fancy thread micrometer.  I use wires if I am trying to make an accurate thread, but most often, I just fit a nut.  The right way is to use the thread wires, then you know the thread is to spec.


----------



## savarin

Did you use a fishtail gauge to set the tool bit angle to the rod?
Personally I dont bother with all that 29.5 degrees I go in at 90' and have never had a problem up to and including M3 threads.
Honed very sharp HSS tool bit


----------



## finsruskw

Don't have a fishtail gage, suppose I should get one though.
Cross slide was at 90*, compound at 29.5

Played with it some mire this afternoon and got a nice snug fit, took a few "spring" cuts  and had to go a little under the .4985"


----------



## Boswell

savarin said:


> Personally I dont bother with all that 29.5 degrees I go in at 90' and have never had a problem


Same here. 90deg has worked for all the single point threads I have done. Might no optimize tool life but then I don't run a production shop where I have to maximize tool life as part of maximizing profits.


----------



## woodchucker

Boswell said:


> Same here. 90deg has worked for all the single point threads I have done. Might no optimize tool life but then I don't run a production shop where I have to maximize tool life as part of maximizing profits.


compound vs cross slide is a religious type of argument. some do one, others do the other. Both work, I've done both, I prefer compound because I back off on the cross slide and come back to zero. So I know where my compound is and needs to go .. It sets depth while my crossslide allows me to set cut, and retract to come back.


----------



## jaek

Simple project, but not just making more parts for my tools! Adapter from a Milwaukee M12 cordless shop vac to my inflatable kayak. The vac has a non-standard hose size, the kayak has a weird one-third turn captive taper hose end.

Turned a cone out of aluminum to match the vac hose, used boiling water to flare some thin-wall 1” PVC pipe over it, cut the kayak side from 1/2” schedule 80 PVC, cut the retention slots with a dremel and router bit, glued everything together.

The shop vac static pressure on “high power” is almost exactly the target raft pressure, so just let er rip and shut it off when the sound changes. Can inflate the whole thing in less than three minutes no sweat vs maybe ten minutes of manual pumping.


----------



## Alcap

Like most members we start one project but need another to get the first one done . My cross slide screw was worn on my 5914 lathe , running the carriage in exposed the nasty looking threads , Another member on HM did a repair on his by getting a length of 5/8”-10 LH and mating to his . Ordered it last summer but was putting it off ,we’ll time has come to get going . Needing to machine the new threaded rod thought this would be a good time to make a spindle spider , my lathe has 3 taped 10-32 holes on the end of the spindle . I found a scrap that would make a nice spider . I counter bored it tried out the dividing head for the first time to drill and counter bore for the socket head cap screws . I was hoping to use 4 screws to hold work pieces . My cardboard template doesn’t give me any hope so unless someone has another way I’ll just use three screws .


----------



## woodchucker

Alcap said:


> Like most members we start one project but need another to get the first one done . My cross slide screw was worn on my 5914 lathe , running the carriage in exposed the nasty looking threads , Another member on HM did a repair on his by getting a length of 5/8”-10 LH and mating to his . Ordered it last summer but was putting it off ,we’ll time has come to get going . Needing to machine the new threaded rod thought this would be a good time to make a spindle spider , my lathe has 3 taped 10-32 holes on the end of the spindle . I found a scrap that would make a nice spider . I counter bored it tried out the dividing head for the first time to drill and counter bore for the socket head cap screws . I was hoping to use 4 screws to hold work pieces . My cardboard template doesn’t give me any hope so unless someone has another way I’ll just use three screws .


Three should be fine, that's what a steady rest is.


----------



## finsruskw

I don't quite get how that would work.
You advance the cross slide instead of the compound then?

Is there a discussion here for just treading questions?


----------



## woodchucker

finsruskw said:


> I don't quite get how that would work.
> You advance the cross slide instead of the compound then?


yep, but you have to keep track of where you were last cut, so you can gauge how much to advance.
eh..


----------



## finsruskw

I will try that.
I have just been cranking the cross slide out one turn, hit reverse to return leaving the 1/2 nuts engaged, then advancing the compound like .005, then returning the X slide back to zero and taking a cut. 

I thought that was the correct way.


----------



## davek181

Ask ten machinists how to do one thing and you will get fifteen answers.   Most or all of them will be right.


----------



## savarin

I thread at 90' because I have replaced the top slide (compound) with a solid plinth so there is no other way.
Yes advance the cross slide  to give the cut.
as 99% of my threads are metric but using an imperial leadscrew I also dont use the thread dial but keep the halfnuts engaged.
It goes, half nuts disengaged, move to start of thread, engage half nuts, take first scratch pass, stop at end of thread, retract cross slide, do not disengage half nuts,  reverse back to start, check its the correct thread, advance the cross slide for the first real cut, start the cut, stop at the end, retract the cross slide, reverse back to start, advance cross slide for next pass and so it goes.
The solid plinth instead of the top slide is to improve rigidity on my flexi 9x20


----------



## woodchucker

finsruskw said:


> I will try that.
> I have just been cranking the cross slide out one turn, hit reverse to return leaving the 1/2 nuts engaged, then advancing the compound like .005, then returning the X slide back to zero and taking a cut.
> 
> I thought that was the correct way.


well, that is one way.
I just roll the carriage back... I assume you don't have a dial?


----------



## mksj

woodchucker said:


> well, that is one way.
> I just roll the carriage back... I assume you don't have a dial?


Doesn't work for metric with an imperial leadscrew, as the threading dial registration is not the same. Using the compound is used more on smaller lathes, also depends on the thread cutter and the material. Using the cross slide there is a direct reading of thread depth vs. using the compound. CNC machines may use a combination of threading movements. If you use a dial or DRO for the registration of the stopping position in the thread relief, the stopping with the compound the position of the cutter changes as it is advanced, so the thread relief needs to be wider. Since I use an electronic stop, the position of the cutter needs to not change as the cutter is advanced. The method one uses suits the type of thread, material, machine and operator. Example below is a longer tool post with a M16 base thread I made for a forum member, factory post is on the left and the new post/threads with minimal relief on the right using O1 steel rod.


----------



## brino

woodchucker said:


> compound vs cross slide is a religious type of argument. some do one, others do the other.



Nope!
It is pure science! (see * footnote below)



woodchucker said:


> Both work,



That depends.........

Feeding with the compound at 29.5 degrees means that you are only cutting on the left-hand side of the tool.
On lightly built or worn and sloppy lathes, that can mean reduced cutting forces giving less flex and less chatter.

On my previous lathe I had to do that.
On my current lathe, I still had to do that......... until I got the gibs cleaned-up and adjusted properly.

Yesterday I cut threads for the first time in a while.
I used only the cross-slide and it went very well.

*footnote
Of course, there is also the aspect of "doing it the way you were taught".
Although you might have been taught on a very different machine than you use today......

Brian


----------



## finsruskw

Just tried it by diving straight in as suggested and it worked well.
Got a nice snug fit on the 2nd try using the highest speed my old SB9A using the back gear.
Fine thread, X .50 dia CRS

Happy camper here!!
And thanks again for the insight and tips

And now, If I just knew how to do internal threads.......!!


----------



## ttabbal

finsruskw said:


> And now, If I just knew how to do internal threads.......!!



It's basically the same. You need a tool that fits in the bore with the thread form on it. Internal threading bars are pretty common in larger sizes, but if you want to do really small sizes, check out micro100 tools. They have some great small boring and threading tools.

I generally use taps up to about 1/2", then switch to single point when possible. Saves me buying huge taps. 

Start with through holes. Single point in a blind hole increases the pucker factor significantly, particularly if you have to thread toward the part. I usually thread away from the chuck, but that can be a problem on lathes with threaded chucks.


----------



## woodchucker

finsruskw said:


> Just tried it by diving straight in as suggested and it worked well.
> Got a nice snug fit on the 2nd try using the highest speed my old SB9A using the back gear.
> Fine thread, X .50 dia CRS
> 
> Happy camper here!!
> And thanks again for the insight and tips
> 
> And now, If I just knew how to do internal threads.......!!


Oh, you've gone to the Dark Side young skywalker...


----------



## Alcap

Finished my spindle spider yesterday. Ended up using just three workholding screws like woodchuck suggested .


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was making a couple arbors for a pair of small Jacobs drill chucks. Backstory is I primarily use an E32 collet chuck in my Bridgeport. I lose some head space over an R8 collet, but find it more convenient to loosen the collet nut at chest level than reaching up for the draw bar. And yes, I have a power draw bar planned in the future.

My Bridgeport has 3 drill chucks at the ready, all with ½” diameter arbors. I bought three 0-1/4” Jacobs chucks off eBay for under $20 including shipping with a plan to make 3/8” arbors for two of them. It seems like I’m always starting with a 3/8” collet with a ¼” or 3/8” end mill, then have to switch to a ½” collet to use the drill chucks.  The 3/8" arbors would let me drill small holes without swapping collets.


Three Jacobs 1A (0-1/4") chucks off eBay.  Just one had a 1/2" straight arbor.




Material of choice was O-1 drill rod. One of the chucks came with a ½” arbor which was used to set up the compound angle for the taper. I started by measuring the large diameter of the taper at 0.385”. Thought about using 0.375” drill rod and live with less engagement to the chuck, but used ½” instead.


Set a caliper to 0.375" and had more arbor setting beyond than I was comfortable with.  Went to 1/2" drill rod to hold the large diameter of the taper (0.385").  Plus, turning the taper and shank in the same setup ensured no runout between the two.




Chucked up the ½” arbor and swept its length with a dial indicator. Loosely tightened the compound screws and tapped with a brass hammer until the indicator stayed at zero through the sweep.


Back and forth with the compound tapping the compound until the indicator didn't change over the sweep




Standard turning from that point. Center drill, turn to a shade over 0.385”, plunge in at the base of the taper to 0.350” (presumably for wedges to remove the chuck from the arbor) and turned the straight shank to 0.375”. Then turned the taper.


Center drill



Turn to 0.375" for the shank and a shade over 0.385" for the taper



Plunge an area for wedges to remove the chuck



Cutting the taper using the compound




Arbors were polished with 400-grit on the lathe. I was taught to loop the paper over a flat surface like a file when polishing. Not a mirror surface, but pretty smooth.


After polishing up some with 400-grit



Test fit




The arbors were hardened in a Thermolyne muffle furnace, polished with a Scotch-brite wheel and tempered to straw color on a Thermolyne hot plate. Should save me a little time from swapping collets.


Taking the arbor up to 1500 F in a heat treat furnace



Tempering on a hot plate



New 3/8" arbors



Tapped the arbors home with a brass hammer



All ready for use with a 3/8" ER32 collet





Thanks for looking, Bruce


----------



## woodchucker

great idea, Anything like that annoys me, so I too would make something like that to avoid changing more than necessary.
Great...


----------



## erikmannie

I am on vacation for 2 weeks. I’ve been working 5-6 days a week for the last 12 months, so I am going to be catching up a lot on projects.

One of the things I did today is prepare a PM-1030V back plate for a Bison 5C collet chuck. I got it to a few tenths runout. This took me about 6 hours!


----------



## erikmannie

Oops, duplicate post.


----------



## woodchucker

I can't make out that 2nd pic. I see the lathe head on the left, but not sure what I am seeing what's the knurled piece and after it.


----------



## erikmannie

I finally zeroed my 12” TMX 6J Set-Tru scroll chuck.

I had never zeroed a Set-Tru before. It is very straightforward.

I got it under .0003” runout (.0006” TIR).


----------



## woodchucker

erikmannie said:


> I finally zeroed my 12” TMX 6J Set-Tru scroll chuck.
> 
> I had never zeroed a Set-Tru before. It is very straightforward.
> 
> I got it under .0003” runout (.0006” TIR).
> 
> View attachment 398539


that works for a rod that size, if you go far from that size, you will need to zero it again for that size rod.


----------



## Doug Gray

End of day yesterday, the fabrication manager at work hands me a rod and says here make eight of these. I say ok .. get home grab some 1/4" stock that I have around and start in. Turns out my stock is SS... the only thing I know about SS is what I've heard from Quinn Dunki. Her mantra is, get in, do your business and get out. The mantra served me well, I was able to deliver the rods this AM. Simple cut to size, drill and tap each end 10-24. I gang drilled some holes in two pieces of aluminum just for looks/storage/packaging.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i finally found some free time to do some work on the scenic. I made a new intake gasket, installed the intake adjusted the valves clean the head and block installed a new head gasket and bolted down the head in the complex french way. That took some time but i also managed to install the timing belt time the engine install the valve cover and connect the cooling system and a few more things got finished. It's surprising how many cars broke when you don't have time to fix them. From 12 cars between me and my brother only 3 are running well now.


----------



## Winegrower

I have been working on my Jet VBS-900 bandsaw.   I ordered a new motor, it came as used and damaged in shipping, so I bought a new 2HP Baldor, due in tomorrow. Getting ready for installation, I have overhauled the air pump, bought a couple new blades (12’ 2”), tore apart the wiring to figure out the welder, grinder and lights, and saw that the dual belt idler pulley  that drives the air pump had terrible bearing.  Shockingly, I had the same 6202 bearings in stock (i.e. leftovers) and without thinking too hard, pressed out the old bearings.   Only then did I notice the new bearings were a bit bigger in ID.   No problem, I’ll make a new shaft.   Then, I saw that the threaded end was 12 TPI, there was a missing lock nut that I didn’t have a replacement for, so decided changing over to 1/2-13 made sense.    I used the Geometric die head for the threads, man is that easy and quick.   However, the shaft threads into a bracket and I retapped the threads from 12 to 13 tpi, which worked fine.   I have acquired a bunch of blocks, plates, things with holes in them, so pressing the bearings and shaft out and in went smoothly.   Anyway, all done in time for the new motor tomorrow.  I hope.

The parts:




The assembly:


----------



## GoceKU

With so many cars broken i need to fix them one by one so today white elephant no: 2 needs brakes, the rears have new shoes and drums but who ever installed them did not clean the adjuster and did not replaced the sliders for the shoes so they have cut a groove in the backing plate, i've had to deal with this on the No 1 so i know what to do i made me new sliders from bronze on my lathe. I clean the adjasters on both sides even found a bolt in one of the rear tires. The tire will go to the tire shop but i was still half way the front brakes wore gone, so i bought new discs and pads, on the pads i went OEM Ate but on the disks parts store only had this brand, it's getting hard to find parts in stock. With new front and repair back brakes this elephant stops better than ever.


----------



## davek181

I bought and installed a QCTP on my lathe a while back and I like it except for the inconvenience of having to grab a wrench to change the angle to the compound.  I agree that with proper planning and procedure you shouldn't have to change it much, but I have never been accused of having either, so I find the need often.  The wrench is mislaid, or just plain awkward to use whenever needed so I decided to make a captive handle on a threaded adapter to replace the nut on top of the QCTP.

As with any improvement I make I wonder how I lived without so long, it is much handier and user friendly than I thought it would be.  While it is not perfect and maybe not pretty, I like it.  With everything I make I always see all the mistakes and think of how it would have been better if i had done it different.  I have learned to condition myself to look at it a different way though and that helps.  I  just think that if I did not have a lathe and mill and the doubtful skills that I have acquired and someone gave me that part how would I view it then?  Suddenly it is elevated in my view, usually, and looks better to me then and I can live with the shortcomings.


----------



## snoopdog

Not much, no picx, had 3 chinee tool holders that wouldn't fit, milled about .006 off and everything is cool. Hoping for some rain this weekend , and no more emergency trips to georgia, so I can chill in the shop.


----------



## savarin

I would send you some of ours if I could we are in deep strife.


----------



## woodchucker

savarin said:


> I would send you some of ours if I could we are in deep strife.


you are not in a drought with dry conditions anymore?
Did you ever finish moving from your old house to the new house, or had Covid shut that down?


----------



## dkemppai

Finally finished up the new blade for the pocket knife. Really wanted to try the new CPM MagnaCut steel on something, so made a replacement for the Gerber LST. After grinding and finishing, Checked the lock to the drawing. It's pretty close, the places that aren't right on to the drawing were hand fit to set the open/closed position of the blade. 

Overall, not a perfect grind on the knife. Steel takes a very keen edge. I'll be interested in seeing how long it holds that edge.


----------



## savarin

woodchucker said:


> you are not in a drought with dry conditions anymore?
> Did you ever finish moving from your old house to the new house, or had Covid shut that down?


Hi Jeff,
drought gone, rain came reasonably heavy here but devastating down south.
Weve been in the new house for a year now and I have almost moved everything over, just a few items left such as powdercoat oven, aquaponics and mirror grinding machine and a few sundry items.
The biggest hassle is I cant find where I've stacked things when I need them even though I did label some boxes.
At the moment its so damned hot and humid its hard to actually do anything.


----------



## woodchucker

savarin said:


> Hi Jeff,
> drought gone, rain came reasonably heavy here but devastating down south.
> Weve been in the new house for a year now and I have almost moved everything over, just a few items left such as powdercoat oven, aquaponics and mirror grinding machine and a few sundry items.
> The biggest hassle is I cant find where I've stacked things when I need them even though I did label some boxes.
> At the moment its so damned hot and humid its hard to actually do anything.


Seems like more than a year, I remember when you made the gate/fenced in porch area.  Has to be 2 years at least...
That last little bit just seems to be taking forever.    The temps these days are HOT than hell or cold..  Spring and Fall here are a thing of the past.

I hope you get back on track soon.


----------



## Millmore S Steel

Video_man said:


> Posted this yesterday and it got lost in the server crash, so bear with me.  My son's hobby is restoring BMW's, he needed a factory tool that is no longer made, but had a shop drawing. So I made one for him.  It is a tool for setting front suspension heights.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 262254


Nice job !!


----------



## Winegrower

I bought a bunch of Kwik Switch tool holders...these are the bomb.   Tool changes are a few seconds, and with a pretty good collection (the shot below is about 60% of all of them) I can preload some common tools, like edge finders, indicator, some end mills, spotting drill, etc.   They are terrific, but absurdly expensive new, amazingly expensive on eBay, acceptable deals on Craigslist if you can find them, and with help from some Hobby Machinist friends the collection was doable.  

 I added a 4" riser to the mill to recover (and a bit more) some Z height loss.   There are many different types of holders, including some collet holders that work great for smaller end mills, and are designed to have a screw in collet stop to prevent tool movement.   But I didn't have any stops.   The thread is not specified in any Kwik Switch documentation I could find, and repeated measurements kept coming up 7/16-20, but a bolt of that wouldn't fit.  I considered metric sizes, but that didn't work either.   For sure it measured 7/16-20.    It took way too long for me to recognize that it was a left hand thread.  :-(

But that made an easy little project a bit easier, since left hand threads are a snap, just have the carriage move left to right.    A couple of goofy  little LH 7/16-20 brass stubs now act as collet stops.   It's not so clear in the picture, but I used a slitting saw for a blade screwdriver slot.


----------



## Winegrower

Video_man, this box is beautiful.   I need to do this, but setting up some kind of jig for routing out has so far stumped me.   Simple shapes, OK, but you have some nice fits there.   What's your method?


----------



## Tim9

projectnut said:


> Chainsaws can be dangerous beasts.  I know 2 guys that had run ins with them and in both cases the saw won.  One fellow I worked with had a nasty scar that ran from his forehead to his waist.  One day I asked what happened.  He told me he and his brother were building a corn crib.  When they put the roof boards on, they left the ends unfinished with the intent of cutting them all the same length with a chainsaw.
> 
> He climbed the scaffold, started the saw and began cutting.  Just then the scaffold collapsed, and he went flying.  The saw followed him down bouncing off him as they fell.  It cut from his forehead to his eye, skipped over the eye and cut from just below the eye to his waist. In all he had over 300 external stiches, and several more internal stitches.
> 
> In another incident the brother of an ex-girlfriend had an encounter where he was cutting down a tree in a fence row.  In this case the tree had grown around a steel fence post.  He was about 6" into the tree when the saw kicked back and hit him in the face.  It made quite a gash and left a scar from below his left eye to his chin.
> 
> I've always had respect for those saws and try to be extremely careful when using them but unfortunately even the most careful people can get injured through no fault of their own.


That’s why I know my limitations. An electric chainsaw with a kickback safety mechanism. And even then, very limited use of the chainsaw by this puppy who realizes I’m on my last of my nine lives.


----------



## snoopdog

Worked on the neighbor's welding trailer( couldn't get the pic up, mounted fuel tank and new trailer jack. Then had time for a little gouging.


----------



## stioc

Did some further testing with the previously made idler-gear (shown in post 5,962) by cutting a matching left-hand threaded nut (using Delrin to save time). Fits the previously made bolt perfectly.

Since I had some shop time left I even milled a hex on the round Delrin nut.


----------



## NCjeeper

Small little paying job. Guy needed some spacers made. He is doing a rear brake upgrade. It will space the backing plates from the axle on his firebird.


----------



## Braeden P

Made a sign out of some wood, chips, a chipped endmill, calipers, a broken chuck and a weird cutter


----------



## Winegrower

Today the Jet VBS-900 bandsaw is operational.  Mostly.  Well, it cuts.   Upgraded the motor from 1/3HP, which was way too small, to a 2HP new Baldor, very quiet and smooth.  overhauled the air pump, with new bearings and a new shaft assembly, it also is smooth, but sounds a bit like those playing cards in the spokes, anybody remember that?
The blade guides were stuck, so removed and cleaned, pressed out and polished the guide pins so the adjustments work smoothly.   Scotch Brited the two tables, came out very acceptably.  A new blade mounted easily, and chips were made.   Wow, so nice.   This is going to up the scope of the projects I can take on.

The thing has a 4 speed transmission and a Reeves drive, so there’s an infinitely variable and wide range speed selection.

Now sadly the welder/grinder is still a wireball.   What a great hobby, we’re never done.

Last picture is as it arrived.  It looks about the same from the outside.

It needs a belt to run the air pump.   I now have all the parts to do a solenoid valve for shop air, just flip a switch…hard to decide.


----------



## woodchucker

Just pick up a belt, if you don't like it, cut over. You won't need your compressor running with the bandsaw.
If you have a segmented (fenner) type belt, give it a try... They are great for instant repairs, sizing an unknown belt.. Noisier, but a good quick fix.


----------



## BladesIIB

Needed a rack to organize these Pierson Workholding pallets in my toolbox drawer. Woodworking project, but for the metal shop so seemed an appropriate project to post.


----------



## woodchucker

BladesIIB said:


> Needed a rack to organize these Pierson Workholding pallets in my toolbox drawer. Woodworking project, but for the metal shop so seemed an appropriate project to post.


I cringed when I saw you use the brad nailer. Keep your fingers out of the line of fire. If the nail blows out the side, you will not like having your fingers in the blowout area.


----------



## BladesIIB

woodchucker said:


> I cringed when I saw you use the brad nailer. Keep your fingers out of the line of fire. If the nail blows out the side, you will not like having your fingers in the blowout area.


I appreciate the tip. I try to be safe in the shop and never intend to demonstrate anything that is not safe. Not a tool I use often and had not considered that happening. Will be more thoughtful next time. Thanks!


----------



## woodchucker

BladesIIB said:


> I appreciate the tip. I try to be safe in the shop and never intend to demonstrate anything that is not safe. Not a tool I use often and had not considered that happening. Will be more thoughtful next time. Thanks!


I know you were not demonstrating, this was just to you so you are aware. Those things follow the grain sometimes, you had the gun pointed the correct way.. if you had it 90 off it would definitely have followed the grain.  Even in ply.


----------



## Nogoingback

Repaired A Fan

I've had a cheap Chinese shop fan around for ages. Poorly designed, poorly built but it keeps spinning.  The stand was designed to be height adjustable, with a spring loaded inner tube and a lock nut in a plastic collar at the top. Naturally, the plastic collar assembly failed. I decided to modify it by eliminating the height adjustable feature and just make it a fixed height.

Started by taking the spring assembly out and binning it. A bushing was turned to fit the outer tube and bored for a press fit to the inner support tube.  I drilled a hole at the bottom of the outer tube, transferred it's location to the bushing and drilled/tapped for a 1/4-20 bolt.  This locks the assembly in place.  I turned and bored a Delrin bushing for the top, with a light press fit on both the ID and OD. Put all together and voila!, 
good as new.  Of course, I probably could have bought another fan for what I payed for a chunk of Delrin, but what's the fun in that?


----------



## Winegrower

While messing aroung getting the Jet VBS-900 bandsaw operational, I’ve been trying to figure out the rat’s nest of wiring to the welder/grinder.   Today I gave up.   It’s just too simple a system to have that mess, even if it did work.

So I pulled the guts out, here’s what it looks like.   I will test and clean up the welder, likely need to replace the grinder.
But this now lower priority that sawing stuff up.

Somebody said “it’s a good thing the wiring is color coded.


----------



## snoopdog

Worked on this little x-y table that came with my mill purchase, y rod was stripped and x handle not broken but very sketchy. Pretty cool little homemade table, now I get to walk around it for a few years<LOL


----------



## paradox_pete

There have been a couple of threads here recently about fly cutters, and as one has been on my todo list for a while, I thought it was time.  Quin at Blondihacks made a video where she attempted to make a "balanced" version, and that seemed like it wouldn't hurt.  I realize it's probably unnecessary, as unbalanced fly cutters have been in use for ages, but it was a fun project.  I made a model in FreeCAD, and used the FCinfo macro to help find the center of mass, and just made tweaks to get it near (within 0.1mm) the XY origin when the toolbit is centered in the flycutter.  The body is a simple cylinder, only the slot for the bit is angled.  The top is bored and threaded 1_1/2-18 to match the R8 arbor that came with the boring head I got with the mill.  

I made a second flycutter to hold a CC*T tool that uses the obtuse angle on the insert.  While the Tormach SuprFly I've seen mentioned here is tempting, I'm trying to avoid spending loads of money on different inserts, so getting more use out of the obtuse angle on these inserts seemed worth trying.  

They both work great and produce the great surface finish flycutters are known for.  

-Pete


----------



## Janderso

Winegrower said:


> While messing aroung getting the Jet VBS-900 bandsaw operational, I’ve been trying to figure out the rat’s nest of wiring to the welder/grinder.   Today I gave up.   It’s just too simple a system to have that mess, even if it did work.
> 
> So I pulled the guts out, here’s what it looks like.   I will test and clean up the welder, likely need to replace the grinder.
> But this now lower priority that sawing stuff up.
> 
> Somebody said “it’s a good thing the wiring is color coded.
> 
> View attachment 399183


That’s a mess. I’m sure one of our electrical guys could explain what and why but to me, that’s just a rat’s nest.


----------



## 7milesup

paradox_pete said:


> There have been a couple of threads here recently about fly cutters, and as one has been on my todo list for a while, I thought it was time.  Quin at Blondihacks made a video where she attempted to make a "balanced" version, and that seemed like it wouldn't hurt.  I realize it's probably unnecessary, as unbalanced fly cutters have been in use for ages, but it was a fun project.  I made a model in FreeCAD, and used the FCinfo macro to help find the center of mass, and just made tweaks to get it near (within 0.1mm) the XY origin when the toolbit is centered in the flycutter.  The body is a simple cylinder, only the slot for the bit is angled.  The top is bored and threaded 1_1/2-18 to match the R8 arbor that came with the boring head I got with the mill.
> 
> I made a second flycutter to hold a CC*T tool that uses the obtuse angle on the insert.  While the Tormach SuprFly I've seen mentioned here is tempting, I'm trying to avoid spending loads of money on different inserts, so getting more use out of the obtuse angle on these inserts seemed worth trying.
> 
> They both work great and produce the great surface finish flycutters are known for.
> 
> -Pete
> View attachment 399221
> View attachment 399222


What flavor of metal did you use on this?


----------



## cathead

My POTD for the day was to make an edge finder.  I had a little piece of half inch cold roll material so started with that and machining the end of it down to 0.250 inch.  Then I cut off the end piece that will serve as the part that wiggles.  After a little drilling and machining on the body part, it was ready for assembly.  
	

		
			
		

		
	



The cutoff tool was set a little low so there would be a nub remaining so I could silver solder on a tiny ring to hold the spring.



The spring was about .15 inch diameter so drilled a .25 inch hole most of the way up the tube.  That way the tool had some room
to oscillate some.



A tiny end mill was used to mill out a pocket for the pin that holds the spring.



Here it is completed and ready for a project.  It took about an hour and well worth my time.


----------



## francist

Is that all there is to those, just a spring inside like that? I obviously don’t use or own one let alone have never seen the guts before, but always find it intriguing that they can kick off to side like they do with just a slight touch to the surface. Sensitivity, I assume, is dictated by how smooth of an interface between the two sliding surfaces?


----------



## Winegrower

You call this a wiggler, but it looks exactly like my edge finder.


----------



## cathead

Winegrower said:


> You call this a wiggler, but it looks exactly like my edge finder.


Yes, you are right, the correct terminology would be edge finder.  I went back and corrected the post so as to avoid any confusion.


----------



## cathead

francist said:


> Is that all there is to those, just a spring inside like that? I obviously don’t use or own one let alone have never seen the guts before, but always find it intriguing that they can kick off to side like they do with just a slight touch to the surface. Sensitivity, I assume, is dictated by how smooth of an interface between the two sliding surfaces?



Yes, I did polish the surfaces with a diamond hone.


----------



## paradox_pete

7milesup said:


> What flavor of metal did you use on this?


Good question...the short answer is I don't know.  2.5" CR steel of some sort.  It machined pretty nicely, so maybe 12L14?  I did use the CCGT inserts meant for aluminum for the turning operations, which seems to help produce a nice finish.

-Pete


----------



## Parlo

I finished a prototype corner joint today for an Art Deco style mirror project.


----------



## finsruskw

Brainstormed in the shop yesterday with my son and came up with an idea to make my homemade press more portable, as in easily moved.
Using a modified auto scissors jack and a couple hardware store wheels.
two affixed to one end and a swivel wheel on the other.

I've wanted to be able to easily be able to roll it into the shop part of my building w/o messing up my floor. It had been sitting out there the 3 years since we did the floor and was a PITA to use in that cold and poorly lit area.
Seems to do the trick.

The acme thread nut was broken on the jack so we threaded a piece of .050 to13 TPI for a shot distance and used a regular nut instead.


----------



## extropic

Parlo said:


> I finished a prototype corner joint today for an Art Deco style mirror project.
> View attachment 399261


 Interesting. Please keep sharing the progress.

Is that a plastic material (as opposed to a white paint)?

I assume the copper inserts are tubing. What diameter (for scale reference)?


----------



## Parlo

extropic said:


> Interesting. Please keep sharing the progress.
> 
> Is that a plastic material (as opposed to a white paint)?
> 
> I assume the copper inserts are tubing. What diameter (for scale reference)?


The plastic is a solid surface material from Staron, it was 21mm thick. The Copper tubing is 1/4" and the slots are 7.2 wide x 3.8 deep. The wood is Oak with an Osmo wax finish.


----------



## finsruskw

Making some TEE nuts for the rotary table I snagged yesterday.
Will get them drilled and threaded tomorrow. Spent a few hours cleaning and polishing the table and I think it turned out well. Sure looks a lot better than when I got it home!
Still have the underside to do yet and I'd like to take it apart and clean the inner workings and re-lube.
There is a drain port on one side of it.
What kind of oil should I use?
Now, if I only knew how to use this piece of equipment!!


----------



## extropic

@finsruskw 

You've got that RT looking like new already.

I wouldn't expect it to be filled (or partially filled) with oil. Show a picture of the "drain plug" and where it's located.
I also don't see any oil fittings in any of the pictures you posted. Curious?
Way oil should do fine.

Below is a link to a thread about an 8" Phase II RT. There may be some info that will help you there.








						Rotary table problem
					

Bought a beautiful new 8 inch Phase II rotary table, very pleased with it.  And then --- disaster --- one time as I was lifting the heavy and oily table, every so carefully, to the mill table ---- somehow it slipped from my grasp and fell to the concrete floor.  No apparent damage to the...




					www.hobby-machinist.com


----------



## Alcap

My I make a suggestion, while your making T slot nuts make a few extra long so if you have large parts to machine they can become “ outriggers “ for clamping blocks .  Also I have the same rotary table if you look close at the pointer i machined the outer edge so the pointer could be moved to Zero with relative to the table T slots.   Edit : This wasn’t the picture of how I used the longer T slot nuts I guess I didn’t take a picture of that .


----------



## Parlo

finsruskw said:


> Making some TEE nuts for the rotary table I snagged yesterday.
> Will get them drilled and threaded tomorrow. Spent a few hours cleaning and polishing the table and I think it turned out well. Sure looks a lot better than when I got it home!
> Still have the underside to do yet and I'd like to take it apart and clean the inner workings and re-lube.
> There is a drain port on one side of it.
> What kind of oil should I use?
> Now, if I only knew how to use this piece of equipment!!


Here's is a link to a complete setup system you might consider for quick accurate setting of the rotary table and locating parts to be machined.


----------



## finsruskw

Alcap said:


> My I make a suggestion, while your making T slot nuts make a few extra long so if you have large parts to machine they can become “ outriggers “ for clamping blocks .  Also I have the same rotary table if you look close at the pointer i machined the outer edge so the pointer could be moved to Zero with relative to the table T slots.   Edit : This wasn’t the picture of how I used the longer T slot nuts I guess I didn’t take a picture of that .


Will do! And thanks!
Looks like the bolts/holes will have to be at least 3/8"
Was thinking 7/16 but there is not much meat in the tee leg for that.
Did these comem with 3/8 nuts or was that stuff all aftemarket?
May have been metric as well I suppose.


----------



## wachuko

So I took a few days off work to try to finish the milling machine... VFD and Maxi Torque Rite install... But looks like my wife had other plans for me...

Instead I spent the day building two planters... 18"x24"x108" each

Sweet potatoes on one side (last year we did well with those in large pots, figured we would do better in a larger planter this year) and one for yautia (taro/malanga).










Wife and father-in-law planting...




I did finish the drawbar and installed it during the afternoon yesterday... but nothing got done today in the garage... uff...




Maxi Torque Rite bolted in place... now to find a place to install the switches so I can run the air lines...


----------



## woodchucker

smart man, happy wife, happy life.


----------



## GoceKU

Last few days i've been spending the little free time i have in the garage working on the Scenic. Part by part i managed to put it together and get it fired up. It has great oil pressure and seems to run even on all 4 cylinders, i fill the cooling system with coolant and let it run to get all the air out of the cooling system. I also run it on LPG and seams to run good on it also. I have few thing to fix on it from under it but i think i'll drive it over the inspection pit. It will be easier than the oil soak concrete it now on.


----------



## woodchucker

does it run without modifications on LPG?  Do you have an LPG tank on that car?


----------



## GoceKU

Its been converted to run on LPG, it's a common conversion here because of the price of fuel. Engine is not modified, it has additional fuel system with a propane tank in the spare tire well.


----------



## Parlo

finsruskw said:


> Will do! And thanks!
> Looks like the bolts/holes will have to be at least 3/8"
> Was thinking 7/16 but there is not much meat in the tee leg for that.
> Did these comem with 3/8 nuts or was that stuff all aftemarket?
> May have been metric as well I suppose.


If it suits the rt, you could make the heel on the clamps longer to go to the bottom of the tee slot to protect the table face.


----------



## Parlo

extropic said:


> Interesting. Please keep sharing the progress.
> 
> Is that a plastic material (as opposed to a white paint)?
> 
> I assume the copper inserts are tubing. What diameter (for scale reference)?


I've finished the prototype joint, here are some images.


----------



## dkemppai

francist said:


> Is that all there is to those, just a spring inside like that? I obviously don’t use or own one let alone have never seen the guts before...


Yep. Found out by spinning one of mine at WAAAAYYYY to fast! VFD for the high speed spindle is setup with a 'jog' switch for low speed edge finding. Lets just say I didn't hit the right switch to turn on the spindle for edge finding. 

At over 16K RPM these don't work as edge finders. They act as diarrhea inducers!  

I did find the tip, and no, it wasn't embedded in a wall.  Just reassembled the thing, and it's been fine ever since.


----------



## dkemppai

Parlo said:


> The wood is Oak with an Osmo wax finish.


Nice

Do you like the Osmo?  (Have a table project coming up sometime soon. Looking at that or Rubio as a possible finish.)


----------



## Parlo

dkemppai said:


> Nice
> 
> Do you like the Osmo?  (Have a table project coming up sometime soon. Looking at that or Rubio as a possible finish.)


I love it.. The colour on the images is Antique Oak hardwax over Europpean Oak. although it can be expensive it goeas a really long way, I just rub it in with a kitchen scouring sponge. Providing the wood is not too smooth ( go to 150 grit ) and rubbed in sparingly it is so easy to use. They do cheap small sachets samples for testing the colour on your wood. I've used it a lot on Birch ply, here are a couple of pieces also in Antique Oak on Birch ply over a meduim Oak spirit based stain, I haven't used Rubio before.


----------



## wachuko

Now at home and at its resting place... will remove the pallet later.  New electrical plug installed.  First owner never took the plastic wrapping off... now I get to do that... what a pita... 




Air filter was a solid piece of gunk...




But I wanted to tested... so made a temporary filter from a 3M pad... Just to get it running at take a short video...







Well... it works...






Now to change the oil, replace o-ring on the oil fill plug, get new air filter, regulator, separator... also want to change the bottom valve for something that will make it easier to drain the tank.


----------



## Steve-F

Awesome score!!!! And it's a belt drive and not  an oil-less too. Now you can test drive the power drawbar


----------



## woodchucker

NOOOOOOO. scotchbrite has abrasive and some of it releases when new...
I keep felt around for a filter, and for one run you are better off with nothing than abrasive.

edit: My opinion, keep your pallets, you bought a pallet jack.. just fix that pallet up a little.


----------



## wachuko

woodchucker said:


> NOOOOOOO. scotchbrite has abrasive and some of it releases when new...
> I keep felt around for a filter, and for one run you are better off with nothing than abrasive.


Ooppss.... will remove it.  On my way to buy a replacement filter for it.

EDIT: Could not find it locally.... ordered from Amazon and should be here this Friday... But removed the scotch brite pad…


----------



## Winegrower

wachuko said:


> also want to change the bottom valve for something that will make it easier to drain the tank.


Look into automatic drain systems.   I added one that can be programmed for all kinds of operations...I set mine so that whenever the compressor comes on, it gives a 4 second drain cycle.    And I put in a remote compressor switch, because the thing lives outside under a shed roof where it can make all the noise it wants.


----------



## wachuko

Steve-F said:


> ...Now you can test drive the power drawbar


Exactly!!!

Sounds loud in the video... it is actually quieter than the one I have in Orlando....


----------



## WobblyHand

Did the tank have water in it?  If so, you ought to inspect inside for corrosion.  High pressure and a corroded tank is a disaster waiting to happen.  Don't want to be a damper, you got a great score, but long term standing water in a steel pressure tank is not good at all.  That's why regularly blowing down the tank is important, or getting a gizmo that does it automatically.


----------



## Firstram

BladesIIB said:


> I appreciate the tip. I try to be safe in the shop and never intend to demonstrate anything that is not safe. Not a tool I use often and had not considered that happening. Will be more thoughtful next time. Thanks!





woodchucker said:


> I know you were not demonstrating, this was just to you so you are aware. Those things follow the grain sometimes, you had the gun pointed the correct way.. if you had it 90 off it would definitely have followed the grain.  Even in ply.



Blades, to expand on Woodchucker's comment about nail gun direction. Most small gun nails have a chisel point, turn the gun so the point cuts through the grain rather than wedge between the fibers. The direction varies between brands and nail gauges. I have an arrow drawn on the head of all my trim guns to indicate the chisel direction. Back when I was trimming houses I couldn't get the guys to grasp the concept that a brad nailer was 90° off from the finish nailer.

Nice storage rack!


----------



## AGCB97

I hated the dinky air filter that was on my old and new air compressor. I made a custom fitting for the head and mounted a round flat car filter on the wall and connected with a 2" flex hose.


----------



## dkemppai

AGCB97 said:


> I hated the dinky air filter that was on my old and new air compressor. I made a custom fitting for the head and mounted a round flat car filter on the wall and connected with a 2" flex hose.


Nice idea. My IR 60 gallon has a round filter screwed on, so better than many. But nowhere near as large as that! 

You have any snow on the ground down there in Iron Mountain?


----------



## AGCB97

Had about 20" till the rain. Now some of it is ice. Not melting though


----------



## davek181

A lot of compressor noise comes from the intake.  If you can stick it on the other side of the wall it would help dampen some noise.  My intake and filter is 15 feet from the compressor


----------



## dkemppai

AGCB97 said:


> Had about 20" till the rain. Now some of it is ice. Not melting though


It never melts fast enough! 

We're still close to 3 feet, even after the rain. 3/8" of rain drizzling down in 25F air didn't melt much here.  Just made a sheet of ice on everything.


----------



## wachuko

WobblyHand said:


> Did the tank have water in it?  If so, you ought to inspect inside for corrosion.  High pressure and a corroded tank is a disaster waiting to happen.  Don't want to be a damper, you got a great score, but long term standing water in a steel pressure tank is not good at all.  That's why regularly blowing down the tank is important, or getting a gizmo that does it automatically.


No water.  All good on that front..


----------



## davek181

Made a couple of knobs to replace the original X axis locks.  Everyone says they are awkward to use and will get broken off, etc.  Me I say "oh no, I am careful, they aren't any trouble."  I decided to replace them since I figured the knobs would be easier to use.  When I took them off to replicate, one of them was bent somehow.


----------



## wachuko

Winegrower said:


> Look into automatic drain systems.   I added one that can be programmed for all kinds of operations...I set mine so that whenever the compressor comes on, it gives a 4 second drain cycle.    And I put in a remote compressor switch, because the thing lives outside under a shed roof where it can make all the noise it wants.



The one they had at the local HomeDepot was 86.00...  I will install a 5.00 valve for now... 10.00 when I added the elbow and 4" pipe...


----------



## woodchucker

Needed to support an upcoming project while working on it.  I'll explain later, but I can't put a center on it, so I came up with another method.
I made my own center that will work off a feature on the project. I will put it in the tailstock chuck to hold, and hopefully, 
I created a radius tool, and need to add a part off and facing to that radius tool to be able to do 3 operations with one op.  Or do multiple tool changes, and have to flip all the parts and face, and chamfer


----------



## wachuko

woodchucker said:


> Needed to support an upcoming project while working on it.  I'll explain later, but I can't put a center on it, so I came up with another method.
> I made my own center that will work off a feature on the project. I will put it in the tailstock chuck to hold, and hopefully,
> I created a radius tool, and need to add a part off and facing to that radius tool to be able to do 3 operations with one op.  Or do multiple tool changes, and have to flip all the parts and face, and chamfer
> 
> View attachment 399662
> View attachment 399663
> View attachment 399664



One of those times I wish I could watch what you are doing... Just to learn.  

Center tool looks great!


----------



## woodchucker

wachuko said:


> One of those times I wish I could watch what you are doing... Just to learn.
> 
> Center tool looks great!


Hey, I'm a newbie too, only been machining since 2014.. before that it was all hacksaw, files, grinders, welding, screws, and bolts... to make anything.
I think it's just that I have been building things since I was a kid.. now, I'm just a bigger kid with a lot of history.


----------



## woodchucker

Here's a shot of the tool that parts off, chamfers the parted off piece, and then radiuses the new piece.. one op, three operations.


----------



## woodchucker

woodchucker said:


> Here's a shot of the tool that parts off, chamfers the parted off piece, and then radiuses the new piece.. one op, three operations.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 399688


BTW forgot to mention, I had to start with a new piece. I made a mistake creating the radius first...
The important thing is the parting and chamfer. They are critical in the timing. you want to chamfer just before the parting finishes. I am heavily steering the part to remove the nib on the cut off piece..  The radius is on the new piece so it's set back after the more important timing ops. I hope this works on the real material, I tested using 6061, the real material is O1..  The centering piece that I made earlier will center/hold the domed end of the new piece while I thread the long thread on O1..  The center will/should give me enough room to enter the material for threading.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i finally found some time to do some work on the scenic. First on the list was to lower it down on its wheels fire it up and drive it to the small garage over the inspection pit. It's getting very cold and the small garage is heated also with the inspection pit i'll have much better access to things under it. The drive was uneventful i found out it's leaking engine oil and gearbox oil now also some coolant. I wanted to get some work done but i did not have lots of time so i tackle the easiest. The easiest was to fix the stereo it wouldn't play sound it only whispers on one speaker. So i removed the front speakers and found that someone has upgraded the fronts to JBL 's. Then i removed the stereo and upon further inspection i found a black box behind it it had an aerial wire so i know it wasn't factory installed also had diodes on the orange wires, so i took the cover off and seen a simple circuit board so it's not a GPS tracker And figure out that is the remote for the central locking. Remove the stereo and took it on a bench by looking at the plug wire colors i know something is not right then i looked at the connector and found pioneer written on it and the unit is Sony. And a quick google image search i found the speaker wires on the sony are up and down and on this connector wire left and right. I moved them around and now it works. I also burned me a new CD and it works as well. Its the small things sometimes that annoy me like not having a working stereo in rush hour. The fuel prices are getting insanely high, full monthly paycheck to fill both of my daily drivers with diesel.


----------



## woodchucker

woodchucker said:


> OK, forgot about yesterday's CAR FUBAR...  My wife's Toy Rav 4 2017 threw errors saying it could not activate all wheel drive, reverting to 2 WD 2 weeks ago, but she was up at my son's helping with a Colicky grand daughter. She set up an apt for Monday. I get a call that the problem is it needs a new gas cap, that's why it won't go into AWD. I'm like do I look stupid to you.. ? He says no really the pre-check pressurizes the system and it's failing. So why does it turn off the AWD... He says no idea, it is stupid. How much... $135... For a gas cap? No $35 for the gas cap, and $100 to read the diagnostics.  Are you Fing ****ting me?
> 
> WTF are they thinking? It's like disabling the headlights because you have a canopy light out.  Arsehats design cars these days. Anything to make a buck.


Well the saga continues. Wife goes out and the car throws the same error..
Brings it in to Toyota and they tell us that a mouse has made a home by the gas tank infill and chewed through the hose.  part is on back order, $420  ... for an infill pipe??? WTF.. 860 installed. I can install it myself, but still.....  And why does it have to disable All wheel drive????
They tell me to talk to insurance...


----------



## GoceKU

woodchucker said:


> Well the saga continues. Wife goes out and the car throws the same error..
> Brings it in to Toyota and they tell us that a mouse has made a home by the gas tank infill and chewed through the hose.  part is on back order, $420  ... for an infill pipe??? WTF.. 860 installed. I can install it myself, but still.....  And why does it have to disable All wheel drive????
> They tell me to talk to insurance...


I hate when manufacture do that, when the check engine light is on it shut down the A/C or other accessories, you are half way there remove the filler and fix it, there is many epoxies that are gasoline resistant like JB weld clean it glue it and don't worry about it.


----------



## brino

So the gas cap that they already replaced was fine.
The "leak" was due to the mouse, not the cap.

So, Why didn't they test the old gas cap?
It would have saved you the bad diagnosis and the second trip!

Brian


----------



## woodchucker

brino said:


> So the gas cap that they already replaced was fine.
> The "leak" was due to the mouse, not the cap.
> 
> So, Why didn't they test the old gas cap?
> It would have saved you the bad diagnosis and the second trip!
> 
> Brian


they are saying the gas cap was bad, that it was 6 weeks ago, but I don't think that's the case... I agree.


----------



## davek181

I have worked on import cars for a living longer than I care to admit and the Evaporative emission code is the last code you want to see.  The leak detection sounds off if it fails the test.  The test is equivalent to  .040' hole over ten minutes time or something like that.  really hard to find.  You can't see the leak, hear the leak, maybe smell it if lucky.  I have chased gas caps as being the problem more than once so the first thing to do is that.  Fixes it more than not, and anything more is really hard.  If you don't use a factory cap that can cause the problem by itself.  there is no reliable test for the cap.

Why they kill AWD I don't know.  Subaru wipes out cruise control.  I think they try to force you to fix it.  I wouldn't be surprised the EPA might have required some more reason than just the light.

If you can fix the leak with JB weld, that might be all you need to do.  I would try it.  If it does cure it you have to reset the code, but any parts house has a reader and can do that.  We reset and read for free here.  Sometimes you want to see a code at least twice before diving right in and found it better to wait for the code to repeat.

Often the code reset requires two key cycles to return.  The Cap may have preceded  the rodent problem.


----------



## woodchucker

GoceKU said:


> I hate when manufacture do that, when the check engine light is on it shut down the A/C or other accessories, you are half way there remove the filler and fix it, there is many epoxies that are gasoline resistant like JB weld clean it glue it and don't worry about it.


I wish I could, but we park in the garage, And if the car ever goes up in flames and wipes out the house, I am sure my claim would be denied.

it's that .01% that I'm not going to risk. I would like to live out my days comfortably.


----------



## Winegrower

GoceKU said:


> the speaker wires on the sony are up and down and on this connector wire left and right. I moved them around and now it works.


This is the kind of stuff that impresses me about you!


----------



## GoceKU

davek181 said:


> I have worked on import cars for a living longer than I care to admit and the Evaporative emission code is the last code you want to see.  The leak detection sounds off if it fails the test.  The test is equivalent to  .040' hole over ten minutes time or something like that.  really hard to find.  You can't see the leak, hear the leak, maybe smell it if lucky.  I have chased gas caps as being the problem more than once so the first thing to do is that.  Fixes it more than not, and anything more is really hard.  If you don't use a factory cap that can cause the problem by itself.  there is no reliable test for the cap.
> 
> Why they kill AWD I don't know.  Subaru wipes out cruise control.  I think they try to force you to fix it.  I wouldn't be surprised the EPA might have required some more reason than just the light.
> 
> If you can fix the leak with JB weld, that might be all you need to do.  I would try it.  If it does cure it you have to reset the code, but any parts house has a reader and can do that.  We reset and read for free here.  Sometimes you want to see a code at least twice before diving right in and found it better to wait for the code to repeat.
> 
> Often the code reset requires two key cycles to return.  The Cap may have preceded  the rodent problem.


Newer cars with all their emission controls are getting out of control, the other day i got a call from a friend to change an oxygen sensor on a BMW, that car has 8 oxygen sensors 4 catalytic converters and a check engine light that is always illuminated, that is why i like my cars a bit older, it also helps that here we don't have emission control still.


----------



## davek181

Diagnosing a newer BMW with the factory tool, it requires you to repair each fault as you go or it won't procede with the test.  This includes body controllers too, and on a modern fancy dressed Beemer there can be 100 controllers for the whole car.

Back in the old days we would make a spacer that screwed into the factory hole.  18mx1.25 if I remember, and then thread the same hole in the spacer, and screw the O2 in there.  It just spaced the sensor further from the action and dulled it's senses enough not to cry foul all the time.

just trying to maintain a machinability direction in the thread and not turn it into a car forum, although I don't mind that talk at all either.


----------



## woodchucker

GoceKU said:


> Newer cars with all their emission controls are getting out of control, the other day i got a call from a friend to change an oxygen sensor on a BMW, that car has 8 oxygen sensors 4 catalytic converters and a check engine light that is always illuminated, that is why i like my cars a bit older, it also helps that here we don't have emission control still.


4 catalytic converters???? 1 or 2 fine... 4???


----------



## GoceKU

woodchucker said:


> 4 catalytic converters???? 1 or 2 fine... 4???


Yes and it's only a euro 4 standards


----------



## davek181

I had one come in once with two primary O2 wire connectors mixed up and plugged into the wrong sensor.  Didn't code, ran mostly ok, but not really.  Took a while to find the problem.  had two sensors in different places in the same manifold and it confused the ECU as to fuel management per cylinder.


----------



## GoceKU

Here the biggest problem is bad mechanics. To fix one thing they break three others. The shaff i've seen and heard incompetent mechanics do its scary.


----------



## dkemppai

woodchucker said:


> Well the saga continues. Wife goes out and the car throws the same error..
> Brings it in to Toyota and they tell us that a mouse has made a home by the gas tank infill and chewed through the hose.  part is on back order, $420  ... for an infill pipe??? WTF.. 860 installed. I can install it myself, but still.....  And why does it have to disable All wheel drive????
> They tell me to talk to insurance...





			https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075CNJDHJ
		


There'll be green pellets hauled around, for a while. 

A lot of guys make a T out of 2" pipe, with a cap on the middle leg of the T. Then put the bait there. That keeps pets and other larger critters from getting into them. 

You probably don't need a 5gal pail...   ...But I've seen the better part of 4 lbs go away before the problem goes away.


----------



## woodchucker

dkemppai said:


> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075CNJDHJ
> 
> 
> 
> There'll be green pellets hauled around, for a while.
> 
> A lot of guys make a T out of 2" pipe, with a cap on the middle leg of the T. Then put the bait there. That keeps pets and other larger critters from getting into them.
> 
> You probably don't need a 5gal pail...   ...But I've seen the better part of 4 lbs go away before the problem goes away.


my problem with that is the animals that eat them die.  my neighbors dog is a little terrier that hunts the squirrels, and mice. I don't want to kill her.


----------



## jwmay

Put a new knob on the work lathe.


----------



## Dan Krager

Finished machining a clone cutter head for a size I did not have, could not find, and could not afford if I did stumble into it.  This 9/16" cutter head is for a Stanley 77 dowel cutter.  The internal threads were a challenge since it was my first time cutting away from the head on the back side.  That technique seemed desirable because of the few threads being cut. The bolt that holds the cutter head is an antique size that McMaster Carr happened to have a tap for, 12-24 and they got it to southern Indiana in less than 24 hours!  Wow!  Yes, pricey. I was practicing "precision" games and am pleased with the outcome. It cuts beautifully and is a good workout.
DanK


----------



## Doug Gray

So yesterday morning the fabrication shop manager hands me a broken bolt.
Can you make this?
         Sure
We need it overnight
         Ok
We need two
         No problem (secretly sweating do I have any suitable material?)

This is a bolt that holds a cable pulley inside the boom of a zoom boom.
I did up a drawing just for my person use, good drawings make good parts.
For the lathe work I did a double ender, this works great.... refine your dial setting for a fearture on the first side then flip and the second side is a no brainer.
I held the work in a collet chuck to mill the hex.
I was able to deliver this morning, customer is happy and I get some insert money.
Thanks for looking


----------



## Parlo

Nice job, I would have cheated, tapping the end and inserting a grub screw tight then cutting the end off. Would be a nice high tensile thread. Probably not for a customer though.


----------



## woodchucker

woodchucker said:


> Well the saga continues. Wife goes out and the car throws the same error..
> Brings it in to Toyota and they tell us that a mouse has made a home by the gas tank infill and chewed through the hose.  part is on back order, $420  ... for an infill pipe??? WTF.. 860 installed. I can install it myself, but still.....  And why does it have to disable All wheel drive????
> They tell me to talk to insurance...


well, I decided to take a look... First, they never properly re-assembled it. 3 plastic nuts and 2 plastic push button screws missing. Fing crappy mechanics...
Left all the mouse **** in there. 
I vacuumed it out, the hose was completely eaten... my original feeling and yours that the gas cap was not the problem is confirmed by my findings. I guess they hoped it would solve it.  Anyway, went to a different dealer and we were looking over the parts. I saw what I needed, but there were 4 different sets of parts for my wife's vehicle.   I said I'll take that, he said he could not sell it to me without the vin... And it's on backorder. Looking at the parts it looks the same.. There's one part that $768... Holly Shnikes... as my son used to say when he was little.  I go back to the car, and my wife has the VIN so I walk back in... Nope, I need the whole assembly... I don't want the whole assembly, I only need the plastic tubing... I can't sell it to  you.

F.. so off to tractor supply. I had a measurement of the outter diameter of the tube 16mm or .628.. close enough to 1/2 id I figure.  So I buy a couple of 1/2 to 1/2 barbed connectors, and a 1/2 tubing by the foot. They only had vinyl braided  in 1/2 but WTH...
I pick up some JB Weld for plastic  just in case... At home I have some stretch and seal silicone tape... It fuses to itself... I should have all I need.. hopefully.
Get home and only need the 1/2 barb and the stretch and seal.  I cut the hose apart took out the bad section put the barb in, wrap it in the silicone so that it seals. The solid end is a good fit but the corrugated is loose to I figured the stretch and seal should make  a good seal.  
didn't take a pic of the final, but damn toyota...   If I get another error, I'll see about ordering the part online, maybe I can get past the VIN nazis.


----------



## matthewsx

wachuko said:


> The one they had at the local HomeDepot was 86.00...  I will install a 5.00 valve for now... 10.00 when I added the elbow and 4" pipe...


I also got a free compressor, 5hp, 2 stage, 80 gal. The pressure switch failed so I replaced it with a 125psi to give me a little safety margin.

 For a drain I put a fitting at the bottom and fixed the valve on the side of my workbench with tubing run to a convenient spot. 

John


----------



## brino

woodchucker said:


> I go back to the car, and my wife has the VIN so I walk back in... Nope, I need the whole assembly... I don't want the whole assembly, I only need the plastic tubing... I can't sell it to you.
> 
> F.. so off to tractor supply.



Good for you Jeff, NOT giving the (ridiculous amount of) money to the dealership!

/rant on/
They over price the parts and as you've seen the workers don't do a proper job:
i) they sell you an over-priced gas cap, just hoping that's the issue, without checking it! causing a return visit,
ii) they don't even clean up the mouse mess,
iii) they do NOT replace all the plastic fasteners that the designers say should be there?
Three strikes!

If they won't sell me the $5.00 part I need then they'll never get to sell me anything else again, ever!!!
....and I don't buy the "I can't sell it to you" either.... they are just trying to protect there "business" of getting people bent over the barrel!

I hate useless scum-sucking jack-holes like this!

/rant off/

Brian


----------



## wachuko

matthewsx said:


> I also got a free compressor, 5hp, 2 stage, 80 gal. The pressure switch failed so I replaced it with a 125psi to give me a little safety margin.
> 
> For a drain I put a fitting at the bottom and fixed the valve on the side of my workbench with tubing run to a convenient spot.
> 
> John


That is a good idea... 

I left it like this for now...  Could not find a brass elbow... will replace that at a later time.


----------



## Gaffer

wachuko said:


> That is a good idea...
> 
> I left it like this for now...  Could not find a brass elbow... will replace that at a later time.
> 
> View attachment 399987


That works. I recommend you move the valve to the other end of the pipe so you don’t have to reach under the compressor. It makes it much easier to drain it.


----------



## wachuko

Gaffer said:


> That works. I recommend you move the valve to the other end of the pipe so you don’t have to reach under the compressor. It makes it much easier to drain it.





Facepalm: the gesture of placing the palm of one's hand across the face, as to express embarrassment, frustration, disbelief, etc.


----------



## Navy Chief

wachuko said:


> That is a good idea...
> 
> I left it like this for now... Could not find a brass elbow... will replace that at a later time.
> 
> View attachment 399987


If I could make a suggestion, it is easier to drain the tank if you put the valve after the extension pipe so it is easier to reach. 

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk


----------



## savarin

brino said:


> /rant on/
> They over price the parts and as you've seen the workers don't do a proper job:


my forester is only 6 years old, never been off road only done 29825 kms.
Had to replace 1 rear wheel bearing yesterday with 1 GENUINE SUBARU WHEEL BEARING $342.05
It wont last as it must be made of solid gold at that price and gold is too soft.


----------



## wachuko

Navy Chief said:


> If I could make a suggestion, it is easier to drain the tank if you put the valve after the extension pipe so it is easier to reach.
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk


Just keep rubbing it in... yeah...  I have always mentioned that, given two options/alternatives, I go for the more complex one... 

I now know! I now know!!  Goodness... what an ability to complicate my life!!!    I could have had the valve installed at the END of the pipe... making easier for me to reach it....   What a dumbass... 

Double facepalm it is!


----------



## matthewsx

wachuko said:


> That is a good idea...
> 
> I left it like this for now...  Could not find a brass elbow... will replace that at a later time.
> 
> View attachment 399987


All you need is a couple of sharkbite fittings, a little hose and a way to fix the valve where you want it.


----------



## woodchucker

savarin said:


> my forester is only 6 years old, never been off road only done 29825 kms.
> Had to replace 1 rear wheel bearing yesterday with 1 GENUINE SUBARU WHEEL BEARING $342.05
> It wont last as it must be made of solid gold at that price and gold is too soft.


I had a subaru.. I had both front wheel bearings fail. I brought it in and they told me it was fine... 3 times I kept telling them when I turn it is rubbing and sounds like it's grinding away.  The third time they figured it out (wtf didn't they figure it out earlier, they are known for bearing failures)... over 650 back in 2001... they asked why I didn't bring it in sooner. WTF...  the other side went a few months later... same stupid thing... nothing wrong... I told them it was a bearing, they told me it was fine... 
At 120k the service manager said my head gasket would go... mine went at 110k..    The car was great in snow, in Colorado I could fly down the highway pass the snow plows, and all the SUVs. But I will not own another due to the low quality.  My Hondas and Toyotas have been pretty much bullet proof.

Should I mention my clutch flew apart in traffic.  I'm sitting in traffic and the rivets blew out, and plates came off and the spring steel from the hub to the disk was all bent up... They had never seen anything like it...  When they gave it back to me, my pedal went to the floor, I had no spring return to neutral it just flopped around like a dead fish..  

I could go on.


----------



## FOMOGO

Brian, why don't you tell us how you really feel? I can totally relate, and would never take anything I owned to a dealer, or anyone else for that matter, but many don't have that option. I would suggest trying an independent shop, for anyone not doing their own work, and Brian, buddy, I probably have a Valium around here somewhere, if it would help.  

Quote: I hate useless scum-sucking jack-holes like this!


----------



## brino

FOMOGO said:


> Brian, why don't you tell us how you really feel? I can totally relate, and would never take anything I owned to a dealer, or anyone else for that matter, but many don't have that option. I would suggest trying an independent shop, for anyone not doing their own work, and Brian, buddy, I probably have a Valium around here somewhere, if it would help.



Thanks Mike.
After some time in my shop and (with no equipment running) a beer I feel much better.  
....so no valium required.

I just have a low tolerance for useless people, or worse useless companies set-up to take advantage of people.
They pretend to add value, but in the long run........well they just don't!
It's hard to think of it as anything but abuse.

A local, independent shop with good recommendations is a great alternative.
I use a couple near me for tire balancing and alignments.... things with equipment more specialized than I can afford or (more honestly) house.
Find one you can trust and stick with them.

Brian

PS: Although building a dynamic tire balancer sounds like a fun challenge..... what parts do I have? is an arduino enough hp? ...hmmm.....


----------



## woodchucker

woodchucker said:


> Needed to support an upcoming project while working on it.  I'll explain later, but I can't put a center on it, so I came up with another method.
> I made my own center that will work off a feature on the project. I will put it in the tailstock chuck to hold, and hopefully,
> I created a radius tool, and need to add a part off and facing to that radius tool to be able to do 3 operations with one op.  Or do multiple tool changes, and have to flip all the parts and face, and chamfer
> 
> View attachment 399662
> View attachment 399663
> View attachment 399664


Well this didn't work well. The brass is too soft. The tip is mushrooming.. and not holding the part... I'll try Stainless and redo it. Also instead of drilling the tip for a pocket, I'll try a ball endmill to create the pocket. So it will be shallow and hopefully that will work.  And the timing on the tooling I made is parting it before it chamfers, so I have to re-adjust that too.  if that doesn't work, I have one more idea...


----------



## brino

woodchucker said:


> I had a subaru... But I will not own another due to the low quality.



Jeff, I gave your previous post a frowny face, but only because there are two Subarus in my drive way right now!
My son has a 2011 Impreza and my wife has a 2015 Forester.
I am hoping that the quality has improved since your experiences.

Both seem great on slippery roads, and have had only regular maintenance (oil, brakes, headlights, etc.)

Brian


----------



## wachuko

brino said:


> Jeff, I gave your previous post a frowny face, but only because there are two Subarus in my drive way right now!
> My son has a 2011 Impreza and my wife has a 2015 Forester.
> I am hoping that the quality has improved since your experiences.
> 
> Both seem great on slippery roads, and have had only regular maintenance (oil, brakes, headlights, etc.)
> 
> Brian


There is a 2018 Crosstrek in our driveway as well… We gave it to our son.  I sure hope nothing goes wrong with it… we bought it thinking that was it for him… next one he could buy it himself when he got out of college and started working…


----------



## savarin

My first forester a 2004 model is still going strong in my daughters hands. I gave it to her when I purchased this one. Its never had a problem.
So this one is my second, I purchased it because out of all the suvs I tried this one was the most comfy for my buggered back.
I had a starting problem a month ago and took it to the battery shop suspecting a duff battery, they said there was nothing wrong, it must be the electrics.
Took it to a local specialist for suburus (not a dealership) who quickly ran a number of tests, its definitely the battery so it was replaced. No more electrical problems.
Its also worn all the bushes to failure on the suspension units. This specialist said my year of vehicle had these problems from day one but they were corrected on the next model, this doesnt help me.
I am totally sick of all the rampant greed in big business. FFS, all these car manufacturers know how to design a car correctly so why are we still having all these manufactured defects built in if not for corporate greed.


----------



## woodchucker

brino said:


> Jeff, I gave your previous post a frowny face, but only because there are two Subarus in my drive way right now!
> My son has a 2011 Impreza and my wife has a 2015 Forester.
> I am hoping that the quality has improved since your experiences.
> 
> Both seem great on slippery roads, and have had only regular maintenance (oil, brakes, headlights, etc.)
> 
> Brian


No worries Brian, I don't take it personally. I use them all the time, it might be the subject, the situation, the results... 
Everyone is entitled to their opinion...  And sometimes a frown, or wow are good.


----------



## savarin

More examples of the creed of greed in full blown action


----------



## Navy Chief

wachuko said:


> Just keep rubbing it in... yeah... I have always mentioned that, given two options/alternatives, I go for the more complex one...
> 
> I now know! I now know!! Goodness... what an ability to complicate my life!!!  I could have had the valve installed at the END of the pipe... making easier for me to reach it.... What a dumbass...
> 
> Double facepalm it is!
> 
> View attachment 400014


I think @Gaffer and I were typing the same thing at the same time.... 

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk


----------



## Navy Chief

savarin said:


> My first forester a 2004 model is still going strong in my daughters hands. I gave it to her when I purchased this one. Its never had a problem.
> So this one is my second, I purchased it because out of all the suvs I tried this one was the most comfy for my buggered back.
> I had a starting problem a month ago and took it to the battery shop suspecting a duff battery, they said there was nothing wrong, it must be the electrics.
> Took it to a local specialist for suburus (not a dealership) who quickly ran a number of tests, its definitely the battery so it was replaced. No more electrical problems.
> Its also worn all the bushes to failure on the suspension units. This specialist said my year of vehicle had these problems from day one but they were corrected on the next model, this doesnt help me.
> I am totally sick of all the rampant greed in big business. FFS, all these car manufacturers know how to design a car correctly so why are we still having all these manufactured defects built in if not for corporate greed.


The problem is corporate greed globally at every level of the supply chain. The car manufacturer creates a design and specs what they feel is an acceptable level of components, they outsource making almost all of those components. Those manufacturers build those components to the lowest acceptable standard with materials from another source that are the lowest acceptable standard and on down the line. The result is the final product has unanticipated issues due to everyone cutting corners ..

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk


----------



## GoceKU

Today i had to do some emergency repairs on the Astra it had issues with its headlights, i tried to make a temporary repair with delay relay but no luck i need to find a way to to get the car pass code for this car. On an other note I went out and bought me 1,5m of new fuel line for the scenic, it's surprising what the factory used for fuel lines.


----------



## Doug Gray

Set of eight drive shafts for a mobile concrete plant. From 1 1/2" diameter 1045.
Nice paying gig for my tiny basement shop. Good fun.


----------



## woodchucker

Been working on a solution for the long threading I need to do. I was going to put 2 bearings behind the center that I made to hold the dome of the screw. But after thinking about it, and getting pretty far along, I decided maybe I should make a proper follow rest. The southbend follow rest is far away from the cutting tip.  Since I'm cutting screws I am going to use ball bearings, they are hard enough to resist the sawing action of the screw.  The follow rest will be mounted on the right side of the carriage, but travel over it using angle irons to the left side in line with the tooling. I'll make that adjustable.  

LAST NIGHT: I replaced my 2" indicator with my cheap HF indicator. It's been accurate... I didn't have room for the 2" on the lathe ways, I wanted a stop point for threading.  I put the HF on... I just got done with dinner and I see the plastic cover (crystal) is smashed. Lucky me, I don't feel bad losing a HF indicator. Not sure what happened, but better than the 2" or the Federal that I normally move in there.  Whew...


----------



## snoopdog

I needed a carriage stop in my life, so had an old antenna mount and some scrap. Certainly not a precision project, and improvements will come, probably....


----------



## woodchucker

snoopdog said:


> I needed a carriage stop in my life, so had an old antenna mount and some scrap. Certainly not a precision project, and improvements will come, probably....


Hey Snoopdog, what kind of lathe is that?


----------



## snoopdog

woodchucker said:


> Hey Snoopdog, what kind of lathe is that?


Its a Central, Enco Grizzly copy, just brought it home a few weeks ago, 500! I need to find a 4 jaw chuck.


----------



## Navy Chief

snoopdog said:


> Its a Central, Enco Grizzly copy, just brought it home a few weeks ago, 500! I need to find a 4 jaw chuck.


I have the same lathe in 12x24, just picked it up a few weeks ago. really happy with it so far. I got lucky mine came with a 8 inch Bison 4 jaw chuck. I didn't get lucky on the QCTP though, mine came with the factory 4 way.


----------



## Navy Chief

Too cold to be in the shop handling freezing metal parts and tools today (23F/-5C) so I sketched up a indicator holder in Fusion 360 for my lathe and 3d printed the prototype. Came out to a perfect fit on the first try, sometimes you get lucky I guess. When it is warm enough in the shop to work out there it will get made from aluminum for the final, although the 3d printed version is stout enough to use.


----------



## snoopdog

Navy Chief said:


> I have the same lathe in 12x24, just picked it up a few weeks ago. really happy with it so far. I got lucky mine came with a 8 inch Bison 4 jaw chuck. I didn't get lucky on the QCTP though, mine came with the factory 4 way.


I'm pretty happy with it so far, haven't totally finished installation, leveling yet. Just trying to remember some things and practice a little. It seems I never have the materials I need when I'm puttering to make the things I come up with in my head. On top of that, a new job with varying hours has kept me sorta preoccupied, along with the cattle, and other projects that I had going beforehand.


----------



## woodchucker

snoopdog said:


> Its a Central, Enco Grizzly copy, just brought it home a few weeks ago, 500! I need to find a 4 jaw chuck.


looks good, 12" , 14"??


----------



## snoopdog

woodchucker said:


> looks good, 12" , 14"??


Honestly, I'd have to measure it, but I suspicion 14, I believe the bed is a total 48", but again I'd have to measure


----------



## Navy Chief

snoopdog said:


> I'm pretty happy with it so far, haven't totally finished installation, leveling yet. Just trying to remember some things and practice a little. It seems I never have the materials I need when I'm puttering to make the things I come up with in my head. On top of that, a new job with varying hours has kept me sorta preoccupied, along with the cattle, and other projects that I had going beforehand.


I have only had time to do a few things on it so far, mostly getting it properly setup and correcting some of the issues from the previous owner. I have a little bit of a vibration from what I am 99% sure is the motor. It is a really cheap Chinese motor so probably not worth having rebuilt and balanced. I will probably change the lathe over to a 3 phase motor with a VFD at some point, right now the vibration is just annoying and does not seem to show up in surface finish so I am not in a huge rush right now, will wait for the right deal to come along.


----------



## snoopdog

Couldn' stand the way it was, off kilter when the bolts were tightened, was going to use fully threaded bolts with nuts to stop that. Didnt have any, so made some spacers from an old tranquilizer dart, and added the adjustable rod, old reamer shank. Happy now.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i spent some considerable time working on the scenic. I had to redo the entire exhaust, it was hitting the shifter. Then i replaced the extremely thin factory fuel line, i only kinked it when changing the engine and it started leaking. Replaced it with new rubber line. I also repair some of the wiring zip tied the loose wires and installed a used fog lamp. I had Xenon lights installed but only one was working and they did not fit well so i removed them and installed new philips 1234 bulbs. I still have 3 leaks to fix, coolant, engine oil and gearbox oil. I'm surprised how bad quality the fuel line was, its 0,5mm thick and passes near the front tire.


----------



## snoopdog

woodchucker said:


> looks good, 12" , 14"??


12"


----------



## NCjeeper

My buddy sent me this picture. He wants me to build one for him.


----------



## wachuko

Very cool!!


----------



## Doug Gray

Over the last few days I've been working on a paying gig. These are drive and tail shafts for augers in an underground mining silo.
The job is for two simple shafts 24" long from 2 7/16" diameter 1045 with two holes 90 degrees apart. Also one 15" long with holes and a key-way. I purchased 66" of stock, that comes in at 88 lbs ... quite a struggle to get down the stairs to my tiny shop! I band sawed to length and cleaned up on my 1440 lathe.



Chatter was a huge problem when trying to face. This is one of the 24" shafts it comes in at 32 Lbs.

Next over to the mill/drill. I needed a way to index the holes 90 degrees apart, (my indexing plates only have a 2" capacity) so... I glued a v-block to the end. a v-block just for the nice square sides, it could have been a 123 block or anything with nice square edges. I glued the clamp to the table while I was at it.





This is the Bostik 260, this belonged to my father, I think it is seventies vintage. 110 watts, made in Canada. This is not a dollar store crafting gun. This unit takes about 10 minutes to warm up and causes the lights to dim when you first plug it in. Once warmed up it provides a warm aromatic humming aura to what ever corner of the shop its used in. Releasing the v-block or clamp is a matter of a light rap with a hammer and the item will release clean and the glue pulls off cleanly and easily.




The last shaft needed a 5/8 key way .355 deep. I nibbled at it .050 deep per pass.  Even this light touch shivered the timbers of the Wrong-fu 40 square column mill/drill. 




All in all a profitable and fun time in the shop. Thanks for looking


----------



## GoceKU

Today i continued fixing the scenic, the engine oil leak was an easy fix, oil drain plug was leaking. The coolant also was easy couple of new hose clamps. The gearbox oil leak was a different story, the boot seems to have a bearing and a oil seal inside which is leaking. I had to drain the gearbox oil remove the wheel and remove the entire axle. Then i installed the axle in the spindle so i can remove the inside joint and the inner boot and its bearing. I don't have a spare so it will have to wait. I still had some time so i decided to start on the interior, the steering wheel is a mess, so i found me an identical wheel in better shape but is was also ugly so i saw a leather cover on it. The new wheel is an big upgrade i don't have to touch the old one. I also put the engine bay all together including the air filter.


----------



## WesPete66

Last night I completed a project started last fall (it's been a long winter!).. I completed the backing plate needed to mount my new 4 jaw chuck on my Atlas QC54. I used ductile iron for material.  It's good to have her up & running again!  (pic strategically placed to not show the mess!)


----------



## GoceKU

Today i continued with fixing the scenic. I went parts store to parts store and could not find a new oil seal it's a special order and a week wait. So when i got back i look thru my spares and found me an entire axle with good boots. I did take apart the old oil seal and bearing it's an interesting design. I put the front suspension together, fill the gearbox with oil and drove it around the block. From the start i could tell there was something wrong with the tires and the clutch, i'll change the tires but the clutch is concerning. I know there is more then 70% material left on the disk but is acting like the pressure plate is always halfway pressed. i'll drive it a bit more, i'll go to get fuel, LPG and probably to get the tires changed, lets hope the clutch fixes itself. I took a picture of the new steering wheel it changes the entire feeling of the car


----------



## eugene13

GoceKU said:


> i saw a leather cover on it.


WHOA, I'm impressed!


----------



## GoceKU

Today i drove the scenic to the tire shop, changed the tires, fill the LPG tank it drives well except the clutch, it's definitely slipping a lot in any gear. Its like someone is holding the clutch halfway press all the time. But before i do anything i will put on some gloves and clean all the human slime off the interior that it disgusting.


----------



## devils4ever

I made an Indicol-style test indicator holder sized for my PM-25 mill. I wanted something that would hold the indictor in line with the spindle and at the same time keep it vertical. It's all steel except for the brass clamping screw to protect the quill.

I bought a Noga clamp to hold the test indicator instead of trying to mill a dovetail.


----------



## Navy Chief

No pictures (not much to see) but I replaced the failed power feed on my Grizzly G0755 mill and also replaced the power on button so I could have a functioning indicator light again. 

The old power feed has moved to my to-do list, the control board in it has traces rotted off due to acid flux that was left on the board during manufacturing. At some point I will etch a new board and replace it. 

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk


----------



## NCjeeper

Made a stand for my new box and pan brake.


----------



## WesPete66

devils4ever said:


> I made an Indicol-style test indicator holder sized for my PM-25 mill. I wanted something that would hold the indictor in line with the spindle and at the same time keep it vertical. It's all steel except for the brass clamping screw to protect the quill.


Just curious, but what is the purpose of this setup? Or, how would this holder be used?
Thanks!


----------



## devils4ever

WesPete66 said:


> Just curious, but what is the purpose of this setup? Or, how would this holder be used?
> Thanks!



In the picture, I'm using it to center the mill's spindle over the hole in my rotary table. I also plan on using for a variety of uses such as tramming in my vise. I have others holders, but I wanted to size this so it's easy to place under the spindle.


----------



## Boswell

Indicol style holders are also useful for squaring a vice. You could put the indicator in a collet but the Indicol holder allows for quick on/off and you don't necessarily need to remove any tooling from the spindle.


----------



## BGHansen

devils4ever said:


> In the picture, I'm using it to center the mill's spindle over the hole in my rotary table. I also plan on using for a variety of uses such as tramming in my vise. I have others holders, but I wanted to size this so it's easy to place under the spindle.


I like your choice of what looks like brass washers at each of the arms.  I have a genuine Indicol and a cheap import.  The import has plastic washers which may be a factor?  I tighten the crap out of the knurled nuts, bring the DTI up to a vise jaw and watch the number move.  One of these days I'll try replacing the soft washers with something harder.

Bruce


----------



## jwmelvin

BGHansen said:


> I have a genuine Indicol and a cheap import. The import has plastic washers which may be a factor?



My genuine Indicol 178 has plastic washers and wave washers at each joint.


----------



## woodchucker

jwmelvin said:


> My genuine Indicol 178 has plastic washers and wave washers at each joint.


Same here.  I have a love / hate relation with the indicol. Mostly love, but it can be a pain to get it just right.  I also have multiple arms with mine, a short set, and a long set.


----------



## devils4ever

BGHansen said:


> I like your choice of what looks like brass washers at each of the arms.  I have a genuine Indicol and a cheap import.  The import has plastic washers which may be a factor?  I tighten the crap out of the knurled nuts, bring the DTI up to a vise jaw and watch the number move.  One of these days I'll try replacing the soft washers with something harder.
> 
> Bruce



Yeah, I made brass washers since I wanted something harder than plastic but not too hard. They seem to work good so far. I made them with 1/2" OD to match the arms width with a 1/4" ID to match the screws.

Overall, I'm very pleased how it works so far. The official Indicol isn't sized for my PM25 mill. I have a Noga holder and an Edge Tech holder, but this one seems be the best. The Edge Tech clamps on the spindle also, but seems to be not rigid enough. The Noga needs to be inserted into a 8mm collet.


----------



## pdentrem

Made a new nut to hold the wire on the back of the cigarette lighter in my 36 Chrysler. The original tiny nut was hard to reach and though threaded for 8X32, it was 1/4” wrench size. The new nut was made from 7/16” aluminum hex stock. Drill and tapped, parted off a 1/2” section and cleaned it up. Installed in the dash and call it done.


----------



## extropic

pdentrem said:


> Made a new nut to hold the wire on the back of the cigarette lighter in my 36 Chrysler. The original tiny nut was hard to reach and though threaded for 8X32, it was 1/4” wrench size. The new nut was made from 7/16” aluminum hex stock. Drill and tapped, parted off a 1/2” section and cleaned it up. Installed in the dash and call it done.



I suggest you coat all faying surfaces of the nut with dielectric grease to minimize the effects of galvanic corrosion.


----------



## GoceKU

Lately it seems all i'm doing it seems i'm just changing brakes. My brother's astra started to sound like a train so it got new discs and pads, also all contact surfaces got a good cleaning. The old disc and pads was steel on steel and deeply grooved much thinner than the minimum thickness to get resurfaced. With my brother's driving even the new ones won't last more then a year.


----------



## pdentrem

extropic said:


> I suggest you coat all faying surfaces of the nut with dielectric grease to minimize the effects of galvanic corrosion.


Yeap, got a big tube of the stuff. I will likely make a brass version in the future.


----------



## Alcap

I’m in the process of replacing the engine on a wood chipper I bought late fall . My neighbor loaned me his home built engine picker . With out a swivel it’s hard to maneuver the engine . I struggled getting the old engine out and the new one on the engine stand . I made a swivel for the hook so it should be easier to line up when installing . Ill let him decide if he wants to use it , plenty strong for my 4 cylinder .


----------



## BladesIIB

Customer needed the spare tire holder on his dump trailer raised up about 3 inches so he could open and latch the lid to the dump trailer controls.  I used 3/8" Plate for the job, and used my Jet Mill Drill with a Newall DP700 DRO to Drill the Bolt Hole Circle for the wheel to mount.  I cut the plate to shape with an Oxy Acetylene cutting torch and then used my Lincoln 180C Welder to mount the new plate.  Good cutting torch practice and good vertical welding practice for me since I don't do those tasks very often. 

I am not a professional welder, I do a lot more machining than welding, but this is a Hobby forum so maybe I do some things here that will give you some new ideas.  And we all learn together so if you have any tips, they are always welcome.


----------



## f350ca

Finished it today, but spent a good part of the week building a boring/facing head from castings and plans supplied by MLATOOLBOX.
Put in a plug for Andrew, some of the nicest castings I've ever worked with. Absolutely no porosity or hard spots, a joy to machine.
Had to spend some time grinding a cutter for the feed nut, 1/2 -40 left hand thread 1 inch deep.



Lots of parts, tried just setting the parts on the oven rack rather than hanging them to spray the powder coat. Could not get an even coat near the grate with or without the electric charge on ? Lesson learned, hang them.




Now I need a project than needs facing or an o-ring groove. lol




Interesting note, I made the feed knob out of mystery metal from the bin, machined nice. I usually chemically blue my dials then polish them off leaving the graduations black.What ever this was wouldn't react with the blueing, its magnetic, possibly ferritic stainless  ?????

Thanks for looking

Greg


----------



## finsruskw

Finished up a batch of lift pins for the IH Cub tillers.
Just sold the last one I had in stock this morning so figured it was time. Les is going to weld the stop washers on yet and I'll get 'em painted tomorrow.

Carolyn came through once again with a cover for the recently acquired rotary table to match the ones she made earlier this winter.


----------



## Doug Gray

This week I worked on a paying gig to fab up some bushings. 6" long turned od and id with two thru holes 90 degrees apart. The only economical material is 2 1/2" heavy wall pipe. This pipe is no fun to work with, it is not round, has a seam  and is generally nasty. I ordered a "pipe" or "bull nose" live centre, but the customer moved up the delivery date on me so I made my own. It is simply a slug of steel with a turned area (with tapered lead area) that is a "hammer it in" fit to the pipe on one side and a centre drilled hole on the other. It actually work quite well.




Here the ods have been done setting up for the ids



Turning the ids with my custom boring bar.
	

		
			
		

		
	




Here is a shot of the mill setup to drill the two 90 degree offset holes. I again fired up the Bostik260 to attache an indexing fixture to the end of the work. (I hot melt glued a 123 block to the end of the work).

* sacrificial parallel on the vice (also glued in place)
* work stop on left end
* square in position for indexing





All in all I'm glad to be done working with pipe for a while.
Thanks for looking.
Enjoy your shop time!


----------



## davek181

Nothing fancy just a semi novice making tools I have been missing.  When I worked in a motorcycle shop we had u blocks and and v blocks for straightening forks or shafts.  You rest the forks in the u blocks and use the v block to protect the fork on the top side as you press out the bend.  Press a little, release the press just a little and rotate the shaft to see if you got it out or went too far, or multiple bends.  Repeat as necessary.   Pretty easy to see as you roll it.  I had someone want me to straighten a shaft last week and I got it done just using the press rails, but I remembered the good old days, and I needed a project.


----------



## f350ca

Picked up this Williams threading tool some time ago. Guessing it was designed for use in a lantern tool post. Was really awkward to impossible to use with a quick change tool post. So we made a straight shank for the cutter. Could dress up the front end but probably never get to it. lol





A quick try on some cold roll.




Greg


----------



## woodchucker

f350ca said:


> Picked up this Williams threading tool some time ago. Guessing it was designed for use in a lantern tool post. Was really awkward to impossible to use with a quick change tool post. So we made a straight shank for the cutter. Could dress up the front end but probably never get to it. lol
> View attachment 401187
> 
> 
> View attachment 401190
> 
> A quick try on some cold roll.
> 
> View attachment 401189
> 
> 
> Greg


nice looking threads. The nice thing about that tool is you only need to touch up the top and you have a new cutting edge.
Nicely done on making it work.


----------



## finsruskw

Guide pins and hangers for a quick change fork frame set up to fit a JD utility tractor.


----------



## extropic

finsruskw said:


> Guide pins and hangers for a quick change fork frame set up to fit a JD utility tractor.



Looking good.

I'd like to see how you formed the hangers. Is that 1/4" x 3" HR?


----------



## Parlo

devils4ever said:


> Yeah, I made brass washers since I wanted something harder than plastic but not too hard. They seem to work good so far. I made them with 1/2" OD to match the arms width with a 1/4" ID to match the screws.
> 
> Overall, I'm very pleased how it works so far. The official Indicol isn't sized for my PM25 mill. I have a Noga holder and an Edge Tech holder, but this one seems be the best. The Edge Tech clamps on the spindle also, but seems to be not rigid enough. The Noga needs to be inserted into a 8mm collet.


Have you tried indicators with a swivel spigot like the Verdict Metrinch - https://www.mscdirect.co.uk/VDT-83001B/SEARCH:CATEGORY/product.html
Fitting the indicator in a chuck allows it to be moved back and forth on the spigot with the stylus point remaining on the spindle centreline. It's ideal for small holes to tramming heads.
Another quick use is to hold horizontally it in the lathe tailstock chuck to indicate the top - bore or face of a part quickly by tilting up or down.
They have a nice tight pivot that is extremely stable and benefits from being close to where it is clamped.


----------



## Alcap

Needed a clutch plate alignment tool for engine for the wood chipper , found a  1 1/4” square head bolt from the scrap bin . Cut down the threaded end even though it clean up the existing threads . Getting closer to getting this chipper back together


----------



## snoopdog

Well, my whole sunday was a wash. Started the cylinder rack project for a customers trailer, my portable rig wouldn't energize, it does that occasionally and a restart is usually the cure. Shut down and tried to restart, no start, investigate and the fuel solenoid is going to shut off when the start switch is pushed. Anyway, need to get to work so use the shop welder, get the basics done and customer comes by later with a different idea that takes up more room on the trailer, IDK, gonna try and convince him on my way later in the week as I wasn't thinking clearly at the time, and didn't want my frustration to come out. Went to feed hay and the parking brake cable broke on the big tractor, so there's that. But hey, 6 new calves this week, all born unasisted and healthy!


----------



## finsruskw

extropic said:


> Looking good.
> 
> I'd like to see how you formed the hangers. Is that 1/4" x 3" HR?


Just a simple deep rectangular die is all.
Something Les welded up in his shop.
Uses a length of 1/4 x 4 hot roll and a short piece of round rod to press into it after first making the "lip" bend.


----------



## finsruskw

extropic said:


> Looking good.
> 
> I'd like to see how you formed the hangers. Is that 1/4" x 3" HR?


----------



## extropic

@finsruskw 

That setup does a good job. Thanks for the pic.


----------



## Shootymacshootface

My son messaged me today. He is an excellent machinist and cnc programmer. I would ask for a picture, and I know he would send one if I asked, but I don't want him to get in any trouble. His company makes gubment stuff. I'm sure it's a part for Electric Boat in CT.
Here is our conversation.


----------



## brino

@finsruskw 

Thanks for the picture of that press fixture.
It looks sturdy, stable and simple and obviously works great.
I could never have pictured or designed that!

Brian


----------



## GoceKU

New day new set of brakes to replace, this time on the little niva. The front calipers are original 40 year old and passenger side was dragging and wore down the brake pads. This summer i bought new calipers and pads and only now i found the time to install them. The Niva calipers are very unusual they have 3 piston and two circuits, also they are two piece design, aluminium piston part and cast brake pad bracket. Bleeding the air out of them was a nightmare but after 1,5 liter of brake fluid i have a firm pedal. Seeing the made in russia made me think about the war that is happening now in Ukraine.


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was making another arbor for a drill chuck for the Bridgeport. Over the years I’ve picked up a number of ½” capacity chucks with R8 (and other) arbors. My BP typically has an ER32 collet chuck mounted instead of R8 tooling as I find it more convenient to change collets at the spindle than reaching up for the draw bar. One of these would be a donor for a ¾” straight arbor.


So how many R8 arbors with 1/2" capacity chucks do you need?  The one on the left would be getting a new arbor




Most of my projects involve using 3/8”, ½” or ¾” collets. It’s convenient to have drill chucks with those sized straight shanks for quick changes between end mills and drill chucks without having to change the ER32 collet size. I recently made up a couple of 3/8” arbors for some small Jacobs chucks, and had 0-1/4” and 0-1/2” chucks with ½” shanks already. Time for a ¾” one to complete the set.

The donor happened to be a Jacobs ball bearing chuck. First step was removing the chuck from the arbor which created a side project. My chuck wedges weren’t thick enough to bear between the arbor and chuck. So, off to the BP to make a spacer.


My wedges weren't thick enough to force the drill chuck off the arbor. . .



Milled a piece of 1/4" aluminum for a spacer



Couple of taps with a brass hammer and off came the chuck





Next step was matching the R8 arbor Jacobs’ taper with the compound. The arbor was chucked up and swept with a dial indicator. I rotated the lathe chuck out of curiosity and repeated; no change in the taper.


Chucked up the R8 arbor and swept the taper with a dial indicator.  Tapped the compound with a brass hammer to dial in in.




Material of choice was 1” drill rod. Faced, center drilled and turned the end to the large diameter of the Jacobs taper. Then cut the taper with the compound. I don’t know its purpose, but the existing arbor had a relief groove which was cut also (stress riser relief?).


Turned the tapered end to the large diameter of the Jacobs taper (~0.825")



Taper cut with the compound



After a little polishing with a smooth file and 400-grit emery cloth



Test fit



Cutting the stress relief (?) groove




Next was turning the shank to diameter. I left a portion of 1” diameter stock at the base of the Jacobs taper for a bearing surface for the wedges in case the chuck needed to be removed from the arbor. Parted off with the band saw and faced/chamfered the end on the lathe.


Turning the shank to 3/4"



After a little polishing



Cutting off on the band saw



Faced and chamfered the 3/4" end




Then heat treated the arbor with a Thermolyne muffle furnace. After quenching, tempered to a dark orange (twist drill temper).


The Thermolyne takes about 30 minutes to get to 1550 F.  Let it set for 10 minutes, then quench in motor oil.



Back into the furnace after quenching; tempered to a dark orange (~480 F)




Didn’t show it, but polished it up with a ScotchBrite wheel. Tapped it home with a brass hammer and there it is!


New arbor in the foreground



After a couple of taps with a brass hammer.  In retrospect, I could have cut the taper a little smaller for deeper engagement.







Thanks for looking, Bruce


----------



## mmcmdl

BGHansen said:


> So how many R8 arbors with 1/2" capacity chucks do you need?


32 , and not 1 less .


----------



## dkemppai

BGHansen said:


> ...Then cut the taper with the compound. I don’t know its purpose, but the existing arbor had a relief groove which was cut also (stress riser relief?).



I always thought that relief (and others similar) was done for grinding purposes. As the wheels wear when grinding, that relief should give the wheel a place to move past the end of the taper so that the last bit of taper can be ground with 'fresh' wheel a little further into the wheel. (If that makes sense).

But, then again, I could be way off on that...


----------



## extropic

dkemppai said:


> I always thought that relief (and others similar) was done for grinding purposes. As the wheels wear when grinding, that relief should give the wheel a place to move past the end of the taper so that the last bit of taper can be ground with 'fresh' wheel a little further into the wheel. (If that makes sense).
> 
> But, then again, I could be way off on that...



Grind relief - so the wheel can finish the feature without bumping the shoulder and/or without leaving a corner radius.


----------



## wachuko

BGHansen said:


> POTD was making another arbor for a drill chuck for the Bridgeport. Over the years I’ve picked up a number of ½” capacity chucks with R8 (and other) arbors. My BP typically has an ER32 collet chuck mounted instead of R8 tooling as I find it more convenient to change collets at the spindle than reaching up for the draw bar. One of these would be a donor for a ¾” straight arbor.
> 
> 
> So how many R8 arbors with 1/2" capacity chucks do you need?  The one on the left would be getting a new arbor
> View attachment 401450
> 
> 
> 
> Most of my projects involve using 3/8”, ½” or ¾” collets. It’s convenient to have drill chucks with those sized straight shanks for quick changes between end mills and drill chucks without having to change the ER32 collet size. I recently made up a couple of 3/8” arbors for some small Jacobs chucks, and had 0-1/4” and 0-1/2” chucks with ½” shanks already. Time for a ¾” one to complete the set.
> 
> The donor happened to be a Jacobs ball bearing chuck. First step was removing the chuck from the arbor which created a side project. My chuck wedges weren’t thick enough to bear between the arbor and chuck. So, off to the BP to make a spacer.
> 
> 
> My wedges weren't thick enough to force the drill chuck off the arbor. . .
> View attachment 401452
> 
> 
> Milled a piece of 1/4" aluminum for a spacer
> View attachment 401451
> 
> 
> Couple of taps with a brass hammer and off came the chuck
> View attachment 401453
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Next step was matching the R8 arbor Jacobs’ taper with the compound. The arbor was chucked up and swept with a dial indicator. I rotated the lathe chuck out of curiosity and repeated; no change in the taper.
> 
> 
> Chucked up the R8 arbor and swept the taper with a dial indicator.  Tapped the compound with a brass hammer to dial in in.
> View attachment 401454
> 
> 
> 
> Material of choice was 1” drill rod. Faced, center drilled and turned the end to the large diameter of the Jacobs taper. Then cut the taper with the compound. I don’t know its purpose, but the existing arbor had a relief groove which was cut also (stress riser relief?).
> 
> 
> Turned the tapered end to the large diameter of the Jacobs taper (~0.825")
> View attachment 401455
> 
> 
> Taper cut with the compound
> View attachment 401456
> 
> 
> After a little polishing with a smooth file and 400-grit emery cloth
> View attachment 401457
> 
> 
> Test fit
> View attachment 401458
> 
> 
> Cutting the stress relief (?) groove
> View attachment 401459
> 
> 
> 
> Next was turning the shank to diameter. I left a portion of 1” diameter stock at the base of the Jacobs taper for a bearing surface for the wedges in case the chuck needed to be removed from the arbor. Parted off with the band saw and faced/chamfered the end on the lathe.
> 
> 
> Turning the shank to 3/4"
> View attachment 401460
> 
> 
> After a little polishing
> View attachment 401461
> 
> 
> Cutting off on the band saw
> View attachment 401462
> 
> 
> Faced and chamfered the 3/4" end
> View attachment 401463
> 
> 
> 
> Then heat treated the arbor with a Thermolyne muffle furnace. After quenching, tempered to a dark orange (twist drill temper).
> 
> 
> The Thermolyne takes about 30 minutes to get to 1550 F.  Let it set for 10 minutes, then quench in motor oil.
> View attachment 401464
> 
> 
> Back into the furnace after quenching; tempered to a dark orange (~480 F)
> View attachment 401465
> 
> 
> 
> Didn’t show it, but polished it up with a ScotchBrite wheel. Tapped it home with a brass hammer and there it is!
> 
> 
> New arbor in the foreground
> View attachment 401467
> 
> 
> After a couple of taps with a brass hammer.  In retrospect, I could have cut the taper a little smaller for deeper engagement.
> View attachment 401468
> 
> 
> View attachment 401469
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for looking, Bruce


I want to learn how to do all that!!!


----------



## wachuko

One of the projects on my list is making a grinding rest.  I have been looking at all the available threads on this from folks that have done the Simple and Advanced grinding rest from Harold Hall and other options available...

A thread from the man himself introducing his books, He is not active in any forum, that I could find... He also stopped all correspondence back in 2019.  He should be 89 years old by now:









						An Introduction to my Grinding Rests.
					

Regarding my videos we now come to what I think are the most important for many as they show my grinding rests being used for sharpening workshop tools. I say important, as it has become apparent that some have made one but are not fully sure how to use them. This is not unreasonable, as I...




					www.hobby-machinist.com
				




And a few of the different builds I found:









						Grinding Rest
					

Hi All,  Here's my version of the Harold Hall grinding rest. Just finished today! I still need to make the accessories for it and might have to modify the (home made) pedestal grinder to fit it but the hard work is done.  There aren't many better ways to spend the holidays :))  Moe6931




					www.hobby-machinist.com
				












						Harold Hall simple grinding rest
					

Just finished phase I of making Harold Hall's simple grinding rest... Drew it up in Fusion 360 first and converted it to inch units from metric. Now, to buy a dedicated bench grinder and make the required accessories for tool holding and end mill sharpening and get everything set up and...




					www.hobby-machinist.com
				












						Harold Hall advanced grinding rest
					

Although I just recently finished up his simple grinding rest, I decided to make the advance rest now. Two reasons: 1) I really like the simple one and the capabilities that it has, but know that the advanced rest would be easier to set angles and be a little nicer to use. 2) I was looking for a...




					www.hobby-machinist.com
				












						Building Harold Hall's Simple Grinding Rest
					

Starting this build thread to ask questions as well as help out anyone else out who might be thinking of building one. If you don't know who Harold Hall is, do a google search but he's an author of several machinist books and has a reputation for being a pretty smart fellow. He also has a...




					www.hobby-machinist.com
				












						My Stab at The Workshop Practice Grinding Rest
					

Here is my interpretation of the grinding stand in book 35. I am waiting on the steel to do the end mill fixture and the bushings and washers for the wheels. It is all CRS-1018, except for the aluminum knobs and the base. The machining was done on my new G0602 and the old HF mini mill. It is all...




					www.hobby-machinist.com
				





I already purchased a Indexable Dovetail Cutter, 2 Flute, 3/4" Cutting Diameter for the dovetails needed in some parts for the Harold Hall grinding rest...

But the project requires going through the whole book and collecting the list of material and dimensions.  I wished it was all a bit better organized, but that is just me being lazy... I love the book and have probably read it more than 10 times... Well, today was the 11th time reading it as the task was to collect the material and hardware list.  For those starting in this journey, I can't recommend this book enough... easy reading for a newbie and several recommendations on how to accomplish tasks using different approaches... 






Attached is my first attempt at capturing all the material needed... I created a spreadsheet to capture all this.  I went over this a few times and have corrected a few mistakes made... there are references to the pages where the information was taken from.  This is so I am able to go back and reference the diagram and description just in case I wrote down the wrong dimension in the spreadsheet...

Pretty sure I might be missing something, but at least it is a start.  Also, there is a few columns converting to inches from mm.  In case I decide to make this using standard measurements instead of metric.

The other option is to order the kit from Eccentric Engineering - Acute Tool Sharpening System - Full Parts Kit. This comes with all material needed and well documented instructions.  There is also a series of videos on building one.






And a thread from a build by a forum member:









						Acute Tool Sharpening System - Full Kit
					

Hallo! I have been thinking about buying a tool sharpening system for a long time. Investigated a lot about Quorn, Deckel clones and other tool and cutter grinders. - Lastly I decided to go for the full kit of the "Acute Tool sharpening System" from Eccentric Engineering: Moderate costs, my...




					www.hobby-machinist.com
				




So there... that was the project of the day... research....


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Nothing particularly fancy, but I had a Royal live center that I bought of eBay some time ago that had grotty bearings. I picked up some bull nose centers at an auction a while back, so I figured I'd try to adapt them to the Royal.

First I had to get the old center out, that took drilling a 5/16 tap drill down the shank, so I could knock out out with a rod. Tapped the whole for a set screw.

Then I had to pull the bottom bearing out. Bought a blind hole bearing puller, which after some mods pulled the center of the bearing out. After that I bored almost all of the outer race away on my lathe (lots of glowing chips!), then ground a slot in what was left so I could pry it out
	

		
			
		

		
	




Pushed three new 6002 bearings in (15mm ID matches the new centers) and everything works perfectly
	

		
			
		

		
	





	

		
			
		

		
	
super pleased with how it turned out. The bearings are smooth and the centers push in with a slight resistance. The set screw should also allow me to adjust when it pops out of the tailstock


----------



## francist

wachuko said:


> He is not active in any forum, that I could find...


Mr Hall was a member here until about 2017 or so under the user name HomeMetalMan. Not too many posts, here is his last one as he was heading into what he termed "retirement".









						Retirement
					

Having on some forums mentioned earlier in the year that I would take a break from issuing further videos the pause has made me realise that it has come to the time to retire. However, the videos that I had already completed and  intended to issue two at a time, I have now made them all public...




					www.hobby-machinist.com


----------



## wachuko

Finished making the remote control box for the VFD on the milling machine.  Will be installing the VFD side this weekend.

Small switch is fixing an oversight on my part... I forgot to account for a switch for the RPM display... oh well.  I was not about to buy another, longer, enclosure to fix that mistake... Got the switch from the pile of left over parts from other projects.

I did not crimp any terminals on the other end of the wires in case I need to adjust the length.   I also have some abrasive and flame retardant sleeve that will go over the cables once I know they are to correct length.




Had to test the display with a 12v battery... oh the child in me...  




EDIT:  Oh well... decided to install the sleeve now... will trim it all during the install this weekend.


----------



## extropic

@wachuko 

Nice looking panel. Please add a link to where the box can be purchased.

I'm wondering why the RPM display needed a switch?
So it's not displaying zero even when you're not using the machine?


----------



## woodchucker

extropic said:


> @wachuko
> 
> Nice looking panel. Please add a link to where the box can be purchased.
> 
> I'm wondering why the RPM display needed a switch?
> So it's not displaying zero even when you're not using the machine?


I think that's to control his VFD, not a switch for the RPM display. But he made it give feedback.

oops, yes what you said... I didn't realize he put a switch in for the RPM alone... why not?


----------



## wachuko

woodchucker said:


> I think that's to control his VFD, not a switch for the RPM display. But he made it give feedback.
> 
> oops, yes what you said... I didn't realize he put a switch in for the RPM alone... why not?





extropic said:


> @wachuko
> 
> Nice looking panel. Please add a link to where the box can be purchased.
> 
> I'm wondering why the RPM display needed a switch?
> So it's not displaying zero even when you're not using the machine?



Small switch is for the RPM display so it does not show zero when not in use... correct.  Keep in mind that it runs from a separate 12volt power supply... not from the VFD.

Link to the enclosure, comes in different configurations - Push Button Switch Control Station Box


----------



## Alcap

On my little Chinese bench lathe I’m replacing the cross slide screw with the extra 5/8” 10 LH acme rod . I added an extension to the saddle so a new longer screw was needed anyway . To get the full travel and a larger brass nut i repositioned the mounting hole in the cross slide . Drilled and reamed .500 also milled a recess because of the larger screw .


----------



## westerner

mattthemuppet2 said:


> The set screw should also allow me to adjust when it pops out of the tailstock



Brilliant! 
Gonna apply that to every one I have.


----------



## Watchwatch

woodchucker said:


> Same here. I have a love / hate relation with the indicol. Mostly love, but it can be a pain to get it just right. I also have multiple arms with mine, a short set, and a long set.



No love from me.

I replaced the linkage arms with a noga arm. I got the idea from Oxtools- Tom Lipton.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## woodchucker

Watchwatch said:


> No love from me.
> 
> I replaced the linkage arms with a noga arm. I got the idea from Oxtools- Tom Lipton.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I have that too, but mine is on a 3/8 shaft, and I use it when that works for me.
Different tools for different problems.


----------



## devils4ever

I made a lathe carriage/bed stop for my mini-lathe which I sorely needed. Getting the bed dimensions off the lathe were a little tricky, but I think I nailed it. FreeCAD modelling helped a lot.

I'm trying to decide if I should replace the stock screws with custom ones. The two clamping screws could have knobs/handles on them, but I'm thinking I want to keep these low as possible. The screw on the end could probably be customized for ease of adjustment.


----------



## wachuko

That came out great.  That is another thing that I want to make.  I would like to make it so that I can also install a dial on it.


----------



## WobblyHand

@devils4ever Nice job.  I should make one for my Grizzly G0752Z.  How did you measure the ways pyramid angles?


----------



## woodchucker

wachuko said:


> That came out great.  That is another thing that I want to make.  I would like to make it so that I can also install a dial on it.


if you think about it you only need one.. the dial indicator type.
That's a 3/8 shaft.. So you can use a 3/8-16 or 3/8-24 screw through that hole with nuts and get 2 from one.


----------



## devils4ever

woodchucker said:


> if you think about it you only need one.. the dial indicator type.
> That's a 3/8 shaft.. So you can use a 3/8-16 or 3/8-24 screw through that hole with nuts and get 2 from one.



I don't quite follow.

I wanted a hard stop on the carriage. A dial indicator is another nice version of this which I am thinking of making as well.


----------



## dkemppai

woodchucker said:


> if you think about it you only need one.. the dial indicator type.
> That's a 3/8 shaft.. So you can use a 3/8-16 or 3/8-24 screw through that hole with nuts and get 2 from one.


Or just use some 3/8" drill rod with a flat, and make a lock screw stout enough to lock it in place as a stop. 
You could then tap a #6-40 or similar in the end of the 3/8 rod, for fine adjust on the stop...


----------



## woodchucker

dkemppai said:


> Or just use some 3/8" drill rod with a flat, and make a lock screw stout enough to lock it in place as a stop.
> You could then tap a #6-40 or similar in the end of the 3/8 rod, for fine adjust on the stop...


The stops do need to take a good hit. Although it is possible.  I would make it very stout, and make sure it had a good cone point on it to dig in.


----------



## dkemppai

woodchucker said:


> The stops do need to take a good hit. Although it is possible.  I would make it very stout, and make sure it had a good cone point on it to dig in.


I meant something like a 1/4" lock bolt hitting the flat on the 3/8" rod. I'd probably do flat end bolt to flat on the rod...

Was thinking a #6-40 grade 8 in the end for fine adjust with a lock nut, for getting down to thousandths...). 

You could make a larger fine thread fine adjust bolt if you wanted. I think blowing out a #6-40 end loaded would take a pretty big gorilla on the hand wheels.  Even I'm not that big and angry...


----------



## woodchucker

devils4ever said:


> I don't quite follow.
> 
> I wanted a hard stop on the carriage. A dial indicator is another nice version of this which I am thinking of making as well.


I was replying to @wachucko in post https://www.hobby-machinist.com/thr...you-make-in-your-shop-today.67833/post-936317   6205


----------



## silverhawk

I finished a project from grade nine in public school.  Apparently, I have never done anything normally.  The projects (if I recall) were for a one-piece chess board, and for my first wood project, I made a folding one.  It was _*terrible*_ (how about those mitre joints on the corners)!  My parents had kept it all these years and my father gave it back to me recently.  I had glued squares together skewampus, and the hinges were not straight.  Some of the pieces had broken off from the board when making it and I didn't get them glued back together at the same plane.... but, it is still "usable", and brought some memories back from when it was made.

I decided to cast some chess pieces to go with it.  I could find no molds that were small enough (1" squares), so I found a travel chess set I had stowed away that seemed to be the right size, and used that to create silicone molds.  A lot of resin casting and color mixing later I had a finished set.










I even managed to preserve the original parting lines on the pieces from when the originals were injection molded.  Nice to finally have this little memento completed (it fits in with my chess set collection).

As a note, the tape on the side is for my father.  He set up a chess set himself, and I have to have the same alignment on mine.  It allows us to play chess games from a distance.  Our games sometimes go for months.


----------



## woodchucker

silverhawk said:


> I finished a project from grade nine in public school.  Apparently, I have never done anything normally.  The projects (if I recall) were for a one-piece chess board, and for my first wood project, I made a folding one.  It was _*terrible*_ (how about those mitre joints on the corners)!  My parents had kept it all these years and my father gave it back to me recently.  I had glued squares together skewampus, and the hinges were not straight.  Some of the pieces had broken off from the board when making it and I didn't get them glued back together at the same plane.... but, it is still "usable", and brought some memories back from when it was made.
> 
> I decided to cast some chess pieces to go with it.  I could find no molds that were small enough (1" squares), so I found a travel chess set I had stowed away that seemed to be the right size, and used that to create silicone molds.  A lot of resin casting and color mixing later I had a finished set.
> 
> View attachment 401782
> 
> 
> View attachment 401783
> 
> 
> View attachment 401784
> 
> 
> I even managed to preserve the original parting lines on the pieces from when the originals were injection molded.  Nice to finally have this little memento completed (it fits in with my chess set collection).
> 
> As a note, the tape on the side is for my father.  He set up a chess set himself, and I have to have the same alignment on mine.  It allows us to play chess games from a distance.  Our games sometimes go for months.


congratulations on your persevering. I guarantee you that if you did that now, you would be amazed at how well you would make it. The pieces came out good.


----------



## Parlo

devils4ever said:


> I made a lathe carriage/bed stop for my mini-lathe which I sorely needed. Getting the bed dimensions off the lathe were a little tricky, but I think I nailed it. FreeCAD modelling helped a lot.
> 
> I'm trying to decide if I should replace the stock screws with custom ones. The two clamping screws could have knobs/handles on them, but I'm thinking I want to keep these low as possible. The screw on the end could probably be customized for ease of adjustment.
> 
> 
> View attachment 401711
> 
> 
> View attachment 401712
> 
> 
> View attachment 401713


If you want the screw heads lower, apart from counterboring the holes, you could tap the top block the next size up and open out holes in the underside, then the larger screw heads would be underneath.


----------



## Parlo

dkemppai said:


> Or just use some 3/8" drill rod with a flat, and make a lock screw stout enough to lock it in place as a stop.
> You could then tap a #6-40 or similar in the end of the 3/8 rod, for fine adjust on the stop...


Could the stop be fixed and fine adjustment made using the compound slide?


----------



## GoceKU

Today i have few hours to spare and a full yard of broken cars to fix. Easiest was the white elephant No:2 with a rough running engine. From experience i could tell it was fuel supply so i started at the fuel filter and it was leaking. I changed O rings, used bailing wire and zip ties but could not get it to seal. So went to the parts store bought an golf mk2 filter which is without that plastic return and that fixed it. With it fixed and the weather nice i went for a long walk to the nearby mountains The fresh air and nice view are a nice change, i've been working way too much lately.


----------



## ArmyDoc

Just another farm project, all hand tools.  Needed to attach the horse panels to the arena.  Cut and bent some 3/4×1/8 flat stock, then mounted to arena.


----------



## Alcap

Worked some more on my little bench lathe . Finished the cross slide nut , forgot to take a picture but did of the set up. Cut the old screw bored , reamed . On the new shaft it got turned for clearance and turned to fit the old shaft . Then drilled for a roll pin . Not quite done but getting closer . Need to figure out what I want to do for the dial at the minimum will need to be marked for the 5/8-10 screw


----------



## DavidR8

A while back I bought a Makita track saw so I could more easily break down sheet goods.
I wanted a set of parallel guides to make repeatable cuts. Looked around and darn near fell over at the cost. Delivered to my house a 30” pair of TSO guides would have been almost $425.
Decided to make my own.
Bought a pair of 48” Incra T-tracks for $22. A pair of adjustable stops for $12, four 5/16” knobs and a pair of T brackets will get me sorted.
Only problem was the T-nuts on the stops were a very loose fit in the track.
So I made a new set that are a slip fit in the track so they lock the stop square.







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## finsruskw

Son finished up the custom fork pkg for his BIL's  JD  today.
He is very happy with it.


----------



## NCjeeper

^^^
That should take out some zombies.


----------



## francist

DavidR8 said:


> I wanted a set of parallel guides to make repeatable cuts.


So do they work kind of like this? Just trying to picture what you did — we were talking at work the other day about how we’d like a panel saw or track saw but also lamenting the cost. 




-frank


----------



## DavidR8

francist said:


> So do they work kind of like this? Just trying to picture what you did — we were talking at work the other day about how we’d like a panel saw or track saw but also lamenting the cost.
> 
> View attachment 401916
> 
> 
> -frank



Yes, they work exactly like that. 
The track saw I got on sale at KMS. Not cheap at $599 to be sure but wow is it nice. Soft start, it’s a real beauty of a saw. It came with a 55” track and I bought another 55” so I could rip a 4x8 sheet. 
I think my guides will be about $40 by the time I’m done. Far cry from the TSO guides. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## francist

Sweet, thanks. I’ll keep my ear to ground for one on sale maybe. We’re due for a new circular anyway.


----------



## DavidR8

francist said:


> Sweet, thanks. I’ll keep my ear to ground for one on sale maybe. We’re due for a new circular anyway.



This is how it is assembled. 
5/16” bolts in the saw track and the T-track. Knobs so it can be disassembled. 







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## BGHansen

No photos of the first POTD which was disassembling a Glacern vise on my Tormach 1100.  The handle turned really hard; nut/screw were imbedded with chips. Isn’t it great when one project leads to another?  My Tormach has a Saunders fixture plate which is covered with Saunders rubber chip deflectors.  These have 4 studs on the bottom which plug into the plate and (hopefully) manage chips off the table and into the chip pan. I didn’t shoot photos of it, but with the vise off the table, the chip protectors were pulled also.  Every fixture plate ½” hole was filled with chips. . .   I pulled the fixture plate and the T-slots on the mill table were filled also.  The Tormach’s table has a couple of drain holes about ½” diameter with a strainer above.  These were filled with chips also.

I think what happened (besides my obvious poor job on preventive maintenance) was the Saunders rubber chip covers had distorted over time because of coolant (?) and warped. This let the coolant/chips get under the covers to the fixture plate and drain through the holes. The Tormach table strainers were overwhelmed with chips and coolant/chips filled the T-slots.


The Saunders rubber fixture plate covers have pins on the back side that press into the fixture plate holes.  You can see in the upper LH photo how warped they set on my fixture plate (1 1/4" hole spacing).  A quick caliper check across two of the pins shows the dimension is big by 0.1"; that explains the buckling between the inner and outer pins.  Curiously, I don't see these rubber covers for sale on the Saunders website.




So, POTD was making better (hopefully) table covers to manage chips off the table. Material of choice was some 1/8” acrylic plastic on hand. Now, how to mount the sheets to the table.  One thought was to simply drill some holes through the plastic and make up some ½”-13 bolts to screw the plastic directly to the table.  Another thought was to make up some pins threaded ½”-13 (or use headless set screws) and hold the plastic down with magnets over the pins/screws (fixture plate is aluminum).

I went the laborious, over-kill route instead. . .  I went with a sheet metal back edge “C” section that slips over the fixture plate and a spring-loaded pin/clamp at the front.  The sheet metal was galvanized duct work stock on hand. Time will tell if it starts to rust at which point I’ll go with aluminum flashing.

The front clamp was made from aluminum. Idea was to have a tapered pin that catches the bottom of the fixture plate.  It’s easily removed from the table by pulling back on the pin, lift up the cover and slip it off the back.


The 1/8" acrylic was cut on the table saw with a zero-clearance blade insert.  I used this insert as a normal one has too much clearance between the blade and insert, results in the plastic snagging/breaking on the edge (ask me how I know)



My prototype with just a sheet metal front edge (was way too flimsy).  Sheet metal "C" section on the back slips over the fixture plate.  The clamping pin rides in the mounting block and catches the bottom of the fixture plate.



Knobs were made from 1/2" aluminum.  Knurled a long length, drill/tapped a center hole and started parting on the lathe.  Ended up pulling the stock from the lathe and cut off on the band saw (way too much stick out from the chuck to comfortably part).



Clamp pins were made from 1/2" aluminum.  Turned a shoulder to 3/16", ran a 10-24 die over for screwing to the knob, parted and cut a chamfer.



Mounting blocks (3/4" x 1" aluminum bar stock) were done on the Bridgeport.  Drilled/tapped 8-32 mounting holes.  Then drilled a 3/16" through hole for the clamp pin.  Countersunk a clearance hole for the compression spring just short of the bottom with a 5/16" end mill and a second 1/2" hole for the head of the clamp pin.



Separated the mounting blocks on the DoAll saw with the power feed.  Then milled the sawed ends.  Being inherently lazy, did three of them at a time on the Bridgeport.  Used 5/16" dowel pins in the spring clearance hole to set height; machinist's square to set them in the vise.  Dust off the top on one side, flip, and milled the opposite side. 



Mounting brackets were made from 1/8" thick aluminum stock.  Drilled, countersunk on the BP.



Bent the brackets on the DiAcro brake.  I didn't show it, but the brackets were set on the plastic cover which was already drilled for a sheet metal lip on the front.  Used a transfer punch to mark the screw hole.



All of the components.  Compression spring slips over the clamp pin, pin loaded into the mounting block, knob screws on the opposite end and the whole assembly screws to the plastic cover.



Side view under the fixture plate.  The tapered pin catches under the plate.  The cover can be pulled by pulling back on the knob, then lift and slip the cover off the fixture plate.



I made up 4 of the covers; two for outside of the vises and a pair of 6" wide ones to cover the plate if the vise(s) are pulled.




Next POTD will be coming up with some covers for the screws/nuts on the Glacern vises.


Thanks for looking, Bruce


----------



## mmcmdl

finsruskw said:


> Son finished up the custom fork pkg for his BIL's  JD  today.
> He is very happy with it.


Nice Fin . I'm trying to get the Cub running but every time I open the garage door , it either snows or the wind picks up to 40 mph . I think I'm getting ready to throw in the towel until the thermometer hits 80 .


----------



## finsruskw

mmcmdl said:


> Nice Fin . I'm trying to get the Cub running but every time I open the garage door , it either snows or the wind picks up to 40 mph . I think I'm getting ready to throw in the towel until the thermometer hits 80 .


I hear Ya!!
19* here the last 2 mornings and we won't see 50 again for near a week according to the weather guesser!!


----------



## ArmyDoc

Does it count if you made it in someone else's shop?
I'm a long time fan of the show "Forged in Fire", on the history Channel.  I have been wanting to try it myself for several years.  Then I found out one of the contestants has a forge near me and offers lessons.   Had to try it.  Just a railroad spike knife, but what a lot of fun!


----------



## GoceKU

Sun day brings new problems, my daily driver 605 decided to leak out its coolant, and my dad's 405 started leaking diesel out of the injection pump. My car will wait i have the 607 to go to work but i had to remove and reseal the bosch VE pump on my fathers car. It had a O ring fail but i changed all the seals and took it to a friend to get it adjusted on a test bench. On my car i found the problem it's a coolant hose in the middle of the engine but to get to it it needs couple hours disassembling and the coolant is disgusting.


----------



## John O

I tried out my bacon soap, worked good.
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/thr...you-make-in-your-shop-today.67833/post-921010
was going to do a video but this video explains why I did not.


----------



## mmcmdl

ArmyDoc said:


> Does it count if you made it in someone else's shop?
> I'm a long time fan of the show "Forged in Fire", on the history Channel. I have been wanting to try it myself for several years. Then I found out one of the contestants has a forge near me and offers lessons. Had to try it. Just a railroad spike knife, but what a lot of fun!


One of our own members on here was on the show years back . He bought a saw off of me and I delivered it to his shop . Very impressive stuff he was making ! I haven't seen him online lately but ran into him a few times at blacksmithing shows and we printed some of his work in the newspapers awhile back . Where has deker been lately ? I guess making knives and such .   

Nice work on your knives !


----------



## dkemppai

finsruskw said:


> Son finished up the custom fork pkg for his BIL's  JD  today.



Those weld on chain hooks are really nice addition.


----------



## tjb

finsruskw said:


> Son finished up the custom fork pkg for his BIL's  JD  today.
> He is very happy with it.


Very nice.

This morning, I am about to begin building something similar for a forklift attachment that was given to me.  My tractor is a JD 5510, and my plan is to make the bracket exactly like the one for my hayfork spear that mounts on the front end.  Then I will mount the forklift frame to that bracket.

I may wish to pick your or your son's brain a little on this if I hit a snag, if you don't mind.

Regards


----------



## GoceKU

it's strange time, i never thought i'll take the 607 up in the mountains, but i did and it did well no bumps or scrapes even showed the best fuel economy ever. I also took apart the 605 and removed all the hoses i could access i'll replace them all. Also the coolant is again like dirt, i replaced it and flashed the engine beginning of winter. I plan to do a better flash now and switch it to G12 coolant, the dirty coolant is what is destroying the hoses and clogging my heater core. Has anyone come across this: dirty cooling system even after couple of flushes. And how seen Will Smith slap on stage at the awards.


----------



## woodchucker

GoceKU said:


> it's strange time, i never thought i'll take the 607 up in the mountains, but i did and it did well no bumps or scrapes even showed the best fuel economy ever. I also took apart the 605 and removed all the hoses i could access i'll replace them all. Also the coolant is again like dirt, i replaced it and flashed the engine beginning of winter. I plan to do a better flash now and switch it to G12 coolant, the dirty coolant is what is destroying the hoses and clogging my heater core. Has anyone come across this: dirty cooling system even after couple of flushes. And how seen Will Smith slap on stage at the awards.
> View attachment 402066
> View attachment 402067
> View attachment 402068
> View attachment 402069
> View attachment 402070


looks like some oil in the coolant?  does it separate out?
either that or the mice are bathing in the radiator after those off road trips?


----------



## dkemppai

GoceKU said:


> Has anyone come across this: dirty cooling system even after couple of flushes. And how seen Will Smith slap on stage at the awards.


Haven't seen anything that bad. Just did a coolant system flush on a ford pickup truck, which hadn't been flushed in probably close to 15 years. It was a little dark, but not that dark. Are you using chemicals in the flush to break down the oxides/rust, etc? 

I think all of the radiator flush chemicals around here are based on sodium citrate. It's supposed to break up some of the junk and oxides. Then you flush with clean water a few times and fill with good coolant.


----------



## GoceKU

woodchucker said:


> ooks like some oil in the coolant? does it separate out?
> either that or the mice are bathing in the radiator after those off road trips?


Nope, no oil in the coolant, it's just dirty.


----------



## GoceKU

dkemppai said:


> Haven't seen anything that bad. Just did a coolant system flush on a ford pickup truck, which hadn't been flushed in probably close to 15 years. It was a little dark, but not that dark. Are you using chemicals in the flush to break down the oxides/rust, etc?
> 
> I think all of the radiator flush chemicals around here are based on sodium citrate. It's supposed to break up some of the junk and oxides. Then you flush with clean water a few times and fill with good coolant.


Last time i used oven cleaner and run water with the engine running till it was crystal clean.


----------



## finsruskw

_Made some replacement threaded ferulles for the Cat 'O' lift arms on my Cub 882.
Originals were getting pretty worn as well as elongating the holes in the arms.
bored the holes oversize to clean them up and turned some new pieces to fit plus a few extras standard size for the swap meet table this year.
Cub Cadet wants $31 each for theirs!!_


----------



## pdentrem

Making a small mounting bracket for the heater fan switch on the ‘36 Chrysler. It mounts onto the underside of the dash.
Took some 1 1/2” Al angle drilled and filed the hole to fit the switch yesterday. Today used BP to mill the basic shape with the rest done by file. Still need the two mounting holes to be located and drilled. Likely will beadblast the piece and use some Al blacking compound or paint.
Pierre


----------



## dkemppai

GoceKU said:


> Last time i used oven cleaner and run water with the engine running till it was crystal clean.


I think the engine flush chemicals are designed to break up the junk  that forms. Same idea, just purpose made stuff.

Oven cleaner has sodium hydroxide in it. That literally eats aluminum, I use it to clean end mills with aluminum stuck on.  Some warm water and sodium hydroxide, drop the end mill in and in a little while no more aluminum. So, you might want to be careful with that if there's any aluminum in the engine. I know corrosive chemicals can cause stress corrosion cracking in metals. Even window cleaner (ammonia) on brass is bad.


----------



## wachuko

Could not get to the garage this weekend... it was all about digging to burry a 1/2" PVC water pipe and 1" electrical pipe.  Needed water and electrical in the shed...

It was about a 75' long run...


----------



## GoceKU

Today was a long day at work and then when i got back home i spent the rest of my time working on the 605's cooling system. I flash the entire system with my well water, the pump has a lot more flow i also remove the thermostat and managed to flow water every direction. The dirt that came out was surprising, i'm pretty sure the dirt is from the hoses falling apart and the cast iron block. I looked for a coolant flush but could not find. And to get the new hoses on i had to take even more of the engine apart. The engine and under side is very disgusting, there is a oil leak that formed recently at the oil cooler and i will fix tomorrow i also need to clean off the underside, it's disgusting, it's too cold to pressure wash it but i rag and a spray bottle will be enough.


----------



## pdentrem

Many engine cleaners are sodium hydroxide based. Not friendly to aluminum but for the short duration and well flushed at the end, should have no issues.
Pierre


----------



## pdentrem

I hit the bracket with beads today once I got to work. Looks pretty good to me. Need to put an indicator mark and will drill the mounting holes and fit it on Friday.
Pierre


----------



## Parlo

extropic said:


> Interesting. Please keep sharing the progress.
> 
> Is that a plastic material (as opposed to a white paint)?
> 
> I assume the copper inserts are tubing. What diameter (for scale reference)?


Project finished. Here is the final result.


----------



## GoceKU

Yesterday i fix my 605 i did convert the coolant to G12 pink coolant it has a bit more power now not sure why, that car has served me well close to a decade now and i plan to prolong its life as long as i can especially in this economy no photo. With that car out of the garage the white elephant No2: come for new rear brakes, my brother got stopped by police and sent to the inspection station, the octavia was excellent in the front but the handbrake was 26% out of balance the max is 30%. Not wanting a ticket be bought new shows, spring, cylinders and cables. It took me couple of hours to clean everything and assemble it. i'm pretty sure in a week time the brakes would have been out of specs with my brother's driving. After the brakes i had to mow my lawn and the primer bulb on my mower disintegrated over the winter, i had a new spare and threw it on and finish that task and had day light left to go for a walk, i need to get my little niva registered so i can go further in the mountains.


----------



## thomas s

Beautiful pictures


----------



## koenbro

Can hardly wait to see your Niva finished. I enjoy very much following along your automobile wizardry. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


----------



## Parlo

Machined the end of a tube today using helical roughing to keep maximum amount of tips engaged during cutting for high material removal rate. -


----------



## greenail

A this old tony tribute

"how to turn a lathe on a cube"

Happy 4/1


----------



## GoceKU

Today My father's 405 needed some suspension work. Front anti roll bar started to make noise so it got new links and bushes. Buying new part for those cars is starting to be difficult. I had to go to 3 different parts store to buy those parts and all of them are different manufacturer but are 30 years newer than the one on the car. The links are easy to replace but the bushes are quite difficult. With them changed the 405 got back its handling i might have to change one more suspension bushes but it's much happier now, this car has been in my family more then 20 years.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i needed to modify couple of wheel nuts, to accommodate alloy wheels. You can see my setup, i used the compound at 30 degrees so i can cut a 60 degree taper. Quick job come out well.


----------



## finsruskw

Close to finishing up two projects, well actually one only with two different items.
 15 lift bar plates for narrow frame Cubs and a few, (in foreground) for wide frame units.
lots of drilling and tapping
Next step is the paint booth.

Next project will be re-purposing a file cabinet sans drawers for an upright steel storage rack for short stuff 18" to 3' plus to stand on end.


----------



## NCjeeper

A couple of the DA tool holders I got from Dave were missing the thumb wheels. So I made some. 1 1/2" diameter 1018 with 9/16-18 threaded holes.


----------



## AGCB97

I put a larger shield on my small grinder and incorporated a LED strip light.
Aaron


----------



## wachuko

AGCB97 said:


> I put a larger shield on my small grinder and incorporated a LED strip light.
> Aaron
> 
> View attachment 403151
> View attachment 403154


Sweet!


----------



## Doug Gray

I recently purchased a Diamond Tool Holder. The tool can be angled to go into chamfering mode, and I found myself turning it back and forth often. So I made up and tool post position handle. I used a 1" 12 point socket  so it can go on and off easily and can be positioned to a convenient spot. I made up a plastic cap just to keep chips out of the drive end of the socket


----------



## francist

I haven’t been in the shop a lot lately, at least not for a specific project. But it was raining again today so I opted for a little change of pace. 

I have a couple of old sad irons upstairs that used to belong to my grandmother. They’d be from the early 1940’s I imagine, she would have used them on the farm shortly after they came to Canada. I didn’t even realize they were around until we were going through the house after my Mom died and these are two that I saved from the garage sale. I use them as weights for when I’m laying out fabric or drafting a pattern. 

Most of the time you only need two, but every now and again a second pair comes in handy. Trouble is, with this type of iron you would have multiple lowers for the same handle — it clips on using a spring loaded little set of jaws — so even though I have four lowers I only have two handles. Hmmm…


I figured I could come up with a couple of simple handles pretty quick and I wouldn’t have to modify the lowers to attach them, but I would need to get the latching and ironing pieces separated first. Yeah right, easier said than done. These are cast iron and have been routinely subjected to heat and water for all of their lives, steel screws were unlikely to come out without a fight!


And they didn’t. I ended up using a rotary burr in my Dremel to chew away enough of the screw heads so that the plate would come off, and then the same burr to waste away any remaining screw until I reached the cast iron. After that I just drilled out what was left and re-tapped the holes for 1/4”-20 which is about what they were in the beginning. 


Here’s what the two lowers looked like with the latching plate recently separated and the screws ground down flush. The diamond-shaped piece in the top pair of parts is an interesting artifact that does not appear in any of the others. It’s a little lid for lack of a better word that fits beneath the latching plate and straddles the two partial cross-ribs in the lower body. For what reason I’m not sure, it seems a little elaborate to just cover over the hollowness of the body given the utilitarian nature of the item but who knows. I thought it might serve as a way to keep water from sloshing out of the body if it was filled but I don’t know if that was a done thing or not. At any rate, I’ve left it intact and will reinstate it for someone else to ponder after me.




Back to the main task, I cleaned up the castings a little with some moderate wire brushing. I thought about using Evaporust and even have a fresh jug on hand but in the end I decided against. I wanted to keep as much of the age on as I could and sometimes you lose that with too thorough of a job. With much of the surface rust off I applied a liberal coat of Boeshield T-9 and then gently warmed the castings before buffing off the excess. I like the look, just a very subtle glow on the high spots but not enough to look like there’s a coating.




For the handles I found a scrap of Honduras Mahogany that would give me both from the one piece so went with that. I didn’t really have a clear picture of what I wanted for shape and in the end I’m not sure I like what I came up with, but I’m staying with it for now. I made a couple little strap clamps to affix the handles but leave all the metal parts unharmed. A couple coats of varnish later and they were good to go.








The only thing left was to reassemble. The original screws were oval head steel but I knew any new steel would stand out like a sore thumb. So I figured I’d go with brass instead. I could only get flat head in 1/4”-20 but a bit of doctoring on the lathe turned them into oval heads in a matter of minutes. I think they look okay.




All in all what started as a quick afternoon project turned into the better part of two weeks, but that’s pretty par for course I guess. Thanks for looking!




-frank


----------



## DavidR8

Beautiful work @francist!


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## extropic

@francist

Looking very good!.

Did you sculpt the new handles with hand tools mostly?


----------



## francist

extropic said:


> Did you sculpture the new handles with hand tools mostly?


Yes and no. I roughed the basic form on the disk sander — the oval profile, the angled slope of the sides, the curve of the top — then went with a surform tool after that to rough in the hollows. After that a half-round file to refine and a few bits of sandpaper to clean it up to final. Were they larger I would have gone with chisels to start, much more efficient, but the size of these didn’t make sense for that. Even these I screwed to a temporary grip rail so I could hang onto them better. I used to do quite a lot of this, a friend of mine had a very extensive collection of vintage and antique hood ornaments for which I sculpted many custom display pedestals. Now some of those were _really_ fun to work on!


----------



## finsruskw

Not a lot done today..
Cub Cadet custom lift pin for a customer using his spec's,
Les will weld the smaller washer in place about where it sits and the larger one slides on the shaft and will carry the spring assist connection.


----------



## Tim9

Not much here either. I haven’t been in the shop much either. Weather has been cool and  bearable so I’ve just been trying to get my mothers house in order. A tree fell on the roof and we had that replaced and then the gutters needed repair.
    So I’ve replaced a bad section of facia and then had some rotten wood on three of the columns. Replace bottom 3-1/2 using 4x6 treated wood. And today I figured I’d trim them out. Long story short, I then decided to fig the 30 year old Makita sliding miter saw. It was missing the latch that snaps in in the various angles. Even when cutting a 90 degree cut, without that latch it’s never quite right and I’d have to get out a square to check it.
  So I made a rod using O-1 3/16” rod and made a couple of brass bushings to tighten everything up. It came out okay.
Now I can get started on the trim woodwork. I like woodworking, but I’d much rather be playing with my lathe and mill. At least I got some shop time today


----------



## eugene13

Built a Small Block Chevy oil pump priming device from a worn out distributer.  I cut the teeth off the gear so it would not engage  the cam and I cut three flats on the other end for the drill chuck.  I forgot to take a "before" picture so I put the other distributer in for reference.  All it needs now is a good clean-up. 
	

		
			
		

		
	



	

		
			
		

		
	
.


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## NCjeeper

^^^
I have one like that too.


----------



## woodchucker

I used to put an extension on a speed wrench and stick it in.. It worked... 40 + years ago..


----------



## Doug Gray

I worked on an interesting part tonight. The turning is straight forward enough, but when I went to mill the flats the part said no and went for a walk. I just couldn't get a good hold on the on the part (the larger flat goes down to the centre line). Had a good think and decided to try a technique that I am now going to call "Put it on a Stick". (luckily one gets 5/16-24 threads and one gets drilled 5/16") So I threaded a stick, screwed my part onto the stick and turn the flats on the lathe. This worked awesome. Because the the work was held on the stick I was able to remove it for measuring at will. Thanks for looking.


----------



## silverhawk

eugene13 said:


> Built a Small Block Chevy oil pump priming device from a worn out distributer. I cut the teeth off the gear so it would not engage the cam and I cut three flats on the other end for the drill chuck. I forgot to take a "before" picture so I put the other distributer in for reference. All it needs now is a good clean-up.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 403273
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> .


If I recall, that gear should just be removable with a puller. I swapped out the gear for a Chrysler one when I converted a wrangler to an HEI distributor. 

Sent from my SM-T500 using Tapatalk


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## mmcmdl

Preparing for a scrap run . Prices are up for aluminum . $.75 @ lb , and I'm up to 300 lbs at least .


----------



## woodchucker

mmcmdl said:


> Preparing for a scrap run . Prices are up for aluminum . $.75 @ lb , and I'm up to 300 lbs at least .


then you better go on a diet. I'm sure your dr wants you down around 200 assuming you to be about 6'1"...


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Nothing fancy, but used my new ER32 collet blocks for the first time to make a couple of chuck keys for two Bison chucks I'm selling 
	

		
			
		

		
	



	

		
			
		

		
	
original at the bottom


----------



## woodchucker

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Nothing fancy, but used my new ER32 collet blocks for the first time to make a couple of chuck keys for two Bison chucks I'm selling
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 403368
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> original at the bottom
> View attachment 403369


I did the same a few days ago. For some reason one of the sides is cut deeper than the others. Since the cutter or Y never moved, I don't understand it... it's deeper than the TIR of the block. and I climb cut so it should have stayed further away, and not pulled itself in.


----------



## Parlo

Doug Gray said:


> I worked on an interesting part tonight. The turning is straight forward enough, but when I went to mill the flats the part said no and went for a walk. I just couldn't get a good hold on the on the part (the larger flat goes down to the centre line). Had a good think and decided to try a technique that I am now going to call "Put it on a Stick". (luckily one gets 5/16-24 threads and one gets drilled 5/16") So I threaded a stick, screwed my part onto the stick and turn the flats on the lathe. This worked awesome. Because the the work was held on the stick I was able to remove it for measuring at will. Thanks for looking.
> 
> View attachment 403279


Did you clamp the part over the ends to mill the flat or on the diameter when it went for a walk?


----------



## Doug Gray

Parlo said:


> Did you clamp the part over the ends to mill the flat or on the diameter when it went for a walk?


On the flat ends... I had to remove material down to the centre line.


----------



## woodchucker

I made garbage. I didn't notice that my collet draw bar came loose. I started having problems with depth of cut. and trashed the rod. I went to take it out of the collet and found it had loosened up... or as Joe Pie says, unloosened.


----------



## WobblyHand

After busting a saw blade yesterday, and doing forensics on it, the arbor and myself, found the causes.  1) blade walked off and fractured at the arbor perimeter, 2) arbor manufactured poorly with an offset screw hole, whose screw head interfered with the arbor cap counterbore, which tipped the arbor cap under certain rotation angles, and 3) the nut behind the wheel (that's me!) failed to put the belt on the low speed pulley, and was expecting the mill to perform at low speed.





So today, I grabbed a different arbor and saw, set the belt on the correct low speed pulleys and was able to cut through the 5/8" thick 1018 stock.


So two days, 1 dead saw blade, and one defective arbor later, I finally sliced a piece of steel in half.  No injuries, so I count my blessings.  McMaster agreed the arbor was out of spec and is sending me a new one.  I will drill out this one and put in a larger and centered screw.


----------



## Doug Gray

Tonight I was center punching steel plate. The plate has laser etched centre marks. I used my WiFi microscope and a tiny Starrett punch. Worked well.
	

		
			
		

		
	




Photo from the microscope software


----------



## woodchucker

woodchucker said:


> I made garbage. I didn't notice that my collet draw bar came loose. I started having problems with depth of cut. and trashed the rod. I went to take it out of the collet and found it had loosened up... or as Joe Pie says, unloosened.


the damage I did today continued tonight.
I went to drill the cross bar for the lathe key.  the 4140HT is not that hard, but it was not easy. The small pilot was fine, but the larger hole just wouldn't cut. Took out the cobalt drill bits and still wierd, then grab, finally got through..  Reamed.. deburred.  
brought it over to the vise, heated it, started putting the bar through, going, then it started coming out of vise.. readjust it, in a better position... it's already tight and not even 1/3 in.  tried reheating, but the key and t bar are heating together, tried cooling the t bar with acetone.. not helping.
ok, time to use the press. going, then stop... I think it galled up.. put some antisieze on it. not moving. heat it, press, bent the the t bar. straighten it. try again. nothing. Bang it in there. not moving. now banging the key.. what a mess.
change the bottle jack to a higher tonnage. it's moving again.. ok.. pretzel...
straighten it ... snap...

shower... hard alcohol... anger, ... realization I should have stopped when it was stuck and given it more thought...  licking my wounds now... 

The key is damaged from hammering... its usable, but not pretty. I might be able to fix it up with some knurling to hide the damage.
probably going to cut the T handle, then drill it out.    Grrrrrrrrrr...


----------



## francist

Yep, some days it just doesn’t pay to even get out of bed…


----------



## savarin

It must be contagious.
I need 6 of these little brass bushes, threaded M6 inside.


a length of 12mm brass rod and turn down the smaller section to 8mm dia and 5mm long, drill and tap 6mm, then use a die to cut a M8x1.25 external thread so it can lock into the hole in the 5mm plate.
All going well till almost finished the 8mm thread when it tore off, ok do it again but single point the 8mm thread instead.
ooops, tore it off again.
What the?
Then the dumb cluck bell went off, the only metal holding the 5mm bit on was where the threads  crossed each other.


----------



## wachuko

Left this printing late last night… Done by the time I woke up.  This is to sharpen the rods for the still new in the box TIG welder that I have never used… 

But I got to test the new carbon fiber reinforced filament… was a bit of a pita getting to the correct temperature settings and feed rate… but it came out great even without enabling support structures…


----------



## wachuko

Double post


----------



## Boswell

That looks great. I have been looking for a project (read excuse) to try some carbon filament.


----------



## woodchucker

I have my set of very nice dial indicator, and test indicators... Starrett, Mit, Federal, BesTest, B&S... but I recently broke my cheap HF indicator . It was mounted on the ways of my lathe, and when I looked down the crystal was shattered. I don't know what happened. I was quite glad it was a cheap HF indicator and not one of my better ones.  But I don't want to take  a good one and risk it, so I either buy another HF or fix what I got..
So a piece of lexan some sanding, (put a bevel in it so it would drop in) and silicone.. 
Yep, I'm cheap, but not stupid either..  If it happened once it might happen again... Now it's bullet proof


----------



## mattthemuppet2

woodchucker said:


> the damage I did today continued tonight.
> I went to drill the cross bar for the lathe key.  the 4140HT is not that hard, but it was not easy. The small pilot was fine, but the larger hole just wouldn't cut. Took out the cobalt drill bits and still wierd, then grab, finally got through..  Reamed.. deburred.
> brought it over to the vise, heated it, started putting the bar through, going, then it started coming out of vise.. readjust it, in a better position... it's already tight and not even 1/3 in.  tried reheating, but the key and t bar are heating together, tried cooling the t bar with acetone.. not helping.
> ok, time to use the press. going, then stop... I think it galled up.. put some antisieze on it. not moving. heat it, press, bent the the t bar. straighten it. try again. nothing. Bang it in there. not moving. now banging the key.. what a mess.
> change the bottle jack to a higher tonnage. it's moving again.. ok.. pretzel...
> straighten it ... snap...
> 
> shower... hard alcohol... anger, ... realization I should have stopped when it was stuck and given it more thought...  licking my wounds now...
> 
> The key is damaged from hammering... its usable, but not pretty. I might be able to fix it up with some knurling to hide the damage.
> probably going to cut the T handle, then drill it out.    Grrrrrrrrrr...



that sucks  I've been practicing my "I'm mad, better walk away before I break something" skills and my success to screw up ratio has been getting better  I've found that reaming onsize for an onsize rod makes a nice secure fit for something like a chuck key, without having to use a temperature differential. I screwed up too many of those - the slightest bit of cocking/ galling/ pausing = lock up and damage. You have to get it through in one go or you're toast. Another trick I've found that helps is turning/ sanding down the first 1/2-1" of the rod to a bit below the hole diameter (say 0.499 for a 0.500" hole). That then falls in easily and helps align/ guide the rest for a quick push. no faffing around trying to get everything lined up right while that temp differential disappears.

Also, what size chuck key you working on? Might have a spare body for postage if it fits.


----------



## woodchucker

that's ok. I wanted a longer key, because I keep running into the dial indicator. So I made this one 10 or 11 inches. still trying to avoid it right now. 
what I thought I would do, is take the side of the tbar that didn't get bent (badly) and use that for a reference to put it back in the square collet block so I can drill out the T bar.  I figure I can take a square, and a parallel and hold it up against the Tbar and get it relocated straight up and down.
then take it over to the bandsaw, cut off the tbar, then drill it out and do whatever.
After that, I'll see if I can turn down the hammer marks on the key.. if they aren't too deep, or out of shape. If not, I'll see about covering it with knurling.. if not.. I'll wear the scars as a reminder as I often do.

still don't understand the 7 thou cut on one pair of sides for the square... My collet block is only out about 2 or 3 thou on one side. I should mark it or re-grind it.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Yeah, I dunno what's going on with your collet block, maybe such a gauge pin in and see if there's some movement when you rotate the block.

Most of my day was spent on a bike ride with a friend, but after that I helped my daughter with her terrarium project. She drilled all the holes in the ventilation plate herself and I deburred one side. Have to do the other side when we get home from band practice. There aren't enough hours in the day!


----------



## lordbeezer

Finally finished a pig cooker for a fellow. Took me  much longer than normal due to feeling bad from virus. No energy and aches all over.


----------



## mmcmdl

Moved this to the front of the garage today . Moving the equipment is not an issue . Moving everything to GET TO the equipment is .   

Haven't made my mind up on the Bridgeport as of yet , but it may go once I see how much space I have .


----------



## mmcmdl

I found a trailer out back !   I cleaned off the equipment trailer yesterday in anticipation of making a large scale haul in the upcoming week or 3 or 4 . For those of you who have been here , you know what I went thru , not an easy task . I have to replace a tail light as the Kubota tooth bar tore it off , but it'll be ready to go today . May need a dump run tomorrow unless I can burn it all today and tonight . Things are REALLY shaping up with a few days of nice weather finally , getting quite a bit done in my limited capacity .


----------



## koenbro

Soft jaws for the miteeBite talons







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


----------



## Suzuki4evr

woodchucker said:


> shower... hard alcohol... anger, ... realization I should have stopped when it was stuck and given it more thought... licking my wounds now..


Was waiting for this part and when it finaly came,I laughed my a$$ off. 
 
Sorry for your demise though


----------



## GoceKU

Another week another car to fix, i got a call the wrapped car will not start. First i push started it and check the alternator is charging but when i shut it off the starter is clicking but won't turn over. So i removed the starter took it apart and the brushes are destroyed. I had another set and i just replaced them. There is a lot of heat in the armature i'm guessing someone is starting it in gear. Reinstalled it and this vehicle is back on the road probably being driven like a bumper car.


----------



## Tim9

NCjeeper said:


> ^^^
> I have one like that too.


Me too. Brings back many memories of getting those old engines started after rebuilding.


----------



## Tim9

woodchucker said:


> I did the same a few days ago. For some reason one of the sides is cut deeper than the others. Since the cutter or Y never moved, I don't understand it... it's deeper than the TIR of the block. and I climb cut so it should have stayed further away, and not pulled itself in.


Just finished making a tiny one that’s about 0.200 square drive. Anyway my key also came out bad on the first try. It then occurred to me that between the two flute end mill and not sufficiently tightening the collet, the end mill was getting pulled out on heavy cuts. I need to take my time and do things properly. Even for silly chuck keys.


----------



## MozamPete

Turned up a plumb bob. Brass with a stainless steel point.


----------



## GoceKU

Last few weeks i've been clearing my yard of broken down cars but just as i fix one another one fails. I just fix the starter on the white elephant No:2 but noticed its losing lots of coolant and today it finally blow its heater core. Replacing heater core on any car is a hassle but in this one everything needs to come out, and i really didn't wanted to do it but in all 12 shops i asked they said no. So i rolled back my sleeves and took it apart, i've done couple of heater cores and stripped many cars so i know how to do it, but its a lot of work. I started right after work and finished at 3 AM the old heater core was the original and has been leaking for a while, tomorrow i'll buy a new one and continue. I'll also pick up couple bottles of oven cleaner and sanitizer everything is very dirty and the carpet is soaked in coolant. I'll have a full day of cleaning tomorrow, the plan is just get it done.


----------



## woodchucker

GoceKU said:


> Last few weeks i've been clearing my yard of broken down cars but just as i fix one another one fails. I just fix the starter on the white elephant No:2 but noticed its losing lots of coolant and today it finally blow its heater core. Replacing heater core on any car is a hassle but in this one everything needs to come out, and i really didn't wanted to do it but in all 12 shops i asked they said no. So i rolled back my sleeves and took it apart, i've done couple of heater cores and stripped many cars so i know how to do it, but its a lot of work. I started right after work and finished at 3 AM the old heater core was the original and has been leaking for a while, tomorrow i'll buy a new one and continue. I'll also pick up couple bottles of oven cleaner and sanitizer everything is very dirty and the carpet is soaked in coolant. I'll have a full day of cleaning tomorrow, the plan is just get it done.
> View attachment 404328
> View attachment 404327
> View attachment 404329
> View attachment 404330
> View attachment 404331
> View attachment 404332


holy cow, last time I took one out it was a job, but not like that... it was a 62 olds. I don't think I ever did my Camaro..
I guess with all the electronics, the air bags, the other stuff.. there's just no access.  I probably would have put bars-leak in the radiator and hoped for the best.


----------



## GoceKU

woodchucker said:


> holy cow, last time I took one out it was a job, but not like that... it was a 62 olds. I don't think I ever did my Camaro..
> I guess with all the electronics, the air bags, the other stuff.. there's just no access.  I probably would have put bars-leak in the radiator and hoped for the best.


Radiator stop leak was added about a year ago and was leaking a bit but yesterday it blow out it was leaking more then you can fill it. I had to bypass it or replace it and i decided to do it right. The automatic A/C make it more difficult, the thing has 20 air temp sensors 5 stepper motors but still is simpler then working on a french car, and i've learn on french cars.


----------



## Larry$

GoceKU said:


> Replacing heater core on any car is a hassle but in this one everything needs to come out, and i really didn't wanted to do it but in all 12 shops i asked they said no.


My neighbor had a Chevy that had the heater fan die. He asked the dealer how much $. Then how to fix it. Cut a hole in the firewall after removing some stuff. Still difficult to get the heater fan in & out. But we did it in two evenings. A piece of sheet metal, caulking and some screws to fix the hole.  Debated about painting the sheet metal and decided to leave it as a reminder about car engineering.


----------



## koenbro

GoceKU said:


> Radiator stop leak was added about a year ago and was leaking a bit but yesterday it blow out it was leaking more then you can fill it. I had to bypass it or replace it and i decided to do it right. The automatic A/C make it more difficult, the thing has 20 air temp sensors 5 stepper motors but still is simpler then working on a french car, and i've learn on french cars.



What car is this? Year, make, model?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


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## GoceKU

koenbro said:


> What car is this? Year, make, model?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI 2004 They are not available in the US, there you got the VW golf TDI they are the same car under as the MK4 golf.


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## koenbro

Oh wow. VW and Audi have a reputation here of being difficult to work on because you have to remove a lot ($$$ labor) to gain access even for usual jobs. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


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## davek181

I work on VW/Audi, mercedes, BMW etc for a living.  Some things are rather hard indeed.  Dropping the engine and transmission assembly to replace an alternator or starter on  a Tourag seems to be at the top of the list of harder than they should be jobs.


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## woodchucker

davek181 said:


> I work on VW/Audi, mercedes, BMW etc for a living. Some things are rather hard indeed. Dropping the engine and transmission assembly to replace an alternator or starter on a Tourag seems to be at the top of the list of harder than they should be jobs.


And we made fun of Chevy when they came out with two vehicles you had to either lift the motor or drill thru the frame to change a spark plug. 

My toyotta sienna had to have the top end pulled th change one or two plugs I couldn't get to. 


Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## rwm

davek181 said:


> Dropping the engine and transmission assembly to replace an alternator or starter on  a Tourag seems to be at the top of the list of harder than they should be jobs.


Farfegnugen them!


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## GoceKU

I believe french cars are worse to repair, to replace one part, 3 others need to come out and everyone is more difficult than the first.


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## GoceKU

Today i spent my time during daylight in nature the rest in my garage with brushes chemicals and vacuums. I bought and replaced the heater core washed the entire HVAC box and all of the ducting. Then i used an old roller to push as much of the soaked coolant out of the carpet, you can see the red paddle coming from the bottom of the car. Then i used cleaners and vacuum to clean everything even used some glass cleaner to clean the bottom of the windscreen. After that i got busy installing the HVAC box in its place i remember there are sensors on all sides and many of them are not accessible when installed, so i sent some time double checking that and i connected the coolant pipes and fill the system to check for leaks, i left it over night to bubble up all the air it can from the system, tomorrow i'll fire up the engine and pressurise the cooling system to check the new heater core before i put it together, i also want to check if the automatic climate control is working correctly and is reading all its sensors.


----------



## Wheat.Millington

My tiny little job of the day, making these little fittings to tie two shelves together. Made from 304SS using a cutter very graciously designed by users mikey and Z2V - in fact Z2V kindly supplied a tool, and the one in the video is a copy of the one he supplied.







View attachment C0061_H.264.mp4


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## mmcmdl

I put new solar lights in around the house , started on a garden project requiring 48 landscape ties , and found these down the other basement while looking for a 1"-8 tap .   Enco 4" boring/ facing head and another Geometric die head .


----------



## matthewsx

GoceKU said:


> I believe french cars are worse to repair, to replace one part, 3 others need to come out and everyone is more difficult than the first.


"The French follow no one, and no one follows the French"


----------



## extropic

GoceKU said:


> I believe french cars are worse to repair, to replace one part, 3 others need to come out and everyone is more difficult than the first.



A British friend of mine used to say "If you own a French automobile, no other misfortune may befall you".


----------



## davek181

I try to avoid french cars.  Luckily they didn't get to this area.  British cars did for a while and while they are not too hard to work on, the electrics leave something to be desired.  Lucas electrics have at least spawned a good variety of jokes like calling Lucas the prince of darkness and Englishmen have to drink warm beer as they have Lucas refrigerators etc.

Despite all the early pitfalls Lucas electrics still exists and continues to strive to be great.  I recently read in a trade journal that Lucas R&D had finally completed development of the dark emitting diode.

It will be labeled simply DED in the usual scientific and automotive vernacular for easy reference.


----------



## Larry$

davek181 said:


> Lucas R&D had finally completed development of the dark emitting diode.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i spent a lot of time working in the white elephant no:2. Installed the dash support, connected the instrument panel and climate control fire the engine got it up to temp pressurize the cooling system up to 1 bar. No leaks, connected the A/C used new O rings then vacuumed that system and charged it. After testing both systems cooling and heating are working as they should i install the dash bolted everything tight no extra bolts left. i'm glad to be done with this job and most importantly is has no cheeks and the ugly small is gone.


----------



## extropic

GoceKU said:


> i'm glad to be done with this job and most importantly is *it* has no cheeks *leaks* and the ugly small *smell* is gone.


 LOL
Believe me, you communicate very well in English. Immensely better than I would do in your native language.


----------



## GoceKU

creeks= no extra noise, (smell) i guess got autocorrected by google.


----------



## snoopdog

It was an arbor kind of day, after getting the cows checked and a purchase for my sweet and lovely. The flycutter came from a flea market 5bucks, the slitting saw is HF, and I promptly broke the one it came with. Slitting saw one is made from a grade 5 bolt, and 309 stainless for the cutter, its what I had close to diam. Struggled with the finish on the stainless, and botched it on the bolt beceause the diameter snuck up on me, Oh well, should work. Second photo is for the wife, a horsedance stick by a local native american artisan. Maybe get a little forgiveness for tool purchases, lol.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i was going to keep my hands off cars but murphy's law, my brother called, the astra die at the bus station can you take a look at it. Waited for him to drive me there and it fired up i drove it home and found 2 codes in the ecu, it had no check engine but the crank sensor code will explain the engine dying and not restarting. Remove the sensor, it has no visual damage, check the wiring, all fine. Put it together drove it and after 15-20km it die, it light up the battery lamp and the service but no check engine, there i had my lap top and i could see it was showing crank rpm but won't start. This was confusing, but i've seen this before so i open the hood and unplug the camshaft sensor and i had no rpm, cam or crank, so i know the crank sensor is defective. I left the car on the side of the road it will cool down and probably fire tomorrow, i did document the sensor when i had it out so i'll send my brother to buy a new one.



View attachment VID_20220408_205643.mp4


----------



## wachuko

Hate those crank sensors... I damaged a set once when I did not gap them correctly... Flywheel took them out.  This was on a 1987 car... I forgot to install the spacer that provided the correct gap.  And of course, reaching the place where they need to be installed was a royal pain in the a...


----------



## Just for fun

Yesterday I had a little fun in the machine shop. Installing the DRO on the lathe, I needed to drill two 5 mm holes close to the ways. I tried three different drills and they all hit the ways and wouldn't let me drill the holes straight. The die grinder lined up perfect but would only except a 1/4" shank. A little work on the lathe to make a 5 mm collet and the problem was solved.




I cut the slot with a hack saw!


----------



## tjb

Some time back I bought one of those collet block chuck kits for a specific project, and I've been pleasantly surprised by how regularly I use it.  It has occupied a space in one of my tool drawers which has been a little frustrating for a couple of reasons.  First, it came in a nice little wooden box with a hinged lid, but that actually made it a little cumbersome to use because of where it needed to be placed in the drawer.  And secondly, the box had a relatively large footprint - about 6"x6" - which was part of the reason for its specific placement in the tool drawer.  I decided to make a rack that would hold the parts vertically instead of horizontally.  That resulted in a smaller footprint of 4-1/4"x4-1/4".  And the parts slip off without needing to move anything around.  A very easy project and, except for the 1/4-20 bolts, every part was made from scrap aluminum.  Below are some pictures.

Regards


----------



## NCjeeper

^^^
I like the way you organized them.


----------



## tjb

NCjeeper said:


> ^^^
> I like the way you organized them.


Thanks, Tom.  I actually drew it to scale on some quadrille paper and placed the pieces on the drawing before I started milling anything.  Pretty much knew exactly what I would get in advance.

Regards


----------



## francist

I got bored the other day and it’s been so stinking cold (for April anyway) that I started working on another machine. It’s a 223 zig-zag / blind stitch and I think the first of the Singers made at the Utsonomiya factory in Japan. It’s in super shape for its age (1960) and by the looks of it was never really used. Super clean too, well, except for this….




Think you put enough grease in there, guys? There’s a couple of bevel gears in there somewhere that transmit power to the shuttle but you can’t see them for all the dried goo. Man, it was so old it wasn’t even sticky anymore, just crumbly! A couple of hours later and…




Clean. I put some (some, not half a tube) of new Tri Flow clear grease on the teeth and buttoned it up again. Good for another few years. Thanks for looking.




-frank


----------



## Tim9

Yep Francist. I’m going to use your dried grease as my segue.
I purchased another Rohm Scroll / Independent chuck off of EBay.
This one is a 4-jaw scroll with independent jaws .
Anyway the damned thing was frozen solid due to dried up grease stuck to everything. Took me a few hours to get it disassembled and then soak it in degreaser. 
  Weather was nice so didn’t have to use my “clean room”

(if only I had a clean room)


----------



## woodchucker

Tim9 said:


> Yep Francist. I’m going to use your dried grease as my segue.
> I purchased another Rohm Scroll / Independent chuck off of EBay.
> This one is a 4-jaw scroll with independent jaws .
> Anyway the damned thing was frozen solid due to dried up grease stuck to everything. Took me a few hours to get it disassembled and then soak it in degreaser.
> Weather was nice so didn’t have to use my “clean room”
> 
> (if only I had a clean room)


I don't understand. You have a scroll.. which to my thinking means that it controls all the jaws, but you say it's independent... How does that work exactly?

edit: I get it. I just looked at the jaws. You have both independent to adjust , but it opens all at once.
Nice.. I didn't know that existed.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Finished up my part of my daughter's terrarium project. She was super happy and I'm super happy I've got some space back in my garage


----------



## eugene13

Made a new elevating screw for my golf ball mortar, this one has left hand threads so turning the knob clockwise elevates the gun.  I also had to make a 3/8-24 left hand pin nut.


----------



## wachuko

Started to build the Acute Tool Sharpening kit…

First part is the easy one… drill some holes, tap four holes, drill some more holes to size… and then machine the spacers…




Then assemble it all…


----------



## Tim9

Yea. Its an older chuck that doesn't look like its hardly ever been used. Beautiful  condition of the scroll and jaws. I don't really need it. But every now and then I do want to make something precision. I could always just use a regular 4-jaw chuck. Anyway, It's another toy. We gotta have our toys.


----------



## Winegrower

eugene13 said:


> Made a new elevating screw for my golf ball mortar,


That ought to help with the old handicap.


----------



## wachuko

Brother-in-law recommended a record brush... arrived today.  Turns out it is too low for my turntable.  The 1/4" adjustment is not enough to make it work.




So I figured that I would make a base for it to raise it.  Testing here the height needed for the spacer...






Yeah, that should do it... but now I need to make it look better...  I do not have cylinder bars of Delrin... but since the lathe is to make square things round... let's do this!

And yeah, I changed the cutter for another one... I used the boring bar on a second step...









There you are...




Boring bar was used to carve out the center so the base of the brush would sit inside securely...




I then took this to the bandsaw and proceeded to cut it short of the cylinder.  Placed it back in the lathe and machined the left over rectangle in the bottom... also made a recess... well, because I see other folks doing that, lol...



Man, I am new to all this... but I am so frigging proud of how this came out!!






Poifect!!


----------



## woodchucker

I used to wipe my albums before playing them, not during.  I would think the brushing while running would lead to noise.. a WOW effect, and shhhhhhhhhh sound.


----------



## woodchucker

A new arbor for my 5/8 slotting saws...  I have a job to do making some screws for someone 
	

		
			
		

		
	






	

		
			
		

		
	
and I did not have a 5/8 arbor.


----------



## wachuko

woodchucker said:


> I used to wipe my albums before playing them, not during.  I would think the brushing while running would lead to noise.. a WOW effect, and shhhhhhhhhh sound.



I wash them with this...




And then use a brush before playing them... but sometimes there is stuff in the air that lands on the record while playing... 

You know how it is... there is really no need for a lot of stuff that we buy....


----------



## wachuko

Made a mandrel for some of the steps needed with the Acute Tool Sharpening kit...




Finish is not that great, I just needed the mandrel and was not paying attention to speed and feeds... I know it takes the same amount of time to do it right than half-a... I will do better next time.


----------



## woodchucker

wachuko said:


> I wash them with this...
> 
> View attachment 404873
> 
> 
> And then use a brush before playing them... but sometimes there is stuff in the air that lands on the record while playing...
> 
> You know how it is... there is really no need for a lot of stuff that we buy....


how's that Macallan in the background?  Smoooooooth?


----------



## wachuko

woodchucker said:


> how's that Macallan in the background?  Smoooooooth?


Was…was…   But I really prefer Oban 14 over that one…

Vinyl record cleaner is concentrated, so that empty bottle was perfect for holding the diluted fluid…


----------



## Eyerelief

wachuko said:


> Brother-in-law recommended a record brush... arrived today.  Turns out it is too low for my turntable.  The 1/4" adjustment is not enough to make it work.
> 
> View attachment 404854
> 
> 
> So I figured that I would make a base for it to raise it.  Testing here the height needed for the spacer...
> 
> View attachment 404855
> 
> View attachment 404856
> 
> 
> Yeah, that should do it... but now I need to make it look better...  I do not have cylinder bars of Delrin... but since the lathe is to make square things round... let's do this!
> 
> And yeah, I changed the cutter for another one... I used the boring bar on a second step...
> 
> View attachment 404857
> 
> 
> There you are...
> 
> View attachment 404858
> 
> 
> Boring bar was used to carve out the center so the base of the brush would sit inside securely...
> 
> View attachment 404859
> 
> 
> I then took this to the bandsaw and proceeded to cut it short of the cylinder.  Placed it back in the lathe and machined the left over rectangle in the bottom... also made a recess... well, because I see other folks doing that, lol...
> View attachment 404860
> 
> 
> Man, I am new to all this... but I am so frigging proud of how this came out!!
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 404861
> 
> 
> Poifect!!
> 
> View attachment 404862
> 
> View attachment 404863


It's more than a felling Wachuko


----------



## mksj

Through the years have always wanted to have a Pizza oven, but didn't want to do a built in permanent type as they take too long to heat. Ended up with a mobile base type, still weighs in at around 450 lbs, it is stainless steel with a Corten liner on the firebox end. I have had it for a year and slowly learning the different preparation and cooking methods when cooking Pizza's at 850F. The cooking time of the pizza is 90-120 seconds. One of the issues I had is there was no place to put the front door and the different pizza peels when cooking, so I made a hanger button for the main pizza peel on one side, the turning pizza peel has two brackets to lock it in on the other side and I added a hook under the oven to hang the removable front oven door while cooking the pizza. 

Making pizza's is a time consuming process, the pizza dough starts the day before, rises twice and then the a third slow rise in the refrigerator over night to allow the dough to mature and become more elastic. When cooking at high heat the dough water content must be reduced (ideal is 57%), I stretch out the dough by hand, place it on the larger pizza peel, add ingredients and immediately place it in the pizza oven. The smaller turning peel is used to incrementally turn the pizza so the it gets evenly heated from the hot coals on the side. Then back to the larger peel to slide it out and then the door back into place to keep the heat in the chamber for the next pizza. 

Hanger for main pizza peel



Hanger and foot for turning peel and hook for front door.


----------



## Eyerelief

Well now you've done it  it's midnight and Pizza Hut is closed. Do you deliver?  Very nicely done!  
I have been making pizzas on my grill for a couple years now using a stone, but at only 600-650F and store bought dough.

Your process sounds amazing!


----------



## woodchucker

Eyerelief said:


> Well now you've done it  it's midnight and Pizza Hut is closed. Do you deliver?  Very nicely done!
> I have been making pizzas on my grill for a couple years now using a stone, but at only 600-650F and store bought dough.
> 
> Your process sounds amazing!


Pizza Hut... you call that pizza... yuk.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i finally got the parts to fix the Astra. The new crank sensor fix the engine, no picture is behind the driver's axle only accessible by feel. I also replaced the tie rod ends on both sides, also the sway bar links caught my eye, someone cut and extended them with a bolt. I used the wrench and jack method on one side because it was very tight. I did not noticed when i used it, but it was a russian wrench. On tuesday it's going to get an alignment. Suprasing how bad how quickly those tie rod ends got, i inspected this vehicle about a month ago and check them. They are genuine GM parts and are very low quality.


----------



## woodchucker

After completing my arbor last night, I went back after dinner and finished this screw.
I needed to test one screw for a quote. It's a 12-20 screw for a handplane.
After making the arbor, I was able to slot it.
Nothing big... but there's a lack of new stuff here, so just adding some content.


----------



## MikeInOr

My few year old 70" Vizio TV died on me (Out of warranty of course).  It won't turn on.  So I broke it open and found this:


4 capacitors on the power board.  Bulging and obviously bad.



I had a heck of a time prying them up out of the cement without tearing the jackets off so I could see the values.



I ordered 25v 1000uf 20,000 hr. est. lifespan to replace the 16v 1000uf cheapo's.  The new caps are a wee bit bigger.



I used some de-soldering wick to suck out the solder.  Soldering the new caps in was pretty easy.



I put a good bed of silicone in to secure them.



The very left cap looks like the leads are very close together. They aren't, it is just the angle.  It would be very hard to accidentally short the legs.



After I reinstalled the power board and plugged it in, it fired right up.  I put the back on and hung it up.  I think the new capacitors should last a lot longer than the originals.  The hardest part was moving around the TV, pulling it off the wall and putting it back on the wall.

P.S. On the last TV I repaired (helped repair) my father took me down to the drug store and he taught me how to check the tubes to see if they were good or not.


----------



## eugene13

Winegrower said:


> That ought to help with the old handicap.


I've often that Mortar Golf might be a fun challenge.


----------



## eugene13

Due to an old injury that's come back to haunt me I can no longer lift my milling vice onto the machine table.  I've long used the combination of a Little Giant ladder and a 1/2 ton chain fall to mount the rotary table so I built an offset rigging device for the vice.  A simple fillet weld was too simple and I needed to get one of my machines involved so I made a dado joint. My "Golden Arm " son came over and welded it up for me and we spent the remainder of the day building an engine run in stand


----------



## GoceKU

Happy easter, having some time to spare usually means i'm in the garages. So it was over do to change back to summer tires on my vehicles, two car changed and on the third my jack seem to get a flat, in fact the nut come off and the little steel wheel fell off. The nut was the same size as the car wheel nuts so i just zip it on with the impact. I did found a screw that i miss in one of the summer tires, i'll have to get it repaired.


----------



## Winegrower

I just played with three little projects that had been bugging me for awhile.

1) I found a very solid stand that was for a drum set, I believe, but it was missing a knob on one of the leg adjustments. It was 20 tpi, but but a custom diameter for some reason, so I threaded and knurled a replacement.   I have a cheap knurling tool, but I don’t care.   
2) I saw a very simple drill sharpening fixture on this site and made one out of Delrin, with a step to fit my grinder tool rest.  Now this really works, no need for a drill doctor, etc.   It’s pretty simple to use, and does a nice job.
3) I needed a cable clamp, nothing on hand, lazy, made a die and pressed out a clamp.  So now I have free 1/2” clamps for life.  This equipment is paying for itself every day.


----------



## woodchucker

Winegrower said:


> I just played with three little projects that had been bugging me for awhile.
> 
> 1) I found a very solid stand that was for a drum set, I believe, but it was missing a knob on one of the leg adjustments. It was 20 tpi, but but a custom diameter for some reason, so I threaded and knurled a replacement.   I have a cheap knurling tool, but I don’t care.
> 2) I saw a very simple drill sharpening fixture on this site and made one out of Delrin, with a step to fit my grinder tool rest.  Now this really works, no need for a drill doctor, etc.   It’s pretty simple to use, and does a nice job.
> 3) I needed a cable clamp, nothing on hand, lazy, made a die and pressed out a clamp.  So now I have free 1/2” clamps for life.  This equipment is paying for itself every day.
> 
> View attachment 405091
> View attachment 405092
> View attachment 405093


funny, my rikon 8" grinder came with a tool rest that had that 59 degree v, I didn't like it, I use jb weld and a piece of aluminum over that rest.
I just could not get a good grind w/out lifting the bit and putting the relief on the back.   I'm curious if you will like it.


----------



## Winegrower

woodchucker said:


> I just could not get a good grind w/out lifting the bit and putting the relief on the back. I'm curious if you will like it.


So far, so good.  There was a video showing how without lifting, to rotate the drill CW, run it into the relief area then rotate CCW back to the cutting edge.   That really works.   I took a couple completely snapped off bits (not me, I made the classic mistake of loaning them) and in about 30 seconds had a good looking grind.   Then, I punched a hole in mild steel, no fluid, no spotting, just like the guy did in the video.


----------



## woodchucker

Winegrower said:


> So far, so good.  There was a video showing how without lifting, to rotate the drill CW, run it into the relief area then rotate CCW back to the cutting edge.   That really works.   I took a couple completely snapped off bits (not me, I made the classic mistake of loaning them) and in about 30 seconds had a good looking grind.   Then, I punched a hole in mild steel, no fluid, no spotting, just like the guy did in the video.


Link to the video.
I'm interested in seeing what he did. Not going to reverse what I did, but maybe do something like you did if I think it's better than what I do.


----------



## Winegrower

Bi11Hudson said:


> woodchucker said:
> 
> 
> 
> Link to the video
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If anyone is considering drill sharpening fixture, I highly recommend watching the video first. If you don't use the jig, opting for something metal, it will still pay off just to see the finer points of what he is covering.
> 
> 
> There are two parts, both should be watched. The first is sharpening the drill, the second is building the jig. I cannot give a suitable complement, I just think this guy really has his stuff together. Watch them... ...
Click to expand...


Sorry, I am on an iPad, never have figured out how to copy links To threads or videos.  It’s a Bill Hudson post that includes this video.
You’re much smarter than me, so you should be able to search for this.  It was a week or so ago.   Your thoughts would be interesting after you watch it.


----------



## woodchucker

Winegrower said:


> Sorry, I am on an iPad, never have figured out how to copy links To threads or videos.  It’s a Bill Hudson post that includes this video.
> You’re much smarter than me, so you should be able to search for this.  It was a week or so ago.   Your thoughts would be interesting after you watch it.


Oh yea, I remember watching it. given who it is nah. I used to watch him. I'm not going to go into it. All I can say is he screwed over some friends. So I stopped watching him.


----------



## Winegrower

But for the record, this guys method allows drill grinding in a simple jig with no freehanding.   The morality of it aside, it's a good method.


----------



## BGHansen

Quick POTD so I could get on with the winter/spring POTD. . . I cut around 8 full cords of firewood a year to supplement our propane and geothermal furnaces. Was cutting some deadfall and my Stihl Farm Boss saw froze up.  The engine ran but the chain was frozen.  Pulled the bar/chain and the drive sprocket wouldn’t turn.

Turned out the blade chain brake was stuck on. The saw has a band clamp/brake that runs around the drive sprocket cup. The safety handle up top flips a trigger (over-center linkage) when pulled back. Bump it forward and the brake band is pulled tightly around the sprocket cup stopping the chain.

Pulled the trigger tensioning spring and discovered the safety handle had worn significantly where it bears against the triggering link. It was worn enough that it couldn’t push the trigger back over-center and disengage the brake.


Chain brake in the engaged position.  Cryptic description, but the steel link coming out of the black handle swings down when engaged which allows the pivoting linkage (one with the "C" at the top - extension spring removed for ease of cycling the mechanism).  The spring pulling to the left at the top pivots the bottom end to the right which pulls the brake band tight around the sprocket cup



Brake in the non-engaged position.  Pulling the safety handle back pushes up on the link taking it over-center from a pivot locking it in place.



Brake in the non-engaged position.  The bottom of the slot in the black safety handle (green arrow) should push the linkage up (2nd green arrow) to set the brake trigger.  Problem was the handle had worn over the last 30 years so it would no longer push the link to the non-engaged position.




Fix was to drill an 1/8” hole and stick a dowel pin in the handle. Back to cutting wood. . .  And "yes", I have thought about the reverse failure mode.  What happens if the top side of the slot in the safety handle wears to the point it doesn't engage the brake?  That might be a place for a 2nd dowel pin, but for now I ALWAYS verify the chain brake works after starting the saw.


Painted the handle with yellow paint and marked the position of the trigger in the engaged and non-engaged positions



Drilled an 1/8" hole through the handle and pressed in a dowel pin.



The dowel pin ate up the gap/wear in the handle.  Now the trigger is steel on steel; should work forever as the plastic on steel (Stihl ?!?) worked fine for 30 years.




As an aside, there are mixed feeling about Amazon but I’m a fan. Went on line Saturday and ordered a new safety handle (off-brand) at about 5:00 PM for a whopping $12 (Stihl NOS is $50). It was delivered Sunday before 6:00 PM. I’m leaving my fixed safety handle in place, now I have a spare. And “yes”, the slot in the new part is significantly smaller than my worn one. I’ve had the saw for around 30 years, my pin fix will likely outlive me.


Worn safety handle opening was roughly 0.55", new part is 0.46"





Thanks for looking,

Bruce


----------



## Larry42

BGHansen said:


> handle had worn over the last *30 years*


Some things just don't last these days. When I was heating on wood, a long time ago, I had a Stihl 045. Great saw but the locked door on my garage was crowbarred open and it disappeared.


----------



## woodchucker

BGHansen said:


> Quick POTD so I could get on with the winter/spring POTD. . . I cut around 8 full cords of firewood a year to supplement our propane and geothermal furnaces. Was cutting some deadfall and my Stihl Farm Boss saw froze up.  The engine ran but the chain was frozen.  Pulled the bar/chain and the drive sprocket wouldn’t turn.
> 
> Turned out the blade chain brake was stuck on. The saw has a band clamp/brake that runs around the drive sprocket cup. The safety handle up top flips a trigger (over-center linkage) when pulled back. Bump it forward and the brake band is pulled tightly around the sprocket cup stopping the chain.
> 
> Pulled the trigger tensioning spring and discovered the safety handle had worn significantly where it bears against the triggering link. It was worn enough that it couldn’t push the trigger back over-center and disengage the brake.
> 
> 
> Chain brake in the engaged position.  Cryptic description, but the steel link coming out of the black handle swings down when engaged which allows the pivoting linkage (one with the "C" at the top - extension spring removed for ease of cycling the mechanism).  The spring pulling to the left at the top pivots the bottom end to the right which pulls the brake band tight around the sprocket cup
> View attachment 405226
> 
> 
> Brake in the non-engaged position.  Pulling the safety handle back pushes up on the link taking it over-center from a pivot locking it in place.
> View attachment 405228
> 
> 
> Brake in the non-engaged position.  The bottom of the slot in the black safety handle (green arrow) should push the linkage up (2nd green arrow) to set the brake trigger.  Problem was the handle had worn over the last 30 years so it would no longer push the link to the non-engaged position.
> View attachment 405231
> 
> 
> 
> Fix was to drill an 1/8” hole and stick a dowel pin in the handle. Back to cutting wood. . .  And "yes", I have thought about the reverse failure mode.  What happens if the top side of the slot in the safety handle wears to the point it doesn't engage the brake?  That might be a place for a 2nd dowel pin, but for now I ALWAYS verify the chain brake works after starting the saw.
> 
> 
> Painted the handle with yellow paint and marked the position of the trigger in the engaged and non-engaged positions
> View attachment 405232
> 
> 
> Drilled an 1/8" hole through the handle and pressed in a dowel pin.
> View attachment 405233
> 
> 
> The dowel pin ate up the gap/wear in the handle.  Now the trigger is steel on steel; should work forever as the plastic on steel (Stihl ?!?) worked fine for 30 years.
> View attachment 405234
> 
> 
> 
> As an aside, there are mixed feeling about Amazon but I’m a fan. Went on line Saturday and ordered a new safety handle (off-brand) at about 5:00 PM for a whopping $12 (Stihl NOS is $50). It was delivered Sunday before 6:00 PM. I’m leaving my fixed safety handle in place, now I have a spare. And “yes”, the slot in the new part is significantly smaller than my worn one. I’ve had the saw for around 30 years, my pin fix will likely outlive me.
> 
> 
> Worn safety handle opening was roughly 0.55", new part is 0.46"
> View attachment 405235
> View attachment 405236
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for looking,
> 
> Bruce


nice fix Bruce... the geothermal furnace, is that your own design?
Does it work well?


----------



## BGHansen

woodchucker said:


> nice fix Bruce... the geothermal furnace, is that your own design?
> Does it work well?


We have a unit called "Well Connect". It's a pump and dump system. The cooling cycle makes perfect sense to me. Compress Freon which raises the temp. Remove heat through the condenser, then drop the pressure through a throttle valve which drops the temp. Move air over the cold Freon to cool the house. Instead of trying to remove heat from the compressed Freon with 90 F hot summer air, we use 50 F water. It's WAY more efficient on the cooling cycle. It's on a 15A 220 breaker instead of a 40A (old conventional system).  The massive increase in efficiency results in a much smaller compressor.

The heating cycle flips the water/air coils. In the heating cycle it blows air over the compressed Freon to make heat. We spent $2100 on electricity last year and used about $450 in propane. Previously we burned through about $1600 in propane and $1500 in electricity. 

Our system cost about $12,000 installed. Gonna take a lot of years for it to pay off at around $500 a year savings.

I'll find a link to our unit and post it. Typing this on a tablet.

Bruce


----------



## BGHansen

Link is wellconnectgeo.com. Learned from the website that it uses 1300 W when running. 

Bruce


----------



## mmcmdl

Same old stuff . Loaded up the new garden with one of the neighbors ground up stumps and dirt . Maybe 10 yards or so . Loading it and dumping it wasn't a problem , raking that crap was . The stomach is hurting a little . Got all the lathe stock in buckets ready to go out to a member maybe this weekend , heavy $hit hauling it up from the basement . Yesterday did a scrap run and was quite pleased with the prices , stainless was $.85 a lb. I didn't take my one hunk of 304 that weighs 82 lbs up figuring it's worth more to someone making something . Stuff is leaving , and I got a saw out and can actually use it . 2 four wheelers were wiped down also , they look brand new for 02s . To sum it up , same crap , different day .

When I can get into the tools , I'll have a $5 sale for all of them each at the yard sale and on here . It would keep me busy for years .


----------



## woodchucker

mmcmdl said:


> Same old stuff . Loaded up the new garden with one of the neighbors ground up stumps and dirt . Maybe 10 yards or so . Loading it and dumping it wasn't a problem , raking that crap was . The stomach is hurting a little . Got all the lathe stock in buckets ready to go out to a member maybe this weekend , heavy $hit hauling it up from the basement . Yesterday did a scrap run and was quite pleased with the prices , stainless was $.85 a lb. I didn't take my one hunk of 304 that weighs 82 lbs up figuring it's worth more to someone making something . Stuff is leaving , and I got a saw out and can actually use it . 2 four wheelers were wiped down also , they look brand new for 02s . To sum it up , same crap , different day .
> 
> When I can get into the tools , I'll have a $5 sale for all of them each at the yard sale and on here . It would keep me busy for years .


might have to take a road trip to one of your garage sales...


----------



## brino

woodchucker said:


> might have to take a road trip to one of your garage sales...



Take a trailer! 
Brian


----------



## DavidR8

Winegrower said:


> I just played with three little projects that had been bugging me for awhile.
> 
> 1) I found a very solid stand that was for a drum set, I believe, but it was missing a knob on one of the leg adjustments. It was 20 tpi, but but a custom diameter for some reason, so I threaded and knurled a replacement.   I have a cheap knurling tool, but I don’t care.
> 2) I saw a very simple drill sharpening fixture on this site and made one out of Delrin, with a step to fit my grinder tool rest.  Now this really works, no need for a drill doctor, etc.   It’s pretty simple to use, and does a nice job.
> 3) I needed a cable clamp, nothing on hand, lazy, made a die and pressed out a clamp.  So now I have free 1/2” clamps for life.  This equipment is paying for itself every day.
> 
> View attachment 405091
> View attachment 405092
> View attachment 405093


I've got a slab of phenolic I might use for a drill guide. Thanks for the idea!


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## mmcmdl

Snafu as usual . Go to grind the nails sticking up thru the landscaping ties with the RA grinder . Better than yanking 200 ft of extension cord out I pull the small HF generator out for the job . 2nd pull , the friggin cord snaps .  It's only 11 years old and cost me a whole $70 back then . Anyway , I tore the guts out of it and just used a drill to start it up with no yanking what so ever . More dead weight for the trash man that didn't show up today . I start the truck and take the landscaping ties out to the garden . Bought them from from Homey Repot . These things look like BentCarrott.com should have sold them . What a bunch of unusable trash , better suited for the burn pit . Unload the ties and back the truck up , the brake pedal goes to to the floor . Brake fluid flowing out of the left front caliper . JFG , tomorrows unexpected job . 

On another note , the young neighbor across the street stopped in . Said he heard from my other neighbor that I went thru bladder cancer ops . Turns out , he has it and was asking questions about everything involved . Just a young guy so I was , but also wasn't surprised to hear it .


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Fixed up a 1" solid carbide boring bar that I got with a bunch of auction stuff a while back. Screwed a brass M4 screw into the partial insert hole then used my friends mig welder to build up the nose and sides of the insert pocket. Looked pretty ugly
	

		
			
		

		
	






Then got the base of the insert pocket more or less level on the mill
	

		
			
		

		
	




Milled the pocket flat then spent a good while with the Dremel, a bunch of burrs and an angle grinder to get this
	

		
			
		

		
	







Still needs a little fiddling but I figured I'd stop for the night before I made it worse. 100 times better than what it was though


----------



## GoceKU

Today i had some time to spare and some parts arrived for the W210. A set of front springs that wore also cut and a used turbocharger. The coil springs have to wait the turbocharger got my attention. This car has good working space and good quality hardware. I had to remove the coolant pipe to the alternator, yeah the alternator is cooled by the engine coolant. One thing i found that the catalytic converter is hollow and was full of oil, that will explain all the smoke. I install the new turbo drain the oil removed the oil filter but had to stop the replacement i bought wasn't right and did not want to run the turbo with the old oil.


----------



## Wheat.Millington

Sorry for the terrible pictures but did a really quick job this morning - hated the tiny little wheel on the tail stock on my lathe, so found this amoungst a random pile of scrap and made it my new hand wheel - it works BEAUTIFULLY, and the weight means it can turn with some momentum.

I was going to strip and paint it, maybe even turn it into a different shape, but actually I kind of like how ridiculous it looks lol, so I think I'll keep it as-is.


----------



## GoceKU

Today the 605 got its tire fixed, and i gotta changing the W210 front springs, used a M16 threaded rod thru the spring to compress it, i also changed the front brake pads. With the old spring removed it's the same length as the new ones, so no point in installing the new ones, i need to raise it so i'm planning to make a spacer tomorrow and install the old spring back in.


----------



## jwmelvin

I thought someone might enjoy this picture of “clearance is clearance” for getting an internal grooving tool into a bushing for an x-ring seal:


----------



## Suzuki4evr

Wheat.Millington said:


> Sorry for the terrible pictures but did a really quick job this morning - hated the tiny little wheel on the tail stock on my lathe, so found this amoungst a random pile of scrap and made it my new hand wheel - it works BEAUTIFULLY, and the weight means it can turn with some momentum.
> 
> I was going to strip and paint it, maybe even turn it into a different shape, but actually I kind of like how ridiculous it looks lol, so I think I'll keep it as-is.


Where is the rest of the ship,???


Whatever works for YOU...is good.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i spent some time on my lathe turning an old belt pulley into a spring spacer. Yesterday i started changing the coil spring on the W210 and found out the new one are also cut. So i made a spacer to raise the front end so it could be driven without scraping. The spring is very strong and took lots of effort to remove it, so i left the installation for tomorrow when i'm a bit less tired.


----------



## jwmay

Aside from ten feet of base board, I'll call this done enough. Still a ton of paint and trim to do really. But anyways this is what I've been making in my shop. Replaced the bottom half which was peg board. Replaced some of the sill plate. Put in a chair rail to hide the seam. Tried to paint the peg board, which was a big failure. But it's a lot brighter in there now. I'm thinking I may move the mill to the corner. But I've never made a convenient way to move it, so I just worked around it.


----------



## NCjeeper

I made a mess.   I started stripping all the old paint off of the shaper with a needle scaler. Decided the ole girl needed a paint job.


----------



## jarhead

Wow, 638 pages and I'm only on page 5 so far...

I joined a couple of weeks ago when I bought a mill and a lathe. I am looking forward to this thread.
Joe


----------



## Winegrower

I have a Pfeiffer roughing pump that is pretty noisy, so I bought an Ingersoll Rand muffler.   Of course the threads didn’t match and I thought the direction of exhaust would be better toward the floor than at my face.   I made a small manifold, 1/4 npt on the exhaust side, 3/8 on the muffler side, with a good size drilled hole from one end connecting them and plugged it with a bolt.

I have low expectations for this muffler.


----------



## extropic

> @jarhead    "Wow, 638 pages and I'm only on page 5 so far..."



I agree that reading this thread from the beginning qualifies as a PROJECT.

Welcome to H-M.


----------



## Dhal22

jarhead said:


> Wow, 638 pages and I'm only on page 5 so far...
> 
> I joined a couple of weeks ago when I bought a mill and a lathe. I am looking forward to this thread.
> Joe




Enjoy.   And you will.


----------



## MikeInOr

I finally got the time and energy to pull the motor out of my South Bend 13" lathe this evening.  The bearings were LITERALLY SCREAMING for replacements.  Pulled the motor apart and pulled the bearings out.  One Hoover 205 bearing which appears to equate to a 6205 bearing and one NTN 6203Z bearing.  I ordered NSK sealed bearings off of Amazon. 

Who knows what bearings I will actually end up with.  I probably should have waited until tomorrow and found a reputable supplier to buy them from but I am feeling lazy and want to get my lathe back up and running!  I have a couple projects that I need it for.


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was relatively simple layout and lathe work, but so far has been one of my most satisfying projects. As usual with my posts, some backstory drivel. . .

My mom was diagnosed with lymphoma in December 2020. She last ate a full meal on Christmas Day, 2020 and got sick from that. She has multiple things going on, including a growth around her duodenum. More boring biology; the duodenum is the start of your small intestine leaving the stomach. She has a stricture about 8” down the duodenum that has her plumbing totally plugged off. She had something called a G-J tube (gastrostomy-jejunostomy tube) installed through her abdomen which vented her stomach and allowed tube feeding into her small intestine.

The G-J is two tubes in one; one tube went through her side into her stomach where it splits into two tubes.  One ended in her stomach (G-tube), the other snaked through the restriction in her duodenum (J-tube) and ended in her jejunum (small intestine downstream from the duodenum). The G-tube portion allows her stomach to drain as her body is still secreting digestive juices into her stomach. With the duodenum plugged tightly, the only place for those juices to go is back out her mouth. The J-tube is used for nutrition through a pump system (15 hours a day tied to an IV pole).

She had problems with the G-J tube because of the stricture around the duodenum. My analogy is like putting your thumb over the end of a garden hose which builds pressure and acts like a jet. The stricture in her duodenum pinched the J-tube enough that when it was flushed (water) by the pump system, it jetted the tubing back up into her stomach.

Last September her doctor was unable to snake the 10th (?!?) G-J tube through her duodenum. A surgeon was able to open her up and install a dedicated J-tube into her jejunum. She now has two tubes: G-tube to drain her stomach contents and a J-tube for tube feeding, hydration and meds.

My sister and I trade her back and forth every month. During the day, we take the contents of the drained G-tube (gastric juices) and syringe them into the J-tube as her body needs those enzymes for digestion, hydration and electrolytes. We’d also run 50 ml of water every hour as she effectively can’t drink by mouth. The work isn’t difficult, but it ties us to her throughout the day; we need to do something every hour. She has a 5’ length of tubing running to a bag to capture the drained contents of her stomach 24/7.

Long story longer, our mom is having a PET scan to see if she is able to have a bypass surgery called a gastrojejunostomy. This procedure ties the jejunum directly to the stomach bypassing the problem in her duodenum. If she is able to have the surgery, it would allow her to eat solid food again and gain one heck of an increase in quality of life. No more syringing in hydration, meds and gastric juices ever hour of the day when she’s not hooked to an IV pole. And no more carrying around a drain bag of her stomach contents 24/7. No more tied to an IV pole for 15 hours a day.  On the downside, it doesn't help with the cancers she's fighting, but it would give her a more normal existence for the rest of her days.


Surgery we're hoping our mom is able to get.  Ties her small intestine to her stomach directly to bypass the restriction in her duodenum (between the stomach and the connection between the small intestine and stomach)




I asked the surgeon if it would be possible to tie the G-tube draining her stomach directly to the J-tube in her jejunum. We are basically doing that already as we take the collected contents of her stomach and manually syringe it into her small intestines.  He said, “Sure, tying the G and J tubes together is basically an external gastrojejunostomy”. Surgery checked with the manufacturer of the G and J tubes and such a fitting does not exist. So, guess what my project of the day was!

My task was to duplicate the feeding tube/ drain tube end fittings and connect them with a length of tubing. The feed tube end fitting is made from polyethylene, I have a decent supply on hand for the fittings.

Measured the diameters/taper and chucked up the PE. Standard fare from there: Face, center drill, turn the tapers, drill a through hole, part, flip and drill the back side for the tubing (tubing was from a gravity feed tube with a larger diameter than the normal feeding tube).


Lathe work for both the G-tube and J-tube fittings.  G-tube first; face, center drill, drill a through-hole, cut the taper for jamming into the silicon G-tube female fitting, relieve the connecting tube end and part.  I did the G-tube fitting with a lot of material sticking out of the chuck.










J-tube end fitting.  Pretty much the same as the G-tube but this end has two steps.  I also switched things up and turned the tapers between centers, then drilled the through hole.










Flipped both end fittings and drilled a hole in the back side to accept a connecting hose.




The tubing was heated in boiling water and press-fit into the ends. I ran a drop of superglue on the outside edge of the joint for belt and suspenders. They use superglue in place of stitches in a pinch, won’t be an issue here either.


Two end fittings and a length of PVC (?) tubing from a gravity feed IV bag



Standard feed tube up top, my male to male connection hose below.  I've got the J-tube ends next to each other.  Note that I didn't bother with the last two smaller steps as her J-tube appliance accepts the smaller of the two steps in my tube.  This also let me use a larger diameter connecting tube as I didn't want to cause a restriction in the flow from her stomach to her jejunum.




Our mom was a little apprehensive about being a “science project”, but so far so good (5 days in)! It’s helped with her (and her caregivers’) quality of life as she can hydrate herself throughout the day. No more syringing in gastric juices every hour. She can also freely walk without having a 5’ length of tubing running to a drain bag. Her PET scan is scheduled for Friday, May 6; your thoughts and prayers would be appreciated!


Our mom hooked up with the connection hose.  The upper tube is a drain from her stomach, lower tube runs into her jejunum.  My hose is the one in between.  I secured the fitting with foam tape on top of the PE ends that jam into the silicon tube ends.




Thanks for looking, Bruce

p.s. Probably need to throw some legalize in at this point. I am not a doctor and do not endorse or suggest anyone else try my male to male connector.  I consulted with her surgeons before doing any of this work.  Everything was thoroughly sterilized before use and reviewed with her surgeon before we hooked her up.  And in case you were wondering, a sample of the connection tube has been sent to the manufacturer for possible inclusion in their catalog.


----------



## extropic

Wow Bruce! Good for you. 

IIRC, this type of problem solving was (you're retired?) your career. Nothing new about that aspect.

However, I'm assuming the G-J tube procedure(s) weren't invented last month. Isn't it incredible that you, a non-medical professional, is the first to define that improvement. If you patent it, you may become rich beyond your wildest dreams.

Never mind the patent application. The Surgeon and the manufacturer have already submitted.


----------



## francist

Nice job, Bruce! I’m sure your Mom is thrilled with your efforts. 

Reminds me a lot of my Mom who was diagnosed with bulbar onset ALS. This typically affects the swallowing and speech aspects long before mobility is affected. Anyway, she had to have a feeding tube as well and my sister and I also alternated duties to take care of the administering of the nutrient stuff. It was pretty hard for my Mom who raised a family of seven kids and a husband — all eating at the same big table — to feel like she didn’t belong because she couldn’t “eat” anymore. Plus, all the medical stuff just looked too, well, medical, to be at a dining table.

Well, I fixed that. I took an old brass lamp standard, scrapped the electricals, and turned a Honduras mahogany finial for the top. To this I attached a couple polished brass (solid mind you, no plated stuff thank you) coat hooks. Next Sunday dinner I brought it up to the end of the table next to me, we hung her feeding apparatus from the gleaming stand and she never ate by herself again.

I still have the pole, wish I still had the Mom too…

-frank


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## BGHansen

extropic said:


> Wow Bruce! Good for you.
> 
> IIRC, this type of problem solving was (you're retired?) your career. Nothing new about that aspect.
> 
> However, I'm assuming the G-J tube procedure(s) weren't invented last month. Isn't it incredible that you, a non-medical professional, is the first to define that improvement. If you patent it, you may become rich beyond your wildest dreams.
> 
> Never mind the patent application. The Surgeon and the manufacturer have already submitted.


Well, as a matter of fact, paperwork was filed with Fraser and Trebilcock, law firm in Lansing, MI. I hope it can help out others regardless. 

My advice to all is to question everything you are not comfortable with.  If the doctors can't explain it to you, ask for a second opinion. If they say something can't be done, ask why. 

It's been an interesting journey with our mom. There are doctors who gets A's and doctors who get C's. They both get to practice medicine.  Protocols are developed by doctors who get A's. The C students are successful because they follow the protocols developed by the A students.  But Lord help you if the C's are thrown a curve and have to figure something out on their own!  Be your loved one's advocate. We have had multiple issues that my sister and I have worked out on our own. I could go on for hours but will end it here.

Bruce


----------



## Eyerelief

Bruce that is one of the coolest things I have seen. Both in concept and execution!!
Necessity is the mother of invention, and Bruce is the father!


----------



## BGHansen

Eyerelief said:


> Bruce that is one of the coolest things I have seen. Both in concept and execution!!
> Necessity is the mother of invention, and Bruce is the father!


Thanks for the compliment but it was so stupidly simple. I'm still shocked with some of the "engineering" on some medical apparatus. Another one I didn't shoot pictures of is her walker. At the time she didn't have the stability to make it to the bathroom without using a walker. Problem was she needed to drag an IV pole with the walker. They make walkers with poles attached, but that meant we had to transfer two bags and a Joey feed pump over to the walker. I added a flip down arm on the front of the walker with a "U" detail to capture the pole. It worked pretty well, the U captured the pole fore/aft and side to side, but not vertically so she could lift the walker to move with the arm up front pushing the pole along.  Frankly, a good engineer and/or machinist could come up with a lot of improvements in medical apparatus.

Bruce


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## woodchucker

problem is you have to live it to realize it.
most doctors or medical engineers don't live with a patient. You do.


----------



## Eyerelief

BGHansen said:


> Thanks for the compliment but it was so stupidly simple. I'm still shocked with some of the "engineering" on some medical apparatus. Another one I didn't shoot pictures of is her walker. At the time she didn't have the stability to make it to the bathroom without using a walker. Problem was she needed to drag an IV pole with the walker. They make walkers with poles attached, but that meant we had to transfer two bags and a Joey feed pump over to the walker. I added a flip down arm on the front of the walker with a "U" detail to capture the pole. It worked pretty well, the U captured the pole fore/aft and side to side, but not vertically so she could lift the walker to move with the arm up front pushing the pole along.  Frankly, a good engineer and/or machinist could come up with a lot of improvements in medical apparatus.
> 
> Bruce


Some of the best inventions are the simplest Bruce. 
My father in law was a good sized fella. Made a living climbing phone poles for Southwestern Bell. He spent many years in a walker. He was trashing one every couple of months because of his size. 
I took a trashed one and doubled up the rear wheels in the back. One inside the frame one outside on each rear wheel. Doubled the brake as well.  As you can imagine doubling the rear wheels increased the load carrying capacity exponentially.  Took minutes.  He loved that walker, said it felt more stable  than any he had owned.  He never wore out that walker. Used it for years. 
You done good Bruce, likely for more than your mom.


----------



## FOMOGO

Well done Bruce, and prayers sent for your Mom. Mike


----------



## GoceKU

Well, i left the W210 over the inspection pit for over a week while i was busy, suprasing it did not put itself together. Compressing the spring was a bit more difficult than i thought but slowly but surely i managed to assemble everything. Drove it over some bumps to set the suspension and its now more level the front end is at stock ride height, driving it i noticed the brakes are a bit week so i bought and install new brake pads, the old one wore gone. After that i gave it a wash and parked it. It as a hard day of work, at work and in the garage.


----------



## woodchucker

Well this is not one days work, but almost 3.
I started Monday night after dinner, this has got a lot of steps. 5 are accomplished before parting off.
Size the rod for the head diameter, then size the diameter for the major thread diameter. Then thread , chamfer thread, file threads and head underside corner. Then part off.
I made a template out of plastic to make sure I was hitting my lengths. I was using 2 micrometers 1 set for the head diameter one for the major thread diameter.

upto the 4th screw things were going well, but my foot was really starting to bother me standing on it. The next 2 I missed my numbers ... threw them out, and called it a night. I didn't need a 3rd.
Next day after sitting on the tractor in the morn, I tried again and got 6 more done, but I decided to make some extras in case.
Glad I did... I then made 3 more this morning. Then re-adjusted my form tool a little. I then formed the head on each screw. I found the best way was to use the carriage to come in, that seemed to give a better head than the cross slide. But sometimes the carriage would stop cutting and I would have to back out the crossslide and finish it up plunging the cross slide back in.  Then onto the mill for slotting.

Glad I only had to do  10.   BTW the thread is a #12-20 a special thread. He needed 10, I made 13... one the head is way undersized.. so really 12...  This is for a hand plane, and only the first couple of threads will be used, the rest is in the wooden handle. The one in the front was the original sample he sent me.


----------



## Winegrower

Man, it’s hard to follow Bruce’s thread with my little project, that was so impressive.   
I needed a quick adjustable support without spending much time on it.   I had a rectangle of 1/2” polycarbonate, bandsawed it along the diagonal and milled a quarter inch slot along the long side.   Put a screw and nut through, slide them together or apart to set, tighten a bit (finger tight is plenty), you’re done.


----------



## Brento

woodchucker said:


> Well this is not one days work, but almost 3.
> I started Monday night after dinner, this has got a lot of steps. 5 are accomplished before parting off.
> Size the rod for the head diameter, then size the diameter for the major thread diameter. Then thread , chamfer thread, file threads and head underside corner. Then part off.
> I made a template out of plastic to make sure I was hitting my lengths. I was using 2 micrometers 1 set for the head diameter one for the major thread diameter.
> 
> upto the 4th screw things were going well, but my foot was really starting to bother me standing on it. The next 2 I missed my numbers ... threw them out, and called it a night. I didn't need a 3rd.
> Next day after sitting on the tractor in the morn, I tried again and got 6 more done, but I decided to make some extras in case.
> Glad I did... I then made 3 more this morning. Then re-adjusted my form tool a little. I then formed the head on each screw. I found the best way was to use the carriage to come in, that seemed to give a better head than the cross slide. But sometimes the carriage would stop cutting and I would have to back out the crossslide and finish it up plunging the cross slide back in.  Then onto the mill for slotting.
> 
> Glad I only had to do  10.   BTW the thread is a #12-20 a special thread. He needed 10, I made 13... one the head is way undersized.. so really 12...  This is for a hand plane, and only the first couple of threads will be used, the rest is in the wooden handle. The one in the front was the original sample he sent me.
> View attachment 406176


Would love work like that! Nice job.


----------



## Doug Gray

A paying gig came thru my shop recently. Customer required two adapter shafts. This is an adapter that converts a gearbox from electric motor drive to hydraulic motor drive. The shaft is quite involved.

two bearing seat areas
external retaining ring groove
close fit area for pinion gear
key-way for pinion gear
close fit bore for hydraulic motor shaft
internal key-way in bore for hydraulic motor (I had to farm this out)
I'm quite happy with the way they turned out. All turning was done with my diamond tool holder.


----------



## Alcap

Finished up my steady rest for my little lathe yesterday .  Also in this thread https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/steady-rest-for-my-bench-lathe.98903/


----------



## GoceKU

Today i have a day off work so i thought it's the day to fix the scenic as i should, it needs a clutch. So i pulled it over the inspection pit and started with draining the trans oil, removing the axles, dropped the front suspension, unhooked lots of other things and managed to move the gearbox over to get the pressure plate and disc out, also removed the throw out bearing out. If this looks strange and difficult it is, its a french car. The engine has a long stud that doesn't allow you to remove the gearbox. i've ordered a new OEM Valeo set and it should be here tomorrow.


----------



## mksj

I occasionally make micrometer stops for lathes when either the manufacturer is out, or for machines that they are no longer available. These are for the PM-134/1440GT style lathes, since there are supply chain issues. Bodies are 7075 aluminum, shaft is O1 steel, foot is CRS, and with these I decided to machine the thumb wheel out of 1144 vs. O1 steel. Personally I prefer to work with O1, it polishes out nicer and seems to turn well with my lathe setup. The bodies are cut down from 7075 block, I used a Haas face mill for both facing and shouldering which gave quite a nice finish, and then lightly-buffed the aluminum.  Making these usually takes me about 12 hours of shop time over 2-3 days, so I prefer not to make them if the factory one's is available, finished these two today.





Haas HS6NP


----------



## DavidR8

First batch of garden bed fences for my lady on Mother’s Day. 







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## NCjeeper

I am still painting. Geez look another spot I missed. Oh over here too.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i prepared the scenic for its new clutch kit. Men do the french make it difficult to work, the working space is very tight. I did buy a OEM Valeo clutch kit, i don't want to be doing this twice.


----------



## jwmay

Not metalwork, but handy.


----------



## woodchucker

Got a chance to finish my new chuck key. After cutting both sides of the handle off and re-drilling, I decided to avoid a press fit, and used dog point set screw to hold it in. A dimple in the crossbar that exactly fit the dogpoint prevents any movement. 
Anyway, we are very light on new real content so here's some minor work.


----------



## devils4ever

I just completed my metal stamp guide which I semi-copied/stole from a YouTuber. It allows infinite spacing between characters and keeps the stamps vertical.

I used a 1/4-20 threaded rod which gives 0.050" per revolution of the handle. I used my dividing head to mark 10 spaces around the wheel giving 0.005" resolution (which is overkill, but I did it anyways).

Ready to stamp.



Test stamp with 0.250" spacing in scrap steel.



Test stamp with 0.200" spacing in scrap 6061.


----------



## woodchucker

devils4ever said:


> I just completed my metal stamp guide which I semi-copied/stole from a YouTuber. It allows infinite spacing between characters and keeps the stamps vertical.
> 
> I used a 1/4-20 threaded rod which gives 0.050" per revolution of the handle. I used my dividing head to mark 10 spaces around the wheel giving 0.005" resolution (which is overkill, but I did it anyways).
> 
> Ready to stamp.
> View attachment 406748
> 
> 
> Test stamp with 0.250" spacing in scrap steel.
> View attachment 406749
> 
> 
> Test stamp with 0.200" spacing in scrap 6061.
> View attachment 406750


Can we get a better view of it from overhead to see what you did?


----------



## devils4ever

Sure. Here you go.

Basically, the main piece is just a slot cut lengthwise with clearance holes at the ends for the threaded rod to go through.

The movable piece is an upside down "U" with a threaded hole for the rod.


----------



## woodchucker

devils4ever said:


> Sure. Here you go.
> 
> Basically, the main piece is just a slot cut lengthwise with clearance holes at the ends for the threaded rod to go through.
> 
> The movable piece is an upside down "U" with a threaded hole for the rod.
> 
> View attachment 406757
> 
> 
> View attachment 406758


So are you stamping inside the cutout or outside the block? 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


----------



## devils4ever

Here's how it's intended to be used. The metal stamp is held against the main block and the movable block and then hit with a hammer. This ensures the stamp remains vertical in both directions. The threaded rod ensures even spacing.


----------



## NCjeeper

^^^
Need to build one of these.


----------



## GoceKU

After waiting for this car to put itself together i had to do it myself. Install the new clutch pressure plate and release bearing, lots of working over my head. I rotate the engine and adjusted the clutch to the middle of the flywheel and the gearbox just slipped in. Then came the axles, covers, engine mounts and lots of small parts. I put it all back together drove it around the block. The clutch feel good, now the engine is a bit noisy valve chatter and is running like crap at idle. I'll have to adjast the valves and change the sparkplugs.


----------



## woodchucker

GoceKU said:


> After waiting for this car to put itself together i had to do it myself.


Yea, none of us have had any luck with that. I'm sure most have tried to let it do it on it's own .... (procrastinate)


----------



## mattthemuppet2

I bought a lovely Pratt Burnard 6" 3 jaw adjust Tru at an auction last summer, but haven't made a thread dial for the SB heavy 9 so I could make a back plate. Anyway, I traded a vise for a rotary table and a 1-1/2"-8 tpi back plate that had a really thick boss.

So I faced the boss end that had the recess, turned it round and cut the recess for the new "back". Then turned down the boss for the adjust Tru part, faced it and turned down the OD to that of the chuck. Located the holes, drilled and taped them then fitted the chuck
	

		
			
		

		
	







Chucked up a gauge pin and got it to repeat to within a thou total run out at different diameters. That'll do!


----------



## woodchucker

mattthemuppet2 said:


> I bought a lovely Pratt Burnard 6" 3 jaw adjust Tru at an auction last summer, but haven't made a thread dial for the SB heavy 9 so I could make a back plate. Anyway, I traded a vise for a rotary table and a 1-1/2"-8 tpi back plate that had a really thick boss.
> 
> So I faced the boss end that had the recess, turned it round and cut the recess for the new "back". Then turned down the boss for the adjust Tru part, faced it and turned down the OD to that of the chuck. Located the holes, drilled and taped them then fitted the chuck
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 406833
> View attachment 406834
> View attachment 406835
> View attachment 406836
> 
> 
> Chucked up a gauge pin and got it to repeat to within a thou total run out at different diameters. That'll do!


A heavy 9? I didn't know one existed. I knew a heavy 10.. pics?  BTW nice chuck... nice backplate.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

woodchucker said:


> A heavy 9? I didn't know one existed. I knew a heavy 10.. pics?  BTW nice chuck... nice backplate.


It was from before the workshop 9 (A/B/C) came out in the early 30s. The precision series used the same bed and carriage/ apron for both the 9 and 10" lathes, but differed in the headstock/ cross slide/ tailstock (maybe the QCGB, but I'm not sure). So the "heavy" 9 has the same 7" wide bed as the "heavy" 10 does. It's pretty heavy and stout for its size, I think about 500lb?




I like it alot


----------



## f350ca

Sawed lumber in the heat, 32 C here today, but low humidity.
400 board foot of 1 x 10 white pine for siding.
Apparently is selling for $3 a board foot, people are crazy.



Greg


----------



## wachuko

Made a simple jig to hold the brass set screws so I could drill the holes for the tungsten rods.  A set for 1/16" and a set for 3/32"






I thought I had ordered the diamond wheels... but I never did... so those should be here tomorrow so I can finish this project...






It was a cool project... and I know, I know, many available adapters that I could have purchased for less than what I spent on doing this... but that is not really the idea, right?


----------



## Steve-F




----------



## Eyerelief

Looks great!  I just purchased the 3 rivers one off fleabay to stick on my dremel.  I've sharpened a couple tungsten's and do see a difference between the arc with them when compared to my hand held on a bench grinder.  I like your being able to mount the grinder set up better.


----------



## NCjeeper

Finally done! Way more work than I thought it would be. Stripping the old 80 year old paint wasn't bad. I used a needle scaler and it worked well. It was all the scrubbing with scotch brite pads and Xylol to get the grime off, then wipe it all down again that wore me out. Scrubbing old iron on your hands and knees is not for the old. Anyways new paint job with red accents on the important stuff. Almost to nice to use it now.


----------



## Eyerelief

Boy I really like the way that looks!  Excellent job


----------



## NCjeeper

Thank you Eyerelief.


----------



## DavidR8

Wow, that looks great!


----------



## Boswell

a real beauty


----------



## Weldingrod1

Noodling toward a non-right angle worm drive for a First Robotics intake. I'm looking for a way to have feelers, kind if like a Roomba, that sweep balls inwards. The truck is that the axis of rotation needs to be angled...
That's an 11 start worm that engages with a standard 20 DP gear. FRC kids love their 1/2" hex shafts... once I get the spiral -exactly- right I'll make a bearing block for it. The tooth spacing is still just a whiff off.
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


----------



## wachuko

NCjeeper said:


> Finally done! Way more work than I thought it would be. Stripping the old 80 year old paint wasn't bad. I used a needle scaler and it worked well. It was all the scrubbing with scotch brite pads and Xylol to get the grime off, then wipe it all down again that wore me out. Scrubbing old iron on your hands and knees is not for the old. Anyways new paint job with red accents on the important stuff. Almost to nice to use it now.
> View attachment 406915
> 
> View attachment 406916


Wow!!  That came out amazing!!

On other news... finally finished this project.


----------



## gard

woodchucker said:


> the damage I did today continued tonight.
> I went to drill the cross bar for the lathe key.  the 4140HT is not that hard, but it was not easy. The small pilot was fine, but the larger hole just wouldn't cut. Took out the cobalt drill bits and still wierd, then grab, finally got through..  Reamed.. deburred.
> brought it over to the vise, heated it, started putting the bar through, going, then it started coming out of vise.. readjust it, in a better position... it's already tight and not even 1/3 in.  tried reheating, but the key and t bar are heating together, tried cooling the t bar with acetone.. not helping.
> ok, time to use the press. going, then stop... I think it galled up.. put some antisieze on it. not moving. heat it, press, bent the the t bar. straighten it. try again. nothing. Bang it in there. not moving. now banging the key.. what a mess.
> change the bottle jack to a higher tonnage. it's moving again.. ok.. pretzel...
> straighten it ... snap...
> 
> shower... hard alcohol... anger, ... realization I should have stopped when it was stuck and given it more thought...  licking my wounds now...
> 
> The key is damaged from hammering... its usable, but not pretty. I might be able to fix it up with some knurling to hide the damage.
> probably going to cut the T handle, then drill it out.    Grrrrrrrrrr...


----------



## wachuko

Listening to some vinyl... was reading a few posts in the forum for the vendor that makes the turntable that I have ( VPI )... 

Someone posted that they could not use the record clamp if they were playing a 7" 45rpm record with the adapter that goes in the center...

That got my brain cells moving... the clamp is made out of Delrin... the only reason the adapter would not work is because there is not enough clearance to do so... I have a mandrel I just made... and the small lathe...  Let's give this a try...

Taking apart the clamp is easy... just remove the cir-clip and the two pieces come apart.




This is the adapter that the clamp needs to clear...




Seems easy enough...




Finished part...






Let's assemble it back...









Tested... now, I do not have any 45s... but the test is simple... just needs to go over the adapter and clamp against the plate...




Oh yeah... works fine...




I shared the steps with the folks in that forum... they can take their clamp and have a local shop do the modification... felt pretty good...  Also sent a note to the owner so maybe he can incorporate this change in future record clamps...

Now back to listening to music...


----------



## extropic

@wachuko

Very nice job. Looks OEM.

I'm not up on high zoot hi-fi equipment (for 40ish years?). Am I understanding correctly, the spindle is threaded and the clamp knob is a nut that screws onto the spindle?

I might have made a thinner 45 adapter, rather than mod the clamp. LOL, different strokes.

I just noticed your motto. LOL  I think I also qualify. We should have T-shirts made.


----------



## wachuko

extropic said:


> @wachuko
> 
> Very nice job. Looks OEM.
> 
> I'm not up on high zoot hi-fi equipment (for 40ish years?). Am I understanding correctly, the spindle is threaded and the clamp knob is a nut that screws onto the spindle?
> 
> I might have made a thinner 45 adapter, rather than mod the clamp. LOL, different strokes.
> 
> I just noticed your motto. LOL  I think I also qualify. We should have T-shirts made.


Correct, that is how the clamp works.

Either that or use those old yellow plastic adapters that 45's used to use... But the person that posted the thread had an adapter similar to what I had... 

Hahahahahahha, I can't fight it man... that is just the way it is... someday I will finish them all...


----------



## f350ca

This saw was used to trim the ends of lumber at sawmill that hasn't operated in 50 some years. Setting it up with a gas engine to cut up my slabs from the mill has been the plan for years. A couple of days ago it seamed like the time to do it. Sawed some cedar timbers for a base and hauled the saw into the shop, intending to give it a going over, lube the babbit bearings, buff the rust off the table.






Well as often happens one thing led to another and we decided it deserved a restoration.




So now its sandblast and paint.
What was so different about the old steel. This is all square headed bolts so old, line shaft old but all the bolts came out easily , as in mostly finger tight once broke loose, and this worked its life in an open shed and spent the last maybe 10 years under the trees here.

Greg


----------



## dkemppai

wachuko said:


> Wow!!  That came out amazing!!
> 
> On other news... finally finished this project.
> 
> View attachment 406998
> 
> 
> View attachment 406999



Nice! Got any plans and details, or maybe the STL file? 

I could sure use one of those. Maybe a couple for different size tungsten...

Dan


----------



## Eyerelief

Been thieving for some Starrett T handle tap wrench's for a while, but held off because I had picked up a couple old Craftsman's while dumpster diving last year.  I thought I would take a crack at cleaning them up first.  Both were rusty, heavily pitted and the large one was missing the T handle.  Neither have the ball and spring inside for the T handle.  Insides were complete and in great shape saving being covered with old grease and oil.

Decided a 3/8" x 8" grade 5 bolt would work for the T handle on the large one.  I'm a little longer than OE by a couple inches, but I think that is OK.  Also decided to turn a couple of aluminum balls for the ends using my MLA turning attachment.  If you have ever tried to bust a 1/2-13 tap with your bare hands, you will understand (the older I get, the tougher they get).
A quick project that took me off the trail of trying to hunt down Starrett's.


----------



## francist

f350ca said:


> Well as often happens one thing led to another


Too funny, love the “exploded view”!


----------



## FOMOGO

Great job on the G&E. Pretty sure it won't keep you from putting it to work. Cheers, Mike



NCjeeper said:


> Finally done! Way more work than I thought it would be. Stripping the old 80 year old paint wasn't bad. I used a needle scaler and it worked well. It was all the scrubbing with scotch brite pads and Xylol to get the grime off, then wipe it all down again that wore me out. Scrubbing old iron on your hands and knees is not for the old. Anyways new paint job with red accents on the important stuff. Almost to nice to use it now.


----------



## NCjeeper

Probably fire it up today and make some chips with it.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i had a full day of work, first at work then in the garage and last in my yard. First to get my attention was the Scenic with the new clutch now i can use the engine power but at idle the engine sounds like a bag of bolts. So i adjusted the valves, clean and re gaped the spark plugs. Not too hard but very dirty. Then i got to removing the headliner from the white elephant No 1. It's been sagging and was hold up by push pins. The old material peel off very easy and went straight in the bin. Then i used rags to peel back the old yellow backing and prepared the surface for the new material. I used Neostik glue with a brash and glued it in place. I left it to cure overnight tomorrow is going in the car. The difference is very noticable, this car always was let down by the headliner.


----------



## woodchucker

GoceKU said:


> Today i had a full day of work, first at work then in the garage and last in my yard. First to get my attention was the Scenic with the new clutch now i can use the engine power but at idle the engine sounds like a bag of bolts. So i adjusted the valves, clean and re gaped the spark plugs. Not too hard but very dirty. Then i got to removing the headliner from the white elephant No 1. It's been sagging and was hold up by push pins. The old material peel off very easy and went straight in the bin. Then i used rags to peel back the old yellow backing and prepared the surface for the new material. I used Neostik glue with a brash and glued it in place. I left it to cure overnight tomorrow is going in the car. The difference is very noticable, this car always was let down by the headliner.
> View attachment 407318
> View attachment 407324


nicely done on the headliner. I hate when they fall apart. no one looks up until its crappy. And you always know.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

a small project, but off the list none the less. Got a bunch of solid carbide boring bars from the last couple of auctions, including an oddball LH TPG style bar without a clamp. After A LOT of looking, found a replacement for not much money and I traded for a chip breaker, but when the clamp got here it didn't fit. So a bit of jiggling around with a carbide endmill and retapping the 8-32 hole to M4 got me this



which when put together looks like this



insert (TPG222) is a bit too thick, but it'll do for now. Don't imagine I'll use it a whole bunch, but it's nice to have for those oddball boring head set ups


----------



## Todd3138

I didn't do any machining tonight but decided to fire up the forge and do a little hammer work to knock the rust off some smithing fundamentals.  My wife needed some hooks for new hummingbird feeders in our garden so I whipped these out.  Not identical, but that's some of the allure of handmade things like these.  I hit them with some primer and will work on painting them tomorrow.  The wide end is forged to fit over a 2x4 as shown in one of the pics since they will hang from a lumber framed trellis.  The end to hold the feeders is a fairly rough leaf just for something fun besides a plain hook.  Not my best work, but I doubt the hummers are going to worry much about the appearance!


----------



## NCjeeper

Started on making a DA sized tool holder.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i install the headliner in the white elephant no 1 and try to drive it out, but the clutch said no. I seams my brother managed to cook the clutch to the point it's going backward uphill in first gear. Last time i drove it, it was just starting to slip so bought a new clutch set and had it on a shelf. So drove it back in the garage and took it apart, removing the axles, dropping the gearbox by myself was difficult and hard on my back but i managed. The old clutch disk was cooked, the pressure plate and flywheel has grooves from the rivets. If it looks strange this has the revarse setup used in VW 's where the pressure plate is bolted to the crankshaft and the fly wheel is on the gearbox side. With everything removed i need to get a good flywheel and i'll be changing the gearbox, this one had very dirty oil and all that metal has to come from somewhere. Let's hope it goes together easier than the last one, easier than the Scenic. Its shaping to be a month of clutches in my garage.


----------



## woodchucker

GoceKU said:


> Today i install the headliner in the white elephant no 1 and try to drive it out, but the clutch said no. I seams my brother managed to cook the clutch to the point it's going backward uphill in first gear. Last time i drove it, it was just starting to slip so bought a new clutch set and had it on a shelf. So drove it back in the garage and took it apart, removing the axles, dropping the gearbox by myself was difficult and hard on my back but i managed. The old clutch disk was cooked, the pressure plate and flywheel has grooves from the rivets. If it looks strange this has the revarse setup used in VW 's where the pressure plate is bolted to the crankshaft and the fly wheel is on the gearbox side. With everything removed i need to get a good flywheel and i'll be changing the gearbox, this one had very dirty oil and all that metal has to come from somewhere. Let's hope it goes together easier than the last one, easier than the Scenic. Its shaping to be a month of clutches in my garage.
> View attachment 407422
> View attachment 407423
> View attachment 407427
> View attachment 407425
> View attachment 407424


I'm telling ya, I still think you need a new brother.    One that doesn't beat cars to death everytime he touches it.  Have you thought of trading your brother in for a better deal?


----------



## BGHansen

woodchucker said:


> I'm telling ya, I still think you need a new brother.    One that doesn't beat cars to death everytime he touches it.  Have you thought of trading your brother in for a better deal?


+1 on that!  Patience with family members is a virtue, it's just not one of my virtues!

Bruce


----------



## mmcmdl

Trying to get a Cub running that isn't co-operating . Been over on the cub site all morning getting tips . None have worked so far . Fins is on over there probably laughing his butt off . Something has the engine locked out and I hate to dump time and money into an un-needed tractor .


----------



## Eyerelief

BGHansen said:


> +1 on that!  Patience with family members is a virtue, it's just not one of my virtues!
> 
> Bruce


I am right there with you!  My wife says my face is permanently squinted and wrinkled in confusion because of mine.  I should be reaching for the popcorn, but its *family* so instead I find myself reaching for brown liquor.


----------



## woodchucker

mmcmdl said:


> Trying to get a Cub running that isn't co-operating . Been over on the cub site all morning getting tips . None have worked so far . Fins is on over there probably laughing his butt off . Something has the engine locked out and I hate to dump time and money into an un-needed tractor .


locked out????

so are you getting a spark?
I'm betting your gas or carb is bad. Carb just take it off, take it apart - clean out each hole with carb spray,  reassemble..  count your needle settings before taking it apart.

Gas, how long has it been in there?  Have you tried starter fluid down the carb throat?  Does it fire for a few?


----------



## mmcmdl

No , I found it . Bad solenoid for the starter . I jumped it to the solenoid a few times and nothing . I the went straight to the starter from the battery . Nothing . I THEN put the jump box directly to the starter and she fired right up . So , either a bad solenoid or a bad wire . The battery could have been weak complicating the issues . All is good now .


----------



## GoceKU

Today i managed to finish the clutch and gearbox replacement. Manhandling the gearbox by hand from the inspection pit was tight, but after few sweat moments i put it together. The old and new gearbox are different by one number but it will work, i also installed a good used flywheel from one of my spare engines. After assembling the axles i did not take no more pictures because my hands are covered in graphite grease. I drove it around the block and its working as it should. This gearbox is much tighter, it clicks into gear like a rifle. Unexpectedly this car got much better then ever before.


----------



## jpackard56

mmcmdl said:


> No , I found it . Bad solenoid for the starter . I jumped it to the solenoid a few times and nothing . I the went straight to the starter from the battery . Nothing . I THEN put the jump box directly to the starter and she fired right up . So , either a bad solenoid or a bad wire . The battery could have been weak complicating the issues . All is good now .


My Cub dilemma was the new level of ethanol in the fuel apparently had dissolved the inside of the section of rubber fuel line and plugged the carb. I mean PLUGGED..What a flip-pin mess. All better now but ALL day cleaning and fooling with that carb.  Reminded me of an old Quadrajet, I worked on when they first added the "magic" thinner to our gas supply and ruined fuel injection seals and lots of other fun issues on cars that weren't manufactured when that was in the gas. Maybe the boat marina still has "regular" ?
 I'm going to need to check around before anything else gets refilled with the "new" fuel this season.


----------



## DavidR8

Finally got the drawer in my welding cart. Only took a couple of years…sheesh. 







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## pdentrem

GoceKU said:


> Today i managed to finish the clutch and gearbox replacement. Manhandling the gearbox by hand from the inspection pit was tight, but after few sweat moments i put it together. The old and new gearbox are different by one number but it will work, i also installed a good used flywheel from one of my spare engines. After assembling the axles i did not take no more pictures because my hands are covered in graphite grease. I drove it around the block and its working as it should. This gearbox is much tighter, it clicks into gear like a rifle. Unexpectedly this car got much better then ever before.
> View attachment 407491
> View attachment 407492
> View attachment 407493
> View attachment 407494


Keep your brother away from it!


----------



## NCjeeper

Decided to give Randy Richards dovetail cutter a workout today. Making a DA sized tool holder.


----------



## mmcmdl

jpackard56 said:


> aybe the boat marina still has "regular" ?
> I'm going to need to check around before anything else gets refilled with the "new" fuel this season.


Pa. sells regular un-ethanol at 90 octain out of the pumps . Samr price as mid grade ethanoled crap . I drive up and fill up 6 5 gallon jugs at a time .


----------



## jocat54

jpackard56 said:


> My Cub dilemma was the new level of ethanol in the fuel apparently had dissolved the inside of the section of rubber fuel line and plugged the carb. I mean PLUGGED..What a flip-pin mess. All better now but ALL day cleaning and fooling with that carb.  Reminded me of an old Quadrajet, I worked on when they first added the "magic" thinner to our gas supply and ruined fuel injection seals and lots of other fun issues on cars that weren't manufactured when that was in the gas. Maybe the boat marina still has "regular" ?
> I'm going to need to check around before anything else gets refilled with the "new" fuel this season.


 
I only buy ethanol free gas for all my 2 cycle stuff now. Haven't had any problems now for about 3 years. Have to drive about 15 miles to get it and it isn't cheap. (nothing is now). Haven't bought any lately so there is no telling how much it is now. My zero turn Toro doesn't set long enough for fuel problems (yet)


----------



## mmcmdl

jocat54 said:


> I only buy ethanol free gas for all my 2 cycle stuff now.


I'm with you , nothing gets it . I have too many expensive chainsaws laying around that the ethanol claimed . I don't care what I pay at the pump .


----------



## ozzie46

DavidR8 said:


> Finally got the drawer in my welding cart. Only took a couple of years…sheesh.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Wife wanted the washer and dryer moved from the kitchen area in a bi-level to a large upstairs bathroom. Only took me 12 years. I hate to be in a rush.


----------



## mmcmdl

I'm with you ! Why put it off until tomorrow when you can do it next month ?


----------



## matthewsx

Well the flag outside my shop had seen better days having come over from my dads other house when I moved in here.

I had bought a new one from AmVets post 114 but couldn’t see attaching it to the rusty pole the old one was on. Also it bugged me that whenever the wind blew the flag would get tangled up.

I had all the pieces for what I wanted, just needed to get going on it which I started earlier this week.




Bronze .750 rod drilled out on the lathe



Tapped for a piece of all thread I had laying around.



Cap for the top end and obligatory part made but not used.



Tool I had to buy.







Collar that was waiting for tool



Components almost ready. 



Attach the flag to my stainless tube. 




Here it is completed. A very satisfying project that should serve for many years. 

John


----------



## f350ca

My son and I are pitting up a shed for an old and dear friends widowed wife. 





Greg


----------



## mmcmdl

I had to tear the Cub apart completely just to get to the bad solenoid . Parts are everywhere once again . Jack's doesn't carry the part so have to wait on Amazon now . The wire strippers that were bought last month have gone missing , so I'll tear apart the drawers again to find one of the fifty pairs hiding somewhere .   Gotta love it .


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Didn't get what I wanted to get done today as fixing a puncture on my bike led to the skewer nut not tightening. So I whittled a new one out of some stainless


----------



## woodchucker

mmcmdl said:


> I had to tear the Cub apart completely just to get to the bad solenoid . Parts are everywhere once again . Jack's doesn't carry the part so have to wait on Amazon now . The wire strippers that were bought last month have gone missing , so I'll tear apart the drawers again to find one of the fifty pairs hiding somewhere .   Gotta love it .


good luck with that. The thing is you need one to find one or more. When you don't have one , you can't find any.
As soon as you buy another you will find the one you lost, and can find the others...  It's a terrible cycle that I run into many times...
But I try to give my son the extras.. That way I look like a hero instead of they guy that keeps misplacing his tools...


----------



## paradox_pete

mmcmdl said:


> I'm with you ! Why put it off until tomorrow when you can do it next month ?


I have not yet begun to procrastinate!


----------



## mmcmdl

I sold a 48" gang box that was in my truck yesterday . Just sold a JD low hour motor off my LX for good money . Both of these were off of FB marketplace . More space for ME ! ( almost enough for that Sharp mill 7 miles up is contemplateing )


----------



## NCjeeper

I did some turning on my lathe today...............Just kidding.


----------



## woodchucker

NCjeeper said:


> I did some turning on my lathe today...............Just kidding.
> View attachment 407733


That boring bar probably weighs over a hundred pounds. It looks small, but I think it's bigger than his leg, and knowing my large chunks of metal, and how much a short length weighs, jeez, and mine is 4"x4" I think that's at least 6...


----------



## mmcmdl

NCjeeper said:


> I did some turning on my lathe today...............Just kidding.


LOL , when did you get the watch maker's lathe ?


----------



## mmcmdl

NCjeeper said:


> I did some turning on my lathe today...............Just kidding.


I applied at a motor rebuild shop just before my current job . Now I've run some pretty big arse lathes over the years , but this place had a real lathe . The faceplate was about 20' in diameter . There were no beds , no rails etc . Train tracks on the floor and the " tailstock " was about 100 foot away from what I was looking at . Ah.........er , I don't think I'm interested . They did have plenty of work though , and the foreman was retiring looking for someone to fill his shoes !


----------



## NCjeeper

I figured you had a couple of those tool posts down in your basement. LOL!


----------



## mmcmdl

I had some biggins for the LeBlond . I think they're buried in the back yard .


----------



## mmcmdl

I turned a John Deere LX 176 into a John Deere 0 ! The motor was picked up this morning and now all that resides is this , which will be scrapped out . Most people give up on tractors or anything they can't fix . I don't . This was a free for pick up locally , already have sold the wheels and motor . $460 profit so far for drinking a few beers and playing with the tools in the garage !   You can't beat this with a big broomstick .


----------



## Steve-F

I finally got the engine in the car, still have to clean the fuel system and redo the brakes


----------



## pdentrem

Finished changing the vent window weatherstrips on the 36 Chrysler. Used 1937s as there are no 34-36 available by anybody.

Had to modify them in a few areas and bond together in two places but not more leaks. Lots of grinding dust to reduce the width to 3/4“ to allow the vent window to lower into the door with the main window. Jay Leno shows this type of window in one of two youtube video on the 1934 Airflow that he has in the collection.
Now on to replace a few more weatherstrips that are worn out or missing.
Pierre


----------



## DavidR8

Welded up some more garden fences this morning. 
Jigged up






All done. Now for paint. 






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## John O

Made a muffler for the gravely


----------



## Winegrower

I like to always have the right tools near whatever station they are needed at, and have duplicates of a lot of wrenches, screwdrivers, etc.    In collecting a bunch of CXA QCTP holders I see that there are four different sizes of the nut used for locking the depth setting.   Also, there are two different sizes of set screws used.  Further, the threading dial needs a wrench, the carriage lock needs a wrench, and the 3 jaw chuck bolts likewise.

Short of hanging a shelf worth of different wrenches, I built a composite wrench with 4 sizes that fit all the above.   I couldn't think of how to combine the two hex keys, 5mm and 3/16" on that wrench, so I made a dual ended rod and bent it 90.    This should be a  pretty big help and prevent searching all over for a wrench when I don't even know what size I'm actually looking for.

I also got to use the mill pallet I made awhile ago.   To fit the handle to the wrench body, I cut a slit in the handle end, and milled both sides of the body down to the width of the slit, and pressed them together.    That worked perfectly, no pins, bolts, etc. needed.

I will save a minute or maybe two per day, perhaps.


----------



## francist

No the photo isn’t upside down, that’s a roll of paper mounted _underneath_ my cutting table. 




The big roll of brown paper is what I use for pattern drafting but it’s really awkward and I always seem to decide I need fresh paper after I’ve already got stuff on the table. So, mount the roll _under_ the table and bring the paper up as needed. 

Some scrap aluminum (already broken with a 90 degree flange, bonus), some threaded rod, a few other bibs and bobs from the “random stuff” drawer and it’s good to go. A bit challenging to load but I managed without dropping the roll on my face so that was another plus, or maybe not, I don’t know 

But it works great, that’s all I care about. Thanks for looking!

-frank


----------



## koenbro

Steve-F said:


> I finally got the engine in the car, still have to clean the fuel system and redo the brakes



I recognise that engine and body! What year? (Looks pre 1980s)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


----------



## Steve-F

1966 Porsche 912 , my wife's favorite car


----------



## koenbro

Steve-F said:


> 1966 Porsche 912 , my wife's favorite car



Beautiful car, and great color. I recognised the air cooled part but didn’t look close enough so missed the fact that is shorter (boxer 4 vs 6). 

Just a timeless design.  Enjoy! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


----------



## Steve-F

Thank you ! All numbers matching too. The one with the 6 is the one covered up next to it, 1981 Porsche SC Targa


----------



## pontiac428

This starts as a gift, and ends as a POTD.

My dad pieced together most of an unmolested Wahlstrom Float Lock vise, and decided I had the better drill press for it. He cherried it up, made up the table clamp assy from scratch, and sent it to me. Sweet! So I made up some T nuts, a brass escutcheon washer to match dad's clamp handle, trimmed the bolt to fit, and bam! Instant, versatile, and rigid clamping! Thanks, Dad!


----------



## mmcmdl

Trailer is loaded up with more aluminum , old batteries , steel crap , and one big hunk of 304 stainless . The clean up continues .


----------



## NCjeeper

I finished making a DA sized tool holder. An AXA next to it for comparison. Yeah it is a biggun.


----------



## woodchucker

I have been laying low since my plantar fasciitis has been raging. I can't stand long. So I decided to buy stuff and modify the shop. I need more space... WHO DOESN'T?  I figured I'd practice what I preach. I used to use this box I had for the grinders, but it wasn't working for me then. I had it on a Jr. WorkBench I got at a garage sale. Seems like I was wasting the workbench. Also my Tool/Surface grinder went in that spot.  The one I replaced it with also wasn't working out. It just didn't allow me to store stuff underneath... And the reality is , you don't want stuff under your grinders, the grit sucks...  But I thought about it, and figured if one of my carts can go under the grinders when not in use I would gain some space. So I attached the footing to the wall, it can also fold out of the way if I need to move some big equip in or out. I used door hinges to support it. I painted it for more light, and changed the light above to a Walmart 5000 lumen shop light , and as a bonus, my trays that hold the projects I am working on can sit on top of the grinders instead of on my shelves where they upset the storage issue. So a win win..
The old one fit two grinders between two doors on a lazy susan with locking screws. The new/old allows side by side.
They are in the same spot, but I get more use out of it.
Lazy Susan



New use of old box hung on wall.


----------



## tjb

Made this battery terminal box for a friend of mine.  He uses a few battery powered attachments with his four-wheeler, such as a spray tank, but they're difficult to hook up because of placement of the battery.  He mounted this terminal block at a convenient place on the four-wheeler.  Now, he can just hook up and go.  The block is made of 3/4" Delrin; hardware is M8-1.25; battery cables are standard automotive (6 gauge I think).  And the real beauty of this is that every part, including the cables, are scrap and leftovers taking up space in my shop from other projects.  Win-win.

Regards

Holes for battery cables are threaded; through-holes for mounting hardware:




Mounted on his four-wheeler; the battery is located behind the flap at bottom of photo - a real pain to access with alligator clips:


----------



## DavidR8

woodchucker said:


> I have been laying low since my plantar fasciitis has been raging. I can't stand long.


I used to suffer from plantar fasciitis something awful. What really did the trick for me was two things:
1) I cut a piece of 1.5 ABS pipe about six inches long and put a layer of duct tape around it. When I was sitting reading or what have you I would roll my foot over the pipe to massage the tendon. 
2) I did two minutes of heel raises every night. Bare feet on a non-carpeted floor. 

After a week or two of this I never had a bout of it again.


----------



## woodchucker

DavidR8 said:


> I used to suffer from plantar fasciitis something awful. What really did the trick for me was two things:
> 1) I cut a piece of 1.5 ABS pipe about six inches long and put a layer of duct tape around it. When I was sitting reading or what have you I would roll my foot over the pipe to massage the tendon.
> 2) I did two minutes of heel raises every night. Bare feet on a non-carpeted floor.
> 
> After a week or two of this I never had a bout of it again.


I have been rolling a tennis ball and then following up with a frozen water bottle.
I'll add the heel raises. Was not told to do that.. thanks.
My issue is flat feet, and my orthotics beat me up over time.. I'm watching Aukai's progress to see how that goes. I would love to stop using the orthotics.


----------



## davek181

Not really a huge project, more like a request from a friend.  I have a friend who built a new Myer's Manx dune buggy.  yes the company is still in business and producing bodies and kits.  He flew down to look at the product offerings and even got to chat with Bruce Myers himself.  He is still running the company at 80 years old.
I helped with the engine overhaul and gave random advice during the project.  He replaced the original camshaft with new and wanted to make a desk lamp out of the old one.  He didn't have any way to drill a hole through the cam to run the wires through, so I offered to take a stab at it.
I chucked it in the lathe and got it to run true, then added the steady rest and with a little patience I got it drilled.  Then took it to the mill and plunged an end mill through the cam gear for the wire.  He just wanted to cut a notch, but I like the idea of a hole to hold the wiring in place.


----------



## pdentrem

Better with the hole. No issues setting it down anywhere.
Pierre


----------



## davek181

My thinking exactly.  Should work well that way.


----------



## f350ca

The shed is coming along. Need to saw more siding to finish it.





Greg


----------



## wachuko

Some of the material to make the drill press float lock vise, came in...




Baby steps... machined the 1/2 bar to length...  that is it, that is all I did today ...


----------



## silverhawk

wachuko said:


> Some of the material to make the drill press float lock vise, came in...
> 
> Baby steps... machined the 1/2 bar to length... that is it, that is all I did today ...



With the QNAP hot swap bay NAS as a back drop, it looks like you are a bit of a techie. 

Sent from my SM-T500 using Tapatalk


----------



## Just for fun

I made a level indicator for the water barrel in the greenhouse.


----------



## DavidR8

Welded up the main part of a new stand for my RF mill. 
Need to add some angle iron across the lower part of the legs to support a cabinet.


----------



## f350ca

Was given a bunch of pine and poplar logs a couple of weeks ago, two hay wagon loads. Spent the afternoon sawing 1 x 10's to finish the shed and have a bunch on hand. 570 board foot of lumber, apparently about $1700 worth at the new inflated price. lol



Greg


----------



## Firstram

I can smell that lumber from here, very nice!


----------



## woodchucker

f350ca said:


> Was given a bunch of pine and poplar logs a couple of weeks ago, two hay wagon loads. Spent the afternoon sawing 1 x 10's to finish the shed and have a bunch on hand. 570 board foot of lumber, apparently about $1700 worth at the new inflated price. lol
> View attachment 408233
> 
> 
> Greg


Greg, were those dead standing trees?  Are they dry?  I remember watching Brian Bloc on youtube rebuilding his barn. I said they were too wet and would shrink, and they sure did. He had them done in clapboard style and he had big gaps once they started to dry.


----------



## f350ca

Can't beat the smell of a sawmill. lol
These logs are a year or two old but were green when the tree went down. 
Green wood seams to work for timber framing, mortises and tenons shrink at the same rate it seams.
Also fine for board and batten siding. I only fix the board in the middle so it can shrink under the batten, which hold the boards from cupping.

Greg


----------



## mmcmdl

Had a " small " fire last night to get rid of some of the wood in the back yard . Tonight I'll fill that ring up and light up the sky !   I have a 6 foot stainless grill that I have to put handles on for lifting later today . This was just lying around but I figure once the yard is up to snuff , we'll have a party .


----------



## DavidR8

Added in supports for the yet-to-built cabinet. 





And painted.


----------



## wachuko

Can't seem to get this little lathe rigid enough for this task... I will take the cutter to the bigger lathe in Ocala and try there...

I knew, from the videos, that this was prone to chatter...  but in my case, sometimes the cutting tool would bite the piece because the cross slide is not rigid enough... I have the saddle nut tight... feeding the cross slide very slowly... using cutting oil... 

Anyway, not going to fight it... tomorrow I head out to Ocala and will do this there...


----------



## 682bear

It looks like the workpiece has been slipping in the chuck jaws...?

What spindle speed are you running at? That radius tool is applying a lot of tool pressure to the workpiece... you may want to try slowing it down and keep a lot of oil on it...

Also, are you feeding using the carriage, or the cross slide? You may have better results feeding with the carriage...

Just a few suggestions...

-Bear

Edit: ok, I just re-read, you are feeding with the cross slide... I would try feeding toward the chuck instead... it may not help much with that large radius


----------



## wachuko

682bear said:


> It looks like the workpiece has been slipping in the chuck jaws...?
> 
> What spindle speed are you running at? That radius tool is applying a lot of tool pressure to the workpiece... you may want to try slowing it down and keep a lot of oil on it...
> 
> Also, are you feeding using the carriage, or the cross slide? You may have better results feeding with the carriage...
> 
> Just a few suggestions...
> 
> -Bear
> 
> Edit: ok, I just re-read, you are feeding with the cross slide... I would try feeding toward the chuck instead... it may not help much with that large radius


Thank you for the suggestions.

It slipped once when the tool bit into the part... correct... 

Turning at 320 rpms


----------



## Eyerelief

I’m afraid that’s just a lot of contact for any lathe much less a small HF type unit. You’re moving to more weight is a good call.


----------



## 682bear

wachuko said:


> Thank you for the suggestions.
> 
> It slipped once when the tool bit into the part... correct...
> 
> Turning at 320 rpms



Just for curiosity... I would cut that in half and feed toward the chuck and see what happens...  hand feed very slowly... lots of oil.

-Bear


----------



## silverhawk

I bought a Harbor Freight hand plane (no 33) back when I built the table top for the family members last year.  The hand plane was nearly impossible to use, because it felt like it was between revisions (threaded, knurled nuts adjusting blade depth were different sizes, though the threaded rod was the same 6x1.0mm).  It was as-if someone at the factory crossed parts over.  When I called customer service, they said I had to mail the whole unit back, and they'd send me a new one (I had to pay shipping both directions, and I think the shipping would have cost the same as just buying another one, but after that I couldn't mentally try another bad one).

I had a 5/8" stainless bar drop from a previous project, and decided to use that.  Faced, drilled to 5.2mm for tapping (sort of - I'm using metric, and ended up with an even bigger hole because this stainless was painful to tap even with the larger pilot hole).  I got to use the scissor knurl for the first time.  _If anyone has questioned whether to do the pressure knurling tools, or to go with the scissor knurling tools - by all means, spring the extra cash for the scissor knurling tool_.  It actually produced decent results for a first try, without breaking any tool post hardware!




I finished my other cuts and surfaces, and swore at this stainless - it was painful to tap.  But, I got it done.







The plane is usable again.  The stainless bar stock was probably worth more than I spent on the plane, but I did get my aroma therapy in for the first time in a few months (most of my time was spent making indoor grow racks for tomato plants, and sanding for a Gerstner-style machinist chest - I really need to get back to that project).


----------



## Janderso

woodchucker said:


> I have been rolling a tennis ball and then following up with a frozen water bottle.
> I'll add the heel raises. Was not told to do that.. thanks.
> My issue is flat feet, and my orthotics beat me up over time.. I'm watching Aukai's progress to see how that goes. I would love to stop using the orthotics.


I think what finally got mine to settle down were the steroid injections.
That was 20 years ago. Hasn't flared up since but you need to continue stretching for eternity.


----------



## wachuko

Well… the G0704 just laughed at this task…




Done!


----------



## Larry$

Daughter & I set up her 3D printer in my shop. A lot of fooling around getting it dialed in. It's running overnight. See if we succeeded tomorrow. She has ordered a kit to double the make size. Neither of us know what we are doing. Got a roll of carbon fiber cloth and some carbide end mills.


----------



## woodchucker

I made an mandrel to mimic my lead screw .. I plan on replacing the bearing that they provided for the power feed with a sleeve that is the bearing, and gear holder. I'll turn it between centers, then grind the bearing race. I will shrink the sleeve onto the mandrel then heat and press it out once finished.  I'll part off part of it, and put the key slot in the parted off piece and woodruff key  180degrees off to transfer to the gear.  This is making an adaptor for a Clausing 8520 to use a bridgeport power feed.


----------



## BGHansen

POTD turned out to be TWO POTD. That’s what happens when I have to fix something before getting my actual project started. Ah, it’s shop time so what the heck!

The intended POTD involved using my Tennsmith stomp shear on some 16-gauge galvanized. The shear blade has a rake on it, the shearing starts on the RH side and works its way to the LH side. Since the pulling action is from right to left, I usually put my material up against the LH side graduated edge so the material is pulled into the stop.

My blank was about 24” wide and started to cut, but only made it about halfway along the edge. It’s a pretty simple mechanism; step down on a pedal that pivots off an axle. There’s a linkage on either side of the pedal that attaches to the shear bar. You get about an 8 to 1 mechanical advantage so at my 175 lbs., I get about 1400 lbs. of down force on the shear bar.


Houston, we have a problem when the stomp shear only scores a piece of matte board?!?




What the heck?!? I stepped on the pedal with nothing in place and saw the shear blade making it past the bottom shear bar. I set in a piece of matte board and it wouldn’t shear. Then I noticed as I stepped down that the pivot on the LH side was lifting up. Moved some crap out of the way and discovered the 1 ¼” diameter pivot pin between the shear’s frame and the back of the pedal was missing!


Ah, here's your problem. . .  The axle pin for the foot pedal is missing!





RH side for comparison






The hole measured 1 ¼” diameter; figured on sticking in a piece of CRS. I shoved a tape measure into the hole to get a rough length and heard the pivot shaft sliding in the back tube. I stuck a magnet through the frame and tube and was able to get the pivot pin back up to the frame. Turns out the pin is threaded 3/8”-16. Ran in a bolt and was able to manipulate the pedal tube and slide the pivot pin back in place.

The RH side pedal frame is threaded; looks to be a headless set screw run through the tube and pivot pin.   Don’t know if a previous owner changed things on the LH side, but the pivot pin was held in place with a ¼” roll spring pin. I was able to rotate the pin back into alignment, drive out the old pin and pound in a new one.


I was able to run a 3/8" bolt into the end of the axle and pull it back into position



Looks like a piece of spring roll pin



Temporary fix is a new spring pin.  I'm of the school of thought that if it failed once and there's no assignable cause, it will fail again.  I will be replacing the roll pin with a cap screw.  This pin carries a lot of torsional load; makes more sense to have a solid pin that a spring pin.





Curiously, the Tennsmith manual shows the pivot pin and retaining pin, but doesn't not list them in the manual.  I'm thinking the pin part# 61 should be solid instead of a spring pin.







For belt and suspenders, I made a plastic bushing that screws into the pivot pin. Started with 2” polyethylene. Faced, center drilled, drilled a 3/8” central hole, cut a shoulder on the face which would bear against the pivot pin and parted. Ran it down with a 3/8” button head cap screw with a drop of Loctite.


Faced, center drilled and drilled a through hole for a retaining bolt







Turned a shoulder to around 1.10".  The pivot pin sets subflush to the frame by about 0.090".  The face of the shoulder will bear against the end of the pin while the larger diameter will keep it from walking into the frame.  Way overkill on my part as the root cause of the problem was likely the previous owner swapping in a spring pin for a solid pin.












The shear works great though I will be replacing the spring pin with a cap screw.  Now onto the real POTD.

Thanks for looking, Bruce


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was making a bracket to mount a garden-watering manifold. My refuse in my shop. My wife’s refuse is her garden. Her garden beds are in boxes made from 6” wide cinder blocks 3 courses high. She spent a lot of time setting the block on ¾” foundation-grade plywood. Bottom 8” is rock, 2nd 8” is sand, and the top 8” is top soil/compost. The top deck is 8” wide cedar boards. It’s really nice to plant/weed/harvest without crawling on your knees.

I plumbed a hydrant to her garden for watering which she runs into a 4-zone programmable manifold. One water line runs in, up to 4 lines run out to different parts of her garden. Each zone has sprinkler lines running through the beds. She can program in the number of hours each zone gets water. On top of it all, the manifold has provisions for a moisture sensor so it only kicks on if the ground is dry.

She used to mount the manifold directly on a “Y” off the hydrant. Problem is our well water has a fine silt in it even after 29 years in our house. The house has a large whole-house filter to keep from plugging up the water softener, but the “T” to the garden/shop is unfiltered. Her small trickle hose end fittings were getting clogged and needed to be flushed every year. Our solution was to add a whole-house filter like in the house, but that meant the manifold would need to be remote mounted. Hence, the project of the day.

Now that I have a working sheet metal shear (see the above POTD. . .), my material of choice was 16-gauge galvanized. I cut a piece of chipboard for a prototype. Dykem’d up the 16-gauge and started punching/cutting. The bracket is “U” shaped with a tab on the bottom that captures the bottom edge of the manifold. The top is secured with a piece of 1/8” aluminum which screws to the bracket.


I needed a 1 1/4" hole but my punches for the Roper Whitney 218 press go from 7/8" up to 1 1/2".  So, nibbled away at the 1 1/4" hole with the 7/8" punch



Used a 1/2" x 3/4" rectangular punch to knock in the open-ended slot that will capture the inlet hose fitting



Trimmed the sides of the blank with a 6" corner notcher



Radiused the corners (sander would work too)



Set the 1/8" aluminum retaining plate in place, scribed the remainder of the 1 1/4" hole for capturing the inlet hose, and traced the outline of the mounting screw holes onto the aluminum.



Set the aluminum plate in the Bridgeport and found the scribed holes with a laser center/edge finder.  This model projects concentric circles.  You move the quill up/down to change the diameters for alignment to a scribed line.



Center drill



Tap drill



Power tapping a 10-24



Used a 3/4" ball-end mill to rough in the radii for the inlet hose.  Didn't show it, but cleaned up the edge with a drum sander on the drill press.



Bent up the bracket with the DiAcro brake



The bracket bottom leg sets between the two bottom outlets and captures the bottom face of the manifold.  The top open-ended slot slips around the inlet hose fitting and is secured with the aluminum plate.



Still need to spray some Rustoleum and screw the bracket to a piece of 3/4" foundation grade plywood on the side of my wife's garden bed.




Though it is galvanized, I’ll paint it with Rustoleum primer. Plan is to screw it to a piece of ¾” foundation grade plywood which is screwed to the side of one of the beds. Wife is happy, life is good!

Thanks for looking,

Bruce


----------



## wachuko

Some progress with the build of the drill press float lock vise... even if baby steps...

I am probably not doing this in the correct order... but what the heck...






Now I need to figure out how to make that tapered section...  guess I need to install this back on the lathe...




So a few things that I am learning:

1. I really want a DRO in my lathe... spacing on the grooves sucks... not even.  Does not matter for this project as those are just decorative, but it burns me to see them with different spacing/width.  I measured them several times... marked them to have a reference and not rely only on the dial... still... good grief...
2. I can now understand why I need a better caliper... I hate it when this one turns off and I turn it on only to have to reset zero... after awhile it gets to me...
3. I need more tools... but this never ends, it seems...


----------



## Steve-F

Looking good! I love my analog B&S calipers for that very reason


----------



## WobblyHand

@wachuko As an interim measure, install a dial indicator on your ways to measure carriage movement.  I bought a cheap 2" travel dial indicator for my mini-lathe.  Makes the lack of carriage DRO more tolerable.  My bigger lathe as a DRO, and have to agree, it's more convenient than using the dial indicator, but the DRO is not any more accurate.


----------



## wachuko

WobblyHand said:


> @wachuko As an interim measure, install a dial indicator on your ways to measure carriage movement.  I bought a cheap 2" travel dial indicator for my mini-lathe.  Makes the lack of carriage DRO more tolerable.  My bigger lathe as a DRO, and have to agree, it's more convenient than using the dial indicator, but the DRO is not any more accurate.


I have one and forgot to use it . I just can't fix stupid....


----------



## WobblyHand

wachuko said:


> I have one and forgot to use it


Hope you remember it next time!


----------



## BGHansen

wachuko said:


> So a few things that I am learning:
> 
> 1. I really want a DRO in my lathe... spacing on the grooves sucks... not even.  Does not matter for this project as those are just decorative, but it burns me to see them with different spacing/width.  I measured them several times... marked them to have a reference and not rely only on the dial... still... good grief...


You'll love a DRO on the lathe for accurate positioning along the Z-axis.  Cutting to a shoulder depth, groove position, etc. is so much nicer.  I have a 2" indicator on my Clausing with a magnetic base.  It works, but punching in the number is more convenient.  

One thing I haven't done on mine yet is a suggestion from I believe @macardoso.  Most of the DRO's have something like 200 datums on them.  He plugged in offsets for his lathe tools for the diameter/radius.  Nice feature as you should be able to swap tools, plug the new tool number in the DRO and your radius/diameter cross feed position automatically adjusts for the new tool.

Bruce


----------



## macardoso

BGHansen said:


> You'll love a DRO on the lathe for accurate positioning along the Z-axis.  Cutting to a shoulder depth, groove position, etc. is so much nicer.  I have a 2" indicator on my Clausing with a magnetic base.  It works, but punching in the number is more convenient.
> 
> One thing I haven't done on mine yet is a suggestion from I believe @macardoso.  Most of the DRO's have something like 200 datums on them.  He plugged in offsets for his lathe tools for the diameter/radius.  Nice feature as you should be able to swap tools, plug the new tool number in the DRO and your radius/diameter cross feed position automatically adjusts for the new tool.
> 
> Bruce


Yup, I do that often. I don't have a permanent tool table on my lathe since I move the compound/toolpost too often, but it only takes a couple minutes to set up the SDM table for several tools to use on a job, so I'll do that whenever I have more than 1 or 2 parts to make at a time. It is something that seems tricky your first time through, but gets to be second nature once you get the concept.


----------



## wachuko

Thank you for the suggestions!!  

Well folks, looks like I made my first tapered cut!!!!  Laugh all you want, but it took me a few minutes to get my head around how the heck this needed to be setup to do the cut at an angle...







But by golly I did it!!







I read here somewhere, that better is the enemy of good... So I did not try to make it better by trying to get rid of that visual transition...

On to the next step for this part...


----------



## tjb

BGHansen said:


> POTD turned out to be TWO POTD. That’s what happens when I have to fix something before getting my actual project started. Ah, it’s shop time so what the heck!
> 
> The intended POTD involved using my Tennsmith stomp shear on some 16-gauge galvanized. The shear blade has a rake on it, the shearing starts on the RH side and works its way to the LH side. Since the pulling action is from right to left, I usually put my material up against the LH side graduated edge so the material is pulled into the stop.
> 
> My blank was about 24” wide and started to cut, but only made it about halfway along the edge. It’s a pretty simple mechanism; step down on a pedal that pivots off an axle. There’s a linkage on either side of the pedal that attaches to the shear bar. You get about an 8 to 1 mechanical advantage so at my 175 lbs., I get about 1400 lbs. of down force on the shear bar.
> 
> 
> Houston, we have a problem when the stomp shear only scores a piece of matte board?!?
> View attachment 408418
> 
> 
> 
> What the heck?!? I stepped on the pedal with nothing in place and saw the shear blade making it past the bottom shear bar. I set in a piece of matte board and it wouldn’t shear. Then I noticed as I stepped down that the pivot on the LH side was lifting up. Moved some crap out of the way and discovered the 1 ¼” diameter pivot pin between the shear’s frame and the back of the pedal was missing!
> 
> 
> Ah, here's your problem. . .  The axle pin for the foot pedal is missing!
> View attachment 408420
> 
> View attachment 408419
> 
> 
> RH side for comparison
> View attachment 408421
> 
> View attachment 408422
> 
> 
> 
> The hole measured 1 ¼” diameter; figured on sticking in a piece of CRS. I shoved a tape measure into the hole to get a rough length and heard the pivot shaft sliding in the back tube. I stuck a magnet through the frame and tube and was able to get the pivot pin back up to the frame. Turns out the pin is threaded 3/8”-16. Ran in a bolt and was able to manipulate the pedal tube and slide the pivot pin back in place.
> 
> The RH side pedal frame is threaded; looks to be a headless set screw run through the tube and pivot pin.   Don’t know if a previous owner changed things on the LH side, but the pivot pin was held in place with a ¼” roll spring pin. I was able to rotate the pin back into alignment, drive out the old pin and pound in a new one.
> 
> 
> I was able to run a 3/8" bolt into the end of the axle and pull it back into position
> View attachment 408423
> 
> 
> Looks like a piece of spring roll pin
> View attachment 408424
> 
> 
> Temporary fix is a new spring pin.  I'm of the school of thought that if it failed once and there's no assignable cause, it will fail again.  I will be replacing the roll pin with a cap screw.  This pin carries a lot of torsional load; makes more sense to have a solid pin that a spring pin.
> View attachment 408425
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Curiously, the Tennsmith manual shows the pivot pin and retaining pin, but doesn't not list them in the manual.  I'm thinking the pin part# 61 should be solid instead of a spring pin.
> View attachment 408426
> 
> 
> View attachment 408427
> 
> 
> 
> For belt and suspenders, I made a plastic bushing that screws into the pivot pin. Started with 2” polyethylene. Faced, center drilled, drilled a 3/8” central hole, cut a shoulder on the face which would bear against the pivot pin and parted. Ran it down with a 3/8” button head cap screw with a drop of Loctite.
> 
> 
> Faced, center drilled and drilled a through hole for a retaining bolt
> View attachment 408428
> 
> View attachment 408429
> 
> View attachment 408430
> 
> 
> Turned a shoulder to around 1.10".  The pivot pin sets subflush to the frame by about 0.090".  The face of the shoulder will bear against the end of the pin while the larger diameter will keep it from walking into the frame.  Way overkill on my part as the root cause of the problem was likely the previous owner swapping in a spring pin for a solid pin.
> View attachment 408431
> 
> View attachment 408432
> 
> View attachment 408433
> 
> 
> View attachment 408434
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The shear works great though I will be replacing the spring pin with a cap screw.  Now onto the real POTD.
> 
> Thanks for looking, Bruce


Interesting post, Bruce.  I've spent most of the day on a similar challenge.  One of my son's has a rack that holds foot pedal switches for his electric guitars.  I'm sure there's a fancy name for these pedals but I have no idea what it might be.  His rack is about 18" x 5" and will comfortably hold four or five of these foot pedal.  I'm making one twice as big - two rows about the same size on a single rack - to accommodate more switches.  The frame was easy, and I have a large enough piece of leftover 16 or 18 gauge sheet metal that will suit his purposes fine.  What I DON'T have, however, is a stomp shear.  So I got creative.  I set up a fence on my mill and used step block clamps and 1-2-3 blocks to rip two 1-3/4" x 18" strips.  Tomorrow I'll need to measure for a center strip that's about twice as wide.  I'll post some pictures when I get closer to done.

Stomp shear would have saved quite a bit of work.  Wanna sell yours?  And deliver it?  And set it up?  And stay for dinner?

Regards


----------



## tjb

BGHansen said:


> My refuse in my shop. My wife’s refuse is her garden.


Interesting.  Same thing around here.  I go to the shop; she goes to her garden.  She's a certified card-carrying Master Gardener.  I'll try to post some pictures of her setup - several large raised beds, a chicken house, green house, outdoor sink, fire pit, etc. etc. etc.  In a prior life, I trained horses; when common sense dictated I needed to quit (getting too old for the young ones anymore), we converted the riding arena to her garden.  It's pretty close to the size of a football field.  When I was running a herd, we raised our own beef as well.  There've been many times when everything on the table except the salt and pepper was grown on the farm.  Right now she's in the kitchen saute-ing some cabbage and squash she just picked, and we're about to cook some venison backstrap from this past hunting season.  It's smelling good in there.

I eat like royalty.

Regards


----------



## extropic

@BGHansen 

I don't think your shop is your refuse at all. Refuge maybe, but not refuse. LOL


----------



## mattthemuppet2

I need an adapter to fit a USB camera to one of my stereo microscopes at work so I can make some sort videos for an experiment. We do have a very fancy stereo scope (supposedly around $100k) in the department, but IT wiped the hard drive when they fixed a different problem and professor who's lab it's in has lost the imaging software disk 

So, made this out of a small piece of round and a piece of pipeand it looks like so on the scope





But I need the inside black to cut down on reflections, so I anodized it. First try came out gunmetal


So I stripped it and tried again. Got a nice deep black, but also patches, either from an incomplete strip or from not cleaning it properly before putting it in the acid tank. Either way, the inside is nice and black which is what matters!




Now I need to strip and redo the bike l bracket, we'll see how that one goes!


----------



## francist

extropic said:


> Refuge maybe, but not refuse


I’m not so sure — you know what they say about one man’s trash…


----------



## jwmelvin

mattthemuppet2 said:


> But I need the inside black to cut down on reflections, so I anodized it.



Have you described your anodizing setup and process online? I’d like to experiment a bit myself.


----------



## woodchucker

BGHansen said:


> You'll love a DRO on the lathe for accurate positioning along the Z-axis. Cutting to a shoulder depth, groove position, etc. is so much nicer. I have a 2" indicator on my Clausing with a magnetic base. It works, but punching in the number is more convenient.
> 
> One thing I haven't done on mine yet is a suggestion from I believe @macardoso. Most of the DRO's have something like 200 datums on them. He plugged in offsets for his lathe tools for the diameter/radius. Nice feature as you should be able to swap tools, plug the new tool number in the DRO and your radius/diameter cross feed position automatically adjusts for the new tool.
> 
> Bruce


How does that work for the compound, if you move it, or rotate your qctp


Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


----------



## mattthemuppet2

it's easy, mix a hefty portion of magic with a generous amount of voodoo, a sniff of chemistry and a handful of luck  Acid bath temperature is really important, but in mysterious ways - lower temperatures can give more "pop", I think by producing a thinner oxide layer, whereas higher temps can give a deeper colour all the way to "crayon/ lipstick". I'm slowly getting there, but it's still a bit hit or miss.


----------



## Larry$

Daughter & I did another struggle with 3D printing. Ended up with a plugged nozzle. The plug had turned the ABS plastic into charred solid rock. I had a hell  of a time getting it clean. Acetone didn't touch it. When we left tonight the test print was at 40% and looking good. Ender 3 machine, cost about $150 6 months ago. How do they manage to make such things so cheap? The motion control is very good.


----------



## matthewsx

tjb said:


> Interesting post, Bruce.  I've spent most of the day on a similar challenge.  One of my son's has a rack that holds foot pedal switches for his electric guitars.  I'm sure there's a fancy name for these pedals but I have no idea what it might be.  His rack is about 18" x 5" and will comfortably hold four or five of these foot pedal.  I'm making one twice as big - two rows about the same size on a single rack - to accommodate more switches.  The frame was easy, and I have a large enough piece of leftover 16 or 18 gauge sheet metal that will suit his purposes fine.  What I DON'T have, however, is a stomp shear.  So I got creative.  I set up a fence on my mill and used step block clamps and 1-2-3 blocks to rip two 1-3/4" x 18" strips.  Tomorrow I'll need to measure for a center strip that's about twice as wide.  I'll post some pictures when I get closer to done.
> 
> Stomp shear would have saved quite a bit of work.  Wanna sell yours?  And deliver it?  And set it up?  And stay for dinner?
> 
> Regards


The fancy name is "Stomp Box" but Pedal will do just fine....

John


----------



## tjb

matthewsx said:


> The fancy name is "Stomp Box" but Pedal will do just fine....
> 
> John


Based on the noise coming out of the amplifier, 'Stomp Box' seems to me to be far more descriptive of a label than 'Pedal'.  Thanks for the clarification.


----------



## BGHansen

extropic said:


> @BGHansen
> 
> I don't think your shop is your refuse at all. Refuge maybe, but not refuse. LOL


Well, you should see some of my work!  Refuse might be a better description!  I was pretty good at math, ain't so good at Engrish!  In a past life I translated Chinese machine tool manuals!    

Bruce


----------



## wachuko

5C collects are at the other house ... but I remembered I had bought this 5C to ER32 adapter...  That did the trick to hold the part in the square collect block.








I am dreading making that bend... I will just work on the other section of the handle for now.  That one should be easier to work...


----------



## BGHansen

tjb said:


> Stomp shear would have saved quite a bit of work.  Wanna sell yours?  And deliver it?  And set it up?  And stay for dinner?
> 
> Regards


Thanks for the offer!  The shear does come in handy.  I paid $700 for the Tennsmith around 10 years ago; Craig's List ad as I recall.  It's missing the back gauge and front supports but came with an extra set of blades.  Facebook Marketplace links don't attach, but if you do a search in the Atlanta area, here are a few options!  Always fun to try to spend someone else's money on tools!  Check out the ad at the bottom!

Bruce

















I LOVE the truth in advertising on this one in MI!  It seems the thing to do is to remove the front guard on shears?  I looked at probably a dozen ads on FB MP and saw MANY examples with the front guard/hold down clamp removed.  The guard/hold-down clamp obscures your view of the cut, but . . .  I mounted a couple of LED strip lights on mine that shine down between the shear blade and the hold-down clamp.


----------



## BGHansen

woodchucker said:


> How does that work for the compound, if you move it, or rotate your qctp
> 
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


I haven't used the SDM feature on mine.  Rotating the compound would change the math.  @macardoso did a reply explaining his process.  He sets up the tools for repetitive jobs once the compound is set (as I recall from the post).

Bruce


----------



## Eyerelief

wachuko said:


> I am dreading making that bend... I will just work on the other section of the handle for now.  That one should be easier to work...


The part is looking really good.  Since so much material has been removed where the bend is going to be, I would not worry too much about bending it.  Heat is your friend, the redder the bedder.....................


----------



## macardoso

BGHansen said:


> I haven't used the SDM feature on mine.  Rotating the compound would change the math.  @macardoso did a reply explaining his process.  He sets up the tools for repetitive jobs once the compound is set (as I recall from the post).
> 
> Bruce


As a fun aside, there are some cool DROs that let you add a rotary encoder to the compound, or manually enter the angle, and they do all the vector math to figure out the tool position.

I just redo my SDM table after moving the compound. The SDM table only gets used on 10% of jobs or so and I set it up from scratch each time I move the compound. Not hard to do, but not worth it if you move the compound several times while working on one part.


----------



## BGHansen

tjb said:


> Interesting.  Same thing around here.  I go to the shop; she goes to her garden.  She's a certified card-carrying Master Gardener.  I'll try to post some pictures of her setup - several large raised beds, a chicken house, green house, outdoor sink, fire pit, etc. etc. etc.
> 
> I eat like royalty.
> 
> Regards


Here's our chicken house and some of my wife's garden.

Bruce


Coupe is 5' x 9'.  There's a 5' x 15' dog kennel attached which we refer to as the "annex".  It gives the birds some freedom if we need to leave them cooped up.  This time of year the hawks are trying to feed their young.  We've lost quite a few chickens over the years to spring feeding.  You have to use your imagination a bit on one shot, but we lost one to a bald eagle a few years ago (cool)!


Rain barrel runs to "chicken nipples" inside the coop.


The roosts are set up like a stairs stringer which is hinged at the wall.  Makes it easier to muck out the coop, simply flip up the roosts to get them out of the way.  The trash can is food, holds 80 lbs.  There are PVC elbows in the sides angled down to about 2" from the bottom.  It helps keep the birds from flinging food around.


Spring hawk season from a few years ago.  This one unfortunately (for him/her) got tangled in our electric fence.  Nope, can't tell you what fried hawk tastes like!


Bald eagle "poofed" a chicken in our backyard



Wife's raised beds.  The ones with the crate-look on the outside are finished.  She's in the process of redoing the beds (long story)





She's using 3/4" foundation-grade plywood for a base.  Using 6" block for the side walls with 8" wide cedar planks for the top deck.  She originally dry-stacked the block on a sand base.  The walls started heaving after one year, hence the rebuilding.


----------



## Firstram

Looks great, I once put a parental block on HGTV!


----------



## tjb

BGHansen said:


> Here's our chicken house and some of my wife's garden.
> 
> Bruce
> 
> 
> Coupe is 5' x 9'.  There's a 5' x 15' dog kennel attached which we refer to as the "annex".  It gives the birds some freedom if we need to leave them cooped up.  This time of year the hawks are trying to feed their young.  We've lost quite a few chickens over the years to spring feeding.  You have to use your imagination a bit on one shot, but we lost one to a bald eagle a few years ago (cool)!
> View attachment 408568
> 
> Rain barrel runs to "chicken nipples" inside the coop.
> View attachment 408570
> 
> The roosts are set up like a stairs stringer which is hinged at the wall.  Makes it easier to muck out the coop, simply flip up the roosts to get them out of the way.  The trash can is food, holds 80 lbs.  There are PVC elbows in the sides angled down to about 2" from the bottom.  It helps keep the birds from flinging food around.
> View attachment 408569
> 
> Spring hawk season from a few years ago.  This one unfortunately (for him/her) got tangled in our electric fence.  Nope, can't tell you what fried hawk tastes like!
> View attachment 408574
> 
> Bald eagle "poofed" a chicken in our backyard
> View attachment 408576
> 
> 
> Wife's raised beds.  The ones with the crate-look on the outside are finished.  She's in the process of redoing the beds (long story)
> View attachment 408573
> 
> View attachment 408571
> 
> 
> She's using 3/4" foundation-grade plywood for a base.  Using 6" block for the side walls with 8" wide cedar planks for the top deck.  She originally dry-stacked the block on a sand base.  The walls started heaving after one year, hence the rebuilding.
> View attachment 408572


Very nice, Bruce.  I'll try to download and post some pix of ours.


----------



## tjb

BGHansen said:


> Well, you should see some of my work!  Refuse might be a better description!  I was pretty good at math, ain't so good at Engrish!  In a past life I translated Chinese machine tool manuals!
> 
> Bruce


Virtually all of us would respectfully disagree.  We've seen MUCH of your work.  'Stellar' is the appropriate adjective.


----------



## wachuko

Face my fears... this butane torch that we got for my daughter to make Crème brûlée, is getting a lot of use in the garage, lol... because my torch is at the other house!!!

But bent done!!


----------



## Steve-F

That turned out really nice!


----------



## WobblyHand

Steve-F said:


> That turned out really nice!


Wonder how long it will take for the Professor of Pending Projects to remake it, this time with evenly spaced sections?  Hope he remembers his dial indicator next time!  Would make it easier.

@wachuko that came out well.  Just teasing you about your uneven sections.


----------



## wachuko

WobblyHand said:


> Wonder how long it will take for the Professor of Pending Projects to remake it, this time with evenly spaced sections?  Hope he remembers his dial indicator next time!  Would make it easier.
> 
> @wachuko that came out well.  Just teasing you about your uneven sections.


I will add it to the list of stuff to do later


----------



## Badabinski

Finally got back to making chips after a two month period of intense organizing and cleaning out in my shop (I should make a separate post about that, because it was probably 10 hours of cleaning and 40-50 hours of organizing).

Decided to make a BlondiHacks side clamp out of some 4340PH:








This project would have taken me multiple days before I cleaned and organized. I would have spent way too much time losing my measuring tools in all of the crap that was spread everywhere. Now, I'm able to do a project like this in one day.

I milled the slots the way BlondiHacks did, meaning I had to take a boatload of passes using a 1/8" endmill. Next time, I might drill the end of the slot and then use a slotting saw. I only have one four flute end mill in this size, and it's been... Well used, let's just say.

I'm sorely tempted to polish this thing, but that would be silly, this part will surely get dinged up like crazy. I'll probably give it a cold blue treatment though.

Sorry for the rambling and meandering, I'm coming off of a migraine and my thoughts are a little disorganized.

Edit: I should add that I'm planning on making 2-3 more of these, so I've ordered some ground 4140PH bar stock that matches the dimensions a bit more closely than the 4340 I used for this clamp.

Edit: also, I should add that I tapped the holes ⅜"-24, which is a size I have absolutely zero hardware for. I have _twenty _⅜"-24 spiral flute taps, but no hardware. Amazing.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Well, the patchy anodizing was bugging me, so I stripped it and cleaned the whatsit out of it. Third time came out nicely. Still not perfect, but good enough that I don't want to do it again!


----------



## extropic

@Badabinski

Nice clamps.

For the benefit of others, below is a link to the video that shows what the clamps are for, etc.


----------



## woodchucker

Badabinski said:


> Finally got back to making chips after a two month period of intense organizing and cleaning out in my shop (I should make a separate post about that, because it was probably 10 hours of cleaning and 40-50 hours of organizing).
> 
> Decided to make a BlondiHacks side clamp out of some 4340PH:
> 
> View attachment 408630
> 
> View attachment 408631
> 
> View attachment 408632
> 
> 
> This project would have taken me multiple days before I cleaned and organized. I would have spent way too much time losing my measuring tools in all of the crap that was spread everywhere. Now, I'm able to do a project like this in one day.
> 
> I milled the slots the way BlondiHacks did, meaning I had to take a boatload of passes using a 1/8" endmill. Next time, I might drill the end of the slot and then use a slotting saw. I only have one four flute end mill in this size, and it's been... Well used, let's just say.
> 
> I'm sorely tempted to polish this thing, but that would be silly, this part will surely get dinged up like crazy. I'll probably give it a cold blue treatment though.
> 
> Sorry for the rambling and meandering, I'm coming off of a migraine and my thoughts are a little disorganized.
> 
> Edit: I should add that I'm planning on making 2-3 more of these, so I've ordered some ground 4140PH bar stock that matches the dimensions a bit more closely than the 4340 I used for this clamp.
> 
> Edit: also, I should add that I tapped the holes ⅜"-24, which is a size I have absolutely zero hardware for. I have _twenty _⅜"-24 spiral flute taps, but no hardware. Amazing.


*I'm curious how it works. *Seems like a good way of clamping from the side. But it does seem thick... 3/8 screws would make that about 1/2". I would be looking for 10-32 to spread it... that way it's maybe 1/4 high...


----------



## Badabinski

woodchucker said:


> *I'm curious how it works. *Seems like a good way of clamping from the side. But it does seem thick... 3/8 screws would make that about 1/2". I would be looking for 10-32 to spread it... that way it's maybe 1/4 high...


It definitely is a bit tall, but that fits with the table work I've done in the past. The design seems pretty scalable though. I bet you could easily chop it to ⅜" or ¼" thick if you wanted.

Edit: BlondiHacks has said that her experiences with this clamp have been positive. I think she did have one let go one time, but that was due to user error, not a fault of the clamp.


----------



## tjb

wachuko said:


> Face my fears... this butane that we got for my daughter to make Crème brûlée, is getting a lot of use in the garage, lol... because my torch is at the other house!!!
> 
> But bent done!!
> 
> View attachment 408583


How about a picture of the Creme Brulee?


----------



## tjb

BGHansen said:


> Thanks for the offer!  The shear does come in handy.  I paid $700 for the Tennsmith around 10 years ago; Craig's List ad as I recall.  It's missing the back gauge and front supports but came with an extra set of blades.  Facebook Marketplace links don't attach, but if you do a search in the Atlanta area, here are a few options!  Always fun to try to spend someone else's money on tools!  Check out the ad at the bottom!
> 
> Bruce
> 
> 
> View attachment 408538
> 
> 
> View attachment 408539
> 
> 
> View attachment 408540
> 
> 
> View attachment 408541
> 
> 
> View attachment 408542
> 
> 
> I LOVE the truth in advertising on this one in MI!  It seems the thing to do is to remove the front guard on shears?  I looked at probably a dozen ads on FB MP and saw MANY examples with the front guard/hold down clamp removed.  The guard/hold-down clamp obscures your view of the cut, but . . .  I mounted a couple of LED strip lights on mine that shine down between the shear blade and the hold-down clamp.
> View attachment 408546


Thanks for the heads-up, Bruce.  682bear just picked up that tool grinder last week, and I'm itching to find something to fill in the empty space.  Would love to find a nice 6 x 18 surface grinder, but they're pretty scarce around here.  If anybody knows of one that's reasonably close to me, please let me know.  Almost had one two or three years ago, but the guy changed his mind.  It was a nice one, too.

Regards


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Finished stripping and re-anodizing the other part, a bracket for one of my commuter bikes lights. I made the original too light and it fatigue cracked. The new one is much beefier
	

		
			
		

		
	



on the light, you can see the original on the right


	

		
			
		

		
	
and back on the bike


----------



## Just for fun

wachuko said:


> Thank you for the suggestions!!
> 
> Well folks, looks like I made my first tapered cut!!!!  Laugh all you want, but it took me a few minutes to get my head around how the heck this needed to be setup to do the cut at an angle...
> 
> View attachment 408497
> 
> 
> View attachment 408498
> 
> 
> But by golly I did it!!
> 
> View attachment 408499
> 
> 
> View attachment 408500
> 
> 
> I read here somewhere, that better is the enemy of good... So I did not try to make it better by trying to get rid of that visual transition...
> 
> On to the next step for this part...


Looks like your doing a great job!   Where did you get the plans for the float lock vice?


----------



## BGHansen

tjb said:


> Thanks for the heads-up, Bruce.  682bear just picked up that tool grinder last week, and I'm itching to find something to fill in the empty space.  Would love to find a nice 6 x 18 surface grinder, but they're pretty scarce around here.  If anybody knows of one that's reasonably close to me, please let me know.  Almost had one two or three years ago, but the guy changed his mind.  It was a nice one, too.
> 
> Regards


Here you go!

Bruce

Facebook Marketplace















						Brown & Sharpe 618 Micromaster 6" x 18" Hydraulic Surface Grinder -...
					

General Info: Stock #: BM-220007 Location: Stone Mountain, GA Brand: Brown & Sharpe Model: 618 Micromaster Serial #: 523-6181-566 Approx. Shipping Weight: 3,000 Lbs. Approx. Shipping Dimensions:...



					atlanta.craigslist.org
				











						Surface grinder - tools - by owner - sale
					

Surface grinder three phase magnetic chuck.was rebuilt several years ago.no texting cash only



					atlanta.craigslist.org
				





I threw in a Sanford SG also.  These are coveted by a number of members here.








						Sanford Model SG Surface Grinder - tools - by owner - sale
					

Sanford model SG miniature surface grinder, serial number 151.1436 which I believe indicates this machine was made in 1951. This is a compact surface grinder, 110V and works well. Electromagnetic...



					huntsville.craigslist.org


----------



## tjb

BGHansen said:


> Here you go!
> 
> Bruce
> 
> Facebook Marketplace
> View attachment 408669
> 
> 
> View attachment 408670
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Brown & Sharpe 618 Micromaster 6" x 18" Hydraulic Surface Grinder -...
> 
> 
> General Info: Stock #: BM-220007 Location: Stone Mountain, GA Brand: Brown & Sharpe Model: 618 Micromaster Serial #: 523-6181-566 Approx. Shipping Weight: 3,000 Lbs. Approx. Shipping Dimensions:...
> 
> 
> 
> atlanta.craigslist.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Surface grinder - tools - by owner - sale
> 
> 
> Surface grinder three phase magnetic chuck.was rebuilt several years ago.no texting cash only
> 
> 
> 
> atlanta.craigslist.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I threw in a Sanford SG also.  These are coveted by a number of members here.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sanford Model SG Surface Grinder - tools - by owner - sale
> 
> 
> Sanford model SG miniature surface grinder, serial number 151.1436 which I believe indicates this machine was made in 1951. This is a compact surface grinder, 110V and works well. Electromagnetic...
> 
> 
> 
> huntsville.craigslist.org


Whoa!  How'd you do that?  I'm following up on some of these tomorrow.

Thanks!


----------



## wachuko

Just for fun said:


> Looks like your doing a great job!   Where did you get the plans for the float lock vice?


Mr. Pete posted them.  Ken, a viewer from his YouTube channel, created them from a pristine vise he has...






Dropbox link









						Vise V1
					

Shared with Dropbox




					www.dropbox.com


----------



## wachuko

More progress on the parts for the vise... Handle parts are done.  Threaded rod is done.  Solid rod is done.
















Now to work on the jaws...


----------



## Firstram

wachuko said:


> But bent done!!


Nice job, it's tricky bending solid stock without stretching or compressing the part. That looks perfect!


----------



## Just for fun

Good job Jaime!  Thanks for the links and the pdf's


----------



## wachuko

tjb said:


> How about a picture of the Creme Brulee?


I think that they have not made any lately because they can't find the torch 

EDIT:  Went into the garage to cut the parts for the jaws, holding block, and end plate that holds both rods...

I just realized that this is A36 steel... I hope that is not a big issue for the jaws.  Wished I had paid attention and gotten some better material for the jaws.  Or is this okay for this use??


----------



## BGHansen

tjb said:


> Whoa!  How'd you do that?  I'm following up on some of these tomorrow.
> 
> Thanks!


I use the site www.searchtempest.com for CL ads.  It also lists eBay and Amazon at the bottom.  The search engine lets you put in a location, max driving distance, etc.

I had to sign up for Facebook at work when our GM assembly plant was shut down for COVID a couple of years ago.  That was our plant leadership's communication method during the down time.  Facebook Marketplace is like CL but on Facebook.  Problem is you can't attach the links (I can't, might be operator error).  

Have fun shopping!  Looks like a couple of those grinders a close to you and a pretty good deal.

Bruce


----------



## BGHansen

wachuko said:


> I just realized that this is A36 steel... I hope that is not a big issue for the jaws.  Wished I had paid attention and gotten some better material for the jaws.  Or is this okay for this use??


You should be fine according to Google.  A36 is close to 1018 steel; hot-rolled instead of cold-rolled.

Bruce


----------



## DavieJ75

I so want to make one of these float locks. How many times it would be nice to have a part locked down quick and easy, instead of using all kinds of things at hand to hold stuff down, mostly my hands. Its going on my list maybe in the winter. I still have to complete some long term projects this summer. If you haven't yet, have a look at Quins blondihacks youtube channel. She has a whole series of making one of these and there is some corrections not on the drawings.


----------



## wachuko

DavieJ75 said:


> I so want to make one of these float locks. How many times it would be nice to have a part locked down quick and easy, instead of using all kinds of things at hand to hold stuff down, mostly my hands. Its going on my list maybe in the winter. I still have to complete some long term projects this summer. If you haven't yet, have a look at Quins blondihacks youtube channel. She has a whole series of making one of these and there is some corrections not on the drawings.


Thank you.  I did watch her video series on this one as well.  She also made a different handle for it.



			https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY67-4BrEae8d7Z7jr1beP5e-lJRjfXsJ


----------



## tjb

wachuko said:


> I think that they have not made any lately because they can't find the torch


Post their email addresses.  We'll tell them where it is.


----------



## tjb

BGHansen said:


> I use the site www.searchtempest.com for CL ads.  It also lists eBay and Amazon at the bottom.  The search engine lets you put in a location, max driving distance, etc.
> 
> I had to sign up for Facebook at work when our GM assembly plant was shut down for COVID a couple of years ago.  That was our plant leadership's communication method during the down time.  Facebook Marketplace is like CL but on Facebook.  Problem is you can't attach the links (I can't, might be operator error).
> 
> Have fun shopping!  Looks like a couple of those grinders a close to you and a pretty good deal.
> 
> Bruce


Well, now you've motivated me.  I think my first call will be to a machinist maintenance guru I spoke with a couple of years ago.  He had a very nice surface grinder that he contemplated selling me but just didn't want to part with it.  He doesn't use it; he just didn't want to sell it.  What I like about his equipment (I've bought a hydraulic press and a 12" rotary table from him) is he KNOWS what he's looking at and whether it's a keeper or junk.  And he's straight up honest.  If he says it's good, it's good.  If it's junk, he won't even end up with it - much less, try to sell it.

If that doesn't work out, the shopping begins anew.  I'm sure my wife will want to text you to personally thank you.

Regards


----------



## davek181

Again not a major project, rather a small need in the shop.  Mechanic was replacing the rear emergency brake springs in a Volvo wagon.  They use a set of small brake shoes inside of a small drum formed inside of the rear disk and hold them on with weird springs. 

There is a special tool for removal and installation pictured in the service manual but we didn't have it.  Between two techs they managed to fight to originals off with needlenose pliers and screwdrivers.  While they were doing that I quickly spun down a shaft and milled a slot in it similar to the picture in the manual.  The factory tool had a handle on it like a screwdriver, but there is not much twist involved more just compressing the spring against the shoe and hooking the end in the backing plate so I didn't get too fancy on a possible one time tool.

Time involved was minimal as you can imagine but the time saving is immeasurable.  Just one more reason to justify having a lathe and mill on premises, as if I really needed justification.  It is so handy to be able to spin out a tool in minutes from scrap metal rather than disable a car while you air freight one in or screw up the new spring installing them.  When used it took less than 5 seconds to install each new spring.  I consider that a success.

I used the term scrap metal wrongly in the previous paragraph.  It is actually neglected metal that has not found it's purpose yet.


----------



## lordbeezer

Finished up a cooker for a guy that wanted different design elements. Removable drum. Racks high and low for wood/charcoal. Wants a stand made later to mount cooker on. Gonna be a little heavy with extra racks inside.


----------



## 682bear

Today I used a piece of nylon and a piece of Delrin, both left over from other projects, and made a mount for a dashcam to go in my truck...










It doesn't actually fasten down... it just sits in a pocket on the dash. The nylon 'base' is cut to fit the pocket so it can't move around.

-Bear


----------



## AGCB97

DavieJ75 said:


> I so want to make one of these float locks. How many times it would be nice to have a part locked down quick and easy...


I made one of the float lock vises but don't use it too often. Made from modified pipe clamp.



I attached plywood to the top of the table on my small drill press so can drill anywhere w/o poking holes in table.



 Also put plywood on bottom of table so you can clamp anywhere w/o interference from ribs etc. 



 Then just use a welders locking (visegrip type) clamp. Either clamp work piece directly to table or clamp drill press vise to table.  Also makes it easy to align to marks. Works for me!



On the big drill press I always either use the big vise bolted to T-slot table or the float lock which attaches where the brush bottle is.


Aaron


----------



## wachuko

That is pretty cool Aaron!! @AGCB97  .  I am doing mine to learn along the way, and then have a good vise for my drill press.  The ability to move it around and lock it down looks to be much better than the one I have now... there is always something I want to drill and can't get the current vise just in the right spot...

More progress on mine... finished the end piece...


----------



## NCjeeper

A good friend whipped out the handle on his cnc mill and anodized it. I just had to bore out the holes and press in 3/4 sockets to fit my vises. The socket on the right is an old USA made craftsman. The one on the left is a Harbor Freight Pittsburg. Boy big difference in quality and length of splines.


----------



## DavidR8

It’s not metal but at least it’s surrounded by metal! 
Made the case for the drawers under my new mill stand. 
Will have four 24” deep by 23” wide  drawers with full overlay drawer fronts.


----------



## NCjeeper

My wife wanted a drink holder for when she is outside on the porch. I have made a few of these and they are handy. I just use scrap stuff.


----------



## woodchucker

I made my adapter after much thinking about it. Cut it today.
I need to cut 3 keyways...   
The woodruff key in my screw is in the wrong spot and would require a long, long keyslot in the new adaptor, if I put the woodruff key closer to the powerfeed, then it avoids a long twisting moment arm, and it makes my internal key slot short on my adaptor, a plus, and it winds up in a spot where there is a lot more meat on the metal.  I also have to do an external key slot , I'm thinking for a regular key for the brass geared drive. 
And I don't have a 1/8 regular key, so I may resize a 1/4 " key to 1/8.. I looked at getting one around here, no one has 1/8.. so it just makes sense to modify a 1/4.
I know it's a shaky pic.
I'm going to shrink fit the bearing on the second step.
I also have to make an extension so I can put my handle on, it will thread on, and be pinned.  I was going for as snug a fit as I could get, and I nailed it. It just slips on, not a bit of wiggle.


----------



## woodchucker

struggling to figure out how to support the lead screw while I mill the woodruff key slot.


----------



## Eyerelief

I would think a 5C spindexer or 5c square collet holder would work.  Support the rest of the screw sticking out the back with a whatchama collet


----------



## Doug Gray

Suport tail end with adjustable parallel?


----------



## woodchucker

Not enough room under there. I am using the T slot to keep it aligned. It's also the cutting end that needs support. The screw is 2 heights removed from the cut. so a large unsupported area.

@Eyerelief notice I don't have a screw in my mill, it's on the table, I can't run back and forth for alignment with an indicator.

Edit: I guess I could just stick brass shims underneath but I am worried about it being pressed down by the clamp, or moving... wish I had made a V block support that thin.


----------



## extropic

woodchucker said:


> Not enough room under there. I am using the T slot to keep it aligned. It's also the cutting end that needs support. The screw is 2 heights removed from the cut. so a large unsupported area.
> 
> @Eyerelief notice I don't have a screw in my mill, it's on the table, I can't run back and forth for alignment with an indicator.
> 
> Edit: I guess I could just stick brass shims underneath but I am worried about it being pressed down by the clamp, or moving... wish I had made a V block support that thin.


For the cut, I don't think it matters if the shaft is a few degrees from parallel w/ X. You're using a Woodruff Key cutter (side cut) right? It's a radial feature. No X motion required. Support the shaft on V blocks, set the cutter to the proper Z height and move Y to the correct depth.


----------



## woodchucker

Doug Gray said:


> Suport tail end with adjustable parallel?


doh... You get the award.. That did it. I didn't see it at first, but your were right, sticking the parallel in the t slot gave it enough room to support the rod, then clamp over it... I just didn't think of using the slot, was thinking across.  Thanks..


----------



## f350ca

Finished the shed this morning.







Then my buddy dropped off Hemlock, White Oak and pine logs from where he's building a new shop. Interesting style log truck lol







I think she's thinking, I'll steal these sticks when he's not watching.

Greg


----------



## woodchucker

f350ca said:


> Finished the shed this morning.
> View attachment 408931
> 
> 
> View attachment 408932
> 
> 
> 
> Then my buddy dropped off Hemlock, White Oak and pine logs from where he's building a new shop. Interesting style log truck lol
> 
> View attachment 408933
> 
> 
> View attachment 408934
> 
> 
> I think she's thinking, I'll steal these sticks when he's not watching.
> 
> Greg


wow, Lucy looks full grown.   I'll bet she can handle one of those "STICKS".   The barn/shed looks great.
Hemlock? I thought Hemlock were small trunks.


----------



## f350ca

Yah she's growing but skinny as a rake, never stops, so burns off everything she eats.
The largest logs are the Hemlock, pretty much the same as Douglas Fir from the west coast. Quite rot resistant and strong.

Greg


----------



## DavidR8

Made the drawers for the mill base.
Still need to spray some finish on them but I had to get them out of the way so figured they might as well go where they belong


----------



## woodchucker

Well, thanks to Doug Gray, I took another look and realized I was an idiot. I could do as he said and put a parallel in, just use the slot dummy.
to make sure I wasn't moving the screw, I put an indicator on the end and kept adjusting the parallel until no movement while clamping down.
Thanks Doug.Anyway got the woodruff slot cut.. then proceeded to use my lathe to cut the key slot on the adaptor. Man it took nearly 2 hours. The boring bar I was using kept deflecting because of the small 7/16 bore. I had made a cutter on my surface grinder, gave myself 2 degrees of relief on the sides, and 10 at the cutting edge. Finally I realized that every few strokes I needed to touch up the tip and that helped. I was now getting some curls.
Had dinner, and some Vodka , went back down to cleanup and started to setup for the last key slot... had to stop and realize too many vodkas to be machining. Even though I set the machine up, I realized I was not prepared to center the end mill for a regular key... so back to putting some of the tools back....
Some good progress though. I feel good about it. 

I'll probably create a thread just for 8520 users to look up if one doesn't already exist.
It's a lot more work than I thought it would be, but none of it is too bad. Just really trying to be careful not to introduce any slop, and to have everything line up nicely.


----------



## lordbeezer

I made a pile of parts out of a Landice L7 treadmill. Manual says dc motor is 4 hp. Fired up motor with a dc controller I got with a Sheldon lathe few year’s ago. About 50-60 pounds of extrusion aluminum. Pile of nuts and bolts. Big rollers and shafts.


----------



## matthewsx

NCjeeper said:


> My wife wanted a drink holder for when she is outside on the porch. I have made a few of these and they are handy. I just use scrap stuff.
> View attachment 408807
> 
> View attachment 408808


Great idea, I just replaced the rear disks on my '04 Cadillac SRX and was wondering what to do with the old ones....

John


----------



## woodchucker

*Need help.*. if one of you has instructions for a Servo or Align , can you look up what they say about how to adjust the lash on the brass gear? I have got it so that I have just one slim shim past tight. Just so the brass gear just dislodges from full depth engagement.

So I cleaned the parts in cleaner, then heated the bearing on a small hot plate until it reached about 172. It dropped on and in a few minutes was tight.  The unit does work well at low power. I was worried, but I can put a lot of grip on the brass gear while it's running at slow and I can't stop or slow it.   

One more thing to do, make an extension to the shaft that will allow a handle, and keep the whole thing tightened up.

Me likes... especially the rapid feed..


----------



## JimDawson

Quick release hinges for a truck box door.

One of the product lines that we sell is flat beds and related custom storage boxes for truck campers.  We have the boxes custom built to fit various camper/bed/truck combinations.  https://www.stablecamper.com/copy-of-truck-camper-bed-kits

We are developing a new line of storage box that is a ''false wall'', in other words, the camper body becomes the inner wall in the box.  According to our market research there is a market for this, so if the customers want it, we'll build it. 

This post is specifically about the quick release hinge pins that we made yesterday.

Door



End Cap




Quick Release Assy




Plunger cut away view



Plunger pins are 303 SS, the body is bronze, the knobs are 6061 aluminum, and the screw is SS.  We chose bronze for the body to try to prevent corrosion in the works since this is going to be somewhat exposed to the elements.  We also built a set of these in aluminum that we'll have anodized and test those.  The knobs were built earlier on the CNC lathe, and I hand built the pins on the manual lathe.  These are going into a customer box set today.



Now for the fun part, a rare video of our Hardinge CNC lathe in action.  Because we are turning bronze, we can get away without coolant and get a good video.  Since this is a prototype run and I only needed 8 parts, I didn't optimize the tool paths which would speed things up dramatically.  Run time on these is 4 minutes, I could probably get the run time under 3 minutes in real production.


----------



## wachuko

I do not even know why I bother with the Grizzly G0704.... doing everything on the Wells-Index is so much easier!  Once we move to Ocala and all the machines are in one place, I will be getting rid of the Grizzly G0704....  The small lathe is another thing... that one I will still keep.   But if I find an old small lathe to replace it with, it too will be gone.  I still have the hots for an old lathe (something like a South Bend 10, 9" Model A... or an Atlas)... but I digress....

Made some progress with the float locking vise...















EDIT: All the holes for the pins are done… good thing because I was running out of 1/8” drill bits…


----------



## JimDawson

Continuing from my post above, here are the boxes installed on the customer truck.  https://www.hobby-machinist.com/thr...you-make-in-your-shop-today.67833/post-953849


----------



## extropic

@JimDawson 

They need serious pick-ups in AK. Looking good.

So, the long doors come off with the quick release hinge pins (from the other thread)?
How are the rear-most corner bits mounted to the bed? What I'm wondering is whether or not it's easy to return it to a flat bed when the camper is off.


----------



## wachuko

Leave it to me to start with a vise that I would use on the left size and now forced to use it on the right side 

Oh... and I added an oil port...   I second guessed myself and ended up drilling a hole without the need for it...




Then I proceeded to make the 3/8" slot.... Did I mark the correct side where I needed to make it???? NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!  And never mind that I did not check that the parallels were seated correctly.... @#%#$%#$




So now I have to use it on the right side... Or make new jaws... Or make the slot on both sides... or.... or....







And now the wife is asking me why there are metal chips inside the house .... that is it!  I am getting a beer and then some wine...  I am done for the day...


----------



## DavidR8

Whipped up a dust collection fitting for my new bandsaw.
Leftover shop vac attachment, three rare earth magnets, a cut down 3/8 bolt (that's the metal work part 
) some scrap ply and epoxy.
I didn't take a pic but I epoxied the magets into the end of the shop vac attachment so it would stick to the underside of the table.
Works fantastic!
Pics tell the story.


----------



## woodchucker

wachuko said:


> Leave it to me to start with a vise that I would use on the left size and now forced to use it on the right side
> 
> Oh... and I added an oil port...   I second guessed myself and ended up drilling a hole without the need for it...
> 
> View attachment 409084
> 
> 
> Then I proceeded to make the 3/8" slot.... Did I mark the correct side where I needed to make it???? NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!  And never mind that I did not check that the parallels were seated correctly.... @#%#$%#$
> 
> View attachment 409085
> 
> 
> So now I have to use it on the right side... Or make new jaws... Or make the slot on both sides... or.... or....
> 
> View attachment 409086
> 
> 
> View attachment 409087
> 
> 
> I am getting a beer and then some wine... I am done for the day...


That's a needed oil port. Looks good don't sweat it.


----------



## jwmelvin

DavidR8 said:


> Whipped up a dust collection fitting for my new bandsaw.



I really like this, thanks for sharing.


----------



## jwmelvin

wachuko said:


> So now I have to use it on the right side... Or make new jaws... Or make the slot on both sides... or.... or....



I agree with [mention]woodchucker [/mention] it looks great. I wouldn’t worry about the extra hole or slot. You may make it reversible so it could work from lady or right, down the road.


----------



## JimDawson

extropic said:


> @JimDawson
> 
> They need serious pick-ups in AK. Looking good.
> 
> So, the long doors come off with the quick release hinge pins (from the other thread)?
> How are the rear-most corner bits mounted to the bed? What I'm wondering is whether or not it's easy to return it to a flat bed when the camper is off.



The corners are screwed down to the bed.  While it can be returned to a complete flat bed, it does require a bit of work, maybe about 10 minutes or so.

The full boxes we sell have 4 bolts that are screwed into rivet nuts installed in the bed.  Those boxes have handles on either end so 2 adults can lift them off.

We're working on a ''universal'' tailgate to use when needed.  Not sure what that is going to look like, but it will be light duty and easily removable.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Nothing particularly impressive, but I finally got round to organizing my countersinks and counterbores as I picked up quite a few new ones in that auction lot
	

		
			
		

		
	




	

		
			
		

		
	
got a few bits of that countertop left so I'll do the same for a few other bits'n'pieces today


----------



## Just for fun

Nice collection!


----------



## wachuko

Yeah baby!!




Now to work on the mounting block and the bracket...


----------



## DavidR8

Put the drawer handles on and made the top for the mill base. 
Very pleased with how this came together.


----------



## Just for fun

DavidR8 said:


> Put the drawer handles on and made the top for the mill base.
> Very pleased with how this came together.



Looks real good!  I like your little plastic containers, where did you get those at?


----------



## DavidR8

Just for fun said:


> Looks real good! I like your little plastic containers, where did you get those at?



Hah! Ok we like feta cheese and we buy it in these little tubs. I probably have 25 or so.


----------



## wachuko

What do you guys buy, what type of material, that does not require so much work?  For example, this one is A36 - bought a 12" long piece.  1"x1-1/4"...  But nothing is straight...




This is taking .0300" off that side and I stopped




So after taking the least amount of material to get it straight... my 1.5"x1"x1.25" ends up being 1.5"x0.99"x1.21"  and still you can see areas that are deeper... I just did not wanted to continue removing material...








For this vise block base project, doubt it would be an issue... but for work that requires more precision, do you buy material that is made to exact dimensions or every time you have to buy larger and machine to specificiations?  I am talking about common sizes 1"x1.25" in this case,  for example....

If, for other projects, I can buy material that does not require machining in its W and H (length I know I have to cut to size)... that would be much, much better that wasting material machining down to size...   Makes sense??

Anywho... made the holes...


----------



## matthewsx

wachuko said:


> What do you guys buy, what type of material, that does not require so much work?  For example, this one is A36 - bought a 12" long piece.  1"x1-1/4"...  But nothing is straight...
> 
> View attachment 409270
> 
> 
> This is taking .0300" off that side and I stopped
> 
> View attachment 409271
> 
> 
> So after taking the least amount of material to get it straight... my 1.5"x1"x1.25" ends up being 1.5"x0.99"x1.21"  and still you can see areas that are deeper... I just did not wanted to continue removing material...
> 
> View attachment 409272
> 
> View attachment 409273
> 
> View attachment 409274
> 
> 
> For this vise block base project, doubt it would be an issue... but for work that requires more precision, do you buy material that is made to exact dimensions or every time you have to buy larger and machine to specificiations?  I am talking about common sizes 1"x1.25" in this case,  for example....
> 
> If, for other projects, I can buy material that does not require machining in its W and H (length I know I have to cut to size)... that would be much, much better that wasting material machining down to size...   Makes sense??


When I need something precise I order tight tolerance stock. Costs more but avoids what you're having to do.









						McMaster-Carr
					

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.




					www.mcmaster.com
				




John


----------



## wachuko

matthewsx said:


> When I need something precise I order tight tolerance stock. Costs more but avoids what you're having to do.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> McMaster-Carr
> 
> 
> McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.mcmaster.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> John


I see what you mean... a lot more expensive...   thank you!


----------



## Boswell

`I generally by material that is larger in every dimension that what I need for what I am making to allow for me to square it up or turn it down to what is needed. In other words, I have made my peace with the fact that I will need to remove material in order to clean up the stock for use.


----------



## extropic

@wachuko

Buy standard size material and design your parts small enough to allow for cleanup (if cleanup is required).

You bought A36 (hot rolled) material. Hot rolled material has the worst mill finish, including slag, so you wanted to clean it up.
If you had chosen 1018 or 12L14 (cold finished) you might have just accepted the mill finish.


----------



## Badabinski

My Father-in-law bought a remanufactured razor from the 1940s and decided to pick up a stand for it and a brush at the same time. The stand ended up being pretty wobbly and easy to knock over, so I offered to make a metal base for it. I used a Shrum Solutions Tri-Fly face mill with some super sharp positive rake inserts for aluminum on 316 stainless steel, then gave the edges a heavy chamfer. I didn't do any polishing, everything you see is the finish I got off of the mill. I didn't want to deal with drilling 316, so I just superglued the base onto the stand. I think it turned out pretty well!


----------



## Just for fun

DavidR8 said:


> Hah! Ok we like feta cheese and we buy it in these little tubs. I probably have 25 or so.



Thanks... Good idea!


----------



## wachuko

Badabinski said:


> My Father-in-law bought a remanufactured razor from the 1940s and decided to pick up a stand for it and a brush at the same time. The stand ended up being pretty wobbly and easy to knock over, so I offered to make a metal base for it. I used a Shrum Solutions Tri-Fly face mill with some super sharp positive rake inserts for aluminum on 316 stainless steel, then gave the edges a heavy chamfer. I didn't do any polishing, everything you see is the finish I got off of the mill. I didn't want to deal with drilling 316, so I just superglued the base onto the stand. I think it turned out pretty well!
> View attachment 409302
> 
> View attachment 409298
> 
> 
> View attachment 409299
> 
> View attachment 409300


That came out looking great!

I seldom use mine because how cumbersome the base is.... never occurred to me to just make my own... Add another project to the list!


----------



## wachuko

Lock everything, lock everything... goodness gracious... 

So I am measuring and using the DRO to get me to where I need to drill the hole for cutting one part of the mount for the vise... and kept wondering why the measurements where different... X is lock... Y is lock... what is going on!!??  Well... part on the vise was not tighten... Good thing I was just measuring and double checking my work...

Hole made and since the bandsaw is at the other house, taking with me to cut over there...


----------



## Larry42

macardoso said:


> SDM table


Yes, very handy BUT I have to write down all the settings and reference them to the drawing. My DRO has 199 SDM locations available. Don't think I've ever used more about 20 of them for one project.


----------



## wachuko

The guy that invented DRO and mounting them on milling machines... is right up there with the one that invented the A/C...  I love playing with the DRO... and mine is old and does not have a single function... I can't wait to upgrade a modern unit.

Oh, and have I told you that I just like tools a lot!

Anyway... the process is that I mark the part... but then I use the DRO to check if my marks are spot on... so I get to play with the edge finder then lock the Y axis... zero X... move 0.3125" and spot on my mark.... rinse and repeat... 

This is just so much fun... and I don't care what I am making folks... it is the process that I enjoy...  So much to learn!!!! 

Anyway, apologies, this is all very exiting for me... 

Plate drilled... I forgot the 3/8"-16 tap and the countersink drill bit... so taking it all back to Orlando for that...


----------



## Winegrower

I like my old Kalamazoo 9"x16" horizontal saw.   It cuts anything I've ever tried in it, and it was an old blade when I got it 15 years ago.    Yesterday I was kind of stumped for what to do, so I thought about things that were sub-optimal or annoying in the shop.   Near the top is the movable jaw on the saw...mostly I cut short pieces, and I need to add a stop on the far side of the vise so it will tighten without tilting.   It normally takes a bit to locate some scrap about the right length.

There was a thread awhile ago with some solutions to a quick adjustable stop, but none seemed like the right and/or easy thing to do.   I did not want to drill holes in the vise jaws, or elsewhere on the saw, just because it was awkward to get at.   An unusual feature is that the fixed jaw is significantly higher than the movable jaw, so I built a stop to just sit over the back jaw and hold a piece of 1/2-13 all thread (because I have lots of that for mill hold-downs).   I drilled and tapped for the all thread, then sawed it down the middle, so the top was removable.   I added a 1/4-20 stud, and a nut to keep the top in place during high force applications, though it seems to stay on pretty well without the nut.

It's pretty quick to adjust, lift the top, move the all thread, top back on.   Nut is really optional.   

And it's easy to make.


----------



## wachuko

Took it as far as I can here… 1/4”-20 threads done… Hex bolts just to test, need to get correct ones…

5/16” hole made for 3/8 tap


----------



## finsruskw

Oversize shoulder bolt for worn deck hangers on a Cub with the monster 60" Haban deck.
Holes are hogged out, making new ones to fit the oversize holes.
Only took me the better part of a day and finally succeeded on the 3rd try!! Oh well!!
for a 3/4" wrench.
Still not perfect, you can tell by the flats! But I have 3 more to make starting with 7/8" round stock.


----------



## woodchucker

finsruskw said:


> Oversize shoulder bolt for worn deck hangers on a Cub with the monster 60" Haban deck.
> Holes are hogged out, making new ones to fit the oversize holes.
> Only took me the better part of a day and finally succeeded on the 3rd try!! Oh well!!
> for a 3/4" wrench.
> Still not perfect, you can tell by the flats! But I have 3 more to make starting with 7/8" round stock.


Did you harden it?  I made something similar for a reclining chair for my son. it was pop-pops before he passed.  damn sawed thru. So the second one was 4140, hardened. It's been good.


----------



## woodchucker

So I finished off the power feed install yesterday, the cut off switch is installed.
I had a problem that is wierd. I had to transfer a hole pattern to the bent metal bracket, and also to add a block in front to hold the screw and oiler. I was planning on putting the pins in the block but wound up not needing them.
soI was sweating that, and finally realized, make the block first, glue with C/A the original block to the new block, transfer punch them in case... and drill them thru the old block. This worked well. Then do the same to the metal bracket. This popped off during the second hole due to the heat. But no problem I have the transfer marks. I double check and everything looks lined up.. 
Nothing lines up. The metal bracket, the aluminum block... Everything is off by a few thou. The AL block is out even though it was drilled through the old block..  Due to the bend in the bracket, I needed the smaller AL block so I could transfer. The original block is counter sunk for the socket head cap, so only one side is valid for an accurate marking, which is why I needed the AL Block.  A little hand filing fixed things up.. but quite agravating not being able to copy the holes over easily.

Original block.


New blocks and bracket.


----------



## Eyerelief

woodchucker said:


> So I finished off the power feed install yesterday, the cut off switch is installed.....


Looks like you were working it tight quarters.  Turned out nice.  Love it when a plan comes together..............


----------



## finsruskw

woodchucker said:


> Did you harden it?  I made something similar for a reclining chair for my son. it was pop-pops before he passed.  damn sawed thru. So the second one was 4140, hardened. It's been good.


Would if I knew how!
Care to enlighten me??
Anyone??


----------



## woodchucker

Eyerelief said:


> Looks like you were working it tight quarters.  Turned out nice.  Love it when a plan comes together..............


I didn't work on it there, just installed it there.  It worked, but damn if I can figure out why it almost didn't.


----------



## woodchucker

finsruskw said:


> Would if I knew how!
> Care to enlighten me??
> Anyone??


I'm no expert when it comes to hardening. I heated it cherry red with a mapp torch.. let it stay there for a while. Then quenched in motor oil. Then cleaned it up so it was silvery again.. Then switched to propane and slowly brought it up to a straw color.  Right or wrong, it's been surviving the sawing action...  First one didn't last long at all.. I was surprised..


----------



## finsruskw

Oxy/acyt work just as well??
You gotta do it twice then??


----------



## woodchucker

finsruskw said:


> Oxy/acyt work just as well??
> You gotta do it twice then??


yea, oa is fine.
well if you don't it's brittle, you have to temper it so it's not glass hard. The longer you heat soak it the better. Real heat treatment is lengthy in an oven, but this is how we do it w/out a heat treat oven.


----------



## wachuko

Got the 4 Flute, 90 Degrees Profile Angle carbide end mill and made the cut missing…

So now the vise milling work is done… will take it apart and paint…

On to finishing the base/mount…




Edit: To avoid a post... this one I painted hammered green... I will use it on the bigger drill press.  I will make a second one that I will paint to match the Walter-Turner drill press...


----------



## DavidR8

wachuko said:


> View attachment 409433
> 
> Got the 4 Flute, 90 Degrees Profile Angle carbide end mill and made the cut missing…
> 
> So now the vise milling work is done… will take it apart and paint…
> 
> On to finishing the base…


Looks awesome!


----------



## pontiac428

@wachuko, if you dimensioned the jaws and clamp block base "right", you should be able to use the vise in the vertical position as well!  All it takes is to bore the holes with the same distance from edge to center on the jaws for the left, right, and back edges.  With mine, it's super rigid in vertical.  You can make another v-notch running centered along the jaws and another parallel cut to make the position more useful still.


----------



## wachuko

pontiac428 said:


> @wachuko, if you dimensioned the jaws and clamp block base "right", you should be able to use the vise in the vertical position as well!  All it takes is to bore the holes with the same distance from edge to center on the jaws for the left, right, and back edges.  With mine, it's super rigid in vertical.  You can make another v-notch running centered along the jaws and another parallel cut to make the position more useful still.


Sweet! Will do that as well.  Thank you!


----------



## Brento

This week i ended up doing the job for a friend of mine after he got the first part to test fit. Here are pictures.


----------



## finsruskw

I give up...
What is it??


----------



## Brento

@finsruskw they are little decor inserts for after market rims on a Jeep Wrangler. They are normally plastic christmas tree clips but they fall out and then the rim looks bad. Customer wanted 10 of them. There is 9 there bc i sent him one already to test fit.


----------



## woodchucker

@Brento nice job.. That clausing, it has the ends for the table.. are they on both sides?  is that an 8530?
I like the turret stop on the SB. nice find. When doing prod work, that can come in handy. I have thought about replacing my single point stop...


----------



## Brento

@woodchucker yea it is an 8530. The close ins are on both sides. For coolant in the future. I got the turret stop with the Lathe. It takes a bit to set up but it works.  I also got where i can part off good as well. Nice and slow.


----------



## AGCB97

It seems to be easier for me to follow your conversations if you use the 'quote' or 'reply' rather than the @NAME.
Thanks
Aaron


----------



## woodchucker

Brento said:


> @woodchucker yea it is an 8530. The close ins are on both sides. For coolant in the future. I got the turret stop with the Lathe. It takes a bit to set up but it works.  I also got where i can part off good as well. Nice and slow.


I have been using my mist coolant quite a bit lately. as a matter of fact, I have new plumbing to run,  Wish I had those ends.. I 'll have to make them.
I find it to be an advantage over oil. Only on 12L14 or other free machining do I fall back to oil.. Both the ends and turret stop are nice... thanks.


----------



## NCjeeper

I had some down time in the shop so I decided to swap the worn out 12" 3 jaw chuck off of the lathe and put the new one on. In my younger years I would just man handle it off and the new one on. Not anymore. Work smarter not harder. Fork lift to the rescue.





Not bad. About 2.5 thousands run out on the new 12" Gator chuck.


----------



## f350ca

A little while back i posted when I tore this saw apart, sandblasted it yesterday and gave it a custom grey paint job today, Had a half litre of black, added a half litre of white two part urethane. 



Greg


----------



## Boswell

f350ca said:


> A little while back


I'm sure the paint job is great. However I can't keep my eyes off of your bridge crane.


----------



## extropic

Boswell said:


> I'm sure the paint job is great. However I can't keep my eyes off of your bridge crane.



That's exactly what I was thinking.  LOL


----------



## Brento

@woodchucker id like to do mist coolant but it is messy and it isn’t cheap either


----------



## woodchucker

Brento said:


> @woodchucker id like to do mist coolant but it is messy and it isn’t cheap either


ok, I'm not trying to sell you. Oil is great. I just decided that rather than using it for surface grinding only to use it more often. I had been using it on and off, and a few months ago, I started using it more and more.  I like both oil and mist.  When I saw your endcaps, I was surprised. I didn't know clausing had them.


----------



## Brento

I understand. I didnt think you were trying to sell me. I did find a cheaper mister from micromark that at the time was 60$?  I do want coolant for my grinder as well. But that will be a hard pill to swallow.


----------



## NCjeeper

If you go the mister coolant route here is an inexpensive solution. This is what I have hooked up on mine.








						Coolant Mister System Lubrication Spray for Engraving Cooling Sprayer Machine  | eBay
					

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Coolant Mister System Lubrication Spray for Engraving Cooling Sprayer Machine at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!



					www.ebay.com


----------



## Brento

NCjeeper said:


> If you go the mister coolant route here is an inexpensive solution. This is what I have hooked up on mine.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Coolant Mister System Lubrication Spray for Engraving Cooling Sprayer Machine  | eBay
> 
> 
> Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Coolant Mister System Lubrication Spray for Engraving Cooling Sprayer Machine at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
> 
> 
> 
> www.ebay.com


Do you need air for it. What do you use for coolant and how do you hold the coolant or disperse it out if you dont use air.


----------



## NCjeeper

Yep you need air. I use Kool mist 77. I use a 2 liter bottle with a bracket holding it on the side of my grinder.


----------



## Brento

Would a mister be enough to cut stones on a grinder or do you need flood coolant. I dont have air yet should be working on it more this summer. However it isnt going to be a big capacity so idk if air would work the greatest for me or not.


----------



## f350ca

Boswell said:


> I'm sure the paint job is great. However I can't keep my eyes off of your bridge crane.


They sure make life a lot easier. Not heavy duty, I rated them for 1000 pounds. The tracks are simply lag bolted to the upstairs floor joists. The machinery handbook actually has the pull rating for lag bolts into different species of wood. The one over the machinery makes changing lathe chucks doable, and indispensable for loading large stock on the lathe and mill.



The shop sure was a lot whiter back when I took that photo, lol

Greg


----------



## Doug Gray

I had a paying gig come thru the shop. This is an auger drive shaft. 2 7/16" diameter precision ground 1045. Two 21/32" holes thru 90 degrees apart. I do a lot of work with this 2 7/16" shaft so I made up the cradles and indexing system shown. This particular job also had a 5/8" key-way. That is a big ask for my "delicate" mill/drill. Even a 50 thou pass was shivering the timbers of the old Wrong Fu.


----------



## jwmelvin

The engine mount in my car mysteriously had two broken bolts connecting it to the engine and the captive nut in the body was missing where the bolt secured the mount on the other side. I removed the two broken pieces with a left-hand drill bit, silver soldered into an extension:






And for the missing captive nut, I made a plate to sit between two tabs on the back side of the hole, TIG brazed a nut to it, and epoxied it in place, using a string to pull it in and hold it while the epoxy cured:









The ridge on the nut plate was to center it in the hole and prevent epoxy from seeping into the threads. It appears to have been successful; I’ll be reassembling everything today.


----------



## woodchucker

Brento said:


> Would a mister be enough to cut stones on a grinder or do you need flood coolant. I dont have air yet should be working on it more this summer. However it isnt going to be a big capacity so idk if air would work the greatest for me or not.


well no, a mister is not really recommended. I had flood coolant running, but it was a disaster., I made my own aluminum pan to collect things. But I could not find a suitable drain so I machined one.. it did not work, I then created a T bar out of copper for air to enter, it was better, but not great, The coolant was overloading the drain. dialing it back was not working.

So I went the mist route, which is how I was doing things before the flood coolant.I was using a spray bottle. There is a big difference between finish when dry grinding and wet grinding. Wet is much finer. I believe because it keeps it cooler, and lubes it. I could use wax on the wheels, but I am doing the mist.  When I find copper or brass plate at a reasonable price, I will remake the pan and solder in a big drain. I'll make a sub pan for the drain to drain into with another drain, that way the drain hose is not moving back and forth.

Yea I use Kool mist 77.


----------



## mmcmdl

Yesterday I got 2 of the saws out to the front of the garage . Once again , had to move everything to unbury them . I should start up a company and name it Rusty and Dusty Relics . I made one cut on the table saw on a cedar board and of COURSE the wind blew all the sawdust back into the garage .  I need to have the door moved away from the prevailing winds . One more radial arm saw to come up from the other basement and all saws will be here . Another days project .


----------



## jwmelvin

woodchucker said:


> well no, a mister is not really recommended


Why wouldn’t mist work for grinding stones?


----------



## Brento

woodchucker said:


> well no, a mister is not really recommended. I had flood coolant running, but it was a disaster., I made my own aluminum pan to collect things. But I could not find a suitable drain so I machined one.. it did not work, I then created a T bar out of copper for air to enter, it was better, but not great, The coolant was overloading the drain. dialing it back was not working.
> 
> So I went the mist route, which is how I was doing things before the flood coolant.I was using a spray bottle. There is a big difference between finish when dry grinding and wet grinding. Wet is much finer. I believe because it keeps it cooler, and lubes it. I could use wax on the wheels, but I am doing the mist.  When I find copper or brass plate at a reasonable price, I will remake the pan and solder in a big drain. I'll make a sub pan for the drain to drain into with another drain, that way the drain hose is not moving back and forth.
> 
> Yea I use Kool mist 77.


My grinder has a hole for the coolant to go as well but that is going to be a mess. Id like to find the bases the bolt onto these tables but idk where to goto even find them. For the mill i think the end caps would be good if i wanted coolant.


----------



## mmcmdl

Long forgotten things you find in gardens . Already made .  

Pit beef rods , unfinished wind chime project , un-known camp things . Gotta love good stainless for not rusting for years and years .


----------



## mmcmdl

Another bucket emptied on the garage floor . Pic to come . Lots of good lathe tools etc . in there . What I'm planning .......take them down the basement and arrange everything together that goes together , then sell the piles as lots . This next bucket will be a nut buster !   Making progress slowly but surely . Oh , and scrap some stuff out , not burying anything any more !


----------



## mmcmdl

Couple ( 1000 ) more drills and reamers to add to the basement pile . I'm starting to hate buckets .


----------



## Dabbler

I have to clean my shop like this.  I can barely walk in there right now.


----------



## woodchucker

well, I finished my powerfeed install with the final piece of the puzzle.
My table lock didn't quite fit anymore.
I toyed with making a regular handle fatter on the end then the middle like the original. But opted for the type I put on my quill lock.
Overall, I'm happy with it. I wish the bluing came out blacker, like the original, but it looks good with the constrast, at least my opinion.


----------



## davek181

Again a small project round the homestead.  My mower was getting very noisy when I engaged the blades, so I dropped the deck to take a look.  I checked the spindles which were quiet when spinning.  I had rebuilt all 3 of them a few years back and they were still fine.  I found the noise in the belt tensioner idler wheel.  I proceeded to find one locally and online and there were so many variations it got ridiculous.  
I did find a bearing but the pulley was two halves spot welded together to hold the bearing.  So I took it to the lathe and carefully cut off the part that holds the bearing on one side to get it out. I did not want to drill the spotwelds and have to try to get the two halves to run true again.  I recessed the bearing hole in the pulley a little deeper to make up for the material I had cut away on the other side.  I then installed the bearing and carefully welded the retainer back on.  It was a case of spot weld a little, let it cool, and repeat so as not to cook the new bearing seal.  After the welding was done I chucked it back up in the lathe to smooth out my embarrassing looking welds.   

As is my norm, I have no before or during shots, but here is shot of the completed project. All in all it cost me a bearing and a little time and it was completed in a mornings work/play.  I wonder what the rest of the world does when stuff breaks and you can't get replacement parts easy.


----------



## Just for fun

A little orchard sprayer maintaince.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Made another couples of organizers for my mill tooling, though realized afterwards that I'd forgotten holes for some boring bars 


	

		
			
		

		
	
  and today, instead of sitting through tooling for people like I said I would, a friend came round with a set of drums off a Fairlane 500 (Torino) that needed cleaning up. Too big for my SB9 by far and almost too big for my mill. Got to use my new boring head with a 3/4" solid carbide bar. Took a while but they came out ok and my friend was happy!


----------



## woodchucker

Before dinner I hopped downstairs and decided to create a bunch of  arbors for my collets.
when I made the handle for the table lock in #6666 above, I took a drop, drilled /threaded it for 10-32 so I could hold the part in my collet while machining it. I have made  a bunch of these over the years and just toss em when done. well b4 dinner I said enough of that. I realized just put another size on the other end so I put 10-24, then I grabbed another small drop and made 8-32 and 6-32.. next time I'm in the shop I'll make 1/4 -20, 5/16-18  and 3/8-16.. I'll make a block of wood to put them in so I don't keep making the same thing over and over.

should have done this long ago.


----------



## wachuko

Almost there…


----------



## mattthemuppet2

That is really slick!


----------



## WobblyHand

wachuko said:


> Almost there…
> 
> View attachment 409814
> 
> 
> View attachment 409815


Looks terrific!  Time for the roll pins to go in and reclaim your bag of drill bits!


----------



## wachuko

WobblyHand said:


> Looks terrific!  Time for the roll pins to go in and reclaim your bag of drill bits!


Thank you!  Yes, removing drill bits and installing roll pins tomorrow… Only thing left to do is the bolts that go on the c-clamp and the locking block…

But tested with regular bolts and it is working!



mattthemuppet2 said:


> That is really slick!



Thank you!  Feels good to see it actually working , lol… builds my confidence to tackle some of the kits that I have and did not wanted to start until I learned my way aroud the lathe and the mill…

Well, not starting any of the kits just yet… still need to practice more…and work smarter… Made several mistakes with this one that did not impacted the final product… but I learned what to look out for…


----------



## Brento

wachuko said:


> Thank you!  Yes, removing drill bits and installing roll pins tomorrow… Only thing left to do is the bolts that go on the c-clamp and the locking block…
> 
> But tested with regular bolts and it is working!
> 
> 
> 
> Thank you!  Feels good to see it actually working , lol… builds my confidence to tackle some of the kits that I have and did not wanted to start until I learned my way aroud the lathe and the mill…
> 
> Well, not starting any of the kits just yet… still need to practice more…and work smarter… Made several mistakes with this one that did not impacted the final product… but I learned what to look out for…


What kits do you have?


----------



## Doug Gray

I spent the afternoon cutting up stock for my kits. Not my favorite shop activity but there is a Zen state to be reached.  I worked my trusty old band saw so hard I broke  a spring (or some damn thing).  . My band saw is a "Power Fist" from Princess Auto, (think Harbor Freight but less quality ha ha). I shouldn't complain she has done pretty well for the last 12-16 years. Does anybody have a source for these springs that put tension on the "head assembly" of as horizontal band saw?


----------



## Hawkeye

Lordco usually has a wall of various springs. Take the pieces in with you and find something as close as you can.


----------



## Dabbler

Prinncess Auto sell ssprings as spare parts fo the hydraulic presses, they might be the right length.  They also stock parts for the H band saws, but they may/may not have springs...


----------



## wachuko

Brento said:


> What kits do you have?


Oh man… several…

A few from MLA Toolbox - http://mlatoolbox.com/MLA-13.html

Some from here: http://www.hemingwaykits.com/

Several from our forum member- @Doug Gray









						Kits For The Home Shop Machinist/Tinkerer
					

Kits for the home shop machinist. Hi my name is Doug Gray thanks for stopping by my shop. I'm am the sole proprietor of D. Gray Drafting and Design. I lovingly create all the kits you see here in my shop. Everything from creating the drawing to assembling all the materials and packaging them up...



					d-gray-drafting-and-design.myshopify.com
				




And there is the Acute Sharpening System from Eccentric Engineering - I finished the table but still have the rest to finish…. And have not done so because that work arm looks a bit intimidating… I am afraid to mess up a part… I will tackle it in a few months…



			Acute Sharpening System
		


Pretty sure I am forgetting something…


----------



## Brento

What kits from Hemmingway did you get? Ive debated the rotary broach. I have seen the acute sharpening system but now that i have a surface grinder i feel i dont need that anymore. Im good using my hands making cutters but im going to make Mr. Petes south bend cutter blocks he just did on YouTube and use them on the surface grinder bc why not!


----------



## wachuko

Brento said:


> What kits from Hemmingway did you get? Ive debated the rotary broach. I have seen the acute sharpening system but now that i have a surface grinder i feel i dont need that anymore. Im good using my hands making cutters but im going to make Mr. Petes south bend cutter blocks he just did on YouTube and use them on the surface grinder bc why not!


Both knurling kits…






						Knurling Tools - hemingwaykits.com
					

Unique projects for the small workshop owner. Please browse our Toolroom and Engine Bay for our latest project kits.



					www.hemingwaykits.com


----------



## finsruskw

Made new clearance lamp brackets for my Aluma trailer that had them OEM mounted ON TOP of the darn fenders!!
Both had been broken TWICE before I bought it used a few years ago.
Finally got around to relocating them where they should have been in the first place.
The plate on top covers several holes that were used for the other mounts, only bits and pieces of which were left.
And no, it's not crooked, just a bad camera angle!


----------



## JRaut

Brento said:


> What kits from Hemmingway did you get? Ive debated the rotary broach. I have seen the acute sharpening system but now that i have a surface grinder i feel i dont need that anymore. Im good using my hands making cutters but im going to make Mr. Petes south bend cutter blocks he just did on YouTube and use them on the surface grinder bc why not!


I made the rotary broach kit maybe a year or so ago.

Really nice little kit to make. Pretty darn easy.

The kit came with a rod of O1 for making cutters, but I bought some round HSS to do the job. I’m sure O1 would have been fine too. 

I make up my cutters on my D-Bit grinder. Works awesome.


----------



## Brento

That is on my list to make some day @JRaut


----------



## BGHansen

Definitely at my age (62+) not the POTD; project of a couple of months.  I'm calling "Woodfest 2022" officially completed.  We have 2 heat-a-lator fireplaces to supplement our geothermal/propane furnace.  If we're diligent stoking fires, we'll burn 9 full cords in the fall/winter/spring.  I typically have 95% of it cut by February but was way off schedule taking care of my mom.  

Bruce


16' x 6' (1 full cord) in the garage



2 racks under the back deck at the walkout basement:  8' x 5' and 8' x 7' for another full cord



3 sections at 8' x 8' x 3 sections deep and 2 sections at 16' x 8':  10 full cords



Fortunately, I'm still (of course, I have now jinxed myself) not allergic to poison ivy.  Problem with spring cutting of wood is it grows in abundance in our woods.


----------



## pdentrem

Converted the Mopar Electronic ignition to GM HEI. Still need to replace the coil and remove the ballast resistor when that happens. So it is a hybrid system currently. Not much of a job, took a piece of aluminum 1/4” flat stock and drilled an assortment of 8x32 holes for the heatsink and ground strap and a couple 1/4” through holes for the hold down bolts. Will put some dielectric grease on the terminals and rubber sleeves to make it pretty.
Pierre


----------



## wachuko

BGHansen said:


> Definitely at my age (62+) not the POTD; project of a couple of months.  I'm calling "Woodfest 2022" officially completed.  We have 2 heat-a-lator fireplaces to supplement our geothermal/propane furnace.  If we're diligent stoking fires, we'll burn 9 full cords in the fall/winter/spring.  I typically have 95% of it cut by February but was way off schedule taking care of my mom.
> 
> Bruce
> 
> 
> 16' x 6' (1 full cord) in the garage
> View attachment 409852
> 
> 
> 2 racks under the back deck at the walkout basement:  8' x 5' and 8' x 7' for another full cord
> View attachment 409853
> 
> 
> 3 sections at 8' x 8' x 3 sections deep and 2 sections at 16' x 8':  10 full cords
> View attachment 409854
> 
> 
> Fortunately, I'm still (of course, I have now jinxed myself) not allergic to poison ivy.  Problem with spring cutting of wood is it grows in abundance in our woods.
> View attachment 409855


Bruce,

Don't you worry about termites with those so close to the house?  Or they go so fast that it is not something to worry about?


----------



## wachuko

Look!! No drill bits!  All roll pins in place.




And photos of the securing block... bottom section has the 1 degree cut...






EDIT:  Added (T) Top, (B) Bottom, and arrow mark to the blocks to make it easy to setup if these come apart...




So yeah, now all I need to finish it are the locking handles... will work on that later...  At least I can use it with those bolts.


----------



## BGHansen

wachuko said:


> Bruce,
> 
> Don't you worry about termites with those so close to the house?  Or they go so fast that it is not something to worry about?


Never seen one around here, but good point. We usually burn about a face cord a week; turn it over a little quicker than I'd like (means I have to cut more).

Bruce


----------



## AGCB97

wachuko said:


> Bruce,
> 
> Don't you worry about termites with those so close to the house?  Or they go so fast that it is not something to worry about?


Bruce and I are not in termite country like you


----------



## mmcmdl

Bruce . There's not a better feeling than out working with firewood . One of my favorite pasttimes .


----------



## mmcmdl

Todays project as usual . The hardest thing to make in my shop is SPACE . I'm running out of space to make more space .


----------



## FOMOGO

I've been working on the trolley system for my garage door conversion from overhead to slider, using four pulleys from my Case Combine. Had to bore,, and cut down the hubs on the pulley's, and turn some shafting (also from the combine), and cut some snap ring grooves.  Probably finish up the doors completely tomorrow. Have a stupid amount of time in these damn doors., but they are coming out nice, and operate very smoothly. Will post some more pics of the doors when I finish up.  Mike


----------



## BGHansen

mmcmdl said:


> Bruce . There's not a better feeling than out working with firewood . One of my favorite pasttimes .


The old joke is you heat twice with wood; when you cut and when you burn.  I used to do around 7 full cords in less than a week, but I was only around 30-35 at the time.  I now run one, maybe two tanks of fuel through my Stihl MS291 and call it a day.  The weekends in the fall/winter were precious as if it was decent weather, I'd get out to cut wood for a couple of hours.  Now that I'm retired, it's always a 7-day weekend baby, nice weather on a Tuesday and I'll go out for an hour or two.  I typically run around 30-35 tanks of fuel through the saw for the season.  I contemplate a lot of things while cutting as it's pretty mundane; nice alone time enjoying nature.

Bruce

p.s.  Plan "B" as I age is to burn less.  Well, burn less wood and burn more cash in the form of propane/electricity in our geothermal.  Our house has a walk-out finished basement which is where our main entertainment room is.  Stupid me at the time the house was built, but the lower level of ~1500 sq. feet was "plumbed" with 4 registers and no cold air returns.  I should have spec'd out the lower level like it was living space; register at pretty much every window.  The end result is the lower level runs at around 60 F if the thermostat is set to 65 F.  There's a fireplace in the lower level entertainment room which heats most of the 1500 sq. ft. to 70 F.  However, that's at the "cost" of 4+ full cords of wood.  When I'm not able to cut as much, we'll move our evening TV watching to the main floor and only burn upstairs.


----------



## BGHansen

AGCB97 said:


> Bruce and I are not in termite country like you


According to google they are in the southern half of MI though I've never seen one after 30+ years of cutting/splitting wood.  I've cut a questionably light log before and split it to find a colony of carpenter ants.  Naturally, those get tossed into the woods.

Bruce


----------



## DavidR8

Managed to move the mill onto the new stand. 
Took some doing as the outriggers on my hoist are too narrow for the width of anything that requires the hoist. 
Decided to try putting the outriggers on the outside of the hoist which made the bottom wide enough to get the roller base in between the legs. 
Was definitely sketchy and next time I’ll make up some longer pins and some filler pieces for the middle bits.


----------



## Shotgun

mmcmdl said:


> Todays project as usual . The hardest thing to make in my shop is SPACE . I'm running out of space to make more space .


I could help you out by bringing my trailer to haul some of it off for you.  We'll call it an intervention.


----------



## woodchucker

DavidR8 said:


> Managed to move the mill onto the new stand.
> Took some doing as the outriggers on my hoist are too narrow for the width of anything that requires the hoist.
> Decided to try putting the outriggers on the outside of the hoist which made the bottom wide enough to get the roller base in between the legs.
> Was definitely sketchy and next time I’ll make up some longer pins and some filler pieces for the middle bits.


David, see if you can push the top drawer back so the lip is even with or behind the steel top bar. You will wind up with a ton of chips in the drawer if it remains out.  It looks good though.


----------



## mmcmdl

Shotgun said:


> I could help you out by bringing my trailer to haul some of it off for you. We'll call it an intervention.


You better watch what you ask for . I travel to SC every year , and you're on the route !


----------



## Just for fun

AGCB97 said:


> Bruce and I are not in termite country like you


I watched a show last night about South Africa,  they roasted termites and ate them as a treat.


----------



## f350ca

Could have cut a LOT of slabs with the chain saw in the time I've spent building this arrangement. lol
Assembled the saw, bolted it to the skid and arranged the engine with centrifugal clutch. Seams to work fine, the blade definitely needs sharpened though.






Next step is a roof over it and in feed table.

Greg


----------



## Firstram

woodchucker said:


> David, see if you can push the top drawer back so the lip is even with or behind the steel top bar. You will wind up with a ton of chips in the drawer if it remains out.  It looks good though.


I agree, if you can't move it back at least add an eyebrow.


----------



## DavidR8

Firstram said:


> I agree, if you can't move it back at least add an eyebrow.


It may be as far back as it can go but I'll double check gents


----------



## francist

DavidR8 said:


> It may be as far back as it can go but I'll double check gents


Meh, ease off on the two front bolts holding the base down, sneak a strip of old file folder underneath, bend it down at a rakish angle using a pair of old slip joint pliers and call ‘er good. Built-in chip flashing, just like you always intended to do…


----------



## Gnpenning

pdentrem said:


> Converted the Mopar Electronic ignition to GM HEI. Still need to replace the coil and remove the ballast resistor when that happens. So it is a hybrid system currently. Not much of a job, took a piece of aluminum 1/4” flat stock and drilled an assortment of 8x32 holes for the heatsink and ground strap and a couple 1/4” through holes for the hold down bolts. Will put some dielectric grease on the terminals and rubber sleeves to make it pretty.
> Pierre
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 409858


Great upgrade.  Do you plan on adding some silicone grease between the module and sink?


----------



## pdentrem

Gnpenning said:


> Great upgrade.  Do you plan on adding some silicone grease between the module and sink?


You have to do that at Step #1 otherwise it dies in minutes, so that was ready done. I literally sold 100s of these back in the days at the parts counter. 
Spending $15 times 2 for the GM plugs is just waste of money as they are no more sealed than what I have now. As noted I will add dielectric and rubber covers. Need to gap the plugs to .045” as well.
Pierre


----------



## Gaffer

pdentrem said:


> Converted the Mopar Electronic ignition to GM HEI. Still need to replace the coil and remove the ballast resistor when that happens. So it is a hybrid system currently. Not much of a job, took a piece of aluminum 1/4” flat stock and drilled an assortment of 8x32 holes for the heatsink and ground strap and a couple 1/4” through holes for the hold down bolts. Will put some dielectric grease on the terminals and rubber sleeves to make it pretty.
> Pierre
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 409858


They are hard to beat. About 25 years ago, my '79 F-250 (390/4-speed) gave me fits starting when hot! I swapped the ignition system for the GM HEI and it solved my problems. We have strict smog laws, so I hollowed out the factory ignition module and hid the HEI inside. It looked factory when done.


----------



## wachuko

Testing…. Only missing the handles to avoid  the need to use a wrench…






And I can see someone drilling the rods by mistake… I am painting that area red, to remind me not to drill in that section when holding flat bars…


----------



## extropic

@wachuco

Nice job.

I think painting bright stripes above the rod & screw is a good idea. Drilling into them is very common, in the real world. Since you built it, you will be paying attention and the stripes have got to help.


----------



## pdentrem

California does not work well with the real world on many levels. I love the Prop 65 warning on the coffee beans!
Pierre


----------



## matthewsx

DavidR8 said:


> Managed to move the mill onto the new stand.
> Took some doing as the outriggers on my hoist are too narrow for the width of anything that requires the hoist.
> Decided to try putting the outriggers on the outside of the hoist which made the bottom wide enough to get the roller base in between the legs.
> Was definitely sketchy and next time I’ll make up some longer pins and some filler pieces for the middle bits.



No problem with bending the sheet metal belt guard that way?

John


----------



## DavidR8

matthewsx said:


> No problem with bending the sheet metal belt guard that way?
> 
> John


Not a bit, I did make sure it was clamped together. I wouldn't do it without the top on it though.


----------



## NCjeeper

Did a little lathe maintenance. I thought I might have to make a new lead screw or bronze nut or both because of the excessive back lash. To my pleasant surprise both are not that bad. The bronze nut was loose which caused the majority of the back lash. After tightening it down the back lash is under 25 thousands now. I can live with that. It also provided a good chance to clean everything.


----------



## Firstram

NCjeeper said:


> Did a little lathe maintenance. I thought I might have to make a new lead screw or bronze nut or both because of the excessive back lash. To my pleasant surprise both are not that bad. The bronze nut was loose which caused the majority of the back lash. After tightening it down the back lash is under 25 thousands now. I can live with that. It also provided a good chance to clean everything.


That looks like a nice stout lathe, what is it? I really like the simple no frills headstock labeling or, utilitarian cleanliness!


----------



## NCjeeper

Firstram said:


> That looks like a nice stout lathe, what is it? I really like the simple no frills headstock labeling or, utilitarian cleanliness!


It's a 1980 Jet lathe. Just bought it a few months ago from a machine shop that closed down.


----------



## tq60

Yard stuff...BBQ

Over time we all collect things from assorted sources for some future project.

Picked up some rear brake drums for Fire trucks, they were in the dumpster so price was right.

Some time passes and we manage to find a hub for same, same place, same price.

At the scrap yard was a pile of public park BBQ units, most were very bad, removed with tractor or ??? And or badly bent and or rusted.

Found one with support pipe attached but bottom rusted almost all the way just in the middle.

We did need to buy the nuts, one was SAE, the other, Metric.

So we cut up some scrap 1/8 plate to replace the bottom, in center it is 2 layers thick as the plate was 8 inches and we needed 16, so 2 strips with a third over the seam.

The support pipe was bonded to the tube on the bottom.

Cut it off just below, put in lathe with a boring bar and got it cleaned out, at one point it came out.

Needed to make an adaptor to hold the support in the hub, that was another post, a disk of 1.25 steel chucked in lathe, hole saw to core out center, then bore out until support fits.

Grab by center and clean up outside.

The lip too small to support tube so made a washer via hole saw into 1/8 plate and clean up in lathe.

A pair of end caps for the support tube, made from old radio heat sink 1/2 aluminum rough cut with holw saw cleaned up in lathe, top one fits inside the tube and rests on top, this one threaded in center hole.

Bottom fits on bottom of adaptor disk and fits inside the washer to keep in alignment,through hole in center.

All thread connects the adaptor plate and tube together.

All assembled it is for a tall person, and we made a steel bar to add a handle later, this thing weighs a ton, still need to add something to drag it onto a hand truck, far now that is just the rectangle sitting on the wheel studs.

Some photos...
	

	
	
		
		

		
			

































































Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


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## tq60

A couple more...hole saw work.

Diameter 3.5 inches 
1.25 thick

60 to 90 rpm
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	













Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


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## FOMOGO

That one should stay put on those windy days.


----------



## rwm

I am surprised the hole saw in the tailstock worked? I was afraid to try that. Seemed like too much torque to put on the taper. Clearly I can be done! Thanks!


----------



## WobblyHand

rwm said:


> I am surprised the hole saw in the tailstock worked? I was afraid to try that. Seemed like too much torque to put on the taper. Clearly I can be done! Thanks!


His picture shows the drill key both in the chuck and resting on the tool post.  That makes sure it won't move much under load.  It's amazing what our machines can do with some enginuity.


----------



## tq60

In old school text books for using lathe there are directions for this type of work.

Fixtures for doing same, either resting on ways or holding, di not haveany official stuff but there is a reason the bar of a chuck key fits the socket hole...

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


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## tq60

FOMOGO said:


> That one should stay put on those windy days.


It is "anti-theft"...

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


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## f350ca

Pretty much finished. Need to put some scrap steel roofing oil it and call it done.
Of course had to try it out, eats the small stuff, but the blade only comes about 2 - 2 1/2 inch above the table, so still need to deal with the heavy slabs.





Greg


----------



## woodchucker

f350ca said:


> Pretty much finished. Need to put some scrap steel roofing oil it and call it done.
> Of course had to try it out, eats the small stuff, but the blade only comes about 2 - 2 1/2 inch above the table, so still need to deal with the heavy slabs.
> 
> View attachment 410160
> 
> 
> 
> Greg


Greg, when your done, we need a video of it in use.


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## BGHansen

POTD was improving the watering bucket for our (soon to be harvested) meat chickens. My wife made the watering can a few years ago; 5-gallon bucket with 5/16” holes drilled, tapped with a 1/8”-27 pipe tap, then screwed in what’s called a “chicken watering cup”. It works pretty well, the cups have a yellow spring-loaded plug that when bumped by a beak lets water run into the cup. The problem with her setup is the 5-gallon bucket is only about 1/8” thick; not a lot of thread engagement for the cups. The meat chickens put on a lot of weight in a hurry, little chick to an 9-pound bird in 6-10 weeks. When they get up in size, the clumsy oafs step on the cups and knock them loose. If they knock one completely out, there goes 4+ gallons of water into their pen.

POTD was to make some aluminum reinforcing nuts to shore up the cups. I used 1” aluminum; faced, center drilled, tap drilled, tapped, tapered the lead edge, knurled and parted. I used a couple of 3/8” washers to shim between the nut and bucket as I was afraid of torqueing too hard and snapping the plastic thread on the watering cups.

Works really well, the cups are very stable. Next step is whacking the herd. Oh, in case you are a member of the ASPCA and are concerned about the tight proximity of the birds, don’t worry. The first batch we raised years ago were allowed to free range. If you’ve ever had meat chickens, you can stop laughing at me now. All meat chickens want is water and food. When we let them free range, they never got more than 2 feet from the food and water. The smallest bird we’ve harvested had two breasts that weighed 15 oz. each. The largest, 1 lb. 15 oz. for each breast. We average over 5+ lbs. of meat per bird, you’re looking at well over 250 lbs. of chicken meat in the pen picture.  My wife has the process down pretty well; I do the whacking, she does the skinning and parting out.  Guess what's gonna be for dinner!

Thanks for looking, Bruce


Chicken watering cup; yellow detail is spring-loaded.  Bump it and water trickles into the red cup



Faced



Used a center drill to spot.  The tip of center drills are usually 120 deg. making them ideal for spotting 118 deg. drill bits


tap drill


Tapping a 1/8" - 27 pipe thread


checking the thread


Chamfering the surface.  The thread is tapered, I'll know to start this end of the nut


knurled


parted


Ready for install



The nuts really helped stabilize the watering cups.





Gotta keep 'em hydrated


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was GREAT; it was me watching a crew of guys do the work in 95 F weather! We recently had solar panels installed by Pink Energy. They still have a little work to do, but the system is somewhat up and running. Trenching for the buried electrical lines is still open pending inspection. Also, we need the power company to come and bless the system before we potentially start sending power back up the grid.

Thanks for looking, Bruce


Our array has 22 panels that put out up to 380 W each (>8 kW/hr. output)



Irony.  The guy cutting the extra off the horizontal supports had his battery die. . .   Part of the wrap-up is dressing the ends of the horizontals



Back view of the panels.  The electrical hook ups are covered by stainless steel hardware cloth.  The sales gal told us that a horse got behind the panels and touched hot/ground.



Specifics on the panels



Battery back-up power in the basement.  We have 3 cells that provide 9 kW/hours of power



Control box is at the shop.  Our electric meter is at the shop.  Our main panel at the shop has a buried line to the house.  The control box has to be at the main panel for sending power back up the grid.






Trench with DC and AC lines running to the house (battery back up and power to the house)


----------



## woodchucker

come on guys keep things on HM going.. I'm bored.. at my sons house watching my granddaughter, I need something to read and look at when she's not in my posession...more projects..


----------



## wachuko

Oh man, what a joy it is to use the right tools… threading this was such a breeze…




Of course I need to get a new bolt because I bent the heck out of this one with previous tries and wrong tools… but now I know that the next one, with this handle and die, will come out correctly.

And just for kicks, took it to the buffing wheel to see how hard it would be to make it look better…and this will clean and look great in just a few hours…

Only took the die and center part of the holder to the buffing wheel…. Quick pass since I had family coming over… will finish it over the weekend…


----------



## woodchucker

wachuko said:


> Oh man, what a joy it is to use the right tools… threading this was such a breeze…
> 
> View attachment 410344
> 
> 
> Of course I need to get a new bolt because I bent the heck out of this one with previous tries and wrong tools… but now I know that the next one, with this handle and die, will come out correctly.
> 
> And just for kicks, took it to the buffer to see how hard it would be to make it look better…and this will clean and look great in just a few hours…
> 
> Only took the die and center part of the holder to the buffer wheel…. Quick pass since I had family coming over… will finish it over the weekend…
> 
> View attachment 410345


don't let the wire hit the dies. it will damage them. Those are high carbon steel I think.  if you have a air die grinder, put a scotch bright pad on the dies if you want to clean them, it won't get into the threading section... it will just work on the face.

Looks nice.  BTW, that's not a big handle


----------



## woodchucker

I didn't make this.. I didn't do anything but baby sit today.
But this video came out. And it's a good one. Not too long.


----------



## wachuko

woodchucker said:


> don't let the wire hit the dies. it will damage them. Those are high carbon steel I think.  if you have a air die grinder, put a scotch bright pad on the dies if you want to clean them, it won't get into the threading section... it will just work on the face.
> 
> Looks nice.  BTW, that's not a big handle


Got it… This was just using the buffing wheel (cloth). 

Look, it is the largest die handle that I now have in my toolbox, okay!?


----------



## Dhal22

woodchucker said:


> come on guys keep things on HM going.. I'm bored.. at my sons house watching my granddaughter, I need something to read and look at when she's not in my posession...more projects..




My project this evening.   My son still plays baseball.   Apparently the summer wood bat league has no restrictions on bats.   We will see.


----------



## Just for fun

Practicing my TIG welding.  Made a drip pan for my lathe.  I painted it this afternoon but failed to get a photo of it.


----------



## GoceKU

Last month i've been so busy i haven't even visited my garages, anyone who works in education know why. But today i had a job that could not wait any more. I needed to do something to improve the headlights on the White elephant No:2. Drivers side was worse by the looks someone has clearcoted it and that coat had failed worse. It had Octavia written on it so its a junkyard part. I spent more than 2 hours sending it and polishing it but that coat is very thick. I made an improvement but it needs both headlight replaced.


----------



## WobblyHand

@GoceKU My car recently failed inspection.  One of the lights was close to that.  I used a plastic polish and it looked like new.  The polish is like a liquid wax with some very fine cleaner.  Apply like wax, let dry a minute and wipe off with a towel.  It took me longer to find the polish in the garage than to use it.  Maybe next time you can find some.  Since you maintain a lot of vehicles, it could be a good time saver.


----------



## GoceKU

WobblyHand said:


> @GoceKU My car recently failed inspection.  One of the lights was close to that.  I used a plastic polish and it looked like new.  The polish is like a liquid wax with some very fine cleaner.  Apply like wax, let dry a minute and wipe off with a towel.  It took me longer to find the polish in the garage than to use it.  Maybe next time you can find some.  Since you maintain a lot of vehicles, it could be a good time saver.


I use P600,P1000,P2000,P3000 sandpaper, then paint polish on a drill and finally 2-3 coats of carnauba wax. This vehicle has over half a million Km on the clock and in my country headlights are required even in daylight, its not only baked from the sun is also from inside.


----------



## wachuko

WobblyHand said:


> @GoceKU My car recently failed inspection.  One of the lights was close to that.  I used a plastic polish and it looked like new.  The polish is like a liquid wax with some very fine cleaner.  Apply like wax, let dry a minute and wipe off with a towel.  It took me longer to find the polish in the garage than to use it.  Maybe next time you can find some.  Since you maintain a lot of vehicles, it could be a good time saver.


I had to do this on two of my cars… but I first started with sandpaper… different grits until finishing with 3000.  All wet sanding.




Then the last step was with plastic polish.  And right after that I installed Xpel clear film… Problem solved.


----------



## WobblyHand

I know what I did was temporary, but it worked well, with minimal effort.  The right way is to do it the way @GoceKU  and @wachuko  did it.  What prevents my approach from lasting is there's no UV barrier.  UV light is the primary agent of the fogging, unless you live in an area with sand storms.  I have yet to figure out a good UV barrier for my headlights.  You can buy lots of overpriced stuff, but it is difficult to find a product that works and is not full of meaningless marketing talk.  

Anyone know of a fairly priced UV coating that works?  How long does it last?  How is it applied, just wiping on, or sprayed?  If you use it once do you have to keep on using it, due to incompatible chemistry issues?  My current solution is to redo the lights every few years.  I'm still using the same bottle of polish for about 10 years.  Might need to get some more in 4-5 years.


----------



## wachuko

WobblyHand said:


> I know what I did was temporary, but it worked well, with minimal effort.  The right way is to do it the way @GoceKU  and @wachuko  did it.  What prevents my approach from lasting is there's no UV barrier.  UV light is the primary agent of the fogging, unless you live in an area with sand storms.  I have yet to figure out a good UV barrier for my headlights.  You can buy lots of overpriced stuff, but it is difficult to find a product that works and is not full of meaningless marketing talk.
> 
> Anyone know of a fairly priced UV coating that works?  How long does it last?  How is it applied, just wiping on, or sprayed?  If you use it once do you have to keep on using it, due to incompatible chemistry issues?  My current solution is to redo the lights every few years.  I'm still using the same bottle of polish for about 10 years.  Might need to get some more in 4-5 years.


The previous coatings I used still ended up degrading after awhile... Using the Xpel film was the only thing that worked for me...  It was around 50.00 for each headlight pre-cut kit.  But pretty sure you can use any UV resistant clear film with the same results.

This is the brand I used... 






						XPEL | Headlight Protection Film | Pre-Cut Kits | Find Your Vehicle
					

Keep your headlights from fogging, yellowing, cracking, and damage free with XPEL pre-cut headlight protection.




					www.xpel.com


----------



## GoceKU

I've used acrylic clear coat, it yellows. I've also used PPF film it also fails, best i've found is carnauba wax, last 3-6 months depends winter or summer.


----------



## WobblyHand

@GoceKU that's interesting.  Funny you you mention carnauba wax.  I have a block of solid 100% carnauba wax.  Might be 1/2 kg, maybe more.  It is the hardest wax I have ever seen.  Wish I knew how to make it into a high grade wax.  I have an ancient Chemical Formulary book, but the recipe uses materials that are hard to find these days.  Does anyone on HM know how (and could share how) to make your own carnauba wax from raw materials?


----------



## Karl A

Carnauba wax is a natural product -- from the leaves of palm trees that grow in Brazil. Making ones own carnauba wax from raw materials would be quite a trick.

POTD: Holder of 1/4-inch square HSS tool bits, to make honing on diamond stones easier.



I started with 5/8-inch square 6061 aluminum stock, 5 inches long, in lieu of 5/8-inch round stock because I have not yet made a jaw with a V for my mill vise. I milled the slot first, followed by forming the 10-32 threads for the two set screws.  The third step was turning the square cross-section to round. This was the first time that I turned a square bar to a round bar on a lathe.

This was a gratifying little project.


----------



## GoceKU

WobblyHand said:


> @GoceKU that's interesting.  Funny you you mention carnauba wax.  I have a block of solid 100% carnauba wax.  Might be 1/2 kg, maybe more.  It is the hardest wax I have ever seen.  Wish I knew how to make it into a high grade wax.  I have an ancient Chemical Formulary book, but the recipe uses materials that are hard to find these days.  Does anyone on HM know how (and could share how) to make your own carnauba wax from raw materials?


From what i've seen you can easily melt down the wax, mix in mineral oils to make it less dense, but at the end it needs to be tested for UV resistance. Perhaps is better to leave the chemistry to the professionals.


----------



## BGHansen

BGHansen said:


> POTD was GREAT; it was me watching a crew of guys do the work in 95 F weather! We recently had solar panels installed by Pink Energy. They still have a little work to do, but the system is somewhat up and running. Trenching for the buried electrical lines is still open pending inspection. Also, we need the power company to come and bless the system before we potentially start sending power back up the grid.
> 
> Thanks for looking, Bruce


I've had a number of PM's regarding our solar panels, figured it was easiest to do a posting here for the reply.  General question is "is it worth it?"

It depends on your motivation.  If it's to reduce your dependence on the grid, it's worth it.  If your motivation is to save money on your overall electric bill, it doesn't make sense.  My wife wanted to put the system in, we could afford it, so we did.

In Michigan, current legislation does not allow a residence to be a "solar farm".  The solar set up for a private residence cannot exceed your historic electric bills.  The power companies want to sell electricity, not buy electricity.  I'm fine with that; it's the same thing as if a neighbor asked to use my shop for no cost for power/maintenance for his private business.  The power companies maintain the lines; it's not "fair" for me to send them overall net power without having to fit some of the bill for maintaining the lines.

Our system is at 95+%, 22 solar panels generating 380 W each (at peak sun) for a total of ~8300 W/hour.  Two more panels put us over 100%.  Our average electric bill is $175 per month; the sales gal for Pink Energy figured we'd drop down to $40 a month.  That's a predicted savings of about $1600 a year on our electric bill.

Our system (if financed through Pink Energy for 1 year) is $80,000.  The US government is giving a tax credit of 26% in 2022 for solar panel installs which drops the price to $59K.  The sales gal said the payback would be 5 to 8 years but the math doesn't work out.  $59K / $1600/year is a 37 year payback assuming no interest on the $59K.  Part of their predictive model is an assumption that the cost of power will go up by a factor of 3 in the next 15 years.  

In our case, we are paying cash which gets our cost down to $72,000.  We'll get our 26% tax credit next year which gets the total cost down to $53K.  $53K / $1600/year is 33 year payback at our current electric rates.  Part of the Pink Energy bill is also a sweep through the house to replace every incandescent bulb with LEDs and top off our attic insulation at 12".

So why doesn't a 95+% system take a $175 monthly bill down by 95% instead of just down to $40?  When we send power back up the grid, our power company credits us $0.50 on the dollar.  Naturally, we generate nothing at night so pay full price for power off the grid.  During the day, we're sending power back to the grid at a 50% discount.  By the way, not all power companies buy power back; check with your company if you are looking into solar.

Our system has a number of modes that I still need to learn.  There is a mode where in the morning the primary solar function is to charge the Generac back-up batteries.  After they're charged, the solar feeds the house and sends any overage up the grid.  When/if the house draw exceeds the solar output (especially at night), the batteries will supply power until they're drained, then we're back on the grid.  It's best for the batteries to regularly cycle anyhow, plus that'll let us use 9 kW/hour (battery capacity) of power that we generated at no cost before starting to use grid power.

Our system isn't totally up and running yet as we're waiting for a couple of inspections.  Our solar controller is currently set to draw 40W minimum from the grid and not send any power back up the pole (need the power company inspection to turn that one).  I suspect looking at our electric bills that even with the A/C running in the summer, we'll have nada for an electric bill.  Our power company "pays" for our power through credits.  When the geothermal is running in the winter and our daylight hours drop, we'll have our bills offset by the credits earned through the summer.

Summarizing, I wouldn't bother if you're looking at solar as a way to save money.  But if you want to get off the grid and maybe help with the overall carbon footprint, it "probably" helps some.

Bruce


----------



## wachuko

BGHansen said:


> I've had a number of PM's regarding our solar panels, figured it was easiest to do a posting here for the reply.  General question is "is it worth it?"
> 
> It depends on your motivation.  If it's to reduce your dependence on the grid, it's worth it.  If your motivation is to save money on your overall electric bill, it doesn't make sense.  My wife wanted to put the system in, we could afford it, so we did.
> 
> In Michigan, current legislation does not allow a residence to be a "solar farm".  The solar set up for a private residence cannot exceed your historic electric bills.  The power companies want to sell electricity, not buy electricity.  I'm fine with that; it's the same thing as if a neighbor asked to use my shop for no cost for power/maintenance for his private business.  The power companies maintain the lines; it's not "fair" for me to send them overall net power without having to fit some of the bill for maintaining the lines.
> 
> Our system is at 95+%, 22 solar panels generating 380 W each (at peak sun) for a total of ~8300 W/hour.  Two more panels put us over 100%.  Our average electric bill is $175 per month; the sales gal for Pink Energy figured we'd drop down to $40 a month.  That's a predicted savings of about $1600 a year on our electric bill.
> 
> Our system (if financed through Pink Energy for 1 year) is $80,000.  The US government is giving a tax credit of 26% in 2022 for solar panel installs which drops the price to $59K.  The sales gal said the payback would be 5 to 8 years but the math doesn't work out.  $59K / $1600/year is a 37 year payback assuming no interest on the $59K.  Part of their predictive model is an assumption that the cost of power will go up by a factor of 3 in the next 15 years.
> 
> In our case, we are paying cash which gets our cost down to $72,000.  We'll get our 26% tax credit next year which gets the total cost down to $53K.  $53K / $1600/year is 33 year payback at our current electric rates.  Part of the Pink Energy bill is also a sweep through the house to replace every incandescent bulb with LEDs and top off our attic insulation at 12".
> 
> So why doesn't a 95+% system take a $175 monthly bill down by 95% instead of just down to $40?  When we send power back up the grid, our power company credits us $0.50 on the dollar.  Naturally, we generate nothing at night so pay full price for power off the grid.  During the day, we're sending power back to the grid at a 50% discount.  By the way, not all power companies buy power back; check with your company if you are looking into solar.
> 
> Our system has a number of modes that I still need to learn.  There is a mode where in the morning the primary solar function is to charge the Generac back-up batteries.  After they're charged, the solar feeds the house and sends any overage up the grid.  When/if the house draw exceeds the solar output (especially at night), the batteries will supply power until they're drained, then we're back on the grid.  It's best for the batteries to regularly cycle anyhow, plus that'll let us use 9 kW/hour (battery capacity) of power that we generated at no cost before starting to use grid power.
> 
> Our system isn't totally up and running yet as we're waiting for a couple of inspections.  Our solar controller is currently set to draw 40W minimum from the grid and not send any power back up the pole (need the power company inspection to turn that one).  I suspect looking at our electric bills that even with the A/C running in the summer, we'll have nada for an electric bill.  Our power company "pays" for our power through credits.  When the geothermal is running in the winter and our daylight hours drop, we'll have our bills offset by the credits earned through the summer.
> 
> Summarizing, I wouldn't bother if you're looking at solar as a way to save money.  But if you want to get off the grid and maybe help with the overall carbon footprint, it "probably" helps some.
> 
> Bruce


I am doing the same… In my case, 38 -400 watts panels and two Tesla batteries… they should doing the install in two months…

But same approach… solar during the day to charge batteries and run the house… batteries to run at night


----------



## woodchucker

my friend that moved away to FL was not paying for electricity in NJ.. he said he was generating more than he used , and therefore was receiving money back... THAT'S in NJ...
no battery system, so he was not independent off the grid, very much on the grid, and when it went down, so did he.


----------



## f350ca

Todays project was hooking onto the trailer.



Heading to Tuktoyaktuk NWT. 
Always wanted to see the Arctic.

Greg


----------



## 682bear

f350ca said:


> Todays project was hooking onto the trailer.
> View attachment 410559
> 
> 
> Heading to Tuktoyaktuk NWT.
> Always wanted to see the Arctic.
> 
> Greg



I've been wanting to make that trip... unfortunately, I'm a little farther away than you... maybe someday.

-Bear


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was working on my 20-year old Delta miter saw. This particular model (36-255L) has line lasers on either side of the 12” blade to mark the cut. It works great, until it doesn’t. . . My wife went to cross cut a board; the saw worked, but the lasers didn’t.


Our Delta 12" miter saw with the handle off for "fixing"




Pulled the handle and put 3.7 V directly to the lasers and they fired up. Checked the output of the 110 V to 3V transformer and got nothing. Went on Amazon and got an 80 – 230 V to 3 – 20V LED driver for $7 delivered. Wired it in and fired up the saw; no lasers. Went back to the direct 3.7 V battery check and no lasers, what the heck?!? I checked the output of the LED driver at 50+ V DC; cooked the lasers. . .  Stupid me, I should have checked the output voltage before firing up the saw. I’ll have to check on the difference (?) between an LED driver and a transformer. The LED driver label says it’s constant current, so voltage must be varied to maintain a constant Watt output? My electrical no-how pretty much stops at E=I*R and P=I*E.


3.7V battery fired up the lasers fine



50+ V from the new LED driver (ouch)!  The lasers expect a max of ~5V.




Google’d replacement parts for the saw and found the laser modules for about $93 each (ouch). Pulled the lasers from their mounts and measured them at 10 mm diameter. Searched on Amazon for “Laser line LED” and found a ton for under $10. But the diameters were all 6, 9 or 12 mm. Ordered a couple of 9 mm ones. I didn’t show it, but ended up using a 110V to 5V USB plug-in transformer for the power source.





The original lasers have a hex on the end for adjusting the clocking of the laser line (clock the line parallel to the saw blade). This was added by drilling out a couple of ¼” nuts which were glued to the lasers with red Loctite. I went the quick route to build up the diameter from 9 mm to 10 mm by running some electrical tape around the lasers. Not my best fix, but I have a plan B. I found some 10 mm x 0.2 mm wall stock brass tubing on Amazon which will be here in a couple of days. The lasers press into a plastic detail, they are easy to pull.  I'll Loctite a length of tubing in place for a more solid fix. The tape works fine, but I’m worried about plastic creep over time which could lead to misalignment.


1/4" - 20 nuts chucked up prior to drilling them out with a 9mm drill



Checking fit with a laser



Original lasers up top, taped up replacements below.



Mounting brackets for the lasers.  The lasers press into a plastic detail.  A screw on the side adjusts the position side to side.  The hex nut on the back of the laser is used for clocking the laser line parallel to the blade.  The headless set screw is used to flex the plastic mount side to side to adjust the laser so it's parallel to the plane of the saw blade.



All wired up and caulked (gasket goop) at the top.  I didn't show it, but I misrouted the jumper harness from the saw handle to the lasers.  The routing is important; the saw blade clipped both lines . . .   I'm pretty good at soldering wires back together . . .



Back in business!



I adjusted the lasers by flushing a piece of white cardboard to the blade, then taped it in place.  Then adjusted the clocking to be parallel with the blade/paper edge.  Then adjusted the beam to be in the same plane as the blade with the headless set screw.  Lastly, adjusted the side to side screw so the laser is scrubbing past the side of the blade to mark the kerf.




Thanks for looking, Bruce


----------



## woodchucker

my project for the last 3  days


----------



## extropic

@woodchucker 

It looks like you've been doing an excellent job.


----------



## Janderso

woodchucker said:


> my project for the last 3  days
> View attachment 410563


You've been working harder than all of us.


----------



## DavidR8

Having bought this metal tray about two, maybe even three years ago I decided it was high time it was put to its intended purpose. 
Now my wife can have her cookie sheet back…though I doubt she’ll want it


----------



## woodchucker

I have that tray, but I still keep another pan under the lathe to empty the majority of the chips..
Did your wife help you lift the lathe?


----------



## DavidR8

woodchucker said:


> Did your wife help you lift the lathe?


Naw she had to make an emergency run to the store to get printer ink because she had to make a Father’s Day card for her dad


----------



## extropic

@DavidR8

Very clean looking set-up you've got there.

Can you tell me where I can buy a tray like that? It looks unlike common bakeware that I'm familiar with.


----------



## DavidR8

extropic said:


> @DavidR8
> 
> Very clean looking set-up you've got there.
> 
> Can you tell me where I can buy a tray like that? It looks unlike common bakeware that I'm familiar with.



Ahh thanks, it definitely was not clean before. That was part of the motivation to do the tray. 
I got the tray at Napa Auto Parts. It’s a drip tray. 



			https://www.napacanada.com/en/p/BTE8114000


----------



## Dhal22

f350ca said:


> Todays project was hooking onto the trailer.
> View attachment 410559
> 
> 
> Heading to Tuktoyaktuk NWT.
> Always wanted to see the Arctic.
> 
> Greg




That's not an F350........


----------



## GoceKU

Yesterday i got a suprasing call, i was removing the rear fog lamps from the scenic to refresh them and a friend of a friend call" i'm looking a for a car for my brother". My answer is you know me i don't sell my cars. He told me his price range, which was around a grand. Midway talking i looked at the scenic and ask him is he looking for a beauty queen or a workhorse. He said something to get around, to go to the river. So i told him get you brother and come to the big garage. They come looked at the scenic, we took it for a drive, run out of LPG, we had to fill it up. And they made me an offer which was good enough to move it along. This way i don't need to paint it, clean it anything. Today to get the title transferred i had to get it inspected and registered so it will be in my name to transfer it. So this morning took it to the inspection station it pass no issues even got a compliment, the guy there said the engine is soundless. Goat new licence plates on it transferred the title to his name, got paid. One less vehicle to work on, the guy is a bit older and doesn't seem to know to drive too much. Thankfully i installed a new OEM clutch, so if anybody see it coming give him some space.


----------



## Just for fun

BGHansen said:


> POTD was working on my 20-year old Delta miter saw. This particular model (36-255L) has line lasers on either side of the 12” blade to mark the cut. It works great, until it doesn’t. . . My wife went to cross cut a board; the saw worked, but the lasers didn’t.
> 
> 
> Our Delta 12" miter saw with the handle off for "fixing"
> View attachment 410548
> 
> 
> 
> Pulled the handle and put 3.7 V directly to the lasers and they fired up. Checked the output of the 110 V to 3V transformer and got nothing. Went on Amazon and got an 80 – 230 V to 3 – 20V LED driver for $7 delivered. Wired it in and fired up the saw; no lasers. Went back to the direct 3.7 V battery check and no lasers, what the heck?!? I checked the output of the LED driver at 50+ V DC; cooked the lasers. . .  Stupid me, I should have checked the output voltage before firing up the saw. I’ll have to check on the difference (?) between an LED driver and a transformer. The LED driver label says it’s constant current, so voltage must be varied to maintain a constant Watt output? My electrical no-how pretty much stops at E=I*R and P=I*E.
> 
> 
> 3.7V battery fired up the lasers fine
> View attachment 410549
> 
> 
> 50+ V from the new LED driver (ouch)!  The lasers expect a max of ~5V.
> View attachment 410550
> 
> 
> 
> Google’d replacement parts for the saw and found the laser modules for about $93 each (ouch). Pulled the lasers from their mounts and measured them at 10 mm diameter. Searched on Amazon for “Laser line LED” and found a ton for under $10. But the diameters were all 6, 9 or 12 mm. Ordered a couple of 9 mm ones. I didn’t show it, but ended up using a 110V to 5V USB plug-in transformer for the power source.
> 
> 
> View attachment 410558
> 
> 
> The original lasers have a hex on the end for adjusting the clocking of the laser line (clock the line parallel to the saw blade). This was added by drilling out a couple of ¼” nuts which were glued to the lasers with red Loctite. I went the quick route to build up the diameter from 9 mm to 10 mm by running some electrical tape around the lasers. Not my best fix, but I have a plan B. I found some 10 mm x 0.2 mm wall stock brass tubing on Amazon which will be here in a couple of days. The lasers press into a plastic detail, they are easy to pull.  I'll Loctite a length of tubing in place for a more solid fix. The tape works fine, but I’m worried about plastic creep over time which could lead to misalignment.
> 
> 
> 1/4" - 20 nuts chucked up prior to drilling them out with a 9mm drill
> View attachment 410551
> 
> 
> Checking fit with a laser
> View attachment 410552
> 
> 
> Original lasers up top, taped up replacements below.
> View attachment 410553
> 
> 
> Mounting brackets for the lasers.  The lasers press into a plastic detail.  A screw on the side adjusts the position side to side.  The hex nut on the back of the laser is used for clocking the laser line parallel to the blade.  The headless set screw is used to flex the plastic mount side to side to adjust the laser so it's parallel to the plane of the saw blade.
> View attachment 410554
> 
> 
> All wired up and caulked (gasket goop) at the top.  I didn't show it, but I misrouted the jumper harness from the saw handle to the lasers.  The routing is important; the saw blade clipped both lines . . .   I'm pretty good at soldering wires back together . . .
> View attachment 410555
> 
> 
> Back in business!
> View attachment 410556
> 
> 
> I adjusted the lasers by flushing a piece of white cardboard to the blade, then taped it in place.  Then adjusted the clocking to be parallel with the blade/paper edge.  Then adjusted the beam to be in the same plane as the blade with the headless set screw.  Lastly, adjusted the side to side screw so the laser is scrubbing past the side of the blade to mark the kerf.
> View attachment 410557
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for looking, Bruce


Great write up Bruce!


----------



## wachuko

Arbor press arrived… but I could not leave it blue….

Took it apart… deburred the handwheel and polished it.  Painted the center black. 

Also had to file down sharp edges around the handle area in the casting.  They were too sharp to grab by there…




Now I can move it around by grabbing it there…





Rod was rough cut but easily fixed in the lathe…







Then some hammered green paint on the rest and now it matches the rest of my tools… installed the Vevor sticker back on it so nobody confuses it for anything but what it is…








There are a few improvements I want to make to it… other brands have a gib for the front of the ram…behind the front cover.  This one has none, the bolts go directly against the ram.  I will make a gib out of Delrin…not sure it needs to be made out of steel.

And then I want to make some brass inserts for the side adjustments… again, so bolts do not go directly into the side of the ram…


----------



## mmcmdl

2T wachuco ?


----------



## wachuko

mmcmdl said:


> 2T wachuco ?


Went for a 3T just in case… the 1T I have is not good for much…. At least it feels like that… 

Keeping the 1T for leather work…


----------



## great white

Printed off a high/low gear for the cx600 bench mill I have on the way:




Turned out pretty good. Now I just need the mill to show up to see if its dimensionally correct.


----------



## extropic

@wachuko

Nice job on the AP.

Using Delrin for the wear plate will probably work for quite a while, but my choice would be to use a bronze sheet material for a lifetime of use.

Pick a material thickness that fills the gap, drill two holes through and use the bolts (with dog points, not contacting the ram) to locate the wear plate. Notice McMaster sells 2" x 12" strips for pretty low $$.









						McMaster-Carr
					

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.




					www.mcmaster.com


----------



## wachuko

extropic said:


> @wachuko
> 
> Nice job on the AP.
> 
> Using Delrin for the wear plate will probably work for quite a while, but my choice would be to use a bronze sheet material for a lifetime of use.
> 
> Pick a material thickness that fills the gap, drill two holes through and use the bolts (with dog points, not contacting the ram) to locate the wear plate. Notice McMaster sells 2" x 12" strips for pretty low $$.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> McMaster-Carr
> 
> 
> McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.mcmaster.com


Thanks.

I will remove the front cover and check the depth of the indentation in the cover… guessing it is at least 1/8” deep…


----------



## extropic

wachuko said:


> Thanks.
> 
> I will remove the front cover and check the depth of the indentation in the cover… guessing it is at least 1/8” deep…



If 1/8" material is useable, McMaster also sells the oil impregnated sintered bronze (Oilite type) sheet stock. However the cost, assuming that's a factor, is more than I would like to sink into the job. I'm just throwing it out there FYI.









						McMaster-Carr
					

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.




					www.mcmaster.com
				




You could machine the cover to use a thinner wear plate.

Or, you could just use Delrin and I'll shut up.  LOL


----------



## great white

Printed up a couple more cx600 (BF20, G0704, etc) plastic gears:




Hoping I won't need them, but having a couple in the drawer might get me out of a tight fix sometime.

Also printed off an R8 collet rack for inside the cabinet door:




All done in ABS.

I prefer printing in abs, even though most people seem to hate it (for the warping issues). I also hated it when i started, but after some upgrades (custom Marlin firmware, volcano hot end, direct extruder, etc) and adjustments (primarily, get the Z offset bang on), I 100% prefer it over other filaments.

I find ABS is also the easiest print material to do post print processing on (ie: sands easily, good temp resistance, easily smoothed/strengthened with acetone vapor, etc).

I find Pla and such overall too weak, too low a temp tolerance (and post printing is a nightmare) and too UV sensitive. It is pretty hard and fairly forgiving of settings that might not be _quite_ right when printing, I'll give it that. 
Nylon is a horrible filament for absorbing water (which really friggs it up when printing as the water boils off) and the specialty filaments all seem to have their own particular wants.

I have been wanting to try a roll of Delrin filament though, just to see if it holds up like "regular" Delrin.....


----------



## silverhawk

great white said:


> Printed up a couple more cx600 (BF20, G0704, etc) plastic gears:
> 
> View attachment 410953
> 
> 
> Hoping I won't need them, but having a couple in the drawer might get me out of a tight fix sometime.
> 
> Also printed off an R8 collet rack for inside the cabinet door:
> 
> View attachment 410954
> 
> 
> All done in ABS. I prefer abs, even though most people seem to hate it (for the warping issues). I did also when i started, but after some upgrades (custom firmware, volcano hot end, direct extruder, etc) and adjustments (primarily, get the Z offset bang on), I 100% prefer it over other filaments. Pla and such is too weak and too low a temp tolerance, Nylon is a horrible filament for absorbing water and the specialty filaments all seem to have their own particular wants.


PLA is actually stronger than ABS... for a while. If I recall, the problem with PLA is that it breaks down too quickly (even faster when exposed to UV light) and loses its strength. It is easier to print with because it has a lower melting temperature. Most printer kits come with PLA samples, and that locks people into it.

Your prints look great. ABS is the appropriate material, and you definitely need spare gears. The rack looks fabulous!

Sent from my SM-T500 using Tapatalk


----------



## great white

silverhawk said:


> PLA is actually stronger than ABS... for a while. If I recall, the problem with PLA is that it breaks down too quickly (even faster when exposed to UV light) and loses its strength. It is easier to print with because it has a lower melting temperature. Most printer kits come with PLA samples, and that locks people into it.
> 
> Your prints look great. ABS is the appropriate material, and you definitely need spare gears. The rack looks fabulous!
> 
> Sent from my SM-T500 using Tapatalk



Oops, looks like I ninja edited on you. LOL!

I'm not sure that Stronger is the right word. Harder I woudl agree with. But I find it's much easier to get pla prints to break (typically, separates at the layers). All things equal, I find abs achieves a much stronger layer bond than PLA prints. Maybe it's because of the higher printing temps, dunno.....

as I mentioned int he ninja edit, I suspect a lot of people have a preference for PLA because it's easier to get started with as it has a wider "margin for error" on the operators part. I also found i easier to start with PLA, but once I had a little experience under my bet, ABS became The King for me.

Thanks for the compliment on the rack. I can't take full credit for it though. I downloaded the STL off thingiverse and the printer is doing the rest.....


----------



## mmcmdl

Bolts .....................  10,000 bolts around this house , 50 times that in at work . I have to mount a winch and don't have what I need . I never do . Off to the Ace across the street .


----------



## Brento

When you come back home you will find those bolts you bought.


----------



## woodchucker

I had done this the other day, I got tired of taking out the wrench, and I kept procrastinating making a new screw with a head that I could add an arm to.  So I silver soldered a nut after slitting the head of the screw and grinding a flat on the washer. I used to do this all the time when I didn't have thumb screws.  debur the edge of the washer and all is good.


----------



## GoceKU

Another week another starter motor burned. This time i've replaced it with a used unit. This is the starter from white elephant No: 2, this car has been having issues very often lately. Thankfully is not so hard to remove and install, but the battery and battery tray need to come out. From the looks that starter is overamping, in the past it had similar issues. The new (to this car) i install has one more tooth on its bendex that should help.


----------



## wachuko

This was easy... I already had a piece of Delrin with the right dimensions... only needed to round the corners... Made for a nice gib for the 3-Ton arbor press...


----------



## NCjeeper

Finally got the big Jet lathe powered up today. Holy cow electrical supply costs are through the roof. That male & female 60 amp 4 prong connectors were $334 dollars from McMaster- Carr.   My local supply house couldn't even get them.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

I don't know if it counts as a project, but I picked up this little cutie today. She has the most awesome ears! I can't see her hanging around for long


----------



## FOMOGO

Boy! that's nuts. I think I would have been hard wiring that one in. Mike



NCjeeper said:


> That male & female 60 amp 4 prong connectors were $334 dollars from McMaster- Carr.  My local supply house couldn't even get them.


----------



## NCjeeper

FOMOGO said:


> Boy! that's nuts. I think I would have been hard wiring that one in. Mike


Yep. And the #6-3 wire is 7 dollars a foot. I needed 50 feet of it. It just kept getting better.


----------



## great white

Was printing off a collet rack for my er32 spring collets. Somehow, pressure built up in the hit end head and it blew out the threads holding the heat break to the heater block. Melted abs went absolutely everywhere!

With the threads gone, I needed a new heater block. I run an e3d volcano hot end, so it was going to take several days to a week to get replacements.

So down to my new mill and start taking stock of what I have to work with. I’ve literally had the lathe 3 days now, so nearly no tooling for it. So I took the drill press vice and bolted it to the table on the mill. I only have a couple end mills and nothing to hold them in. So I had to use the drill chuck to hold the cutters. Not ideal for many reasons, but I kept the cuts very light and only shaved half width at a time.

To sum up, i got it done after a couple hours fiddling around and the 3d printer is up and running again. Should be able to pull the collet rack off the print bed within the hour.

So I’m not sure if my POTD is the 3d printed collet rack or the heater block I had to make for the printer on the mill so I could make the rack for the mill….


----------



## erikmannie

This isn’t done, but it almost looks like it in the photos. I still need to do a combination bevel/plug weld in the bottom & then face that weld down flush. 

This is 3/4” A36HR plate with an Aloris tool post press fit in the center. I turned down the bottom of the tool post (thereby removing the threads) to a .629” OD shoulder. I purposely made the shaft a little too short in order to leave room for the plug weld.

On the plate, I drilled 5/8” and then bored it out to .630” for a press fit. I used a hydraulic press to press it in. I had to hit the post a few times with a plastic-tipped hammer to get it square.

I love to machine the bevels before I weld. You can see where I machined 45° bevels on both the plate and shaft. I got some chatter on the bevels in the plate.

This project is a home for a tool post crane. One has to remove some of the mounting bolts if one is to swing around the tool post.

My vise weighs 145 pounds, and I will use to crane to remove or replace the vise. I didn’t buy the tool post crane for the milling machine. I already had it for my heavy lathe chucks.















Edit:
I can see that I will need to recess all those bolts & washers so I can swing the tool post around.


----------



## great white

Spring collet rack:




Turned out so well started a coupke R8 collet racks:



If you look closely, you’ll see the aluminum heat block I had to turn out on the new mill. Its not perfect, but it works fine. It has a little more mass than the original and while it takes a smidge longer to heat, it holds a more stable temp when printing. The nozzle in the block has a tendency to cool a lit when printing with a nozzle as large as I’m using (1.0 mm).

The racks are meant to wall mount on a set on DIN rails. But, those are nearly impossible to find around here.

So I cruised the local hardware store and came up with some deck edging which had a “Z” section that fits the racks perfectly. Best part was they were on clearance for a buck a piece. So I grabbed ten 3 foot sections. Only thing is they’re a sage green color, but a quick rattlecan pass will fix that right up.


----------



## woodchucker

great white said:


> Spring collet rack:
> 
> View attachment 411558
> 
> 
> Turned out so well started a coupke R8 collet racks:
> 
> View attachment 411559
> 
> They’re meant to hang off a set on DIN rails. But, those are nearly impossible to find around here.
> 
> So I cruised the local hardware store and came up with some deck edging which had a perfect “Z” section that fits the racks perfectly. Best part was they were on clearance for a buck a piece. So I grabbed ten 3 foot sections. Only thing is they’re a sage green color, but a quick rattlecan pass will fix that right up.


why isn't there a smooth top layer coveringing the fill?


----------



## great white

woodchucker said:


> why isn't there a smooth top layer coveringing the fill?


It is “smooth” and what you’re looking at is the top layer (well, bottom as this was printed face down), but I’m printing with a big 1.0 mm nozzle. The bigger the nozzle, the more visible the layers.

But you need a new hotend if you plan to print with the bigger nozzles. You just can’t put that much flow through a stock heater and expect it to be able to keep up with the melting. Most printers are sized for a 0.4 nozzle and barely can handle that. I’m using an e3d “volcano” hot end, which can handle some crazy big nozzles.

Doesn’t effect anything but looks. A little acetone smoothing, spot putty and rattlecan will make it smoother than any printer can make.

But using a big nozzle cuts the print tine fron a couple days to 5-6 hours. 3D printing, I find, is about making compromises to get the most suitable result for what you want to use it for. I traded off time for a little more layer vis, which I’m going to fix in post print processing anyways….


----------



## matthewsx

great white said:


> Was printing off a collet rack for my er32 spring collets. Somehow, pressure built up in the hit end head and it blew out the threads holding the heat break to the heater block. Melted abs went absolutely everywhere!
> 
> With the threads gone, I needed a new heater block. I run an e3d volcano hot end, so it was going to take several days to a week to get replacements.
> 
> So down to my new mill and start taking stock of what I have to work with. I’ve literally had the lathe 3 days now, so nearly no tooling for it. So I took the drill press vice and bolted it to the table on the mill. I only have a couple end mills and nothing to hold them in. So I had to use the drill chuck to hold the cutters. Not ideal for many reasons, but I kept the cuts very light and only shaved half width at a time.
> 
> To sum up, i got it done after a couple hours fiddling around and the 3d printer is up and running again. Should be able to pull the collet rack off the print bed within the hour.
> 
> So I’m not sure if my POTD is the 3d printed collet rack or the heater block I had to make for the printer on the mill so I could make the rack for the mill….


I got tools to make tools to fix tools 

John


----------



## wachuko

Working on the handles to finish the float locking vise…

One for the c-clamp, one for the top block.


----------



## erikmannie

It took me 9 hours to countersink these bolts. This was my first time using a boring head on my new milling machine. I was boring to a shoulder.

I had to modify all of the bolts. I shortened the bolts just short enough to do the job (i.e. the bolts are as long as they can possibly be). I also had to face off the top of the bolt heads in order to allow the maximum amount of material under the washer because this plate is going to have a lot of stress on it.


----------



## Brento

Why use hex bolts instead of like low head cap screws? Im just curious.


----------



## Parlo

Brento said:


> Why use hex bolts instead of like low head cap screws? Im just curious.


Or countersunk or button heads, they also have a low profile.


----------



## Just for fun

erikmannie said:


> It took me 9 hours to countersink these bolts. This was my first time using a boring head on my new milling machine. I was boring to a shoulder.
> 
> I had to modify all of the bolts. I shortened the bolts just short enough to do the job (i.e. the bolts are as long as they can possibly be). I also had to face off the top of the bolt heads in order to allow the maximum amount of material under the washer because this plate is going to have a lot of stress on it.
> 
> View attachment 411638
> 
> View attachment 411639
> 
> View attachment 411640


Sounds like there were a few other options you could have did but what you did looks just fine.  Good job!


----------



## GoceKU

Today i had to recover the white elephant No:2 it had a dead battery, and its not charging. I did replace the regulator but the copper contacts on the rotor in the alternator have worn down to the insolation. It charged for a minute but then stopped again. So it needs an alternator, like on any VW it is very difficult to replace. By the book the entire front needs to come out, also both radiators need to be disconnected and coolant and freon drained. I don't plan to do that especially how expensive R134 freon is. I call around got a rebuilt alternator 50$ and began the disassembly. I had to remove the power steering pump as well to get space and the fan belt tensioner. Those tensioners are very hard to install back, they have a strong spring and the absorber is hard to push, so i got an idea i place it in my Lathe, 3 jaw chuck grabs it perfectly. Then i used a pry bar to tension it and an drill bit to lock it. With the belt back on i just pull out the drill bit. With everything assembled It is charging. I'm glad to be done it took awhile.


----------



## finsruskw

Making another run of this part.
Making the 2 bends is the worst of it but my approach seems to do the trick.
These are the lift arm bracket for front mounted implements on a narrow frame Cub Cadet garden tractor.


----------



## NCjeeper

Well one step forward and one step back. I got the big Jet lathe under power finally. Nice to see it finally run. Unfortunately, there was a noise coming from the back of the headstock. I think I have tracked it down. The drive pulley that turns the input shaft into the headstock was loose. After taking off the belts and removing the pulley I found some issues. The retaining nut had backed off or was not tight enough, and this allowed the pulley to back off the tapered shaft and wobble around. Prolonged use like this damaged the taper in the pulley and the keyway. So looks like the fix is going to be to bore out the pulley bore. Then sleeve it and cut the taper in it. Then cut the keyway. So what do you think the best material is to use to sleeve it with? The pulley is cast iron. I was thinking bronze.


----------



## woodchucker

how's the shaft look?
It really won't matter what material. it is a non-moving fixed part. if it was a moving part, bronze. With the expense of bronze, any handy metal will work, just glue it in with loctite or press fit it in.


----------



## extropic

NCjeeper said:


> Well one step forward and one step back. I got the big Jet lathe under power finally. Nice to see it finally run. Unfortunately, there was a noise coming from the back of the headstock. I think I have tracked it down. The drive pulley that turns the input shaft into the headstock was loose. After taking off the belts and removing the pulley I found some issues. The retaining nut had backed off or was not tight enough, and this allowed the pulley to back off the tapered shaft and wobble around. Prolonged use like this damaged the taper in the pulley and the keyway. So looks like the fix is going to be to bore out the pulley bore. Then sleeve it and cut the taper in it. Then cut the keyway. So what do you think the best material is to use to sleeve it with? The pulley is cast iron. I was thinking bronze.



Yes, how did the shaft survive?

The material is important. Unless you can guarantee that the axial compression from the retaining nut will always (100%) be sufficient to prevent torque from spinning the pully (in which case you don't need a key at all, HaHa), make the sleeve from at least CRS. Can't you buy an OEM replacement pully? OEM replacement should insure correct taper and you don't have to mess with it.

Add torqueing that nut to your Preventative Maintenance list.

If you make a sleeve, I recommend press fit and putting a Dutch key or two in.

Dutch key: best explanation I could quickly find. Pins are as good as screws for permanent assemblies.





						Different type of shaft key (Dutch Key) - HomemadeTools.net
					

Hi All This is the method I have used on several projects to lock a nut to a piece of studding or a plain collar to a shaft (If placed at the end of a



					www.homemadetools.net


----------



## NCjeeper

I can look around, but the lathe is from 1980 so I don't think I am going to locate another pulley. CRS sounds good. Another machinist just mentioned the same thing.


----------



## woodchucker

I would just make a plug. The dutch key is a good idea too. I would go with a set screw, not a pin. That way you can remove it if needed.
I don't like just installing a screw and cutting it off if I can avoid it.  Also the threads lock it in so it can't come out of the sheave. So it does the job two ways... win, win.


----------



## erikmannie

Brento said:


> Why use hex bolts instead of like low head cap screws? Im just curious.



When I first designed this project in my head, I did not realize that the top surface needed to be flush. I bought Grade 8 bolts & washers.

Later, while I was actively working on the project, I went to the local hardware store, but their “flush profile” hardware only went up to 1/4”.


----------



## AGCB97

NCjeeper said:


> The drive pulley that turns the input shaft into the headstock was loose. After taking off the belts and removing the pulley I found some issues. The retaining nut had backed off or was not tight enough, and this allowed the pulley to back off the tapered shaft and wobble around. Prolonged use like this damaged the taper in the pulley and the keyway.


I would just try cleaning both pieces with a file, Loktite in a new key and give it a try. If runout and wobble are OK, then you're done except for a vigilant eye on it for a while. If not, then proceed with a more aggressive rebuild. It's only a pulley.
Aaron


----------



## wachuko

Judge away for taking shortcuts... I learned the correct way, well, several correct ways, for making these.  Thanks to the folks here.  But did I try to do them that way... nope.   I have several more that I need to make and will give it a try later.  For now, I just wanted this finished.

Two 5/16"x5" bolts would do for now... a little bit of time on the lathe and voila... handles. I will finish them off when I get to Orlando.







The other thing I was not paying attention is my sweat falling on the chuck... son of a gun... I sweat just thinking about it... and as I have learned from you folks, blood and sweat are no good for the machines...




Took a 3M pad and tried cleaning it... apply some way oil... but already stained for life...


----------



## mmcmdl

wachuko said:


> blood and sweat are no good for the machines...


Nor tears . Run it like you stole it !


----------



## wachuko

mmcmdl said:


> Nor tears...



I will try to hold those back.  I just get so emotional when I finish making a part.... and I have not even tried using the parting tool...


----------



## great white

Continuing to sort out tooling storage solutions:


----------



## erikmannie

I finished this project. I used abrasives to improve the finish on the top (visible) side.

I put a small TIG socket weld around the top of the plate where it meets the shaft. I had originally planned only to weld the bottom (which I did with 6010), but I figured since I had such a nice fit up, why not stitch it up while it is still clean?

I also included pictures of using a shell mill to face the bottom after I did the combination socket/plug weld. I followed that operation with a fly cutter.


----------



## wachuko

@erikmannie that is just way too cool... and sure looks like it is very useful.


----------



## erikmannie

wachuko said:


> @erikmannie that is just way to cool... and sure looks like it is very useful.



It has one issue right out of the gate. There is undercut on the TIG socket weld! There is almost no room there for a weld bead.

The tool post (block) has a sleeve in it that goes all the way down the tool post, and the whole base of the tool post is flush with the plate.

The only way that I can think to rectify this is to put a proper socket weld bead there, and then machine this weld bead down to flush with both the plate and shaft. This way, the top of the plate and bottom of the shaft would meet at a hard 90°.


----------



## wachuko

erikmannie said:


> It has one issue right out of the gate. There is undercut on the TIG socket weld! There is almost no room there for a weld bead.
> 
> The post has a sleeve in it that goes all the way down the shaft, and the base of the tool post obviously goes all the way to the plate.
> 
> The only way that I can think to rectify this is to put a proper socket weld bead there, and then machine it down to flush with the plate and flush with the shaft. This way, the top of the plate and bottom of the post would meet at a hard 90°.


I did not know these little cranes existed.  I have bookmarked their site, https://skyhook.cc/premium-tool-post-mount-sky-hooks.html 

Whenever I get my workshop built, I will look into adding something like this, but mobile.  I am not getting any younger and that 4-jaw chuck for the G0709 is heavy...


----------



## erikmannie

wachuko said:


> I did not know these little cranes existed.  I have bookmarked their site, https://skyhook.cc/premium-tool-post-mount-sky-hooks.html
> 
> Whenever I get my workshop built, I will look into adding something like this, but mobile.  I am not getting any younger and that 4-jaw chuck for the G0709 is heavy...



The company that sells the Sky Hook is located in Idaho, and they are an absolute joy to deal with.

It was an easy decision for me to spend money in order to minimize the likelihood of a back injury!


----------



## mattthemuppet2

that is really slick, nice work Erik! In future, you can counterbore socket holes with an endmill rather than a boring head. Takes alot less time and the finish is almost as good. I keep alot of odd size endmills around for this purpose, eg. counterbores for metric SHCS tend not to match up with regular fractional endmills.


----------



## Firstram

erikmannie said:


> It has one issue right out of the gate. There is undercut on the TIG socket weld! There is almost no room there for a weld bead.
> 
> The post has a sleeve in it that goes all the way down the shaft, and the whole base of the tool is flush with the plate.
> 
> The only way that I can think to rectify this is to put a proper socket weld bead there, and then machine this weld bead down to flush with both the plate and shaft. This way, the top of the plate and bottom of the shaft would meet at a hard 90°.


Looks fantastic but that stud is sketchy. I would replace it and only tack weld the head in a counter bored hole, like the top side. You only need to stop the bolt from turning, the head will hold it in place. Grade 8 bolts don't do well with welding especially with an undercut at the top edge of the plate, that is a perfect place for a crack to start.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

So this potd 
	

		
			
		

		
	



Lead to this while my wife was working on the work computer


Which lead to this


And then this


Works just like it should, wife is happy and little pest is out of the dig house


----------



## woodchucker

but look at that face... and those ears...   hahaha


----------



## mattthemuppet2

And don't forget the paws! Taking her to an adoption drive this Saturday, so fingers crossed. I just keep telling myself, we can't have three dogs, we can't have three dogs...


----------



## Just for fun

I made a clamp tight type tool.  I made a couple mistakes along the way but in the end it turned out OK. 




I have a question though, how would you hold the handle to drill and tap it?  
	

		
			
		

		
	




This is my setup, but it seems like there should be a better way.   It worked fine for drilling but the little v-block clamps sure were in the way when it came time for tapping.


----------



## wachuko

Just for fun said:


> I made a clamp tight type tool.  I made a couple mistakes along the way but in the end it turned out OK.
> 
> 
> 
> I have a question though, how would you hold the handle to drill and tap it?
> 
> This is my setup, but it seems like there should be a better way.   It worked fine for drilling but the little v-block clamps sure were in the way when it came time for tapping.


Same setup you have to hold it but use a tap wrench like this one?


----------



## Just for fun

That would do the trick.


----------



## wachuko

Or hold it with a 5C collect block?


----------



## 682bear

Why not just clamp it directly in the vise?

Drill, counterbore, and tap all in the same setup... 

-Bear


----------



## John O

Just for fun said:


> I have a question though, how would you hold the handle to drill and tap it?
> 
> 
> put it in the vise using a parallel to keep it level, tighten vise remove parallel drill and tap


----------



## Parlo

Hold it in a vice and pop a level on the top. If you haven't levelled your machine, pop the level on the bed and note the position of the bubble and use the position as a reference. I use a Starrett 135A pocket level, it is accurate to 17 / 21 minutes, you will be surprised how accurate it is. I wouldn't be without one.


----------



## woodchucker

Just for fun said:


> I made a clamp tight type tool.  I made a couple mistakes along the way but in the end it turned out OK.
> 
> View attachment 411868
> 
> 
> I have a question though, how would you hold the handle to drill and tap it?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 411873
> 
> 
> This is my setup, but it seems like there should be a better way.   It worked fine for drilling but the little v-block clamps sure were in the way when it came time for tapping.
> 
> 
> View attachment 411874
> View attachment 411875


I put theV blocks on their side against the fixed jaw, put the material in, then the material in against, and the moveable jaw holding it into the v.
I would leave a little hanging out the side to be able to run an edge finder against it.


----------



## Just for fun

@John O, I had it setup like that to start with but didn't think about removing the parallels.


----------



## Just for fun

Parlo said:


> Hold it in a vice and pop a level on the top. If you haven't levelled your machine, pop the level on the bed and note the position of the bubble and use the position as a reference. I use a Starrett 135A pocket level, it is accurate to 17 / 21 minutes, you will be surprised how accurate it is. I wouldn't be without one.



I'll look into getting one of those levels.


woodchucker said:


> I put theV blocks on their side against the fixed jaw, put the material in, then the material in against, and the moveable jaw holding it into the v.
> I would leave a little hanging out the side to be able to run an edge finder against it.



I had the part between the two V blocks once, but no room to drill.  Obviously, I didn't think about putting them on one side. 

Thanks for the replies everyone, I appreciate all the ideas.


----------



## extropic

Just for fun said:


> I have a question though, how would you hold the handle to drill and tap it?



Nice looking project, and you'll use it many times.

There are many ways to hold it. If I wanted to use the V blocks, I would replace the extra long clamp screws with some setscrews or socket head cap screws of a more friendly length. I would use a piece of material under the clamp screws to protect the workpiece. I think I would elevate the V blocks, on parallels so the clamps were above the vise jaws, and clamp directly on the the V blocks.

Actually, I think I would have squeezed it between two 1/8" pieced of aluminum, elevated on a wide parallel near the top of the vise jaws. Slide out the parallel before drilling through. The V blocks just add complexity.


----------



## Just for fun

extropic said:


> Nice looking project, and you'll use it many times.
> 
> There are many ways to hold it. If I wanted to use the V blocks, I would replace the extra long clamp screws with some setscrews or socket head cap screws of a more friendly length. I would use a piece of material under the clamp screws to protect the workpiece. I think I would elevate the V blocks, on parallels so the clamps were above the vise jaws, and clamp directly on the the V blocks.
> 
> Actually, I think I would have squeezed it between two 1/8" pieced of aluminum, elevated on a wide parallel near the top of the vise jaws. Slide out the parallel before drilling through. The V blocks just add complexity.



Thanks for the pro tip, the one thing you mention is protecting the piece with aluminum.  I need to do that more as I have noticed several nicks, scratches and marks not only on the handle but a few of the other thing I have made.

Now I need to shop for some wide parallels.  More tools.  LOL


----------



## Parlo

Just for fun said:


> I'll look into getting one of those levels.
> 
> 
> I had the part between the two V blocks once, but no room to drill.  Obviously, I didn't think about putting them on one side.
> 
> Thanks for the replies everyone, I appreciate all the ideas.


Find the edge of the fixed jaw then pop the vee blocks against the moveable jaw and the part on the fixed jaw, then move the radius of the part.
Or, hold the part on its ends if you don't have a vee block.


----------



## extropic

Just for fun said:


> Now I need to shop for some wide parallels.  More tools.  LOL


 Sorry buddy, LOL. I didn't mean to push you into buying more tooling. Not that it takes more than a slight touch, LOL.

I mentioned 'wide' parallel because it can be a bit fiddly to support your part, tangent to a thin parallel, along it's full length. 1/2" wide parallel, no problem. 

Collecting an assortment of HSS lathe tool bits (square and rectangular) is an easy way to have durable (hard) blocks on hand for shimming set-ups. Ground HSS tool bits are usually fairly parallel. I'll never have a lathe that can carry 1" square tools but I've bought a few (tool bits) when they've shown up at attractive prices.


----------



## ChazzC

Just for fun said:


> Thanks for the pro tip, the one thing you mention is protecting the piece with aluminum.  I need to do that more as I have noticed several nicks, scratches and marks not only on the handle but a few of the other thing I have made.
> 
> Now I need to shop for some wide parallels.  More





extropic said:


> Sorry buddy, LOL. I didn't mean to push you into buying more tooling. Not that it takes more than a slight touch, LOL.
> 
> I mentioned 'wide' parallel because it can be a bit fiddly to support your part, tangent to a thin parallel, along it's full length. 1/2" wide parallel, no problem.
> 
> Collecting an assortment of HSS lathe tool bits (square and rectangular) is an easy way to have durable (hard) blocks on hand for shimming set-ups. Ground HSS tool bits are usually fairly parallel. I'll never have a lathe that can carry 1" square tools but I've bought a few (tool bits) when they've shown up at attractive prices.


I've used 1/8" to 1/2" HSS lathe blanks for years for a range of work supporting. I recently added a "set" of 8mm wide x 100mm +/- long 12/14/16/18/20mm tall parallels made from 8mm x 200mm x (size) blanks, using a 4-1/2" angle grinder to cut them to length and my 2" x 42" belt sander to square up the ends. I also made a pair of 18mm x 18mm x 100mm parallels just because I came across a 200mm long blank at a good price. The wide parallels are very handy, particularly when supporting a workpiece held on the mill table.


----------



## wachuko

Finally... I can call this one DONE!


----------



## Steve-F

That turned out Really Nice Jaime!!


----------



## wachuko

Steve-F said:


> That turned out Really Nice Jaime!!


Thank you.  Learned a lot from that project.


----------



## Eyerelief

wachuko said:


> Finally... I can call this one DONE!


That looks great.  I built one a while back.  I find I use my drill press more often now because the vise is much more convenient than a typical drill press vise.


----------



## Just for fun

Very nice Jaime,  looks great!


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Agreed, you should be really proud of yourself, that looks pro made!


----------



## FOMOGO

Nice work on the vise. How easy is the handle to use? Kind of wondering if lengthening the rod to clear the end of the drill press table wouldn't speed things up. Mike


----------



## wachuko

FOMOGO said:


> Nice work on the vise. How easy is the handle to use? Kind of wondering if lengthening the rod to clear the end of the drill press table wouldn't speed things up. Mike


Funny, I had the same reaction when I first tested it.  But turns out it is easy to use.  I slide the vise close to the edge and secure the part.  This lets me turn the handle freely.   Then slide into position and lock it down.

But I have also tried with the vise in place (without sliding to the edge).  Just a bit cumbersome that way, but not too bad.  The shape of the handle lets you work it fine either way.  I really like it.


----------



## MikeWi

wachuko said:


> Finally... I can call this one DONE!



I'm curious why I've never seen anyone but the handle on the  other end so that you don't have the table in the way when you operate the handle?


----------



## NCjeeper

I finally finished my OD grinder.


----------



## erikmannie

I built this base out of structural steel. I used my new mill to bevel the angle iron so that I had nice beveled grooves for my 6010 (of course!) stick welding fun.

This stand will spend its whole life outdoors. It has a mast that goes in the sleeve on top of it. The arms for a weld test stand (which lives in the shop) go on that mast.

Ever since I brought in my new knee mill, I won’t SMAW, GMAW, FCAW or OAW in the shop. Only GTAW in the shop!












Edit:

As an experiment (and because I am lazy), I left the mill scale on the (pipe) sleeve on top. After I paint this, I will find out how corrosion goes depending on whether or not you remove the mill scale.

I guess I may as well post a picture after the first coat of paint.


----------



## extropic

erikmannie said:


> <snip     Ever since I brought in my new knee mill, I won’t SMAW, GMAW, FCAW or OAW in the shop. Only GTAW in the shop.    snip>



Nice stand.

Please elucidate your rationale for that preference. I don't think I've ever seen it written about before.


----------



## erikmannie

extropic said:


> Nice stand.
> 
> Please elucidate your rationale for that preference. I don't think I've ever seen it written about before.



Obviously, there’s no problem doing GTAW in the shop, as far as air quality and the risk of getting spatter on the precision ground machine tool tables & ways.

Add spatter, smoke and fumes, and right off the bat I would be looking for better air quality for my lungs. I’ve never seen spatter travel farther than 2 feet, but I don’t want a bunch of dust and metal BBs settling on my machine tools.

Doing GMAW, SMAW, FCAW and OAW in the garage makes for a lot of dust everywhere! I feel like I have enough to deal with just keeping up with the chips: I do a full (broom & dustpan) sweep every other day, and I blow out (leaf blower) at least once a week.


----------



## DLF

First part turned on my new 14x40 lathe: multifix toolpost locking pin.

It is a nice press-fit in the compound T-nut, but unfortunately the multifix is from china, hence one of the locking holes is not properly aligned and the locking pin binds a little. The other hole is spot on.

I also tried to hot blue the pin in the wife's owen. Only got a dark yellow, so I guess the owen's advertised 300 degree C is only on paper.




Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk


----------



## woodchucker

Just for fun said:


> I made a clamp tight type tool.  I made a couple mistakes along the way but in the end it turned out OK.
> 
> View attachment 411868
> 
> 
> I have a question though, how would you hold the handle to drill and tap it?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 411873
> 
> 
> This is my setup, but it seems like there should be a better way.   It worked fine for drilling but the little v-block clamps sure were in the way when it came time for tapping.
> 
> 
> View attachment 411874
> View attachment 411875


Here's what I was talking about the other day. I had to go to a funeral and with traffic it turned into an all day thing. So I am finally getting a chance to respond with pics. Either way works well. Even sticking out and supporting it with a jack..


----------



## dkemppai

Maybe not today, but in the last few days.

Put a pair of new doors on a 2011 fusion for the kid to start driving. Was wrecked, and doors took 95% of the damage. Little fender work needed. So ordered a few body hammers and dollies, and stud welder. Figure those will get used for the '57 chevy 2-door project coming up. 

Then refinished a table the kids had destroyed over the last 10-12 years. That was only about 6 hours of sanding, followed by trying to match 20 year old stain. 4 Good coats of poly should slow down the future damage...

Made a new handle for the dust collector. Stupid plastic parts, so the replacement is steel. Which gave a chance to try out the new gas lens kit for the No. 9 tig torch. The welds aren't the prettiest, but are solid enough. Small parts aren't super easy to weld, but much easer than MIG! Next the handle should get some paint, and get installed permanently.

Next on the list is redoing the driveway, and spreading a umpteen yards of topsoil where the grass hasn't been growing...

Oh, and gotta start getting the old sheldon lathe out of the basement. It's finally going in for a rebuild in mid July. Probably be back in Oct/Nov. Not sure i'll survive that long without it!

It's summer up here, so not much time to spend on the 'puter...  lol.


----------



## Just for fun

woodchucker said:


> Here's what I was talking about the other day. I had to go to a funeral and with traffic it turned into an all day thing. So I am finally getting a chance to respond with pics. Either way works well. Even sticking out and supporting it with a jack..
> View attachment 412042
> View attachment 412043



Thanks for the photos, that would have worked just fine.  Good idea.


----------



## GoceKU

Today was an interesting day with a different start. I got woken up by my phone my brother yaling flood flood. The up steers from my big garage got flooded. Water line going to a faucet blow and flooded the entire floor with a foot of water. So i went there, shut down the power went in and turn off the water. Went down to the garage to get my 12v pumps and the garage is also flooded, every hole where pipe is going thru the floor was leaking. Set up the pumps brought up couple of car batteries to power them, and dealt with most of the water. Before taking off to go to work, i did leave the windows open in the garage. After a 12 hour shift i come and most of the water was gone just some of the lower areas needed to be pumped out, which i did but i'll leave the power off in the garage because couple of the panels are still wet. Funny enough, i did wash the Little Niva and pulled it in the garage so it wont get dirty by the rain and still got dirty water all over it.


----------



## Just for fun

Bummer!


----------



## GoceKU

Yeah i hate it too, all my tools are wet, and i hate moisture, on the bright side its a solid concrete garage it will dry out, i just hope most of my electric tools still work.


----------



## woodchucker

GoceKU said:


> Yeah i hate it too, all my tools are wet, and i hate moisture, on the bright side its a solid concrete garage it will dry out, i just hope most of my electric tools still work.


the bearings will take a hit.
see if you can wd 40 them, then put a drop or 2 of oil in them. it will prevent them from rusting if you beat the rust. don't worry about greasing them, just get wd to force the moisture out of the bearings, then oil. you can figure out long term later.

same with air tools.. wd40, then flood with oil, then air.


----------



## woodchucker

my son was over a few weeks ago with the baby, he saw a bunch of hockey pucks, asked if he could have them (he plays) for practice. I said yep, I got them for you at a garage sale. Figured you could use them... Didn't know my rubber bench block was in that bunch.

So I made a new one from the 2 remaining pucks I had.
nothing special..  the white marks are from being stupid and forgetting how to use my PCD function... kept putting the holes where I didn't want them... I swear a mind is a terrible thing to waste, or go to waste.


----------



## wachuko

woodchucker said:


> my son was over a few weeks ago with the baby, he saw a bunch of hockey pucks, asked if he could have them (he plays) for practice. I said yep, I got them for you at a garage sale. Figured you could use them... Didn't know my rubber bench block was in that bunch.
> 
> So I made a new one from the 2 remaining pucks I had.
> nothing special..  the white marks are from being stupid and forgetting how to use my PCD function... kept putting the holes where I didn't want them... I swear a mind is a terrible thing to waste, or go to waste.
> View attachment 412349


I just got 10 that someone gave me… this is a great idea… 

Any details on what I need to do?  Or these are just random holes?  What size is the cut in the center?


----------



## woodchucker

wachuko said:


> I just got 10 that someone gave me… this is a great idea…
> 
> Any details on what I need to do?  Or these are just random holes?  What size is the cut in the center?


I just made different sizes, I think 1/2, then whatever the clearance holes are for 3/8 , 5/16 and 1/4..
I just grabbed them from my tapping index.

edit: did I mention the hours of searching for my old rubber block... before I figured out what might have happened and gave him a call..


----------



## wachuko

woodchucker said:


> I just made different sizes, I think 1/2, then whatever the clearance holes are for 3/8 , 5/16 and 1/4..
> I just grabbed them from my tapping index.


And the V cut along the diameter of the puck?  Is that just using a 1/2” - 90 degrees end mill to cut it?
​


----------



## woodchucker

wachuko said:


> And the V cut along the diameter of the puck?  Is that just using a 1/2” - 90 degrees end mill to cut it?
> ​


I just put it in a palmgren drill press vise, that allows me to change the angle, and put that in my vise.
set 45 using a digital cube, then cut across using a regular 1/2 end mill.  I measured did the trig, and figured out how far to lower it for the depth I wanted.. and then I improvised... slightly.


----------



## wachuko

woodchucker said:


> I just put it in a palmgren drill press vise, that allows me to change the angle, and put that in my vise.
> set 45 using a digital cube, then cut across using a regular 1/2 end mill.  I measured did the trig, and figured out how far to lower it for the depth I wanted.. and then I improvised... slightly.


Thank you.  I have a end mill that I bought for doing the groove on the float lock vise... so covered there.

I will get to it... oh, and obviously I do not know how to count... I actually got 12... I use most of them for when working in the cars... I place them on the lift to avoid damaging the metal...


----------



## mmcmdl

wachuko said:


> I will get to it... oh, and obviously I do not know how to count... I actually got 12... I use most of them for when working in the cars... I place them on the lift to avoid damaging the metal...


You keep those pucks around , next thing you know a fight breaks out !


----------



## silverhawk

I also use hockey pucks as jack pads.  They do a fabulous job of protecting the under carriage.


----------



## silverhawk

Today, I used my first work stop on a mill (and subsequently on a drill press) to get four symmetrical parts.  One of my family members love to make pens, and I ended up with a plate of 1/4" thick acrylic.  I'd drilled holes, and cut the pieces out (that stuff is scary on a table saw - if it grabs, it's going moving, so I definitely took my time and put in a lot of care to not have pieces of plastic turning into deadly projectiles).  Anyway, the family member loves the look of gold, so I used the next best thing for shelf sides - brass.  




First milled them all to size.  The angle was milled one at a time, with a tool makers vise in an angle vise.  Obviously, if I'm willing to cut acrylics on a table saw, I'm willing to do things that are sketchy.




After the parts were milled, I used a second work stop on a drill press to keep things consistent.  I didn't get pictures of that (it was getting too hot and I was tired of perspiring).  But, I "set it up" to see how it will look when I get the screws and washers.






I still need to sand the sides down to get rid of any scale from production (does brass have mill scale?).  I think it will make a good decoration.


----------



## Gnpenning

silverhawk said:


> View attachment 412410
> 
> 
> I still need to sand the sides down to get rid of any scale from production (does brass have mill scale?).  I think it will make a good decoration.



Go to your local key cutting place, they should have plenty.  

I've got a buddy that is a lock smith and saves some for me.  Combine with resin and fill knot holes.


----------



## woodchucker

silverhawk said:


> Today, I used my first work stop on a mill (and subsequently on a drill press) to get four symmetrical parts.  One of my family members love to make pens, and I ended up with a plate of 1/4" thick acrylic.  I'd drilled holes, and cut the pieces out (that stuff is scary on a table saw - if it grabs, it's going moving, so I definitely took my time and put in a lot of care to not have pieces of plastic turning into deadly projectiles).  Anyway, the family member loves the look of gold, so I used the next best thing for shelf sides - brass.
> 
> View attachment 412408
> 
> 
> First milled them all to size.  The angle was milled one at a time, with a tool makers vise in an angle vise.  Obviously, if I'm willing to cut acrylics on a table saw, I'm willing to do things that are sketchy.
> 
> View attachment 412407
> 
> 
> After the parts were milled, I used a second work stop on a drill press to keep things consistent.  I didn't get pictures of that (it was getting too hot and I was tired of perspiring).  But, I "set it up" to see how it will look when I get the screws and washers.
> 
> View attachment 412409
> 
> View attachment 412410
> 
> 
> I still need to sand the sides down to get rid of any scale from production (does brass have mill scale?).  I think it will make a good decoration.


acrylic sands well with wet/dry paper, and finish it off with a light pass of a propane torch  (light keep it moving) it will show thru like the face. practice first on other pieces. Don't overdo it.


----------



## silverhawk

woodchucker said:


> acrylic sands well with wet/dry paper, and finish it off with a light pass of a propane torch  (light keep it moving) it will show thru like the face. practice first on other pieces. Don't overdo it.



I did run through a torch, but my impatience got the better of me.  if my perfectionism gets the better of me, I still might try (just not the lower shelf for it because I got fed up and glued it).


----------



## GoceKU

Today i had some time to spare so i decided to do a bit of cleaning. Today it's time to clean the inspection pit, first all the wooden covers come off and got pressure wash, also got a good scrubbing with degreaser. Then i removed all the lights, pressure washed the entire pit with soap, left it to dry took a short trip in the mountains. When i got back i installed new lights and reuse some of the old ones, pump out the water in the sump, also found and fix a short in one of the power sockets. I did left the first two light off, i'm planning to do something else there, because they get destroyed quickly.


----------



## erikmannie

I finished the *outside* base for my weld test stand. This base will live it’s whole life outside in the elements.

I also finished the telescoping shaft for the arm on the rollout wheel. This arm & rollout wheel will be brought indoors when not in active use.


----------



## wachuko

Wow.  That is massive!  Looks great.


----------



## erikmannie

wachuko said:


> Wow.  That is massive!  Looks great.



Thanks. I will save a lot of money not going to Welding school.


----------



## AGCB97

Several days project.
Started this 40 years ago. Thats when the 8" well casing was cemented into the floor. Last week I finally bought an I-beam and finished this light weight gib crane. Built the trolley and pivots. It is run by a 12-volt lawn tractor battery that is constantly charged with a smart charger. Also use the 12 volts for the slip roll, welding rotator and spindexer.
I'll probably limit the lifting to 500 pounds. For heavier lifts I'll still use the chain hoist on the support in the 1st pic.


----------



## extropic

AGCB97 said:


> Several days project.
> Started this 40 years ago. Thats when the 8" well casing was cemented into the floor. Last week I finally bought an I-beam and finished this light weight gib crane. Built the trolley and pivots. It is run by a 12-volt lawn tractor battery that is constantly charged with a smart charger. Also use the 12 volts for the slip roll, welding rotator and spindexer.
> I'll probably limit the lifting to 500 pounds. For heavier lifts I'll still use the chain hoist on the support in the 1st pic.



Do you intend to do any sort of proof test on the jib crane?


----------



## mattthemuppet2

I skim cut a couple of brake drums on my mill for a friends 500 fairlane project, but I couldn't do the front drums as the hub bearing is pressed into the drum and would get in the way of the boring head.

So I took this trashed 1" indexable ball nose endmill (with carbide shank center!!) and cut the insert pocket off. This was taking a break from the hacksaw to turn a fan on 



tidied up the end and bored a matching hole in a 1-1/4" cube of random steel



left a hearty bevel for welding it on, until my friend said he needed the brakes on the Fairlane working so he could get to his welder, so I JB welded and pinned it in place instead. Sliding fit was tight enough that I needed a couple of 6" lath chucks to stop the shank from popping back out



Then turned the shank down to 3/4"



and milled a set screw flat into the shank



here you can see the carbide core 



and what it looks like in the boring head



I'll let you all know how it works when I get the drums back to finish off


----------



## AGCB97

extropic said:


> Do you intend to do any sort of proof test on the jib crane?


Yes, I'll come up with some sort of test to not be surprised by anything.


----------



## erikmannie

I machined two 8” Sch 40 pipe coupons. Then I welded them together in the 1G position. 3/32” 6010 (at 60A) root, 1/8” 7018 (at 90A) fill & cap.

I welded the 7018 uphill from 10 o’clock to noon. I couldn’t get the 7018 to behave at even the slightest downhill angle.




The good: 

(1) I got no undercut on the two cap passes. 95A on the hot pass was causing undercut.

(2) The rollout wheel is one of the best purchase decisions of my entire life. I did not know that it would also make it easier to grind down the root pass.

(3) The coupons were so uneven, but I made adjustments while welding the root pass. After I ground down the root pass, I was very happy with the result.

The bad:

(1) The coupons were recycled from a previous weld. I parted it right at the old seam. The pipe coupons turned out so poorly because I bored & turned them down just enough to get a perfect pipe on each side, but after this they had a different ID. The coupons looked great by themselves, but I was horrified when I put them together to see how poorly they matched up.

(2) I was not successful blending the 7018 restarts. If I can’t figure this out, I am going to grind down the end of the old bead (when I ran out of rod) before I put in the next bead. I do know to warm up the first inch of the welding area before I establish the puddle (so that the beginning of the bead has enough heat).


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Finished up the brake drums. Annoyingly the bore for the boring bar was slightly off vertical, causing the shank to rub when the tip was near the bottom. I knew I should have done it on my mill, not the drill press. Turned the holder round the other way and it worked a treat. I'll have to re-do the set screws and set screw flat, but it did the job


----------



## Just for fun

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Finished up the brake drums. Annoyingly the bore for the boring bar was slightly off vertical, causing the shank to rub when the tip was near the bottom. I knew I should have done it on my mill, not the drill press. Turned the holder round the other way and it worked a treat. I'll have to re-do the set screws and set screw flat, but it did the job
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 412524



Great idea, looks like it worked well also.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

thanks! It did the job and my friend was happy. It had a fair bit of chatter with a CCMT insert, but that mostly disappeared with a CCGT insert, though each tip only lasted about 1 drum. Good chance I'll never use this again, but if I do it'll be handy to have!


----------



## erikmannie

I did a 1G on 1” plate: 6010 root, 6010 hot pass (I had planned on 7108 for the hot pass, but the root weld failed to penetrate all the way), 7018 the rest of the way out.

I had to switch from the fixture stand to the welding table halfway through because the plate was warping on the fixture stand.

I am also including embarrassing photos of the 7018 cap on pipe from yesterday, as well as the satisfactory backside of the root weld in that pipe.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i had one cylinder head to refurbish. I clean the parts as i went and got lot of work done, staff like lapping and grinding the valves. Then i found out some one has broken then drilled one of the exhaust studs. It was a mess, but i used some good drill bits to drill the centre and an allen key to unscrew what was left. Then i run a tap to clean the threads and used some 2K epoxy to give it a chance to hold. I still need to refurbish the rocker arms and assemble everything but i run out of time for today.


----------



## dkemppai

GoceKU said:


> Today i had some time to spare so i decided to do a bit of cleaning. Today it's time to clean the inspection pit, first all the wooden covers come off and got pressure wash...


Spent a bit of time fixing things in the pit in my Dad's garage over the years. They don't like those around here anymore in new construction so my garage didn't get one. 

They are handy for some things, but it always seems like the walls are in the way for doing anything that isn't dead center of the vehicle. And around here it always seems like you're crawling into spiderwebs in the darned thing...


----------



## erikmannie

I am working on a long, wide flat plate that clamps in a weld test stand that serves to prevent distortion of test sheets and plates. The welder clamps the coupon on this flat plate.

Machined bevels & landings:



Setup to weld the root:



Ground down 6010 root:



Back side of root (which I had to weld because I failed to get full pen):



7018 hot pass:



CLEARLY I am having issues with everything about my weld beads. I invite any suggestions for improvement. This doesn’t need to be a horror show.


----------



## erikmannie

Here is the flat plate finished. The square part of the plate started out as a 1” weld test plate, but it warped badly when I welded it. If you look closely, you can see the underfill in the weld seam right down the middle.

I thought it was funny that the plate that got warped ended up being a flat backing for other plates so that this never happens again.

I included a picture of the fly cutter in action at 600 RPM, .0022” DOC and a feed of about 7 IPM.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i continue working on refurbishing this cylinder head, all small parts got cleaned. And i assemble it and set the valve lash, and this part is ready to be put in to service. Its suprasing how much time it takes to clean all the small parts and assemble everything.


----------



## dkemppai

erikmannie said:


> CLEARLY I am having issues with everything about my weld beads. I invite any suggestions for improvement. This doesn’t need to be a horror show.



So, let me start by stating that I've never stick welded. So this is sort of like the blind leading the blind. 
But in general, based on TIG and MIG a few things to try that might help. 

Before you run a bead, practice a dry run. Make sure you are comfortable going over the whole pass. If not, move so you are.  
Practice a dry run or two trying to maintain travel speed. If you speed up and slow down the weld can vary. 
With MIG there are patterns make to make the bead wider and uniform. Cursive 'e', or 'u' shapes.  I think you do the same with stick, sort of 'stitch' back and forth as you progress. 
Watch the edges of the puddle, and keep those within some boundary. Some straight line reference, imaginary or real. Something to focus on, and just touch the puddle against that as you go.  

Maybe this helps...   ...maybe not....


----------



## GoceKU

Well today i got to cleaning the corner of my workshop, it's always worrying when we have a clean spot in the shop. There is a machine that i've recently come to need because the prices have shot up. By tonight i plan to paint the corner and wash the tiles.


----------



## Boswell

GoceKU said:


> it's always worrying when we have a clean spot in the shop


Yep, clean floor space can become expensive


----------



## silverhawk

woodchucker said:


> acrylic sands well with wet/dry paper, and finish it off with a light pass of a propane torch  (light keep it moving) it will show thru like the face. practice first on other pieces. Don't overdo it.



That worked fabulously, woodchucker!  Thanks for the pointer!




And just to see something sitting on it :


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## GoceKU

Today after couple of setbacks and losing lots of time looking for tools i managed to paint the walls around the "free" corner, the paint is still wet but should cover evenly. Tomorrow i'll be taking a trip i'm debating should i take a trailer or just go and see.


----------



## FOMOGO

The 450inlb, X-axis, $135 Chinese power feed I had ordered came in a few days ago. The idea was to modify it to fit the Z-Axis on my BP mill. Finished it up today, and it works great. Required making a few parts and modifying a few more, but got her done. Sooo much nicer than cranking that handle, though it can still be used if needed, and the speed control goes right down to a crawl. Probably 95% of it's use will be running it on the rapid button, but nice to have the option. Really enjoyable figuring out how to make work out, and as usual, learned a few things along the way. Cheers, MIke


----------



## woodchucker

FOMOGO said:


> The 450inlb, X-axis, $135 Chinese power feed I had ordered came in a few days ago. The idea was to modify it to fit the Z-Axis on my BP mill. Finished it up today, and it works great. Required making a few parts and modifying a few more, but got her done. Sooo much nicer than cranking that handle, though it can still be used if needed, and the speed control goes right down to a crawl. Probably 95% of it's use will be running it on the rapid button, but nice to have the option. Really enjoyable figuring out how to make work out, and as usual, The 450inlb, X-axis, $135 Chinese power feed I had ordered came in a few days ago. The idea was to modify it to fit the Z-Axis on my BP mill. Finished it up today, and it works great. Required making a few parts and modifying a few more, but got her done. Sooo much nicer than cranking that handle, though it can still be used if needed, and the speed control goes right down to a crawl. Probably 95% of it's use will be running it on the rapid button, but nice to have the option. Really enjoyable figuring out how to make work out, and as usual, learned a few things along the way. Cheers, MIke
> 
> View attachment 412951
> View attachment 412952
> View attachment 412953


Mike, I am missing what you made.  
Did you make the part that the gear attaches to? and provides a stub for the manual cog?
Or did you make the part for the cog... you show the turnings, but I can't tell what the finished part is.


----------



## FOMOGO

The part I made was a threaded adapter to mate the bronze gear to the existing shaft. I reused the piece that I parted off of the bronze gear as a spacer to set backlash on the gear drive. Added some large washers on the hub of the gear to fit the original dial, and reused the original dial lock nut instead of the cheap plastic one that came with the unit. Then I drilled, and taped the original crank handle receiver for two 5/16 set screws, and drilled the shaft to accept them. The backlash is maintained by adding a few thin shims from the assortment that came with the unit between the handle reciever, and the gear hub. Should have taken a little more time to explain, and added a few more pics, but I was pretty bushed when I posted, so kept it brief. Mike


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Made some shelf brackets out of a piece of 1/8*3/4" steel I had lying around. Mig welded the support brackets on
	

		
			
		

		
	



Then painted them and cut a piece of random wood to size. Attached to the wall next to my mill
	

		
			
		

		
	



With my new boring head and some tooling. Might add a brace/ bracket to the cantilevered side but so far it doesn't seem to need it 
	

		
			
		

		
	




That's one job off my list, into the next one!


----------



## francist

I haven’t spent much time in the shop these past few months. Too busy at work to really want to start anything at home so I stick with things I can pick up or put down at any time. Ergo, another sewing machine!

Yup, I’m up to fifteen now and my latest conquest is coincidentally enough another Class 15 machine. It came in a “nothing special” desk that had been painted (somewhat poorly) white by well-intentioned owners in an attempt to smarten it up. But it doesn’t take up a lot of real estate so I decided to hang on to it. The only thing with these small Singer tables is they’re kind of short so a moderately sized male is often knocking kneecaps on the apron. Hoisting the thing up on 2x3’s was about right for height but didn’t do much for my aesthetic, so I came up with this idea for adding some adjustable feet.

I patterned the look after the familiar round-ended sewing desk hinges that appear on virtually every Singer cabinet from the past 100 years. The material is just some 16ga steel from the hardware store that I broke a ninety-degree bend into followed by a few countersunk holes. The actual weight bearing part is a small block of maple tapped to receive the el cheapo adjustable foot, also from the hardware store. Satin black spray paint I had in stock already, and even though it’s not the bronze look of the real Singer hinges it goes nicely with the warm grey that I painted the desk.
















It’s very rare that I start and finish a project in the same afternoon but this one I did. The finished feet give at minimum 1-1/2” of extra height with another 1/2” on top of that to make up for unevenness in the floor or whatnot. And they look like they belong, kind of.

Thanks for looking!

-frank


----------



## FOMOGO

Tell us more about this combination two burner stove/portable toilet I see in the background. Very clever concept.  Mike



mattthemuppet2 said:


> That's one job off my list, into the next one!


----------



## extropic

FOMOGO said:


> Tell us more about this combination two burner stove/portable toilet I see in the background. Very clever concept.  Mike


 I think those are two different boxes. Lord I hope so.


----------



## Brento

extropic said:


> I think those are two different boxes. Lord I hope so.


Its the new and improved budet.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

FOMOGO said:


> Tell us more about this combination two burner stove/portable toilet I see in the background. Very clever concept.  Mike


Oh that  The cubby under the stairs is where we keep our camping gear, although for the last 6 months it's been for tool storage


----------



## mmcmdl

Tell us more about this combination two burner stove/portable toilet I see in the background. Very clever concept.  Mike

A sign at one of my former employers ...................

Please flush twice , it's a long way to the cafeteria .


----------



## GoceKU

Today i bought a Tire changing machine, with the increase in prices, tire services have increased 4-5x in price. Tire puncture used to be 1-2$ to repair now 7-10$ and i'm maintaining 11 cars and servicing another 17 cars and trucks, so this is not something that i can outsource economically. One thing i never thought when i lift my little niva is the trailer. Now ridiculously uphill, the trailers bumper is scraping. I need a drop hitch but did not have it. The trailer coupler is very good so i had confidence to tow it couple city's away. The machine has spent some time outdoors and lots of time in direct sunlight but for the price is more than i was expecting. Throwing it back was difficult i did take couple of off road trails and dirt roads that shorten my trip a lot but i was going very slowly and the day was very warm. No issues getting it home but i was sun burn to unload it alone so i drove it in the big garage. I paid 300 euros for this machine, and i expect it will paid for itself by the end of the year.


----------



## extropic

GoceKU said:


> snip


 I enjoyed seeing pictures of the Niva looking so good.


----------



## wachuko

extropic said:


> I enjoyed seeing pictures of the Niva looking so good.


Same here!!  Super cool looking car!!


----------



## GoceKU

It's not much to look at but here you go.


----------



## extropic

GoceKU said:


> *It's not much to look* at but here you go.



I have to disagree with you about that. It seems like you are constantly doing minor/major repairs to one car or another, so I think you've forgotten what the Niva looked like during the resurrection. We've seen it stripped to the bone and we still remember. Once again,


----------



## woodchucker

extropic said:


> I enjoyed seeing pictures of the Niva looking so good.


yea , really looking good.


----------



## brino

GoceKU said:


> Today i bought a Tire changing machine............ and i expect it will paid for itself by the end of the year.



Goce, You got a very solid looking machine for a great price. Congratulations. 
We all knew that cleaned and painted corner of your shop would not be empty for long! 

I have a small manual machine that I bolt to the floor when I need it, like this:



It's not great, I have had to rebuild/reinforce it in a few places. 
It does work, but is always a great deal of blood and sweat.

For me though the limiting factor is balancing. I cannot do a dynamic tire balance in my shop. 
Therefore, lately I have gone to a tire shop as they will balance for free* when you pay for the other work.
(*I realize that I really do pay for the balancing in the final bill!)

You obviously have more automotive experience than I do!
Do you bother with tire balance?

Thanks,
Brian


----------



## GoceKU

I do get tires balanced especially on newer cars and low profile tires, in my experience 65-80 side profile tires don't care that much and good quality tires are balanced and many times don't need any weights. The tires on the little niva now are not balanced at all and they don't have any vibrations. Worse tires around here are Tigar tires made in serbia they may need 2-3 mounting and dismounting to get them with in specs to get balanced and still take 5-60 grams a side. On work vehicles and second hand tires i don't bother with balancing. I will be keeping my eye open for a tire balancer, few years ago there were 4-5 of them for sale for cheap.


----------



## Gnpenning

GogeKU you will find the tire machine will give you a quick pay back.  Hopefully you will find a reasonable priced balance before you need it. 

Several years ago I got tired of the local tire shops lack of quality and integrity and bought my own machines. I had several vehicles coming due for new tires.  Pretty much covered the purchase price.  The rest have been a bonus. 


I balance all my tires including trailer tires. Hauling horses several hundred miles and expecting them to be able to compete with numb legs is not something I do.  One of the problems I had with the tire stores is they wouldn't balance the trailer tires even after charging for it.  I wouldn't even get out of the lot. First thing I would check. Started doing it before I even went in.  I have a few trailers.


----------



## great white

Needed a taper wedge to get the mt3 taper out of my drill press.
I grabbed a little scrap 1018 out of the scraps bin, a little work on the mill and:




works great! One, two taps at most and the taper drops right out.

I’ll probably clean it up a little bit, round the edges over a bit more and throw it in the drill press drawer…


----------



## matthewsx

silverhawk said:


> That worked fabulously, woodchucker!  Thanks for the pointer!
> 
> View attachment 412923
> 
> 
> And just to see something sitting on it :
> 
> View attachment 412924


I used to do a lot of work with Plexiglass. Not for pens though


----------



## wachuko

Borrowed the router from the father-in-law and a bit... 




He has several... PorterCable, Bosch.... but he told me to use the Craftsman since he knows I am not too skilled with it, lol.  If I break it, he will not suffer much... 




There was a concern that the front was sticking out too much and would be an issue to get to the rear of the top drawer.  Luckily, not an issue... only sticks out 3-1/4" and I just checked and I can get to the back, no issues there. 




Some sanding, then used the router on the edges...  a little bit more sanding... and a coat of stain...  Waiting for it to dry to do the final sanding and a coat of clear...


----------



## mmcmdl

Cleaned up some of tools in the garage to take to the basement this morning . Now , cleaning tooling out of the bedroom for the basement . Separating all these will be interesting as to what I'll keep for the machines .   The women's final game is on ESPN in 3 minutes which I'll watch . We were supposed to go but the rain is pouring down !


----------



## woodchucker

mmcmdl said:


> Cleaned up some of tools in the garage to take to the basement this morning . Now , cleaning tooling out of the bedroom for the basement . Separating all these will be interesting as to what I'll keep for the machines .   The women's final game is on ESPN in 3 minutes which I'll watch . We were supposed to go but the rain is pouring down !


I built a new sifting box to separate my rock from dirt. I am redoing the edging around the pool, and there's so much dirt in the rock, I don't want all the weeds.. Anyway all that rain you are getting is humidity here. DewPoint is horrible... I've been working outside for a few days, and today, I am kicking back and chilling. Tomorrow the dew point should drop down to the 50s.. it's been 70s and 60s. I can handle the heat, but heat and humidity I melt.  Although, once I get going in the humidity I'm good, it's the going inside, and coming back out, when that wall of fire hits you.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i manage to unload the tire machine all by myself. I unhitch the trailer, push it in the side bay, turn around little niva hitch the trailer again and drove it to the small garage, i need to place the machine here because it's the only place i have 3 phase power. I back in the trailer which was difficult and had to push it in the rest of the way. Then come the fun part lowering down the 200kg machine without getting hurt and not damaging it. I remove the tail gate push it back to the wall and choked the tires, unbolted the machine from the trailer and slowly moved the tire chocks for the last part i used a pry bar to lower it gently. I plan to clean it up in this space and move it when is ready to use, i'm debating should i paint it or not.


----------



## BladesIIB

TV Roller Shelf Mount for Built In Cabinet - I wanted to mount a larger TV in my built in cabinet and came up with the idea to float my TV in front of the opening.  Since the built in is 2 feet deep, I could not find a wall mount that would work, also could not find any kind of stand where the legs did not stick out the front, so I built a shelf on ball bearing drawer slides to mount the TV and still be able to pull it out and access the space in behind.  

The design worked as planned and I am happy with how it turned out. I used 2.5" Aluminum angle iron and ½" Baltic Birch for the design.  The heavy duty Yenuo drawer slides I picked up on Amazon and are rated for 250lbs.


----------



## wachuko

Done… now to move stuff over…

Base blocks secured…


----------



## NCjeeper

I had some paying work come through the door. Farmer down the road tore up his bush hog. Ordered a new taper splined sleeve and now removing the old damaged one.


----------



## Brento

Today wasnt much machine related but my wife and I went to LEGOLAND for our 6th Wedding Anniversary and then went to a local place for dinner near the park.


----------



## woodchucker

Until I make a power draw bar holder on rods and springs for my Clausing 8520, I made a hanger holder.
The clausing does not have a flat top to mount it on, so I will have to make a thicker top, and some jack screws for the front.
Anyway, I decided to do a quick mount for the butterfly impact.. Man this makes it so easy. wish I had done it long ago. The clausing is difficult to pop the mt2 taper sometimes. this makes it easy.
The hanger needs to offset away from the air connector, it uses two internal bosses in the casting.

Still have to drill a hole in the holder for the spring, and need to make some collars to lock things in from moving. and chamfer some edges. Those blocks were brazed on with alum brazing rod. I used a 2-56 just in case. The black marks are from my Kant Twist, they were glowing red, so the copper left a deposit.


----------



## Brento

How does this help pop the mt2 taper out?


----------



## woodchucker

well, I don't know if your 8530 has it, but mine has this cap. So the drawbar pushes up against it. But many times I have to hit my wrench over and over to get it to pop the collet. This just impacts it.


----------



## erikmannie

I need an R8 (and 3/4” shank!) collet rack (or tray), but I have zero money. I used some welding coupons & 1” bar (that I was going to use for backing straps for weld test plates) to make this *frame* for an aluminum R8 collet tray. I am saving up for three 12” X 12”, 1/4” aluminum plates.

I need to make 2 more of these. This one isn’t even done. I will need to trim the inside so that the sheet doesn’t interfere with the tool shanks.

The rack will be 3 stories high, & the posts will be fillet brazed 1-1/4”, .050” wall muffler tubing.
















Yes, I ground my horrific 6010 welds, and I see that there is some underfill. It did turn out super flat, however!

Here are some of the single bevel (on 1/4”) & edge welds (two 1/8” sheets). These will go on the milling machine.








Next time I will knock off all the slag on the single bevel welds before I take the picture.


----------



## Brento

woodchucker said:


> well, I don't know if your 8530 has it, but mine has this cap. So the drawbar pushes up against it. But many times I have to hit my wrench over and over to get it to pop the collet. This just impacts it.
> View attachment 413213


No mine is different. I have a nut and then an acorn nut on top of the other. From what i gather you are suppose to use one nut to draw the collet up and the other is to tighten the drawbar. I end up having to give the acorn nut a good wack with my little 6/8 oz ballpeen and it pops down


----------



## erikmannie

I made the last two 1/4” thick structural steel shelves for the R8 tooling rack. It took me 5 hours to make these two. Each shelf is 8 pieces welded together.


----------



## erikmannie

I finished these two recycled 8” Sch 40 pipe welding coupons. They have been used a lot, and their life is nearing an end. The wall thickness is down to .192”, so they are quickly becoming tube welding coupons.

I like making my own because I can eliminate pretty much all of the High/Low and get the landing just the thickness that I want.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i spent some time cleaning the tire machine i recently bought. Started with taking off all the plastics, then i used a wire brush on a drill, fine sandpaper to clean off the rust from the sliding sufices. Then i decided to try out the machine, tested all the functions by their self they all work, it has couple of small air leaks but i put a tire on it and it takes and install it without any struggles. In Fact feels very strong, i'm very satisfied.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Two projects. One, I finished up a collet rack for my ER 32 violets using a jalapeno chili popper rack. It was supposed to go on the wall, but after much work I realized that was a dumb idea as they kept falling out. So now it's in the tool box just under where I planned to put it on the wall 


Just had to push the stuff already in it over to the left..

Also picked up another foster pup after Elektra got adopted last week, the sister of Bat Ears (Elektra). Hopefully we'll get her on her way to a new home soon


----------



## wachuko

Working on making the wood lathe look better... and fixing the pulley setup.  New shaft order to replace the one there now.  It is shorter and the pulleys were installed incorrectly by previous owner...

Parts removed, degreased, cleaned, sanded, and painted gray again...   Bottom board was sanded to get rid of all the paint it had in some areas and a coat of satin clear polyurethane applied... Top board was in much better condition.  So only cleaned that and installed back.


----------



## great white

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Two projects. One, I finished up a collet rack for my ER 32 violets using a jalapeno chili popper rack. It was supposed to go on the wall, but after much work I realized that was a dumb idea as they kept falling out. So now it's in the tool box just under where I planned to put it on the wall
> View attachment 413540
> 
> Just had to push the stuff already in it over to the left..
> 
> Also picked up another foster pup after Elektra got adopted last week, the sister of Bat Ears (Elektra). Hopefully we'll get her on her way to a new home soon
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 413541
> View attachment 413542
> View attachment 413543


You’re a stronger man than me. I’m a multiple “foster failure” father….


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Yeah, we had one of those too 
	

		
			
		

		
	




It's a bit heart breaking to see them go, but fabulous to see them in their new homes, so it kind of evens out


----------



## den-den

I cobbled up a tube bending die for a HF bender.  It did a good job on 1/2" 0.065 steel tubing.  I started with a piece of 5-1/2" OD pipe and wrapped two pieces of 3/8" square stock around it.  It is a square bottom groove and probably would not work well on real thin tube but is doing the job I built it for.


----------



## great white

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Yeah, we had one of those too
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 413549
> 
> 
> It's a bit heart breaking to see them go, but fabulous to see them in their new homes, so it kind of evens out


Here’s our current “foster failure”:


100% mutt.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

here's another pic of goofball #2, just for fun


----------



## silverhawk

wachuko said:


> Working on making the wood lathe look better... and fixing the pulley setup. New shaft order to replace the one there now. It is shorter and the pulleys were installed incorrectly by previous owner...
> 
> Parts removed, degreased, cleaned, sanded, and painted gray again... Bottom board was sanded to get rid of all the paint it had in some areas and a coat of satin clear polyurethane applied... Top board was in much better condition. So only cleaned that and installed back.
> 
> View attachment 413544


I want to know what kind of lathe. That looks fabulous. 

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk


----------



## wachuko

silverhawk said:


> I want to know what kind of lathe. That looks fabulous.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk



1963 Delta 1460 (46-460) - documenting all repairs on the Vintage Machines Forum


----------



## silverhawk

wachuko said:


> 1963 Delta 1460 (46-460) - documenting all repairs on the Vintage Machines Forum


That's a lot like my wood lathe (1942 Dunlap), you just have better clearance and a much nicer stand. As to the pulleys you mentioned in the other forum, you can cast your own pulleys if push comes to shove, or make/machine them on your metal lathe. Looks good!

Sent from my SM-T500 using Tapatalk


----------



## great white

mattthemuppet2 said:


> here's another pic of goofball #2, just for fun
> View attachment 413592


Our other boy:




He’s a pure though, Greater Swiss Mountain dog. 145 lbs. Working breed, used to haul milk carts around the Alps, guard sheep, etc. Record cart pull for a Swissy is just a tick over 5000 lbs.

But he’s also sort of a rescue.

He was born with a heart defect. long story short, the entire left side of his heart is a total s-show. Holes, murmurs, misformed valves, strange tendon structures in the left atrium, etc. You name it, he’s got it. Vet figured he didn’t get enough nutrients in the womb, as the mother had a litter of 17 (including ours) and 2 stillborn. Figures he might have been on the outer edge of where the uterine lining was so his umbilical didn’t get  as much as his body needed to grow properly.

Cardiologist only gave him a year or less (was actually indicating weeks to months). The breeder was a bit stuck: he couldn’t be “fixed” because of his condition (can’t be anesthetized) and she had two breeding females (one was his mother).

Multiple people on the wait list passed him up because of his heart and the only people that wanted to take him wanted to run him or work him, which would have killed him in short order.

The wife and I have had dogs with heart defects before, so we knew what we were getting into. The breeder was happy to just give him to us (and waive her fee) to get him out of her care and into someone’s who would take care of him properly. The breeder wouldn’t even take an offer to pay for his vaccinations, citing that she knew he was going to be expensive to keep, medically.

He just turned 5 last month.

We’ve got him on beta blockers and limit his exercise so as not to over strain his heart. I also make sure he gets lots of touch and interaction each day. Not sure if that helps, but I can’t help but feel it does as I believe he always feels like he belongs and is “special”.

Not one vet can explain how he’s beating the odds and they all want to “monitor” him. Ultrasounds, mri, ekg, etc because his case is so unusual. Both the severity of his defect and the fact he’s lived so long with it.

But I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth, nor am I subjecting him to the stress of those procedures (he goes nuts when he’s restrained). They can’t fix him so they really just want to use him as a lab rat/learning tool.

I get the “greater good” argument, but I see no need to stress him that way. My priorities are him just living what life he’s got left and enjoying what time we have left….together.

After all, he is “my boy”. Have to protect him.




/hijack


----------



## woodchucker

great white said:


> Our other boy:
> 
> View attachment 413614
> 
> He’s a pure though, Greater Swiss Mountain dog. 145 lbs.
> 
> But he’s also sort of a rescue.
> 
> He was born with a heart defect. long story short, the entire left side of his heart is a total s-show. You name it, he’s got it.
> 
> Cardiologist only gave him a year or less (was actually indicating weeks to months). The breeder was a bit stuck: he couldn’t be “fixed” because of his condition (can’t be anesthetized) and she had two breeding females (one was his mother).
> 
> Multiple people on the wait list passed him up because of his heart and the only people that wanted to take him wanted to run him or work him, which would have killed him in short order.
> 
> The wife and I have had dogs with heart defects before, so we knew what we were getting into. The breeder was happy to just give him to us (and waive her fee) to get him out of her care and into someone’s who would take care of him properly
> 
> He just turned 5 last month.
> 
> We’ve got him on beta blockers and limit his exercise so as not to over strain his heart. I also make sure he gets lots of touch and interaction each day. Not sure if that helps, but I can’t help but feel it does as I believe he always feels like he belongs and is “special”.
> 
> Not one vet can explain how he’s beating the odds and they all want to “monitor” him. Ultrasounds, mri, ekg, etc because his case is so unusual. Both the severity of his defect and the fact he’s lived so long with it.
> 
> But I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth, nor am I subjecting him to the stress of those procedures. They can’t fix him so they really want to use him as a lab rat/learning tool.
> 
> I get the “greater good” argument, but I see no need to stress him that way and am more concerned with him just living what life he’s got left and enjoying our time together.
> 
> After all, he is “my boy”. Have to protect him.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> /hijack


Great story... Glad someone smart about it is giving him a good life.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

what a handsome dog! 145lb though, that must = alot of inputs and outputs


----------



## great white

mattthemuppet2 said:


> what a handsome dog! 145lb though, that must = alot of inputs and outputs


Yup. He gets a meat diet (beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, pumpkin, etc) though so the “outs” are a little smaller than if you gave him that dry “stuff”. But we do throw a half handful of dry in with the meat so he gets a little bit of “crunch” with his food. Just trying to simulate a little bone and tendon.

145 lbs also means that when he hugs you, you know it! Feels great!


----------



## wachuko

One of the shaft assemblies was broken where the oil wick resides... since this is not structural, decided to use JB-Weld to recreate it...

Before




After





Jack shaft assembly done... 12 speeds instead of 16 since the Delta 932 pulley has a broken step and the pulleys I bought from McMaster were not the right size.  At least it is better than nothing...


----------



## BROCKWOOD

wachuko JBWeld is indeed a viable solution. Well Done!


----------



## woodchucker

Anyone seen @f350ca ?  He hasn't been on since June 30th.. I hope he's on vacation.

edit: scratch, that I just looked up his last post, he's heading to the Artic.. glad it's good news.


----------



## NCjeeper

I did not do a darn thing in the shop today. Took a break from it. I am making ice cream right now. Does this count?


----------



## GoceKU

Today was one of those day when you get that call early in the morning that changes all your plans. So a friend call his niva lost the clutch. On a 4x4 that is bad news because the labor is enormous if you need to take the gearbox, transfer box, drive shaft just to change a throwout bearing or clutch disk. But thankfully its problem was caused by a previous mechanic. This Niva had its head gasket replaced recently and the mechanic couldn't be bothered to unbolt the charcoal canister so he just wiggled it till the bracket broke and set it aside. Few week of driving and it bounced on the the front driveshaft which slammed it in the clutch flex hose and broke the hose. Because is so low in the engine bay i decided to take it over my inspection pit, that meant driving it with no clutch in traffic. I had also a dead battery, so i changed it with the one in my niva and charged his when i come at my garage. I changed the hose, bleed the clutch and weld up the bracket for the charcoal canister, install everything and took it back to him.


----------



## davek181

Not necessarily machine work, though I do have a jewelers lathe if needed.  I do have a clock disease apparently.  Not just any clock, but the 400 day clocks made in Germany in the last century.  They have to be mechanical, not battery operated.  I got these going and wound up in April, they have been running since then.  Been trying to get the pendulum balls set since then to get them all to keep time, you can see they are all fairly close now.  
My office looks like a ball clock junkyard with the others I have yet to fix.  finding spare time to tear into them  is hard.  To tear one down and clean, lube and replace the torsion spring if needed takes several hours, but we don't dare time our projects, do we?


----------



## great white

davek181 said:


> Not necessarily machine work, though I do have a jewelers lathe if needed.  I do have a clock disease apparently.  Not just any clock, but the 400 day clocks made in Germany in the last century.  They have to be mechanical, not battery operated.  I got these going and wound up in April, they have been running since then.  Been trying to get the pendulum balls set since then to get them all to keep time, you can see they are all fairly close now.
> My office looks like a ball clock junkyard with the others I have yet to fix.  finding spare time to tear into them  is hard.  To tear one down and clean, lube and replace the torsion spring if needed takes several hours, but we don't dare time our projects, do we?


I feel ya! We were given an old 400 day clock by my wife's niece at our wedding. Had the usual abuses a 400 day clock gets over time. I've just about got it rebuilt, I'm just having trouble timing the escapement correctly....


----------



## davek181

great white said:


> I feel ya! We were given an old 400 day clock by my wife's niece at our wedding. Had the usual abuses a 400 day clock gets over time. I've just about got it rebuilt, I'm just having trouble timing the escapement correctly....


 
I find it quite ironic that fixing and testing a clock takes so much time, especially these long running ones.  Not like working on a car or motorcycle where the test drive takes just minutes.  On a 400 day clock I like to see them run a month or two before calling it a viable working machine.  People tell me I should sell them, but they don't realize that the place you put the clock has to be very solid and level, and you may further have to level the clock and maybe reset the pendulum balls to keep time once moved.  You can't just cart it home and set it on a crooked shelf and have it run.  They are very relaxing to watch run, however.
Are you having trouble setting the beat, or the escapement teeth?  I bough a beat amplifier that you attach to the clock near the escapement and you can hear the actual movement of the escapement, or ticking as the balls reverse motion.  You then twist ever so slightly the torsion spring holder to get the beat to be even with the ball movement on each reversal.  again it takes "time" and a light touch.
The escapement teeth or gear adjusting takes more time and patience than I want to give.  I have one clock that needs that so far and it has gone to the back of the line for possible repair.  It runs for several days then trips up on one tooth and stops.  It is too bad it has that problem as it is one of my favorite designs with painted posts and face that make it more unique.  
Welcome to the clock disease family.  I know a few more people that suffer from it too.


----------



## dkemppai

davek181 said:


> I find it quite ironic that fixing and testing a clock takes so much time, especially these long running ones.


LOL! Funny that clocks are now the topic of discussion. My new project just arrived yesterday...


----------



## great white

davek181 said:


> I find it quite ironic that fixing and testing a clock takes so much time, especially these long running ones.  Not like working on a car or motorcycle where the test drive takes just minutes.  On a 400 day clock I like to see them run a month or two before calling it a viable working machine.  People tell me I should sell them, but they don't realize that the place you put the clock has to be very solid and level, and you may further have to level the clock and maybe reset the pendulum balls to keep time once moved.  You can't just cart it home and set it on a crooked shelf and have it run.  They are very relaxing to watch run, however.
> Are you having trouble setting the beat, or the escapement teeth?  I bough a beat amplifier that you attach to the clock near the escapement and you can hear the actual movement of the escapement, or ticking as the balls reverse motion.  You then twist ever so slightly the torsion spring holder to get the beat to be even with the ball movement on each reversal.  again it takes "time" and a light touch.
> The escapement teeth or gear adjusting takes more time and patience than I want to give.  I have one clock that needs that so far and it has gone to the back of the line for possible repair.  It runs for several days then trips up on one tooth and stops.  It is too bad it has that problem as it is one of my favorite designs with painted posts and face that make it more unique.
> Welcome to the clock disease family.  I know a few more people that suffer from it too.


Mine had a damaged escapement pivot so I had to install one from a parts clock (same clock, too neglected to salvage). 
The escapement on my model has adjustable pallets and the replacement didn’t run right when installed. It either wasn’t adjusted to where my original pallets were or someone has messed with them in the past sometime. 
So I’m doing the back and forth dance with trying to get the pallets set properly. Clock runs for about 5 mins and then the pendulum just doesn’t have the energy to trip the escapement and the whole smash just stops.
Clock has been cleaned, oiled and adjusted otherwise so I’m pretty sure the main problem is in the pallets. New suspension spring installed IAW the horolovar book for my model.
I may tear it all down again and clean/lubricate the main spring again. I’ve read a few posts on nascm about these clocks not having a lot of power to put into the mech and having the mainspring properly cleaned and oiled is crucial.


----------



## davek181

I think the main source of friction in these is the mainspring gumming up.  I made a crude but effective tool for unwinding and rewinding the spring to get it in and out of the drum.  Do not try playing with the mainspring if you do not have a way to contain it, lots of kinetic energy there to take your fingers off.  I would automatically oil and clean the spring on the clock first thing except that in order to get to it you have the clock all disassembled so you might as well go all the way.  So instead I try light cleaning and oiling first and resetting the beat.  I think I have all my easy ones done so I keep putting off the harder ones till later.
I use a synthetic clock oil anymore after seeing how well synth works in cars these days.


----------



## dkemppai

davek181 said:


> Not necessarily machine work, though I do have a jewelers lathe if needed.  I do have a clock disease apparently.  Not just any clock, but the 400 day clocks made in Germany in the last century.  They have to be mechanical, not battery operated.  I got these going and wound up in April, they have been running since then.  Been trying to get the pendulum balls set since then to get them all to keep time, you can see they are all fairly close now.
> My office looks like a ball clock junkyard with the others I have yet to fix.  finding spare time to tear into them  is hard.  To tear one down and clean, lube and replace the torsion spring if needed takes several hours, but we don't dare time our projects, do we?


So, in the video, there's a best of show trophy with a pair of pistons on it...   ...makes me curious what that's for...


----------



## davek181

I own an import repair shop and that particular trophy is for a project car that we assembled.  I like the power and mileage you get from the VW diesels, especially the common rail version.  I always wanted to put that engine in something else but no one built a harness or ECU to accommodate that so I made my own harness and with help from a tuner that specializes in those cars were were able to make it run standalone.
As a test bed we put it in the back of a 68 Beetle that had been cut into a flatbed at one time.  The bed was long gone and it was real easy to stick the engine in and test it on the road.
Well the engine is pretty well perfected and still in the test bed.  It is driven often as a daily driver, but we tow it to the dragstrip occasionally and run it there.  The car weighs 1700 lbs and has according to the tuners dyno, more than 180 horsepower and more than 380 ft.lb of torque at the wheels.  It turns the same times as the dedicated race camaros and novas and generates a lot of interest and smiles.
Here is a video of a random run against a dedicated race car.  Old Ford Falcon body Stripped and strait axle and small block on the 4th of July weekend.

A comment of note to the fossil fuel lovers, we beat a Tesla in eliminations.


----------



## BGHansen

GoceKU said:


> I changed the hose, bleed the clutch and *weld up* the bracket for the charcoal canister, install everything and took it back to him.


Ah, back to welding on Lada Nivas!  I recall you running at least a kilometer of wire on your car; I'm sure you have the process down at this point!  Nice fix there.  If you move to Michigan, please let me know.  We could use a craftsman of your talents nearer by!

Bruce


----------



## extropic

davek181 said:


> I own an import repair shop and that particular trophy is for a project car that we assembled.  I like the power and mileage you get from the VW diesels, especially the common rail version.  I always wanted to put that engine in something else but no one built a harness or ECU to accommodate that so I made my own harness and with help from a tuner that specializes in those cars were were able to make it run standalone.
> As a test bed we put it in the back of a 68 Beetle that had been cut into a flatbed at one time.  The bed was long gone and it was real easy to stick the engine in and test it on the road.
> Well the engine is pretty well perfected and still in the test bed.  It is driven often as a daily driver, but we tow it to the dragstrip occasionally and run it there.  The car weighs 1700 lbs and has according to the tuners dyno, more than 180 horsepower and more than 380 ft.lb of torque at the wheels.  It turns the same times as the dedicated race camaros and novas and generates a lot of interest and smiles.
> Here is a video of a random run against a dedicated race car.  Old Ford Falcon body Stripped and strait axle and small block on the 4th of July weekend.
> 
> A comment of note to the fossil fuel lovers, we beat a Tesla in eliminations.



I like your discussion of the VW diesels. It looks like it was a beautiful day at the track.

However, at 1.8+MB per second, you video is a bit rich for my slow & metered net connection. I wonder if there is a way for you to post videos that aren't such high res?


----------



## davek181

I would be glad to post slower videos if I knew how.  I am not a member of the younger generation that can do anything with a phone.  I thought I did pretty good even getting it off my Iphone to be able to post at all.  The only way I have been able to do that is to email myself a copy and save it, then load the saved file to the site.
Maybe I could email you a copy?  PM me if you want that and I will try.

Edit: Got an MP4 converter, think these will open for everyone now.


----------



## Just for fun

I'm of no help on the video thing.


----------



## Just for fun

Cool video by the way!


----------



## MikeWi

extropic said:


> I like your discussion of the VW diesels. It looks like it was a beautiful day at the track.
> 
> However, at 1.8+MB per second, you video is a bit rich for my slow & metered net connection. I wonder if there is a way for you to post videos that aren't such high res?


try this. you can't attach .mkv files, or it'd be even smaller.


----------



## GoceKU

davek181 said:


> I own an import repair shop and that particular trophy is for a project car that we assembled. I like the power and mileage you get from the VW diesels, especially the common rail version. I always wanted to put that engine in something else but no one built a harness or ECU to accommodate that so I made my own harness and with help from a tuner that specializes in those cars were were able to make it run standalone.
> As a test bed we put it in the back of a 68 Beetle that had been cut into a flatbed at one time. The bed was long gone and it was real easy to stick the engine in and test it on the road.
> Well the engine is pretty well perfected and still in the test bed. It is driven often as a daily driver, but we tow it to the dragstrip occasionally and run it there. The car weighs 1700 lbs and has according to the tuners dyno, more than 180 horsepower and more than 380 ft.lb of torque at the wheels. It turns the same times as the dedicated race camaros and novas and generates a lot of interest and smiles.


Small displacement diesel are a lot of fun, common rail engines do make lot more power than the mechanical pump ones also newer generation diesels have lot more valves and breath much better. Vw PD diesel are all around me and some people love them to death, but in my opinion better start with the biggest displacement you can and make it better. One engine you may want to look at is ford's ecodiesel 3.0 litre it's been developed with peugeot and land rover and used in 2,7 litre foam since 2004 here in europe. I've dealt with one in my 607 i'll attach a ling the the thread at the bottom. The engine in my peugeot stock is 205 hp and 440 Nm of torque, with only ECU remap they make over 400 hp and more than 900 Nm.








						Goce's 06 twin turbo diesel peugeot
					

First of all this is not a classic or a truck but is interesting and broken so i thought i'll share it. This vehicle is not sold in the US and is rare even in europe. I found this Peugeot advertised on a local site cheap. The advert was written very badly and only mention a slight coolant leak...




					www.hobby-machinist.com


----------



## GoceKU

BGHansen said:


> Ah, back to welding on Lada Nivas! I recall you running at least a kilometer of wire on your car I'm sure you have the process down at this point! Nice fix there. If you move to Michigan, please let me know. We could use a craftsman of your talents nearer by!


I do a lot more repairs on vehicles that i don't have time to take pictures, also i teach math, computer science and physics in 4 schools in two languages. Just to earn enough for a decent life i know there is better standards in the US but my heart and my family is here. If things change, the US is one place that i'll like to work and live in.


----------



## BGHansen

GoceKU said:


> I do a lot more repairs on vehicles that i don't have time to take pictures, also i teach math, computer science and physics in 4 schools in two languages. Just to earn enough for a decent life i know there is better standards in the US but my heart and my family is here. If things change, the US is one place that i'll like to work and live in.


When and if you move, remember to adopt me as your brother.  I see lots of your projects are working on his abused cars!  I drive like an old man (because I am an old man), I promise to never go off-roading and beating the stuffing out of a car/truck/quad, etc.!

Bruce


----------



## great white

davek181 said:


> I think the main source of friction in these is the mainspring gumming up.  I made a crude but effective tool for unwinding and rewinding the spring to get it in and out of the drum.  Do not try playing with the mainspring if you do not have a way to contain it, lots of kinetic energy there to take your fingers off.  I would automatically oil and clean the spring on the clock first thing except that in order to get to it you have the clock all disassembled so you might as well go all the way.  So instead I try light cleaning and oiling first and resetting the beat.  I think I have all my easy ones done so I keep putting off the harder ones till later.
> I use a synthetic clock oil anymore after seeing how well synth works in cars these days.


Mainspring already done. Cleaned, inspected and oiled.


----------



## tq60

400 day are fun.

Have way too many...then you start on Atmos.

Power transfer is difficult as the friction in gears must be minimum and simple error in beat can cause failure.

The nawcc board has lots of help.


Did you set the beat in your 400 day?

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


----------



## great white

Got tired of trying to spin the little hex on my mill’s drawbar. Little bit of 3d printing and:




It‘s a tool that gives me a full hand grip instead of that little 8mm hex. Thats also my first print in PETG. Similar temp tolerance as ABS and almost as strong. Except it doesn’t have the same warping problems and tempertaure sensitivity as ABS when printing. I like it so far!

I still have to make up a steel insert that will be heated and pressed in to the plastic, but its coming along nicely!


----------



## dirty tools

He is 6 months old


----------



## jwmelvin

I spent some time on the surface grinder today, squaring up some angle plates/blocks. The stepped block was about .001” out of perpendicular and the plate was out .0007”. Both are now perpendicular to about .0002” or better in all directions. 






It took a while, but seemed to work well to grind a shim into one side for the desired correction. The finish has some problem spots, but I’m happy with the result.


----------



## extropic

@jwmelvin 

Nice job on the grinding.

I'm particularly interested in more details about your squareness checker pictured.
Is the sphere attached to the surface gage base?
if so, how is it attached?


----------



## jwmelvin

extropic said:


> I'm particularly interested in more details about your squareness checker pictured.
> Is the sphere attached to the surface gage base?



It’s basically the first bits that came together for the desired use. The 1” ball is loose and just fits in the V at the front of the surface gauge. It’s annoying and disassembles itself frequently because I haven’t leveled the surface plate. But the gauge repeats and I frequently check it with a test block to confirm. 

The side-dial indicator is also not ideal for the use but it’s my only tenth DTI at the moment.


----------



## GoceKU

Last few months i've been buying supplies to install PPR piping for compressed air supply thru my entire machine shop and small garage. The piping is rated for 20 bar working pressure, i'm planning to run about 8-10 bar. I've pipe water in couple of houses myself so doing this isn't hard for me. I've used gray and white parts because some of the elbow i had in stock. In few hours i mounted half my machine shop and enter the garage. The other copper piping is for heating, it's getting crowded in some spots.


----------



## NCjeeper

Finally got the bush hog arm bored to size so I can press in a new tapered splined sleeve. Boy was that stressful.


----------



## NCjeeper

Got it done. 2 thousands press fit and I pinned it. It should not go anywhere.


----------



## wachuko

Let me see if this works… all wiring corrected/renewed… shaft replaced… new oil wicks… everything setup as it should be…



			https://www.hobby-machinist.com/gallery/img_6880-mov.98154/


----------



## WobblyHand

It doesn't seem like much, but I replaced the cross-slide DRO mount on my lathe.  The original mount was rather precarious, using nylon spacers, a piece of aluminum and four M3 screws.  Removing and replacing it was like a three ring circus because of all the loose parts.  I designed a simple block with an angle cut on the end.  The angle cut compensates for the casting relief, which measured close to 4 degrees.  The read head was not flat relative to the mag tape.  Can't believe it took the better part of a day making a little piece that was only 30 x 37 x 9.5 mm.  But it is done, including the shortening the gib set screws to clear the plate.

Since I didn't have any 3/8" aluminum, I had to cut off a slice of a scrap bar of 7075.  I'm finishing the thickness in this picture.


Using a 4 degree angle block, I cut the taper.  Then drilled clearance holes for the M3 screws.  Here is a test fit on the lathe.  I haven't cut the piece to length yet.  The mounting surface for the reader is almost vertical, before it was tilted towards the cross-slide.  You can see the gib set screw is too long.  I had to cut them all down so they would clear.


Next picture is the "way-view".  Once I was pretty happy with the setup, I used a scribe to indicate where to cut the aluminum piece.


Here it is after I sawed off the top and milled it below the read head.


After that, just had to reinstall the mag strip tape and chip shield.  Mount for the head is much better now.  Thanks for looking.


----------



## T Bredehoft

I need .250 collets  to use US made router bits an European Makita routers, (8 mm router shanks) Made two or three from O1 steel. I'm going to try them without hardening, to avoid warping. Will see how they work and report back in three or four weeks time.


----------



## woodchucker

T Bredehoft said:


> I need .250 collets  to use US made router bits an European Makita routers, (8 mm router shanks) Made two or three from O1 steel. I'm going to try them without hardening, to avoid warping. Will see how they work and report back in three or four weeks time.


PICS????? Where are the pics.. It's not nice to tease us with out PICS?


----------



## dkemppai

So, more than just one day. The Sheldon lathe is going in to be redone, mechanically at least. The paint may or may not get done. Managed to work it out of the basement into the garage, then into the other garage, and into the back of the truck. Saturday was 12 hours (6 there, 6 back) on the road to run it to A&D Machine Tool Rebuilding.

As usual the process requires a lot of different equipment. Fortunately the lathe is light enough to be moved with an engine hoist, a chain fall, a tractor, another chain fall, a truck, then a gantry crane. (Yeah, Some of these pictures are no big deal, but I know I like to see how other people move stuff around...) 







As of Saturday at noon local time it made it safely to the shop to be redone...




It was a tough call deciding on the cost of rebuild vs. looking for something new. Everything functions on this machine. I really do like this lathe. After spending a little time talking to Rick, I think rebuilding this old iron was the right choice. It gets used often, but quite lightly. Someday someone will inherit/purchase a very solid lathe when I'm done with it!

Now the hardest part. Trying to figure out how to survive in the shop with no lathe...


----------



## wachuko

dkemppai said:


> So, more than just one day. The Sheldon lathe is going in to be redone, mechanically at least. The paint may or may not get done. Managed to work it out of the basement into the garage, then into the other garage, and into the back of the truck. Saturday was 12 hours (6 there, 6 back) on the road to run it to A&D Machine Tool Rebuilding.
> 
> As usual the process requires a lot of different equipment. Fortunately the lathe is light enough to be moved with an engine hoist, a chain fall, a tractor, another chain fall, a truck, then a gantry crane. (Yeah, Some of these pictures are no big deal, but I know I like to see how other people move stuff around...)
> 
> View attachment 414249
> View attachment 414239
> View attachment 414240
> View attachment 414250
> 
> 
> As of Saturday at noon local time it made it safely to the shop to be redone...
> 
> View attachment 414241
> 
> 
> It was a tough call deciding on the cost of rebuild vs. looking for something new. Everything functions on this machine. I really do like this lathe. After spending a little time talking to Rick, I think rebuilding this old iron was the right choice. It gets used often, but quite lightly. Someday someone will inherit/purchase a very solid lathe when I'm done with it!
> 
> Now the hardest part. Trying to figure out how to survive in the shop with no lathe...



What are they doing to it??  

BTW, thank you for sharing the photos of the move.  Very cool seeing how you got it out.  And also great that you are giving it an extended life.


----------



## dkemppai

wachuko said:


> What are they doing to it??


Complete mechanical rebuild of all sliding surfaces, milled and scraped. Headstock and tailstock realigned/scraped. Replace a few worn wear items (brass gear or two, drive keys, etc.). One worn/crunchy bearing on the crossfeed screw. Basically they'll do whatever it takes to make it a nice tight machine again. 

And two small upgrades. A flat face and two holes in the carriage for a follow rest on the leading side of the carriage (because it'll be apart already). And also a threaded hole on the threading leadscrew on the tailstock end. That will be for a drive feature for an electronic leadscrew upgrade someday (same, because it's apart already).


----------



## GoceKU

Today i continue with laying pipework for shop air, one side is done. I'll have to do couple of tricky corners but nothing that i haven't dealt with.


----------



## NCjeeper

Making a tapered broach guide.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

would that be for your tapered hub by any chance?


----------



## NCjeeper

mattthemuppet2 said:


> would that be for your tapered hub by any chance?


Nope. I have to repair my big lathe's belt pulley. Previous owner let the retaining nut back off and destroyed the taper in the pulley. I have bored out the pulley. Made a tapered sleeve for it. Now I just need to broach a keyway into the sleeve. Been quite a project actually. I will have upcoming videos on the repair.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

ooh, cool, looking forward to more pics!


----------



## pontiac428

dkemppai said:


> (Yeah, Some of these pictures are no big deal, but I know I like to see how other people move stuff around...)
> ------
> Now the hardest part. Trying to figure out how to survive in the shop with no lathe...


When an engine lift won't cut it, and every rental yard in the PNW is out of forklifts, you can rent a reach lift... Only cost me $950 for 30 minutes use!  Yes, the dent in the door flashing was from the boom.  This was last week.  And a shop without a lathe is worse than a shop without a drill press... or maybe a bench grinder.  Or 10mm sockets.


----------



## Brento

Today i got my bushings in for a job i have to do. I converted the metric dimensions over to english and getting an idea of a plan of attack. With then being so small this job may be a Derbyshire lathe job!

Edit: did i mention these things are definitely hardened.


----------



## ttabbal

pontiac428 said:


> .  Or 10mm sockets.




You have 10mm sockets that you can find?! Luxury!


----------



## dkemppai

pontiac428 said:


> When an engine lift won't cut it, and every rental yard in the PNW is out of forklifts, you can rent a reach lift... Only cost me $950 for 30 minutes use!  Yes, the dent in the door flashing was from the boom.  This was last week.  And a shop without a lathe is worse than a shop without a drill press... or maybe a bench grinder.  Or 10mm sockets.


If the engine hoist won't do it, it gets blocked up and put on a pallet jack. However for 'small' things, the engine hoist is faster. For the record, I have dented sheet metal with the tractor. And it hurts even more when it's brand new sheet metal, lol. 

Yep, not looking foreword to the shop without the lathe. I'm already running into things I should do on the lathe, but can't!  Right now I'm imagining a tooling block in the CNC mill vise and G code to 'turn' parts in the mill...   ...seen a few youtube videos, and this might be the chance to try that out. 

That reminds me, the 1/4" drive 10mm in my set is still misplaced...


----------



## mattthemuppet2

ttabbal said:


> You have 10mm sockets that you can find?! Luxury!


I think I have them all - those and 12 or 13mm sockets are all I seem to find on the road. I'd have to dig them out and count them, but I must have 8 or 10 of each


----------



## WobblyHand

Although I spent a bit of planning on this, I didn't actually machine this until today.  So I hope this counts as a POTD.  Made a pin spanner wrench this morning to fit my Shars Set True ER40 chuck.  Pin Spanner for ER40 Chuck (Hope the link works!)


----------



## woodchucker

Tool less carriage lock.
I get annoyed if I have to reach for a wrench for every little thing, so I have been going tool less if I can.
This one I have thought about for so long, and with time on my hands, I whipped one out. I am thinking of making a sleeve, rather than turning a handle.. we'll see.


----------



## Brento

I want to do something for the reverse gears. Sucks having to open the gear cover try to loosen the square bolt then close the cover then do it again.


----------



## woodchucker

Brento said:


> I want to do something for the reverse gears. Sucks having to open the gear cover try to loosen the square bolt then close the cover then do it again.


I keep a square wrench on it full time. It just sticks out and makes it good to go. I could have made another square bolt then bought another wrench, but this was just as easy.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Nice, I've been meaning to do the same for my sb, I'll add it to the list.

I went out to do some tidying up, little jobs and the like, and wondered why one of fans (I have 3) was making an odd sound. Took the cover off and one of the blades was flopping around, so good to fix that before doing anything else, by which time I had forgotten what I went in there to do!


----------



## whitmore

While out shopping a few days ago, I heard a 'pop', then my car's coolant irrigated the
parking lot.   Went shopping, to let it cool down, before I opened the hood
and found that a heater hose fitting had failed.   It was just a tee fitting,
but it was in three parts.

So, open the toolbox in the trunk, and check out the local hardware
stores... replaced the straight-through section with a deep socket (even
allows through flow, though I don't need heater function in July), and the
branch got plugged with a dowel  (OK, really the handle of a disposable
paintbrush).   That and some water refill got the car home.

Due to my packrat nature, I found enough plumbing fittings in odd sizes
to rebuild a functional tee,  just needed to hacksaw stubs  off threaded pipe
and reuse a reducing tee (in an oddball size) left over from a water-cooled
gizmo.   The  machining was primitive, though: just some work with hacksaw
and cleaning up threads.


----------



## Brento

woodchucker said:


> I keep a square wrench on it full time. It just sticks out and makes it good to go. I could have made another square bolt then bought another wrench, but this was just as easy.


I do not have another square wrench at the moment.


----------



## koenbro

Today I installed a multistage filter and dryer for my compressor with a manifold so now I can have the plasma and the mill connected and don’t need to swap out hoses.

Plus the quality air connectors from McMaster mean I have no audible air leak. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


----------



## extropic

@koenbro 

Do you have a link to the yellow corrugated hose? It looks like a natural gas appliance hose and I wonder what pressure it's rated for.


----------



## koenbro

Yeah I think it is a gas hose.


----------



## pontiac428

Just connect it to your gas meter and turn on the compressor.  Run your meter backwards for a while.


----------



## koenbro

I have a proper (200 psi) hose on order from McMaster, it's just shipping from their Chicago location and will take a few days.


----------



## dkemppai

koenbro said:


> Today I installed a multistage filter and dryer for my compressor with a manifold so now I can have the plasma and the mill connected and don’t need to swap out hoses.


Having enough outlets is always nice! 

I piped air from my big shop, through the workshop, basement in the house, and attached garage to the house. I ended up going with Pex-Al-Pex heating pipe. It's really cheap, connectors are cheap, it pulls like romex wire, and it's fast to hook up. I did use the copper crush ring style crimps, and did double ring just to be sure.  

Might be something to consider if you want to run air pipe. Be sure to get oxygen barrier pex. Regular pex will seal the air, but without the metal in between pex layers it can balloon out an pop (or so I've heard). 300 foot roll of 1/2" Pex-Al-Pex was around $70 when I piped everything up. Local heating and plumbing supplier sold me the connectors I needed, and even let me borrow a crimper for the weekend. 

Dan


----------



## Doug Gray

I have had a nice paying gig come thru my shop, it is quite complex with lots of parts. I can't show to much here for confidentiality reasons but  I will share my progress on three rollers.


5/8" shafts
3 7/8" diameter rollers
rollers held to shafts with keyed shaft collars
bearings fixed to shafts with set screws so flats on the shaft for that
sprockets keyed to shafts.
Keyways are only 3/16" so HPF (high pucker factor)







The most complex of the shafts



turning the OD of the roller using my diamond tool holder.




Using a parting tool (as deep as it would go) to start the veeing process




Ready to start phase one of the taper turning with my diamond tool holder, then deeper with the parting blade and more tapering.




Thanks for looking.


----------



## hman

pontiac428 said:


> Just connect it to your gas meter and turn on the compressor.  Run your meter backwards for a while.


THat could be hazardous!   Adding air back into a gas line might result in a combustible (explosive) mixture.  Better and safer to plug off the end of the flex hose and leak test it well away from any gas connections


----------



## woodchucker

dkemppai said:


> Having enough outlets is always nice!
> 
> I piped air from my big shop, through the workshop, basement in the house, and attached garage to the house. I ended up going with Pex-Al-Pex heating pipe. It's really cheap, connectors are cheap, it pulls like romex wire, and it's fast to hook up. I did use the copper crush ring style crimps, and did double ring just to be sure.
> 
> Might be something to consider if you want to run air pipe. Be sure to get oxygen barrier pex. Regular pex will seal the air, but without the metal in between pex layers it can balloon out an pop (or so I've heard). 300 foot roll of 1/2" Pex-Al-Pex was around $70 when I piped everything up. Local heating and plumbing supplier sold me the connectors I needed, and even let me borrow a crimper for the weekend.
> 
> Dan


Wow, that's less than a 100 foot air hose. I didn't know pex al pex existed.  I have watched pressure tests of hot water in pex, and it exceeded the  specs nicely. I would feel comfortable with pex w/o the AL, but at 70 for 300 feet, (*are you sure you didn't typo?*) it seems like a no brainer


----------



## GoceKU

Today after few days rest from working in the garage i made some more progress on the shop air supply. In the few days i did bought more elbow, pipe holders and other brass fittings and valves. I started on the opposite end of the garage, mounted it, then went to my machine shop and finished pipe over the small entry door. There i had to drill 25mm hole in between power cables to come out next to my tool board. With those pipes hot glued i went to the opposite end and made and mounted the pipe over the big garage door. With less than 2m pipe to run i run out of pipes. I also need to buy some more fittings. This small project little by little is costing me more then 100$ in parts. I hope you all like seeing staff like this, i could have been done in one day but part shortages and other tasks made this in a week long project.


----------



## jwmelvin

I have an older Eagle Rock knurling tool that requires one to press put the pins to change the wheels. The first time I tried to do so, I found the task tricky and wished I had a couple extra hands. Today I made a little fixture to hold the tool and a punch pin to facilitate wheel changes:


----------



## great white

Finished up the mount for my recently aquired radius turning attachment:







nothing fancy, just going for functional.


----------



## Brento

Today i worked on the bushings for VW fuel injectors. They did happen to be either case hardened or thru-hardened. Just a little to hard for the little lathe so i had to go to the South Bend. I think they came out good and should make the customer happy. Next time i will hopefully have the surface grinder running to do this job if it comes back. I do need to find a set of belt drive pulleys for my South Bend. I would really like to have the 2-step pulley from the motor to the countershaft for more speed. Could have really used the higher gear for it.


----------



## Just for fun

So what do they do, let more fuel in?


----------



## Brento

Just for fun said:


> So what do they do, let more fuel in?


I think so. It is a stop for the nozzle needle. Im not very familiar with this type of stuff. The bushing is number 11.


----------



## GoceKU

The project of the day was to install a EV charging station on the big garage. The big garage is single phase 220v but it still a leaf can charge at ist high 6Kw rate. I had to run soft cable from the fuse box to the charger just because of the spring clamp connection point at the charger, i did run them thru flex conduit. And installed 32A breaker on a separate leg for the charger. The charger was New so the instructions and mounting hardware made mounting and setting it up easy.


----------



## great white

Brento said:


> I think so. It is a stop for the nozzle needle. Im not very familiar with this type of stuff. The bushing is number 11.


Looks like the intention is to put more pressure on the poppet spring, which means it will pop at a higher pressure. Finer atomization, a bit more quantity per given time interval...


----------



## Doug Gray

So I was able to finish the turning of the rollers, a file was used to "polish" the surface it came out awesome, 6061 aluminum.







My cheap import collet gouged the hell out of the shafts every time I inserted or removed the shaft.



The rollers assemblies are mounted on bearings (two bolt flange type) between two 3/8" plates. I used roll pins to temporarily fasten the two plates together and milled all the necessary holes.





I wish I could share images of the entire assembly , but I been sworn to secrecy.


----------



## dkemppai

woodchucker said:


> Wow, that's less than a 100 foot air hose. I didn't know pex al pex existed.  I have watched pressure tests of hot water in pex, and it exceeded the  specs nicely. I would feel comfortable with pex w/o the AL, but at 70 for 300 feet, (*are you sure you didn't typo?*) it seems like a no brainer


I see Amazon's price has gone up with oil prices since I did the project. But you can find ebay sellers that are still similar:








						1/2"-300' feet Orange Pex-al-pex tubing for heating, plumbing 689807255112 | eBay
					

PEX ALUMINUM PEX. 1/2" PEX AL PEX tubing is commonly used for installing outdoor wood furnaces, solar systems, in floor applications and plumbing uses. PEX AL PEX is a tubing which has a layer of aluminum in it to prevent oxygen penetration.



					www.ebay.com
				




I know some sellers sell air kits that are pressure rated pex for piping air, but this was a way cheaper route.


----------



## dkemppai

OK, not in my shop, but in the middle of nowhere. I know a guy, who popped a hole in his oil pan. He found out after trying to start the car and the oil light came on. So, to avoid an off road towing fee, I did a quick patch job. 

Cleaned everything (brake clean) around the damage really well, scraped/filed everything clean. Cut and formed some 1/32" aluminum to cover the damage and then some. Stuck that in the middle of some aluminum tape, and applied a very liberal coating of JB on the aluminum patch. One last good wipe down with brake clean, and stuck the patch in place. 

The theory was the aluminum tape would hold the patch and JB in place while the JB cured. It also applied just a little hydraulic pressure to the JB, to prevent any seeping oil form displacing the JB and making a leak. After 8 hours it was holding oil. I'll find out later if he made it home or not...

I told him to stick a big patch of duck tape over it all before he brings it to the shop to have a new oil pan put on it. With any luck the 'duck tape' patch will make it on 'Just rolled in' on youtube! lol.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

wow, nice fix! Did he hit something on the road?


----------



## Firstram

Great job!
JB Weld is one of the most versatile products out there, along with quality super glue.


----------



## dkemppai

mattthemuppet2 said:


> wow, nice fix! Did he hit something on the road?


Yeah, if you can call it a road. Basically a several mile long two-track full of rocks and stumps.  A bunch of guys were out there camping, and the road has been getting pretty rough. It wasn't a problem with the F-150, but small city cars aren't made for two tracking. Bottom line, don't go off roading with your Volvo!


----------



## mattthemuppet2

A friend gave me some welding practice on sheet metal, welding in a new floor pan on a 500 Fairlane. It was a lot trickier than I expected!


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Some welding and machining - building up a carbide boring bar with a broken pocket (about 1/3 of the screw threads left)


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Then machined the pocket flat and put the angles on the sides of the pocket using one of those plastic angle gages and with some trig and gage blocks


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Then managed to drill the insert screw hole 10 thou off   

Said some words and decided to glue a copper shim in there. If that doesn't work I'll think of something else. Just didn't want to go through all those set ups again to machine the pocket


----------



## Larry$

GoceKU said:


> supplies to install PPR piping for compressed air supply


If you were in the USA & subject to OSHA you would be in trouble. Plastic piping is not permitted for any compressed air system. The argument goes somethin like "if the pipe is damaged and ruptures broken shards could fly at high velocity and cause serious injury."


----------



## great white

Starting to paint the ol’ Atlas:




Ruat-oleum metallic Turquoise.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

That's a striking color! I reckon it'll look great when you're done


----------



## great white

mattthemuppet2 said:


> That's a striking color! I reckon it'll look great when you're done


I’m hoping so. Still have to decide on a color for the cabinet and backer board.

I’m thinking something simple like a hammered black, graphite or charcoal to make the lathe stand out even more.


----------



## FOMOGO

X2, great color choice. Mike


----------



## FOMOGO




----------



## Brento

FOMOGO said:


> View attachment 414992


Meant to be in the “Today’s Joke” section?


----------



## wachuko

Made a jig for a childhood friend.  He needed to drill out the center rod on these parts…

His first attempt free hand was bad    you can see the hole in the front, but if you look closely at the one in the back, looks more like a slot... he needs both holes aligned and round so he can slide a new rod... He needs to do this to 48 pieces... Something about fixing all the cabinets hinges and replacement parts not being available... 

I had some aluminum and made the jig from that then made a Delrin cap so the part would be secured in place while drilling…




It was cool figuring out this one... 5/8" slot made first... then 1/2" deep slot.  Thank goodness for having a DRO!!






Measuring hole location… got to practice with the surface plate and height caliper…




Not bad for a rookie… 5/32” drill went right through the center of the rod.  I ended up using 3/16” to take it out.




Finished, packaged, and sent to Georgia…




And a video I made for my friend… I drilled the final size hole in the video, reason you see aluminum chips…

I was telling him how I made the cover so he only needs to loosen one side and flip over…and that the part is symmetrical so he can insert either way, but I recommend placing them in the same orientation just in case…

Sorry about the music, could not find the option to delete all audio to share…


----------



## Steve-F

Nice ....And that's how it's done!


----------



## wachuko

Steve-F said:


> Nice ....And that's how it's done!


Thank you.  I got to practice with the surface plate, caliper height gauge... Lot of calculations to get the correct measurements for the two slots made and then the location of the hole... Very happy that all went well.

I updated the post with a link to a video I made for my friend... I was doing the final drilling for the correct size hole and took the time to also show him how to use the jig... 

He does not have a vise... so he will be drilling this on his drill press, free hand.  That is why I made it with a big chunk of aluminum.  He has a big enough jig to hold it while drilling.


----------



## FOMOGO

Yes, not sure how I managed that. It was during the cocktail hour. Mike



Brento said:


> Meant to be in the “Today’s Joke” section?


----------



## dkemppai

dkemppai said:


> I know a guy, who popped a hole in his oil pan. He found out after trying to start the car and the oil light came on. So, to avoid an off road towing fee, I did a quick patch job....



The rumor is the patch held up over 9 hours of driving. If it were my car, I'd keep driving it! lol


----------



## GoceKU

Larry$ said:


> If you were in the USA & subject to OSHA you would be in trouble. Plastic piping is not permitted for any compressed air system. The argument goes somethin like "if the pipe is damaged and ruptures broken shards could fly at high velocity and cause serious injury."


I'm in Europe, we don't have OSHA here  and much less headaches as a result.


----------



## Just for fun

wachuko said:


> Made a jig for a childhood friend.  He needed to drill out the center rod on these parts…
> 
> His first attempt free hand was bad    you can see the hole in the front, but if you look closely at the one in the back, looks more like a slot... he needs both holes aligned and round so he can slide a new rod... He needs to do this to 48 pieces... Something about fixing all the cabinets hinges and replacement parts not being available...
> 
> I had some aluminum and made the jig from that then made a Delrin cap so the part would be secured in place while drilling…
> 
> View attachment 415001
> 
> 
> It was cool figuring out this one... 5/8" slot made first... then 1/2" deep slot.  Thank goodness for having a DRO!!
> 
> View attachment 415002
> 
> View attachment 415003
> 
> 
> Measuring hole location… got to practice with the surface plate and height caliper…
> 
> View attachment 415004
> 
> 
> Not bad for a rookie… 5/32” drill went right through the center of the rod.  I ended up using 3/16” to take it out.
> 
> View attachment 415005
> 
> 
> Finished, packaged, and sent to Georgia…
> 
> View attachment 415007
> 
> 
> And a video I made for my friend… I drilled the final size hole in the video, reason you see aluminum chips…
> 
> I was telling him how I made the cover so he only needs to loosen one side and flip over…and that the part is symmetrical so he can insert either way, but I recommend placing them in the same orientation just in case…
> 
> Sorry about the music, could not find the option to delete all audio to share…



Nice job Jaime!


----------



## Firstram

GoceKU said:


> I'm in Europe, we don't have OSHA here  and much less headaches as a result.


That doesn't make pvc safe to use with compressed air, replace it with something more durable as you can. I was in a friends shop and heard air leaking under a countertop, the line blew when I bent down and touched the offending drop. It shattered and shot the female quick disconnect at me, fortunately my forearm was in the way and it didn't hit me in the face. Your _*Exemplary*_ automotive work should extend over to your air piping!  Be safe.


----------



## WobblyHand

PVC gets weaker as temperatures go up.  The hotter the summer, or shop temperature, the lower the safe air pressure is.  PVC isn't safe for high pressures and high temperatures.  You really should replace the PVC line or run low pressures.


----------



## tq60

wachuko said:


> Thank you. I got to practice with the surface plate, caliper height gauge... Lot of calculations to get the correct measurements for the two slots made and then the location of the hole... Very happy that all went well.
> 
> I updated the post with a link to a video I made for my friend... I was doing the final drilling for the correct size hole and took the time to also show him how to use the jig...
> 
> He does not have a vise... so he will be drilling this on his drill press, free hand. That is why I made it with a big chunk of aluminum. He has a big enough jig to hold it while drilling.


Show him how to use a transfer punch.

A drill in a drill press will still try to move, drill bushings reduce this.

A good hit on a transfer punch in the fixture will help the drill start much better.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


----------



## whitmore

WobblyHand said:


> PVC gets weaker as temperatures go up.  The hotter the summer, or shop temperature, the lower the safe air pressure is.  PVC isn't safe for high pressures and high temperatures.  You really should replace the PVC line or run low pressures.


I thought PVC (polyvinyl chloride) was not the material employed, but PEX (crosslinked polyethylene);
the PEX is rubbery, won't shatter, but I'd be concerned that it might absorb oil from the
compressor air.   According to my materials guide, polyethylene resistance to
oil is only fair.  That means an aluminum barrier might help.

Neither PVC nor polyethylene is especially heat-tolerant, either; compressing air does heat it.
The price of black iron schedule 40 pipe and fittings isn't low, but... that's the traditional material.


----------



## GoceKU

I did finish the shop air supply for the garage and the machine shop, i also cleaned out and pressure wash one side of the garage. About the pipes, i've done some research and this are not the type of pipe you are thinking off. They are made from Pex type of material on the outside, with a fiber mid ( green) and nolan on the outside, it is very flexible, almost like rubber. Because of that i've used holders every 30 Sm (one foot). I had a small piece left that i cut apart, you can see it's very flexible and from talking to others that have used the same material it has no problem. The tire shop i use has ordinary PVC pipework and they run 12 bar pressure thru them, going on for over 20 years now.


----------



## savarin

Tried milling a slot in some angle, pretty? not really, functional? you betcha.
Made 2 for a sliding adjustment system.


----------



## Firstram

GoceKU said:


> not the type of pipe you are thinking off. They are made from Pex type of material on the outside, with a fiber mid ( green) and nolan on the outside, it is very flexible, almost like rubber.
> View attachment 415114


PERFECT!


----------



## wachuko

tq60 said:


> Show him how to use a transfer punch.
> 
> A drill in a drill press will still try to move, drill bushings reduce this.
> 
> A good hit on a transfer punch in the fixture will help the drill start much better.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


I told him to use a 3/16” Cobalt Pilot Point Drill Bit… and to drill one side at a time, not to try to drill through like I did in the video. 

I wish he would just get a vise…would be easier that way…

But yeah, a drill guide would have been a good idea…did not think of that.


----------



## great white

Quick break from painting the Atlas. My eagle 66 can showed up today. Came out of the package like this:






Like any semi-sane “machinery man”, first thing I did was pull it apart to it’s individual pieces and inspect for damages/wear.

Checked out all good, so I got out my tools for fixing stainless trim dents and worked out the worst of them. It didn’t have any serious hits to start with so it was quick and easy. Didn’t make it perfect, just respectable and the few little dings I left just show it has some age on it.

Then, 10-15 mins on the buffer, a coat of Carnauba wax on the newly polished pieces and final reassembly:




Hard to complain about those results! Should look nice sitting by the metallic turquoise painted Atlas…all this and functional too!



I’m considering making a few more tubes for it. longer, shorter, bent tip, etc. Whatever I need to make it easier to hit all the Lathe and Mill oiling points.

I do have another on the way. it will get the same treatment as this one and then I’m set for oilers.…unless I find more at a low (ie:cheap) price.

Yes, I’m part crow. I like shiny things!


----------



## Weldingrod1

I recommend a tip with about a 45 degree bend in it, and a custom end with a tiny.o-ring in it. You can seal on the face of a ball oiler and actually pump in the darn thing!

Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


----------



## GoceKU

Today I did some painting and moving. Prep and painted the tire machine i recently bought. The upper part was very scratched and the paint yellowed. The paint dry quickly to i started to move it, i did put it on couple of round bars. At the door i seen that the cylinder for breaking the bead is sticking out. I'll have to connect an air hose to the machine and be pressing on the pedal when i move it.


----------



## great white

Weldingrod1 said:


> I recommend a tip with about a 45 degree bend in it, and a custom end with a tiny.o-ring in it. You can seal on the face of a ball oiler and actually pump in the darn thing!
> 
> Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


Was already thinking a 45, but a tip with an oring groove sounds like a spankin’ idea!


----------



## Brento

great white said:


> Quick break from painting the Atlas. My eagle 66 can showed up today. Came out of the package like this:
> 
> View attachment 415218
> 
> View attachment 415219
> 
> 
> Like any semi-sane “machinery man”, first thing I did was pull it apart to it’s individual pieces and inspect for damages/wear.
> 
> Checked out all good, so I got out my tools for fixing stainless trim dents and worked out the worst of them. It didn’t have any serious hits to start with so it was quick and easy. Didn’t make it perfect, just respectable and the few little dings I left just show it has some age on it.
> 
> Then, 10-15 mins on the buffer, a coat of Carnauba wax on the newly polished pieces and final reassembly:
> 
> View attachment 415217
> 
> 
> Hard to complain about those results! Should look nice sitting by the metallic turquoise painted Atlas…all this and functional too!
> 
> 
> 
> I’m considering making a few more tubes for it. longer, shorter, bent tip, etc. Whatever I need to make it easier to hit all the Lathe and Mill oiling points.
> 
> I do have another on the way. it will get the same treatment as this one and then I’m set for oilers.…unless I find more at a low (ie:cheap) price.
> 
> Yes, I’m part crow. I like shiny things!


Can you do mine? Looks purty


----------



## savarin

In single pointing the threads in stainless for the special clamping joiners on the Giant Binocular I usually finish the thread by running a die up them.
The last time I did this the die cut a new thread thus ruining the original.
Some of this may be the free hand grinding I resort to so the tool bit never sits at right angles to the job although the 60" end sits correctly according to the fish gauge.
So I decided to knock up a grinding jig to ensure the whole tool bit and the tip are at perfect 90' to make setting up easier and hopefully spot on.
Its made from parts left in my scrap bin as I wanted something quick so its a bit clunky and I never thought of how to use it for other tip designs.
(already the ideas are churning)




The angle  setting bar is held with a screw and locking grub screw.



The angle bar and cross piece can slide back and forth accross the wheel




First try for the 60' thread tool bit and It seems to work fine.
Now to think about angled sliders for other shapes.


----------



## DavidR8

Made a new blade washer for my Unisaw.


----------



## great white

Started reassembling the Atlas:


----------



## OCJohn

Installed a tach on my sample lathe.


----------



## BGHansen

POTD is more of a POTM.  And the best part is I don't have to do anything!  We live on 64-acres with about 5/8 mile of river as our South border.  I brush hog a trail along the river but am continually losing ground to the vegetation (mainly Hawthorne- nasty, thorny stuff; also nettles about 5' high) growing up and over the trail from the river bank.  About 20 years ago I spent a summer cutting everything back to the bank, ended up with lots of battle scars.  And my lack of continual clean-up resulted in nature taking over the trails again.

Our county drain commission contracted a local excavating company to clean up the river bank and dredge the river to control flooding upstream.  Even though it's not my POTD/M, I thought members would like to see what's being used to clean up the trails.  I have no affiliation with the company, but Burkett Excavating of Belleville, MI is doing the work.  I couldn't be happier with the job they've done.

Thanks for looking , Bruce


This is our place; about 3000' of river frontage with lots of vegetation



Well this is easier than walking a trail with a chain saw!  The excavator has a grapple on it also, cut with the 4' blade, grab and dump




Now that's an insert!


This is what's ahead of the excavator



And a few weeks after the initial "blast-through" the woods/trail.  I didn't catch the dozer model, but it'll be back.  They still need to dredge the river and re-groom the trail after dredging.







Gotta love it when you have work done by a consciences company.  The trees they had to take that were either in the river or about to fall in the river are neatly stacked right next to the trail.  Gonna be easy work cutting firewood for the next few years.


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was a few mods on a Google camera/flood light unit.  My wife wanted a security camera on our porch to announce when someone is driving up our 800' driveway.  She picked up a Google unit which is fine, but it's designed to be a side-mount instead of an under-the-soffit mount.  She did some YouTubing and found that folks just drop a piece of pipe in the soffit mount and screw an exterior box onto the pipe to make the 90 deg. turn.

Still need to do some fine details like painting the black pipe and caulking around the box.

Thanks for looking, Bruce


We initially mounted the floodlight with a 3" length of black pipe, but the camera was too high and caught the bottom of our porch beam.  I know, just aim the camera lower, but we couldn't see the start of our driveway.  It needed to be extended down with an 8" length of pipe to get a view down the driveway.  Cut off a 12" piece of black pipe on the HF band saw.



Chamfered the cut end prior to threading



Threaded with a 1/2" pipe die





View down the driveway



It's actually not as bad of an eyesore as it looks.  Tucked up in the corner of our porch, bottom is about 7' high so Wilt Chamberlain would need to duck, but it's not in the walk path.  Still need to do some caulking and painting of the pipe.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

That's one heck of a brush hog Bruce! I understand why they do it that way and the need for access for dredging, but that's really uglified that river.


----------



## Boswell

mattthemuppet2 said:


> but that's really uglified that river



I also live in a heavily wooded place and it is amazing how quickly trees and brush grow back to cover even significant cuts like these. Especially when there is a reliable water supply.


----------



## OCJohn

Your tool is bigger than mine.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Boswell said:


> I also live in a heavily wooded place and it is amazing how quickly trees and brush grow back to cover even significant cuts like these. Especially when there is a reliable water supply.


That's very true and I realize that they can't get in there to dredge otherwise, I'm just partial to pretty shaded rivers


----------



## BGHansen

mattthemuppet2 said:


> That's one heck of a brush hog Bruce! I understand why they do it that way and the need for access for dredging, but that's really uglified that river.


Some pluses and minuses.  On the plus side, it gives me easier access to the back end of our property.  I cut, split and stack around 8 full cords of firewood a year.  I've never had to take a large, live tree, but some of the deadfall rots away unharvested because it takes too much work to get to it.  Another plus (hopefully) is when they dredge the river, they dump what they dig on the low spots on the trail.  We have around 10 acres that pretty much floods out every spring.  The river clean-out project is ongoing; they do 2-4 miles of the river every year.  Hopefully, building up our river dike and clearing the path downstream will help with the flooding though our house is never at risk.

On the down side, not only do I end up with better access, but trespassers do also.  I usually don't worry about it as people fishing the river don't do any harm.  Or deer hunters just walking the river trail.  We'll be putting up some signs which are about as effective as "10 items or less only" check out lanes.  Seems like I'm always behind someone with 50 items who either can't read or can't do the math.

Bruce


----------



## Nutfarmer

I wish the government would dredge out the Feather River where the farm is. It has filled in with sand to the point a person can walk across the river at low flows. It’s sand that has washed down from the hydraulic gold mines.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Had a productive day. Finished up a couple of small projects, including a boring bar bushing for my facing head



Then cut a bunch of metal and tried "bundling" a bunch of smaller rods. Worked really well with a 4tpi blade


Then made the tools I needed to change the bearings in the rear wheel of my road bike. It's had clown steering for several weeks so hopefully this will fix it. Didn't make the splined ring removal tool, bought that off Amazon    The whoopsie on the one at the front was from when it got jammed between the chuck and the carriage wing after parting off. That made me jump!


----------



## snoopdog

Chuck key for the chuck that I havent machined the backplate for. Hole offcenter by half the width of the pilot bit, oops, got my vise jaw today also, oops again.


----------



## francist

Looks like a design feature to me — provides extra torque


----------



## snoopdog

francist said:


> Looks like a design feature to me — provides extra torque


Only if you orient the pressure towards the thickest side!


----------



## snoopdog

Modified caddy hubcaps for the portable welder.


----------



## wachuko

Started to modify the hockey pucks... 




And had to modify the holding pieces for the casters...  I should be able to mount the new casters now...


----------



## dkemppai

savarin said:


> So I decided to knock up a grinding jig to ensure the whole tool bit and the tip are at perfect 90' to make setting up easier and hopefully spot on.


Nice idea. Maybe Mount a dressing diamond on a similar bar. You could then dress the wheel square to the slot...


----------



## extropic

@wachuko 

I don't know where/what the castor mounts are about. Can you link to a previous post?


----------



## FOMOGO

Did a couple of small welding and, metal contortion exercises. I had a brand new Golden Rod oil can that I wanted to try and use for filling hyd lifters. It worked, but the pump handle kept bending under the pressure, so I decided to reinforce it. Cut up some light pieces of scrap and welded four of them to the existing handle, and cleaned it up with a flap wheel. No  more bending. The next one was a repair of the engine cowl on the Hustler mower. I was out mowing when the plastic cooling fan came apart with a bang, and caused major carnage to the engine shroud. Found an old catalytic converter shield in the scrap pile and beat it into submission, welded on a top section and riveted it to the existing cowl, back in business.  Mike


----------



## GoceKU

After two and half days in bed with food poisoning from a counterfeit PEPSI drink i finally got on my feet to get something done. First on the list was to move the tire changing machine i had to keep the bead braking pedal down when moving it thru the small door. I used couple round bars under it to make it roll easy. I started to plan a power and tool panel to mount near the machine, but then got a call that heating pallet just cross the border so i need to clean the garage and make room for them. I clean the left side but i still wanted to power wash the wall tiles, but the shop air lines wore open. Because of that i went around and fitted air chucks and valves to all the opening also fitted and pressure gauge and pressurised the pipework. My small compressor only got it up to 5,5bar but it holds. Then i pressure wash the tiles with soap and degreaser. I'm not 100% but still managed to do decent size work in short time.


----------



## FOMOGO

Nice job Goce. Cleanliness is next to godliness, or some such. A tire machine is a great tool to have. Mike


----------



## JimDawson

A little project for my son.  This is a creep cylinder for his Clark forklift.  Exactly what it does I'm not sure, it's part of the clutch/brake system.  The original cylinder cracked and was leaking.  A replacement part was not available.  So I built one.





I did this on my manual lathe, major diameter is 1.875'', smallest diameter is 1.375, bore is 1.125 x 3.95 deep.  Material is 1018 cold rolled.  I didn't get any in-process pictures, but it's just simple turning.




But I found one more feature that I did not see when I made the drawing.  4 holes, 90° apart.... 0.032 diameter drilled through the wall.



Had to order some drill bits.  0.8mm (0.035'') Picked up some solid carbide circuit board drills from Amazon. 



I just used the flat on the part to clock the 4 holes. I could have dialed it in, or used the rotary table, but the positioning is not that critical.



I used my Albrecht sensitive chuck in a 1/2'' collet



Took about 30 seconds to drill each hole.  Manually peck drilling with coolant mist.  About 3500 RPM.



Then mill the slots in the end.  Find center with the Blake.  Set up on the flat to clock the slots properly.



And done


----------



## great white

Got the spindle put back together:


----------



## wachuko

Done swapping casters for casters/leveling units…and a welcomed decrease in height…


----------



## GoceKU

Today my heating pallet arraved. The big garage got its 2 tones i did not take picture from it but they are stored. For my house i had the 2 tones just rolled in with a pallet jack over the inspection pit. Then i lay down the cut down pallets that raise the sacs of the ground. And lastly stack the sacks for the first time with the labels facing one way and overlapping each others. The final count is 150 sacks of 15 kg each, to say my country's economy has taken a nose dive is an understatement price of the heating palate is exactly double from last year, also fuel prices are coming down on open market but here they are going up. I'm still not 100% but this heavy work helped me get my appetite back.


----------



## Larry$

GoceKU said:


> my heating pallet arraved.


That looks like an expensive way to heat. Where are the pellets made?


----------



## dkemppai

wachuko said:


> Done swapping casters for casters/leveling units…and a welcomed decrease in height…
> 
> View attachment 415911
> 
> View attachment 415912


Is that the general brand blue box from Harbor Freight? 
(I just ordered a couple for the garage. Umteen dollars in tools and nothing to store them in just doesn't make sense...)


----------



## wachuko

dkemppai said:


> Is that the general brand blue box from Harbor Freight?
> (I just ordered a couple for the garage. Umteen dollars in tools and nothing to store them in just doesn't make sense...)


Yes.  I placed a butcher block countertop on it and installed my 9x20 lathe on it...


----------



## dkemppai

wachuko said:


> Yes.  I placed a butcher block countertop on it and installed my 9x20 lathe on it...
> 
> View attachment 416090


Nice, looks good! I keep thinking about this for my little surface grinder and the tool and cutter grinder. They may go on the same bench/box eventually, they're both similarly dirty pieces of equipment. 

Blue is the color of the ones I have coming for the garage. My wife likes blue, and she specified if I ordered the boxes they would be in blue. She actually helps work on cars and other projects, so blue they are!


----------



## rwm

I have the same cabinet with a butcher block top and it is pretty high. I removed the casters and put 3/4" polypropylene blocks under it. That did the trick and I can still slide it some.
Robert


----------



## GoceKU

Larry$ said:


> That looks like an expensive way to heat. Where are the pellets made?


Pallets are made in serbia, and they are the cheapest way to heat a home, electricity is very expensive, even firewood is more expensive.


----------



## dkemppai

GoceKU said:


> Pallets are made in serbia, and they are the cheapest way to heat a home, electricity is very expensive, even firewood is more expensive.



So, 4 metric tons, or about 8815 lbs. at 8250 BTU/lb, that's about 72 million BTU. Let's just guess 85% efficiency, for around 60million BTU into the buildings. (rough numbers here). Do you mind sharing the cost (Maybe converted to Euros or USD) per ton? 

In our part of the USA, natural gas is cheapest. Followed by a ground or open loop heat pump (even with relatively expensive power). A lot of us do heat with firewood, but have that for 'free' on our properties. Propane follows that, then heating oil, and finally electricity. When I've looked at the numbers, pellets are between propane and electricity historically. If I had natural gas, that would be my first choice. You may question the heat pump. I ran numbers on all the fuels several years in a row before we built. The heat pump was on par with natural gas, except for the higher up front cost (but with built in air conditioning). 

With the de-superheater loop which pre-heats the home hot water, running air conditioning in the summer is cheaper than not. That's not intuitive. Basically heat from the house goes into the hot water tank. It's cheaper to move that heat into the tank than make it all from electricity. Yes, turning off the AC can mean a higher electricity bill. Very counter intuitive...


----------



## GoceKU

Today I started a big job, cleaning organizing my shed. I work a lot on cars and this shed holds my spare suspensions and gearbox parts. This shed is full of good and bad parts, mainly because i don't have time if i have a part that needs to go to the scrapyard. I throw it in there because i avoid dealing with scrap people. I started with removing the shed door, and moved some stuff out. The shed is about 10m2 and is half way full, i'll have to scrap and trow more than half of it, and probably, i'll have to make a storage self inside to store the rest.


----------



## Shotgun

dkemppai said:


> With the de-superheater loop which pre-heats the home hot water, running air conditioning in the summer is cheaper than not. That's not intuitive. Basically heat from the house goes into the hot water tank. It's cheaper to move that heat into the tank than make it all from electricity. Yes, turning off the AC can mean a higher electricity bill. Very counter intuitive...



How much water does it super heat?  I spent the money on a heat-pump water heater.  Basically the same thing, except it pumps the cold directly into my workshop (where it lives).  Granted, I'm dealing with North Carolina's summer heat, not Michigan's, but I can barely tell that the closed workshop is any cooler than outside.

On another note, I'm afraid to even imagine what electric heating or firewood would be like in Macedonia.


----------



## GoceKU

dkemppai said:


> So, 4 metric tons, or about 8815 lbs. at 8250 BTU/lb, that's about 72 million BTU. Let's just guess 85% efficiency, for around 60million BTU into the buildings. (rough numbers here). Do you mind sharing the cost (Maybe converted to Euros or USD) per ton?
> 
> In our part of the USA, natural gas is cheapest. Followed by a ground or open loop heat pump (even with relatively expensive power). A lot of us do heat with firewood, but have that for 'free' on our properties. Propane follows that, then heating oil, and finally electricity. When I've looked at the numbers, pellets are between propane and electricity historically. If I had natural gas, that would be my first choice. You may question the heat pump. I ran numbers on all the fuels several years in a row before we built. The heat pump was on par with natural gas, except for the higher up front cost (but with built in air conditioning).
> 
> With the de-superheater loop which pre-heats the home hot water, running air conditioning in the summer is cheaper than not. That's not intuitive. Basically heat from the house goes into the hot water tank. It's cheaper to move that heat into the tank than make it all from electricity. Yes, turning off the AC can mean a higher electricity bill. Very counter intuitive...


I paid 385 euros per ton for this A2 known good palles, last year same month i paid 168 euros a ton. We don't have natural gas infrastructure here, propane gas double as well, it is 3.42$ for a US gallon, Gasoline and Diesel are 6$ a US gallon. Fire wood is 80-100$ for a cubic metre, and the monthly income is 10-20% of the ones in the Us.


----------



## GoceKU

Shotgun said:


> I'm afraid to even imagine what electric heating or firewood would be like in Macedonia.


Why?


----------



## Shotgun

GoceKU said:


> Why?


With Macedonia being part of Europe, assumptions are that Russian pipelines being shut down will drive the cost for those commodities through the roof.


----------



## great white

Still working on getting it back together:


----------



## Nutfarmer

Your costs for propane and diesel are similar to what we pay in California.  That’s why many of us will burn firewood if we have access to it. To buy fire wood here is around 350 a cord. A cord is a stack of wood that is 4 feet high 4 feet wide and 8 feet long. I like reading your posts from Greece. It reminds us how we all face the same things no mater where we live


----------



## GoceKU

You are right we all face the same things. Only difference is income and climate.


----------



## dkemppai

GoceKU said:


> I paid 385 euros per ton for this A2 known good palles, last year same month i paid 168 euros a ton. We don't have natural gas infrastructure here, propane gas double as well, it is 3.42$ for a US gallon, Gasoline and Diesel are 6$ a US gallon. Fire wood is 80-100$ for a cubic metre, and the monthly income is 10-20% of the ones in the Us.


OK, so round numbers here again. (Hopefully I get these right...Feel free to check me!) 

Macedonian Pellet purchase:
$385 * 4 = $1540. Divided by previous 60 =  ~$25 per million BTU.
Last year that would have been ~$11 per million, which is pretty darn good! 

Michigan Heat pump:
COP = ~4.25. Power here is ~$.21 / KWH.  1Kw-hr = 3412 BTU. 
1 Million BTU / COP (4.25) = 235,294 BTU of electricity used.  235,294 / 3412 = 68.96 Kw-hr of electricity purchased, for 68.96 * .21 = $14.5 per million BTU. 

Michigan Propane: (Garage heat is propane...) 
Last data is $2.75 per gallon. 
~91,000 BTU/Gallon. At ~97% Eff, ~88270 BTU/Gallon. 1 Million / 88270 = 11.32 Gallons * 2.75 per gallon = $31.1 per million BTU. 

Macedonian Propane:
11.32 Gallons * $3.42 = $38.71 per million BTU. 

Michigan Fuel Oil Heat (Assmuing $4.50 per gallon, last data  I can find).
138,000 BTU / Gallon * .85% Eff = 117300 BTU/Gallon. 1 million / 117300 = 8.52 Gallons * 4.50/Gal = $38.36 per million BTU. 

Pure Michigan Electric heat (near me). 
1 million / 3412 = 293 Kw-hr. So 293 * $0.21 = $61.54 per million BTU! 

Natural gas in MI: (I Cheated and looked up an on line calculator)
$14.7 per million BTU. (Historically this matches the heat pump really close. 

Downside of a heat pump is the $10,000 to $15,000 of the unit, plus piping and other work. However you take an AC unit out of the picture, and there are usually incentives for purchase/installation. So if natural gas was available here, I'd go that route.


----------



## GoceKU

You are good with numbers, if all accountants do this good of a calculation would will be a better place. Your maths is right there is couple of things to also consider. Buildings insulation, here buildings are concrete and clay briggs. The insolation factor is non existent, it takes a lot more heat to keep warm in the winter. Other thing is monthly income, my monthly pay is around 400$. I do work 2 other jobs that sometimes double my income but there are people with less then 250$ a month, so the heating prices should reflect that. 5-6 years ago firewood and coal was cheaper and that is what i used, but it become more expensive then wood pallet.


----------



## Nutfarmer

Starting pay for a farm worker in California is 15.00 an hour. That works out to around 2400.00 a month.


----------



## great white

400 bucks a month?

Holy crap!

That would barely cover 1/3 of my monthly mortgage.

please tell me you don’t have to pay income tax on that too….


----------



## GoceKU

Yeap 400, and i'm in the middle, with two university degrees. That may explain why so many people work in other countries.


----------



## GoceKU

great white said:


> please tell me you don’t have to pay income tax on that too….


Oh yas, this year taxes are even higher. It seems whenever the government needs to raise money they add another tax deduction. We don't have tax on cars, and houses and land has cheap tax.


----------



## matthewsx

BGHansen said:


> POTD is more of a POTM.  And the best part is I don't have to do anything!  We live on 64-acres with about 5/8 mile of river as our South border.  I brush hog a trail along the river but am continually losing ground to the vegetation (mainly Hawthorne- nasty, thorny stuff; also nettles about 5' high) growing up and over the trail from the river bank.  About 20 years ago I spent a summer cutting everything back to the bank, ended up with lots of battle scars.  And my lack of continual clean-up resulted in nature taking over the trails again.
> 
> Our county drain commission contracted a local excavating company to clean up the river bank and dredge the river to control flooding upstream.  Even though it's not my POTD/M, I thought members would like to see what's being used to clean up the trails.  I have no affiliation with the company, but Burkett Excavating of Belleville, MI is doing the work.  I couldn't be happier with the job they've done.
> 
> Thanks for looking , Bruce
> 
> 
> This is our place; about 3000' of river frontage with lots of vegetation
> View attachment 415591
> 
> 
> Well this is easier than walking a trail with a chain saw!  The excavator has a grapple on it also, cut with the 4' blade, grab and dump
> View attachment 415587
> 
> View attachment 415589
> 
> Now that's an insert!
> View attachment 415590
> 
> This is what's ahead of the excavator
> View attachment 415588
> 
> 
> And a few weeks after the initial "blast-through" the woods/trail.  I didn't catch the dozer model, but it'll be back.  They still need to dredge the river and re-groom the trail after dredging.
> View attachment 415593
> 
> View attachment 415594
> 
> View attachment 415595
> 
> 
> Gotta love it when you have work done by a consciences company.  The trees they had to take that were either in the river or about to fall in the river are neatly stacked right next to the trail.  Gonna be easy work cutting firewood for the next few years.
> View attachment 415596


My dad lived in 
Bellville as a kid.


----------



## Larry$

This has been an interesting discussion.
I looked up the weather in Macedonia. A little nicer than where I live, Nebraska. But here everything is pretty well insulated. Natural gas is available in all the cities and is the cheapest way to heat. I copied this from out electric company:
"Rates apply to houses and apartments with one residence. Customer Charge - $5.00 per month Facilities Charge per month $20.00 Level 1 $29.50 Level 2 $46.50 Level 3 $46.50 three-phase Energy Charge Summer (June 1 - Sept. 30) 7.10¢ per kWh Winter (Oct. 1 - May 31) 5.47¢ per kWh."

Hardwood pellets $5.55/ 40 # bag locally. This is at a retail store. 

Wage rates$16/ hr. for a high school kid part time at a burger joint. $22/hr. is the lowest paid person in a wood shop, didn't go to high school. Very poor language & math skills but a nice guy. 

House prices have been going up. One similar to mine recently sold in this area for $290K. 2 story, 4 bedroom, 2200 Sq. Ft. + basement, 2 stall attached garage, built 2000, lot 80 x 140'. A decent middle of the road house. 

Lincoln is a university town & capital of the state. Almost 300,000, very low crime rate. Almost a city.


----------



## Nutfarmer

Greece sounds like a nice place to retire if one has an outside income.


----------



## GoceKU

Nutfarmer said:


> Greece sounds like a nice place to retire if one has an outside income.


Greece, is a beautiful country especially in the tourist places. In the tourist season the people that work there are nice and easy going. But in the winters is a different story, it's almost deserted and the everyday people are not so nice. I've dealt with every layer of society there, the worst are rich people and con men and they are everywhere. To have a Summer house there is great but all year round you better be a bigger con men then them.


----------



## GoceKU

Today was a long day of caring staff up and down in my yard. Yesterday i started with organizing my shed, it was very hot and i had other things to finish. Because of that i got up at 5 o'clock and continued getting everything that was on the ground out. I had some help mid way from my father he come to make jokes but his jokes were short lived i put him to work, many of the rims got moved by him. There is couple of tons of steel that pass thru my hands, but i did take short brakes when my injured back started to hurt. Tomorrow i'll be making a shelf and only the good parts are going in, all others are getting junked.


----------



## BGHansen

GoceKU said:


> Yeap 400, and i'm in the middle, with two university degrees. That may explain why so many people work in other countries.


My wife used to be a contract designer for Mann & Hummel; they make air boxes for the automotive industry out of their Portage, MI facility.  Her pay was $30 / hour, worked for them from around 2009 - 2012.  They brought a guy over from the Czech Republic to train with her, she knew what was going on but he didn't.  We had him over for a cook-out and she commented to him that he would very likely be replacing her.  He was paid $1000 / month, my wife $5K / month; easy math for the bean-counters.  The engineers at M&H could interface through Skype or something similar as there was a little overlap in the work day with the 6-hour time difference.  She picked up another design job locally making the same money, so we weren't impacted.  She kept in touch with a few of her coworkers.  Imagine the look on the engineers faces when a couple of guys from the Czech Republic showed up for a month to cross-train with them!

She liked the work, but not the 64-mile drive one way.  The new job worked out to be better in the long run.  We had no animosity toward the guy from the Czech Republic, he was just looking for work trying to feed his family.  He was really taken back by how we lived in the USA.  We've got it pretty d*mn good here!

Bruce


----------



## great white

BGHansen said:


> He was really taken back by how we lived in the USA.  We've got it pretty d*mn good here!
> 
> Bruce


Very true. One thing 30 years of travel in the military taught me was there’s nowhere better on this ball of rock than NA.

We’ve got our problems, but nothing like the rest of the world, including europe….


----------



## GoceKU

Yeah, lots of companies do that, couple years back i worked for Van Hool busses, there i was being paid 300 euros a month. And the Belgian guy who come to teach me and assess me openly said you do the job much better and twice as quick as me too bad you only get paid 10% of my paycheck.


----------



## GoceKU

Today was a busy day for me, but i did find some time to plan and build a set of shelves to arrange the parts i just took out of the shed. Price of material is higher then ever so i decided to use what i had in the scrap corner. I had to drive over couple pieces with a car just to straighten them. After some struggles mainly because of the heat and the shed is like an oven, i managed to weld the uprights and cross bars. For the deck i plan to put a pallet. I also did lots of digging and raking on the ground to make the bottom pallet is level. My land is up hill do it took couple of wheel barrels to make that. I'll start moving and shorting the parts tomorrow early in the morning to avoid the heat.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i got up early and got straight to work. I carry in the spare parts in the shed, i made 2 more piles one for garbage and one for steel scrap. The garbage one is already bigger than steel scrap. Around mid day i already filled the shelves, bottom shelves are filled with the most heavy stuff uppers with light stuff. At that point i stopped the temp got up to 37 C, i'll continue tomorrow in the early morning.


----------



## mmcmdl

Kind of looks like the garage GoceKU .  I have to cut 3 lawns today between the thunderstorms and get back onto cleaning my "S" hole up . Aluminum everywhere I look , scrap on both trailers , can't walk in the garage as well as the driveway . This will be one long day .


----------



## GoceKU

I have two room in the big garage that are worse than this, but i dont have more space to move the parts out of there, so when i need something is a struggle to find it.


----------



## pontiac428

Goce, that's what I'd call ten pounds (4.54 kg) of caca (sranje) in a five pound (2.27 kg) bag!  Congratulations, now I shall aspire to another level of storage.


----------



## GoceKU

It's surprising how much staff you can store if you go vertical in storage. The side shelves are not organised, and one is broken. I'll take my time on them and organizing them, that should let me have some more space to bring some more junk from the garage. I have a Fiat 600 D in the garage sitting as an unfinished project, that i'm thinking of taking on this winter, but the parts are all over the place. If i get the place clean up and have time i'll like to get back to my roots and finish that project.


----------



## aliva

I use pneumatic push buttons to activate the power draw bar on my mill. Well one of the button sections broke due to it being plastic. So hey I'll try and make a replacement. Nothing to loose. I had already bought a replacement. So now i have a backup.


----------



## extropic

aliva said:


> I use pneumatic push buttons to activate the power draw bar on my mill. Well one of the button sections broke due to it being plastic. So hey I'll try and make a replacement. Nothing to loose. I had already bought a replacement. So now i have a backup.



That should hold up for quite a while, unless you're activating the button with a sledge hammer.   

Nice job.


----------



## DavidR8

Made another arbor washer. For a paying customer 
Customer wanted it .30 thick. I hit .2995 so I feel good about that!
Very happy with the finish. The last facing pass on the bevel side was done at the slowest power cross feed speed my lathe can manage and it left a beautiful finish.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i finished reorganising the shed, Started with the heavy stuff, like rear axles, gearboxes and finished with liter stuff like rims. I also sweep the sidewalk in the first picture and desposed off the empty boxes. There is still some space in that shed but i still have about 10 wheels that need to be taken apart and i may want to keep the rims from them. Its been hard but satisfying work this couple of days.


----------



## rwm

I made a doorbell housing.


----------



## Larry$

That's one classy looking door bell button!


----------



## Firstram

GoceKU said:


> Today i finished reorganising the shed, Started with the heavy stuff, like rear axles, gearboxes and finished with liter stuff like rims. I also sweep the sidewalk in the first picture and desposed off the empty boxes. There is still some space in that shed but i still have about 10 wheels that need to be taken apart and i may want to keep the rims from them. Its been hard but satisfying work this couple of days.
> View attachment 416479
> View attachment 416480
> View attachment 416481
> View attachment 416482


Hard work for sure. Lot of valuable parts there, I'm sure you will be able to re-use most of them (now that you can find them)!


----------



## f350ca

Have had this small cement mixer for some time, plastic drum, great idea, easy to clean and hardened cement flacks off. Plastic bull gear and plastic worm, not so great an idea.
Measured the pitch as 14 mm off the worm and confirmed off the dia and number of teeth on the bull gear. The od of the worm was a bit of a guess as there wasn't much left to work with lol. Looked like 14.5 deg pressure angle.
Forgot to get a picture before I installed it. The remains of the old one to compare.





Greg


----------



## Shotgun

I've actually had this up for a bit, but just getting around to getting pictures.  I rarely need a press, and when I have needed one it was for small stuff.  Fitting between the uprights of the shop shelving, this mini press practially disappears untill I need it.  It's only a six ton bottle jack, but I doubt I'll ever need more than that.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

That's clever!

Today I spent most of the day making a t nut and rider block for a friend's Sheldon 11 lathe. Would have been easy but for a) the compound having been broken and badly repaired, so the slot was asymmetric and tilted  and b) me grabbing what must have been a piece of tool steel from my scrap drawer.

Problem a) resulted in lots of trial and error, but we ended up getting a good fit.

 Problem b) resulted in a dull bandsaw band, a used up angle grinder disk, a chipped carbide endmill and a chipped tap. I even had to chamfer the edges with a Dremel as my files would barely cut it! Oh and a dull drill bit, had to use a #3 carbide drill to finish the first tap hole!

T nut from hell


With riser block installed


With his old oxa tool post (from my old Atlas 618 that I sold him a couple of years ago!) Installed in one of three positions


Left over piece of mystery scrap from hell, with warning sign



He'll get an AXA sized tool post when he frees up some funds selling his (my!) old lathe


----------



## rwm

I can't believe you continued once you realized it was tool steel! No way!


----------



## Larry$

After reading about the North Macedonia economy, I can understand why you would keep anything that might be usable. I suspect may of us on the forum are pack rats also. 


GoceKU said:


> Today i finished reorganising the shed


----------



## mattthemuppet2

rwm said:


> I can't believe you continued once you realized it was tool steel! No way!


It was a mix of "nah, it can't be that bad" and stubborn bloody mindedness. Bit miffed about the bandsaw band, but it only cost me $6 and I have a spare  Drilling and tapping the two holes for the riser plate screws was the worst part though, seriously nail biting.


----------



## GoceKU

Larry$ said:


> After reading about the North Macedonia economy, I can understand why you would keep anything that might be usable. I suspect may of us on the forum are pack rats also.


It's not that, i'm being plage by murphy's law. Those parts are only for vehicles i personally own and members of my family own. The past has shown many times if i throw away a usable part, in a few days i'll need that exact part because it will broke on one of my cars.


----------



## dkemppai

GoceKU said:


> The past has shown many times if i throw away a usable part, in a few days i'll need that exact part...


...Because this is EXACTLY how things work!  Any time you get rid of something to free up space, that exact thing is needed days later! However, if you never throw it away, you'll never need it! 

So, my shop if full of stuff I don't need, because I don't want to fix it! LOL    

Saturday was spent rushing to get grass planted, so that I could take advantage of the rain that was supposed to happen Saturday evening. Of course that rain never came. However, since that was done I spent yesterday afternoon reorganizing my tool boxes. The new boxes arrived, so it was finally time to get things organized. Now the smaller empty box gets moved to the machine shop to start reorganizing there.


----------



## great white

Still working on the atlas:







Starting to paint the accessories. Those pics show the steady rest painted but still drying…


----------



## pontiac428

That's a heck of a location for a seam in the bench top.  Might be worth it to caulk seal it so oil doesn't leak into your cabinet.


----------



## great white

pontiac428 said:


> That's a heck of a location for a seam in the bench top.  Might be worth it to caulk seal it so oil doesn't leak into your cabinet.


Not a problem. Theres a piece of 1/2”steel plate welded to the underside the width and length of the lathe and the seam is welded shut from the underside as well.

The cabinet is very robust as is, it used to be a mobile station for an ultrasound machine at a local hospital. Nothing in it is anything less than 1/8” thick, most of it closer to 3/16” and its heavily braced and double walled in most places. Sold off as surplus because of one messed up caster,  which is how I got it.


----------



## Shotgun

So, what are you going to do now that your lathe is too pretty to use?


----------



## rwm

I think that blue will give a nice contrast to show bleeding...


----------



## great white

Shotgun said:


> So, what are you going to do now that your lathe is too pretty to use?


Nope, never too pretty to use.

But it should help make me want to keep it (and its area) clean…


----------



## great white

rwm said:


> I think that blue will give a nice contrast to show bleeding...


Not sure what machines you’re using, but I’ve never seen my lathe bleed. At least not anything other than oil….


----------



## Firstram

I really like that color. nice work!


----------



## rwm

It looks great!


----------



## finsruskw

Looks like a great place to put an appropriately sized sheet cake pan!


----------



## finsruskw

Turned out a few ferrules for a mower deck hanger.


----------



## great white

finsruskw said:


> Looks like a great place to put an appropriately sized sheet cake pan!


I've got a fabricated pan that fits under the ways and captures things like oil drips from the reversing box, chips that slide down the rear defelctor, etc.


----------



## francist

Hardly anything remarkable but I finished up this thread stand today. Kind of like an oversized spool holder, it allows a person to use the larger overlocker cones on a standard straight-stitch machine. Purists will say you’re not supposed to do this but what the heck, I guess I’m not a purist.

Two pieces of scrap that started out like this….




…turned into something like this….




…to essentially do this.




Thanks for looking. 

-frank


----------



## dkemppai

francist said:


> Hardly anything remarkable but I finished up this thread stand today. Kind of like an oversized spool holder, it allows a person to use the larger overlocker cones on a standard straight-stitch machine. Purists will say you’re not supposed to do this but what the heck, I guess I’m not a purist.
> 
> -frank


Frank,

So the plastic spool holder on my Tippman boss has always bothered me. From Day 1 it's been bent. It works, but bugs me every time I used the machine. It's just cut out of some soft plastic. It was probably cut out with a die. I have been threatening to make one out of steel or aluminum for a long time. I don't know why wood didn't cross my mind before. Thanks for the idea. Wood would be so much faster to fabricate! Of course, it's still one more project to try to find time to do...

Dan


----------



## dkemppai

So, cleaning up the shop. I came across a caliper my wife brought home from work that they were getting rid of.



It's cheap, Chinese-y, and feels really crunchy. Let's just see how terrible this thing really is! Pull out the gauge block set, and check it at a few points. Figure that 4" has got to be the worst...



OK, wow! Not bad at all for a probably $10 caliper that was getting tossed out! It's crunchy, so I won't use it for critical stuff, but it should more than suffice for out in the garage. And it won't eat a set of batteries every month like the cheap import digital calipers!


Of course that also reminds me. My set of blocks has been missing three since the day I've gotten it. (came with a surface grinder about 10 years ago...)  Need replacements for the 0.1150", 0.8500", and 1.0000" blocks. Anyone have some partial kits laying around they'd be willing to horse trade for?


----------



## francist

dkemppai said:


> From Day 1 it's been bent.


That’s weird, I just looked at the promo pictures on their website and the spool holder looks crooked there too! Looking forward to seeing your improved version…

-f


----------



## wachuko

Disassembling the lamp to restore... have not decided on what color to give it... 






















Now to remove the paint and rust...


----------



## Steve-F

wachuko said:


> Disassembling the lamp to restore... have not decided on what color to give it...
> 
> 
> View attachment 416819
> 
> View attachment 416821
> View attachment 416820
> 
> View attachment 416822
> 
> View attachment 416823
> 
> View attachment 416824
> 
> View attachment 416825
> 
> View attachment 416826
> View attachment 416827
> View attachment 416828
> View attachment 416829
> View attachment 416830
> 
> 
> Now to remove the paint and rust...


I vote for Gun Metal Blue or a soft Silver


----------



## Eyerelief

I'm thinking red, name the lathe Roxanne.


----------



## pontiac428

But it's already so close to RAL 6011 Reseda Green, a very respectable color for machinery!


----------



## extropic

@wachuko 

If you're not setup for powder coating, that lamp would be an excellent excuse.


----------



## Just for fun

extropic said:


> @wachuko
> 
> If you're not setup for powder coating, that lamp would be an excellent excuse.


Powder coating in Jaime's future!


----------



## wachuko

Just for fun said:


> Powder coating in Jaime's future!





Steve-F said:


> I vote for Gun Metal Blue or a soft Silver





Eyerelief said:


> I'm thinking red, name the lathe Roxanne.





pontiac428 said:


> But it's already so close to RAL 6011 Reseda Green, a very respectable color for machinery!





extropic said:


> @wachuko
> 
> If you're not setup for powder coating, that lamp would be an excellent excuse.


These are the colors that I have without buying another can…. from left to right:

Orange (vintage Koni  shocks color), Olive, Sage, Anvil Gray, Hammered Brown, Satin Pebble, Anodized Bronze




I have an oven and an unopened powder coating kit… only black powder at this time… so that is not an option right now…

Roxanne!!!  Lathe has a name!!!  I might just paint it red for the heck of it, lol!!!

Roxanne
You don't have to put on the red light
Roxanne
You don't have to put on the red light


----------



## pontiac428

When Sting sings Roxanne, you drink
When he sings red light, I drink

Ready, go!


----------



## wachuko

pontiac428 said:


> When Sting sings Roxanne, you drink
> When he sings red light, I drink
> 
> Ready, go!


Go!


----------



## wachuko

Machined the register on backplate of ER32 chuck…installed the chuck… Done!




Laugh all you want, I was not sure on what dial indicator to use 

.0005” runout and since “better” is the enemy of “good”… I left it alone…


View attachment trim.F360BFAB-28E1-4B4C-9606-E2B8F12A6AAA.MOV


----------



## Janderso

mmcmdl said:


> Kind of looks like the garage GoceKU .  I have to cut 3 lawns today between the thunderstorms and get back onto cleaning my "S" hole up . Aluminum everywhere I look , scrap on both trailers , can't walk in the garage as well as the driveway . This will be one long day .


What, you got a day off? Or did you work graveyard and you are burning the candle?


----------



## pontiac428

wachuko said:


> Go!


Ooh, that looks Portuguese.  Better to drink slow.  I think Roxanne will get you through 3 beers in 3 minutes, though.


----------



## wachuko

pontiac428 said:


> Ooh, that looks Portuguese.  Better to drink slow.  I think Roxanne will get you through 3 beers in 3 minutes, though.


Close… from Spain.  Ribera del Duero region… just our glass for the day… for medicinal purpose only, of course…  

Wife is going to make the Roxanne letters… I will share a photo when installed….  Using a similar font as this one…




In other news… started working on the 3C collet setup for the Logan 820…




I need to cut the drawbar to length and machine the handwheel… will use the one that came in the kit until I can make one out of wood…


----------



## rwm

I made a custom bar pull for a cabinet. The holes needed to be 310 mm on center.




I was too lazy to recess the standoffs. I think it looks fine. Blind holes in 304 SS tapped to #8-32. Fun!


----------



## wachuko

Primer applied


----------



## GoceKU

Today i loosely set up the tire machine and put it straight to work, first i demounted 10 old tires, some of the good rims i will keep all the tires are junk. Then i demounted a set of 18" tires, one of the rims is cracked, and the tires are mismatched. The tire machine work excellent, has good grip and power, even with my small compressor with max 5,5bar has no struggles.


----------



## hman

Great results.  Do you have an esy way to dispose of the old tires?


----------



## GoceKU

Yeah, easiest i can take them to the tire store, they get money for them so they take them. Also i can put them next to a garbage bin in the city, they get taken or throw them in one of the big bins for recycling. As far i know old tires are used as fuel for baking choke.


----------



## wachuko

Gloss white paint applied to the inside of the shade...

I could not do a bright red, so I went for a shade of red... painted a small part to see if it would work...




No runs, no drips, no errors... this company does not know how capable I am to make all three... challenge accepted!


----------



## pontiac428

That is a sultry shade of red.  Are you going to slip a garter around the support post?


----------



## Eyerelief

You keep that lathe going in the direction it is and every time you go to use it your wife is going to accuse you of cheating on her........

Just sayin


----------



## great white

Eyerelief said:


> You keep that lathe going in the direction it is and every time you go to use it your wife is going to accuse you of cheating on her........
> 
> Just sayin


Meh, my wife thinks that every time I close the garage door behind me and disappear for hours at a time…


----------



## great white

wachuko said:


> Gloss white paint applied to the inside of the shade...
> 
> I could not do a bright red, so I went for a shade of red... painted a small part to see if it would work...
> 
> View attachment 416914
> 
> 
> No runs, no drips, no errors... this company does not know how capable I am to make all three...
> 
> View attachment 416915


Nice color. I may have to use that to repaint the red areas on my “Atlas” medallions…


----------



## Eyerelief

great white said:


> Meh, my wife thinks that every time I close the garage door behind me and disappear for hours at a time…


----------



## wachuko

great white said:


> Nice color. I may have to use that to repaint the red areas on my “Atlas” medallions…


I don't know... I painted the shade to see if I will stick with it or not... not feeling it.


----------



## Just for fun

It's a good looking red but if it was me, I would want a brighter red.


----------



## Boswell

wachuko said:


> I don't know... I painted the shade to see if I will stick with it or not... not feeling it.


how about a Safety Yellow
HERE


----------



## wachuko

Boswell said:


> how about a Safety Yellow
> HERE





great white said:


> Nice color. I may have to use that to repaint the red areas on my “Atlas” medallions…





Just for fun said:


> It's a good looking red but if it was me, I would want a brighter red.



Well… I will stick with it… I warming up to it… and to not redoing it


----------



## great white

wachuko said:


> Well… I will stick with it… I warming up to it… and to not redoing it
> 
> View attachment 416926


I like it. Deep and rich looking.

leave it for a couple days and then go back and look at it again with fresh eyes…


----------



## extropic

wachuko said:


> Well… I will stick with it… I warming up to it… and to not redoing it



You're pretty good with a rattle can.   

You jumped from pictures of vintage parts to primer.

Looking at the reflection and high gloss, I've got to ask.  How did you remove the paint and rust?


----------



## wachuko

extropic said:


> Looking at the reflection and high gloss, I've got to ask.  How did you remove the paint and rust?


I first tried with paint remover... the original paint on the lamp just laughed at it... so I took this




and went to work on it...   finished anything that was left with a razor blade, and the harder to reach got done with an x-acto knife...


----------



## wachuko

extropic said:


> Looking at the reflection and high gloss, I've got to ask.  How did you remove the paint and rust?



I just realized that I did not take a photo, to share, of the part completely stripped... Here you go...




The bolts, unless those are a special kind, I just replace with stainless steel...  I do save the originals because, like in this case, they have some cool letters or brand on them... these have that "M" or "W", not sure what they stand for... but I will keep these...


----------



## NCjeeper

I hung this up. I figured I would mess with the younger customers that come in my shop.


----------



## extropic

@NCjeeper 

You should focus a camera on that area.

I've been told that some youngsters don't know how to use a rotary phone.

You might get some candidates for 'funniest home video'.


----------



## dkemppai

wachuko said:


> Well… I will stick with it… I warming up to it… and to not redoing it


I like the color. That's not too far from the color I'm thinking of for the '57 Chevy, when I get around to that project...  ...eventually...   ...I hope. 

Have you tried the scotch bright paint remover discs for the 2" rather than the flap discs? I finally broke down and ordered a kit of those things from amazon. They do a nice job peeling paint and rust off without really removing any metal.  I'm starting to wonder how I ever survived without them.


----------



## wachuko

dkemppai said:


> I like the color. That's not too far from the color I'm thinking of for the '57 Chevy, when I get around to that project...  ...eventually...   ...I hope.
> 
> Have you tried the scotch bright paint remover discs for the 2" rather than the flap discs? I finally broke down and ordered a kit of those things from amazon. They do a nice job peeling paint and rust off without really removing any metal.  I'm starting to wonder how I ever survived without them.


That was just a photo I found... I am indeed using the 2" paint remover discs  

I need to have the patience to wait for this to dry well, lol...

Had to drill and tap a second 1/4"-20 hole since the distance of the ones there did not worked with the base for this lamp...




I need to give it a few days to make sure it is fully dry and ready to handle...




Got lazy... no way I was removing the switch and motor again just to paint the harness... placed a wire loom cover over... Done!


----------



## wachuko

Just waiting for paint to dry...




Hardware ready to go...


----------



## mattthemuppet2

I'm super impressed by the finish you got on that lampshade - Concours d'Elegance quality! The rest of the project is pretty impressive too 

I have a similar old lamp on my Walker Turner drill press - I turned a slug of aluminum and added an LED to it, so it looks old school but is super modern inside!


----------



## wachuko

Wait for it to dry... wait for it to dry... SOB, I said wait for it to dry!!!




EDIT: Wiring done... let there be light!


----------



## Boswell

wachuko said:


> Wait for it to dry... wait for it to dry... SOB, I said wait for it to dry!!!


that is OMG Beautiful. 

Now you need to get a lathe suitable for daily use


----------



## extropic

@wachuko

Picture perfect!


----------



## extropic

@wachuko 

LOL  What toasts my walnuts is that lamp refurb could have easily taken me 6 months. You did it in 2 or 3 days. Sheesh


----------



## RJSakowski

Yesterday, I finished cutting this years supply of white oak logs into firewood.  This will be for the 2025-26 heating season.  We buy the logs from a neighbor and the cost for us was $380 plus chain saw gas and oil.  We have L.P. heat as a backup but didn't refill the tank all last year and possibly won't this year as well.  Our firewood is stored under cover so it is as dry as it can get when burned.


----------



## rwm

I wanted to raise my bandsaw about 3/8" so the lower cover would clear the mobile base. This turned into a complex affair. I had to move the cars and bikes to get the forklift out, then use the forklift to move the engine hoist into the shop, then figure out how to lift the saw (which does not have a lifting hook or lifting instructions) After various rigging failures I found the CG and lifted. Then I could finally get to the mobile base!




I added some scraps of 3/8" HDPE cutting board to the base to raise the saw. Sigh.
Do NOT tell me that is the wrong material cause I am not repeating this process!


----------



## wachuko

extropic said:


> @wachuko
> 
> LOL  What toasts my walnuts is that lamp refurb could have easily taken me 6 months. You did it in 2 or 3 days. Sheesh


Please focus your attention to the objects behind the lathe... @Steve-F can vouch that I usually do not work that fast... . They do not call me Professor of Pending Projects for nothing...


----------



## Steve-F

You Sir, and I are on the same page Brother!! Git er done when you can


----------



## ChazzC

wachuko said:


> Please focus your attention to the objects behind the lathe... @Steve-F can vouch that I usually do not work that fast... . They do not call me Professor of Pending Projects for nothing...


Tell me about it: I received some hardware in the mail and spent the rest of the day trying to remember which project I ordered it for - I really need to make a list!


----------



## francist

I decided to knock off early from work today so after a little shopping and a quick after-lunch nap I spent the afternoon in the shop. I needed a new hinge pin to replace the one I chewed up on the Bernina 730 I’m working on. Lovely pieces of engineering, Berninas, and equally masterful examples of quality manufacturing but I have to say the hinge pin was not their best moment! I mean really, the machine is only 51 years old after all! Well regardless, I wrecked the top of the original trying to get enough of a purchase to extract it so I had to come up with a new one.

Berninas are Swiss so metric is the order of the day. This pin needed to be 2.5mm or just a hair under 0.1” by roughly three inches long. There is a screw that bears against the side of the pin to secure it in position so I wanted something that would stand up a bit better than just ordinary mild steel. I had a stick of W-1 that would be about right for head diameter, I just needed to turn the rest of the pin part down to 2.5mm and I’d be golden.

First things first, I chucked a scrap of HDPE in the tailstock and drilled through with a #39 bit. This would work kind of like a steady rest to help stabilize the turning as I thinned the diameter. Then I started whittling down the pin in stages: first 3/4”, then another 3/4”, then another, etc until I reached the necessary length. I worked each step to final diameter before moving to next one.












The original pin had a very small flat milled on the side where the locking screw would bear, but it was not large and someone had tightened the screw slightly off this flat causing a gall to raise on the pin. That’s why it was so durned hard to get out. I elected, instead of milling a flat, to turn a slightly reduced section all round so regardless of the pin orientation the screw would bear on the reduced portion. 





With that done, a final cleanup and polish with some 320 paper and I parted off. I made the head 0.150” long and kept it cylindrical so it would afford a bit better purchase for whoever might have to pull it in future.




And there we are, slightly blurry but doing the job nicely.




Thanks for looking!

-frank


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Wowsers Frank, it's a real challenge turning something that thin that long, great work! A good example of how neat those 6*18 lathes are too!


----------



## koenbro

wachuko said:


> Wait for it to dry... wait for it to dry... SOB, I said wait for it to dry!!!
> 
> View attachment 417017
> 
> 
> EDIT: Wiring done... let there be light!
> 
> View attachment 417024
> 
> View attachment 417025



Great work on the lamp and lathe  
The 911 in the back is not too shabby either. What year?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


----------



## great white

Tried a “cranberry pearl” paint on the Atlas medallions:






Pretty sure I like it!

Also started on another “eagle 66” oiler rebuild:




So far I’ve only worked the dents out of the cap and done a quick polish. The body is not bad, but theres a few large dents I need to work out before a good clean and polish…


----------



## NCjeeper

I got the gantry crane assembled.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

beautiful Atlas medallions Great White

#ncjeeper - bet that's going to make swapping chucks and loading large pieces on that lathe a whole bunch easier!


----------



## NCjeeper

mattthemuppet2 said:


> #ncjeeper - bet that's going to make swapping chucks and loading large pieces on that lathe a whole bunch easier!


Yes sir. I am no young buck anymore. Damn things are heavy now.


----------



## wachuko

Made a wood handwheel for the 3C collet drawbar


----------



## wachuko

Wife made me the decal for the Logan 820 lathe!




Finally took the time to assemble this… I can start bringing stuff from the other house and begin to empty the garage…


----------



## GoceKU

Last couple of weeks i've been off and on this car, but most of the work sending has been done by my brother. This is white elephant No: 2, it used to be wrapped white, with the wrap failing and piling up with the glue left. So me and my brother pulled the rest had very hard time getting off the glue and started preparing it for paint. My brother bought a bunch of used parts, things like headlight, taillight, front fenders, rear bumper, new front bumper and a bunch interior plastics. The body has couple of dents and the used panels he bought have damage. I'm not sure why is he dumping so much money in this car, i've done so much work on it that there will be nothing left from the factory.


----------



## NCjeeper

Well this has been a month long on and off project. You see when I finally got power to my new to me Jet lathe and turned it on it made a horrible racket. I traced it down to the belt drive pulley. The retaining nut had backed off at some point and the pulley backed off the tapered shaft and was flopping around. Instead of fixing it the previous owner just ran with it. Well it damaged the tapered bore in the pulley pretty good. So over the course of several weeks I have bored out the pulley, made a new bushing with a tapered ID and a straight OD. Made a tapered broach bushing so I can broach the new bushing. Press the bushing into the pulley and broach it. Test fit it and finally get it right with the world. Now the lathe runs nice and quiet. A 3 part video series will be coming out soon on the repair.


----------



## mickri

I picked the remains of a runners stroller (I don't know what you call them) on Friday.  Free.  I wanted the wheels to make a dolly for my canoe.  Thought this would be an all day project.  Drilled out a couple of rivets to separate the back wheel section from the rest of the stroller.  Looked at the back section and thought that looks like it might fit the way it is.  Test fit with a couple of straps to hold it in place and wow.  It works as is.  No need to make anything.  I will have to work on the straps a bit.  Can't do that until I get my sewing machine set up.




With this project out of the way I decided to finish the electrical in the garage/shop.  I now have electrical outlets on the work benches and to the lathe, mill/drill and drill press.  Also squared away the lighting.  No pictures.  Didn't see the point in taking a picture of emt and outlets.

104 in the shade.  Siesta time.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

NCjeeper said:


> Well this has been a month long on and off project. You see when I finally got power to my new to me Jet lathe and turned it on it made a horrible racket. I traced it down to the belt drive pulley. The retaining nut had backed off at some point and the pulley backed off the tapered shaft and was flopping around. Instead of fixing it the previous owner just ran with it. Well it damaged the tapered bore in the pulley pretty good. So over the course of several weeks I have bored out the pulley, made a new bushing with a tapered ID and a straight OD. Made a tapered broach bushing so I can broach the new bushing. Press the bushing into the pulley and broach it. Test fit it and finally get it right with the world. Now the lathe runs nice and quiet. A 3 part video series will be coming out soon on the repair.


so that's what you were making the tapered broach bushing for


----------



## NCjeeper

Yep. One of these days I will try it on the shaper, but for this project I wanted to get it wrapped up quickly.


----------



## tq60

Built a "universal" charging display.

We use Anderson connectors of assorted sizes for various things and use the 50 Amp size for auxiliary chargers and main power for smaller things.

We have 36 volt forklift and golf car used for yard work, 36 volt electrolysis tank as well.

12 volt yard compressor for tree pruning.

For chargers we have a compact forklift charger but the voltage is too high, same for golf car charger, AGM batteries do not do well with the high rate.

The compressor has a batterymaintainer type but it is used for other items.

Got tired of getting voltmeter to to check things and not knowing charging voltage so we made an adaptor box with metering.

Years ago we got some "2 wire panel voltmeters", these are great little devices, just 2 wires and they both power the unit and show the voltage.

Problem is most are only good for about 22 volts.

We found one good for 100 VDC so it is in Golf car to sow battery voltage.

We found some that are 3 wire voltmeter with 2 wire ammeter.

For the3 wire unit it is ground, 5 to 20 volt supply and measure.

We found some switching buck/boost units good for about 1 Amp, give them 4 to 50 VAC or DC and they have regulated output adjustable anywhere in there, 6 vac in can be 12 VDC out.

Only issue is no isolation so you cannot have common ground for ac input, DC is fine.

While cleaning up a corner of doom the other day we stumbled on a metal project box, the light lit, been wanting to build this for years but was busy doing other things and no box so other things got done.

Determined the Anderson connectors would fit in the ends and the shunt bar would fit between them so to the mill we go to make holes in the ends of the box.

Held in place and drilled the hole in the box through the holes in the Anderson. 

Holes in Anderson are perfect for 8-32, countersunk the bottom, a center drill is perfect size, angle close enough.

Placed the shunt in the box, marked for hole and drilled mounting holes for the shunt, the holes were for cable lugs so enough room to not need to be perfect.

Removed Andersons and countersunk from bottom deep so screws are well above the bottom, tapped 8-32 and inserted some screws.

The screws for the meter connections were used for both ammeter and power supply.

The positive wire is direct through, added a pig tail to go to power supply and meter input.

Cut the hole in the lid for the meter to snap in.

The ground connects to the ends of the shunt.

Power supply wrapped in tape and stuffed behind meter.

Works great.

We can see the operating current and voltage for the battery operated compressor or fit it to connect to charger and see charging current with voltage.

Did not get photos of milling, just end product.
	

	
	
		
		

		
			


























Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


----------



## rwm

That is slick. But this is a little hard to follow. So this box is used to measure voltage and current flowing to the battery from it's designated charger? The internal voltage converter just supplies the drive current for the meter assembly? They also make displays that can integrate the entire charge cycle so you could see total AmpHours. Not sure you could find one that would cover the entire range.


----------



## tq60

Yes, the converter is just power supply for the meter.

NOT needed if you only do less than 20 volts.

Built it with a meter stating good for viewer voltage but the notfound not present fine print indicated the separate power source needed for that.

No need for totalizing, those are larger units that may not fit.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


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## Weldingrod1

I love the structural shunt!!

Here's a similar one I did for our First Robotics 10 slot charger. Yes, it will get some riv nuts soon 






Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


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## tq60

Quick look at your metering and it is not good...

VRLA batteries do not like being overcharged.

Battery is full usually at 2.25 VPC or 13.5 volts.

Some chargers go higher resulting in equalize or bulk charging then drop down to float.

Reason for building our unit is just that, we have a 36 volt 5 Amp lead acid charger that is still showing the RED charge at 44 or so volts, when tested on some alarm batteries it would shift to green to indicate charge complete and maybe floating, have not retested on them yet.

The float charge should not exceed 0.1 % capacity in Amp hours, those look like 16 Amp hour batteries.

0.016 is 0.1%, if left at a higher rate they can Gass off when the pressure valve opens.

That size battery is often used in UPS and is rated for "Cycle Service" where it has a heavy load for short periods followed by high rate of charge to get ready for next cycle.

This matches your use, however cycle Service batteries are usually swapped out yearly while same battery in float service design life is 10 years.

If you do rapid charging for contests your batteries will loose both life and capacity.

The capacity part is critical in your application as you need every bit of available power.

Better to buy additional batteries and reduce charging stresses.

The cost of additional batterys rotating may have a lesser cost due to longer life than stressing singles.

Get the data sheet for your batteries and insure your charger stays within those guidelines.


Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


----------



## Weldingrod1

I wouldn't put much stock in the Volt readings... cheap-o.
These are sealed batteries. SLA.
I'm confident the $1k charger knows its business.
Yes, we only get a couple years out of them! I just built a tester to get a bit closer to our real loads that pulls 50 Amps! In competition we peak up around 200 Amps, and pull 1/4 to 1/2 the capacity in 3 minutes.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	







Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


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## Winegrower

Taday I replaced the X axis scale on my Ditron 80 DRO.   I was never really happy with the slim 1um magnetic scale though it was sure tiny and nice physically.  Inconsistent diameter mode readings were frustrating, and I found that if I could locate an error, blowing off the scale of ferrous chips/dust would make it disappear.  I blame the design for exposing the edge of the mag strip, not fully covered by the stainless top strip.

But the new generation of Ditron scales completely encloses the magnetics with three sides by the aluminum carrier and on the mag side by the stainless top strip that slides inside the extruded carrier.   I think this will be much better.

It’s an easier install than the older design, though every bracket and screw position is different.  It’s in and linear calibrated, and against three 123 blocks, it’s as accurate as I can read the 0.0005 DTI.

I’ll report after I use it a bit.


----------



## WobblyHand

Winegrower said:


> Taday I replaced the X axis scale on my Ditron 80 DRO.   I was never really happy with the slim 1um magnetic scale though it was sure tiny and nice physically.  Inconsistent diameter mode readings were frustrating, and I found that if I could locate an error, blowing off the scale of ferrous chips/dust would make it disappear.  I blame the design for exposing the edge of the mag strip, not fully covered by the stainless top strip.
> 
> But the new generation of Ditron scales completely encloses the magnetics with three sides by the aluminum carrier and on the mag side by the stainless top strip that slides inside the extruded carrier.   I think this will be much better.
> 
> It’s an easier install than the older design, though every bracket and screw position is different.  It’s in and linear calibrated, and against three 123 blocks, it’s as accurate as I can read the 0.0005 indicator.
> 
> I’ll report after I use it a bit.


How do you determine the calibration factor?  Move the DRO the distance of a 123 block and divide the distance by the number of counts?  I'm asking because I am trying to decode the output of a read head myself, for a home brew DRO reader.  More accurately, I am trying to incorporate a DRO function into my home brew electronic lead screw controller.


----------



## pontiac428

WobblyHand said:


> How do you determine the calibration factor?  Move the DRO the distance of a 123 block and divide the distance by the number of counts?  I'm asking because I am trying to decode the output of a read head myself, for a home brew DRO reader.  More accurately, I am trying to incorporate a DRO function into my home brew electronic lead screw controller.


You will need to find the technical data sheet, but in absence of that I'm certain the encoding are standardized.  Here are some schemes for encoding to give you an idea:


----------



## Winegrower

WobblyHand said:


> How do you determine the calibration factor? Move the DRO the distance of a 123 block and divide the distance by the number of counts?


The DRO has a calibration routine in it, so basically all you do is move a certain distance, your choice, and tell the DRO just how far that was.  The DRO does the math and applies a linear correction factor to all future measurements.

I use a couple 123 blocks for a 6” baseline, and a DTI to get as accurate position as possible.

The math is something like (DRO reading - Actual travel) / Actual travel = correction factor.


----------



## WobblyHand

Winegrower said:


> The DRO has a calibration routine in it, so basically all you do is move a certain distance, your choice, and tell the DRO just how far that was.  The DRO does the math and applies a linear correction factor to all future measurements.
> 
> I use a couple 123 blocks for a 6” baseline, and a DTI to get as accurate position as possible.
> 
> The math is something like (DRO reading - Actual travel) / Actual travel = correction factor.


I am trying to use the magnetic scales that I have, but using my own software.  Pretty much a diy DRO.  So I don't get the advantage of any built in calibration routines.  I have to write the routines myself.   Hoping it is a simple correction factor.  Can I presume the main incremental scale is fairly linear, so a simple calibration factor is sufficient?


----------



## WobblyHand

pontiac428 said:


> You will need to find the technical data sheet, but in absence of that I'm certain the encoding are standardized.  Here are some schemes for encoding to give you an idea:


For the cheap scales that I have, and the even more ancient 1/4" high 7 segment LED displays, I have to believe it is the simplest incremental scale.  Hoping it is linear so a simple correction would suffice.  Guess I could stack some 123 blocks and see if the same calibration factor applies.


----------



## great white

Finally figured out why the Cycletrol on my Atlas was burning out potentiometers;

Gotta learn the diference between a “6” and an upside down “9”….


----------



## Winegrower

WobblyHand said:


> Can I presume the main incremental scale is fairly linear, so a simple calibration factor is sufficient?


The DRO includes a non-linear compensation, but it looks complex.   You can imagine that the  accuracy of the scale is driven by the speed at which the mag strip is pulled past the write head, since the writing frequency would be well controlled.   If the speed varies during a recording run, this would require non- linear compensation, i.e. different corrections depending on position on the strip.  But it’s really a production flaw, and should not pass QA.   If the speed is steady, but is a bit fast or slow, then the transition distance will be closer or farther apart, respectively.   This produces the linear scale factor that can correct for that speed variation.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Probably one of the oddest used of a tool in my shop. Eldest daughter wants to make a hide for her lizard, so..
	

		
			
		

		
	



Also some cute puppy pics


----------



## Aaron_W

Had to replace one of the TVs. You would think same brand, same size would be easy, but nope. They moved the mounting holes and used much longer screws, the supplied spacers were too long. My wife was helping and she was like hey you could put them in a vise and cut them down with a hack saw. I told her I had a better idea, I know a guy with a lathe and 1/2 hour later I had proper length spacers. 

If I hadn't been tired, I probably would have made all new ones from aluminum, but I just turned down the existing plastic spacers to the needed length. It's nice to have tools.


----------



## WobblyHand

Kind of a shop activity...  Sorted my drill bits and put them in my new Huot index boxes.  The number drills were tough.  The markings are so hard to read in the intermediate sizes and non-existent in the small sizes.  Eventually just got the micrometer and simply measured them - it was a lot faster that way.  The marking orientation is dependent on the manufacturer, some were right side up, some upside down and others sideways.  Some drills just didn't have any visible markings at all.  I'm missing a few bits, and have some  duplicates, but overall, have nearly a complete set of jobber fractional, letter, and number drills plus some duplicates.


A few need sharpening, or a touch up.  Going to have to look for a Drill Doctor, or something like that.  Been one of those items that I have put off buying.  Now have enough drills (these and others that I haven't tossed) that need some work that a Drill Doctor seems worthwhile.  Eyesight is not good enough to do these by hand anymore.


----------



## Gnpenning

WobblyHand said:


> Kind of a shop activity...  Sorted my drill bits and put them in my new Huot index boxes.  The number drills were tough.  The markings are so hard to read in the intermediate sizes and non-existent in the small sizes.  Eventually just got the micrometer and simply measured them - it was a lot faster that way.  The marking orientation is dependent on the manufacturer, some were right side up, some upside down and others sideways.  Some drills just didn't have any visible markings at all.  I'm missing a few bits, and have some  duplicates, but overall, have nearly a complete set of jobber fractional, letter, and number drills plus some duplicates.
> View attachment 417478
> 
> A few need sharpening, or a touch up.  Going to have to look for a Drill Doctor, or something like that.  Been one of those items that I have put off buying.  Now have enough drills (these and others that I haven't tossed) that need some work that a Drill Doctor seems worthwhile.  Eyesight is not good enough to do these by hand anymore.


Boring enough I did the same thing last night. Drill bits from one member index from another with similar results.  Just need a few more index's for the rest of the bits. 

Good to have them in a index and organized.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

If you think that was tough, imagine sorting out four or five of those red boxes of drills. I got really good at sizing the small number drills by eye. Hopefully I've lost that skill by now 

For drill sharpening I use one of those General drill sharpening jigs that use the side of a bench grinder wheel. They're pretty cheap, $20 or so. I must have done a couple of hundred easy. In fact, if any of yours have sharp and shiny ends, those were ones I sharpened.


----------



## wachuko

mattthemuppet2 said:


> If you think that was tough, imagine sorting out four or five of those red boxes of drills. I got really good at sizing the small number drills by eye. Hopefully I've lost that skill by now
> 
> For drill sharpening I use one of those General drill sharpening jigs that use the side of a bench grinder wheel. They're pretty cheap, $20 or so. I must have done a couple of hundred easy. In fact, if any of yours have sharp and shiny ends, those were ones I sharpened.


I have not sorted mine to place them in the drawers… I go by the red bin/box and whisper “tomorrow”, “tomorrow”…


----------



## mattthemuppet2

yes, I still have alot that I do that to as well


----------



## WobblyHand

wachuko said:


> I have not sorted mine to place them in the drawers… I go by the red bin/box and whisper “tomorrow”, “tomorrow”…


Get cracking...    
I still have to organize the taps, have no idea how to compactly store them.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

A few hours and a pile of coconut later


----------



## WobblyHand

mattthemuppet2 said:


> If you think that was tough, imagine sorting out four or five of those red boxes of drills. I got really good at sizing the small number drills by eye. Hopefully I've lost that skill by now
> 
> For drill sharpening I use one of those General drill sharpening jigs that use the side of a bench grinder wheel. They're pretty cheap, $20 or so. I must have done a couple of hundred easy. In fact, if any of yours have sharp and shiny ends, those were ones I sharpened.


Must have been mind numbing.  Once I just got my micrometer out it was a lot easier.  Pick it up, measured, put it in the right hole in the index.


----------



## wachuko

mattthemuppet2 said:


> A few hours and a pile of coconut later
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 417483


All you need now is some lime...


----------



## mattthemuppet2

And rum!


----------



## Thanatos41

Made a vise mounted bending jig for my blacksmith shop.  The pins are set for the most common stock sizes and diameters that I use.


----------



## tjb

Thanatos41 said:


> Made a vise mounted bending jig for my blacksmith shop.  The pins are set for the most common stock sizes and diameters that I use.


Very nice.  What material did you use?


----------



## Thanatos41

tjb said:


> Very nice.  What material did you use?


It’s all salvaged material from a shop that closed.  The platten was a jig they used, 1018 steel.  The pins are a mix of 4140, 1018, and 304 stainless.


----------



## Winegrower

Today was a woodworking day.   I made three post toppers for 6”x6” posts, matching the original design from 1904.   I learned again, turning a piece is easy, but making several identical pieces is another issue completely.   These match within a fraction of an inch…a large fraction.  

The balls are redwood, the boards in back are cherry, also for the same project.


----------



## brino

Winegrower said:


> Today was a woodworking day. I made three post toppers for 6”x6” posts, matching the original design from 1904. I learned again, turning a piece is easy, but making several identical pieces is another issue completely. These match within a fraction of an inch…a large fraction.



When I was young (teenager?) I remember my Dad making a new railing for the stairs. He needed six matching balusters and suggested that each of us (two parents, four kids) could make one.
I quickly said "Sure, I'll make the first one!".



Winegrower said:


> These match within a fraction of an inch…a large fraction.



Luckily they should be far enough apart to be invisible difference.

Brian


----------



## ChazzC

I upgraded my relatively new Delta 8" Bench Grinder with an 80 grit Aluminum Oxide wheel and an 8" "SCOTTCHEN" deburring wheel"




Yes, I know that there is no guard on the deburring wheel, but I haven't yet seen anyone who uses a guard when deburring. I am mindful of the potential for brushing against the deburring wheel when grinding on the right side, so am working on an easily removable guard that would be in place whenever not deburring. In the meantime, I'll just leave the deburring wheel off when not in use; to that end, I also (probably) created a warranty issue by filing flats on the left shaft to make it easier to change wheels:



The flats are located on the rough-turned portion of the shaft so they don't interfere with the 5/8" mounting portion of the shaft.

I'm also going to fit washers on the ends of the housing to minimize grit entering the bearing areas. More to come.


----------



## tq60

Made a better mist nozzle cleaner.

Early version was just a collection of fittings that allowed one to blow it out with air.

Problem is it goes same way as water so does not clean it out

We had a back flush one for a paint sprayer so made this for the misters.

A collection of parts, a 1/2 pipe plug with a hydrolic connector that fits nothing with a QC adaptor.

The threads are 10-24, the nozzle goes on the inside and it is blown backwards, works well.

Combined with the cleaner and ultrasonic it allows longer life.

We have very hard water so even with the treating cartridge we need to service them.


Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


----------



## Gaffer

This post fits under several categories, Blunders, What did you buy today, and probably a few others. Months ago, I posted buying the BT pallet jack of CL. The seller had cleaned it up reasonably and demonstrated it. It looked used but in good condition, so I bought it for his asking price of $150. Used it to move a few things around and the jacking wasn't smooth and the load wheels didn't rise in unison, but it worked. The next day, there was a pool of hydraulic oil under the jack. Down the rabbit hole, I went. The rebuild took several months because of numerous interruptions and ordering parts, then more parts, and more and more. The rebuild kit was $90, and a week later I began disassembly.

It was missing a few roll pins and push-in zerk fittings. That was another $30. These prices include shipping which was nearly as much, and a few times shipping was vastly greater than the part. And of course, I couldn't get all the required parts in the first one or two orders. I think I had to make 5 orders, with shipping taking 4-5 days each time.

As I was installing the ram, I decided it would be easier to flip the frame over. That's when I knew I had much more than a pump rebuilt. One of the pushrods was bent to hell. That was why it didn't jack evenly. This also allowed me to inspect the load wheels. They were completely trashed. I was kicking myself I didn't pay much closer attention when I bought the jack, but I never would have thought to tip it to inspect the undercarriage. This is also my first experience with a pallet jack, having never owned or operated one. 




Disassembling the load wheel assemblies was a chore. I was able to remove it from the pushrod without much trouble, but the axels refused to budge. They were no match for my HF 20-ton press. Installing was a breeze in didn't require the press.




New entry/exit and load wheels set me back another $80, and I spent another $30 or so on new snap rings. I took the pushrod to the press. I'm glad I have air-over-hydraulic. It took 15-20 minutes to get it pretty well. It the pushrod on the right. The new wheels are installed too.




I would have finished this last weekend, but I forgot about a worn-out snap ring. It's included in the prices I mentioned. This purchase was particularly painful. The clip cost 30 cents, 4 cents tax, and $13 shipping!


Today, I finished getting everything back together and it works perfectly - smooth and no leaks. I'm into this jack for about $350, plus an HF Icon snap ring plier kit and a set of Grace roll pin punches. I posted those purchases months ago when I bought them.


----------



## WhyW8

Made a simple collet holder and did some shop cleaning and organizing.


----------



## FOMOGO

I'm in the process of building a portable workbench 30"x8' from materials I have on hand. Had some cast iron wheels from an old granary hand truck that have been sitting on a shelf in the loft for 40yrs. I'm guessing the castings are probably a hundred yrs old, and were a little out of whack in every direction. Cleaned up all the flash, and bead blasted them. Re-centered/bored the hubs on the mill, loving the new power feed on the Y-axis. Then turned the hubs, edges, and rolling surfaces on the Atlas, and de-burred all the sharp edges. Think I will paint the centers satin black and plasti-clear the the wheel faces and edges. Cheers, Mike


----------



## extropic

@Gaffer

I'm shocked by the shipping costs you describe. Highland, CA is not exactly the back of beyond. I would think that many small pins and retaining rings could be found at a local supplier. A well stocked ACE Hardware even.

McMaster-Carr shipping would be about 1/2 (and fast) on that retaining ring.

Did you buy all your parts from the same place? Please reveal the business name.

At least you now have intimate knowledge of the PJ and it's condition.


----------



## Gaffer

extropic said:


> @Gaffer
> 
> I'm shocked by the shipping costs you describe. Highland, CA is not exactly the back of beyond. I would think that many small pins and retaining rings could be found at a local supplier. A well stocked ACE Hardware even.
> 
> McMaster-Carr shipping would be about 1/2 (and fast) on that retaining ring.
> 
> Did you buy all your parts from the same place? Please reveal the business name.
> 
> At least you now have intimate knowledge of the PJ and it's condition.


I bought everything from https://www.genericparts.com/
Josh was very helpful and spent a fair amount of time with me. I didn’t mind spending a few extra dollars versus time spent chasing parts. Had I had my act better together, I’d have saved myself time and money. I’m disappointed with my carelessness, but I know I have a pallet jack that will far outlive me. Lesson learned.


----------



## matthewsx

ChazzC said:


> I upgraded my relatively new Delta 8" Bench Grinder with an 80 grit Aluminum Oxide wheel and an 8" "SCOTTCHEN" deburring wheel"
> 
> View attachment 417706
> 
> 
> Yes, I know that there is no guard on the deburring wheel, but I haven't yet seen anyone who uses a guard when deburring. I am mindful of the potential for brushing against the deburring wheel when grinding on the right side, so am working on an easily removable guard that would be in place whenever not deburring. In the meantime, I'll just leave the deburring wheel off when not in use; to that end, I also (probably) created a warranty issue by filing flats on the left shaft to make it easier to change wheels:
> 
> View attachment 417709
> 
> The flats are located on the rough-turned portion of the shaft so they don't interfere with the 5/8" mounting portion of the shaft.
> 
> I'm also going to fit washers on the ends of the housing to minimize grit entering the bearing areas. More to come.


You'll be fine without a guard most likely, lots of buffing and deburing applications don't use one.

John


----------



## francist

Hardly newsworthy but one of those times when you’re happy you have the tools that you do. This is the take up arm off an Elna overlocker. Why someone felt they needed to saw the top off I’ll never know but with a bit of scrap from an old filing cabinet and some braze it should be good to go again.




Thanks for looking!


----------



## ChazzC

Finally replaced the SHCS's on the inexpensive DTI Holder I got a while ago:



For those not familiar with Shear-Loc press-on knobs, they come in a range of styles in both metric & imperial sizes (see attached PDF), designed for pressing onto the heads of socket head cap screws (SHCS); although Shear-Loc doesn't state this, I don't recommend SHCS's that have smooth heads – less surface to grab the knob.

M5 SHCS & M5 Shear-Loc Knob



SHCS in press plate



Completed Thumbscrew



And before anyone asks, the hardened press tooling plate was purchased off eBay 9 years ago; I just checked and the Seller doesn't have any currently listed and I find them (searched original description "Hardened Arbor Press Tool" & "Tooling Block").


----------



## snoopdog

Just a skid for the liquid feeder


----------



## GoceKU

Today i had to repair a lamborghini part, its a resistor for the A/C blower motor. It has couple of bad mosfet transistors, changed them it come back to life.


----------



## FOMOGO

Tractor, or rich boy toy? Mike


----------



## GoceKU

FOMOGO said:


> Tractor, or rich boy toy? Mike


Tractor, its italian so they used the entire A/C from a lamborghini murcielago LP640, all components are same.


----------



## dkemppai

GoceKU said:


> Tractor, its italian so they used the entire A/C from a lamborghini murcielago LP640, all components are same.


I'm guessing the reverse is true. The LP640 probably used the tractor parts! lol. 

Serously, tho. IIRC There were only maybe a few hundred LP640's made every year...)  Just look at the probability of having a tractor roll into your shop compared to the LP640...


----------



## DiscoDan

My patio umbrella was left open during a storm and it blew over and broke two of the arms. The tubing is very thin wall rectangular aluminum tubing. So I grabbed some steel stock and milled a plug to go inside the aluminum tube and then bolted everything together again. I then reattached the diagonal support arm and presto I have a working umbrella again.


----------



## BGHansen

DiscoDan said:


> My patio umbrella was left open during a storm and it blew over and broke two of the arms. The tubing is very thin wall rectangular aluminum tubing. So I grabbed some steel stock and milled a plug to go inside the aluminum tube and then bolted everything together again. I then reattached the diagonal support arm and presto I have a working umbrella again.



???


----------



## GoceKU

dkemppai said:


> I'm guessing the reverse is true. The LP640 probably used the tractor parts! lol.
> 
> Serously, tho. IIRC There were only maybe a few hundred LP640's made every year...)  Just look at the probability of having a tractor roll into your shop compared to the LP640...


Well i'm one of only a handful of people that will work on a vehicle with more than 4 cylinders, so if one breaks down i'll probably get that call. Just yesterday i worked on a dodge challenger V6 with broken fuel lines, that car is a copy of a old mercedes and makes the worst sound any engine makes.


----------



## woodchucker

BGHansen said:


> ???
> 
> View attachment 417912


I did the same a week or so ago. My wife swiveled the umbrella so that it caught the wind, she was concerned about the sun, not the wind.
She went inside and a table I made out of trex that fits between the chaise lounges (heavy old trex , not the new thin stuff) went over into the pool and broke the veins. I did the same, and used rivets to make sure they stay in place ... then used jbweld to smooth the pieces together and sanded. 

It came out good, and will last years more.  I am sure that no where around here has umbrellas now anyway.


----------



## Gaffer

GoceKU said:


> Tractor, its italian so they used the entire A/C from a lamborghini murcielago LP640, all components are same.
> View attachment 417909


It looks like the Jeremy Clarkson's Lamborgini tractor in his show Clarkson's Farm. It's a great series if you haven't seen it.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

wasn't that the original insult Enzo Ferrari made to Ferruccio Lamborghini that his cars drove like tractors?


----------



## pontiac428

Sounds like the start of a joke:  Ettore Bugatti and Ferdinand Porsche walk into a bar...


----------



## BGHansen

pontiac428 said:


> Sounds like the start of a joke:  Ettore Bugatti and Ferdinand Porsche walk into a bar...


Two termites walk into a bar.  One asks the other, "Is the bar tender here?"

Bruce


----------



## FOMOGO

A horse walks into a bar, and sits down. The bartender says, why the long face. Mike


----------



## savarin

A horse walks into a bar and the barman says "We've got a drink named after you"
The horse says "What? Eric)


----------



## savarin

A gorilla walks into a bar, the barman says "We dont get many of your kind in here"
The gorilla says " No wonder, the beers crap"


----------



## Eyerelief

Tuff crowd ......


----------



## Just for fun

Made a conversation piece for my brothers' birthday.  I didn't have the right size drill bit for the brass nut I'm making for it 9/16x18.  The drill bit should be here tomorrow then I will replace the commercial nut with the brass nut.  Looks a lot better than the first one I made when I first got my lathe.




I probably made a mistake my drilling it out to 1/2", drilling brass is a little touchy.


----------



## f350ca

The saying goes variety is the spice of life. Went from making the intake manifold for the Holt to altering the mount on this bucket to attach to a quick connect.



Greg


----------



## great white

Started printing out a couple gears for my atlas 10f:




Going to give them a try and see if it calms down some of the ring, clash and rattle noises.

Thats the combo gear off the spindle gear that drives the change gears and the transfer gear in the reversing gearbox. Both of those gears are quite noisy, as when I disconnect them the lathe quiets right down.

I’m kind of hoping the abs gears will absorb some of the clashing/ringing in the gear train and quiet the whole machine down.

These are a first kick at the cat, mostly a “proof of concept”. If it works, I’ll redesign them to incorporate a bronze bushing to run on the pins/bolts/axles they run on.


----------



## 682bear

A while back, I bought these two old card files...




Today I discovered that they are a PERFECT fit on top of a Kennedy tool box...




It's like they were designed to fit between the top flange of a Kennedy box...

So I began sorting all of my horizontal mill cutters and slitting saws and filling the drawers on the card files...




...putting 4x6 index cards between them with the sizes listed.

-Bear


----------



## great white

Well, proof of concept successful!



 Cleaned it up, reamed the bore to size and popped it into the gear train.

Pretty much all the gear “ring” is gone!

I won’t call it quiet, but the noise level is so low I almost feel guilty calling it noise.

It’s such a good fit, I’m just going to run it to failure to see where the failure happens. I suspect it will be in the pin bore where it sees the most friction/heat. I did run it up to 1200 rpm and no abs melting or other issues were apparent. Glass temp for abs (ie: temp where it starts to go soft and pliable) is right around 100-110 C and I don’t think it will ever get that hot. There were a few abs “shavings”, but thats likely just the abs gear bedding in/mating with the zamak gears.

Next up: reversing gearbox.


----------



## ChazzC

682bear said:


> A while back, I bought these two old card files...
> 
> View attachment 418108
> 
> 
> Today I discovered that they are a PERFECT fit on top of a Kennedy tool box...
> 
> View attachment 418109
> 
> 
> It's like they were designed to fit between the top flange of a Kennedy box...
> 
> So I began sorting all of my horizontal mill cutters and slitting saws and filling the drawers on the card files...
> 
> View attachment 418110
> 
> 
> ...putting 4x6 index cards between them with the sizes listed.
> 
> -Bear


Excellent adaptation of the drawers: a corollary to never having enough tools is unfortunately also never having enough storage.


----------



## great white

quick vid for the sound:






For an atlas 10, that's pretty quiet!


----------



## pontiac428

Happy meal toys are an upgrade over ZAMAK!


----------



## great white

pontiac428 said:


> Happy meal toys are an upgrade over ZAMAK!


Nah. I'm of the opinion that the zamak on atlas lathes get a bad rap. Mostly from the other forms of zamak, which are not as durable as the zamak 3 that Atlas spec'd and can be subject to "zinc pest".

All my zamak is nearly factory fresh and the lathe was built in 1952. That's a pretty good track record. It also hasn't lived an easy life either. Of course, if you whack it the wrong way or abuse it, it will ether break or wear out quicker than expected, but that falls under "abuse" in my opinion. No way you're going to weld or braze zamak either. Once it's broke, it's broke for good.

ABS might last 20 -30 years because it's plastic, but it's not going to look like a gear at that point.


----------



## pontiac428

I haven't seen Atlas ZAMAK corrode, but the contact surfaces on the 1947 change gears are sending a clear message that they weren't intending to stick around this long.  A well designed plastic gear could change that.  You're doing fine for a 1/2 hp lathe.  The leadscrew is just a PTO accessory, the gear won't see severe stress.

The old GMC inline six had a gear driven cam with a nylon gear that was not known to fail.  I can attest to 300,000 miles on one, most of of that was on Holleys, Hookers, and Hursts...  Aaand Cliffords and Offenhausers, if you sniff what I'm wafting.  I miss that truck.


----------



## Winegrower

It was a woodworking day, making the decorative parts of a porch railing extension.   Nothing fancy.   I have about 1000 board feet of rough sawn cherry, so most projects start with a lot of jointer and planer work.   I don’t have a separate wood shop, everything is in a 3 car garage outbuilding space, including one car.   I take the car out, and in just a few minutes I can set up a good material flow, jointer to planer to miter saw to table saw to router table.

Today’s output:




This is to match this design of porch rail, made in 1904 all cut by hand.


----------



## DavieJ75

great white said:


> Started printing out a couple gears for my atlas 10f:
> 
> View attachment 418101
> 
> 
> Going to give them a try and see if it calms down some of the ring, clash and rattle noises.
> 
> Thats the combo gear off the spindle gear that drives the change gears and the transfer gear in the reversing gearbox. Both of those gears are quite noisy, as when I disconnect them the lathe quiets right down.
> 
> I’m kind of hoping the abs gears will absorb some of the clashing/ringing in the gear train and quiet the whole machine down.
> 
> These are a first kick at the cat, mostly a “proof of concept”. If it works, I’ll redesign them to incorporate a bronze bushing to run on the pins/bolts/axles they run on.


Tell us how it works out. what Did u print with Petg or abs.


----------



## great white

DavieJ75 said:


> Tell us how it works out. what Did u print with Petg or abs.


Ummm:



great white said:


> I’m kind of hoping the abs gears will absorb some of the clashing/ringing in the gear train and quiet the whole machine down.


I prefer abs for most things I print. Once you figure out how to compensate for the tendency for abs to warp and/or lift, its a joy to print with. I find it by far the easiest material to post process. Sands well and you can acetone vapor smooth it for an even better surface finish.

Although, I have recently printed a few things with petg and have to say I’m impressed.  Not quite as strong as abs, but much easier to print as it doesn’t seem to shrink the same way abs does. Post processing is also nice. Not quite as easy as abs, but miles above pla. I a oid pla now whenever I can. Pla has its applications, but I find it mostly a pita to get it from spool to finished print.

haven’t tried nylon yet, but after reading up on it, it seems like its got a lot of pita things about 3d printing it. Main issue seems to be water absorption, which can be a major issue once its melted in the print nozzle and you try to extrude it.

Nope, I’m an abs guy. Its my go to material.
If you look a couple posts up you’ll see a short video of it running.


----------



## DavieJ75

great white said:


> Ummm:
> 
> 
> I prefer abs for most things I print. Once you figure out how to compensate for the tendency for abs to warp and/or lift, its a joy to print with. I find it by far the easiest material to post process. Sands well and you can acetone vapor smooth it for an even better surface finish.
> 
> look a couple posts up and you’ll see a short video of it running.


Ha. Ok. Just saw the post with your printer. Didn’t look further, that’s on me.


----------



## great white

DavieJ75 said:


> Ha. Ok. Just saw the post with your printer. Didn’t look further, that’s on me.


No worries.


----------



## 7milesup

I bought this 8-drawer cabinet years ago (20?) that was getting to the point it needed a fresh coat of paint.  As my Mom used to say, "If the barn needs painting, then paint it," which was her response to women wearing make-up.  I always got a kick out of that.  
I believe that this cabinet is a Vidmar, but not sure.  It was used in our local Farm & Fleet for displaying and storing Porter Cable router bits.  It had a top on it at one point with a Lexan cover to display all of the varieties of router bits that were in the cabinet.  Farm & Fleet were changing their router bit supplier (or maybe downsizing that department, don't remember), but they had this cabinet in the bargain aisle.  They had just put it out and didn't have a price on it yet.  I knew the store manager very well at the time, and he said, "how about $60 bucks?"  SOLD!!  Best deal ever!
Anyhow, here it is before and after.  I used  *Sunnyside Back to Nature stripper* (yes, I did leave some $1's behind in the stripper aisle).  Next up was Krylon Fusion-All-In-One Gloss Red Pepper for the drawer fronts.  I love the red color but had a heck of a time with their paint.  It took forever to dry, and when I went to touch up one of the drawers, the paint wrinkled slightly, which indicates that it was not completely cured, even though it was well past their 24-hour recoat time.  The dark color is Rust-Oleum Hammered Flat Black.


----------



## Just for fun

Just for fun said:


> Made a conversation piece for my brothers' birthday.  I didn't have the right size drill bit for the brass nut I'm making for it 9/16x18.  The drill bit should be here tomorrow then I will replace the commercial nut with the brass nut.  Looks a lot better than the first one I made when I first got my lathe.
> 
> View attachment 418071
> 
> 
> I probably made a mistake my drilling it out to 1/2", drilling brass is a little touchy.
> 
> View attachment 418072



I finished the knurled but today, I think it turned out pretty good.


----------



## Doug Gray

I did an overnight emergency service job for work. These are extruder machine wheel axles. 1 1/4" major diameter, bearing seat area and snap ring groove. About two hours work... good fun. I used some old anchor bolts for material.


----------



## dkemppai

great white said:


> Started printing out a couple gears for my atlas 10f:
> Going to give them a try and see if it calms down some of the ring, clash and rattle noises.
> 
> ...
> 
> I’m kind of hoping the abs gears will absorb some of the clashing/ringing in the gear train and quiet the whole machine down.
> These are a first kick at the cat, mostly a “proof of concept”. If it works, I’ll redesign them to incorporate a bronze bushing to run on the pins/bolts/axles they run on.


Please report back how it works!  I've got some rattling in my sheldon, mostly due to a few worn brass gears. I thought about doing something very similar. (Although I've started collecting parts for an ELS upgrade...)


----------



## great white

dkemppai said:


> Please report back how it works!  I've got some rattling in my sheldon, mostly due to a few worn brass gears. I thought about doing something very similar. (Although I've started collecting parts for an ELS upgrade...)


From post # 7264:


----------



## dkemppai

great white said:


> From post # 7264:


Yeah, I eventually did see it. Sometimes when I click on the email updates to the threads here, I don't get all of the pages until AFTER I post. Not sure what that's about...


----------



## great white

dkemppai said:


> Yeah, I eventually did see it. Sometimes when I click on the email updates to the threads here, I don't get all of the pages until AFTER I post. Not sure what that's about...


no worries. was just calling it to your attention since you asked.


----------



## projectnut

dkemppai said:


> Please report back how it works!  I've got some rattling in my sheldon, mostly due to a few worn brass gears. I thought about doing something very similar. (Although I've started collecting parts for an ELS upgrade...)


Does your Sheldon have a phenolic gear in the mix?  Many models have one to minimize gear noise, and as a sacrificial element in the event of a crash.  Often times they get swarf imbedded between the teeth.  When that happens the gear train starts to rattle.  I've used a dental pick to remove imbedded swarf from the phenolic gear, and even some that got stuck between the teeth of other gears.

There are members of the Practical Machinist board that recreate brass and phenolic gears for Sheldon machines.  Be sure to get the bore and tooth count because there are several different gears available depending on the age and size of the machine.


----------



## dkemppai

projectnut said:


> Does your Sheldon have a phenolic gear in the mix?  Many models have one to minimize gear noise, and as a sacrificial element in the event of a crash.  Often times they get swarf imbedded between the teeth.  When that happens the gear train starts to rattle.  I've used a dental pick to remove imbedded swarf from the phenolic gear, and even some that got stuck between the teeth of other gears.
> 
> There are members of the Practical Machinist board that recreate brass and phenolic gears for Sheldon machines.  Be sure to get the bore and tooth count because there are several different gears available depending on the age and size of the machine.


Honestly, I don't have the machine right now so can't look. It's out having the ways rebuilt/scraped. The noisy gears are the brass ones that drive directly off the spindle. They're worn to the point that there's almost no teeth left. I think there is a phenolic gear further down the train, but IIRC that one still looks good. 

If can 3D print replacements for the brass, I might do so. Partially because it should (in theory) be easy, partially because maybe they'll be the weak link in the case of a crash. 

Long term, I would really like to install an ELS. Turns out that if you leave the second tumbler just hanging, the screw free wheels. If the other end of the screw was driven with a servo, with the servo off or disabled that would also free wheel. That way both systems could be installed and functional on the lathe. 

Part of the reason for the ELS is to quiet up the lathe. No gears spinning = quiet lathe! 
But, I'd like to do so in a way that leaves the lathe pretty much intact. The other reason for the ELS is metric threads, or BA threads, or...


----------



## great white

dkemppai said:


> Honestly, I don't have the machine right now so can't look. It's out having the ways rebuilt/scraped. The noisy gears are the brass ones that drive directly off the spindle. They're worn to the point that there's almost no teeth left. I think there is a phenolic gear further down the train, but IIRC that one still looks good.
> 
> If can 3D print replacements for the brass, I might do so. Partially because it should (in theory) be easy, partially because maybe they'll be the weak link in the case of a crash.
> 
> Long term, I would really like to install an ELS. Turns out that if you leave the second tumbler just hanging, the screw free wheels. If the other end of the screw was driven with a servo, with the servo off or disabled that would also free wheel. That way both systems could be installed and functional on the lathe.
> 
> Part of the reason for the ELS is to quiet up the lathe. No gears spinning = quiet lathe!
> But, I'd like to do so in a way that leaves the lathe pretty much intact. The other reason for the ELS is metric threads, or BA threads, or...


You can't really print in metal with a home machine.

Best you can get is a filament with metal in it, but it's still plastic so you might as well just pick a filiment that meets you needs and print with that.

You also need special nozzles if you want to print anything with anything abrasive (carbon, metals, etc) in it. I've got the right nozzles and they aren't cheap.

Basically, you need stainless steel nozzles instead of the standard brass. You can print with the brass nozzles, but they will wear quickly and cause all manners of issues with your prints.

It is also advisable to have a direct extruder and upgrade the hot end. Most stock hot ends you get with a machine are so woefully underpowered they barely keep up with the smallest nozzles, so You're pretty much dealing with 0.2-.04 nozzles. Doable, but it will take days to print anything large. Small nozzles just don't put a lot fo material down at once. they're fantastic for small, very detailed prints, but they are painfully slooooooowwwwwww on anything else.....


----------



## dkemppai

great white said:


> You can't really print in metal with a home machine.
> 
> It is also advisable to have a direct extruder and upgrade the hot end.


Yes, I know. I was going to print plastic gears to replace the old worn out brass ones...
This printer runs a Micro swiss direct drive and hot end. That was a big improvement. Also a tool steel nozzle.  

Mostly, I think of the 3D printer as a toy. I keep trying to shoehorn projects onto it, but it never seems to happen.  Sometimes a vacuum cleaner nozzle or stuff like that, but no 'real' parts, yet. The gear would be a good excuse to try...

The other thought would be to see if they could be CNC milled. Small endmill in the 24K RPM spindle could possibly mill out the tooth profile. Just haven't looked close enough to see what that would take. 

In any case, with an ELS it may not matter. Might not even use the gears again.


----------



## silverhawk

You might be able to do a myfordboy trick and print a PLA gear, and then use the lost-PLA method to cast it in aluminum, but that would then mean you'd need more tools.... like a foundry and a crucible.  I think the king of random on youtube did a flower pot foundry.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Made a small machinists jack out of a damaged keyless chuck


And used my new 6 jaw (not because I needed to but because I wanted to ) to make a gear shift adapter/ extender for my friend's Fairlane


----------



## Weldingrod1

IMHO ruby nozzles are the right choice for abrasive filament... I've put 10 pounds or so of glass filled nylon through one ruby nozzle!

Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


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## Weldingrod1

I succeeded in going from CREO assembly to dxf, cambam, and to good cnc router parts!!

Getting close!
	

	
	
		
		

		
			








Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


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## projectnut

Weldingrod1 said:


> *I succeeded in going from CREO assembly to dxf, cambam, and to good cnc router parts!!*
> 
> Getting close!
> 
> Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


Would you mind translating that statement to English?


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Finally succeeded in silver brazing a steel boring bar end onto a carbide rod. Only took five or six attempts


----------



## pdentrem

Just finished turning a camera filter adapter that slips into the back of a Canon FD lens to Canon RF body adapter.
I currently sell some 3D printed filter holders that fit into the Canon Drop-in Filter Adapter and would like to do the same for the older lenses.
Simple sleeve with a step that holds the glass filter in place with a friction fit plastic ring. Started with a lump of Al over 2” in diameter. I had earlier tried to make it with threads inside and out to use a different retaining ring but there is really no metal left when done and it split on the first fitting!
Still have to blacken and soften any sharp edges.
Pierre


----------



## bukwirm

projectnut said:


> Would you mind translating that statement to English?


He draw some parts in CAD software (specifically PTC Creo), exported them to dxf (a common CAD file format), used a CAM program (CamBam, a common CAM program for hobbyists) to generate toolpaths/gcode, then cut the parts on his computer-controlled router.


----------



## WobblyHand

Finished some steel riser plates for my lathe yesterday.  Today I installed them.  A bit of a chore for me, as I had to take apart my engine hoist and carry it down the basement stairs and re-assemble the hoist in the basement.  Eventually got everything to line up and lowered the lathe onto the risers.  The risers will allow me better access under the lathe and make it easier for me to install my stepper motor for my ELS.  Kind of a twofer.  The big square looking hole is where the stepper goes.


Afterwards, I broke down the engine hoist, brought the pieces outside and reassembled it.  The hoist is back in the garage now.  Spent all day doing this - 9am-6pm, my sore muscles are complaining right now.


----------



## jwmelvin

I wound a spring from .094” spring wire using the lathe; for my line trimmer, after I apparently lost the original. 





That’s the arbor and tensioning block I used.


----------



## Weldingrod1

I've been working with my exchange student from Turkey...
Things are coming out well, I'm chuffed!
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	







Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


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## dkemppai

silverhawk said:


> You might be able to do a myfordboy trick and print a PLA gear, and then use the lost-PLA method to cast it in aluminum, but that would then mean you'd need more tools.... like a foundry and a crucible.  I think the king of random on youtube did a flower pot foundry.


Lol. No, I wouldn't need more tools, just more time. Built an induction heater a few years back (18KW design limit, so far tested to 6KW), and have the crucibles for it. 

The problem is we built a house in the meantime, and I'm just getting to the point where I can start to play with fun stuff again. But, then the driveway needed gravel, so my POTD was spreading gravel. Got really sick of driving on mud in the spring, so had 135 tons of gravel delivered. It's now spread, leveled, packed down. Should be good for winter now!


----------



## BGHansen

Weldingrod1 said:


> I've been working with my exchange student from Turkey...
> Things are coming out well, I'm chuffed!


Very nice work!  It reminds me of a much classed up version of an old toy called the "Secret Sam" from Topper Toys sold in around 1965.  On the outside it looks like a harmless briefcase.  On the inside . . .

Bruce


----------



## brino

BGHansen said:


> On the outside it looks like a harmless briefcase. On the inside . . .



Ever try to get one thru airport security? 
Brian


----------



## Weldingrod1

Test fit with the Fire tablet
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


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## woodchucker

BGHansen said:


> Very nice work!  It reminds me of a much classed up version of an old toy called the "Secret Sam" from Topper Toys sold in around 1965.  On the outside it looks like a harmless briefcase.  On the inside . . .
> 
> Bruce
> 
> 
> View attachment 418543
> 
> 
> View attachment 418542


Or the James Bond attache case, with secret camera and rifle that shot without opening the case, and other stuff... Man I wanted that so bad...


----------



## woodchucker

well, I am making a workbench for my son, and I got tired of routing mortices and watching my bushing loosen up. So I made a spanner out of an old set of pliers. I annealed them  so I can drill them. Then I drilled the bushing I was using.  I'll do the rest later. what a difference.. kept thinking I should do this, and never did.  I also ground the teeth down on the pliers so it wouldn't hurt the brass


----------



## BGHansen

woodchucker said:


> Or the James Bond attache case, with secret camera and rifle that shot without opening the case, and other stuff... Man I wanted that so bad...


The Topper Toy Secret Sam was a rip-off of the James Bond one.  It could shoot a bullet from the gun or take a picture with the 126-film camera without opening the case.  It also came with a periscope and a "message" launcher; kind of like a grenade launcher.  You could slip a note in the tube and launch it about 20 feet.

Bruce


----------



## NCjeeper

Working on the retaining wall for my shop. Whew this thing is kicking my butt. I am getting reminded I am not a spring chicken anymore.


----------



## Eyerelief

I think the puppy is going to like it.  Looks like a great place for some chairs, a fridge and a BBQ pit
And a dog bed of course


----------



## Weldingrod1

Progress!
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


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## Firstram

woodchucker said:


> well, I am making a workbench for my son, and I got tired of routing mortices and watching my bushing loosen up. So I made a spanner out of an old set of pliers. I annealed them  so I can drill them. Then I drilled the bushing I was using.  I'll do the rest later. what a difference.. kept thinking I should do this, and never did.  I also ground the teeth down on the pliers so it wouldn't hurt the brass


You can also stick an o-ring under the nut to stop it from coming loose


----------



## Dhal22

NCjeeper said:


> Working on the retaining wall for my shop. Whew this thing is kicking my butt. I am getting reminded I am not a spring chicken anymore.
> View attachment 418608
> 
> View attachment 418610




Make sure you know where water is going.   Not that you don't but just making sure.


----------



## francist

Weldingrod1 said:


> Progress


It looks marvellous but I have to ask, what is it? (I don’t get out much…)


----------



## Firstram

francist said:


> It looks marvellous but I have to ask, what is it? (I don’t get out much…)


Portable Snake Skin Ultrasound Machine, DUH!


----------



## woodchucker

NCjeeper said:


> Working on the retaining wall for my shop. Whew this thing is kicking my butt. I am getting reminded I am not a spring chicken anymore.
> View attachment 418608
> 
> View attachment 418610


You going to backfill it with plenty of 3/4 gravel and fabric to keep it from pushing out right?


----------



## woodchucker

Firstram said:


> You can also stick an o-ring under the nut to stop it from coming loose


it's already got loctite on it. That didn't stop it.  This will. I already used it and it worked. It just needed more than a finger tightening.


----------



## RWoerz

I spent many days including today first converting an old single stage lung killing dust collector into a 2 stage collector. I'm now trying to inclose the thing to tame down its 85 decibel scream. I tried one small project on my new Avid CNC router without one before deciding I couldn't live without it.

BTW really nice job on the BMW tool set.

Even though I only spent a year as a tool and die apprentice and didn't go back to it after Uncle Sam had had his way with me. I've spent the past 50+ years making tools.


----------



## extropic

RWoerz said:


> BTW really nice job on the BMW tool set.


What BMW tool set?      If you don't quote the reply we don't know what you're referring to.


----------



## AGCB97

extropic said:


> If you don't quote the reply we don't know what you're referring to.


----------



## dewbane

In what I believe to be a time-honored and cherished tradition of hobby machinists, I invested an insane amount of time and effort making a fancy center ejector whacker bar for my lathe. I was tired of grabbing a random length of round bar, and decided to make something snazzy. The sad thing is I went out there with the intention of doing some useful work, and I ended up farting around with this dumb nonsense until I used up my window of opportunity.

So here it is. Lo, behold, the world's most ridiculousest, most over-fancified headstock center ejector bar thingie, complete with rich Cornithian brass, and kah-nurling. After I engaged the half-nut and began to run the knurl, the stock kept creeping into the chuck, and pulling away from the live center in the tailstock. I detected and corrected this, but not before the first 1" or so of knurling turned out like total crap. So I decided to do something I wouldn't normally do. When the lathe got to the headstock end of the knurling, after about 16 hours and 32 minutes, I just left everything hooked up, drizzled liberal amounts of Earl (oil for yinz what ain't hillbilles) everywhere, and ran the the whole thing backwards. Since I had a live center in a firmly rooted tailstock, the stock couldn't go too far pulling out of the chuck. It actually turned out pretty okay. It's not my best knurling by far, but it's more knurling than this beater bar actually deserved.

Also, lots of random hand file work.

Okay, enough blather, here is the _objet de beauté_ (or maybe _d'uglité_?):


----------



## wachuko

dewbane said:


> In what I believe to be a time-honored and cherished tradition of hobby machinists, I invested an insane amount of time and effort making a fancy center ejector whacker bar for my lathe. I was tired of grabbing a random length of round bar, and decided to make something snazzy. The sad thing is I went out there with the intention of doing some useful work, and I ended up farting around with this dumb nonsense until I used up my window of opportunity.
> 
> So here it is. Lo, behold, the world's most ridiculousest, most over-fancified headstock center ejector bar thingie, complete with rich Cornithian brass, and kah-nurling. (After I engaged the half-nut and began to run the knurl, the stock kept creeping into the chuck, and pulling away from the live center in the tailstock. I detected and corrected this, but not before the first 1" or so of knurling turned out like total crap. So I decided to do something I wouldn't normally do. When the lathe got to the headstock end of the knurling, after about 16 hours and 32 minutes, I just left everything hooked up, drizzled liberal amounts of Earl (oil for yinz what aren't hillbilles) everywhere, and ran the the whole thing backwards. Since I had a live center in a firmly rooted tailstock, the stock couldn't go too far pulling out of the chuck. It actually turned out pretty okay. It's not my best knurling by far, but it's more knurling than this beater bar actually deserved.
> 
> Also, lots of random hand file work.
> 
> Okay, enough blather, here is the _objet de beauté_ (or maybe _d'uglité_?):
> View attachment 418657
> 
> View attachment 418658
> 
> View attachment 418659


Very nice.  I need to make one of these as well.

I always overthink something like this… I have not made one thinking that I needed to buy a long brass rod…. Goodness…just make the tip out of brass!!


----------



## wachuko

AGCB97 said:


>





extropic said:


> What BMW tool set?      If you don't quote the reply we don't know what you're referring to.


This one of course, from a 2018 post…









						POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?
					

Espresso machine lever was rough... I have taken it apart several times to polish the main lever cam shaft... replaced all valves... and it would be smooth for a few shots and get rough again...    Well, today I decided to figure out what the problem was.  Turns out it was a simple fix.  This...




					www.hobby-machinist.com


----------



## dkemppai

wachuko said:


> I always overthink something like this… I have not made one thinking that I needed to buy a long brass rod…. Goodness…just make the tip out of brass!!


That's why I like this forum. Those "Oh Duh!" moments of pure simplicity!  (Stashing this brass tipped steel rod idea away now...  )


----------



## dewbane

wachuko said:


> Very nice.  I need to make one of these as well.
> 
> I always overthink something like this… I have not made one thinking that I needed to buy a long brass rod…. Goodness…just make the tip out of brass!!


Don't feel bad. I was 98% of the way toward talking myself into press fitting a piece of brass round bar on the end, and knurling that. The brass I would have used probably costs $283 in 2022 dollars. It would have been spectacularly stupid and ridiculous. "It's a whacker bar, Michael. Don't be a dumbass. Just put your kah-nurling on the steel and be done with it."

As far as that goes, I just squinted at the picture, and I'm pretty happy with that knurling. Running the setup in reverse was a stroke of genius.

You might have been a home shop machinist too long when you leave your knurling running while you take the dog inside, feed her, zap a couple of croissants, eat them, and then finally mosey back out to the shop. I still had 2" to go.

I ran

this

sl



ow.


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was from a couple of months ago. We have chickens for eggs and mild entertainment. I went out to check on “the girls” one morning and saw a window screen knocked in. Yup, a raccoon climbed up on the nesting box, busted through the screen and got into the coop. We ended up losing one chicken.


Raccoons are enterprising!  One or more climbed on top of the chicken coop nesting box, busted through the window screen, had dinner, and busted out the LH window.



A year ago, I retrimmed the exterior doors & windows at my mom & dad’s house with white plastic brick molding (wonderful stuff, never need to paint it). The old wooden molding came home to my scrap wood pile. It’d work perfectly for this project to reinforce the windows.

I made up frames from the recycled brick molding that fit over the existing brick molding on the coop. I don’t recall why we had the stainless-steel hardware cloth, but I used it to make heavy screens. Real tough layout work; set the frame on the cloth, and mark the inside with a Sharpie. Offset those lines to allow for a return flange to the inside of the frame, and cut with a shears.


Cut and screwed together frames from recycled brick molding





These "Beverly"-style shears do a WONDERFUL job making straight cuts in sheet metal and hardware cloth






It's been a couple of months since I did the project; can’t recall if I cut the corners out with the shears (probably) or used my corner notcher. Bent the hardware cloth with the DiAcro (24”) brake and HF 3-in-one (30”) brake (one length was 28”, couldn’t use the DiAcro). Set the hardware cloth in the frames and screwed the cloth to the frame.


Bent the hardware cloth on a 24" DiAcro brake



Long sides bent on a HF 30" 3-in-one machine.  Used an adjustable table saw/drill press/miter box, etc. support to support the cloth before bending.






Screwed the hardware cloth to the frames






Frames were screwed to the coop over the existing brick molding. Chickens are safe again!


Nice and secure now!





Thanks for looking!

Bruce


----------



## Eyerelief

Coons amaze me, sometimes I would swear they had thumbs


----------



## dkemppai

Eyerelief said:


> Coons amaze me, sometimes I would swear they had thumbs


And where there's one there's probably dozens more. Had a neighbor start a battle with coons. Caught one messing around near his house. By the time he was done, he had 31 of them...


----------



## BGHansen

Eyerelief said:


> Coons amaze me, sometimes I would swear they had thumbs


We have a lot of them in our area.  I had a stretch years ago where I shot 51 of them in 3 years.  We live on 64-acres; they're fine when they stay in the woods.  But when they come up around the house and get in the trash, bird feeder, potted plants, hang on the eave-troughs, etc., it's game on.  A smarter person would have closed up the coop windows at night as we were in the middle of processing 50 meat chickens.  Lots of "guts" drawing the coons in; "guts" all gone in the morning.  Coons just doing what they do.

Bruce


----------



## extropic

wachuko said:


> *This one of course, from a 2018 post…*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?
> 
> 
> Espresso machine lever was rough... I have taken it apart several times to polish the main lever cam shaft... replaced all valves... and it would be smooth for a few shots and get rough again...    Well, today I decided to figure out what the problem was.  Turns out it was a simple fix.  This...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.hobby-machinist.com



I guessed, from his low message count, that he might be resurrecting ancient history.
I also knew that I wasn't going to page through this thread to find it.

So, do you have a photographic memory or did you search it out?
If you searched it out, that is practically a POTD in itself.


----------



## Eyerelief

And here I thought I was the only one picked on by the masked bandits.  Omnivores, I cant keep feed and grain around unless I store it in our shipping container.  As a kid I would sell the pelts, but they don't bring enough to justify messing these days.  The battle rages on although I know I will never get them all.


----------



## wachuko

extropic said:


> I guessed, from his low message count, that he might be resurrecting ancient history.
> I also knew that I wasn't going to page through this thread to find it.
> 
> So, do you have a photographic memory or did you search it out?
> If you searched it out, that is practically a POTD in itself.


I remembered seeing the post with the tool but had to search for the actual post to share the link…


----------



## dkemppai

wachuko said:


> This one of course, from a 2018 post…


So, I knew the post. And it even predates me here. 

When I click on an email from the forum on my phone, chrome brings me to the first page. I've seen that post many, many times now...


----------



## wachuko

dkemppai said:


> So, I knew the post. And it even predates me here.
> 
> When I click on an email from the forum on my phone, chrome brings me to the first page. I've seen that post many, many times now...


I remembered it because he made, not only the tool, but the box to store it as well.  I think I remember seeing his original post before there were issues with the server here... pretty sure I remember seeing more than just that photo...


----------



## mattthemuppet2

wachuko's search fu is awe inspiring - he found a post about some chucks I bought that I forgot I even made after I sold them to him for less than I posted I paid for them, doh


----------



## BGHansen

mattthemuppet2 said:


> wachuko's search fu is awe inspiring - he found a post about some chucks I bought that I forgot I even made after I sold them to him for less than I posted I paid for them, doh


Ah, the old "Buy High, Sell Low" philosophy!  What a guy!

Bruce


----------



## extropic

@BGHansen 

Nice job on the screens Bruce.

However, I want to see the Tazer hook-up.

I have some history with invasive racoons and I still hold a grudge.


----------



## Shotgun

dkemppai said:


> That's why I like this forum. Those "Oh Duh!" moments of pure simplicity!  (Stashing this brass tipped steel rod idea away now...  )


That work by @dewbane reminded me of the steady rest I made years ago. 
The circle was aluminum scrap from another project.
The angles were cut from a square aluminum block that I needed to make round.  They were triangulare, but I cut flats in order to bolt it to the circle.
Three 3/4" or so threaded rods, with nuts on each side of the block.
If you zoom in real close, you'll see a brass screw in the end of each threaded rod.
All of this was done on an Atlas Craftsmand 12x36. . . the milling being done with a homemade milling attachment.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

BGHansen said:


> Ah, the old "Buy High, Sell Low" philosophy!  What a guy!
> 
> Bruce


yeah, I'll never end up a millionaire at this rate


----------



## dkemppai

mattthemuppet2 said:


> yeah, I'll never end up a millionaire at this rate


Or my philosophy of by high and never sell...


----------



## projectnut

Finally put the finishing touches on the cold saw this morning.  The last two pieces are a bracket and roller on the infeed end, and the missing piece of the "Eurovise" on the exit end.

Here are a few pictures of the completed machine.


----------



## projectnut

dkemppai said:


> Or my philosophy of by high and never sell...


I'm on the other end of the spectrum.  Buy LOW and NEVER SELL


----------



## BGHansen

mattthemuppet2 said:


> yeah, I'll never end up a millionaire at this rate


You would if you started as a billionaire!


----------



## BGHansen

extropic said:


> Nice job on the screens Bruce.
> 
> However, I want to see the Tazer hook-up.
> 
> I have some history with invasive racoons and I still hold a grudge.


A buddy of mine at my former workplace ran an extension cord to his bird feeder.  He ran ground to a metal disk around the pole near the base and hot to a piece of hardware cloth a foot above the ground plate.  He had some funny trail cam videos of raccoons getting a 110V "tickle". 

Come to think of it, if I put a piece of sheet metal on the top of the nesting box, I could wire that to ground and run the hot to the screens!  Oh, gotta leave, got a HOT project to work on!

Bruce


----------



## Eyerelief

Cat on a hot tin roof


----------



## woodchucker

I put a new spring in my Delta band saw (Woodworking). The original spring was no longer tensioning. I was not able to use my 1/2 blades as the saw was not capable.. so I set my fence for the drive on a 3/8 blade.. I needed my 1/2 back... I got the spring, and have not been able to dial in the fence, the aluminum fence had worn from the washers, and just kept falling back into the same place.  So I realized I needed to make a clamping plate so that could take the wear, and just clamp the fence in place... that made it much easier.

Just posting it in case anyone else has the same problem. it wasn't much work, just a few band saw cuts, then mill it, and drill.

The washer is filed for when it really needs a lot more displacement for drift.  So is the clamp angled.  I put dykem on, but after zeroing the fence, I don't want to remove it to clean it. I may just hit it with acetone on the fence.


----------



## extropic

BGHansen said:


> A buddy of mine at my former workplace ran an extension cord to his bird feeder.  He ran ground to a metal disk around the pole near the base and hot to a piece of hardware cloth a foot above the ground plate.  He had some funny trail cam videos of raccoons getting a 110V "tickle".
> 
> Come to think of it, if I put a piece of sheet metal on the top of the nesting box, I could wire that to ground and run the hot to the screens!  Oh, gotta leave, got a HOT project to work on!
> 
> Bruce



Don't for get to setup the camera(s). LOL


----------



## ChazzC

dewbane said:


> In what I believe to be a time-honored and cherished tradition of hobby machinists, I invested an insane amount of time and effort making a fancy center ejector whacker bar for my lathe. I was tired of grabbing a random length of round bar, and decided to make something snazzy. The sad thing is I went out there with the intention of doing some useful work, and I ended up farting around with this dumb nonsense until I used up my window of opportunity.
> 
> View attachment 418657


Wow, that's a lot nicer than the one I made a few years ago for my Mini Lathe:


----------



## Larry$

Weldingrod1 said:


> and to good cnc router parts!!





What is causing the extreme fuzzing? Really dull bit? For dados use a down spiral, for through cuts use a compression bit. Feeds & Speeds: 3/4" material, 2 flute compression bit, 16,000rpm, 600"/minute. Onsurd has tables on line.


----------



## Larry$

Eyerelief said:


> Coons amaze me


There are a lot of them around here. See them run into the storm drains when I'm out for a late night walk. One tore a hole through the shingles, and plywood on a house I used to live in. I feed stray cats at the shop. If they don't eat all of it the coons will clean it up, even during daylight. A few days ago one came up while the cats were eating. They scattered. Then one brave cat crept up, sat down less than a foot away from the coon and shared with the diner guest.


----------



## MikeWi

When I was 13 I was on a camping trip with as a boy scout. We had a standing box with our food that had a front cover that swung down on hinges and made a work table. It was closed with a hasp, but we didn't bother with a padlock and used a wire twist tie. That is, not until we watched a huge raccoon saunter up to it right in front of use, climb up and up calmly undid the wire twist and opened the hasp and door. Then we picked our jaws up from the floor and chased it off!


----------



## Weldingrod1

Here's the snake ultrasound... wait, no, that was just a cool name...

It's actually an AC/DC powered charging case for 9 Fire tablets and a QR scanner. For First Robotics scouting. The bling is to make other teams jealous and our scouts feel loved!

The lid is next, waiting on more tolex. I'm thinking about a back lit logo on it 






Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


----------



## aliva

Finaly got around to building the clamptite tool. Had to guess at the dimensions but it works. The material is 304 and 316L SS,and a UHMW bushing for the top.


----------



## pontiac428

I've really got to set aside  a Saturday and make one of those thangs!  I've got lacing wire coming out of my ears, yet I'm always running out of zip ties... any idea how to fix that, hmmm?


----------



## Firstram

Weldingrod1 said:


> Here's the snake ultrasound... wait, no, that was just a cool name...
> 
> It's actually an AC/DC powered charging case for 9 Fire tablets and a QR scanner. For First Robotics scouting. The bling is to make other teams jealous and our scouts feel loved!


My Boy Scout leaders were all Viet Nam Veterans. It was an amazing and challenging experience that I wouldn't trade for the world! Kudos for passing on practical skills, keep up the good work!


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was knocking off another part(s) needed to complete the inventory of an old Erector set.  The oldest (1913-1923) sets used the eloquently named "P25-S short screw" and "P25-L long screw".  The short ones were 1/4", long ones 1 3/8".  Screws in these sets were nickel-plated from 1913 - 1952.  There are plenty of original 1/4" nickel-plated screws out there, but the 1 3/8" ones are really hard to find.  The sets from 1924-62 only used at most a dozen.  However, the early sets from 1913-23 used as many as 125!  The set I'm putting together will look like this one when finished:






Stainless steel screws (they are 8-32 in these toys) make a nice substitution for the often rusty originals.  Problem is, McMaster Carr, Graingers, Bolt Depot, Mutual Screw, etc. sell 1 1/4" and 1 1/2", but don't sell 1 3/8" screws.  Obviously can't stretch a 1 1/4" up to 1 3/8", so my only option was to cut 1 1/2" screws down to 1 3/8".  Here's what I came up with.

Real tough project.  I measured the height of an 8-32 die and cut a bushing out of some CRS to an overall combined length of 1 3/8".  The bushing was center drilled and drilled out so the 8-32 screw could slip through and thread onto the die.


CRS bushing with a clearance hole for the 8-32 screw and the 8-32 die.



Ran the screw into the die with a cordless driver




The 1/8" extra was ground off with a belt sander in about 3 seconds taking care to not hammer the surface of the die (though it's inevitable).






Back off the screw from the die with a cordless driver, and dress the end with a Scotchbrite wheel.


I started dressing the ends using the bushing to hold the screws, but ended up just holding them by hand.  There was plenty to hang on to and they didn't get very hot with the Scotchbrite wheel.



LH one was dressed, RH one hasn't



About an hour of work to get through a bag of 100.




Yes, very tedious, but it's done!  It took me just short of an hour to do 100 screws.  I measured the stacked bushing and die after the fact at 1.370", I knocked 0.005" off the die after grinding 100 screws.  I would appreciate it if anyone has a source for 1 3/8" length stainless 8-32 screws!  Or, a better way to knock 1/8" off!

Thanks for looking, Bruce


----------



## ChazzC

BGHansen said:


> POTD was knocking off another part(s) needed to complete the inventory of an old Erector set.  The oldest (1913-1923) sets used the eloquently named "P25-S short screw" and "P25-L long screw".  The short ones were 1/4", long ones 1 3/8".  Screws in these sets were nickel-plated from 1913 - 1952.  There are plenty of original 1/4" nickel-plated screws out there, but the 1 3/8" ones are really hard to find.  The sets from 1924-62 only used at most a dozen.  However, the early sets from 1913-23 used as many as 125!  The set I'm putting together will look like this one when finished:
> 
> 
> View attachment 418917
> 
> 
> 
> Stainless steel screws (they are 8-32 in these toys) make a nice substitution for the often rusty originals.  Problem is, McMaster Carr, Graingers, Bolt Depot, Mutual Screw, etc. sell 1 1/4" and 1 1/2", but don't sell 1 3/8" screws.  Obviously can't stretch a 1 1/4" up to 1 3/8", so my only option was to cut 1 1/2" screws done to 1 3/8".  Here's what I came up with.
> 
> Real tough project.  I measured the height of an 8-32 die and cut a bushing out of some CRS to an overall combined length of 1 3/8".  The bushing was center drilled and drilled out so the 8-32 screw could slip through and thread onto the die.
> 
> 
> CRS bushing with a clearance hole for the 8-32 screw and the 8-32 die.
> View attachment 418919
> 
> 
> Ran the screw into the die with a cordless driver
> View attachment 418920
> 
> 
> 
> The 1/8" extra was ground off with a belt sander in about 3 seconds taking care to not hammer the surface of the die (though it's inevitable).
> 
> 
> View attachment 418921
> 
> 
> 
> Back off the screw from the die with a cordless driver, and dress the end with a Scotchbrite wheel.
> 
> 
> I started dressing the ends using the bushing to hold the screws, but ended up just holding them by hand.  There was plenty to hang on to and they didn't get very hot with the Scotchbrite wheel.
> View attachment 418922
> 
> 
> LH one was dressed, RH one hasn't
> View attachment 418923
> 
> 
> About an hour of work to get through a bag of 100.
> View attachment 418924
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, very tedious, but it's done!  It took me just short of an hour to do 100 screws.  I measured the stacked bushing and die after the fact at 1.370", I knocked 0.005" off the die after grinding 100 screws.  I would appreciate it if anyone has a source for 1 3/8" length stainless 8-32 screws!  Or, a better way to knock 1/8" off!
> 
> Thanks for looking, Bruce


Bolt Depot; not cheap as it’s an odd length, but maybe worth it:

https://www.boltdepot.com/Product-Details.aspx?product=9646

Phillips Pan Head is their only option.


----------



## silverhawk

A family member brought an old, bamboo fly fishing rod and said they couldn't use it.  It had missing pieces, wrappings were coming off, etc.  A while back, I had removed the original thread wrappings that were still intact, scraped the finish off and removed the set.  However, I wasn't even close to preparing for new thread wrappings.

Last Saturday, I turned the wood base that was under the original reel seat down to size for the reel seat.







I epoxied the new reel seat in place (I do that backwards for balance).  I needed the handle to sit better (and there was nothing I could grip it on), so I turned down an aluminum boss to fit inside the bottom end of the cork handle and over the rod itself.




Now, I need to wrap everything up.  Everything has been marked (hexagonal bamboo rods have 6 different spines because of their construction, but on pieces that had specific flex, I used that as the spine).  It's ready to wrap and finish.


----------



## DAT510

BGHansen said:


> I would appreciate it if anyone has a source for 1 3/8" length stainless 8-32 screws! Or, a better way to knock 1/8" off!



Bruce, what about something like this?  Some Wire strippers have the ability to cut screws, though you might want to figure out a mechanical aid to help "squeeze" them if your going to cut a lot.


----------



## BGHansen

DAT510 said:


> Bruce, what about something like this?  Some Wire strippers have the ability to cut screws, though you might want to figure out a mechanical aid to help "squeeze" them if your going to cut a lot.


Worth a try!  Plus, I'll "have" to buy another tool!

Thanks for the tip!

Bruce


----------



## Shotgun

BGHansen said:


> Stainless steel screws (they are 8-32 in these toys) make a nice substitution for the often rusty originals.  Problem is, McMaster Carr, Graingers, Bolt Depot, Mutual Screw, etc. sell 1 1/4" and 1 1/2", but don't sell 1 3/8" screws.  Obviously can't stretch a 1 1/4" up to 1 3/8", so my only option was to cut 1 1/2" screws done to 1 3/8".  Here's what I came up with.
> 
> . . .
> 
> 
> Yes, very tedious, but it's done!  It took me just short of an hour to do 100 screws.  I measured the stacked bushing and die after the fact at 1.370", I knocked 0.005" off the die after grinding 100 screws.  I would appreciate it if anyone has a source for 1 3/8" length stainless 8-32 screws!  Or, a better way to knock 1/8" off!
> 
> Thanks for looking, Bruce



Fun Fact:  Every faston electical crimper you ever bought has a series of holes near the pivot point.  Look close, and you'll see one side is threaded.  It's there to shorten screws.  Put it in to the desired length.  Squeeze if off.  Straighten the threads as you back it out.

It was only a few months ago that I learned this myself.

(I should have finished the thread before posting.)


----------



## BGHansen

ChazzC said:


> Bolt Depot; not cheap as it’s an odd length, but maybe worth it:
> 
> https://www.boltdepot.com/Product-Details.aspx?product=9646
> 
> Phillips Pan Head is their only option.


Thanks!  I should have mentioned, they need to be round headed slot-drive screws.

Bruce


----------



## Boswell

DAT510 said:


> Some Wire strippers have the ability to cut screws,


Cutting a SS #8 screw with once of these might be OK for one or two, but I think you give up before you do 100 (or even 10).  Bruce, I like your technique of using a Die and bushing to get the length and then grinding. 100 an hour does not seem to bad.


----------



## extropic

Boswell said:


> Cutting a SS #8 screw with once of these might be OK for one or two, but I think you give up before you do 100 (or even 10).  Bruce, I like your technique of using a Die and bushing to get the length and then grinding. 100 an hour does not seem to bad.


I second that, unless one is looking for a hand strength exercise.

If you inadvertently pinch yourself one time, it will be "aw $h1t" and back to the previous method.

Those electrical pliers are great for 'in the field' use for a few screws that are getting immediately installed.


----------



## ChazzC

extropic said:


> I second that, unless one is looking for a hand strength exercise.
> 
> If you inadvertently pinch yourself one time, it will be "aw $h1t" and back to the previous method.
> 
> Those electrical pliers are great for 'in the field' use for a few screws that are getting immediately installed.


They also can leave a sharp end, not something you want on an Erector Set project, so they’ll be time grinding/sanding anyway.


----------



## mksj

This is part of a complete control system I am building for a CVA lathe, which is a variant of the Monarch 10EE. It has an unusual micrometer stop which required modifications and I built a proximity stop holder for it. The proximity stop holder was fabricated from 6061, it uses a floating bearing hub and a guide rod both made out of O1 steel. I added a chip shield made out of polycarbonate. The proximity sensor thread is a M30 x 1.5 which I bored and threaded on the lathe since I did not have a tap in that size. As with many projects it takes just as much time trying to figure out how you are going to do it as it does time machining.


----------



## FOMOGO

Been working on a mobile work bench. Have three of these basic angle iron benches that were in the basement of the house next door when I bought it some years ago. They were just kind of thrown together, with expanded metal tops, sides, and shelf underneath. First step was removing the expanded metal, and two layers of paint, and mill scale. Then some 2"angle re-enforcement, and box the bottom sections of the legs for the axles, and iron wheels I had done on the lathe. The top is an 8'x 2' section of 1/4" plate on a 1"x3" rectangular tube base that I picked up with a bunch of steel I bought a few years back, at a fire sale price. Added a piece of 3" channel as a catch tray on one side, and will be adding another piece on the other side to extend the surface area. Also will be adding a removable backsplash on three sides, and some salvaged metal desk drawers. The front casters were another salvaged free item. Disassembled, and cleaned them up, removed the wheels, and swivel bearing caps, made spacers to take out the side to side slop, and put the swivel section in the press, and and got all the slop out of the swivel bearing. Probably 80% of the work on this thing has been in removing paint and mill scale. The top has the thickest and hardest mill scale I've run across. I tried muratic acid to no effect. The best method to date has been 4 1/2", 40grit flap discs. I put a 3" belt sander on the top after removing the scale and it will cut the metal just fine, but try it on a piece with mill scale, and it won't touch it. Had the top not had some deep gouges in it, I probably would have left it. Will post an update when it's finished, and if anyone has a good method for fast mill scale removal I would love to hear it. Cheers,  Mike


----------



## Just for fun

That's a good looking bench Mike,  Thanks for sharing.


----------



## Just for fun

I made a screw from a photo today.   Last weekend I was at my niece's farm and she is working on a couple of chairs and a table.   Missing one screw, I said I think I can make that (probably buy it at Home Depot for 2 bucks) LOL. 

Anyway it was fun to make it from a photo.   Looks like it should work.

The original 




The one I made.


----------



## woodchucker

Just for fun said:


> I made a screw from a photo today.   Last weekend I was at my niece's farm and she is working on a couple of chairs and a table.   Missing one screw, I said I think I can make that (probably buy it at Home Depot for 2 bucks) LOL.
> 
> Anyway it was fun to make it from a photo.   Looks like it should work.
> 
> The original
> View attachment 419159
> View attachment 419160
> 
> 
> The one I made.
> View attachment 419161
> View attachment 419162


nice..
Went to the victorinox store today.. we are up in Ct watching my granddaughter while my son and DIL are at a wedding. Some top brass at the company decided to strip the store to only have discontinued items, we went in last year they had their product line, this year mostly watches, a very small amount of swiss army knives, some so fat that no way would you carry it in a pocket, more like a back pack.. I asked why , were you not selling stuff. They said when they had all the merch they were busy, now, not so much, people look, but don't buy much.  The person that decided this thought that people would buy it online, so lets just sell discontinued merch.. what a braniac...


----------



## mmcmdl

Room . I am making ROOM !  Trying to shoehorn a 14" x 60" Republic lathe into the garage . So far , I'm fighting a losing battle but I'll eventually win the war .


----------



## Just for fun

After morning chores I goofed off for a couple hours.   Made it to the shop in the afternoon and made a cross slide lock kinda like what Mark @mksj has on his.


----------



## GoceKU

I'm sure if this counts but most of the cutting and shaping i did in my machine shop. I put down some laminate flooring on one of the level in my house. The wooden flooring is getting hard to clean and it's lacquer is wearing off, so to protect it and make it easier to clean i decided to cover it with some fake wood. I had to move all the furniture to one side of a room then to the other once i've lay down the flooring. All together it took 3 nights, i'm working 3 jobs now so spare time is non existent.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Tried fixing a transmission leak on my friends Fairlane 500, unfortunately without much success - the C4 transmission it has is renowned for leaking.


In the process had to repair a stripped out pan thread by carefully cleaning up there remaining threads with a form tap and making a longer bolt.



You can also see some previous work I did 



Today I mostly worked on a new to me 8" rotary table. Made a missing lock handle and stripped out down to clean and regrease. Works really well.


----------



## wachuko

Happy wife, happy life and all that… setting up her craft room…


----------



## great white

wachuko said:


> Happy wife, happy life and all that… setting up her craft room…
> 
> View attachment 419420


I’ve got no issue with doing/making things for the missus, but that “happy wife happy life” is total BS.

I went that way with my first wife. Did everything for her and it wasn’t a bad relationship overall. Never fought, always got along, almost like living with your best friend.

But I came to realize you need to make yourself happy so you’re happy in the relationship. I came to find that there was no joy in my life and I was limping the relationship along by doing “happy wife happy life” BS. I realized that if the wife isn’t happy and makes you miserable because of it, the way to fix that is not to go to extremes to make her happy but to look her straight in the eye and confront the issue. If they don’t like that, then the marriage was a sham to start with and to be quite blunt about it; you are being used. Thats not a marriage, at least not one I want to be in.

That relationship ended and it didn’t end well.

Current wife understands that I have to be happy first and then I can make her happy. She appreciates it when I do things like breakfast in bed and such, but she never expects it. She prefers that I do things for her because I want to, not because she’s being a bit “b**chy” that day.

As far as I’m concerned, she’s the perfect woman and a keeper until I go into the ground for the last time.


----------



## wachuko

great white said:


> I’ve got no issue with doing/making thibgs for the missus, but that “happy wife happy life” is a total BS saying.
> 
> I went that way with my first wife. Did everything for her and it wasn’t a bad relationship overall. But I found you need to make yourself happy so you’re happy in the relationship. I soon came to find that there was no joy in my life and I was limping the relationship along by doing “happy wife happy life” BS.
> 
> That relationship ended and not well.
> 
> Current wife understands that I have to be happy first and then I can make her happy.
> 
> As far as I’m concerned, she’s the perfect woman.


I always have told my wife that I do not want to grow old and learn she has had regrets…

You know “I did not do this or that because of you…”

So I made sure she has fulfilled all her dreams… or most ot them anyway…And I have done the same…. We are only in our 50’s so I hope we have many more years to fulfill more dreams/goals…

The me first versus her first, that is all bs for us… we are a couple and sometimes she is first or I am first…. Knowing that at times we each have to work harder is normal…

Her crafts brings her joy…knitting, sewing, embroidery, making this or that…. And she gets that the equivalent for me are tools in the garage…or some vinyl records, or whatever it is that I want to learn next…

I have been blessed with a woman, a partner in life, that it is the best of me…. No relationship is perfect, but knowing that we can work through anything, makes it so…

I should not be drinking when I reply… back to my wine… Cheers!!


----------



## 682bear

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Tried fixing a transmission leak on my friends Fairlane 500, unfortunately without much success - the C4 transmission it has is renowned for leaking.
> View attachment 419412
> 
> In the process had to repair a stripped out pan thread by carefully cleaning up there remaining threads with a form tap and making a longer bolt.
> View attachment 419413
> View attachment 419414
> 
> You can also see some previous work I did
> View attachment 419415
> View attachment 419416
> 
> Today I mostly worked on a new to me 8" rotary table. Made a missing lock handle and stripped out down to clean and regrease. Works really well.
> View attachment 419417
> View attachment 419418
> View attachment 419419



What model C4? And where is it leaking from?

I have a '64 Fairlane with the 'green dot' C4 that is a leaker... I know where it is leaking from, just don't know how to fix it...

-Bear


----------



## great white

682bear said:


> What model C4? And where is it leaking from?
> 
> I have a '64 Fairlane with the 'green dot' C4 that is a leaker... I know where it is leaking from, just don't know how to fix it...
> 
> -Bear


I’m not sure what you guys have going on because I literally can’t remember how many c4/c6 equipped vehicles I’ve had over the years and not one transmission problem or leak that didn’t come from a worn output seal, which is to be expected on higher mileage vehicles…


----------



## lordbeezer

Reason the output seal leaks is tail shaft bushing is worn.


----------



## great white

lordbeezer said:


> Reason the output seal leaks is tail shaft bushing is worn.


Can be.

Can also just be wear in the seal. The yoke has a bit of “freeplay” in order to slide on and off and the seal is exposed to road dirt and grime 24/7.

I’ve replaced just the seal before and leaks stop and don’t return. You could argue that the new seal compensates for a worn output bearing, but I always used to check that when replacing the output seal. Never had to do a bearing. Not saying it can’t be the output bearing, just that I’ve never had a problem with one.

Leaks need to be troubleshot before the cause can be known (and fixed).

I have had one c4 develop a pretty serious leak, but that was because of a cracked case. Seems like 450-odd hp is just a wee bit too much to feed into a stock c4 backed up by a set of slappers, a spool and a set of drag tires…lol.


----------



## 682bear

It's not the output shaft seal... it's leaking from the front...

Like I said, I know where it's leaking from... and I know why...

I am assuming that it is caused by a 'factory defect' in the transmission housing... I just wanted to see if Matt's issue was from the same defect.

-Bear


----------



## mattthemuppet2

It's leaking from the front drivers side corner at the edge of the pan around the gasket, bottom left near the bell housing in the first pic. I thought it was because of the stripped out bolt, but it leaked with a new gasket (annoyingly into a catch pan that had a crack in it!). My friend tried a couple of times with RTV with no success, I'm guessing because the sealing surface on the transmission has a series of large cast in voids all the way round it (see pic). He's ordered a thicker gasket, so hopefully that works. I reckon he should let me drill and tap for a bolt on the front left corner so the gasket can be compressed more evenly, we'll see. There is no damage to the sealing surface, the pan is flat as he carefully flattened any distortion causing by overtightening by the previous owner (presumably to fix the leak), both surfaces are squeaky clean.

In doing some research I found a lot of threads on various forums asking about leaking C4 transmission pans. The only success I found was a guy who bought a special extra thick cork gasket and spent a couple of days torquing the bolts in a special pattern. Sounds like a pain in the ass.


----------



## 682bear

mattthemuppet2 said:


> It's leaking from the front drivers side corner at the edge of the pan around the gasket, bottom left near the bell housing in the first pic. I thought it was because of the stripped out bolt, but it leaked with a new gasket (annoyingly into a catch pan that had a crack in it!). My friend tried a couple of times with RTV with no success, I'm guessing because the sealing surface on the transmission has a series of large cast in voids all the way round it (see pic). He's ordered a thicker gasket, so hopefully that works. I reckon he should let me drill and tap for a bolt on the front left corner so the gasket can be compressed more evenly, we'll see. There is no damage to the sealing surface, the pan is flat as he carefully flattened any distortion causing by overtightening by the previous owner (presumably to fix the leak), both surfaces are squeaky clean.
> 
> In doing some research I found a lot of threads on various forums asking about leaking C4 transmission pans. The only success I found was a guy who bought a special extra thick cork gasket and spent a couple of days torquing the bolts in a special pattern. Sounds like a pain in the ass.



Ok, that isn't my issue...

I'll try to keep this short...

On the earlier C4's (maybe all of them, but I have no experience with the later ones, so I don't know) there is what appears to be a redundant seal on the front pump. The pump seats on a paper gasket, but also has a rectangle profile o-ring around the pump body.

It is not really redundant, because there is a tiny hole from the area of the pump bore in the housing between the two seals that goes into the pan area above and to the front of the valve body. I don't know what that hole is for... it doesn't appear to have any purpose unless it is a vent to prevent the air between the seals from becoming pressurized as the transmissoin heats up...

The issue is that the pump bore is big enough to prevent the o-ring from creating a good seal. I have another 'parts' green dot C4, and the pump seals fine in it. There is (going by old memory) about 0.030- 0.040" difference in the bore sizes between the two housings.

The one with the larger bore is one that I removed from a bone-stock '64 sports coupe that I parted out a few years ago. I don't believe it had ever been out of the car before... it just about had to have been machined oversize at the factory. Why would someone bore out the pump bore later anyway? There is no reason to...

So anyway, the fluid seeps up through that tiny hole, then runs out around the pump o-ring into the bellhousing. At one time, I had plugged the hole with silicon... it didn't leak for a couple of years, then started again, so I'm assuming the plug came out.

-Bear


----------



## GoceKU

The small garage got a good cleaning, i arrange some of the rims that need some refurb over the winter, also the electric motor got its name tag cleaned off and rewired first wrong then right and tested, it work very well. Now my machine shop and big garage are a mess but i'm expecting some free time soon and couple of holidays are on the way so i'll be cleaning them too.


----------



## NCjeeper

Making a 2 inch in diameter boring bar.


----------



## NCjeeper

All done.


----------



## Gnpenning

wachuko said:


> I always have told my wife that I do not want to grow old and learn she has had regrets…
> 
> You know “I did not do this or that because of you…”
> 
> So I made sure she has fulfilled all her dreams… or most ot them anyway…And I have done the same…. We are only in our 50’s so I hope we have many more years to fulfill more dreams/goals…
> 
> The me first versus her first, that is all bs for us… we are a couple and sometimes she is first or I am first…. Knowing that at times we each have to work harder is normal…
> 
> Her crafts brings her joy…knitting, sewing, embroidery, making this or that…. And she gets that the equivalent for me are tools in the garage…or some vinyl records, or whatever it is that I want to learn next…
> 
> I have been blessed with a woman, a partner in life, that it is the best of me…. No relationship is perfect, but knowing that we can work through anything, makes it so…
> 
> I should not be drinking when I reply… back to my wine… Cheers!!


This is a partnership not a "happy wife happy life".  A partnership with the right person makes for a happy life for both parties, which is what it should be.  

Happy for you.


----------



## Eyerelief

NCjeeper said:


> All done.


That is a beast.  What is your minimum diameter, looks like its going to be 4.5" or better?


----------



## pontiac428

Eyerelief said:


> That is a beast.  What is your minimum diameter, looks like its going to be 4.5" or better?


When bore holes get over 4.5", it becomes clear that other units can be used.  Like a fist, or a donkey hoof, or an elephant foot, or a basketball.  No holes bored by that lump of steel should be described in decimal inches!


----------



## NCjeeper

Eyerelief said:


> That is a beast.  What is your minimum diameter, looks like its going to be 4.5" or better?


Just over 3".


----------



## dewbane

dewbane said:


> View attachment 418657


Continuing the insanity... I got bored with figuring out a place to stash my patented, crazily over-built Whacker Bar (tm).

I found some random thing on my stock shelf. I have a vague feeling that this was a part to something that I probably shouldn't have cut up. But whatever. I cut it up. I cleaned up the cuts on a belt grinder, because I lose enough blood without putting pokey edges where pokey edges don't belong.




I cleaned it up, and did what passes for welding at my shop. It's a lot like welding. only with more wire stuck to things, and more smoke.



Then I pained it with some Deep Green Hammerite that cost me $20.00 a quart in 2020, and now costs $80 a quart. Woof!

_*Et voilà!*_ A world-class whacker bar holder thingie, mounted conveniently and attractively to the front of my lathe, for easy whacking access. In paint that kinda sorta almost somewhat matches. Plus I had to shave one of the zip screws with a die grinder to get the Whacker Bar (tm) to fit, so that's why I brushed faux green $18,000 a gallon exotic it worked really well, so we had to discontinue it for environmental reasons paint all over everything.)


----------



## 682bear

First, let me say... I have several dozen knives that have found their way to being owned by me in one way or another. Most of them are not expensive... $15 to $40 probably.

So when 'someone' who I won't name (because I love her too much) decided to borrow a knife, decided to grab one of my nicer knives... to use as a prybar... while I was at work... and broke the tip off the blade...

...I wasn't very happy.

The knife in question is a Spyderco Delica II that I bought new in 1997. All things considered, it isn't an expensive knife compared to some, but when I bought it, I remember thinking I had lost my mind to pay that much for a pocketknife.

So, anyway... this morning, I decided to attempt to grind the blade to return it to a point... at least make it functional again...

What have I got to lose, right?

Before...




I put it in a machinist vise and put it on the surface plate and used a height guage to set the blade angle...




Then set it up on the surface grinder and ground the blade using a spray mist to keep the blade cool...




I rounded the edges on a scotchbrite wheel and...







The blade is 3/8" shorter, so it looks out of proportion to the handle, but at least it's useable...

-Bear


----------



## GoceKU

Today i spent 3-4 hours cleaning the big garage, i started at the small cabinet next to the door the shelfs had broken and all my tools fell down, i had a stalk of flywheels that all fall down. I used wood boards to reinforce it and did some upgrades, like connecting a power cable also rearranged couple of other tings but my brothers car has been sitting there disassembled for months now, it needs to go for paint immediately. Once is out i'll have place to move things around.


----------



## ChazzC

Semi-annual HVAC system check is first thing tomorrow, so I had to move the mobile bandsaw chest, Shop Vac cart and miscellaneous mobile storage out of the way:



Clear path to the door (in an emergency I can get out in less than 30 seconds, but doing it neatly so I can move freely takes a little longer).




Can still walk around the core storage & utility area, just can't do any work.




Per the service techs, this is sufficient space for what they need to do (it is normally only about 24" wide).


----------



## Janderso

NCjeeper said:


> Just over 3".


Cool. WNMG for an insert!
I bet it will work great. The geometry looks right.


----------



## NCjeeper

Thanks Jeff.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i spent half a day cleaning my workshop, i also set up the tire machine in its place. I run power to it and a lot of trash got thrown out. My work bench is still a mess and my green shelf but i need to make more shelves to have space to move thing around. The rest of the day i took a trip in nature with the little niva, there is a a band for going in wooded areas because of fires so i had to go where others go.


----------



## 682bear

Awhile back, I picked up this Delta Milwaukee 12" disc grinder...




Then a couple of weeks ago, I found and bought a stand for it on ebay...




I decided this week to get the two together and see if they would start a reationship.

I fabricated a base frame from 2x2x3/16" angle, added some casters, and bolted the stand to it, then mounted the grinder and bolted it down...
	

		
			
		

		
	




Next... wiring. I plan to put a power switch in the opening on the front, then run the power wire out the back. I'll have to machine an adapter plate for the opening... it's too big for a standard switch box.

-Bear


----------



## projectnut

I don't think you're going to need to fabricate an adaptor plate.  I used the same stand to build a deburring wheel setup earlier this year.  I went to Home depot and purchased a weatherproof outlet box like this:









						BELL N3R Aluminum Gray 1-Gang Weatherproof Electrical Box, Four Outlets at 3/4 in., with 2 Closure Plugs 5330-0 - The Home Depot
					

Designed for use in branch circuit wiring in wet, damp or dry locations. Boxes house receptacles, switches and GFCI's. May also be used as a weatherproof junction box. Closure plugs and installation hardware



					www.homedepot.com
				




In my case I also needed an extension like this because the switch I wanted to use was too deep for the box









						Commercial Electric 1/2 in. Gray 1-Gang 6-Holes Weatherproof Extension Rin WSE650G - The Home Depot
					

Commercial Electric weatherproof extension rings are designed for use in branch circuit wiring in wet, damp or dry locations. Extension rings house receptacles, switches and GFCI's. Extension rings mounted



					www.homedepot.com
				




I mounted the box inside the stand and the extension on the outside. and used a weatherproof toggle switch cover like this.









						Commercial Electric Gray 1-Gang Non-Metallic Weatherproof Toggle Switch Cover WTC100PG - The Home Depot
					

Commercial Electric nonmetallic 1-Gang toggle switch covers are designed to provide weatherproof protection for an outdoor on-off toggle switch. Covers are for use with weatherproof 1-Gang boxes. Covers



					www.homedepot.com
				




You might want to consider something similar.  If you intend to grind metal you don't want it getting into the switch or motor,  In my case I have a TEFC motor mounted inside the stand.

Here are a couple pictures.  You can see the box mounted to the inside of the back wall in the first picture, and the extension and switch cover in the 4th picture.  I used the same setup on my Delta/Rockwell disk/belt sander as seen in the last picture.  I got lucky on both machines.  The existing bolt holes matched the pattern of the boxes and extensions.  I didn't even have to drill a single additional hole.


----------



## 682bear

projectnut said:


> I don't think you're going to need to fabricate an adaptor plate.  I used the same stand to build a deburring wheel setup earlier this year.  I went to Home depot and purchased a weatherproof outlet box like this:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> BELL N3R Aluminum Gray 1-Gang Weatherproof Electrical Box, Four Outlets at 3/4 in., with 2 Closure Plugs 5330-0 - The Home Depot
> 
> 
> Designed for use in branch circuit wiring in wet, damp or dry locations. Boxes house receptacles, switches and GFCI's. May also be used as a weatherproof junction box. Closure plugs and installation hardware
> 
> 
> 
> www.homedepot.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> In my case I also needed an extension like this because the switch I wanted to use was too deep for the box
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Commercial Electric 1/2 in. Gray 1-Gang 6-Holes Weatherproof Extension Rin WSE650G - The Home Depot
> 
> 
> Commercial Electric weatherproof extension rings are designed for use in branch circuit wiring in wet, damp or dry locations. Extension rings house receptacles, switches and GFCI's. Extension rings mounted
> 
> 
> 
> www.homedepot.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the box inside the stand and the extension on the outside. and used a weatherproof toggle switch cover like this.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Commercial Electric Gray 1-Gang Non-Metallic Weatherproof Toggle Switch Cover WTC100PG - The Home Depot
> 
> 
> Commercial Electric nonmetallic 1-Gang toggle switch covers are designed to provide weatherproof protection for an outdoor on-off toggle switch. Covers are for use with weatherproof 1-Gang boxes. Covers
> 
> 
> 
> www.homedepot.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You might want to consider something similar.  If you intend to grind metal you don't want it getting into the switch or motor,  In my case I have a TEFC motor mounted inside the stand.
> 
> Here are a couple pictures.  You can see the box mounted to the inside of the back wall in the first picture, and the extension and switch cover in the 4th picture.  I used the same setup on my Delta/Rockwell disk/belt sander as seen in the last picture.  I got lucky on both machines.  The existing bolt holes matched the pattern of the boxes and extensions.  I didn't even have to drill a single additional hole.



YES! That's exactly what I need to do...

I'll study on that and see about ordering the parts.

Thanks! 

-Bear


----------



## extropic

@projectnut 

In your photo of the 12" disk/6" belt sander, I'd like to learn more about the sliding table set-up you've got there.

Is there a build thread on it?


----------



## projectnut

extropic said:


> @projectnut
> 
> In your photo of the 12" disk/6" belt sander, I'd like to learn more about the sliding table set-up you've got there.
> 
> Is there a build thread on it?


There may be a couple blurbs in some posts where I was asking questions, but there isn't a complete thread on it.  It's a HSS lathe tool sharpening fixture I've been working at and improving over time.  It was originally built to sharpen tooling for threading.  Rather than continually guess at whether or not I was getting a 60* point I made the fixture to be certain.  Over time it has been expanded to include left and right cutting tools and some form tools.

It's just a base plate that has Thomson rods and bearings supporting the moveable fixture plate.  The fixture plate can move left or right and forward and back.  The table on the sander can be adjusted to provide relief on the lower sides of the tool.  The plate also has a micrometer type adjustment on the rear to allow more precise stock removal.  It's still a work in progress and probably will be for some time since there are more pressing projects in the works.

As it sets now it can sharpen 3/16", 1/4", 5/16', 3/8", 7/16", 1/2", 9/16', and 5/8" tooling.  As time goes on, I continually make changes and improvements.  If anyone has more interest, I can take some pictures and do a write up.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i bought me some used tires for the 605. Also the white elephant no: 2 has left for the paint shop, so i got the 605 in the big garage and test fited one of the tires. The tires are of an astra H but the bolt pattern and offset is to close they fit. I have to switch to tapered bolts which isn't any problem. I was going to buy only 2 new 15" tires but the back one have tread but are 15 years old and cracked so i need 4, the prices have gone up so high it was going to take my entire paycheck. So i found this set of 5 used 16" tires and rims 3 almost new less than 100 km on them still have the little nipples and the seller included 2 more at 50% life. All for 100$ so for the first time in years i'll be driving steel wheel on my car in the winter, i'm debating should i paint the rims mat black and drive them like that or should i just buy hubcaps and be like everybody else. 
The 605 also got a sticker to put fear in everybody behind it, it has a 12 valve in it


----------



## extropic

@projectnut 

Your sharpening fixture looks like very useful tooling to have.
I'd definitely be interested in some more pictures of it.
Particular interest in how it attaches to the sander's table and the various adjustabilities.
Are the linear bearings plain bearings or ball type?


----------



## brino

projectnut said:


> If anyone has more interest, I can take some pictures and do a write up.


Yes Please!
Brian


----------



## projectnut

Looking a little closer at the sharpening fixture in my last post I can see it's an early prototype.  The most recent version is a little more finished including the degree marks milled into the top plate and a few more recent accessories.

For the record this "project" has spanned several years.  It started as a simple fixture to be sure i was getting the correct angle on tooling meant to thread various size blanks.  Since then, it's morphed into a tool that can create either left- or right-hand cutting tools, and most recently some form tools.  The base is 3/8" aluminum plate with a 1/2"x 3/4" steel strip bolted to the underside.  This strip locates the fixture on either the tabled for the disk or the belt.  A Destaco clamp on either side secures the base to the table.  Mounted to the top side of the base are 4 Thomson linear ball bearings.  These bearings support the rods that allow the left to right movement of the table.

Mounted to the underside of the top plate are 4 Thomson bearings that support the rods that allow the forward and reverse movement of the table.  There are shaft collars mounted on each of the forward/reverse rods to limit the free forward motion of the table and prevent the tool from crashing into the disk or belt.  There is a micrometer style adjustment block at the rear of the table to allow slow and precise feed adjustment.  When in use the base is mounted flush with the top surface of one of the tables.  In the current pictures I just set the fixture on the disk table for photos.  The tables themselves are adjustable to the face of either the belt or the disk.  This adjustment provides the top to bottom relief angle on the tool when grinding.  The most common relief angle used is 7*, but I have been known to go as high as 15* for some applications.

The top plate is 1/4" aluminum plate.  There is a hole drilled in the center left to right and 1" from the edge that faces the belt/disk.  This hole is the pivot point for the tool holder base and the center point of the degree wheel.  The degree wheel has hard stops every 5*, and the tool holder base can be clamped in place at any graduation within the 180* span.  Degree graduations were cut into the plate using either a 1/16" or 1/32" end mill.  The longest widest graduations are at the 10* marks (10*, 20*, 30*,40*, etc.).  The shorter wide graduations are at the 5* marks (5*, 15*, 25*, 35*, etc.)  The shortest narrowest markings are at single degree increments.  All degree marks have been highlighted using a black paint marker from McMaster.

The tool holder base pivots on a shoulder bolt in the afore mentioned hole at the center of the plate 1" from the disk/belt.  There is a slot in the tool holder base that aligns with the degree markings.  There is a pointer drilled and tapped into the side that when properly adjusted will align the tool with the corresponding degree marking on the scale.  There are 2 spring loaded detents in the base that align with the hard stop holes in the top plate.  Either can be engaged or disengaged by turning the top knob 90*.

In the top of the tool holder base about an inch from the rear there is an adjustable roller ball that keeps the tool holder base parallel to the top plate without rubbing on it.  Unseen in these pictures are the 2 dowel pin holes and the threaded hole that align and secure the tool holder to the base.

The tool holders themselves are nothing more than aluminum flat stock that has a pocket milled to fit the appropriate size tool.  The tool is secured to the holder with 2 set screws drilled and tapped into the side of the holder.  There are 2 dowel pins flush with the bottom of the tool pocket that extend through the holder and into corresponding holes in the tool holder base.  Near the rear of the tool holder is a clearance hole that allows the threaded shaft of the grip knob to pass through and align with the corresponding threaded hole in the tool holder base.

The other 2 attachments allow the tool holder to be positioned offset to either the left or the right of the tool holder base. As you can see in the photos the one isn't completed.  The dowel pin alignment holes and the threaded hole for the grip knob are yet to be completed.  At this point the tool holder is just sitting on it.


----------



## extropic

@projectnut 

I apologize for injecting an unplanned project into your day, but the writeup on the grinding fixture is very good and much appreciated.
Thank you.


----------



## WobblyHand

Finally recovered from the bum holes I drilled in my lathe casting mounting my stepper motor for a homebrew ELS.  The fix involved welding on drill bushings to guide the holes.  Got the stepper mounted as well as the rotary encoder.  Hope to get to wiring soon.


Ran the lathe at 400 RPM just to check the encoder belt tracking and things seemed good.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

682bear said:


> What model C4? And where is it leaking from?
> 
> I have a '64 Fairlane with the 'green dot' C4 that is a leaker... I know where it is leaking from, just don't know how to fix it...
> 
> -Bear


well here's a big fat DOH! Turns out the leak was coming from a perished o-ring between the transmission housing and the dipstick tube. My friend replaced that and the leak has gone. He's also now an expert at all the different ways of sealing a transmission pan


----------



## extropic

mattthemuppet2 said:


> well here's a big fat DOH! Turns out the leak was coming from a perished o-ring between the transmission housing and the dipstick tube. My friend replaced that and the leak has gone. He's also now an expert at all the different ways of sealing a transmission pan


That's what is called an educational experience.


----------



## FOMOGO

Yup, always check the easy stuff first, and remember the effects of gravity. Many a supposed rear main leak turn out to be a valve cover, or valley cover/intake leak. Mike



mattthemuppet2 said:


> well here's a big fat DOH! Turns out the leak was coming from a perished o-ring between the transmission housing and the dipstick tube.


----------



## WobblyHand

Connected the electronics up to the motor and encoder shown in post 7402 for first machine integration!  First test - does the RPM match the machine's?  Answer:  yep, pretty dang close!  Is the sense of rotation correct, yep.  Does the stepper motor turn the correct way - no!  Easy fix,  didn't account for the flipping of the motor and timing pulleys.  Does it cut threads?  Yes.  Are they the right pitch?  Nope.  Seem to be off by a factor of about 2.4.  A 10 TPI thread seems to cut as 24 TPI.  Pretty pleased nonetheless.  Homebrew ELS system, wrote my own software from scratch, made my own interface boards.  It may take a while to sort out the bugs, but it's a very good day today.  Time on project so far: 4 months.

Edit:  Wrong gear box setting.  Set to position 1A = 1:1 and upped the stepper motor current to 5A.  Now cutting 10 TPI threads on a 10 TPI setting.  Woohoo!


----------



## wachuko

Sweet!!


----------



## NCjeeper

FOMOGO said:


> . Many a supposed rear main leak turn out to be a valve cover, or valley cover/intake leak. Mike


Yep. Chevy was nice enough to put their distributor in the back of the engine so when the when the O ring degrades and oil runs down the back of the engine it is always assumed it is the rear main.


----------



## GoceKU

NCjeeper said:


> Yep. Chevy was nice enough to put their distributor in the back of the engine so when the when the O ring degrades and oil runs down the back of the engine it is always assumed it is the rear main.


Don't be so hard on chevy, their engines are solid design. French and germans do a lot worse, espacily with the plastic pipes for cooling in the middle of engines.


----------



## Eyerelief

NCjeeper said:


> Yep. Chevy was nice enough to put their distributor in the back of the engine so when the when the O ring degrades and oil runs down the back of the engine it is always assumed it is the rear main.


Very true, but back in the day that most of those leaks occurred GM was using a two piece corded rear main seal. Those rear main seals did their share of leaking without any help from anywhere else.
I’m still a fan, GM all my life, current ride is a GMC with an 8.1 liter and 400k on original engine and Allison.


----------



## Dhal22

Decided to throw up a ceiling before I positioned my mill. Added more sheetrock and started a drop ceiling. Just me, myself and I and with good football coming on at noon I didn't get much done.


----------



## WobblyHand

I'm still giggling with this new ELS I made and used for the first time today on my G0752Z!  Cut a 1/4"-40 TPI and a 3/4"-16 TPI thread by just touching a touchscreen display.  Dead on for pitch.  No messing with greasy gears.  No levers to move, just a few (soft) button presses.  Currently have 25 imperial and 21 metric threads along with 9 or so feed rates.  Now I can do left hand threads - no idler mod needed.  Cats pajamas, indeed!


----------



## hman

Looks like the ELS is a fantastic success.  Congratulations!


----------



## WobblyHand

hman said:


> Looks like the ELS is a fantastic success.  Congratulations!


Still have a bit to do to package everything up, but first chips really made my day!  Especially since it just worked, save for cutting LH threads initially.  Since my G0752Z never could do LH threads (without adding an idler) I am happy to now have that ability.

The packaging for me is the hardest part - stuffing everything in a box, power inputs, switches, etc, getting it bullet proof, exposing the touchscreen, installing the display bezel and making it look ok.  Probably a month or two more work.  Right now it looks like a Rube Goldberg contraption with flying wires and little boards wired together.  Not really fit for shop use as all the electronics are exposed.  Basically, everything needs to be buttoned up.


----------



## FOMOGO

Great you got the ELS working so well. Thinking I would like to do that setup on my 1891, 22" lathe. Would just need to scale things up a bit. Mike


----------



## WobblyHand

FOMOGO said:


> Great you got the ELS working so well. Thinking I would like to do that setup on my 1891, 22" lathe. Would just need to scale things up a bit. Mike


Probably the stepper, it's driver and power supply.  I'm using a NEMA 24 4Nm closed loop stepper system.  You will need to go larger!  The motors, drivers and power supply are the lion share of the cost of the system.

Honestly, the toughest part for me was the touchscreen display software development.  But I made a series of hand drawn cartoons how I wanted the screens to look and progess.  That got me through that part.  There's about 3x more code in the display and touchscreen section than in the motor control section.  However, I find the navigation and use very simple because I thought that section through.  I don't have tactile feedback, but there's visual feedback of the button presses.  The display changes to show your selection and every screen has a way to back out to the previous one.  Could use some refining, but pretty pleased with it as is.


----------



## ChazzC

Got tired of sliding the magnet on my Loc-Line Chip Shield across the ways of my lathe, so changed it for a large Shars base; also added a second 90 and 6 more fittings for more flexibility:




I admit that I don't use it often as flying chips aren't an issue with most of the materials I use, but when I shortened an alloy set screw recently the hot chips were everywhere:





When I got the extra fittings I also picked up a set of assembly pliers (not absolutely necessary, but makes putting the 3/4" fittings together a lot easier):


----------



## GoceKU

Today i had couple of brake discs to turn on my lathe, this the 3rd set this week. It seams parts shortages have the mechanics having to do this rather than replaced parts.. I also bought me some R134a freon for the next season. The price is more than double than last year, 265 euro for a 13,6 kg cylinder now.


----------



## Martin W

Have some work coming up in my business for some barn board mill work. I didn’t want to use my good saw blades to rip boards with the chance of nails. . I have a bunch of 16” blades that someone gave me, but the Center hole needs to be 30 mm not 1“ to fit on my saw. So I bored them out.
Martin
View attachment IMG_0229.MOV

View attachment IMG_0228.MOV


----------



## francist

Like the old saying, "where there's a will there's a way!"


----------



## Just for fun

Or as I like to say "If there is a way, I have the will"


----------



## savarin

I always thought it was "Where there's a will the kids want to be in it"


----------



## Badabinski

I'm finally back in the shop after 3 weeks in Europe and 1 week of COVID isolation. I bought an old Starrett 93c tap wrench a few months ago, and I was deeply unimpressed with the actual handle bar it came with. It's been even longer since I've done any turning, so I decided to do a simple project and make a new handle for it that was somewhat shinier. The closest stock I had on hand was ¾", so there was a lot to turn down (my ground ⅜" stock was just a biiiit too small).


New one is on the left.


Here it is installed in the actual tap wrench. Now I need to replace the little spring that provides some friction for the handle bar in the top. Really dead simple thing to do, but it was a nice reintroduction to my lathe after so long not using it.


----------



## jwmelvin

I made a hole-saw arbor.


----------



## Eyerelief

Badabinski said:


> Now I need to replace the little spring that provides some friction for the handle bar in the top.


If you have a source for the little spring I’d be interested in knowing who it is. I lost mine and Starrett wants around $20 delivered if I recall correctly.


----------



## mksj

Finished a micrometer stop with proximity sensor system, design is a bit different and I have been adding chip shields to prevent stray chips from triggering the sensor. Also in the process of building a turnkey VFD system for another person but still waiting for one final part that is on back order. When you can access most of the globe via the internet and can't find a current production part in stock, you know that there is still a serious supply chain issue.


----------



## dewbane

I added a second work light to my mill. It was way cheaper to get the version without a magnetic base. I had an old, crappy magnetic base dating back to the dark ages before I got introduced to Noga bases, and so I converted it into a magnetic base for my second mill lamp. Total cost, not including the mill lamp, $0.00. That's £0.00 or €0,00 or ¥0,00 for you foreign people.





(This totally offsets the $3,000 I just spent in order to avoid paying $600 for a working clock movement. It's called Machinist Math™)


----------



## WobblyHand

jwmelvin said:


> I made a hole-saw arbor.


Looks beautiful and a heck of a lot nicer than the stock Morse hole saw arbors.  How's the runout on it?  My arbor + hole saw had a 2mm runout, drove me crazy.


----------



## jwmelvin

WobblyHand said:


> Looks beautiful and a heck of a lot nicer than the stock Morse hole saw arbors.  How's the runout on it?  My arbor + hole saw had a 2mm runout, drove me crazy.


Thank you. The arbor itself is great - about 0.001" TIR spinning in a collet on the mill. The saw OD is still ~0.015" TIR though. Still, it should be better and sturdier than the standard. I made it with a smooth 3/4" section for collets and the three flats for the lathe chuck. It's part of a setup to notch  (fishmouth) some tube on the lathe. That said, I'm thinking about some templates for the plasma cutter, as the project I'm working on is just a storage rack, so no need for perfect, and the plasma would be a lot quicker. Either way, the lathe setup has been a fun project.


----------



## Eyerelief

jwmelvin said:


> Thank you. The arbor itself is great - about 0.001" TIR spinning in a collet on the mill. The saw OD is still ~0.015" TIR though.


I think it looks great as well.  I was considering building the same.  From what you are describing, the .015 TIR rest on the shoulders of the hole saw?  Do you think that truing up the mounting hole on the hole saw would remedy?  Not that 0.15 is bad for a hole saw but I am curious if you think the problem lies in the mounting hole or if you feel the perimeter of the saw itself is not concentric.


----------



## projectnut

Eyerelief said:


> I think it looks great as well.  I was considering building the same.  From what you are describing, the .015 TIR rest on the shoulders of the hole saw?  *Do you think that truing up the mounting hole on the hole saw would remedy? * Not that 0.15 is bad for a hole saw but I am curious if you think the problem lies in the mounting hole or if you feel the perimeter of the saw itself is not concentric.


I'm not sure how you would "true up" the threaded hole in the saw.  Actually, I'm impressed that the runout that small.  Hole saws aren't usually considered a precision tool.  I have some name brand ones that have so much runout I have to use the next size smaller saw to even get close to the correct diameter.


----------



## Eyerelief

projectnut said:


> I'm not sure how you would "true up" the threaded hole in the saw.  Actually, I'm impressed that the runout that small.  Hole saws aren't usually considered a precision tool.  I have some name brand ones that have so much runout I have to use the next size smaller saw to even get close to the correct diameter.


OH! I guess I learned something today.  I did not know that the holes were threaded.  I too thought that the runout was pretty good considering the tool, but if it could be made better I would try.  Again, I had no idea that the center holes on all hole saws was threaded.


----------



## jwmelvin

Eyerelief said:


> …I am curious if you think the problem lies in the mounting hole or if you feel the perimeter of the saw itself is not concentric.


It’s an interesting question. I guess I could try a shim behind the washer to see, or I could dial the business end in on the 4-jaw and see how the face around the threaded hole runs. 

I surface ground my washer, but could make one with a slight taper or maybe I could grind the back of the hole saw to true it. I’ll report back if I look into it further.


----------



## jwmelvin

Eyerelief said:


> I had no idea that the center holes on all hole saws was threaded.



Apparently the 5/8-18 threads are very common across brands.


----------



## Eyerelief

I'm a victim of old age I guess.  The last hole saw I owned looked like this


I obviously have not been riding the razors edge in hole saw technology.  I'm glad you posted as I have a job coming up that I had considered a 3" hole saw for.  I need to get out and know me something.


----------



## ChazzC

Eyerelief said:


> If you have a source for the little spring I’d be interested in knowing who it is. I lost mine and Starrett wants around $20 delivered if I recall correctly.


Piano wire (diameter based on original), turn a mandrel “a little smaller” (trial & error) than the desired ID, wind a coil, cut into rings with a Jeweler’s Saw and send extras to your friends.


----------



## Eyerelief

ChazzC said:


> Piano wire (diameter based on original), turn a mandrel “a little smaller” (trial & error) than the desired ID, wind a coil, cut into rings with a Jeweler’s Saw and send extras to your friends.


Love it!  The spring is captive in the  main body.  The only feature that I am sure of about the original is that it is self propelled, and seems to be extremely aerodynamic.


----------



## ChazzC

Eyerelief said:


> Love it!  The spring is captive in the  main body.  The only feature that I am sure of about the original is that it is self propelled, and seems to be extremely aerodynamic.


If you mean that it disappeared shorty after you pried it out, I can understand your comment. If you are referring to the body of the tap wrench when it left you hand in frustration – I just checked my 93C: the ~0.345" spring has a 0.160 gap between the ends; you should be able to (carefully) pop the spring out with a dental pick or the end of a small scriber. Think of it as an inside-out piston ring.


----------



## Eyerelief

ChazzC said:


> If you mean that it disappeared shorty after you pried it out, I can understand your comment. If you are referring the the body of the tap wrench when it left you hand in frustration – I just checked my 93C: the ~0.345" spring has a 0.160 gap between the ends; you should be able to (carefully) pop the spring out with a dental pick or the end of a small scriber. Think of it as an inside-out piston ring.


I made my own t-handles for my 93C.  When I was removing the clip, I got a glimpse of it as it emerged from the hole and then, faster than my wife can type my credit card number it left for another dimension.  I only saw a very small part of the clip on the Starrett T handle launch pad.  Please understand, I reside at the edge of the Matrix, I see everything, but once an entity crosses over into light speed, I'm out.......................


----------



## ChazzC

Eyerelief said:


> I made my own t-handles for my 93C.  When I was removing the clip, I got a glimpse of it as it emerged from the hole and then, faster than my wife can type my credit card number it left for another dimension.  I only saw a very small part of the clip on the Starrett T handle launch pad.  Please understand, I reside at the edge of the Matrix, I see everything, but once an entity crosses over into light speed, I'm out.......................


So answer #1. I’d take the spring out of mine and measure the diameter of the wire for you, but I’m too afraid that it would go looking for spring and never return.


----------



## NCjeeper

I have had this scrap I beam for years so I decided to turn it into something useful. I made a set of shop saw horses.


----------



## jwmelvin

I made a screw for my clamp






Completing my tube notching setup





And notched a tube


----------



## jwmelvin

Eyerelief said:


> …I am curious if you think the problem lies in the mounting hole or if you feel the perimeter of the saw itself is not concentric.



I messed with shims between the back face and arbor washer but never could make much improvement in the cutting teeth runout. It looks like the mounting hole and rear surface are quite true, but the front edge with teeth is just a bit wobbly relative to the mounting surface. 

This is a Lenox, $18 from Amazon. 

It worked reasonably well when cutting. I’m sure an annular cutter would be great but, for the money and intended use here, the home saw works. The arbor did seem to help things stay rigid and true as possible.


----------



## Eyerelief

Looks fantastic! Should make for a great fit.  I agree, a hole saw is a much more reasonable solution considering the task at hand. Well done.


----------



## tq60

You forgot to add the locking pins.

Normal hole saw is not a precision cutting tool.

Normal arbor has a sliding pair of pins for larger saws and edges for smaller ones.

The vibration from cutting combined with the torque from turning will marry the cutter to the arbor.

Could be a way to add something to this, it looks real nice as it is.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


----------



## GoceKU

Today I spent some time cleaning my big garage. The task is to rearrange couple thing to have more space for storage and get one of my old project cars out of storage to hopefully finish it sometime. First i had to clear out everything from Mi16x4 to push it out, the rear hydraulics have gone flat. Also the tires are flat so it was hard to push out, at this point i could see the little Fiat but i still need to move a bunch of things to get to it and move it but i run out of time.


----------



## pontiac428

Did you not have enough room for the Fiat on the top shelf, out of the way?  Or maybe tip it on its end to free up floor space?


----------



## GoceKU

pontiac428 said:


> Did you not have enough room for the Fiat on the top shelf, out of the way? Or maybe tip it on its end to free up floor space?


I've had that Fiat on its side, still takes the same size, i'm hoping to have it on the road in a years time if i find the time and finaces.


----------



## jpackard56

GoceKU said:


> I've had that Fiat on its side, still takes the same size, i'm hoping to have it on the road in a years time if i find the time and finaces.


Having watched your work I'm confident that if the money becomes available the "Little Fiat" will be a gem. 
Jim


----------



## f350ca

Made a firewood rack for the veranda. 
The local water well driller gets his poly pipe on non-returnable metal spools 4 foot in diameter. This was one ring cut in half, the spokes made the crossers and legs.



Greg


----------



## WobblyHand

Well, not exactly a project in the shop, but a project for the shop.  Spent the day laying out a PCB for my ELS.  My design works but I want to package the mess into a box and get rid of the solder-less breadboard. Hand routed the board.  Had to make some custom footprints for the touch display.  The 3.2" diagonal touch panel display sits on top of the other components within the white line.  No physical button, all controlled by the panel.  I have a day or two more work to go, but made decent progress.  When I look at the board it is deceptively simple.  


That's the brains to control the ELS.  The board is just about 100mm x 100mm.  It will go in a Bud box, or something like that, with back panel connectors to hook up to the stepper motor controller, the rotary encoder, and my two lathe DRO's.  I haven't designed something like this in nearly 4 decades, was quite the challenge.  Learning the tools was not easy for me.


----------



## silverhawk

I finally finished an old bamboo rod rebuild.  I had to use the wood lathe, as well as the metal lathe.  Wood lathe used to turn the old wood core down to the right size for the new reel seat, and the metal lathe is because after feeling the balance in a cheap Chinesium rod with the reel seat installed backwards, I've started doing that myself (and intentionally, just started another fiberglass rod the same way).






The reel sitting on it in the pictures is a cheap plastic one.  I have a new reel for it (gun metal gray to match the eyelets), but I did put one of my better reels on it for a test while I waited - what can I say, it's a usable fly rod with family history (my wife didn't want a "mantle piece" or a decoration, she wanted it to be functional, so it was a full restore on it to make sure it did).

Edit: to make the reel seats work backwards, I have to turn some bushings down to fit under/between the handle and brace against the tip-end of the seat.  You can see a little aluminum ring at the base of the handle that is larger than the reel seat threads - and it is what I used the South Bend to do.  Multiple lathes, drills, etc to make this one work.


----------



## Doug Gray

Quick paying gig. Four auger drive shafts from 1 1/2" diameter precision ground 1045.
The keyway is for a chain coupling. Good fun that keeps me in inserts  .


----------



## f350ca

Going to give raised garden beds a try, the garden was a flop this year. The beds will be 30 inches high, no more bending over to weed. lol So we sawed 1 x 15 Hemlock for the sides. Hemlock is quite rot resistant so should last for a few years.
Had 3 large logs, they produced 48 1x15s and 10 1x10s. 
You can get a lot of lumber out of big logs but you sure work for it. I'd guess they weighed 8 or 900 pounds each.




Greg


----------



## dkemppai

f350ca said:


> Hemlock is quite rot resistant so should last for a few years.
> Had 3 large logs, they produced 48 1x15s and 10 1x10s.



Hurry up and build them quick! I remember hemlock splitting when dry if driving a nail into it. Wet it seems to be fine...


----------



## dkemppai

WobblyHand said:


> Well, not exactly a project in the shop, but a project for the shop.  Spent the day laying out a PCB for my ELS.



What processor are you using?  (Looking at the layout, Teensy 4.1???) 

Currently looking at a Clough42 ELS with modifications. I'd like to add Z position feedback into threading for a few added features.
Started looking at the Teensy 4.0 board as a possible controller also. 

Dan


----------



## WobblyHand

dkemppai said:


> What processor are you using?
> 
> Currently looking at a Clough42 ELS with modifications. I'd like to add Z position feedback into threading for a few added features.
> Started looking at the Teensy 4.0 board as a possible controller also.
> 
> Dan


Teensy 4.1 with a 3.2" touch panel display.  My board has connections for two DRO axes and the necessary buffers.  Along with inputs for a rotary encoder, and outputs to the stepper motor driver.  I have not written the control part for Z axis feedback, but my software is aware of the Z and X positions.  PCB is being fabbed now.  (Allegedly 28% complete, whatever that means!)  PCB dimensions are 95.5mm wide x 98mm high.  The display plugs into the PCB and is mechanically fastened.  Have designed a fascia for the display, which fits the display well.  

Non-PCB version is currently running.  Could use some additional features added, which I will be working on soon.  Right now getting stuff ready so I can assemble a board or two when the PCB's arrive in early October.  Also working on the housing (box) with standard connectors for system hookup.  Been keeping me busy lately.  Have to wire in my lathe DRO's to the board, however, the DRO display is running for the two axes.  Needs a little display work to be cleaner, though.

Currently at 25 imperial threads, 21 metric threads, 9 imperial feeds, 10 metric feeds, all easily viewable and selectable on the touch screen.  Everything seems to work so far, but needs a little cleanup in the software in a few places.  Cut some 40 TPI and 16 TPI threads in steel with no drama.  The other pitches seem to be working, but haven't verified them with pitch gauges.


----------



## dkemppai

WobblyHand said:


> Teensy 4.1 with a 3.2" touch panel display.  My board has connections for two DRO axes and the necessary buffers.  Along with inputs for a rotary encoder, and outputs to the stepper motor driver.  I have not written the control part for Z axis feedback, but my software is aware of the Z and X positions.  PCB is being fabbed now.  (Allegedly 28% complete, whatever that means!)


Hmmmm...I'm assuming you're using the hardware encoder inputs on the Teensy? 

Do you have a separate thread her on the current build? I may be interested in knowing more about the system/code etc.


----------



## WobblyHand

dkemppai said:


> Do you have a separate thread her on the current build?


All 32 pages of it, so far.  Check it out.  https://www.hobby-machinist.com/thr...ad-screw-controller-using-a-teensy-4-1.99609/

Haven't published any of the code yet.  Although the control of the stepper motor was easy, the display work was a pain in the neck.  Just sheer drudgery.  Got 4 months of solid software development into it.  Started development May 1, 2022.

I am not using HW encoder inputs.  I am using SW encoder inputs that use interrupts, because I found them far more flexible.  HW encoders can only be attached to certain pins.  I tested my encoder using an encoder stimulator (using another Teensy) and was able to easily handle over 200,000 edges per second.  That's about 2900 RPM.  If I recall correctly I sent over 2M edges and got them all.  The DRO inputs are very slow compared to the spindle encoder, so I don't think I will have a problem with them at all.  They are also interrupt driven, and merely update a volatile value.  I shall soon see it all in action.


----------



## GoceKU

Today after couple of day break i continue organizing (cleaning) the big garage. A new addition, a 1t storage tank is going to take the place where the little fiat was sitting, i do need to make a stand to get it higher off the ground. To make that happen i had to fire up the Mi16x4, i dropped a battery and some fuel and fired on the first try, that engine was happy to be running, i drove it up the driveway higher then the drain grade and washed off the front where i had oil spills. Then come the hard part moving some of the rims, and pushing the little fiat with 3 flat tires. I used my big pry bar under the tire to get it moving and pump up the tires as they got accessible. I got it moved to the side bay, engine side front, in its case the rear end ( rear engined). This car has lots of work done to it like relocated radiator to the front, cage inside, but most of the work needs to be redone. I'm not sure if i'll do a thread about this car, it's not that common. Last thing i did was to drive the Mi16x4 back in its place, still need to cover it.


----------



## extropic

@GoceKU 

What are you going to store in the IBC tote (1t storage tank)?


----------



## GoceKU

Rain water, for car washing for starters. Prices are higher than ever and monthly income the same, with so many cars this is one way to lower my expenditures.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i had little time to spare but wanted to make some improvement in the big garage, so i installed two power sockets on the tool cabinet. I had wire run couple weeks now, but today i connected the sockets and the main power wire. Now i have power on that side of the garage also and i don't need to run extension cords for chargers.


----------



## MrCrankyface

Several mini-projects at the same time, neither which is very ground breaking but felt I had to share this crazy boring bar I made, which I'm slightly amazed at how well it ended up working.
I needed to bore a 19cm/7.5" deep hole which is quite outside of what I usually do.
Cut down a 26mm bar of mystery metal, spun it down to 18mm shank, 22mm "collar" and then a ~20mm shaft.
Clearly visible is that I hit chatter-town when I was lathing the bar down after having pressed the boring bar in. 
At the end of the shaft I bored out an offset hole where I could press in a cheap 12mm boring bar(DCMT070202 insert).
The boring bar now has a reach of 220mm from tip to "face" of the boring head.

Took a bit to find the right feeds/speeds, it seems to like less RPM and more feed to keep it engaged.
Taking off ~1mm radially each run.
Still works amazingly well considering that it's a 11xD cutter.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i started the day with trying a new tool, tire valve chuck i had an old hose that works with it. Then i had to do some work on the White elephant No:1 Its back in town because of enormous power steering leak. I have a spare steering rack that i had to take off then change it on the car, i only took one picture of the (new) rack because everything is covered in ATF. With the replacement rack there is no leaking but is knochy and the pump whines like a small child. It also needs some suspension work and all fluids and filters, engine oil has more then 20 000km on it. I had to buy couple of tools, one thing u wanted a oil filter pliers, i paid 7$ for them i also bought the red ones for one use metal ties for 4$.


----------



## silverhawk

I finally finished up all of my fly fishing rod building.  The previous bamboo restoration came in the middle of this build, which changed colors after some stuff went to the bamboo rod.  But, it still looks pretty solid!





Now I can move on to other projects, maybe more shop related tools.


----------



## FOMOGO

Made some progress on my rolling work table. Still have to use cold bluing solution on the removable backsplash, and the frame, and then seal it with satin poly. Think I'm going to leave the top. Just sprayed some WD 40 on it for now. On a three day mini vacation in Glenwood Springs with my wife, and found a heavy duty three drawer unit that was designed to go under a desk, on FBMP for free. Will be tarting them up some, and maybe try my hand at some pin-striping on them. Have had a set of striping brushes in one of the toolboxes for a few months now, and this would be a good excuse to give it a shot. Cheers, Mike

Edit: Sorry about the pics. Guess I will have to up load these when I get home on the new computer. Having photo issues on my ancient Macbook.
IMG_20220917_095226806_HDR.jpg
IMG_20220917_110018844_HDR.jpg
IMG_20220917_120728802_HDR.jpg
IMG_20220917_125011452_HDR.jpg
IMG_20220917_125106137_HDR.jpg
IMG_20220917_125146554_HDR.jpg
IMG_20220917_125201369_HDR.jpg


----------



## pontiac428

I got the blues this weekend.  Spent a lot of time in the bottle, swabbing around.

Here's a before and after of my steel bricks called tool holders.  New stainless hardware too.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Very nice, FIMS too! I have a smaller version, but all my holders are home made


----------



## GoceKU

Today i did a bunch of busy work in the small garage. First i tried the drainage grades in front of the garage door, now i have only a slope but as the concrete settle it holds water. The steel grades will work but busting all that concrete and digging will take lot more work so it will have to wait for a bit better time when i have the time. Next i mounted couple new wheels for the little niva. I also dismounted couple of bad tires and found a surprise, one of the rims that come off a peugeot was actually a mercedes rim. This was a surprise because peugeot is 5x108mm and mercedes is 5x112mm bolt pattern but because of the bigger bolt holes of the mercedes rim they line up surprising well. The tire machine is working excellent, i'm working on a good lube setup but for now i'm using my finger and some liquid soap.


----------



## wachuko

GoceKU said:


> Today i did a bunch of busy work in the small garage. First i tried the drainage grades in front of the garage door, now i have only a slope but as the concrete settle it holds water. The steel grades will work but busting all that concrete and digging will take lot more work so it will have to wait for a bit better time when i have the time. Next i mounted couple new wheels for the little niva. I also dismounted couple of bad tires and found a surprise, one of the rims that come off a peugeot was actually a mercedes rim. This was a surprise because peugeot is 5x108mm and mercedes is 5x112mm bolt pattern but because of the bigger bolt holes of the mercedes rim they line up surprising well. The tire machine is working excellent, i'm working on a good lube setup but for now i'm using my finger and some liquid soap.
> View attachment 420798
> View attachment 420799
> View attachment 420800


You are getting your money's worth out of that tire mounting machine! Good!


----------



## GoceKU

Today was a very busy day at work, and after work in the garage. For few day i was waiting for parts and i pick them up after work. The white elephant No: 1 got a brand new power steering pump, new bearing on the A/C compressor, new front suspension bushes, ball joints, New CV boots, All new filters oil change, 2 new tires, i did them myself on my tire machine, without balancing, and finally i scheduled front end alinement for tomorrow. With all that work done it should be good to go for a while.


----------



## tq60

Used up some junk to make some tools...

We have multiple manifolds of sprinkler valves of assorted styles.

The ones with the screws on top are preferred but we also have some of the type with a screw on cap.

Those can be a bugger as over time they get stuck and combined with tight spaces difficult to grab with anything.

What to do...

If only we had something pipe like that was about the right size.

Went digging through the scrap area where we kept the remaining parts from old radio antennas we scrapped to make wind chimes and we found the perfect junk.

These had a cast part that was between the ground radiator and driven element, and it has a protrusion on the side with a 3/8 hole for the folded element.

Just a bit smaller than the ring, a couple passes in the lathe fixed that.

Had to open the center for the valve to fit.

How to interface, the ring has 12 bars, thescrap had 8 holes, correct size for 12-24 screws of which we had a supply of from our rack work.

Tapped the holes and trimmed 4 screws to allow them to only stick through about 1/8 inch.

It fits perfectly.

Used a file to make the round hole in the protrusion square for 3/8 drive o an extension and ratchet works.

First one was for the diaphragm side, that one is critical to get tight.

The anti-syphon side is slightly larger, but the source material (we have a few) was thick enough to allow for more material to be removed for it to fit.

Had to open up the center and drill new holes to make room for the cap.

This is for 1 inch valves.

They loosely fit the 3/4 inch ones too.

No more busted knuckles...
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





























Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


----------



## FOMOGO

Okay, will try this again, as I'm back home, and and on the newer computer. Text from last attempt:
Made some progress on my rolling work table. Still have to use cold bluing solution on the removable backsplash, and the frame, and then seal it with satin poly. Think I'm going to leave the top. Just sprayed some WD 40 on it for now. On a three day mini vacation in Glenwood Springs with my wife, and found a heavy duty three drawer unit that was designed to go under a desk, on FBMP for free. Will be tarting them up some, and maybe try my hand at some pin-striping on them. Have had a set of striping brushes in one of the toolboxes for a few months now, and this would be a good excuse to give it a shot. 

Will most likely finish up the gun bluing on the frame, backsplash, and the tray today.  Tomorrow will be back on the lathe for a few days, and then we'll see about getting the drawers installed on the bench. The ones I just picked up will reqire a little slice n' dice on the cabinet to get it to fit. Cheers, Mike


----------



## Eyerelief

FOMOGO said:


> Okay, will try this again, as I'm back home, and and on the newer computer. Text from last attempt:
> Made some progress on my rolling work table. Still have to use cold bluing solution on the removable backsplash, and the frame, and then seal it with satin poly. Think I'm going to leave the top. Just sprayed some WD 40 on it for now. On a three day mini vacation in Glenwood Springs with my wife, and found a heavy duty three drawer unit that was designed to go under a desk, on FBMP for free. Will be tarting them up some, and maybe try my hand at some pin-striping on them. Have had a set of striping brushes in one of the toolboxes for a few months now, and this would be a good excuse to give it a shot.
> 
> Will most likely finish up the gun bluing on the frame, backsplash, and the tray today.  Tomorrow will be back on the lathe for a few days, and then we'll see about getting the drawers installed on the bench. The ones I just picked up will reqire a little slice n' dice on the cabinet to get it to fit. Cheers, Mike


Fantastic looking table Mike!


----------



## NCjeeper

Got my retaining wall done today. Started back filling it and then comes the drainage pipe and stone. Alot of work doing it by yourself. That is my neighbor giving me a hand with the dirt with his tractor.


----------



## GoceKU

Today was a very busy day. From work i stopped by the tool/flea market and found and bought this small generator. looks like it's been dropped and broke the fan but runs and makes power. With the power crisis it should be useful. Next on the list was the little niva it needed a check up i've found an oil puddle under it. I top up the front diff it is leaking and made the undernight oily. I did an bolt check everything is tight, i did gave it a wash and while i had the pressure washer i washed couple of wheels in prep for painting.


----------



## NCjeeper

Made some beefy and sexy machinist jacks.


----------



## brino

NCjeeper said:


> Made some beefy and sexy machinist jacks.



Almost too pretty to use........ almost!

Brian


----------



## mattthemuppet2

those are solid!


----------



## NCjeeper

mattthemuppet2 said:


> those are solid!


That is what I was going for. I hate flimsy jacks that are not even large enough to straddle a T slot.


----------



## FOMOGO

Playing with them for more than a minute, or two, may require going to confession. Mike



NCjeeper said:


> Made some beefy and sexy machinist jacks.


----------



## Martin W

Picked a fairly large vise at the recyclers. Pretty solid and fits nicely on my mill.Attached before and after pictures
Martin


----------



## f350ca

Turned the stack of Hemlock I posted earlier into raised garden planters.
Filled the bottom half with cut up slabs to get them hidden, not out of the yard. Then toped them up with the soil I scraped from the original weed bed.



Now only 8 months till I can plant. lol Why do I live in this cold country?

Greg


----------



## FOMOGO

Free lumber? Mike



f350ca said:


> Why do I live in this cold country?


----------



## f350ca

Free logs Mike. Some biguns. Sawed them into 48 1x15s and 10 1x10s from 4 logs and a bunch of 2x4s from the tops.
Used some left over rebar for the stays. That isn't nice stuff to machine, couldn't get a die to run down them so had to single point thread 40 3/8th threads. Welded a washer on the other end.

Greg


----------



## f350ca

Have the same vice Marten, came with a radial arm drill press I got on an online auction. Judged the size of the drill from the vice. Was surprised when I saw the size of the vice in person, and the drill. Mine has 8 inch jaws and weighs enough that it gets moved with the crane.



Greg


----------



## Martin W

f350ca said:


> Have the same vice Marten, came with a radial arm drill press I got on an online auction. Judged the size of the drill from the vice. Was surprised when I saw the size of the vice in person, and the drill. Mine has 8 inch jaws and weighs enough that it gets moved with the crane.
> View attachment 421249
> 
> 
> Greg


Yep it’s heavy. I put it up on there with the fork truck. 
That’s a handy vise for the radial dril! I never thought , I may steal your idea and use it on mine. Not often I need a vise on the boring mill so far.
Cheers
Martin


----------



## Gaffer

I have to maneuver within fairly tight spaces to park my trailers. My trailer backing skills have much to be desired and it always takes two people. I decided to put a hitch on the front of my truck hoping it will make life easier and a 1-person job. I won't be able to test it for a week or two, but I think it will work. The install was straight forward and came out clean and it didn't interfere with my license plate.



Some of you may recall I bought a couple of used Lyon tool chests about a year ago. They were a little banged-up and had a little surface rust. Life got in the way and I only recently was able to work on them some more. The last couple of weekends, I was able to get them to bare metal (exterior only), clean all the bearings, and straighten the bent metal. The drawers fit and function like new ones. I have very little body filler to apply and then I'm ready for paint, but I'm torn. Rattle can is out, but automotive will likely be more than I care to spend. My SIL has a friend who manages a Sherman-Williams store in another state. She's going to call me next week with some options and I'll get wholesale pricing locally. I may call for a price to have them powder coated. Decisions, decisions.
Before:


----------



## davek181

Another small project of mine to make my day job doable, not a not a daring and highly talented machining job but just good old fashioned get the job done type of thing.
I was doing a headgasket on a VW 5 cylinder gas engine that someone unprofessional had done before.  On the intake manifold which is plastic there are through holes to allow you to tighten the manifold bolts down.  The mechanic before me drove one of the screws into the through hole and when it stopped he thought it must be tight.  It actually got jambed into the hole and seized into place.  I had to take a long piece of round stock  used as a punch to knock it back out. 
I was able to put all the bolts into place in the manifold and hang it on the car but the problem came when I needed to tighten the two bolts through the holes provided in the manifold.  There was just enough room to get at the one with a 6mm long ball tool, but the other one had no access from the top or bottom when installed on the engine.  I needed a long 6mm allen head that I did not have, nor did any of the other mechanics I know.  A call to Snap on and they didn't have one either.  The mechanic before me probably didn't even realize that he had not gotten all the manifold bolts tight.
So I am wondering how in the world I was going to accomplish may task when I remembered that I own a mill that is just standing in the back room waiting for use.  I ran up to the local tool store and bought a cheap 1/4' extension set for $16.99 that had two long 1/4' extensions in it and one long 3/8' too. 
I chucked the shorter (12' long) 1/4' extension into my er32 collet block holder and squared up the square end as close as I could eyeball with a triangle off the bed.  I figured it was as at least as accurate as the square end of the tool anyway.  I found center with my edge finder on the round shaft and with a little arithmetic I was able to shave the end down to my final 6mm dimension.  i rotated the collet holder carefully and shaved all sides to match.  I purposefully left the dimension a little proud in hopes that it would grip the allen bolts tightly and not fall off.  An added bonus I discovered is the little ball that is spring loaded in the extension remained and also helped in holding the bolt on tool.
The tool worked perfectly with about 3 inches stickout of the manifold to spare, and I was able to get the manifold tight.  i also have 2 more potential allen tools left over from my purchase to use in the future if needed.  All told once I remembered I had a mill and started to cut a tool to work I spent 20 minutes maybe to do the actual job.  I know I am slow, and if I had thought it through I could have done a much more professional job and at least cut the same depth on each flat, I do have a DRO after all, but I needed to get the main job done on the headgasket first.  Next one will be better I promise.

Again I wonder how people who don't have access to a mill or lathe or other such tools can get by.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Fixed up a milling cutter arbor that had the back collar broken off. Made a new collar, mig welded it back on and turned it down to size. Also had to fix a home made lathe dog - interrupted cuts on weld + an 8-32 thread on the drive arm = snapped thread  anyway, it all came out fine
	

		
			
		

		
	









Also drilled and bored out a piece of threaded steel rod from a nice piece of alu, thought this was a fun pic


----------



## jwmelvin

I put together most of a rotary positioner, largely from surplus bits. I’d like to plasma cut some tubing copes.





[mention]mmcmdl [/mention] may recognize the base plate.


----------



## rwm

That's awesome! Hey what is that stepper control? I need one...link please?


----------



## jwmelvin

rwm said:


> That's awesome! Hey what is that stepper control? I need one...link please?


I just saw it on Amazon and figured I would give it a try; here's the link. It drives up to 4A on a 24V supply, or you can take outputs to a separate driver. It has a bunch of different functions (simple forward-backward cycles), but I'm just using it for a constant, adjustable speed. Seems to be exactly what I need.


----------



## Weldingrod1

That's sweet! 

Sent from my SM-G715A using Tapatalk


----------



## Doug Gray

I had a paying gig come through my little basement shop. These are what I will call "seal retainer rings". My customer wouldn't want to say anything further. A non-precision part, all dimensions plus or minus 10 thousand. I had four to do.















Photo showing a piece of the original stock... lots of boring


----------



## GoceKU

Last few day i've been working on and off this set of rims few hours a day. I've wash them 4-5 times and wet sanded them. Two of them i left with tires just deflated them and took off the balance weights and marked there places. Other three i dismounted on my tire machine an after two coats of mat black paint, i mounted tires. One is bent that one may go for scrap all others are checked and ready to be mounted.


----------



## wachuko

Mundane project... but so critical for this family 

Tamper for the espresso machine broke... the internal shaft was threaded to the wood... with use, it stripped the threads in the wood...

Easy fix.  Did not have regular 1/4-20 nuts, so took a nylon lock nut, machined the top to get rid of the nylon insert.

Then drilled the hole to allow the nut to be pressed in.   Used a little bit of JB-Weld in the hole (just for added holding/securing of the nut)... Placed a piece of paper where the nylon insert was so the JB-weld would not go into the threads, and voila!






Went in like butter with the help of the 1-TON arbor press... you can see the piece of paper inside, at the end of the nut...




There!




But not finished until I make sure it works fine...



Yeah... the universe is back in balance... life is good.   Come on hurricane Ian !!


----------



## Ben17484

wachuko said:


> Mundane project... but so critical for this family
> 
> Tamper for the espresso machine broke... the internal shaft was threaded to the wood... with use, it stripped the threads in the wood...
> 
> Easy fix. Did not have regular 1/4-20 nuts, so took a nylon lock nut, machined the top to get rid of the nylon insert.
> 
> Then drilled the hole to allow the nut to be pressed in. Used a little bit of JB-Weld in the hole (just for added holding/securing of the nut)... Placed a piece of paper where the nylon insert was so the JB-weld would not go into the threads, and voila!
> 
> View attachment 421655
> 
> View attachment 421656
> 
> 
> Went in like butter with the help of the 1-TON arbor press... you can see the piece of paper inside, at the end of the nut...
> 
> View attachment 421657
> 
> 
> There!
> 
> View attachment 421658
> 
> 
> But not finished until I make sure it works fine...
> 
> View attachment 421659
> 
> Yeah... the universe is back in balance... life is good. Come on hurricane Ian !!



I love these types of projects. Fixing stuff around the house with your home machine shop. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## dkemppai

f350ca said:


> Now only 8 months till I can plant. lol Why do I live in this cold country?


Wait a second! I just looked. You actually live further south than we do!  My sympathy just dried up! lol. 

Nice garden beds!  Been debating similar. It seems everyone around here is doing the same thing.


----------



## 682bear

My project of the day wasn't in the shop...

I hitched up the trailer and picked up a 'scoop' of gravel... so... 'how much is a scoop?' you ask. Depending on who you ask, it's either a half ton or a full ton. After unloading it with a shovel, I think it's closer to three tons...

Anyway, my two daughters have a bad habit of digging mud pits in the yard where they park their cars. When they leave, they take off spinning tires... when they come home, they come flying in and slam on the brakes and slide to a stop.

So I filled their mud pits with the gravel...




... I then explained to them how to keep from digging the mud pits... again... and informed them that next time *they* might be paying for the gravel... and doing the shovel work.

Yeah... right... I'll let you know how that works out... lol!

-Bear


----------



## GoceKU

Haha, my ex girlfriend used to spin her tires when leaving and slam her brakes to stop sort of announcing she has arrived. After 2 broken CV joints and numerous tires she come to a conclusion that, that is not right. It all concrete and asphalt around me so no holes to dig and my street already is full of tire marks from me and my friends so it made no difference. Let them have their fun.


----------



## silverhawk

Be careful.  You might pay to have flaps put on the cars, too, as well as some fender paint repairs where they kick up those rocks tearing out of there.


----------



## WobblyHand

POTD started later in the day.  My PCB's arrived from JLCPCB, China in the afternoon's mail.  These custom PCB's are for my ELS project, using a Teensy4.1 processor.  (Have a thread on this.)  Was real excited to receive these boards.  These were the first boards I have designed in maybe 40 years, and the first I have ever done using open source tools.  Surprisingly, I paid $5.47, including shipping for these 5 boards.  I sent the Gerbers to them on Sept. 15th, and received the boards today, Sept. 28th.  These cheapie boards are not lead-free.  I bought them because they were so much cheaper than the PCBWay boards, that I ordered (and have not received yet).

Soldered up the components and mounted the display.  Everything lined up.  Had to stack a couple of washers, because I needed 11mm hex spacers for the display, but only had 10mm spacers.  I'll get some correct spacers, or machine down some bigger ones.  Was staring at the board, wondering if it was ok.  The simple stuff checked out, no shorted planes, the power seemed good.  So went down to the shop for the smoke test, also known as first power on.

I didn't connect any cables to the board, my connectors have yet to arrive.  But I did plug in the power.  The display turned on and was grey.  I wasn't expecting anymore, since I had forgotten what was in this particular processor.  It turns out, it was an earlier version of my code, where I got the stepper motor direction wrong.  I remembered this, because it was cutting left hand threads instead of right hand.  The display came up and things were running!  What a great surprise.  I had thoughts of smoke and destruction, but, this was better.  The single board seen on the bottom, replaces the three discrete assemblies seen further up.  Much more robust assembly than that cobbled together rats nest.  Tomorrow will bring more testing, but this is a great start.


----------



## Doug Gray

Very cool project Wobbly!


----------



## dkemppai

Made a detour on a trip this week to pick up the lathe after the rebuild. With two days of driving, it stayed in the back of the truck for the night. Unloaded it from the truck, and it's safely on the floor again. Looks way better (pun). Probably spent more than I should have on the rebuild of this old iron. Was considering painting it, but think I'll leave that for the next guy.

The ways were worn about .015" near the head stock from what I was told. It's silky smooth compared to what it was.

Next steps will be to get it back into it's home in the basement. A few minor things to clean up. Then reinstall the DRO scales, and get serous about a VFD. Next will be some form of ELS. If that goes well, I'm pondering an 'electronic taper' attachment. And maybe then a nice 6 jaw chuck, and then...


----------



## GoceKU

Today was a very busy day in the big garage. I started with test polishing part of the hood on the 605. I had the hood and front fenders resprayed couple of years ago so the paint is not too old but it seems to have some oxidation. I did two passes with a foam pad and cheap polishing paste it come out good, the lover part still has lots of oxidation it will take a bit more work and the middle of the hood is worse. At that point i stopped and moved to cleaning the garage, the middle bay had a engine and a half just sitting there. All that got moved, the plan is to get the big car trailer out and apart. Last thing is that my new summer tires for the 607 arrived, i ordered a set of 4 but only 3 arrived. Having had to deal with bad companies contacted them and reached an agreement to only pay 1/3 of the price and full price when they deliver the tire that is missing. I can't wait to have those quiet tires on that car.


----------



## BGHansen

682bear said:


> Anyway, my two daughters have a bad habit of digging mud pits in the yard where they park their cars. When they leave, they take off spinning tires... when they come home, they come flying in and slam on the brakes and slide to a stop.
> 
> So I filled their mud pits with the gravel...
> 
> 
> 
> ... I then explained to them how to keep from digging the mud pits... again... and informed them that next time *they* might be paying for the gravel... and doing the shovel work.
> 
> Yeah... right... I'll let you know how that works out... lol!
> 
> -Bear


Or dig them deeper so next time they get stuck!  The balancing act is you'd like to see them, but not have to clean up after them.  Our daughter has the nickname "Hurricane Jennifer".  She'll come over to cook some elaborate dinner which tastes great, but Prego over noodles works for me.  Her "elegance" usually involves at least 3 pans and numerous mixing bowls which are naturally left on the stove (dirty) and in the sink (dirty).  Always a debris field left behind, hence, the nickname.  She'll run us out of something in the pantry and not put it on the shopping list.  Always annoys the wife as the rhetorical question is, "where's my blah, blah, blah?".  Uh, Hurricane Jennifer just blew through.

Not being too much of a d*ck about it, but it was pretty funny when she moved into her own place.  I'll move a few of her choice Wustof knives around.  "Hey, have you seen my Wustof paring knife?"  "Yeah, I think I left it in the basement.  I needed to stir up some stain."  "What!?!?!"  "Just kidding. . .  Isn't it nice when stuff is put back where you expect to find it?"

Bruce


----------



## ChazzC

I got tired of putting up cardboard behind the mill to conceal the jumble of stuff on the wall whenever I was taking photos of a project. With the help of YouTube, I figured out the blind hem foot for my wife's vintage Kenmore Sewing Machine (she never used this attachment, and can't remember when she last used the machine), and with a (clean) used shower curtain & a handful of screw hooks I made a "Shroud:"





I actually impressed myself with the finished result:




And *NO*, I'm not taking orders: if I could figure it out, so can the rest of you! The sewing machine is packed away in the spare room closet for another 20 years.


----------



## wachuko

dkemppai said:


> Made a detour on a trip this week to pick up the lathe after the rebuild. With two days of driving, it stayed in the back of the truck for the night. Unloaded it from the truck, and it's safely on the floor again. Looks way better (pun). Probably spent more than I should have on the rebuild of this old iron. Was considering painting it, but think I'll leave that for the next guy.
> 
> The ways were worn about .015" near the head stock from what I was told. It's silky smooth compared to what it was.
> 
> Next steps will be to get it back into it's home in the basement. A few minor things to clean up. Then reinstall the DRO scales, and get serous about a VFD. Next will be some form of ELS. If that goes well, I'm pondering an 'electronic taper' attachment. And maybe then a nice 6 jaw chuck, and then...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 421747
> View attachment 421748




Oh man, paint looks fine!




ChazzC said:


> I got tired of putting up cardboard behind the mill to conceal the jumble of stuff on the wall whenever I was taking photos of a project. With the help of YouTube, I figured out the blind hem foot for my wife's vintage Kenmore Sewing Machine (she never used this attachment, and can't remember when she last used the machine), and with a (clean) used shower curtain & a handful of screw hooks I made a "Shroud:"
> 
> View attachment 421814
> 
> 
> 
> I actually impressed myself with the finished result:
> 
> View attachment 421815
> 
> 
> And *NO*, I'm not taking orders: if I could figure it out, so can the rest of you! The sewing machine is packed away in the spare room closet for another 20 years.


This is great.  I need to do the same.  I had bookmarked the one recommended by David... it is a heavy duty clear vinyl curtain...  Initially I thought about using a welding cloth, but that sucker is way too heavy...  plus I wanted to allow light to come in... 

It is amazing how far out chips will travel...


----------



## ChazzC

wachuko said:


> Oh man, paint looks fine!
> 
> This is great.  I need to do the same.  I had bookmarked the one recommended by David... it is a heavy duty clear vinyl curtain...  Initially I thought about using a welding cloth, but that sucker is way too heavy...  plus I wanted to allow light to come in...
> 
> It is amazing how far out chips will travel...


Actually, chip bounce is secondary: most of the time it will be stowed above the mill. The stuff on the wall & the bench to the left of the mill detract from photos of the work – here's what it looks like without the Shroud:



A little distracting, plus lighting over the bench can make unwelcome shadows.

I used a polyester shower curtain liner, which was a pain to work with because it’s lightweight but also less trouble once in place.


----------



## wachuko

Ohhh you did it for photos... I need it to avoid having chips all over the garage...


----------



## wachuko

Simple project.  Just wanted to protect the ways when removing the chuck.  Did not have something dedicated for this lathe.   As you can tell, I just used whatever was around to make it...


----------



## dkemppai

wachuko said:


> Simple project.  Just wanted to protect the ways when removing the chuck.  Did not have something dedicated for this lathe.



Yes, I need this!   (Having just had the lathe ways redone, this is a most critical item to build!)


----------



## ChazzC

wachuko said:


> Ohhh you did it for photos... I need it to avoid having chips all over the garage...


I use these to control chips (photo before Shroud, hence the cardboard):





Even do a pretty good job when I'm using the shell mill:




Which reminds me, I need to post this in MrWhoopee's "Bomb" thread . . .


----------



## great white

The last few days, my “shop” has been in the kitchen laying a marble backsplash. Into the home stretch now:












(still have to lay 3 more rows below the range top line)

Tomorrow, I have to lay the mosaic inside the pencil rail “picture frame” behind the stove area. Looks like:




Then I get a couple days off for it to cure, then seal the marble and finally grout.

It’s been a major PITA. The pencil rail has been the worst to get it to fit right, I’ve had to cut and hand file every cut to get it to fit tight to minimize the visible seams, but it will all be worth it once its done and the missus is smiling….


----------



## jwmelvin

great white said:


> I’ve had to cut and hand file every cut to get it to fit tight to minimize the visible seams,…



It looks great!


----------



## Doug Gray

Today I completed a little paying gig for UHMW tank bushings. These bushings are secured to steel brackets in the bottom of a tank, via cotter pins, and a paddle shaft rides in the large hole. They are in a very high volume and abrasive environment, so these bushings don't last long. UHMW is fun to work with, the stock was 2 1/4" square and the part needs to be 2 1/8" so I used the four jaw on the lathe and removed 1/8" in a single pass.
The large hole was done on the mill with a forstner bit. Thanks for looking.


----------



## great white

Gawd, I’ll be so happy when this is finished:




Just have to cut some pieces to fill in the edges.

Then I’m not going to look at it for a couple days, maybe a week. I need a break from all this cutting and motar-ing.

Also tired of being wet every day.

Marble is a biotch to deal with, most especially with the smaller pieces. It chips out and just generally does wonky things when cutting small pieces. I’ll probably end up cutting a bit large on the wet saw and then sneak up on final dimensions with the belt sander table. Can’t see many other ways to cut so small and not have it crumble away on me…


----------



## GoceKU

Today was a dirty day in the big garage. One rule i don't use is if a tool seats for more than 3 years you don't need it, but in this case i have one more trailer and i need the tubing to make shelving. It started difficult, this trailer was upright in front of the big table, getting it down it pulled out the anker from the concrete and fell down, i'm experience not to stand under it. No harm it did dented and tore up my tool cart and made a very loud bang, even my neighbors came to check if i'm still alive. Cutting it apart was difficult because when i made it i made it from an old fence with and arc welder and all the welds are deap. I did cut thru all the welds and separated all the tubing and sheets metal. I did leave the sides and one piece from the floor together because i plan to use them as is. I had a cutting disc brake on me at the collet, thankful i had safety glasses and only got a bruise.


----------



## WobblyHand

Worked some more on my ELS.  Got RH and LH threading buttons added.  Shot a 1 minute video on the lathe operating and published it to YouTube.  Never done something like that before.  This video is devoid of any artistic quality, and the audio is simply the noise of the machine, but it showed the lathe moving with the half nuts engaged, and the control panel used to operate.  3.2" 320 x 240 touch panel display powered by a Teensy 4.1 micro-controller.  4 Nm closed loop stepper and a 4096 PPR rotary encoder.  I have incorporated my lathes factory DRO's into the controller.  There is no separate DRO box any more.  Just the tape, the read heads and my PCB.

My very first foray into YouTube.  My video skills can only get better...  

Lathe was only running at 100 RPM and the thread pitch was set to 100 TPI.  That way there was lots of time to kill power before things got away from me.  Fortunately all went well in the video.  I could not believe how petrified I was while shooting this.  It was really hard trying to keep the shakes away.


----------



## erikmannie

I made a 1” thick A36 plate welding coupon. The bevel is 40° and the landing is 3/32”.

Tomorrow I will make another just like this, along with a 1/4” thick backing strap.

This is for a 1/16” gap, 6010 root, 7018 fill & cap 1G practice joint.










I know what you’re thinking: “Sure, but will you be listening to Ted Nugent on your headphones while you are welding it?”

Yes, of course I will be.


----------



## pontiac428

Today, more cleaning and painting on the new lathe.  That's all it's been lately- clean and paint, clean and paint.  Degrease this, restore and refinish that.  This paint takes three coats by brush to look right on the machine.  I don't like painting because I suck at it.  I've done a lot and I know a lot about making it stick, but I just can't seem to do pretty.  This is turning out pretty good instead.  I'm okay with that.  First coat on these bits today.  I'll keep working my way around cleaning and painting until it's done.


----------



## savarin

How resistant to your cutting fluids is the new paint?


----------



## pontiac428

It should be good.  I used a bit of polyacrylic adhesion promoter and some isocyanate hardener in a alkyd/oil enamel color blend.  I've never seen a direct to metal enamel that has issues with cutting oil.  I have no plans to run petri dish coolant, ever.  I use Kool Mist sometimes, it has issues with staining nice shiny metals if you're not on top of it, but that's a different thing.


----------



## wachuko

Today... mowed the lawn... organized, just a little bit, the single bay garage... And took some updated photos of the lathe and mill since I did not have those...






Tomorrow they are coming to do some work in there and I needed to get rid of some stuff and clear the side wall so they can install some batteries.




Since I had to move the VW bug, decided to do some work in the interior... baby steps... baby steps...


----------



## ChazzC

wachuko said:


> Today... mowed the lawn... organized, just a little bit, the single bay garage... And took some updated photos of the lathe and mill since I did not have those...
> 
> View attachment 422113
> 
> View attachment 422114
> 
> 
> Tomorrow they are coming to do some work in there and I needed to get rid of some stuff and clear the side wall so the can install some batteries.
> 
> View attachment 422115
> 
> 
> Since I had to move the VW bug, decided to do some work in the interior... baby steps... baby steps...
> 
> View attachment 422116


Good to see another clean shop, bigger equipment than mine, though.


----------



## rabler

wachuko said:


> Since I had to move the VW bug, decided to do some work in the interior... baby steps... baby steps...


I have a soft spot for VW bugs, that was my first car, bought a 1970 model for $300 in the late 70's.  Lots of work to get that roadworthy, taught myself a bit of mechanical skills.


----------



## rabler

WobblyHand said:


> Worked some more on my ELS.  Got RH and LH threading buttons added.  Shot a 1 minute video on the lathe operating and published it to YouTube.


I know it takes time and step by step work, but that's quite impressive.  Thanks for sharing.


----------



## francist

I’ve been cleaning up a little 1944 Singer 99 hand crank machine for the past few weeks. The machine is done now but the base needed a little TLC as well. One thing that’s always troublesome for me is getting little cushioned feet that I like — a lot of the ones you get now are plastic instead of rubber and they’re also too tall. I don’t like them, and the self-adhesive things are even worse when they (eventually) come off and leave a smeary glue residue all over everything. So, what to do…

Leather is nice but it compresses over time and tends to expose whatever fastener is holding it on. If only I could countersink it somehow…
There was a part of me that said softly “..frank, this has the makings for bad things to happen…” but I went ahead anyway figuring what the heck, I’ve got bandaids upstairs…

I rounded up my nice bit of saddle leather and punched a few discs with the gasket punch. Then I took a sharp brad point spur bit and chucked it into the drill press. This was the almost perfect result — a beautifully clean hole with a nice crisp bottom. All four drilled the same — no tear out, no grabbing, no spinning in my fingers, just a nice clean counterbore.






A few small tacks to hold things in position on we’re good to go. 





I still need to clean up the hardware a bit but that won’t take a lot. I’m not aiming for a total restoration, just clean enough to come back into good service as a dedicated buttonhole machine. Thanks for looking!




Oh yeah, almost forgot — here’s what the original feet loot like after 80 years…


----------



## Dhal22

Squeezed in a couple of shop hours.   Finished the upper sheetrock and continued on the ceiling.


----------



## Magnett

wachuko said:


> Today... mowed the lawn... organized, just a little bit, the single bay garage... And took some updated photos of the lathe and mill since I did not have those...
> 
> View attachment 422113
> 
> View attachment 422114
> 
> 
> Tomorrow they are coming to do some work in there and I needed to get rid of some stuff and clear the side wall so they can install some batteries.
> 
> View attachment 422115
> 
> 
> Since I had to move the VW bug, decided to do some work in the interior... baby steps... baby steps...
> 
> View attachment 422116


I like that epoxied floor!


----------



## savarin

Set up the aquaponic tanks the other day after moving them from the old house.
Todays job was plumbing them in. They are set up with the fish tank high enough to give a slope down to the green tank in the foreground.


Then the sump tanks under what will be the grow beds are also set on a slope but this time leading down the the end sump next to the fish tank where the water is pumped up the fish tank. One pump then gravity feed through all the tanks.
The blue beds and the large green one will be filled with scoria, a volcanic rock that is very rough giving an enormous surface area for the de-nitrifying  bacteria to cling to. The water from the fish tank is slowly fed into them then when they are full they automatically drain into the sump drawing oxygen down into the gravel preventing it from turning anaerobic. Those bacteria convert the nitrites from the fish poop into nitrates that the plants use.
However, whats all this got to do with a machining forum?
The first job was machining out a groove for the gaskets to sit tight in









These are for the 2" pipes that pass through the tank walls.
The next job required a 2" hole plug, I used 2x2.5" aluminium disks because I was too lazy to fibre glass in up and wait for it to dry plus it also meant buying a load of resin and hardener for such a tiny repair.
As the hole is in the side of a 30" cylindrical tub (the solids settling filter hidden behind the fish tank) they required bending to shape so I used a large dia chunk of stainless and 2 bits of rod in the vice, gentle squeezing to conform to the shape required.


These will have to be bolted together squeezing a gasket from each side.
A good excuse to make another tool.
I drilled a short length of 6mm stainless rod 5mm


then used a large centre drill to cut the inside edge to a sharp lip


to be used as a punch to cut the holes in the gasket


then bolted together squeezing the wall of the filter and hopefully remaining water tight.


I know there is a good chance water will seep along the thread but theres no pressure and if it does it will soon clog and stop.
Hopefully finalise all the plumbing tomorow then the tedious job washing all the gravel.
I cant wait to get it in full production.


----------



## twhite

Starting to rehab a Kurt 6” vise. 

This vise was locked up solid at work and wis was in junk storage. We have 5 good Kurt 6” vises at work for 3 machines. We used to have 6 CNC milling centers and a manual mill. Downsizing reduced it to 2 CNC and 1 manual. 

Anyhow we are 5S IMG more at work and they wanted me to do something with this vise. I asked if I could have it. Yes as long as it is not at work. So after some friendly persuasion. I was able to free the nut from the screw. I will order the rebuild kit and start the cleanup at home I bits. 

Super stoked as I have an old Rutland 6” I use at home. This will be a great upgrade. 



















Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## rwm

That thing needs to spend some time in an electrolytic bath!!!!


----------



## pontiac428

Looks to me like Fall is the season of vise restoration.  

This one I got as a freebie, a friend clearing out his father's garage type of deal.  It is the "Mogul 8-inch" from L-W Chuck.  It's the heaviest vise in their heavy line.  This 150 lb hunk of metal came to me covered in grime.  I wasn't sure if I was just given a boat anchor.   I finally got around to introducing it to my friend, Mr. Stoddard Solvent.  They got along well, and I could see that, despite some bonehead drill holes in the non-critical part of the bearing shaft, the vise is in very good shape.  It actually feels nice!  Scary part is, with the soft jaws, it swallows two 1-2-3 blocks completely.  Big ol' frickin' vise!

Kieth Rucker posted a catalog that is probably from 1954.  The vise was 180 dollars.  Again that was 1954.  Yeah, sounds like a lot, so I plugged it into the ol' inflation calculator.  $180 in 1954 is equivalent in purchasing power to about _$1,981.81 today_*.*  Cough!

I suppose I'll clean it up and paint it nice.  After I saw that it's Mr. Pete's preferred mill vise (in a more wee size), I was sure it was meant to be.


----------



## rwm

I bought a Starrett scribe a while back. The tip is so soft that any scribing of mild steel immediately dulls it. What is up with that?
I finally got around to making a carbide tip out of an old broken drill.




To shape this I chucked the stock in the lathe and rotated it while I shaped it with a cheap diamond wheel in my hand held angle grinder. It takes about a minute and the tip is very nice. One key here is to hold the grinder in such a way that the grinding marks go as longitudinal as possible (not circumferential marks) The same way you sharpen punches. This allows the scribe to track better.


----------



## wachuko

rwm said:


> I bought a Starrett scribe a while back. The tip is so soft that any scribing of mild steel immediately dulls it. What is up with that?
> I finally got around to making a carbide tip out of an old broken drill.
> 
> View attachment 422271
> 
> 
> To shape this I chucked the stock in the lathe and rotated it while I shaped it with a cheap diamond wheel in my hand held angle grinder. It takes about a minute and the tip is very nice. One key here is to hold the grinder in such a way that the grinding marks go as longitudinal as possible (not circumferential marks) The same way you sharpen punches. This allows the scribe to track better.


What a great idea.


----------



## dkemppai

rwm said:


> ...This allows the scribe to track better.



Nice. 

FYI, For some things a scribe with a small rounded tip works really well. For transferring engraving patters to be hand engraved, etc. 
Sharpen similar to what you describe, and then polish the tip to a very small smooth ball shape allows the scribe to lightly 'burnish' the line without cutting into the metal. (Use diamond paste or slurry on something like leather or wood, etc.) Handy if you want a light line without marking the material significantly. It is also very nice for freehand marking, it 'glides' over the surface better.  I have a few with different tip profiles.


----------



## Shotgun

Being brittle, won't that sharp tip snap right off?


----------



## rwm

Shotgun said:


> Being brittle, won't that sharp tip snap right off?


No idea! I will let you know. I tried to mimic the angle I have seen on other carbide scribes. Here:



Here is the Starrett carbide version. VERY sharp angle.


----------



## BGHansen

rwm said:


> No idea! I will let you know. I tried to mimic the angle I have seen on other carbide scribes. Here:
> 
> 
> Here is the Starrett carbide version. VERY sharp angle.


Mine are all carbide too, and I'm yet to break the tip off from one.  Of course, I'm not using it to stab cockroaches on cement floor!  Plus, I use enough pressure to lightly scribe (through Dykem).  I'm not engraving with them.  Nice fix!

Bruce


----------



## WesPete66

I used a vacation day yesterday, and spent some shop time.
I recently took a chance on a used wire welder, and found the chinees plastic pinch wheel lever wasn't up to the task. So I made up a replacement out of aluminum. Cut entirely on my Atlas lathe even. Discovered the limitations of the milling attachment.


----------



## randyjaco

rwm said:


> No idea! I will let you know. I tried to mimic the angle I have seen on other carbide scribes. Here:
> View attachment 422276
> 
> 
> Here is the Starrett carbide version. VERY sharp angle.
> 
> View attachment 422275


For carbide your angle is much too narrow. It just won't handle the lateral forces.


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## rwm

randyjaco said:


> For carbide your angle is much too narrow. It just won't handle the lateral forces.


Not sure I follow you? Could you elaborate?


----------



## pontiac428

I think he is referring to putting a long fine point on it, versus a punch point.  Fine might snap.

I bought four of these "IMT carbide scribes" from amazon.  They have a superfine point that ends in tiny facets.  The carbide tip is like a needle being held in a mechanical pencil, very little of the carbide point projects.  They came with spare points, so I have eight good carbide scribe tips, and in four years of ham-fisted engraving with the things, I have yet to break one of their ultra angel-hair like points.


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## wachuko

pontiac428 said:


> I think he is referring to putting a long fine point on it, versus a punch point.  Fine might snap.
> 
> I bought four of these "IMT carbide scribes" from amazon.  They have a superfine point that ends in tiny facets.  The carbide tip is like a needle being held in a mechanical pencil, very little of the carbide point projects.  They came with spare points, so I have eight good carbide scribe tips, and in four years of ham-fisted engraving with the things, I have yet to break one of their ultra angel-hair like points.
> 
> View attachment 422325


Where the heck were you this morning!!!????

I could have purchase 6!!  6!!! of those for what I paid for the one I ordered...   I need to stop with the impulse buys...


----------



## pontiac428

wachuko said:


> Where the heck were you this morning!!!????
> 
> I could have purchase 6!!  6!!! of those for what I paid for the one I ordered...   I need to stop with the impulse buys...


Exactly!  I figured I could buy ONE Starrett, or a dozen of these.  Now I have one in every tool box in the shop.  And this weekend, I was still cussing over having to walk across the room for one.  Better order ten.


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## dkemppai

pontiac428 said:


> Exactly!  I figured I could buy ONE Starrett, or a dozen of these.  Now I have one in every tool box in the shop.  And this weekend, I was still cussing over having to walk across the room for one.  Better order ten.


I just buy them at the hardware store locally. I've been trying to saturate this place with tape measures, I buy two every time I think about it. I'm almost to the point where one is handy when I need it! lol. 

This is my 'hand drawing' scriber. Wit the rounded end, it's easier to write or draw on a part without a straight edge. 




In the shop tonight, the old Sheldon is leveled out (mostly). Had a battle with the bed having a sag in it. After two days of messing around, and thinking about it, I realized the chip pan must be loading up on the bed somehow. So, lifted the tail end with a engine hoist, loosened the cabinet screws, and scraped the old paint away from the interfaces. Then with the tail end in the air, slowly tightened the screws until the cabinet was drawn up, pinching the chip pan in place. Set it back down, and the bow was gone! The bow in the bed was a couple of thou per foot. Now it's on the order of a couple of tenths per foot (as best I can interpolate the level to). I'll let it sit for a few days an attempt a final leveling. Things seem to be moving slightly yet.  




Cut a sample. It's the first time this lathe hasn't cut a taper since I've owned it! The rebuilder said the bed was worn about .015", and the carriage was worn about the same. 'Splains why I couldn't ever get it level. Decided against paint. It really isn't horrible, and I sort of like the patina. It's a working machine, so if it's too pretty I'd be afraid to use it! lol. Those scraped ways look so darn nice! 

Next, I really need to get a lathe test bar. I believe the headstock is MT4. It measures ~1.23 inches on the big end. Import test bars are on the order of $50 or so for an MT4. Might just try one. (Probably a beg forgiveness from the wife sort of situation...) 

Dan


----------



## Doug Gray

At quitting time at work the fabrication manager says don't go yet I have a little job for you. That means overnight service. This is a tool use to push out 30" long pieces of thin wall tubing. The provided stock is 3/4" od 1018 (Yuk). I don't have an outboard spider, so I used a steady to get a centre hole, then used the live centre and the steady to do the turning. (Belt and suspenders) I have had this lathe about 6 or 7 years and can count on one hand the times I have been working out this far on the bed. I actually had a very serious incident; I was concentrating on setting up way out on the tail stock end (about 30 inches from the chuck) and when I thought I was ready I started the spindle .... Chuck key flies, work starts bouncing around not only was the key in the chuck, but the chuck wasn't nearly tight on the work, so the work is bouncing around in the three jaw. I was very lucky I didn't get hit or have the work start twisting. 




I did manage to get the job done. I put two "pushing ends" on each tool Bottom left of lower photo shows a sample of the pipe to be pushed out. Lousy finish due to 1018 and necessarily slow rpm. Smallest diameter at the end allows for some mushrooming before the tool becomes unusable. Couple of enjoyable hours in the shop and 3 seconds of terror.  Be extra aware when you're doing unusual setups on your equipment.


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## mattthemuppet2

glad you were ok. A good rule of thumb is to only have the chuck key in the chuck when your hand is on it. Having a handy (ha!) place to put it when it's not in your hand is a good idea, makes sticking to the rule easier.


----------



## extropic

mattthemuppet2 said:


> glad you were ok. A good rule of thumb is to only have the chuck key in the chuck when your hand is on it. *Having a handy (ha!) place to put it when it's not in your hand is a good idea*, makes sticking to the rule easier.






This is a perfect example of how it only take an instant of inattention for a safety hazard to result in a dangerous incident.


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## Doug Gray

that's it's spot


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## GoceKU

Today my brothers car, came back from the paint shop and its white, now the joke is on me it is truly a white elephant No:2. The engine is running very lumpy not sure what is going on but first i need to put it back together.


----------



## dkemppai

mattthemuppet2 said:


> glad you were ok. A good rule of thumb is to only have the chuck key in the chuck when your hand is on it. Having a handy (ha!) place to put it when it's not in your hand is a good idea, makes sticking to the rule easier.


We have a guy at work who was in the habit of leaving a wrench on the drawbar nut of an R-8 spindle on a chinese mill drill. Told him it was a bad idea to leave it there. He heeded the warning, as the wrench was head height for him.

I try to train myself to pick a key or wrench up, do the adjustment, and put it back. I won't say it happens all the time...
When it does, at least I know where all my tools are! lol.


----------



## GoceKU

Today after work i got stuck in the big garage, i turn my phone off and go straight to work. I need to state that i do like working on cars, especially this cinde, disassembly and assembly. I started in the back assembled the trunk all the looks, bumper, tail lights and moved to the sides, all the window seals got cleaned and lubed with silicone paste, also had to repair the rear door electrical harnesses ended up making new ones because the copper in the wires had started to fall apart. The door mirrors wore disassembled by the body shop, had to put them together and mount them i use blue loctite on the bolts. The inside of this car never was spectacularly clean but the body shop made it 10x worse so it will take a full cleaning, last freshly painted part that i wanted to install was the front grill it contains11 pieces that are only held together with plastic clips thankfully this car isn't that old so they are still solid. I did not install the old Skoda badges, i've order new ones, i also started to troubleshoot the right running of the engine and charged the battery.


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was wrapping up a surprise Christmas present for one of my niece's daughters.  It was doing the "finishing touch" of adding an engraved plaque.  Material was some 0.015" brass shim stock, work was done on my Tormach 1100.  And on the plus side, I learned something!


You can't see it under the coolant, but there's a sheet of brass that's held to an aluminum plate with double-sided carpet tape.  The cutting tool is a spring-loaded diamond engraver.



Tormach's PathPilot does a nice job of giving you a preview and "where it's at" while it's running a routine (preview is in blue, which turns to magenta as the routine progresses).



All done except for drilling some nail holes (a smarter person would have done that with the CNC. . . .), polishing and cutting to size.



And what did I learn?  "Yoda" isn't necessarily right all of the time.  Truth be told, I wrote the routine to use a carbide engraving tool.  I ran a prototype in aluminum and snapped the tip off right away.  Instead of changing tips and remeasuring the tool height, I changed over to a spring-loaded diamond engraver.  It was quicker doing the prove-out changing tool numbers than fiddling with installing a new engraving bit.  I usually do engraving with the carbide tool at 3000 RPM with DOC of 0.015", but had written the routine to 0.040" with no progressive step down.  That oversight equaled a broken tip.

Next step was to go into the three routines to change the tool number and the RPMs from 3000 to 300.  I was told and have read recommendations from "Yoda" to run a diamond engraver at a low spindle speed.  Tormach's PP control software does engraving through conversational programming and only does one line at a time.  It's no big deal as you can append files to do multiple lines.  I went into each of the three routines, changed tools and RPM's.  Then ran the routine in an aluminum plate.  That's where I learned "Yoda" ain't right all of the time . . . .


I ran the top two lines of text at 300 RPM, but fat-fingered the bottom line to run at 3300 RPM.  See the wobble in the top two lines?  The "Made by" came out really nicely, so the first two line of engraving got their speed bumped up to 3300 RPM.



Not perfect, but MUCH better with the spring-loaded diamond engraver running at high-speed



I didn't show it, but the nail holes were drilled with the brass still taped to the aluminum plate.  Trimmed to size and nailed in place.






And the finished product! 






More of the boring backstory is my grandfather made three of these same hobby horses for my dad and his two brothers.  There's a picture of me someplace sitting on ours when I was around 2; cowboy hat on and a Colt 6-shooter in hand.  Years later a neighbor stopped by to visit with her 2-year old.  He was rocking away on the horse and started bawling when it was time to leave.  My mom told her to take the horse with her.  Well, the neighbor moved a few years later and kept the horse.  My dad was really bummed as he knew his dad had put a lot of time into the project.

Around 25 years ago I saw the plans (currently available from Woodcraft and Lowes) and bought a set.  I showed them to my dad and suggested we could make horses for my sister's two kids and my two even though they had all outgrown the horse.  He thought it was a great idea, but other stuff got in the way.  Then he had a stroke and that was the end of that.  He wasn't able to help as he passed away 3 years ago, but the leather in the reins, flower at the base of the handles and ears came from a deer he shot in 1974; so there's a piece of him in it!

Thanks for looking, Bruce


----------



## Doug Gray

Awesome project!


----------



## wachuko

Bruce,

What a beautiful project!


----------



## Janderso

wachuko said:


> Today... mowed the lawn... organized, just a little bit, the single bay garage... And took some updated photos of the lathe and mill since I did not have those...
> 
> View attachment 422113
> 
> View attachment 422114
> 
> 
> Tomorrow they are coming to do some work in there and I needed to get rid of some stuff and clear the side wall so they can install some batteries.
> 
> View attachment 422115
> 
> 
> Since I had to move the VW bug, decided to do some work in the interior... baby steps... baby steps...
> 
> View attachment 422116


I love that mill man!


----------



## dkemppai

Whoo Hoo! Lathe is finally level. That took a week of thinking, tweaking, thinking, and tweaking some more. The worst thing that ever happened to me is a precision level, and known flat lathe bed! 

After sorting out the fact that the chip pan was loading, and bowing the bed. It can finally be leveled. This silly Sheldon, has two cast cabinets that the bed bolts to. Each one has 4 four leveling bolts to the floor! Finally figured out how to use all that adjustment to get everything level down the whole length of the bed. Twist, bow, level in two planes. 

When I first bought this lathe used, it came with eight 2"x2"x1/4" steel pads, and eight 2"x2"x3/4 red oak blocks for under the pads. The problem with red oak is I've seen it move 1/4" per foot with humidity over a season. Not ideal to have the lathe sitting on. So, I cut some 2"x2"x1/2" delrin blocks to put under the steel pads. (Load spreading, and just slightly compliant). 

...Until it became apparent the jacking screws would 'wobble' on the drilled dimples in the steel pads. No problem! Pull the bolts one at a time and grind the end round. Now they rotate nice and smooth without pushing the blocks/pads around when tightened. 

...Until I realize the delrin slides on the floor too easily. I could bump the lathe, and have it 'skate over an inch and everything would be out again. Well,  easy to fix. I have some very thin hard rubber. Just put a small square between the delrin and the floor. Blocks don't slide! 

...Until I realized the steel would slide on the delrin too easily. Bump the lathe again, and off it would go! (Insert Yosemite Sam level cussing!). No problem, put a sheet of rubber between the steel and delrin. 

...Until it became apparent that the bed could be twisted. With the jacking screws adjusted the pads wouldn't slide on the floor if they needed to.  (Invent a whole inventory of brand new four letter words!). 

So eventually, what I settled on Bolt-Steel-Rubber-Delrin-Rubber-Floor under the headstock, and Bolt-Steel-Rubber-Delrin-Floor on the tailstock end. The headstock and cabinet being heavy glues the thing down. The tailstock end is supported, but the delrin slides a little to prevent twisting of the bed. 

The final leveling was done with the four outermost bolts first, then slowly bring in the inner headstock bolts to work out bow and twist. After a few hours messing around it's level in every direction I can put a level on it.  With the rubber under the headstock, it won't move. Pushing, pulling, twisting, lifting, it might a move few tenths per foot, but it always settles back out where it started. Just need need to turn some test pieces and do some final tweaking as necessary. 

...Until it became apparent that something is going on with the ancient motor overload after the 12 hours of road trip. So, now the lathe won't run!  (Crown Royal Take me Away!)  

No problem, just order a VFD. It was a planned upgrade anyway...


----------



## tq60

dkemppai said:


> We have a guy at work who was in the habit of leaving a wrench on the drawbar nut of an R-8 spindle on a chinese mill drill. Told him it was a bad idea to leave it there. He heeded the warning, as the wrench was head height for him.
> 
> I try to train myself to pick a key or wrench up, do the adjustment, and put it back. I won't say it happens all the time...
> When it does, at least I know where all my tools are! lol.


We have a holder for the chuck key for the SB 14.5, it's next to power switch, habit is it stays in hand until it goes back.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


----------



## great white

Man, finally finished cutting and sticking the marble mosaic insert:




The missus really likes it.

I like it too, but those little end pieces around the periphery were a major PITB!

Marble doesn’t particularly like to be cut really small without crumbling to bits, so I ended up cutting every filler piece as close as possible and then had finish each one by hand (sander, hand files and diamond wheel grinder).

I’m happy its done, but wouldn’t do it again.

Now on to sealing the marble and after a few days to dry, on to grout/caulk….and then sit on my butt out on the patio for a good loooong time!


----------



## ChazzC

wachuko said:


> Oh man, paint looks fine!


Hi, circling back on your first comment: did you mean the striping?



The case came with "cavities - after failing at using yellow paint, I can narrow strips of yellow electrical tape and used them; the power feed runs over my lathe bench [just visible under the control box] and I know I'll bang into eventually, just trying to put off the inevitable. I also wrapped the X-Axis right hand wheel with safety tape so maybe I'd avoid it either while it's revolving or stationary since it sticks out in space along with the R8 collet rack):




I've got tape on almost everything that's bolted down I could damage myself on – bench vise, arbor press, etc. I got tired of trying to explain the bruises to my wife (& doctor: "are you sure that you're safe at home?").


----------



## wachuko

ChazzC said:


> Hi, circling back on your first comment: did you mean the striping?
> 
> View attachment 422614
> 
> The case came with "cavities - after failing at using yellow paint, I can narrow strips of yellow electrical tape and used them; the power feed runs over my lathe bench [just visible under the control box] and I know I'll bang into eventually, just trying to put off the inevitable. I also wrapped the X-Axis right hand wheel with safety tape so maybe I'd avoid it either while it's revolving or stationary since it sticks out in space along with the R8 collet rack):
> 
> View attachment 422615
> 
> 
> I've got tape on almost everything that's bolted down I could damage myself on – bench vise, arbor press, etc. I got tired of trying to explain the bruises to my wife (& doctor: "are you sure that you're safe at home?").



Sorry, it was meant to be a reply to a different quote... fixed the original posting now.

But I also like your idea of the yellow safety tape... and kinds of makes sense why the previous owner of the Logan would paint some items yellow...


----------



## ChazzC

wachuko said:


> Sorry, it was meant to be a reply to a different quote... fixed the original posting now.
> 
> But I also like your idea of the yellow safety tape... and kinds of makes sense why the previous owner of the Logan would paint some items yellow...


If you've seen my post showing the shop layout (2' wide aisles everywhere) you understand the potential for bruises: My Shop


----------



## wachuko

ChazzC said:


> If you've seen my post showing the shop layout (2' wide aisles everywhere) you understand the potential for bruises: My Shop



I had not!  Impressive use of space!!  What a nice place to enjoy hours and hours.  Nicely done.

So many ideas that I can leverage... thank you for sharing the link to the post.


----------



## ChazzC

wachuko said:


> I had not!  Impressive use of space!!  What a nice place to enjoy hours and hours.  Nicely done.
> 
> So many ideas that I can leverage... thank you for sharing the link to the post.


Thanks; many a night I surface on the 1st floor only to need a flashlight so I can find the light switch.


----------



## rwm

All you repurposers will like this! 
The base is from a printer stand I found in my GFs dumpster in 1994
The stainless tube and shelf are from a broken patio heater.
The table is left over MIC6 that someone else paid for for a different project.




Very stable and perfect height! I flipped the shelf over so wheels and rouge could be stored there without vibrating off.


----------



## FOMOGO

Pretty much finished on the work table. Applied the diluted cold bluing solution to every thing but table top. Sliced, and diced a heavy duty cabinet to make the right and left side drawers, and the middle one is from a metal desk. Made and installed a sliding half drawer for the deep one. Painted all the faces and sides with satin black paint. May still do some pin-striping on the drawers but I need to get a little practice in first. A lot of fiddling around with mounting, and getting everything lined up. Used 1" angle on the sides of the two end pieces, and welded them to the table frame. I had some heavy duty ball bearing slides with their own mounting rails, so with some 3/16" strap risers for the middle drawer, those also got welded in. Very solid and the drawers work very smoothly. Temporarily used some 5/8 OSB for the bottom shelf, until I run across the piece of metal to replace it. The whole table is pretty much recycled materials, and no animals were harmed during it's construction. Time to put it to work in the welding shop. Not as a welding table, but for general purpose work. Sure it won't take long to fill the drawers, and clutter up the top. Mike


----------



## rwm

That table is beautiful! If your not gonna weld on it, maybe consider black melamine where the OSB sits? Just a thought.
Is that center drawer a Steelcase?


----------



## FOMOGO

Thanks Robert. Not exactly sure what will end up on the shelf, so we will see. All of the drawers were pulled out of a high school dumpster, so no idea on the brand. Mike


----------



## twhite

Today is vise day. I picked up a dirty Benchmaster vise last year. I did not know the manufacturer until last week. I saw it on eBay. Anyhow going to give it a bath in Kerosene and clean it up. I might also work on my Kurt and get it ready for paint. 


Here is the Benchmaster torn down. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





. Degreased I need to take it to work Monday and find a ball bearing to fit in the sliding jaw to interface with the screw. What ever was there was destroyed. 






Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i spent some time on my lathe, making a tool. Someone may have noticed i deal alot with french cars. And they need lots of special tools. This one i've tried to buy couple of times and they wore out. So first step was to find material I only had this big shaft in that diameter because i've haven't been buying new material for more then a year and only have scraps left over. First i used an angle grinder outside with a 1mm disc and cut off the peice i needed. Then i faced it and brought it to its outer diametre, drill, then counder bored it to its final inside diametre. Then i turn it around finish the smaller end to 41mm to fit the outside of a 36mm wrench and parted off the excess. When i was finished i snapped those pictures and send them to a friend who has a mill to finish it, there we cut the 4 slots for the bull joint and the slots for the wrench. It turn out better then expected now if it will only hold up to my abuse.


----------



## davek181

Only the French would screw in a ball joint. I can only imagine how rusted and corroded it would be when it is replacement time.  The other tool needed is likely the torch.


----------



## wachuko

Not much of a project... just unboxed stuff and got it ready to clean...




Also the MIG welder and spool gun arrived... placed everything in the cart with the TIG welder...  All I need to do now is buy one tank of 100% Argon and one tank of 75%/25% Argon/CO2 to start practicing...


----------



## erikmannie

I only did sorting & labeling. This task is finished.


----------



## savarin

I'm sorry but that is far too organised and neat, its not allowed in the man cave.


----------



## GoceKU

davek181 said:


> Only the French would screw in a ball joint. I can only imagine how rusted and corroded it would be when it is replacement time. The other tool needed is likely the torch.


Yeah only the French can do stuff like that, wouldn't it be easier just to machine a hex in the bull joint so you can grab it with a big wrench. As for removing it they seem to be very reliable way oversized and don't fail often my cars are going on 30 years now on the factory ones and i'm not easy on my car at all neter are the roads around here. And we don't have salt in the winters, but i've worked on solty peugeots imported from Germany and Slovenia. The spindle casting is well made, few cast words and they come out.


----------



## pontiac428

davek181 said:


> Only the French would screw in a ball joint. I can only imagine how rusted and corroded it would be when it is replacement time.  The other tool needed is likely the torch.



Apparently, cars aren't the only place where a screw-in ball joint fails... the company that came up with these had to recall them.  I wonder how that worked out.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i continue assembling the white elephant No : 2. My brother did buy a set of used headlights because the old ones were just gone as for the "new " ones he was told they are in perfect shape, well all the tab are here but the lenses are much worse. So i install them took off the side indicator and started sanding them someone has clearcoat them and the paint fails. So after 2 hours of sending drivers headlight was much better you can see the light different, than the other side got the same stops and finally both got a good polish and 2 coats of carnauba wax. Then i continue assembling the front end bumper got is inserted, it got installed with all new stainless bolts even the ones all mechanics forget, new inner fenders for the wheels with new push pins. And finally its licence plate.


----------



## ChazzC

Extension Plate for my new (plus-size) phone mount:



I love working with Delrin/Acetyl!!


The top of the plate attaches to a ProClip mount (ProClip USA):





And the bottom receives a "Tilt Swivel" which is part of the phone holder:




Now all I need is the phone (due Tuesday or Wednesday (FedEx has lately been declaring all of my shipments "delayed" with 15 minutes of their arrival at Newark, NJ). Case arrived Thursday, new phone holder Saturday and screen protector should be here tomorrow.


I needed the extension as the taller phone wouldn't clear the A-Pillar when inserting/removing from the holder.


----------



## BGHansen

GoceKU said:


> Today i continue assembling the white elephant No : 2. My brother did buy a set of used headlights because the old ones were just gone as for the "new " ones he was told they are in perfect shape, well all the tab are here but the lenses are much worse. So i install them took off the side indicator and started sanding them someone has clearcoat them and the paint fails. So after 2 hours of sending drivers headlight was much better you can see the light different, than the other side got the same stops and finally both got a good polish and 2 coats of carnauba wax. Then i continue assembling the front end bumper got is inserted, it got installed with all new stainless bolts even the ones all mechanics forget, new inner fenders for the wheels with new push pins. And finally its licence plate.


Seems like a better idea would have been to paint them black.  I've followed your posts and the MANY repairs on your bro's car(s).  At least if he was driving with NO headlights, he'd have a good excuse for hitting the stuff he seems to run into.

Bruce


----------



## GoceKU

BGHansen said:


> Seems like a better idea would have been to paint them black. I've followed your posts and MANY repairs on your bro's car(s). At least if he was driving with NO headlights, he'd have a good excuse for hitting the stuff he seems to run into.
> 
> Bruce


Yeah you've are probably right, this is the same car he or who ever was driving it drove this same car into a ditch and size the engine with an inspection hole in the oil pan big enough to do a rebuilt with the pan on. I really don't know why he is dumping money in it but he seems to like to drive it. I've changed almost every part on it some more then one's.


----------



## great white

GoceKU said:


> Today i continue assembling the white elephant No : 2. My brother did buy a set of used headlights because the old ones were just gone as for the "new " ones he was told they are in perfect shape, well all the tab are here but the lenses are much worse. So i install them took off the side indicator and started sanding them someone has clearcoat them and the paint fails. So after 2 hours of sending drivers headlight was much better you can see the light different, than the other side got the same stops and finally both got a good polish and 2 coats of carnauba wax. Then i continue assembling the front end bumper got is inserted, it got installed with all new stainless bolts even the ones all mechanics forget, new inner fenders for the wheels with new push pins. And finally its licence plate.
> View attachment 422788
> View attachment 422789
> View attachment 422791
> View attachment 422792
> View attachment 422793
> View attachment 422794
> View attachment 422795
> View attachment 422787


get yourself a rotary buffer and an assortment of different grade pads. Go at 'er with the buffer and pads and those lenses will come up crystal clear. I use a Dewalt DWP849X and can bring lights that are "dead" back to near new with it. 

I also use the rotary for polishing and paint correction, but you need to know what you're doing with a rotary buffer (vs and orbital) because you can just a s easily mess up the paint as correct it. Biggest issue beginners get with a rotary is something called "holograming", which is essentially the buffer leaving trail marks in the paint that are near impossible to correct. But, nothing works better for paint correction (IE: removing imperfections and damages) than a rotary, not even an orbital. 

This is my 88 vette and that's the original paint after running a full paint correction process (takes a couple days if you're older like me) with the Dewalt:




Only way to get it any better would be a full color sand and complete re-polish. Does the same thing with plastic light lenses.

They will, however, dull/haze much faster than when they were new. The sanding/polishing removes the factory surface layer, which usually contains a hard layer and a UV protectant....


----------



## GoceKU

No buffing paint is not my strong side i'm know to have the dirtiest and most scratched car but they always work and go where i want. I spent 20 minutes on that spot and only managed to make it shiny at the top, there is no good quality polish pate here. I do prefer the rotary polish but i only have an cheap orbital and i often use my cordless drill for finishing with a soft pad.


----------



## great white

GoceKU said:


> No buffing paint is not my strong side i'm know to have the dirtiest and most scratched car but they always work and go where i want. I spent 20 minutes on that spot and only managed to make it shiny at the top, there is no good quality polish pate here. I do prefer the rotary polish but i only have an cheap orbital and i often use my cordless drill for finishing with a soft pad.
> View attachment 422831


Oh man, could I ever make that neglected paint shine! You can also correct that with an orbital, you just need to use the right pads and compounds and it takes a bit longer than using a rotary. But an orbital definitely can get the job done. An orbital is actually what I recommend to beginners or guys who just do thier own cars on weekends: easy to use, hard to mess up the paint and can still get some serious work done.

Any chance you can get Meguire's products in Macedonia or Greece?

They're a retail product in NA and can be bought at most autoparts stores. That's what I use. I go from compound to polish to carnuba, all in their gold series and all really good stuff. Same with the pads, I go from aggressive with the compound all the way to buffing with the carnuba.

paint correction requires a bit of practice to get the technique down, but when you do, you can add thousands of dollars of value to even old clunkers. Everybody likes shiny paint....


----------



## pontiac428

great white said:


> Any chance you can get Meguire's products in Macedonia or Greece?


They don't have anything close to Meguiars in Europe.  Only an American will spend $40 on a tin of polish!  Remember Turtle Wax?  It came in two flavors, smooth and chunky style.  That's what they're working with in EU.  You can get it if Nigrin makes it:


----------



## Dhal22

pontiac428 said:


> They don't have anything close to Meguiars in Europe.  Only an American will spend $40 on a tin of polish!  Remember Turtle Wax?  It came in two flavors, smooth and chunky style.  That's what they're working with in EU.  You can get it if Nigrin makes it:




More disposable income here.


----------



## pontiac428

Dhal22 said:


> More disposable income here.


Precisely.  50% income tax rate is a game changer that we can't even fathom.  But they have guaranteed health care and a shocking lack of potholes, so it might be worth it.


----------



## Dhal22

The more money moves the more it gets taxed.   Supply side economics fascinate me.


----------



## GoceKU

No Meguiar's is available here in Europe, even Nigrin is now hard to get they are sold in germany, some of the newly open stores will bring a shipment in. But once they see nobody is spending half there pay check on a polish or on a can of wox they stop. As for income tax, Its becoming a rob peter to pay paul, government is adding new taxes just to stay afloat, prices of everything have gone up 150%.


----------



## GoceKU

The saga with white elephant No:2 continues, first task was to take off all the door panels and take them apart to get reupholster. Then i gave the interior quick clean to get off the sanding dust. This was the easy part. The difficult come when i tried to drive it out side for a better cleaning. The engine is only running on 2 cylinders, for those who know diesels that is very bad news. First i check was the fuel supply and found the fuel filter is very coarse also the diesel has a bit of a smell. This car has been sitting for months now and who knows what the body shop did with it. So i went out and bought me a good quality fuel filter and started taking apart the entire fuel system. No:4 injector come with lots of effort but other 3 injectors didn't even attempt to move, i spent almost 2 hours trying to get them out and soaking them with penetrating oil then i decided i'll leave them to soak overnight.


----------



## ChazzC

pontiac428 said:


> . . . a shocking lack of potholes


Combination of less freeze/thaw, and that they don't go around digging holes, filling them in haphazardly and then fixing them a year later.


----------



## GoceKU

And at this rate of people leaving the country for better paid jobs less people on them.


----------



## snoopdog

Replaced my janky velcro, finally.


----------



## wachuko

Did a few small tasks...

RPM display box and wiring done...  this is to use with the Logan 820 lathe...  Only thing left is to figure out a way to mount it without the sensor being in the way of anything... first try was a failure as I completely forgot about having to close the door...




I was cool to find a connector... previous ones I had to permanently attach the power supply to them... So I got a bag of 5 connectors to have spares for future projects.




Works fine, that is just the refresh rate playing with the photo...






And wanted to make sure the tailstock wrench would not fall off... it is on a sweet spot where I can loosen and lock it without removing it...  Drilled and tap and then installed a set screw.  Used a dremel round bit to make an indentation on the nut to receive the set screw...   Perfect.




Loosen




Locked




Also got the mount and long power cable for the TouchDRO display...


----------



## BGHansen

GoceKU said:


> And at this rate of people leaving the country for better paid jobs less people on them.


And yet, with a smaller population for government to serve, they seem to need to keep expanding it.  Reminds me of an old cartoon at my former employer (GM).  It showed 3 boats being rowed in a race.  Two were labeled "Honda" and "Toyota".  They were manned with one coxswain and 8 rowers.  The GM boat had one rower and 8 coxswain.  The company did improve things after bankruptcy, though the government. . . .

Bruce


----------



## erikmannie

I got this far on a recycled plate welding coupon before I had to go to work. I am really envious of you retired guys!


----------



## jwmelvin

I made a part for a tortilla press I’m making; the adjustable pivot, which is an eccentric shaft. I could have planned a little better for setup, as the little dimple I made for centering in the 4-jaw (with a 90° drill) didn’t work with a spring tap follower so I threw together parts.


----------



## rpker

I started the process of cleaning out my SB heavy 10. Pulled out the cross slide and compound screws and scrubbed down everything in them with some kerosene and re-lubed with some ND20 weight oil.  I will be pulling apart the tail stock and apron next, then eventually the headstock. All in all, a very satisfying way to spend an afternoon.


----------



## GoceKU

Today was a long day at work then in my machine shop and to top it off fighting with stuck diesel injectors. I soaked with penetrating oil and did everything i could to get the injectors out but they did not budge. So i went to my machine shop dug thru my scraps of steel and found me some material to make me a slide hammer. Drilling that heat treated piece did proof to be very hard it had a hard spot in the middle i had to drill it from both sides and at the end to use a hand file to make it slide. Threaded the rod both sides and made a nut for one end and adapter from M12x1,5 to M14x1,5 for the injector. It took me 20-45 min per injector hummering soking and heating the head to get them out. With so much effort i'm not taking any chances, i'll spent the money and buy a injector pop tester and rebuild them myself. I also found the injectors from the sized engine and plan to combine them all to make the best set i could. With that struggles and already smelling of diesel i dug out the back seat and removed the fuel pick up from the fuel tank, syphon all the fuel took apart the pickup and found some jelly, i'm thinking someone has put sugar in it, i'll be using the fuel that i took out for cleaning parts. That is probably what made this car run like 2 cylinder. I'll also washed out the fuel tank and wiped it out till it was spotlessly clean.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Fixed a rolling pin for the wife. One handle had broken off, the other was melted. Original plan was to make two new handles out of stainless, but it all went south after that 


Old remaining handle and first new one

Then once I went to put everything back together, one of the wood "bearings" fell apart. So I made a couple of new ones out of delrin, but had to bore out the end of the pin to fit them.

Then I needed to clean up the marks left by the steady rest, when I discovered that the bloody pin was bent and out of round. So I turned it true between centers



And after all that, I forgot to take a pic of the finished product  I'll get that when I get home tonight. What a palaver, would have been easier to make the thing from scratch!


----------



## BGHansen

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Fixed a rolling pin for the wife. One handle had broken off, the other was melted. Original plan was to make two new handles out of stainless, but it all went south after that
> 
> And after all that, I forgot to take a pic of the finished product  I'll get that when I get home tonight. What a palaver, would have been easier to make the thing from scratch!


I got your finished photo here if it comes apart again!  

Bruce


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Funnily enough, apart from Captain Chicken, everything I make for my wife can be used to inflict bodily harm on me. Anybody remember The Nutcrusher Mk1?


----------



## AGCB97

Parts of 2 days repair project. 

My cousin had given me a Rockford 5” vise and I upsized from the 20 plus year old Harbor Freight 4” that had served me well. About 2 months into using it, while taking apart some galvanized fittings, the front jaw broke clean off. As you can see in the 1st picture, the casting was not very thick at that point.





I was thinking about welding or brazing it, but the metal thickness was not conducive to this.

After looking at it, it seemed an easy part to make from scratch. I went looking in the heavy metal bin and found a piece of 2 x 1/4” square tube. Seemed like that would be much stronger than the original cast part. The piece I found was the perfect length, just needed a slot cut in the bottom for the pedestal nut.  The top bearing pads in the main housing/rear jaw casting were 2 1/2” + wide, so I found a piece of 2 ½ x 1/2” stainless bar that I welded to the top of the square tube. Didn't need to be SS but that's what I had.





Then there was about 3/16” up/down play yet to deal with. I wedged the previously welded assembly up against the top bearing blocks and fitted on each side a piece of 1 ¼ x 3/8” bar stock, vertically with an old hacksaw blade as a spacer for bottom clearance. Tacked that in place and then removed the whole thing for final welding.







The jaw itself was made with 5/8 x 3” bar stock on each side and a 1 x 1 1/2” jaw proper with my previous jaw plates that have a V for holding round stock both vertically and horizontally.




I think it came out well and should not break even with occasional abuse!

Thanks for looking!
Aaron


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## pontiac428

@AGCB97, don't ever let anyone tell you that you haven't done anything, because that vise repair is really somethin'!


----------



## FOMOGO

Great save on the vice Aaron. Mike


----------



## dkemppai

Well the lathe saga continues. Just slowly plugging away on it. Ordered the cheapest test bar I could find on ebay. MT4 on one end, and straight 10.5" sticking out. Checked it on vee blocks on the surface plate, for wobble at least. Seems straight, needle moves maybe a 1/4 to 1/3 of a tenth mid span when rotating it, about the same over the vee blocks. 

In the lathe it shows some runout. Checking with the indicator, that may actually be the taper in the headstock. Checked runout at the head end, it was about 2 tenths. 10 inches out it was about 2 thou. rotated the spindle until the far end was centered on the runout. That aligned with the headstock end runout. Next, the bed was adjusted until the indicator read the same on both ends.

I did notice that the indicator will move on the far end by about 3/4 of a tenth depending on where I stand on the floor. If any of you suggest a diet to improve accuracy, forget it! That ain't gonna happen!

If any of you old hands have any input here...   I think by going to the neutral position of the runout this is a valid alignment. But, I have this nagging feeling I'm missing something.

One test tomorrow will be to mark the bar and spindle, then rotate the test bar in the spindle by 90 degrees to see if the runout stays with the bar or spindle. I'm guessing staying with spindle would indicate the spindle has the error...





Anyway, it's been a long time coming, but this lathe follows zero on the indicator over 10" of travel. That alone indicates something went right! lol.

 I've got a pair of dead centers coming. The plan is to turn a test bar exactly the same size on both ends, and use that and the centers to verify the tailstock alignment. In general I'm happy with where this is coming. Cut a few parts on it quick, and I swear it cuts better. I think that could be because all of the ways are tight now. Or it could be me trying to justify all the expense to myself!  

Little more checking, and then mount the DRO scales again.


----------



## dkemppai

Rotated the bar in the spindle by 90 degrees. The runout stayed with the test bar, not the spindle. While that's good news for the lathe, it means the test bar has several thou runout. Maybe it'll get returned, they spec 5um straightness in the ebay listing... 

Even as is, it's suitable for aligning the lathe. It's just that the taper doesn't align with the straight part well.


----------



## GoceKU

Last few days i've been waiting on tools and i finally got it. I bought a diesel injector pop tester, had to order it from Kosovo, it arrived quickly, but the gauge is faulty. But the seller exchanged it got me a woking one in a day. I clean and tested all 8 injectors they all had issues, 3 of them could be used. For the last one i had to take apart 3 more to combine it and made a good set. Then come the big task of cleaning the holes where the injectors seal. There is a tool that i don't have so i use wire brushes, picks, air and chemicals to clean them good. I'm waiting for new copper washers to arrive for the injectors and i'm going to change the glow plugs. Its going to be "fun" getting all the air out but let's hope all this work is not for noting. I did take a short video of the injector testing.



View attachment VID_20221004_201039.mp4


----------



## davek181

Those aren't too hard to bleed out.  I fill the fuel filter first and hook my suction brake bleeder to the injector return line to pull out air and get fuel to the injectors.  It will usually start pretty quickly after that and then just let it idle a bit and it's done.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Fixed my wife's outdoor speaker. The USB charging port broke off, so I replaced that and added a bigger battery. Wife is happy 

Missing USB port to the bottom right


	

		
			
		

		
	
USB port added


2-1/2x bigger battery added


----------



## wachuko

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Fixed my wife's outdoor speaker. The USB charging port broke off, so I replaced that and added a bigger battery. Wife is happy
> 
> Missing USB port to the bottom right
> View attachment 423451
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> USB port added
> View attachment 423452
> 
> 2-1/2x bigger battery added
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 423453


I just did the same repair!!!


----------



## GoceKU

Today i finish the injector work, mounted everything, added fresh diesel, prime the system and it fire up, i had to go back on two injectors to change the copper washers but now they all seal and the engine is running better then ever. With the engine running i drove it the small garage and gave it a good cleaning on the inside, all the seats come out and the carpet and all surfaces got washed with chemicals. In few days i've done more work on this car then some cars get in there life.


----------



## Firstram

You get more done than anyone I know, it's inspiring!


----------



## ChazzC

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Fixed my wife's outdoor speaker. The USB charging port broke off, so I replaced that and added a bigger battery. Wife is happy



Happy Wife = Happy Life (and maybe less displeasure when you buy something?).


----------



## Gaffer

Some of you may remember my post a year or more ago asking about Lyon machinist’s toolboxes. I scored a great deal on two matching and abused ones. I finally finished the cleanup and repairs - some dent removal, cleaned and lubed bears, sanding, etc. For painting there was no way I was going to use rattle cans. I considered direct-to-metal paint and automotive paint, but decided to powder coat them. It was a little more expensive but the finish is tougher and it saved me a great deal of time. I went with a darker wrinkle finish, dare I say boring, to hide the blems, but I am pleased. 

Today I got them placed and pop riveted the handles back on the drawers. The interior drawer dimensions are 25” X 25”.! Tomorrow I begin loading them. Here are the before, during and after photos.


----------



## extropic

@Gaffer

Nice job on the cabinets.

The only time you'll wonder if you did the right thing is if you ever have to move them. LOL

Did you have the channels (in the cabinets) for the drawers powder coated also?


----------



## ChazzC

extropic said:


> @Gaffer
> 
> Nice job on the cabinets.
> 
> The only time you'll wonder if you did the right thing is if you ever have to move them. LOL
> 
> Did you have the channels (in the cabinets) for the drawers powder coated also?


Agree – end product looks great. I wouldn't have the patience (or skill) to do even the detailed prep work.


----------



## Gaffer

extropic said:


> @Gaffer
> 
> Nice job on the cabinets.
> 
> The only time you'll wonder if you did the right thing is if you ever have to move them. LOL
> 
> Did you have the channels (in the cabinets) for the drawers powder coated also?


I wasn’t going paint the interior’s because they weren’t in terrible shape, and you can’t see them after the drawers are installed. The powder coater was to mask them off. Without consulting me, he decided to coat the insides. I was horrified when I saw them thinking there would be insufficient clearances for the carriers and locking mechanisms - not to mention potential paint flakes becoming an issue after use. Only one drawer carrier had interference but it was easy to fix. The locking mechanisms - not so much. They bind, and the way the cabinets are assembled, inaccessible. I spent a few hours trying to free them up but I couldn’t get them to operate smoothly enough for the keys to actuate them. That was disappointing since I had already made new keys, but they are for my home and I wasn’t going to lock them. I did want them functional. The channels and locking mechanisms were bare steel from the factory.


----------



## GoceKU

With the octavia outside to dry in the sun the 206 come in for a check up. It got a new set of spark plugs and upon checking the front brakes i found this. Somehow my brother managed to wear out a set of brake pads in less than 10k. I did have a new set of pads on a shelf so i quickly resurfaced the discs on my lathe and changed the pads, got that car back in service quickly.


----------



## FOMOGO

Sounds like your brother would be a natural for the job of torture tester, for a factory auto maker. Mike


----------



## great white

GoceKU said:


> With the octavia outside to dry in the sun the 206 come in for a check up. It got a new set of spark plugs and upon checking the front brakes i found this. Somehow my brother managed to wear out a set of brake pads in less than 10k. I did have a new set of pads on a shelf so i quickly resurfaced the discs on my lathe and changed the pads, got that car back in service quickly.
> View attachment 423675
> View attachment 423676


10k for a set of pads?

Either he autocrosses it regularly or I’d guess someone who drives it likes to ride the brake pedal.

Even a cheap set of pads should last longer than 10K.

Is it mountainous where its driven? Coukd be riding brakes on the downhill a lot which would also account for high wear…


----------



## WobblyHand

great white said:


> 10k for a set of pads?
> 
> Either he autocrosses it regularly or I’d guess someone who drives it likes to ride the brake pedal.
> 
> Even a cheap set of pads should last longer than 10K.
> 
> Is it mountainous where its driven? Coukd be riding brakes on the downhill a lot which would also account for high wear…


Replacing brake pads and resurfacing rotors is better than doing clutch jobs, however.  

That's pretty fast burn rate for brake pads.  Must be an on/off driver, on the gas, on the brakes.


----------



## great white

Well, the wife’s mini cooper finally got to the point where the valve seals are bypassing enough oil that I need to address it. So that will be the winter job (we don’t drive it in winter) along with putting in a new timing chain set (one of many weak points for the Peugot N12 engine).

Problem is, the space the mini will be going for winter is right where I have my FJ1200 torn down to the frame. So, it needs to go back together to move out of the way.

I’ve been procrastinating on painting the frame, so I degreased and pressure washed it today:




some rust spots and worn away paint here and there needs to be addressed and then it will get a fresh coat. I’ll let that harden up a week or so and then I’ll start putting it back together.

Engine and frame will get a repaint, body work will have to wait for next year as the mini is going to occupy all the time and space this winter.

It’s too bad the mini didn’t hold out another year because this also means the work I was planning on the mustang this winter will also have to wait…


----------



## great white

WobblyHand said:


> Replacing brake pads and resurfacing rotors is better than doing clutch jobs, however.
> 
> That's pretty fast burn rate for brake pads.  Must be an on/off driver, on the gas, on the brakes.


Meh, they’re about the same for me, work wise. Little more work to pull a transmission, but not overly onerous.

I can see where it might seem like more work for someone who hasn’t done a lot of them though. Say “brake job” and most people think “routine”. Say clutch and people think “remove transmission” and they get all jittery because they see it as a major component when it’s just another replaceable part.

Probably more and more shying away from working on clutches because more and more a “pure” stick car is becoming a rarity…at least in NA…


----------



## GoceKU

great white said:


> 10k for a set of pads?
> 
> Either he autocrosses it regularly or I’d guess someone who drives it likes to ride the brake pedal.
> 
> Even a cheap set of pads should last longer than 10K.
> 
> Is it mountainous where its driven? Coukd be riding brakes on the downhill a lot which would also account for high wear…


Less than 10K kilometers. Yas my country is very mountains, and my brother drives all the cars like they are rentals he is ether on the throttle or on the brakes. He surely got his money worth out of those brake pads they all wore less than 1 mm one was on steel.


----------



## WobblyHand

great white said:


> Meh, they’re about the same for me, work wise. Little more work to pull a transmission, but not overly onerous.
> 
> I can see where it might seem like more work for someone who hasn’t done a lot of them though. Say “brake job” and most people think “routine”. Say clutch and people think “remove transmission” and they get all jittery because they see it as a major component when it’s just another replaceable part.
> 
> Probably more and more shying away from working on clutches because more and more a “pure” stick car is becoming a rarity…at least in NA…


I don't have a lift, so it's a pain in the neck for me.  Brake jobs are less work for me.  That being said, I have a stalled project, with an engine and tranny in the garage, so what do I know.


----------



## great white

WobblyHand said:


> I don't have a lift, so it's a pain in the neck for me.  Brake jobs are less work for me.  That being said, I have a stalled project, with an engine and tranny in the garage, so what do I know.


No lift here either. Still not a lot of trouble. Car up on stands, drop transmission with floor jack, out it goes. Just reverse to install. The rest is just good ol nuts and bolts work.

Although, the older I get the less enthusiastic I am about it…


----------



## GoceKU

great white said:


> Well, the wife’s mini cooper finally got to the point where the valve seals are bypassing enough oil that I need to address it. So that will be the winter job (we don’t drive it in winter) along with putting in a new timing chain set (weak point for the Peugot N12 engine).


Buy a new crankshaft bolt and torque it to specs, those engines don't have a key in the crank. Last one i've had to rebuild was a real pain, the chain tensioner are so flimsy i'm surprised they even last 100k. Try to find a new or very low mileage engine just to change it. Those engines are just a bad design in my opinion.


----------



## GoceKU

great white said:


> Meh, they’re about the same for me, work wise. Little more work to pull a transmission, but not overly onerous.
> 
> I can see where it might seem like more work for someone who hasn’t done a lot of them though. Say “brake job” and most people think “routine”. Say clutch and people think “remove transmission” and they get all jittery because they see it as a major component when it’s just another replaceable part.
> 
> Probably more and more shying away from working on clutches because more and more a “pure” stick car is becoming a rarity…at least in NA…


Clutches are much more work especially on Front wheel drive also the parts are much more expensive.


----------



## great white

GoceKU said:


> Buy a new crankshaft bolt and torque it to specs, those engines don't have a key in the crank. Last one i've had to rebuild was a real pain, the chain tensioner are so flimsy i'm surprised they even last 100k. Try to find a new or very low mileage engine just to change it. Those engines are just a bad design in my opinion.


Comes with the kit:





__





						Loading…
					





					www.ecstuning.com
				




Used engine is not really an option around here. Mini coopers are not that common and a Peugot? Good luck even finding one let alone parts for one.

yeah, I’m not overly impressed with the engineering in the n12, but it does make the car fairly peppy. Just seems overall kind of fragile.

German engineered car, french engine and assembled by the brits. What could possibly go wrong with that?

Only way it could be more confused is if you threw some Italian engineering in there!

lol!


----------



## great white

GoceKU said:


> Clutches are much more work especially on Front wheel drive also the parts are much more expensive.
> View attachment 423706


Nah, front drives don’t bother me either. In sone ways, I find them easier than rwd’s as a lot of the work can be done from the top instead of on your back. Pop the shafts, control cables, any cooler lines and then its just nuts and bolts. Easy peasy.

I also find fwd less expensive to do than rwd’s. But I’m in NA, not Macedonia so prices are definitely going to be different…


----------



## GoceKU

How many french, british and italian cars have you done clutch jobs? I'll rather do 2 Vw clutches than one on a peugeot or a renault.


----------



## great white

GoceKU said:


> How many french, british and italian cars have you done clutch jobs? I'll rather do 2 Vw clutches than one on a peugeot or a renault.


Used to work at a chrysler dealership that also sold Peugeot’s, Renaults and Jags (the old 6/12 carb jobbies). When one of those came through the door suddenly the shop got real quiet and real empty….

Jags were so bad they actually hired a guy out of the UK to work on them. I still remeber this gawd aweful thing they had on the wall that looked like two octopuses fighting to the death which he used to balance the carbs on a 12 cyl jag. Horrible thing to work on. Gawd help you if you actually had to work on the rear brakes…

In general, most NA shops don’t like working on European cars. Too many special tools needed, too many odd sized metric tools needed. Usually, there’s shops that specialize in European makes and as far as I was concerned they were welcome to them. Not that they’re bad cars, they’re not. They’re just uncommon enough to make it not worth your time if you aren’t already set up to work on them.

Volkswagens? Hate ‘em. At least working on them. Had one foreman try to force me to work on a rabbit once after a convo in the break room that I’ll never work on one for pay. I quit, walked across the street to a competitor shop and was working on cars that very afternoon…after I rolled my box across the street that is…


----------



## GoceKU

Newer they are worse they are to work on. All the brittle plastics need to be replaced every time you touch them, and all the specialist tools needed cost a fortune.


----------



## davek181

I own a shop that specializes in VW/Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Japanese and korean cars.  We recently lost the main Euro tech to a motorcycle accident so I am rethinking the mix.  I am pretty sure we are going to chase away the Sprinter vans and motorhomes now, blaming shop space for the reason.  I am not sure we have ever made any money in the end on Land Rover due to the difficulty of repair and parts and the customers who don't believe it should cost so much in the first place, so they may go too.

Major German brands have taken component protection to new heights, or lows maybe.  Protected parts are some of the obvious like ignition switches, ECUs, Transmission controllers etc.  But now things like climate control switches, headlight assemblies, stereos/entertainment units, and so on.  We have the Factory BMW/Mini interface, and can still do them.  I am now signing up with VW/Audi to get their factory hookup too, but I think I am going to tell Mercedes people to hit the dealer.  I was told by a very good and experienced mercedes specialist that he will not even try to replace a headlight in any car 2016 on.  He sends them to the dealer and they don't even know what to do.  He says they usually have the car 2 weeks or more before getting it straightened out with the factory help.

It is really getting rough and expensive to work on the newer cars, and finding someone that can or will is getting real hard too.


----------



## great white

davek181 said:


> I own a shop that specializes in VW/Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Japanese and korean cars.  We recently lost the main Euro tech to a motorcycle accident so I am rethinking the mix.  I am pretty sure we are going to chase away the Sprinter vans and motorhomes now, blaming shop space for the reason.  I am not sure we have ever made any money in the end on Land Rover due to the difficulty of repair and parts and the customers who don't believe it should cost so much in the first place, so they may go too.
> 
> Major German brands have taken component protection to new heights, or lows maybe.  Protected parts are some of the obvious like ignition switches, ECUs, Transmission controllers etc.  But now things like climate control switches, headlight assemblies, stereos/entertainment units, and so on.  We have the Factory BMW/Mini interface, and can still do them.  I am now signing up with VW/Audi to get their factory hookup too, but I think I am going to tell Mercedes people to hit the dealer.  I was told by a very good and experienced mercedes specialist that he will not even try to replace a headlight in any car 2016 on.  He sends them to the dealer and they don't even know what to do.  He says they usually have the car 2 weeks or more before getting it straightened out with the factory help.
> 
> It is really getting rough and expensive to work on the newer cars, and finding someone that can or will is getting real hard too.


A lot of NA cars are going that way too. Its not as bad as the European cars, but its getting there.

For example, it was a couple G to get the vcmII and software to work on my 2016 F-150. Until very recently, very few “non ford”  software packages could even do things like run a calibration on the lane keeping camera in the mirror.
I spent the money because I plan this to be my last vehicle (price of fuel might derail that plan) and I like to work on my own vehicles.

my truck is a lariat 502a package and so far I’ve added lane keeping, parallel park (kinda useless in real life but I added it becuase I could), hill decent, adaptive cruise, etc.


----------



## Tim9

davek181 said:


> I own a shop that specializes in VW/Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Japanese and korean cars.  We recently lost the main Euro tech to a motorcycle accident so I am rethinking the mix.  I am pretty sure we are going to chase away the Sprinter vans and motorhomes now, blaming shop space for the reason.  I am not sure we have ever made any money in the end on Land Rover due to the difficulty of repair and parts and the customers who don't believe it should cost so much in the first place, so they may go too.
> 
> Major German brands have taken component protection to new heights, or lows maybe.  Protected parts are some of the obvious like ignition switches, ECUs, Transmission controllers etc.  But now things like climate control switches, headlight assemblies, stereos/entertainment units, and so on.  We have the Factory BMW/Mini interface, and can still do them.  I am now signing up with VW/Audi to get their factory hookup too, but I think I am going to tell Mercedes people to hit the dealer.  I was told by a very good and experienced mercedes specialist that he will not even try to replace a headlight in any car 2016 on.  He sends them to the dealer and they don't even know what to do.  He says they usually have the car 2 weeks or more before getting it straightened out with the factory help.
> 
> It is really getting rough and expensive to work on the newer cars, and finding someone that can or will is getting real hard too.


I once did a extended warranty inspection on a late model Audi . It  had a headlamp warning light on. I swear I could not see why the dash said it had a headlamp failure. Anyway, I think I read it had to do with some minute circuit failure detected in diodes or resistors. I forget.
  But, on the phone with the adjuster....I find out that the repair costs for the headlamp is like 4000.00

WTH....Four Thousand dollars for a headlamp. That's insanity.


----------



## great white

Tim9 said:


> I once did a extended warranty inspection on a late model Audi . It  had a headlamp warning light on. I swear I could not see why the dash said it had a headlamp failure. Anyway, I think I read it had to do with some minute circuit failure detected in diodes or resistors. I forget.
> But, on the phone with the adjuster....I find out that the repair costs for the headlamp is like 4000.00
> 
> WTH....Four Thousand dollars for a headlamp. That's insanity.


Totally believable. Tail light for my 2016 F150 is nearly a grand (blind spot sensors and such).

Its getting so a minor fender bender these days could result in a complete write off…


----------



## savarin

I have found the solution


----------



## rpker

I should start taking pictures and video of what I’m doing, it would be way easier when I have questions.

I stripped down the tail stock of my SB heavy 10 today.  I found a couple of concerning things and a couple things that make me think I have no idea what I’m doing. First for concerning was a significant amount of rust between the tail stock and base as well as some globs of what I believe is/was paint between the scrapped surfaces  of the tail stock and base.  I scrubbed with kerosene carefully scrapped off the paint globs but that leaves me with the question of vertical alignment when I get this thing back to running. Any advice there?

the other thing is parts, I know I need new felts for the base to ways junction.  Is there a common source to get those?

I believe there is suppose to be a felt disc and possibly a rubber washer on the tail stock lead-screw, but neither were there when I disassembled it (though there could have been the remnants of the rubber washer behind the lead screw acme threads, I small wedge stuff shattered off that junction when I touched it.  is there anyone that can verify that bit of information.


----------



## dkemppai

Tim9 said:


> WTH....Four Thousand dollars for a headlamp. That's insanity.


Yep, I hear stories like that all the time. Buddy has owned a body shop for a few decades. 


---------Warning - Rant Mode Enabled!-----------------
I Just bought a 2022 F-150, Basic work truck. Regular old light bulbs. It was part of why I ordered it that way. 

But the damn thing has all that lane assist change features too. Going down the road one day, watching a driver make a turn in front of me, took my foot off the gas to coast up to him (Plenty of time, do that move a few times a day in the same spot!) . Suddenly, the truck starts beeping, and throwing red lights all over the dash. I look down AT the RED FLASHING DASH, to see a warning about someone stopping in front of me! WTF! It made me take my eyes off the road, to tell me there was something on the road in front of me! Stupid F**king lawmakers! 

When I back it up and crack the door to look at something on the ground, it warns me the transmission isn't in park. Then it shifts to park automatically! The shift lever just starts moving through the settings to park! Of course, unless you're paying attention, when you hit the gas it just revs!  I'm just cracking the F**king door to look behind me. This is a F**king WORK TRUCK. 

It also throws a hissy fit if I leave it in park and running (OMG exiting a running vehicle!). Usually when I get out to hook a trailer, or grab something quick. 

And the electronic dash is irritating. I usually run it in 'grandpa mode' (Eco Mode for Fuel Economy). Of course, instead of just leaving it there the next time you start it, it throws up a message on the dash asking if I want to return to eco mode. Before I can hit yes, it throws a different message up. Then after that message it waits a second and goes back to the first message. It's like a game of whack-a-mole. Only then can you finally tell the f**king thing, I really did leave it in ECO Mode, and do really want it in ECO Mode!  

And it's got auto Hi/Low beams. Great, until it thinks every f**king mailbox it sees is a car. Everyone around here puts reflectors on the mailboxes to keep the plow drivers from blowing them into the bush. The stupid auto Hi/Low beam garbage can't figure that out. 

I'm really starting to hate this truck. It's like driving with my wife. It questions every single decision I make, and does the exact opposite of what I want it to do!  3K miles on it, and it's done nothing but **** me off.  Of course, the ONLY, and I mean ONLY saving grace is I was able to order with the "Start/Stop Delete", because of the chip shortage.  In the winter, when it's cold I want it to stay running when I'm stuck in line or at a stop sign. (I hear stories of guys with batteries dying all the time because of the start/stop stress...) 

---------Notice - Rant Mode Disabled!-----------------

POTD. Pull and repair the will pump. That little sucker is 200 feet down. Because the standing water level is 125 feet when you lift it there's no buoyancy to help hold the pipe full of water. And like an idiot, I up sized the pipe to reduce frictional losses pumping the water, so it's extra heavy. Of course we had to have snow followed by full on rain for this project! lol. 

After that, I did manage to mount the Z axis DRO scale on the old sheldon and square it to the bed. Had to surface grind a few spacers to get everything flat to the bed, etc.  Also, checked the tailstock alignment. It's within a few tenths. Good enough for me!


----------



## dkemppai

rpker said:


> I scrubbed with kerosene carefully scrapped off the paint globs but that leaves me with the question of vertical alignment when I get this thing back to running. Any advice there?


Shim as necessary.
https://www.mcmaster.com/shim-stock/
Check it for height against the spindle with a dial indicator swept around a dead center or similar in the tailstock. If the bed is worn, you may be chasing your tail some tho.



rpker said:


> the other thing is parts, I know I need new felts for the base to ways junction.  Is there a common source to get those?


I also need to replace/redo the felt and felt mounts on my ways. The last time I bought felt, was from McMaster Carr. (To replace a dust seal on a grinding spindle). It came in a square foot chunk, and I just cut what I needed.
https://www.mcmaster.com/felt/


----------



## great white

dkemppai said:


> Yep, I hear stories like that all the time. Buddy has owned a body shop for a few decades.
> 
> 
> ---------Warning - Rant Mode Enabled!-----------------
> I Just bought a 2022 F-150, Basic work truck. Regular old light bulbs. It was part of why I ordered it that way.
> 
> But the damn thing has all that lane assist change features too. Going down the road one day, watching a driver make a turn in front of me, took my foot off the gas to coast up to him (Plenty of time, do that move a few times a day in the same spot!) . Suddenly, the truck starts beeping, and throwing red lights all over the dash. I look down AT the RED FLASHING DASH, to see a warning about someone stopping in front of me! WTF! It made me take my eyes off the road, to tell me there was something on the road in front of me! Stupid F**king lawmakers!
> 
> When I back it up and crack the door to look at something on the ground, it warns me the transmission isn't in park. Then it shifts to park automatically! The shift lever just starts moving through the settings to park! Of course, unless you're paying attention, when you hit the gas it just revs!  I'm just cracking the F**king door to look behind me. This is a F**king WORK TRUCK.
> 
> It also throws a hissy fit if I leave it in park and running (OMG exiting a running vehicle!). Usually when I get out to hook a trailer, or grab something quick.
> 
> And the electronic dash is irritating. I usually run it in 'grandpa mode' (Eco Mode for Fuel Economy). Of course, instead of just leaving it there the next time you start it, it throws up a message on the dash asking if I want to return to eco mode. Before I can hit yes, it throws a different message up. Then after that message it waits a second and goes back to the first message. It's like a game of whack-a-mole. Only then can you finally tell the f**king thing, I really did leave it in ECO Mode, and do really want it in ECO Mode!
> 
> And it's got auto Hi/Low beams. Great, until it thinks every f**king mailbox it sees is a car. Everyone around here puts reflectors on the mailboxes to keep the plow drivers from blowing them into the bush. The stupid auto Hi/Low beam garbage can't figure that out.
> 
> I'm really starting to hate this truck. It's like driving with my wife. It questions every single decision I make, and does the exact opposite of what I want it to do!  3K miles on it, and it's done nothing but **** me off.  Of course, the ONLY, and I mean ONLY saving grace is I was able to order with the "Start/Stop Delete", because of the chip shortage.  In the winter, when it's cold I want it to stay running when I'm stuck in line or at a stop sign. (I hear stories of guys with batteries dying all the time because of the start/stop stress...)
> 
> ---------Notice - Rant Mode Disabled!-----------------
> 
> POTD. Pull and repair the will pump. That little sucker is 200 feet down. Because the standing water level is 125 feet when you lift it there's no buoyancy to help hold the pipe full of water. And like an idiot, I up sized the pipe to reduce frictional losses pumping the water, so it's extra heavy. Of course we had to have snow followed by full on rain for this project! lol.
> 
> After that, I did manage to mount the Z axis DRO scale on the old sheldon and square it to the bed. Had to surface grind a few spacers to get everything flat to the bed, etc.  Also, checked the tailstock alignment. It's within a few tenths. Good enough for me!


You can turn auto lights and collision alerts off in the menus. At least you can in my 2016.

most of the rest you’re stuck with. Every car with a transmitter key these days will throw a dash message if you take the key out of the car (ie: in your pocket) While its running. The intent is so you don’t drive away without the key (leave it somewhere, falls out of your pocket, etc) and get stuck at your destination without a way to restart the car.

The eco mode ask is also normal. Most are set to revert to a default mode when you turn the car off. Mine is the same with tow/haul and sport modes. Turn the truck off and it reverts to “normal”.

The revert to park when opening the door must be new. Mine will toss warnings and chimes if I open the door with it running, but it won’t shift to park.

I actually went into the asbuilt files in the truck and enabled “police mode”. Lets me leave the trick running and walk away, but the truck locks itself in park and won’t let anyone shift it to drive away (ie:steal it).

Perhaps find someone who “tunes” these trucks local to you and see if they can turn some flags in the asbuilt off for you so you don’t get the things that are irritating you going off. I’d give it a go if you were local to me, so theres guys out there that do it. Perhaps even approach the dealer about changing some of the irritating things for you since its still new. They probably won’t touch anything safety system wise, but may be able to change/turn off some things for you.


----------



## ChazzC

As part of the purchase deal when I bought my 2016 Chevy Equinox 6 years ago was that they install fog lights (they make driving in the rain at night much easier - you can actually see the lane markers). The service manager said they couldn’t get the kit, so I bought one online from a distributor and they arranged for the install (dude needed to come to central PA from Delaware). Last step was updating the computer to let it know there were fog lights: the new switch on the replacement turn signal stalk sends a signal to the computer which closes a relay.

It was a lot easier on my 1996 Blazer: ran wires and plugged in a relay, job done.


----------



## FOMOGO

I have zero desire to own anything newer than our 05 Explorer. Most of my other vehicles are 60's, and early 70's. Mike


----------



## davek181

The newer VW/Audi, Mercedes, BMW, etc have a battery charging and monitoring system that works pretty well.  If you have a problem and the battery gets too low, it will start trimming off the non essential consumers to save energy and keep you going.  It starts with the sound system and trims away till there is just the engine and wipers and signals left.   They often will tell you if your battery is getting weak and needs replacement.

Pretty cool, huh?  Well kinda, there is also a charging program it runs to follow the battery from new to death and alters the alternator output to match battery condition.  That also works pretty good, except when you put in a new battery and have to tell the vehicle with a scan tool that you replaced it so it can reset it's mode.  If you don't reset it the alternator will overcharge the new battery and cook it dry.  The alternator can overheat and die too in some cases.  The only batteries it will accept fully are factory batteries and usually you only have a part number list in the choices.  

BMW will let you state amp hour rate and battery type, std or gell, but the reports I have heard from people that do a lot of these say that they might not be happy with anything other than a factory battery.  Factory batteries are not overly expensive and are very good batteries and don't leak acid like conventional cheap tire store acid bombs, but they are not readily available easily when you need one bad.

Oh yeah, if you put a new alternator in you may have to tell the car or you can have battery cooking and alternator failure.


----------



## great white

davek181 said:


> The newer VW/Audi, Mercedes, BMW, etc have a battery charging and monitoring system that works pretty well.  If you have a problem and the battery gets too low, it will start trimming off the non essential consumers to save energy and keep you going.  It starts with the sound system and trims away till there is just the engine and wipers and signals left.   They often will tell you if your battery is getting weak and needs replacement.
> 
> Pretty cool, huh?  Well kinda, there is also a charging program it runs to follow the battery from new to death and alters the alternator output to match battery condition.  That also works pretty good, except when you put in a new battery and have to tell the vehicle with a scan tool that you replaced it so it can reset it's mode.  If you don't reset it the alternator will overcharge the new battery and cook it dry.  The alternator can overheat and die too in some cases.  The only batteries it will accept fully are factory batteries and usually you only have a part number list in the choices.
> 
> BMW will let you state amp hour rate and battery type, std or gell, but the reports I have heard from people that do a lot of these say that they might not be happy with anything other than a factory battery.  Factory batteries are not overly expensive and are very good batteries and don't leak acid like conventional cheap tire store acid bombs, but they are not readily available easily when you need one bad.
> 
> Oh yeah, if you put a new alternator in you may have to tell the car or you can have battery cooking and alternator failure.


Was worried the wife’s mini (ie: bmw) would have that battery monitor feature. I didn’t know to look for it when we bought it.

Even though I’ve got the software to reprogram them, I was super happy when I took the batt cover off and the monitor hardware is not on the batt cable. No need to worry about batt monitoring when the car doesn’t have that option….


----------



## davek181

Tim9 said:


> I once did a extended warranty inspection on a late model Audi . It  had a headlamp warning light on. I swear I could not see why the dash said it had a headlamp failure. Anyway, I think I read it had to do with some minute circuit failure detected in diodes or resistors. I forget.
> But, on the phone with the adjuster....I find out that the repair costs for the headlamp is like 4000.00
> 
> WTH....Four Thousand dollars for a headlamp. That's insanity.


 We have had a couple of those, what usually happens is the turn light motor fails and wont move anymore.  The motor is usually not replaceable by itself and it requires a whole headlight assembly which might be a "component protected" part that will not function till unlocked by factory software.  When told the owners usually say fine I can live without that feature, but we can not turn off the warning for them.


----------



## davek181

great white said:


> Was worried the wife’s mini (ie: bmw) would have that battery monitor feature. I didn’t know to look for it when we bought it.
> 
> Even though I’ve got the software to reprogram them, I was super happy when I took the batt cover off and the monitor hardware is not on the batt cable. No need to worry about batt monitoring when the car doesn’t have that option….


It might still have the charging program.  Which means you would have to register the battery on replacement.  I copied this from a Mini site online.  It is coming to them all eventually.

The following late-model vehicles require battery registration:
· 2002 and newer 7-Series E65/E66 chassis
· 2003 and newer 6-Series E54/E63 chassis
· 2004 and newer 5-Series E60/E61 chassis
· 2006 and newer 3-Series E90/E91/E92/E93 chassis
· 2005 and newer X5 E53 chassis with N62 engine
· 2007 and newer X5 E70 chassis
· 2008 and newer X6 E71 chassis
· 2007 and newer Mini Coopers (R56)


----------



## dkemppai

great white said:


> Every car with a transmitter key these days will throw a dash message if you take the key out of the car (ie: in your pocket) While its running. The intent is so you don’t drive away without the key (leave it somewhere, falls out of your pocket, etc) and get stuck at your destination without a way to restart the car.


So, this truck being a work truck still has 'standard' keys. (Standard in quotes, because it's the one with sharp poky edges that have cut my pants pocket!). I think the 'idiot proof' stuff is baked in by default now. It's easier to remove options for low end trucks than add them for high end ones, so the defaults are there.  

I'd still be driving my '08 (85K miles) if it didn't develop something in the cab that I was deathly allergic to. Long story there... 

With the Eco Mode/Normal mode on startup, it's not that it changes to default. It's that it gives a message asking if I want to return to eco mode, but hides the message before I can respond. Then asking again a little while later. The message center is just idiotic, before you answer one of many questions, it throws up others on top of it. That way you're not even sure what you're agreeing to! 




great white said:


> Perhaps find someone who “tunes” these trucks local to you and see if they can turn some flags in the asbuilt off for you so you don’t get the things that are irritating you going off. I’d give it a go if you were local to me, so theres guys out there that do it. Perhaps even approach the dealer about changing some of the irritating things for you since its still new. They probably won’t touch anything safety system wise, but may be able to change/turn off some things for you.


We're in a small town with no local tuners, but I can check around. Thanks for the tip!
Hesitant to make too many changes, as it's still so new, tho...


----------



## great white

davek181 said:


> It might still have the charging program.  Which means you would have to register the battery on replacement.  I copied this from a Mini site online.  It is coming to them all eventually.
> 
> The following late-model vehicles require battery registration:
> · 2002 and newer 7-Series E65/E66 chassis
> · 2003 and newer 6-Series E54/E63 chassis
> · 2004 and newer 5-Series E60/E61 chassis
> · 2006 and newer 3-Series E90/E91/E92/E93 chassis
> · 2005 and newer X5 E53 chassis with N62 engine
> · 2007 and newer X5 E70 chassis
> · 2008 and newer X6 E71 chassis
> · 2007 and newer Mini Coopers (R56)


Nope, it's not a feature on our Mini. Confirmed it in the car's configuration files, even though it's a 2009. That doesn't mean its not following a charging "map", just it has no way of knowing if the battery has been replaced or not, nor is there anywhere in the program to tell it the batt has been replaced.


----------



## davek181

The way I read it only the R56 models so far are the ones with battery registry.  That is another source of confusion in the bay, does it or doesn't it?  Some cars it takes almost as long as the actual oil change to reset the maintenance reminder and check oil level.  Just another example of difficulty built in for servicing.


----------



## great white

davek181 said:


> The way I read it only the R56 models so far are the ones with battery registry.  That is another source of confusion in the bay, does it or doesn't it?  Some cars it takes almost as long as the actual oil change to reset the maintenance reminder and check oil level.  Just another example of difficulty built in for servicing.


Oura is an R55 (clubman), which is an R56 (hatchback) With a body stretch.

From what I can gather, R56 generation may or may not have the battery monitor.

Easiest way to tell is the sensor built into the pos batt cable (Which ours does not have).


----------



## great white

Laid a coat of “aluminum” paint on the FJ frame:




There it will sit for another 48-72 hours. Then on to the engine paint….


----------



## rpker

dkemppai said:


> Shim as necessary.
> https://www.mcmaster.com/shim-stock/
> Check it for height against the spindle with a dial indicator swept around a dead center or similar in the tailstock. If the bed is worn, you may be chasing your tail some tho.
> 
> 
> I also need to replace/redo the felt and felt mounts on my ways. The last time I bought felt, was from McMaster Carr. (To replace a dust seal on a grinding spindle). It came in a square foot chunk, and I just cut what I needed.
> https://www.mcmaster.com/felt/


Thank you sir!


----------



## mattthemuppet2

My project of the morning, digging a box cutter blade out of the inside of my bike tire and fitting a tire boot so I could get to work. That tire only had 3000 miles on it too


----------



## FOMOGO

Well that sucks. Mike


----------



## mattthemuppet2

yep, I was having a lovely ride up until that point! Still, at least it didn't damage the rim, I've had a deck screw go all the way through my tire and rim before. The amount of junk on the roads here in San Antonio is unreal and they never get cleaned. On the plus side, I do have a lifetimes supply of 10 and 12mm sockets


----------



## pontiac428

mattthemuppet2 said:


> yep, I was having a lovely ride up until that point! Still, at least it didn't damage the rim, I've had a deck screw go all the way through my tire and rim before. The amount of junk on the roads here in San Antonio is unreal and they never get cleaned. On the plus side, I do have a lifetimes supply of 10 and 12mm sockets


If you want clean roads, you have to tax people for it.  In Texas, they look to a higher power to clean the roads instead.  I hear you have to handle a rattlesnake in church to get that sort of attention, so next time you spot a cottonmouth along the road, you know what to do.  Carp, this post is gonna get reported.  Been nice knowing 'yall.


----------



## silverhawk

I've wanted to do some metric threading for my South Bend lathe (10L).  I'd even gone so far as to create a 127-hole dividing plate (I still have it).  But when an old Sheldon lathe metric conversion gear (127-tooth, 16DP) popped up on eBay, I went with it.  It was a compound that was attached to a hub, so I dismantled it in a way that I can always put it back together, and then made a 100-tooth gear and sleeve for the compound.




That let me cut a really ugly-looking thread (I didn't care about lead-in chamfers - according to BlondieHacks, I'm an animal).  I did goof in my math - but it was close enough on one end and left a gap on the other) after finding the double-tumbler gear chart was for a standard quick change gear box, not the wide range I have on my lathe.  Still, it did what I needed it to.












Now I need to find a proper thread pitch chart, or make one (might be an excuse to break out the vinyl cutter and etch one).


----------



## FOMOGO

Spent 3hrs on a tech line for my new laptop. After being passed on to one person after another four times , I finally gave up, had a cocktail or two, and indulged my juvenile self and put some stickers on the new work table drawers. Feel better already. Mike



Sorry, half to click and open on each one.


98% recycled materials.



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## great white

FOMOGO said:


> Spent 3hrs on a tech line for my new laptop. After being passed on to one person after another four times , I finally gave up, had a cocktail or two, and indulged my juvenile self and put some stickers on the new work table drawers. Feel better already. Mike
> 
> 
> 
> Sorry, half to click and open on each one.
> 
> 
> 98% recycled materials.
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_20221018_174257317_HDR.jpg
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_20221018_174313042_HDR.jpg
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_20221018_174333717_HDR.jpg
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_20221018_174344261_HDR.jpg
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_20221018_174400040_HDR.jpg


Google drive says “access denied”….


----------



## wachuko

FOMOGO said:


> Spent 3hrs on a tech line for my new laptop. After being passed on to one person after another four times , I finally gave up, had a cocktail or two, and indulged my juvenile self and put some stickers on the new work table drawers. Feel better already. Mike
> 
> 
> 
> Sorry, half to click and open on each one.
> 
> 
> 98% recycled materials.
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_20221018_174257317_HDR.jpg
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_20221018_174313042_HDR.jpg
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_20221018_174333717_HDR.jpg
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_20221018_174344261_HDR.jpg
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_20221018_174400040_HDR.jpg


Looks great!!!

Once I have my shop built I will get all my stickers from the bags and place them all over!!!!


----------



## snoopdog

Tapped some small parts


----------



## FOMOGO

Sorry, think I fixed it. I have developed a real dislike of all things Goggle. Mike



great white said:


> Google drive says “access denied”….


----------



## 7milesup

Finished my welding cart.  The frame of 80/20 material that I had laying around, and the aluminum "shelves" were free from work.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

not so sure about the last part, but I don't disagree about the first sentence.



pontiac428 said:


> If you want clean roads, you have to tax people for it.  In Texas, they look to a higher power to clean the roads instead.  I hear you have to handle a rattlesnake in church to get that sort of attention, so next time you spot a cottonmouth along the road, you know what to do.  Carp, this post is gonna get reported.  Been nice knowing 'yall.


----------



## dkemppai

mattthemuppet2 said:


> not so sure about the last part, but I don't disagree about the first sentence.


The river walk was pretty clean the last time I was down there. But that's probably a different beast. Gotta keep it pretty for all us 'rich tourists'! lol 

We were right in the area of Schilos's Cafe and the Hilton. Found a good breakfast there a few mornings, the Hilton was too expensive. I wouldn't have picked the Hilton, but the wife had a work conference there and sometimes I tag along for a vacation on those trips.


----------



## rabler

FOMOGO said:


> Spent 3hrs on a tech line for my new laptop. After being passed on to one person after another four times , I finally gave up, had a cocktail or two, and indulged my juvenile self and put some stickers on the new work table drawers. Feel better already. Mike


I'm not inclined to wait for frustration with tech support, my shop is badly in need of some personalization.  Still working on the organization, but that'll never be done.


----------



## devils4ever

Wanting to try cutting gears, I decided on making a bottle capper using a rack and pinion even though I mostly keg my homebrew.

So, here's the final result. I'm pleased on how it turned out. It's mostly aluminum with stainless steel hardware and a few pieces of mild steel.


----------



## great white

FOMOGO said:


> Sorry, think I fixed it. I have developed a real dislike of all things Goggle. Mike


No worries. Works now.


----------



## dkemppai

A little progress on the gantry crane. The plan was to use a couple of chain fall hand wheels to move the gantry and carriage with the chain fall around. As clocking of the gantry will be important (to keep it square), it will have a shaft spanning to the rails with sprockets that engage roller chain run the length of each rail. This way both ends are clocked to each other and it stays square. 

Found a couple of hand wheels that can be used to turn that clocking shaft. These are nice big wheels, over 12" in diameter and should make moving the gantry a breeze. 

However, over a week was spent trying to find chain for these NOS wheels. Nothing available locally, tractor supply, HF, or hardware stores had anything similar. Sizing the chain is pretty critical, and most chain sizes aren't close to what's needed for these old wheels. 




After finally measuring some of the dimensions from an air hardening clay cast, ropes, and comparing to some existing hand wheel chain, two suitable candidates were located on line. Both appear to work, although the larger of the two isn't exactly the right pitch (slightly long), it would work. Had to order samples to verify fit. 





I think the size 3/0 chain is actually the correct pitch. The 5/0 chain is very close, but slightly longer than needed. The nice thing about this chain is it's electroplated with zinc, so it will be a little cleaner to operate. Now to order the rest of the chain, and start prepping the the gantry build...

The joys of having 10 projects going at once!


----------



## Eyerelief

Spent Sunday in the shop watching football with the Labrador and making cartridge brass prep neck turners.  I decided that it would be fun to make instead of buy at $40 each and the manufacturer was nice enough to share thread dimensions with me to get me started.

I am heavily OCD in preparing cartridge brass. I am converting a small Grizzly lathe, G0745, into a brass prep station (more on that soon, almost done).  These are cutters that will turn in the 4 jaw chuck while the brass is held accurately (and I use that term loosely) in the tailstock.  I bought the first ones from KM (blue anodized in center).  Decided it was too much of a hassle to change pilots, adjust cutters every time I sit down.  Even if it wasn't a hassle I would be stuck with re setting the cutters each time, sacrificing brass to get to where I want to be.  I made 10 of them, 7 for cartridges I currently have, and 3 of them for players to be named later (if the wife will have it).

Here is the set (blue one in the center I bought):


Here is the details and one taken apart:




The pilot doubles as a drive for the cutter.  The back half goes into a collet I made for the 4 jaw chuck.  On the top is a SHCS that captivates the pilot.  Next to that is the threaded cutter that threads into the adjusting nut.  It is threaded 5-44.  The adjusting nut is drill rod threaded 1/4-40  on the OD and knurled, and 5-44 on the ID.  When assembled and installed, it affords a very fine adjustment, around .0002 DOC per 30 degrees of rotation.  I made my own pilots, also from drill rod, so that I do not have to resize the case as a secondary op.  The SHCS and washer lock the cutter down when The setting is to my liking.

And the trucks.  Paw-in-law passed away a couple years ago.  He was collecting these Danbury Mint vehicles, about 20 of them, complete with little paper titles.  I have been tasked with getting them in selling condition.


----------



## dkemppai

Eyerelief said:


> I am heavily OCD in preparing cartridge brass. I am converting a small Grizzly lathe, G0745, into a brass prep station (more on that soon, almost done).  These are cutters that will turn in the 4 jaw chuck while the brass is held accurately


These look great! Can you post some pictures of them in action? I'd really like to see the whole setup. 

BTW, you can never be too OCD with cartridge prep!


----------



## dkemppai

Little Tip.

 I somehow inherited a few very thick grade 8 washers, 1/2" ID. They're absolutely great for clamping vises and other hardware on a mill table. I was running low, and found some on McMaster that were very similar to the ones I had:
https://www.mcmaster.com/98025A133/

These are probably know to cause fear in the state of California.  

What's really nice is they are thick enough to spread the load, and it seems like the vise doesn't tend to slide around when snugging them up.


----------



## rwm

Climbing rope washer :


----------



## rwm

Resized again:



I am building another one. I can start a thread on details if there is interest. It is not very complex. Two sets of brushes and a fan shaped sprayer.
It was very useful after this:


----------



## Eyerelief

dkemppai said:


> These look great! Can you post some pictures of them in action? I'd really like to see the whole setup.
> 
> BTW, you can never be too OCD with cartridge prep!


I’ve seen more noses twisted and ears bitten off during conversations regarding neck turning than any other topic including those of church and state.
IF this works, here is a one minute one handed video of a cutter taking brass off of a worn out 300 win mag case. I wouldn’t normally take this much off in a pass but this way you can see the chips coming off. The pilot is charged with moly-d
I’ll start a different post on what is going on with the Grizzly later (putting lipstick on a pig as it were).


----------



## Gaffer

rwm said:


> Climbing rope washer :
> 
> View attachment 424094
> 
> 
> View attachment 424095


My kid would be quite interested in your design and build!


----------



## erikmannie

Upon returning back to the UPS center for my fourth 12-hour day in a row, our mechanic asked me a favor.

Mechanic: “Hey, my wire feed welder broke & we really need this part welded, can you do it for us?”

Me: “Sure, does Saturday afternoon work for you?”

Mechanic: “No, that’s the thing. We need it fixed now. Can you go home & knock it out?”

I had *no* energy left, but I went home, TIG welded it, machined down the high points (I could only be 1/8” max above the bushing), & brought it back. It took 90 minutes including my drive time. It was paid time; I made sure of that.

It was a socket weld for a cargo door handle on a huge truck, all greasy mild steel. The 5/16”-ish square shaft was welded into a 5/16”-ish wall round bushing. Most of the part was painted. I have never done such a rush job. I did snap some quick pictures, but there are no photos of the product after the mill work:








Too much undercut, I know! The mechanic was very happy, but I found the result to be something between humbling & humiliating.

By the time I got back home, my day was over 14 hours, & I will work 12 hours tomorrow.

On a related note, today I gave up my beautiful coast route & took an inside job (moving trucks around in the building & yard). The new job is just over 40 hours/week as opposed to the UPS route which was always pushing 60 hours/week.

I will use my newfound free time to machine & weld coupons. The new job is a swing shift so they will get a tired Erik everyday, as I can get in a good 3-4+ hours of shop time before the work shift.


----------



## rabler

Well, feeling my shop need to start acquiring some character/personalization, I got this mounted up on the divider wall.  I made a replacement bolt for the large gear, reamed the gear a bit larger.  Adjustable reamers are quite handy for this type of thing, reamed it to 1.007.  The original was roughly a 1.002 bore and a .993 bolt shaft due to years of wear.  I need to remake the shaft between the handle and flywheel too.  But at least it is a start on some shop character.



Here's what it looked like when I got it:


----------



## ChazzC

dkemppai said:


> Little Tip.
> 
> I somehow inherited a few very thick grade 8 washers, 1/2" ID. They're absolutely great for clamping vises and other hardware on a mill table. I was running low, and found some on McMaster that were very similar to the ones I had:
> https://www.mcmaster.com/98025A133/
> 
> These are probably know to cause fear in the state of California.
> 
> What's really nice is they are thick enough to spread the load, and it seems like the vise doesn't tend to slide around when snugging them up.
> 
> 
> View attachment 424091


Bolt Depot carries Grade 8 & 18-8 SS thick washers: Bolt Depot "US" Washers


----------



## GoceKU

Today i spent some time cleaning the big garage, some time ago i cut apart the car trailer that was stored there, in front of the big work table. I still need to make some more storage so i can clean off the tops of my work tables. This bay in my garage has been so dirty for years now that i've stopped using it. Moving the heavy table was easy because is on wheels with threaded feet.


----------



## twhite

Today I made a 1/2” boring bar for Triangular inserts. Need do a job next week with a 3” deep bore. My criterion boring bars are not quite long enough. These inserts were in the tool crib and no tooling to take them. So might as well make a bar. I did not have the correct screw. So I modified a 4-40 screw. Hope it works. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			










Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## mmcmdl

7milesup said:


> Finished my welding cart. The frame of 80/20 material that I had laying around, and the aluminum "shelves" were free from work.


That 80/20 makes some nice tables 

Off for 5 nights now . I have to pack and ship 3 things for our members and then hunt around for more things to go .


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was doing a little clean up on our solar array. The horizontal supports of 1/8” thick galvanized steel overhung the array by over 2 feet. Our installer was going to cut them back in June, but never finished the job. They cut off the lowest one, but left the other three long. The middle one was at about 5’ 8”, so at my 6’ it was SURE to be a “bonk-a-head” while weed-whacking around the panels. I used a Milwaukee M12 Hack-zall to do the cutting which worked great. The ends were covered with a protective edge wrap after cutting as there’s no way to get around a little overhang from the edge of the panels.


Our solar panel installers left the horizontal supports long on the LH side (little long on the RH side too, maybe a future POTD).  Ironically, they cut back the lowest one and had started on the second one up, but his sawzall battery died. . .


Heavy work was done by an M12 Hackzall


After trimming


And some edge protector




I also did a little OCD electrical work. When the installers cut back the heavy sheathing on the #6 cables, they cut it back a little further than I’d like. The back of the array has hardware cloth to keep critters out. They cut the sheathing back so the insulated wires were setting on the edge of the hardware cloth. My fear was with a little wind moving things around, the hot feed at ~400 VDC would wear through and short out the system. My belt and suspenders fix was to wrap the wires with PVC tape used to join drain tile sections together. Then cover all that up with some flex conduit.


The 22 panels are wired in two parallel strands of 11 panels each wired together in series.  The installers had cut back the sheathing on the output lines of #6 wire so the red/black wires were resting on the edge of the hardware cloth (there to keep critters out).  I initially did some rerouting to get them off the edge of the hardware cloth for a temporary fix.


After PVC taping


And after slipping on flex conduit




So, WHY WAS I CUTTING the horizontal supports that our installer was supposed to do in June and repeated missed service calls since? Our provider was Pink Energy. My last call with their service department was on September 15; a crew was scheduled to come out on Saturday, September 24 to wrap up the job. Well, September 24 came and went and no crew showed up. Subsequent emails were not returned. On a whim, I Google’d “Pink Energy bankrupt” which told me that they had filed! That’s why we weren’t getting any call backs!

Most of Pink Energy’s customers paid for their arrays on credit and are still making payments though they might have a non-working system with no service from Pink to get them up and running again. We could write a check for the install which got us a 10% discount. Bottom line for us was ~$66,000 (actually closer to $49K after the 26% federal tax credit) for a 22-panel system putting out up to ~8.4 kW with a Generac battery backup with 9 kW of reserve. We paid $21,600 up front with the balance due once the system was completed. I refused to pay the balance because the work wasn’t done. Their argument was “you’ve been making power since June 24, pay your bill!” My analogous reply was, “Suppose a tree fell on your house and knocked a hole in your roof. Do you pay the contractor fixing the hole after they throw a tarp over the roof and trust they’ll finish the work, or do you pay them AFTER the roof is completely repaired?” I’m a fan of the latter, finish the job, and we’ll happily pay the balance!

For now, we have a $66,000 solar array for just $21,600 (actually closer to $16K after we get our 26% federal tax credit for the money paid to date)! I don’t know how bankruptcy court works (Chapter 7 filing), but we do owe “someone” money. I would imagine at some point whoever is processing the bankruptcy will come to us for the balance, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed!

If you Google “Pink Energy”, you’ll see many links referring to their lawsuit filed against Generac for faulty “SnapRS” devices. If I understand it correctly, the SnapRS is essentially a fuse that goes between each of the panels. It’s for a rapid shutdown if there’s a problem with the array, and they aren’t self-resetting. Pink Energy alleges that Generac’s SnapRS’s failed at up to a 50% rate. Generac says that the problems were from Pink’s installers not properly following the installation instructions. We have the SnapRS 801’s that are supposed to be bad; no problems so far after 4 months (hard knock-on wood though they are warrantied by Generac for at least 10 years). And another knock-on wood; looks like our Pink installers did a good job though they did miss a number of details. If our system goes down, I’ll be calling Generac’s Customer Assistance line as at this point any issues are very likely not from improperly installed hardware (Pink responsibility), it’d be the hardware itself (Generac responsibility).  Regardless, Generac has been great to work with!  They'll be coming out shortly to do a "once-over" the system and replace our SnapRS 801's with the latest and greatest hardware.


The SnapRS is the device between the pigtails from adjacent solar panels.  Since the run is in series, if one of these fails it knocks out the power being supplied by any good panels upstream. 




And in case you were wondering, YES, other solar array providers use Generac equipment. Enlightened Power out of CA, Appalachian Renewable Power, Solar Industry out of CA, SolarFY out of CA, MI Solar Solutions of MI, CBS Solar of MI are a few who use Generac hardware. I contacted them all and they indicated that they were not seeing any increase in service calls (Pink Energy reported going from 800 calls a month to 30,000 calls because of Generac problems – it overwhelmed the company so they filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy).

So, where does the truth lie? It would seem to me that if Generac had bad SnapRS devices going into systems for about a year (according to Pink Energy), that some of the other solar companies using the same products would have had problems too. Google (because we can trust the internet. . .) shows no other solar companies suing Generac (though there are a number of Law firms investigating) for bad hardware.

I feel for the (former) Pink Energy working stiffs who were just doing their jobs as they were told and trained. Some Pink employees had their company gas cards turned off while on the road with no warning. I reached out to our sales gal (Tiffany) to see how she was doing. She landed another job shortly after being laid-off, but also found that Pink had turned off her medical insurance with no warning or notification 3 months earlier. If she’s correct, how does that speak to the integrity of the company’s leadership? On the plus side, I would imagine the CEO, who is worth 1 billion, came out okay, so at least one person wasn’t impacted too harshly.

Ranting on just a bit longer. Pink Energy had been sued by multiple customers and are/were under investigation by multiple state attorney generals for improper sales tactics (lying salespeople) and poor service.

Our math was an average electric bill of $175 a month. We were projected to drop to an average of $40/month or a savings of $1600 per year. I asked our sales gal how many years we could expect for the payback. She said people were having their systems pay off within 5-8 years. “I’m sorry Tiffany, but that just doesn’t add up to me. I’m paying $49,000 for a system that will save me $1600 a year? My math says that’s more like a 30-year payback assuming no interest earned on the $49K.” Her reply was that Pink Energy was projecting electrical rates to go up by 500+% within the next 5 years.

“Say what! Our power company charged $0.09/kWH when my wife and I were married 31 years ago, our current rate is $0.135/kWH. What horrific event are you forecasting that will cause our electric rates to go up by 5X over the next 5 years!” I told Tiffany, “We are not doing this to save money. If we were, the numbers don’t even come close to adding up. We are doing this for a bit of a generator and to get a little greener, plus, my wife wants to do it (biggest reason).” I also mentioned that they may want to reconsider their sales pitch cost forecasting as their numbers were just flat-out wrong. We knew the math going in, unfortunately for a lot of Pink Energy customers, they didn’t do the math.

So, would I do it again. We would, but not because we are expecting to save on our electric bill. We don’t have a bypass generator and did experience 4 days of “camping at home” around Christmas 2012. It would have been nice to have had (well) water and had the furnace run in December in Michigan! And yes, a propane Generac generator would run a lot less than $49,000! Or a gas generator though I’d hate to have to continually fill the tank if we were out for a few days. By the way, we are seeing a good reduction in our electric bills. Our September 2021 bill was $180, our September 2022 bill was $40.

Our Generac battery system holds up to 9 kW of power or a 15A 110V circuit at full capacity for a little over 5 hours. Our auto-transfer switch box keeps power to our well (1/2 HP pump at ~400 W), furnace (1/3 HP blower at ~250 W), our kitchen frig and a couple of plugs (frig says it draws up to 3.4A @ 110V or ~400 W), and our Wifi (negligible, need the Wifi for the inverter). If everything was running all of the time, we have about 8 hours of power. That won’t happen so we should make it through the night until next morning. On a cloudy day, we only make around 500 W/ hour which would take 18 hours to charge the battery if it was fully discharged. It’ll still be “camping at home” mode, but we’ll at least have heat in the house and can do the “if it’s brown, flush it down” with the toilets.

Okay, rant of sorts is over! Wish me luck that Pink Energy’s creditors don’t come knocking on our door so we end up with a $66K (as billed) system for $16,000!

As an aside, our Generac inverter has a number of modes for directing the array power, battery power and grid power. We leave it primarily in “Self Supply” mode which sends solar 1st to the house, 2nd to the battery if it isn’t fully charged, and 3rd back up the grid if we’re making more than we need. If the house needs more than the array is making, it pulls from the battery. If the battery gets to 20%, we start to draw from the grid.

Another mode is “Clean Backup”. In this one, solar is 1st sent to charge the battery. If the battery is charged or is getting charged at its max rate and we have extra solar, the solar is sent to the house. If the house needs more than the solar is providing, we draw from the grid. Again, if we’re making more solar than the battery and house need, we send it back up the grid. When the sun goes down and we’re not making solar, our house will draw from the grid and leave the battery charged.

The last mode I’ll probably use is called “Priority Backup” (there are a couple more modes). In this mode, solar and grid power are sent to the battery to get it charged. This is the mode I’d switch to if we knew a big storm was coming; make sure the battery gets charged in case we lose the grid. It’s pretty close to the “Clean Backup” mode except the battery will be charged by a combo of solar and the grid instead of just the solar charging the battery.

Thanks for staying awake if you got this far!

Bruce


We usually stay in Self Supply mode.  In this case, it was a pretty sunny day; the Generac invertor is saying we are making 6.66kW of solar (PV - photo voltaic).  The battery (lower left) is about 50% charged, and is getting 4.39kW from the solar.  The house (upper right) is drawing 1.63 kW which is being supplied by the solar.  The grid (lower right) is showing nothing, nothing going up the grid (because the battery was charging) and nothing coming from the grid (because the solar is keeping up with the battery charging and house draw).




In Clean Backup mode here.  We're making 6.67 kW of solar power with 4.86 kW of that going to the battery which is the battery's maximum charge rate (though I've seen it at 5 kW also).  In this mode, 100% of the solar (up to the battery's max input rate of ~5 kW) is sent to the battery.  If the battery charge rate is maxed, any additional solar is sent to the house.  In this case, the house is drawing 1.61 kW.  The solar is not quite able to keep up with the max battery charge rate and supply the house, so we're drawing 0.39 kW from the grid to supply the balance of the power to the house.




Priority Backup mode here.  Again, we're making 6.66 kW in solar and are sending 5.07 kW of that to the battery.  The house is drawing 1.60 kW, so again the make up for lack of solar to max charge the battery and supply the house is made up with 0.60 kW from the grid.  You'll notice the numbers here and with the Clean Backup above are pretty close.  The Clean Backup mode anticipates based on the time of day that it has "time" to get the battery charged before night, so it dialed the power sent to the battery from the max of 5.07 kW to 4.86 kW to minimize draw from the grid.


----------



## twhite

Cleaned up these 2 small surface gages last week. They were sitting in a box of ransoms. They were pretty rusty. One is a Starrett #56. The other is a Lufkin #521. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	





Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## rwm

twhite said:


> Cleaned up these 2 small surface gages last week. They were sitting in a box of ransoms. They were pretty rusty. One is a Starrett #56. The other is a Lufkin #521.
> 
> Cutting oil is my blood.


Those are nice but there is really something wrong with your surface plate


----------



## twhite

rwm said:


> Those are nice but there is really something wrong with your surface plate



Faux Granite. I got it at the .99 Store. Kind of regret that purchase 


Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## rwm

My surface plate is stucco.


----------



## extropic

@BGHansen 

I can't believe I read the whole thing!    

I wondered about the inverter mode choices. Do you switch from 'self supply' to a mode that keeps the battery at max during cold weather? As I understand it, using the 'Self Supply' mode could potentially leave you short of full battery backup if there was an unexpected grid failure (ie; traffic accident takes out a pole?), regardless of weather. I would want to be sure the heater and water were working when the sun isn't shining.


----------



## BGHansen

extropic said:


> I can't believe I read the whole thing!
> 
> I wondered about the inverter mode choices. Do you switch from 'self supply' to a mode that keeps the battery at max during cold weather? As I understand it, using the 'Self Supply' mode could potentially leave you short of full battery backup if there was an unexpected grid failure (ie; traffic accident takes out a pole?), regardless of weather. I would want to be sure the heater and water were working when the sun isn't shining.


We're on the same page and you are correct, "Self Supply" mode does not guarantee a charged battery.  In fact, it guarantees a drained battery by morning as it is supplying the house after the sun goes down.  We'll be switching between "Clean Backup" and "Self Supply" modes most likely in the winter.  As you noted, the Generac battery is essentially an insurance policy that we have power during inclement weather.  I consider grid power (when there's a lack of sun) paying the insurance premium to keep the battery charged.  If we have a forecast of heavy snows, ice storms, or heavy winds, I'll switch it to "Priority Backup" which will charge the battery in about 1 1/2 hours.  Then switch it back to "Clean Backup" mode which leaves the battery alone and supplies the house through the solar first, then grid if the solar isn't producing enough.

The system status is available through an app hosted by Generac.  It gives us the same status screen as the inverter plus some historic data.  The biggest inconvenience for us is the inverter is mounted at our pole barn 50 yards from the house.  The modes cannot (for the time being) be changed on-line by users, though we can call Generac and they can remotely switch modes.  I have to walk down to the barn to change modes.  Our system is a bit unique as our main panel is in the pole barn; a buried line supplies the house.  The inverter needs to be at the main panel for back-feeding the panel to supply the house and send power back up the grid.

Bruce


----------



## mmcmdl

Getting somewhat organized down the basement .


----------



## GoceKU

Today i did my first tire puncture repair. Some time back i bought a tire machine because of the raised prices from tire places. Today i used it to remove the tire and repair it. I used an air grinder with a ball end to sand the place smooth and apply glue and pache, rolled it in and seal it with more glue. I only took couple of pictures because i got glue on my hands. The repair is holding, a marked and put the tire in the same spot to be balanced.


----------



## Gaffer

mmcmdl said:


> Getting somewhat organized down the basement .


 we may have to do more business together.


----------



## mmcmdl

Gaffer said:


> we may have to do more business together.


The doors are open 24-7 !


----------



## WobblyHand

Found the top notch inserts yet?


----------



## wachuko

BGHansen said:


> We're on the same page and you are correct, "Self Supply" mode does not guarantee a charged battery.  In fact, it guarantees a drained battery by morning as it is supplying the house after the sun goes down.  We'll be switching between "Clean Backup" and "Self Supply" modes most likely in the winter.  As you noted, the Generac battery is essentially an insurance policy that we have power during inclement weather.  I consider grid power (when there's a lack of sun) paying the insurance premium to keep the battery charged.  If we have a forecast of heavy snows, ice storms, or heavy winds, I'll switch it to "Priority Backup" which will charge the battery in about 1 1/2 hours.  Then switch it back to "Clean Backup" mode which leaves the battery alone and supplies the house through the solar first, then grid if the solar isn't producing enough.
> 
> The system status is available through an app hosted by Generac.  It gives us the same status screen as the inverter plus some historic data.  The biggest inconvenience for us is the inverter is mounted at our pole barn 50 yards from the house.  The modes cannot (for the time being) be changed on-line by users, though we can call Generac and they can remotely switch modes.  I have to walk down to the barn to change modes.  Our system is a bit unique as our main panel is in the pole barn; a buried line supplies the house.  The inverter needs to be at the main panel for back-feeding the panel to supply the house and send power back up the grid.
> 
> Bruce


I do hope they forget about any follow up for the rest of the bill!! 

We are still not done… system is up and running but they need to do install of bars to protect batteries, final inspection, and swap the meter…. But it is all working…







I will need to decide if I just add more panels once the workshop is done…


----------



## BGHansen

wachuko said:


> I will need to decide if I just add more panels once the workshop is done…


NICE!  In Michigan we cannot be a "solar farm" and produce more than our historical bills over the last year.  It seems fair to me as we currently pay for maintenance on the power lines through our normal electric bill from the power company.  The less we use, the less we pay for the infrastructure maintenance.  If we didn't draw anything off the grid, we'd pay nothing, but we'd get "paid" for sending power back up their lines.  We should kick in something as we're using their lines.  Most power companies in our area support what's called "net metering" or sending it back up the grid for credit, not cash.  We earn $0.50 on the dollar for what we send which is credited to our bill.

Bruce


----------



## wachuko

BGHansen said:


> NICE!  In Michigan we cannot be a "solar farm" and produce more than our historical bills over the last year.  It seems fair to me as we currently pay for maintenance on the power lines through our normal electric bill from the power company.  The less we use, the less we pay for the infrastructure maintenance.  If we didn't draw anything off the grid, we'd pay nothing, but we'd get "paid" for sending power back up their lines.  We should kick in something as we're using their lines.  Most power companies in our area support what's called "net metering" or sending it back up the grid for credit, not cash.  We earn $0.50 on the dollar for what we send which is credited to our bill.
> 
> Bruce


We pay a minimum fee no matter what.  To support infrastructure.

And we also get a credit for what we send back.  I need to find out what that is.

Right now solar covers all load during the day and batteries during the night.  By 10:30 am the batteries are back to full charge.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i got the white elephant No:2 in the big garage. The carpet, seats have dried so i install the seat covers and continue assembly. The doors got double insulation and assembled and installed the door panels on all 4 doors. Then checked all the plastics for rattles fixed what i found and took it for a drive. With this its assembled minus the badges, i've order new they are month out. It took me almost a full day to fix all the small items, thankfully is done.


----------



## great white

BGHansen said:


> NICE!  In Michigan we cannot be a "solar farm" and produce more than our historical bills over the last year.  It seems fair to me as we currently pay for maintenance on the power lines through our normal electric bill from the power company.  The less we use, the less we pay for the infrastructure maintenance.  If we didn't draw anything off the grid, we'd pay nothing, but we'd get "paid" for sending power back up their lines.  We should kick in something as we're using their lines.  Most power companies in our area support what's called "net metering" or sending it back up the grid for credit, not cash.  We earn $0.50 on the dollar for what we send which is credited to our bill.
> 
> Bruce


Little bit different here (NS).

we have net metering and time of day shifting.

We generate power during the day and sell it to utility at the rate they would be charging us and then we draw from the grid overnight when the rates are lower for big power consumers like our floor heat and hot water.

We also have to pay a “base fee” for power service, which is whats supposed to pay for lines and upkeep.

Doesn’t stop them from trying to jack the rates crazy fast and screw everyone with and endless parade of fees and other charges.

Luckily, the province has a “utilities board” and when they want to add fees or jack rates they need board approval. Don’t make you case well enough, get denied your new “fees” and rates…


----------



## BGHansen

great white said:


> We also have to pay a “base fee” for power service, which is whats supposed to pay for lines and upkeep.
> 
> Doesn’t stop them from trying to jack the rates crazy fast and screw everyone with and endless parade of fees and other charges.


We have a base fee also, so I guess we are kicking in for maintenance regardless of what we generate.

Our power companies are privately run, but need to go through the government to change rates.  Our company (Tri-County Power of Portland, MI) is very reasonable, especially when compared to prices of other things.

Bruce


----------



## great white

BGHansen said:


> We have a base fee also, so I guess we are kicking in for maintenance regardless of what we generate.
> 
> Our power companies are privately run, but need to go through the government to change rates.  Our company (Tri-County Power of Portland, MI) is very reasonable, especially when compared to prices of other things.
> 
> Bruce


Same here, private company, gov't approval required. Probably has as much to do with the power company was a crown corporation and then the private company took over after the public paid for all the infrastructure......


----------



## Boswell

When we put in our system a few years ago, our local power company had a net metering system that tru'd up each month. Earlier this year they did away with the net metering system and now we pay one rate for what we take and get about half that for what we give.  The impact is that when we get much less value for over-producing during the day. Our electric bills went up 50% when they made the change. Very disappointing. When we evaluated the value of solar, I took into account that they would probably raise the rates but never expected them to do away with net metering entirely. We do not have any batteries which made economic sense with net metering in place, but now I am starting to think about installing a battery bank.


----------



## matthewsx

*Space


*
Got rid of the stock stand for my RF-31and put it up on a table that I already had with a couple of layers of subfloor material for reinforcement/height.





I've been meaning to do this for a while and I finally had time today. Next weekend, the lathe....

John


----------



## Janderso

Milling table side clamp. 5 degree bevel, A2 stock, hardened then finish ground.
This is the first time I used stainless steel foil wrap. Wow, what a difference. No carbon scale to deal with when out of the oven.

I was going to make two but the ER40 collett failed to hold my dovetail cutter. I had to scrap one of the parts. I learned to use a NT30 taper end mill holder. All went well after that.
(The stock went into my collection)


----------



## dkemppai

ChazzC said:


> Bolt Depot carries Grade 8 & 18-8 SS thick washers: Bolt Depot "US" Washers


18-8 is really soft compared to Grade 8.  I had wanted to get away from 'gummy' material of the lower grade washers.


----------



## matthewsx

matthewsx said:


> *Space
> 
> View attachment 424439
> *
> Got rid of the stock stand for my RF-31and put it up on a table that I already had with a couple of layers of subfloor material for reinforcement/height.
> 
> View attachment 424440
> 
> 
> 
> I've been meaning to do this for a while and I finally had time today. Next weekend, the lathe....
> 
> John


Looked at all the options and least money for best storage remains Harbor Freight. Got this Taiwan built top box for $220. 

Now I need to figure the best way to disable the drawer locks.


----------



## matthewsx

Locks disabled, now I need to start moving mill tooling into it....


----------



## erikmannie

I am doing a project for my brother which is 304 SS brackets for a fence. The material is .125” thick. A lot of holes to be drilled; I didn’t even finish.

I posted a picture of the drawing that he texted me.

You’re looking at the back side of the holes. They still need to be cleaned up, starting with the oily fragments of paper towel!







I am also posting pictures of his neighbor’s fence that he is (mostly) copying. My brother’s design is different in that all of the 1” X 6” slats are on the far side of the 4” X 4” posts, & he is using ipe (hardwood) posts. In other words, somebody looking from the street would pretty much only see the slats.


----------



## jwmelvin

I made some parts for a tortilla press I’m working on; eccentric adjustable hinge (purchased cam handle):


----------



## dkemppai

matthewsx said:


> Locks disabled, now I need to start moving mill tooling into it....


So having just 'disabled' locks on a couple of HF boxes. (Yeah, that really irritated me about the design!)  

What I found the best thing to do was to take a small sanding disk on a die grinder, and taper the front side of the plastic locks. Basically mimic the angle of the back side, or even slightly flatter. This way you can pull it open, push it closed, but the remaining spring tension on the latch acts like a detent. 

The safety issue with big boxes is of course if you move them around on casters, they could open up and the whole thing could tip over. I tried to get the boxes to open by moving them, but the detent was enough. For a fixed box under the bench, I'm sure you'd be fine. 

The masterforce boxes (that used to be the best deal going) have a detent mechanism, or lock that's released automatically. The whole front is the release (a much better deign).  Apparently the really good boxes only allow one drawer open at a time, but alas those are at least 6x out of my budget!


----------



## wachuko

Not a big project... we have been in Puerto Rico since last week and returning on Nov 2...  Last time we were here, we fixed the apartment.  So this time around there was not much really to do.  Taking advantage that we can work remotely and doing so from here to use the afternoons and weekends to visit family.

Being an apartment there is no space for any serious tools... task today was a security pin for the sliding door.  Had to cut it to size and use a file to round the end...






Now it works fine without the risk of hitting (and breaking) the glass on the other side...




Over the weekend also visited my biological father (long story, but now spending time with him whenever I am in the island) where they had some food for us... Rice with crab meat and crab meat stew (arroz con jueyes y salmorejo de jueyes. ), red beans with ham, malanga, and for desert some pumpkin flan... a feast!   But I digress...








Anyway...  reason for mentioning that is that we were having a few beers and needed a beer bottle opener... Papo pulls out one and mentions that he made it (he is a retired machinist) back when he was working,  this is probably more than 30 years ago...




So I look at him and tell him "challenge accepted!"  hahahahaha... so now, when I get back home, the next project is making an opener out of a piece of stainless steel...  I will need to buy some stock as I do not have any stainless steel for this...

This one is his...  trust me... it has seen lots and lots of use 









I have one that I bought several years ago... that is not the point... the point is, he made his, so now I need to make one as well, lol...


----------



## FOMOGO

We recently sold are home on Culebra. Glad to have one less house to keep up, but will miss friends, and the island in general. Will probably go back and rent or house sit in the future, but not this year. Looks like everyone was having a great time. Cheers, Mike


----------



## wachuko

FOMOGO said:


> We recently sold are home on Culebra. Glad to have one less house to keep up, but will miss friends, and the island in general. Will probably go back and rent or house sit in the future, but not this year. Looks like everyone was having a great time. Cheers, Mike


Sad to learn you sold the house in Culebra... such a beautiful place.  But I can understand the hurdle of maintaining another house.

We will sell the house in Orlando when we move to Ocala... and try to keep the apartment in PR.  My siblings (and wife's siblings) keep telling us to sell it as we spent most of the time with one of them... but it is nice, from time to time, to be just the two of us relaxing...   

But when it is time to let it go,  well... we will do the same as well...


----------



## GoceKU

Sometime i think there is no honest people anymore. Few weeks ago i order set of 4 continental ecocontact 6 tires for the 607. Its a big car and they are expensive but now at the end of the summer tire places give big discount because next year those tires will be with old DOT. Only 3 tires showed up, so i called the place and told them i'm not paying till i get a full set i've been burned before. Right then i know i was dealing with a bad company. They immediately try pay for the 3 when we deliver the 4 you'll pay for it. I stood my ground and finally they said pay for one tire and for the rest when we deliver. How much when i ask 80e, i know the price was more than 100e a piece so he was reading his cost. So i go 3 tires 245/45R18 for 80 $ and a month later more then 20 called they finally told me they can't deliver one more, and they don't want any more money but i had to go to there warehouse. I even made them to put it in writing, i don't want to get sued over couple of tires. Left my car in there parking lot went on foot two places down the street also a tire store ask there they don't have that tire but they had 2 tires in the same size at 60% discount 2020 Dot so i bought them now i have 5 summer tires for the price of 1,5 continental tires. So with two 28" tires in hands walk to my car all the staff of the bad place watching me, throw them in the trunk and drove off now that was a real karma moment for them. When i got back i was motivated so i did lots of tire organizing all the lada tires went on the green rack and all 16" tires went vertical up to the ceiling.


----------



## erikmannie

I mounted these CXA lathe tool holders that I bought on eBay. I also bought the “extrusion spacers” on eBay.

I used a boring head to counterbore the extruded aluminum so that the top of the bolts would be *uniformly* (!) just under flush with the surface of the aluminum.



















Ya gotta love drilling holes in your backsplash!


----------



## Janderso

It is painful but attaching racks to the back splash is pretty common and very handy.


----------



## twhite

I am making collet blocks for some 3C collets. I turned the blanks yesterday. Just finished the square block. I got it to less than .0003 concentric using just a mill and sand paper. Finished at .995 I was shooting for 1.000 square. That will work for me. Next up is the Hex. Not sure if I will start today or not. All depends on work load. I only can work on down time. 











Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## GoceKU

Today the 605 got new winter shoes. I mounted the 16" winter wheels on the 605, i want the tires to have time to seat on the rims and soften. I had to change the bolts, to taper bolts, peugeot used flat washer type on the aluminium wheels. The car is very dirty, but it has been raining for a week straight. I'm not sure about the look this car has never had steel wheels on it, i'm hoping when they get a bit dirty they don't stick out so much.


----------



## pontiac428

Who cares about looks, swapping to steel wheels from October to Easter is part of life in Europe.  It's how people in expensive cars know to give you space!


----------



## ChazzC

wachuko said:


> I have one that I bought several years ago... that is not the point... the point is, he made his, so now I need to make one as well, lol...
> 
> View attachment 424504


Your father's version looks better, and as you noted he made it and the gauntlet has been thrown.

Back in the '90's a processing equipment manufacturer I was buying a boatload of equipment from gave me a box of these that were molded out of FRP with a metal tab inserted to pry under the cap; they also had a slot on the "back" to help pry up tabs on cans (they were changing their logo and wanted to get rid of them): 




I was traveling a lot in those days, and passed them out to happy flight attendants (no more broken nails).


----------



## erikmannie

I am just getting started today, but I leveled these 2 CXA holders & put the most frequently used tools on them.




There are 2 things that I want to do to make this tool holder project better: shorten the bolts so that they’re flush with the nuts, & redo where that nut is on the inside. I am going to make aluminum spacers to match the other spacers.


----------



## twhite

Finished the Hex. Next is to drill and tap for locator pins. Then make a few nuts. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	





Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## WhyW8

Finally got around to building my first hammer - Used Delrin and Brass for the contact surfaces.  Was a fun little project, I'm still a beginner with machining.


----------



## MikeWi

@erikmannie Rivnuts would be ideal for this IMHO.


----------



## GoceKU

pontiac428 said:


> Who cares about looks, swapping to steel wheels from October to Easter is part of life in Europe. It's how people in expensive cars know to give you space!


In solty countries, where the roads are salted in winter that is truth only steel wheels can survive. Here we don't have that problem. On coming traffic already is scared of this car with its cracked bumper, broken and yellow lights, i don't need others to run away from it.


----------



## erikmannie

MikeWi said:


> @erikmannie Rivnuts would be ideal for this IMHO.



Thanks for reminding me about Rivnets. I had to Google it to refamiliarize myself with what they are. Rivnuts:




I made 4 spacers, but I had to go to work before I could fly cut the last few thou which will get the spacers to the exact right height.


----------



## twhite

All done on the 3C collet holders. Also a picture of the setup for the hex. 











Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## erikmannie

This morning I fly cut .0012” off of the tops & bottoms of the spacers. I also filed all the sharp corners with the smoothest file that I had. These are done!


----------



## wachuko

ChazzC said:


> Your father's version looks better, and as you noted he made it and the gauntlet has been thrown.
> 
> Back in the '90's a processing equipment manufacturer I was buying a boatload of equipment from gave me a box of these that were molded out of FRP with a metal tab inserted to pry under the cap; they also had a slot on the "back" to help pry up tabs on cans (they were changing their logo and wanted to get rid of them):
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I was traveling a lot in those days, and passed them out to happy flight attendants (no more broken nails).



So I have been giving this some thought... since I am making it out of stainless steel... I was concerned with the tab on top (for the can opener) to be a safety risk... 

Turns out, this design also works with cans...  here, take a look (and yes, I need some hand lotion for my dry hands , shut up! )..  




I should have enough material to try both... will try to make both designs and see if I can make the top one not be a risk for cutting myself with it...


----------



## erikmannie

Now I have completely finished this project. Today I installed the spacers, shortened the bolts by .330” using a 5C collet, & installed the racks level.


----------



## GeneT45

Made a batch of tapping 'knobs' after an idea I saw several places on YouTube for driving tiny taps.  (I have some 17-4 that needs #2-56 holes...).
Knob to drive the tap, depth stop, and a little adapter that fits snugly on the back so I can use a spring-loaded tap follower for alignment.  Sorry the pic isn't so good...


----------



## GoceKU

White elephant No:1 was in town so it stopped by to check it developed leaks. First was easy oil drain plug got a new copper washer. Second one was at the power steering line, that one got new washers and bolt. Last repair come as a surprise, sway bar link was missing its slave and bolt and i'm sure it was tight. I did changed the link and installed a new bolt tighten it. Few leaks and a sway bar link took me about 3 hours manly because i had to drain and refill the engine oil and power steering.


----------



## francist

Left work early today to come home and, errr, work on work things. Something’s not right there….
Anyway, quick job that got me back in the shop for a bit. These are magnet cups for holding rare earth magnets. In addition to multiplying the holding power considerably they also make a great way to attach a magnet without resorting to an adhesive. The only trouble is once you get the magnet popped in there it’s a devil to get out again, and the mounting screw is underneath said magnet! So first thing I do is cut two slots in the sides, not a critical width but just enough to get a small screwdriver in and prise out the magnet. Usually I use the Dremel with a cutoff disc but today I had 36 to do so elected to use the miller.




Like I said, nothing critical here in terms of tolerances so a piece of cherry  with some pilot holes was easily up for the job. I did four at a time with a 1/4” stagger tooth cutter so only nine changes to get the batch done. 




And we’re away. Back to work tomorrow and carry on with the project. Wait a minute, didn’t I just come from there…?




Thanks for looking.

-frank


----------



## ChazzC

wachuko said:


> So I have been giving this some thought... since I am making it out of stainless steel... I was concerned with the tab on top (for the can opener) to be a safety risk...
> 
> Turns out, this design also works with cans...  here, take a look (and yes, I need some hand lotion for my dry hands , shut up! )..
> 
> View attachment 424741
> 
> 
> I should have enough material to try both... will try to make both designs and see if I can make the top one not be a risk for cutting myself with it...


My plastic one is shaped slightly differently so can't get the bottle "lifter" under a tab (but if you flip it over you can make it work on a tab, just not as easy as the slot).

You should be able to break the leading edge of the slot enough so it won't get confiscated by TSA but still function. Although . . . I did have a finger nail clipper confiscated in Quito, Ecuador back in 2011: not because it had the nail file (it didn't), but because of the sharp edges of the cutters – I didn't argue with this logic.


----------



## great white

Cleaned, prepped, taped and painted the fj1200 engine:




A couple days to harden up and then I’ll polish the ends of the fins and assorted other bits.

While waiting for the paint to harden, I started polishing the exhaust down tubes:




 The one in the back is how they start off. The front is not finished, still working on stripping the old paint and rust off it. The down pipes are actually stainless, so rather than paint them black again I’m going to polish them to go with the kerker cans:


----------



## GoceKU

Today was a long day in the small garage. My winter daily driver is finally in for repairs. On my last safety inspection passenger side ball joint showed some play but last few day i sterted to feel it in the steering, also the CV boot was ripped and as i found out the sway bar link on that side and the opposite rear had a bunch of play. I did buy new quality ball joint and some time back made a tool for it. This car has never had any of the suspension replaced, i've driven it more than 600 000 km in the last 8 years and it had lots more when i bought it used. So i can't complain the french have made it to last. That said working on it isn't easy. Evry bolt is 2 sizes bigger than on other cars. I had to remove the entire shock and axle to put my big corded impact to unbolt the bolt joint. At this point i had to stop run out of time, i'll continue tomorrow and i'll have to buy 2 stabilizator links.


----------



## Firstram

That impact is a grown man for sure!


----------



## Eyerelief

NCjeeper said:


> View attachment 424936





great white said:


> Cleaned, taped and painted the fj1200 engine:


Always liked the FJ.  Im a big fan of the sport touring ride.  I have a Blackbird right now that sits next to the Harley.  Sometimes I don't know if I want to go fast or slow I guess.  My bride always picks slow.






To be honest, at my age, my fast aint what it used to be.  But the older I get, the faster I was...................................


----------



## great white

Eyerelief said:


> Always liked the FJ.  Im a big fan of the sport touring ride.  I have a Blackbird right now that sits next to the Harley.  Sometimes I don't know if I want to go fast or slow I guess.  My bride always picks slow.
> 
> View attachment 424989
> 
> 
> View attachment 424990
> 
> To be honest, at my age, my fast aint what it used to be.  But the older I get, the faster I was...................................


The strange thing is, everyone sees the FJ as a sport tourer but in my mind I will always see it as a pure sportbike.

When it first came out in 84, it was top of the heap. It was the ultra hyperbike of its day, for the most part untouchable on the 1/4, stoplights and road courses.  It wasn’t until 1985 that it finally got some credible competition in the form of the 900 Ninja (Gpz 900 everywhere except NA). I lusted after the FJ all through high school, but could never pull together enough scratch to buy one. I managed enough for an 83 V45, but never enough for the FJ.

So this “restoration” is basically a bucket list item for me. Unfortunately, my riding days are pretty much behind me, ao the FJ will just be for the occational local road blast and then back into the garage to bench race…


----------



## Eyerelief

I had both the v45 and then the v65 sabres as well as a Suzuki 1100 ED(drag bike with a spaceship for a headlight). 
I feel the same way about the blackbird. Everyone says sport touring but it was one of the 3 kings.


----------



## great white

Eyerelief said:


> I had both the v45 and then the v65 sabres as well as a Suzuki 1100 ED(drag bike with a spaceship for a headlight).
> I feel the same way about the blackbird. Everyone says sport touring but it was one of the 3 kings.


My V45 was an interceptor. Not really into cruiser style bikes, although I’ve had several. Nothing against them, they’re just not my style.

The sabres were ok, but more of a throwback to the 70’s “standard” style bike than cruiser (like a magna) or sportbike (like the interceptor).

VMax was about my favorite from the cruiser styles. So I put a vmx12 engine in my Venture:



 50 hp jump over stock makes for an interesting ride.

One bike I would have liked to have had was the kawi Eliminator. Can’t explain why, I just wish I had owned one at some point….


----------



## Eyerelief

Interesting. I always viewed the v65 sabre as more sport than cruiser. Kinda half way between the cb and the magna. The magna was more of a cruiser like the v max but just a lot slower.


----------



## great white

Eyerelief said:


> Interesting. I always viewed the v65 sabre as more sport than cruiser. Kinda half way between the cb and the magna...


thats pretty much the definition of “standard”.

otherwise known as the “UJM” or universal japanese motorcycle.

Not a sportbike, not a cruiser, but an all around/do everything bike.

Or if you prefer; “jack of all trades master of none”….


----------



## Eyerelief

Pa in law passed a few years back. He was a lineman for southwest bell. My wife and her mom have been sorting through his stuff slowly for the last couple months. I told my wife I wanted nothing as I thought her brother, his son should have anything of value. She called last night and said there was an old telephone that her brother didn’t want. I said I’d take a look at it. As soon as she showed it to me I couldn’t keep my hands off of it. RED!! It was dirty and everything was stuck. Quick clean up and a little oil was all it needed. Didn’t even know I wanted an old phone. Apparently this phone was from around the 50’s.   Will put it in the new shop. Behind the phone number is a sticker that reads “Please wait for dial tone”.  Almost forgot there was a dial tone. 
Wonder if young folks today could wait for dial tone?


----------



## GoceKU

Today i continue and finish fixing my winter daily driver. Replacing the CV boot was a struggle many because of its weight and the graphite grease i use is not easy to get off hands. I'm also getting sick because i was struggling to lift the shock in its place. I did buy stabilizer links front and rear, i install the front but the rear will have to wait for me to get check out, i'm out of breath and feel like c**p. Its good to have this car ready.


----------



## francist

I’ve been dying to get the newly acquired Transylvanian soft neck garlic into the grave — I mean ground — so that it gets a decent start this fall, and then I ended up with an unplanned day off today so I seized the opportunity. Spring is a long ways away though, so I thought I best take precautions so as not to forget where I buried planted it….

Some sharpened wooden stakes ought to do nicely….




and maybe some kind of inscription description to jog the memory…..




Who says gardening isn’t fun?


----------



## ChazzC

Eyerelief said:


> Pa in law passed a few years back. He was a lineman for southwest bell. My wife and her mom have been sorting through his stuff slowly for the last couple months. I told my wife I wanted nothing as I thought her brother, his son should have anything of value. She called last night and said there was an old telephone that her brother didn’t want. I said I’d take a look at it. As soon as she showed it to me I couldn’t keep my hands off of it. RED!! It was dirty and everything was stuck. Quick clean up and a little oil was all it needed. Didn’t even know I wanted an old phone. Apparently this phone was from around the 50’s.   Will put it in the new shop. Behind the phone number is a sticker that reads “Please wait for dial tone”.  Almost forgot there was a dial tone.
> Wonder if young folks today could wait for dial tone?
> View attachment 425047
> View attachment 425048


Your own Hotline to the Kremlin?


----------



## ChazzC

ChazzC said:


> My plastic one is shaped slightly differently so can't get the bottle "lifter" under a tab (but if you flip it over you can make it work on a tab, just not as easy as the slot).
> 
> You should be able to break the leading edge of the slot enough so it won't get confiscated by TSA but still function. Although . . . I did have a finger nail clipper confiscated in Quito, Ecuador back in 2011: not because it had the nail file (it didn't), but because of the sharp edges of the cutters – I didn't argue with this logic.


Was rummaging around and found this one:


----------



## LVLAaron

I drilled one hole and gave the floor a good cleaning.


----------



## NCjeeper

Eyerelief said:


> Pa in law passed a few years back. He was a lineman for southwest bell. My wife and her mom have been sorting through his stuff slowly for the last couple months. I told my wife I wanted nothing as I thought her brother, his son should have anything of value. She called last night and said there was an old telephone that her brother didn’t want. I said I’d take a look at it. As soon as she showed it to me I couldn’t keep my hands off of it. RED!! It was dirty and everything was stuck. Quick clean up and a little oil was all it needed. Didn’t even know I wanted an old phone. Apparently this phone was from around the 50’s.   Will put it in the new shop. Behind the phone number is a sticker that reads “Please wait for dial tone”.  Almost forgot there was a dial tone.
> Wonder if young folks today could wait for dial tone?
> View attachment 425047
> View attachment 425048


I love the phone number reference. Is Jenny there?


----------



## Eyerelief

NCjeeper said:


> I love the phone number reference. Is Jenny there?


…..For the price of a dime…..
EXCELLENT CATCH!!


----------



## cazclocker

SubtleHustle said:


> Well, today I had to make a miniature tap wrench, to hold a m2.5 x .45 tap. I need this small tap, in order to make the screw hole for the carbide insert, for my ball turner I am just finishing up... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous about breaking of the tap in the tool holder. I'll keep you all posted!
> View attachment 286257
> View attachment 286258
> 
> This is the link to my ball turner project, if anyone interested...
> https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/radius-ball-turner.76367/


I found this design from searching "miniature tap wrench"! This is along the lines of an upcoming need of mine. I have a 5-40 bottoming tap I'm going to need to use on a tiny little chunk of 1144 stressproof. I dread breaking the tap too! So far, this is the best design I've seen. Thanks for posting it! Four years later, how's it working out for you?


----------



## GeneT45

LVLAaron said:


> I drilled one hole and gave the floor a good cleaning.
> 
> 
> View attachment 425089


Why pin the recoil lug?  
GsT


----------



## pontiac428

GeneT45 said:


> Why pin the recoil lug?
> GsT



So your index to vertical is true, and to keep it that way when torquing the barrel down.  Ultimately it preserves sight alignment.


----------



## LVLAaron

GeneT45 said:


> Why pin the recoil lug?
> GsT



To keep it in position. It's a real pain to keep it aligned perfectly. Absolutely required if it's going into a fully bedded stock.


----------



## GoceKU

Have anyone have to do this? To drill out clamp type plastic fan. I've ordered this one from aliexpress and the seller send the wrong one. After looking around my machine shop for a way to clamp it, i just added coupe pieces of paper and tighten the bolts, chuck a 24mm drill bit in my lathe chuck just to hold it. Grab the fan and started to turn it by hand and drill it thru. Not the best work i've done but should work.


----------



## jmkasunich

Made a rack for my R8 collets and drill chuck.




My Bridgeport lives in a shared workshop so I can't just leave everything out when I go home.  I have a cabinet next to the mill for mill tooling and anything that isn't bolted to the table goes back in each day.  I've been storing the collets and chuck on a shelf but they take space and it is annoying to find the right collet.  So I made this rack that fits on the inside of the cabinet door.  It is vertically located so the collets and chuck fit between two shelves, but it only uses about 1 inch of the shelf depth so really has no impact on the other items on the shelf. At the bottom right of the photo below you can see the old collet boxes, they are going away and will free up some shelf space.




I've never liked racks that support the collets by their reference surfaces (the taper and the straight section at the back).  This rack supports the weight on the back of the collet.  The holes in the upper cross member are just below the taper, and the pins on the lower cross member are a sloppy fit in the drawbar thread minor diameter.


----------



## extropic

jmkasunich said:


> Made a rack for my R8 collets and drill chuck.
> 
> I've never liked racks that support the collets by their reference surfaces (the taper and the straight section at the back).  This rack supports the weight on the back of the collet.  The holes in the upper cross member are just below the taper, and the pins on the lower cross member are a sloppy fit in the drawbar thread minor diameter.


 Very nice.


----------



## WhyW8

Made a new handle for my hammer - First time turning a taper






First handle


----------



## Dhal22

Eyerelief said:


> …..For the price of a dime…..
> EXCELLENT CATCH!!




It was too easy so I let it slide.


----------



## snoopdog

jmkasunich said:


> Made a rack for my R8 collets and drill chuck.
> 
> View attachment 425269
> 
> 
> My Bridgeport lives in a shared workshop so I can't just leave everything out when I go home.  I have a cabinet next to the mill for mill tooling and anything that isn't bolted to the table goes back in each day.  I've been storing the collets and chuck on a shelf but they take space and it is annoying to find the right collet.  So I made this rack that fits on the inside of the cabinet door.  It is vertically located so the collets and chuck fit between two shelves, but it only uses about 1 inch of the shelf depth so really has no impact on the other items on the shelf. At the bottom right of the photo below you can see the old collet boxes, they are going away and will free up some shelf space.
> 
> View attachment 425270
> 
> 
> I've never liked racks that support the collets by their reference surfaces (the taper and the straight section at the back).  This rack supports the weight on the back of the collet.  The holes in the upper cross member are just below the taper, and the pins on the lower cross member are a sloppy fit in the drawbar thread minor diameter.
> 
> View attachment 425271


I like it


----------



## snoopdog

Repurposeing some 1 in plasma cut Ibeam, free stuff. Glad I didn't get rid of those bigger cutters now, it was going slow with the smaller ones.


----------



## Alcap

I’ve run into times when I couldn’t clamp where I wanted with the clamps that I have . Made two blocks that I could swing to different positions along the table with a cantilever to be able to go over the vise mounting bolts . Two holes drill through 3/8” and one taped 3/8”-16 . The first use was when I had a part in the vise and another clamped on top so I could drill through both at the same time .


----------



## brino

Alcap said:


> I’ve run into times when I couldn’t clamp where I wanted with the clamps that I have . Made two blocks that I could swing to different positions along the table with a cantilever to be able to go over the vise mounting bolts .



Oh I WILL be stealing that idea!
(....but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery , right?)

It is another of those "Why didn't I think of that?" solutions.

Thanks for sharing this!

Brian


----------



## ChazzC

Alcap said:


> I’ve run into times when I couldn’t clamp where I wanted with the clamps that I have . Made two blocks that I could swing to different positions along the table with a cantilever to be able to go over the vise mounting bolts . Two holes drill through 3/8” and one taped 3/8”-16 . The first use was when I had a part in the vise and another clamped on top so I could drill through both at the same time .


These could also work as a base for Machinists' Jacks when you need to get them close to the vise.


----------



## Alcap

ChazzC I didn’t think of that when i made them but now that you suggested it there were times a jack type arrangement would have been very handy !


----------



## savarin

In keeping with my stingyness of not supporting large manufactures greed just like my coffee machine tray I had to purchase new bottles for my soda stream.
Imaging my surprise when I got them home and found sodastream had changed their dimensions so they wouldnt fit my functioning machine.
The old size is the purple top. The new type is taller and slimmer.


No way was I paying for a new machine if I can alter the old one to fit the new bottles.
A little action with a rat tailed file and I opened out the base so I could slip the machine over the new bottle.


Only slightly more fiddly than the original method but so much cheaper, $0.00, my kind of price.
It worked. Take that soda stream.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i stopped by friend of mine to get one of my spare rims welded. We were talking how when i got that set of rims its size 18" was considered very big. Now with cars on 20" rims from the factory they seem small. He did a good job welding it, there was some dirty aluminium that bubble up but he managed to weld it up from both sides. Now i'll have to clean it up and make it smooth. Now that the set is complete i may use it on my 607 for winter tires.


----------



## great white

savarin said:


> In keeping with my stingyness of not supporting large manufactures greed just like my coffee machine tray I had to purchase new bottles for my soda stream.
> Imaging my surprise when I got them home and found sodastream had changed their dimensions so they wouldnt fit my functioning machine.
> The old size is the purple top. The new type is taller and slimmer.
> View attachment 425604
> 
> No way was I paying for a new machine if I can alter the old one to fit the new bottles.
> A little action with a rat tailed file and I opened out the base so I could slip the machine over the new bottle.
> View attachment 425605
> 
> Only slightly more fiddly than the original method but so much cheaper, $0.00, my kind of price.
> It worked. Take that soda stream.


Maybe machine yourself a “spacer” to raise the soda machine so your new bottles will fit in without having to lift up the soda machine?

Or do the new bottles fit in “as is”?


----------



## savarin

I can tilt them then they slip in  with no problems


----------



## FOMOGO

Or! an air over hydraulic, solar powered, bottle placement arm, yah, that's the ticket. Cheers, Mike



savarin said:


> Only slightly more fiddly than the original method but so much cheaper, $0.00, my kind of price.
> It worked. Take that soda stream.


----------



## finsruskw

GoceKU said:


> Today i stopped by friend of mine to get one of my spare rims welded. We were talking how when i got that set of rims its size 18" was considered very big. Now with cars on 20" rims from the factory they seem small. He did a good job welding it, there was some dirty aluminium that bubble up but he managed to weld it up from both sides. Now i'll have to clean it up and make it smooth. Now that the set is complete i may use it on my 607 for winter tires.
> View attachment 425579
> 
> View attachment 425580


Wonder what a DOT or DMV inspector would have to say about that?


----------



## great white

finsruskw said:


> Wonder what a DOT or DMV inspector would have to say about that?


Depends on the degree of original damage and quality of the weld.

Lots of specialty shops out there that repair bent/cracked Al rims. But they tend to follow a very detailed process. they don’t just scuff up the Al and go at it with a tig machine.

I’d be more concerned about the “dirty aluminum that bubble up” comment. That usually means the aluminum wasn’t thoroughly cleaned before welding and the “contaminants” that bubbled up could have made the weld porous, or possibly weakened.

If theres what looks like black flecks in the weld surface, its most likely a porous weld, and thus, suspect….


----------



## great white

Was wondering how I was going to strip the paint off the fins on the FJ1200 engine without spending the next 3 weeks on it with a sanding block.

Then I remembered a family friend dumped a bunch of tools off when her husband passed away. I dug out this cheap little thing:




And roughly 5 minutes later:




They still need some fine work with a sanding block and some finer grits, but 5 mins is waaaaay better than a couple weeks of manual labor.

When done, I said a little “thanks Shawn” to myself under my breath to my passed on friend….


----------



## ChazzC

savarin said:


> In keeping with my stingyness of not supporting large manufactures greed just like my coffee machine tray I had to purchase new bottles for my soda stream.
> Imaging my surprise when I got them home and found sodastream had changed their dimensions so they wouldnt fit my functioning machine.
> The old size is the purple top. The new type is taller and slimmer.
> View attachment 425604
> 
> No way was I paying for a new machine if I can alter the old one to fit the new bottles.
> A little action with a rat tailed file and I opened out the base so I could slip the machine over the new bottle.
> View attachment 425605
> 
> Only slightly more fiddly than the original method but so much cheaper, $0.00, my kind of price.
> It worked. Take that soda stream.


Nice fix. It won't be that easy for me if I drop the glass bottles as the mechanism on my SodaStream is different:




Why is it different? Well . . .










My wife & daughter got him for me many years ago when my daughter worked for Williams-Sonoma – they said he begged them to buy him for me.


----------



## great white

Assembly begins:




Scratched the new frame paint in a couple places, but thats par for the course when the frame wraps so tightly around the engine everywhere. A little paint touch up and no one will ever know.

The objective is to get it back together as a roller. I need the space to put the wife’s mini cooper in the heated shop over winter so I can change the timing chain and valve seals…


----------



## GoceKU

finsruskw said:


> Wonder what a DOT or DMV inspector would have to say about that?


No DOT or DMV here. Is the wild west when it comes to safety here. I keep my cars to be safe but what is coming from the other side is questionable. Roads are bad so broken and welded rims are common. Here is a picture of typical car rim from here, if you think i'm kidding i've gotten that picture from the local buy/sell site. I'll leave the link below.






__





						Bandazi 19ki 5x112
					

2 bandaza so gimi vo ekstra sostojba,2bandaza bez gumi reparirani vareni ,na edniot od niv treba dopolnitelna popravka.




					reklama5.mk


----------



## rpker

Took apart and cleaned the back gear on my SB heavy 10.  It was packed with grease and quite stiff but it did move.  After cleaning out the grease and reassembling with spindle oil It will free spin easily now…

kinda satisfying


----------



## great white

GoceKU said:


> No DOT or DMV here. Is the wild west when it comes to safety here. I keep my cars to be safe but what is coming from the other side is questionable. Roads are bad so broken and welded rims are common. Here is a picture of typical car rim from here, if you think i'm kidding i've gotten that picture from the local buy/sell site. I'll leave the link below.
> View attachment 425677
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> __
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Bandazi 19ki 5x112
> 
> 
> 2 bandaza so gimi vo ekstra sostojba,2bandaza bez gumi reparirani vareni ,na edniot od niv treba dopolnitelna popravka.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> reklama5.mk


Wow, you couldn’t pay me to run those on any of my vehicles….on or off road.

Those welds are crap! The brown/black marks around each weld indicates they’re contaminated (improper cleaning, oxygen intrusion, poor ac cleaning settings, etc) and they are standing so proud of the surface it’s unlikely they have any appreciable penetration at all….probably could have done just as good a job by smearing jb-weld all over them.


----------



## rpker

decided to get into the gearbox and clean it.  There is way less crap in there than I expected but it does have some hardened oil that is currently soaking under some kerosene soaked rags. That apron is next and then this guy is going to get mounted in his permanent home and get power.


----------



## finsruskw

great white said:


> Depends on the degree of original damage and quality of the weld.
> 
> Lots of specialty shops out there that repair bent/cracked Al rims. But they tend to follow a very detailed process. they don’t just scuff up the Al and go at it with a tig machine.
> 
> I’d be more concerned about the “dirty aluminum that bubble up” comment. That usually means the aluminum wasn’t thoroughly cleaned before welding and the “contaminants” that bubbled up could have made the weld porous, or possibly weakened.
> 
> If theres what looks like black flecks in the weld surface, its most likely a porous weld, and thus, suspect….


No repair shop around here would even think of touching a repair job like that for fear of liability issues down the road.
Just sayin!


----------



## wayback machine

Are those rims used with those low section "steamroller" type tires ?
If so, that's why they suffer so much damage - I have a hard time imagining how those tires and rims handle any road roughness at all.
They just don't seem to be designed for the real world.


----------



## jwmelvin

I finished up a tortilla press I’ve been working on. Other than fasteners, bronze bushings, and cam handle, all made from recycled material from [mention]mmcmdl [/mention]. Uses an eccentric hinge point to adjust thickness.


----------



## mmcmdl

Whatcha making there Jason ?


----------



## Winegrower

I used to have a couple Noga deburring tools, but one that was plastic broke and the other one just plain got lost, I guess…it’s been missing for a week.   So rather than buy another plastic blade holder, I still have a package of blades.   Obviously I need to make a holder to use up those blades.   The blades have a reduced diameter notch that they are captured by yet can still rotate freely.  The handle was a scrap 1/2” stainless rod, drilled a 1/8” hole in the end for the blade shank, and used a short 3/32” dowel pin offset just the right amount from center, pressed it in and bingo, it’s about a perfect tool.   Eventually the pin can be pressed out/in to change blades.


----------



## jwmelvin

mmcmdl said:


> Whatcha making there Jason ?



Tacos!


----------



## great white

trying to figure out what I've done wrong with teh rear upper engine mount.

Before:




If you zoom in, you can see the bolt pulls two buskings into the boss on the engine. The bushings are tight to the frame and tight to the engine boss.

All I've done is pain tht eframe and engine and upon reassembly, discovered this:




Somehow, it appears the frame has "spread". Or a more likely scenario is I'm either missing a part (nothing on a parts breakdown or in the service manual) or I'm assembling it wrong.

I gotta figure it's something I'm doing wrong. There's no way the bolt would pull the frame rails together (it's heavily braced right in that area) and looking at other pics off the net shows the bushings tight to the frame and engine boss:











I'll figure it out, just a bit stumped right now.

Worse comes to worse I'll either make a couple spacers or just machine out some new bushings. But I'm reluctant to do so without first figuring out why it's changed from a simple remove/install....


----------



## rwm

Is it just me or is somebody being shady about their intended use???







"I can take down a small taco at 1000 yrds."


----------



## jwmelvin

rwm said:


> Is it just me or is somebody being shady about their intended use???



Lol, the resemblance is pretty funny. Thanks.


----------



## finsruskw

Lift arms for a Cat "O" setup on my 2086 Cub.
Reproducing the factory setup from an 1872 Super.
Have to get some 1/4" plate yet as well as the1-1/2' rockshaft these mount to.
Got to use the RT today, 1st time in a while.


----------



## dkemppai

wayback machine said:


> Are those rims used with those low section "steamroller" type tires ?
> If so, that's why they suffer so much damage -



A lot of times you're limited on the minimum wheel size by the factory brakes. If the rotors/calipers are big, you can't put smaller rims on them. Seems worse on small cars. 

Luckily my old winter beater subaru would take a smaller rim than what the car shipped with. I was able to find a winter tire with the same diameter that fit the smaller rim. It looks kinda goofy, but handles the winter washboard WAY better. The taller sidewall changes the handling, but it's winter driving so it's slower driving anyway. (That, and I must be getting older, I don't drive so fast anymore anyway...  )


----------



## great white

Reassembly continues:


----------



## wachuko

We have an automatic espresso machine for my in-laws.  We have had one just for them for many years now.  Started with them making a mess with spilled milk and coffee as they got older and could not pay attention to the stove…. We are on our 3rd machine…

I save the old machines and use them for spare parts…. It so happens that my cousin had one also failed on him and he gave it to me to add to the stash of parts.

I did try to save/repair both, but his…well… even if I had an optimistic attitude, this is what happened




So I was only able to repair one, which was fine...   Since I did not have one here in Ocala for my father-in-law, I only needed to make a functional one from what I had….







Now he does not have to wait for me to have his espresso when he is here…. Eventually, when we finally move here, we will bring the other machine.  So at that point we will have a fully functional spare!  And yes, the other one gets torn down and parts will be stash in a bin…


----------



## jmkasunich

A tool for moving trailers and trailer-like objects around the shop:





Ball height is adjustable over a 12" range in 1" increments.  Adjust up to 7" by pulling the pins.  Flip the bracket over and reinstall the ball from the other side for more range.  Should be able to handle roughly 1 ton of tongue weight.  Still need to finish provisions for bolting it to the pallet jack, and drill the pins for hairpin style lock clips.

In the background of the first pic is one of the "trailer-like objects".  It is an old gen-set frame that I got for scrap price.  Will be turning it into a rack to hold steel stock, sheets/plates up to 4x8 feet on edge and bar/tube/channel/angle from 4 to 10 feet long.  Rollers on one end, the other end will have a rudimentary "hitch" (just a stub of 2" pipe that will fit over the ball).


----------



## extropic

@jmkasunich
I really like your trailer mule.   

Regarding the "L" bracket piece, I'm wondering about it's construction. Is it a two piece weldment or . . . ???

It seems to me that pallet jacks are underappreciated in the hobbyist arena and clever adaptations like yours could help change that.


----------



## jmkasunich

extropic said:


> @jmkasunich
> I really like your trailer mule.
> 
> Regarding the "L" bracket piece, I'm wondering about it's construction. Is it a two piece weldment or . . . ???
> 
> it seems to me that pallet jacks are underappreciated in the hobbyist arena and clever adaptations like yours could help change that.



The "L" is a short piece of some very heavy angle iron that I have had laying around for years.  Legs are 4 and 6 inches, and it is 3/4" thick.

I very much agree that pallet jacks are under-appreciated.  They can lift far more than an engine hoist, for less money, and much safer.  Of course, they only work for stuff that can be lifted from below, so it isn't truly fair to compare them to an engine hoist.  But I'll take a pallet jack any day for all-around lifting and moving.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i got the call from my brother, can you check the 206 is in town. I asked what's wrong, because not that long ago i did a full service. It a bit loose in the back and is running like crap on petrol. I put it on the inspection pit looked around and realize that i've never changed the fuel filter on it, this car had a bodyswapped some time back and the new filter was left on the other body. So i bought a new one OEM Peugeot, and when i removed the old one i found a 98 date its the one that body left the factory with. Car that we run on LPG don't get fuel filters changed mainly because of the cost and that fuel system is not used. looked at the rear suspension and found drivers side rear shock left its rubber mount and was riding on the bolt. I did get it back but it will need to be changed next time is in town. This car spent some time in Serbia and there got a new battery, but i was surprised with the name, i'm suspecting the chinese wore involved with the name.


----------



## pontiac428

Goce, have you ever seen the TV show, the Dukes of Hazzard?  Because that's how your brother drives.  His mechanic should tell him to stop jumping over things with the car.


----------



## GoceKU

pontiac428 said:


> Goce, have you ever seen the TV show, the Dukes of Hazzard?  Because that's how your brother drives.  His mechanic should tell him to stop jumping over things with the car.


Well i drive like the Dukes of Hazzard, my brother is worse , he has lots on his mind. You can compare his driving like the one blow


----------



## GoceKU

Today I went shopping at my local steel yard, the prices have come down in the last 2 weeks but they are more then 100% up from year ago. I have a shed that needs some work, the weather is starting to get colder especially at night but for mid november is great. This is the last outdoor project of the year, i bought couple sheets of corrugated zinc plated steel and couple of lengths of square tubing. This was the easy part, now i need to clean up that corner and cut up the shed. The roof is very out of level and in the rush that i made the shed every bar is out of level and crooked. It been an eye sore for years now but now i'll fix it.


----------



## dkemppai

Well, looks like today is a good day to put the 'winter shoes' on the cars, then play in the nice warm basement shop! Glad it held off as long as it did. 

And you Florida guys, you can keep your warm sunny weather pictures to yourselves! lol


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Haven't had much time to play in the shop recently, but I like to do little projects as a break. Finished fixing this 1/4" Albrecht chuck today. Was completely locked up and now spins as smooth as can be


----------



## dkemppai

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Haven't had much time to play in the shop recently, but I like to do little projects as a break. Finished fixing this 1/4" Albrecht chuck today. Was completely locked up and now spins as smooth as can be
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 426499
> View attachment 426500


Nice! I've been drooling over a chuck like that for a long time now...

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk


----------



## silverhawk

My POTD was testing out the new laser engraver in an attempt to prep for some Christmas cocoa mug gifts.







I had also picked up a rotary axis (never tried the machine, let alone the rotary prior to today), and as I hand-spun the mug on the rotary, the mug shifted.  Apparently, the rubber wheels are insufficient to keep it from sliding when the sides are not parallel (it's a slightly conical mug).






Using small aluminum angle and a bearing, I built something to keep it from sliding off the large end.  Can't test it, though, after setting it up and seeing the wiring for the rotary, I realized it's using a 4-pin on the motor, but the engraver uses 6-pin.  Now I have to build an electrical adapter, but do not yet have the parts for it.


----------



## GoceKU

Today was a hard day of work for my back, started early cleaning all the junk and moved few sacks of sand. With that out of the way i had to remove and relocate couple of the wild berry from the fance. Then i cut off the cross brace and took off the sheet metal siding, it was so crooked everytime i look at it i wanted to fix it for the last couple of years. I cut off the back post and they are ankerd good, but the fronts were just dangling, so i dug around and found out that i've never put concrete around them. Dug little dipper and found a old metal cover for the utilities of the house, so that post can't be conceited with that in mind i'll extend the shed and lay the new post on solid ground in concrete, i did cut down the post till the roof was level. It come noon and i got a call to help a friend so i did that and by the time i got back it was night and cold, so i'll continue tomorrow.


----------



## ChazzC

Nothing big - I've got to go out and get parts so I can install a filter on the humidifier water line (solenoid valve keeps clogging up).

We had a (fortunately) brief power outage ("animal contact with electrical equipment *again*) this morning, so I opened the mini-blinds in my office & shop. When I twiddled the rod on the office blinds, the rod came off in my hand as the connector loop had snapped:



The one in the shop is designed differently, so I don't know if the thin portion of the shaft in made that way so it will flex when they install the bottom inside the hollow rod, or if it's planned obsolescence.


I dug out some brass rod andmade a new one:



Not perfect, but it works, won't break and when the curtains in place no one can see it.


----------



## NCjeeper

Made some tall skinny parallels for my shaper vise. Ground them so they would match.


----------



## GoceKU

Today i finished tubing part of the shed, installed a new panel on the roof and made it level. Also the new corner post is dipper in the ground and i mixed up some concrete and fill the hole with it. I did weld back the cross brace and welded on couple of standsons for future shelves, it got dark and cold on me so i'll continue tomorrow, a coat of paint and riveting the outside panels. It's more than a metre longer than before.


----------



## savarin

every extra millimetre counts in the shed


----------



## hustlebird

A couple small mods for my new (PM-1236T) lathe today. First I made the "press plate" that mounts on the follow rest bolts to lock the slide, since the DRO scale makes the lock bolt inaccessible. Started with a 3/8" piece of steel, and tried my hand at cold blue as well....


Second, I cut an oversized thumb screw for the saddle lock. Used a bit of 1.25" steel I had. Tried knurling, but you can see where I had to chuck the knurls and gummed them up. Actually tried bluing this piece first... I drilled and tapped the bottom of it and Loctite'd some m8 all thread trimmed to length.



Baby steps, but slowly becoming mine


----------



## rwm

I made a socket for a Tri-groove security nut:






It is kind of "proof of concept." It is just mild steel so not nearly as durable as a forged socket. Nevertheless, I think it would take some torque to simultaneously shear those 3 pins. It fits the nuts just fine.
The pins were placed through holes drilled radially and then welded in place from the outside. The OD was then turned smooth. The tips of the pins were turned on the lathe to match the nut angle (25 deg.)

For reference:


----------



## rwm

I am curious what is the best material to make this socket? Assume drop forging is out of my reach! Would you use tool steel? Would you fully harden it? How would that do with tack welding? Thoughts?

Edit: I used drill shank for my pins but  I have no idea about the hardness after welding.


----------



## jwmelvin

rwm said:


> I am curious what is the best material to make this socket?


I don’t see how mild steel would ever be an issue for the body. The pins, on the other hand, seem well suited for hardened dowels if you can get the ID angle right. I might grind the ends of the pins the the desired angle then insert them in the body with Loctite so the pins could be replaced if desired.


----------



## extropic

@rwm ,
Using the pins gives you very limited contact area with the nut, which means stress concentration and possible deformation.
I don't know the thread size or how much torque you expect to to apply, but if it's substantial, I suggest using a different design approach.
I'm thinking of using rectangular stock to essentially fill the grooves in the nut.
Rough order of operations:
1) Drill a clearance hole for the fastener size (at center) deeper than the finished tool length.
2) Turn and face the 25° socket end.
3) Mill three slots (at the 25°), radially as needed (equally spaced?), the width and depth of the slots in the nut.
4) Saw/part off the tool to length.
5) Make 3 drive lugs to fill the tool slots and fully engage the nut slots.
6) Install a nut into the tool, with the slots aligned, using a screw through the center hole.
7) Position and weld each drive lug in a slot.
8) Finish machine as required.

Using that approach, the interior of the tool is finished after welding so you don't have to re-machine the 25° (interrupted cut).
Regarding material choice and heat treating, it depends on the magnitude of the forces involves and how long you want the tool to last.
Making all parts from the same heat treatable material will allow you to harden and temper after welding. A2 and O1 are easily available and can be flame hardened and tempered (if you don't have an oven).
Also, rather than mill a hex on the back of tool, why not weld a surplus socket there to get a square drive? Attach the socket after heat treating the tool. The heat affected zone won't be a problem to the business end of the tool.

I hope this is helpful.


----------



## great white

Started clearing the shop out to bring the wife's Mini Cooper in for the winter. The N12 engine has been smoking to the point of giving it misfire codes, so it's time for a set of valve seals. While in there, I'll swap out the timing gear as well which is a know weak point in the design. The car is just over 100,000 Kms, so it's time for it anyways. I'll likely swap out some maintenance items while in there like the vacuum pump, alternator pulley's, and maybe the oil pump drive.  Not exactly difficult work for me, but I'm getting to the point where I don't *want *it to be work I can do.....


----------



## BGHansen

POTM(inute) was throwing a piece of tubing onto a push broom for cleaning snow off our solar panels. Time to go buy a lottery ticket (though I tell my wife I never buy them because I used up all of my luck when I met her) as the brush handle and tubing were a slip-fit. Ran in a couple of screws, covered them with 6-8 turns of duct tape. Voila, solar panel cleaner-offer.

Thanks for looking, Bruce


Screwed a piece of tubing onto the push broom.  No fear, I have two others for sweeping the shop floor!



Our panels are at about a 40 deg. angle and do a pretty good job shedding show (see the pile on the ground).  But this was a very light dusting.  I noticed on this overcast day that when the panels were covered with 1/2", they were putting out about 0.3 kW.  Cleaned off they are putting out 1.4 kW.




Easy-peasy, lift to the top and let gravity do most of the work


----------



## brino

BGHansen said:


> Screwed a piece of tubing onto the push broom. No fear, I have two others for sweeping the shop floor!



......otherwise you'd be sweeping the shop on a pair of stilts!

(and if you ever do we want pictures no video of it!  )

Brian


----------



## rwm

All good ideas. How do A2 or O1 harden after they have already been heated to a bright orange by welding.? I have no experience with this. 
I actually wanted the hex drive so I could use a gear wrench and keep the profile low. This is much lower profile than the factory sockets plus the 3/8" ratchet handle.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

great white said:


> Started clearing the shop out to bring the wife's Mini Cooper in for the winter. The N12 engine has been smoking to the point of giving it misfire codes, so it's time for a set of valve seals. While in there, I'll swap out the timing gear as well which is a know weak point in the design. The car is just over 100,000 Kms, so it's time for it anyways. I'll likely swap out some maintenance items while in there like the vacuum pump, alternator pulley's, and maybe the oil pump drive.  Not exactly difficult work for me, but I'm getting to the point where I don't *want *it to be work I can do.....


Not sure if this is the same engine as my friends mini Cooper, but the water pump drive wheel pulley thing is another wear item. It's driven by a roller instead of a belt and it's a bear to get to


----------



## great white

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Not sure if this is the same engine as my friends mini Cooper, but the water pump drive wheel pulley thing is another wear item. It's driven by a roller instead of a belt and it's a bear to get to


Whoops. I said alternator pulley but meant water pump. Pretty janky design, but it is what it is.....


----------



## extropic

rwm said:


> All good ideas. *How do A2 or O1 harden after they have already been heated to a bright orange by welding.?* I have no experience with this.
> I actually wanted the hex drive so I could use a gear wrench and keep the profile low. This is much lower profile than the factory sockets plus the 3/8" ratchet handle.


 I'm not a HT expert. My guess is you might want to anneal after weld. Then harden and temper.

Actually, my go-to process would be silver solder, but I'm guessing you have precision welding capabilities (I don't). We run what we got. LOL

If you start a new thread, in the Questions & Answers Forum, I'm confident you'll get plenty of replies.









						QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (Get Help Fast Here!)
					

An open question and answer format for ALL issues that have to do with hobby machining. For questions on specific makes of machines, please go to the machine forum.




					www.hobby-machinist.com


----------



## BGHansen

POTD was FINALLY getting my Delta 12” miter saw laser lines repaired (correctly). This saw has a couple of line-lasers that scrub the sides of the blade to show where the blade will cut.

First the backstory from this summer. The transformer had failed, I replaced it with an LED driver or whatever it was called; was supposed to put out around 5V. I wired it in place, flipped it on and toasted the two lasers. I checked the output of the driver with a voltmeter and read something like 30V. Turns out that the driver puts out a constant current, not voltage.  An LED driver IS NOT the same thing as a transformer.

Amazon to the rescue with a couple of line lasers for under $10 and a 5V transformer. The next problem was the mounting brackets for the saw’s lasers expect a 10 mm diameter laser, and I could only find 9 mm. Back to Amazon again for some 10 mm OD, 9 mm ID brass tubing. The tubing was cut to make a couple of bushings which were epoxied into the saw’s plastic laser brackets. Then pressed the lasers into the bushings, did some alignment adjustments, and life was good again, until it wasn't.

I couldn’t figure out why at the time, but the left-side laser would continually move out of alignment. I had done the same repairs to both sides; RH side was okay so obviously I’d screwed something up on the LH side. Figuring out what was wrong finally bubbled up to the top of my “list of good intentions”. I pulled the laser and laser mounting bracket to figure out what I’d done wrong. Well, in the process of pulling the laser, I pulled the wires out of the unit. Back to Amazon for another pair.

The saw’s laser presses into a plastic bracket, which in turn presses into an aluminum bracket that mounts to the saw. When I made the brass bushing, I’d made it a little too long so the plastic bracket wouldn’t slide out of the aluminum one. Trimmed a little brass off the top and got the plastic piece out. Next step was trying to peel out the brass bushing for a replacement, then this happened.


Doh!  Snapped the plastic detail that holds the LH side line laser




FINALLY, Bruce is getting to the POTD, making a new plastic detail to hold the laser in the miter saw! I’d checked before online for a replacement part which was around $200+.

On the plus side of making a new part, I “probably” figured out what I’d messed up. The laser needs to be aligned so its line is parallel to the plane of the saw blade. That’s done with a hex feature on the laser which makes for easy “clocking” adjustments until it’s parallel with the blade. I do this by making a cut with a clamped-down board, then clock the laser until it’s parallel to the cut. I’ve also done it by setting a piece of paper up against the blade when it’s down, then raise the saw and clock the laser to the edge of the paper.

The plastic bracket that holds the laser slips into an aluminum bracket that mounts to the saw. The aluminum bracket has a compression spring that bears on the bottom of a tab on the plastic bracket, and a set screw above which pushes down on the bracket. The set screw and spring set the plane of the laser as the saw is raised/lowered. This one is pretty easy to adjust also. Raise the saw, line up the edge of a piece of paper with the laser line, then lower the saw. If the plane is correct, the line should stay on the edge of the paper. If it moves to either side of the edge, the set screw is tightened/loosened to adjust the plane. I think this is where I initially screwed up when the laser was replaced. I think when I slid the plastic bracket into the aluminum one, I didn’t get the spring under the plastic bracket. The laser line would move 1/8” either when I powered up the saw and/or when I tapped on the laser area.


There are three adjustments to align the laser.  I align by first adjusting the set screw which angles the laser so it's projecting parallel to the plane of the blade (A-datum, set the plane).  There's a little clearance between the plastic bracket and the aluminum bracket on the left hand side looking at the picture below.  That allows the set screw and spring to "springboard" the plastic bracket and change the aim plane of the laser.  The horizontal "T" on the right fits tightly in the aluminum bracket while the rest is loose.  Then rotate the laser itself so its line is parallel to the blade (done with the hex on top of the laser or B-datum, set the line).  Lastly, adjust the laser bracket side to side until the laser line is "scraping" the edge of the blade (C-datum, move on the line to set a point).  It's easy to spot as the laser line starts to get dimmer as it silhouettes on the blade.




The replacement plastic bracket was made from Delrin; material on hand. My plan was to hold the part after the initial drilling of a clearance hole with 5-C collets for lathe and mill work.  The extra work holding material would be machined or sanded away.

I started by turning the 1.5” Delrin OD down to ¾” so it’d fit into a collet. Drilled an undersized through clearance hole, parted, flipped it over, and turned the diameter down so it’d fit in a 5-C collet. Then bored the hole to depth for the 9.0 mm diameter laser. The through hole in the part has a smaller diameter opening at the bottom so the laser can’t be pushed in too far (and hit the saw blade).


Turn the 1.5" Delrin to a shoulder for grabbing with a 5-C collet, drill an undersized through hole and part



Move from the Grizzly lathe to the Clausing with a 5-C collet chuck.  Turn a shoulder for subsequent 5-C collet holding, bore a 9mm hole to proper depth (note the 2" travel indicator for Z-axis depth).  Test fit the laser in the 9mm hole.




Went to the Bridgeport with a 5-C collet holder and found the center with a Blake Co-ax. Then it was whittle away with an 1/8” and ¼” end mill. It dawned on me at this point that a smarter person would have made both ends of the bracket the same diameter. DUH! I have to flip the part on the BP to do work on both ends. One of the cylindrical ends would be totally removed (it was there just to provide something to clamp onto), so its diameter didn’t matter. For whatever reason I’d made either end a different diameter which would drive a collet change when the part was flipped on the BP.


Finding center of the part with a Blake Co-Ax



Whittling away at the top side




The collet holder's tightening nut is on the bottom of the holder. So, it would need to be removed to change collets. Again, a smarter person would have lined up the edge of the collet holder with the edge of the vise for easy realignment when it was set back in the vise. Of course, if I’d have turned both ends of the part to the same diameter, all of this would have been avoided. I used an adjustable parallel on the side of the collet holder and spread it until it hit a 1-2-3 block. Plan was to pull the collet holder, change collets, then set the holder back in the vise using the 1-2-3 block and adjustable parallel to get the holder back in the same position.  Or, I could have set it back in and realigned with the Blake again.


Doh!  I turned the 5-C shoulders on either side of the part to different diameters (poor planning on my part).  Not a huge deal, other than my 5-C collet holder loose tightens the collets from the (not accessible) bottom side.  On top of that, I should have aligned the collet holder with the edge of the vise jaws for easier realignment if it needed to be removed.  Work around was setting an adjustable parallel to fill the gap between a 1-2-3 block on the edge of the vise jaw and the collet holder.




Flipped the part, and realigned it rotationally by sweeping a previously machined flat face. Then finished the end mill whittling on the opposite side (plus a little bench filing and box knife work).


Swept the previously machined surface to "clock" the part into alignment, then tighten the cam lock.



Whittled away at the opposite side to roughly mimic the original plastic bracket.



Finished part




The original line laser had a hex feature on the back for clocking the laser for alignment parallel to the blade. I chucked up a ¼”-20 nut and drilled it out to 9 mm. Pressed on the laser with a dab of Loctite. Oh, I also put a dab of 5-minute epoxy on the back of the laser where the wires come out to better reinforce them.


Drilling out a 1/4"-20 nut with a 9mm drill to add a hex feature on the back of the laser.  I typically align nuts in the 3-jaw by running a couple of them on a bolt spaced 1" apart, then tighten the assembly in the jaws and back off the bolt.  It helps get the nut center hole in line with the lathe's axis (nut isn't tipped for off-axis drilling)




I used an 8-32 screw with part of the end ground off to shove the compression spring down while inserting the plastic laser holder. Didn’t want a repeat of my first laser replacement screw up.


Pressing down on the compression spring to make sure it's under the tab on the plastic bracket.


Got in under the plastic bracket, ready to fully seat the bracket



Aluminum and plastic laser brackets in place.  The screw on the left adjusts the aluminum bracket back & forth to adjust the laser line so it's just "scrubbing" the side of the blade.



All good!




And so far, so good. Two weeks later and it’s still holding alignment though with my original “fix” I’d see the line move just by pulling on the motor start switch. I’m confident in the fix at this point.

 Thanks for looking, Bruce


Not to belabor it (but too late. . . ) there are multiple versions of these line lasers out there.  I currently have the one on the bottom in the RH laser and the upper as the LH laser.  The jury is still out for which style I'll go with on both sides.  I like the thin, crisp line of the top one, but it's a little tough to see under my bright shop lights.  The lasers are around $7 a pair and a 5 minute job to swap.  I'll probably let my wife (who uses this saw a lot) make the final call.


----------



## NCjeeper

I built a back splash for the Jet lathe. I wanted to fabricate it out of metal. The quote I got from my metal supplier was over 400 dollars for a sheet of 18 gauge and 2 sticks of 1x1x8th wall tubing.   So I went the wood route and have 60 bucks in it so far. Just need to pick up some poly to protect it.


----------



## tq60

When you have a bobcat you make attachments...

Many years ago we made a lig splitter, got a 4x24 cylinder on ebay for 99 shipped and over time found a chunk of heavy railroad mainline on the side of the road that was perfect length, used 1 inch plate for assorted parts and used a previous attachment plate to support it.

Used a trailer hitch as a interface so we still could use the attachment for other things.

Thing must weigh 700 pounds!

Over the years it has always been a pain as it is a bit large and in the way if we leave it attached.

We had from another project some landing gear that were for moving a platform, each has 4 wheels rated for 300 pounds, so made some brackets to go between them and the interface.

For the front harbor freight has casters with similar wheel for 19 bucks so 2 of those.

Noticed a radio rack foot would work as a mount so a bit of drilling and it is doe.

Need to make a hitch bar to attach to tow vehicle. 

Rides well on all of the wheels but it was parked on a hill, a bit of work to move. 

Now we can just drag it new the bobcat and connect the lines and not need to attach.

Will get some jumper hoses so we do not need to get as close.
	

	
	
		
		

		
			























Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


----------



## erikmannie

A friend of mine bought a very cheap Made in China bike on the internet. He was unable to assemble it in his apartment, so he took it down to the local bike shop for service. They treated him *very* poorly, presumably because he didn’t purchase the bike from them, & chose the cheapest bike he could find. How were they to know that he had served his country abroad & seen combat abroad, at great risk to himself?

He came over this morning, & we dialed in his bike which took 2 hours, 20 minutes. I asked him to help me with my project for 2 hours & 20 minutes, & I put him on an O/A torch to cut 5/8” thick, 6” wide mild steel plate into 9” lengths. I measured, marked & served as his bench hand. He had so much fun that he wants to come back tomorrow to cut the rest of the plate, of which there is a lot. These 5/8” plates are to be joined together using bevel joints & plug welds to make 2-1/2” thick plate welding coupons. This is a fun project for somebody who likes to machine & weld.

I will grab a picture of Jack W. in action tomorrow morning.


----------



## wachuko

erikmannie said:


> A friend of mine bought a very cheap Made in China bike on the internet. He was unable to assemble it in his apartment, so he took it down to the local bike shop for service. They treated him *very* poorly, presumably because he didn’t purchase the bike from them, & chose the cheapest bike he could find. How were they to know that he had seen combat in both Iraq & Afghanistan & now suffers from PTSD?
> 
> He came over this morning, & we dialed in his bike which took 2 hours, 20 minutes. I asked him to help me with my project for 2 hours & 20 minutes, & I put him on an O/A torch to cut 5/8” thick, 6” wide mild steel plate into 9” lengths. I measured, marked & served as his bench hand. He had so much fun that he wants to come back tomorrow to cut the rest of the plate, of which there is a lot. These 5/8” plates are to be joined together using bevel joints & plug welds to make 2-1/2” thick plate welding coupons. This is a fun project for somebody who likes to machine & weld.
> 
> I will grab a picture of Jack W. in action tomorrow morning.


It is great what you did (are doing) for him.

Looking forward to the photos…


----------



## erikmannie

Here are two pictures from this morning. This is my buddy Jack:


----------



## paradox_pete

I haven't had a lot of shop time this summer, but hoping for more as the cold weather sets in.  Today's project was an indicator holder for the lathe.  I'm pretty pleased with the result.


----------



## savarin

paradox_pete said:


> I haven't had a lot of shop time this summer, but hoping for more as the cold weather sets in.  Today's project was an indicator holder for the lathe.  I'm pretty pleased with the result.


Pretty pleased?
I would be ecstatic at the result.
Beautiful bit of work.


----------



## paradox_pete

savarin said:


> Pretty pleased?
> I would be ecstatic at the result.
> Beautiful bit of work.


Well Thank You, thank you very much.  

I'm really glad I decided to add all the chamfers....I almost didn't.   Makes zero difference functionally, but makes a huge difference aesthetically (both visual and tactile).


----------



## Doug Gray

paradox_pete said:


> Well Thank You, thank you very much.
> 
> I'm really glad I decided to add all the chamfers....I almost didn't.   Makes zero difference functionally, but makes a huge difference aesthetically (both visual and tactile).


Plus separates us from the animals!


----------



## devils4ever

I'm slowly tooling up for my next project which will be a clock. I made a depthing tool al a Clickspring to help set the spacing on the gears (wheels and pinions). I made it out of mild steel except for the shafts which are drill rod.


----------



## devils4ever

As part of my tooling up for my clock build, I made this small tap handle based on Joe Pi's version on YouTube.

That's a 1-2-3 block for size comparison. It should handle taps about No 4 and below. That's a 2-56 tap in there.


----------



## ChazzC

paradox_pete said:


> I haven't had a lot of shop time this summer, but hoping for more as the cold weather sets in.  Today's project was an indicator holder for the lathe.  I'm pretty pleased with the result.




VERY nice! How do you retain the indicator in the block?


----------



## jmkasunich

paradox_pete said:


> I haven't had a lot of shop time this summer, but hoping for more as the cold weather sets in.  Today's project was an indicator holder for the lathe.  I'm pretty pleased with the result.
> View attachment 427417


Very nice!  How is the indicator held in?  I don't see any screws or other fasteners.


----------



## jwmelvin

I bought a smaller ham this year than in the past, and needed a stand that fit it. Not a ton of machining, but cutting the slot was a project. All stainless, a mix of 304 and 316.


----------



## francist

I have never seen such a thing before — ham stand — intriguing! Nice job on the fabrication too 

-frank


----------



## erikmannie

I bought 50 yard rolls of the following grits of quality Emery cloth from different sellers on eBay:

60, 80, 120, 150, 180, 220, 320 and 400

I paid an average of $23 delivered for each 50 yard roll. The widths are either 1”, 1-1/2” or 2”.




Should I be embarrassed to post that this is for getting a nice surface finish on workpieces on the lathe if I have failed to do so with HSS and/or carbide inserts and possibly a lathe file? 

I also use the Emery cloth (with acetone or **chlorine-free** brake cleaner) to weld prep an edge on tubing. For some reason, I have never used Emery cloth to weld prep a pipe edge. HSS on the lathe is great for that!

EDIT:
I meant to post this in “What Did You Buy Today?”. Apparently buying 8 rolls of Emery paper is a project now.


----------



## IamNotImportant

NCjeeper said:


> I built a back splash for the Jet lathe. I wanted to fabricate it out of metal. The quote I got from my metal supplier was over 400 dollars for a sheet of 18 gauge and 2 sticks of 1x1x8th wall tubing.   So I went the wood route and have 60 bucks in it so far. Just need to pick up some poly to protect it.
> View attachment 427273


i am glad that i saw this, thanks


----------



## Suzuki4evr

erikmannie said:


> Should I be embarrassed to post that this is for getting a nice surface finish on workpieces on the lathe if I have failed to do so with HSS and/or carbide inserts and possibly a lathe file?


No not at all


----------



## ChazzC

erikmannie said:


> I bought 50 yard rolls of the following grits of quality Emery cloth from different sellers on eBay:
> 
> 60, 80, 120, 150, 180, 220, 320 and 400
> 
> Should I be embarrassed to post that this is for getting a nice surface finish on workpieces on the lathe if I have failed to do so with HSS and/or carbide inserts and possibly a lathe file?



Certainly not: even Stefan uses emery & Scotch-Brite.


----------



## Suzuki4evr

tq60 said:


> When you have a bobcat you make attachments...
> 
> Many years ago we made a lig splitter, got a 4x24 cylinder on ebay for 99 shipped and over time found a chunk of heavy railroad mainline on the side of the road that was perfect length, used 1 inch plate for assorted parts and used a previous attachment plate to support it.
> 
> Used a trailer hitch as a interface so we still could use the attachment for other things.
> 
> Thing must weigh 700 pounds!
> 
> Over the years it has always been a pain as it is a bit large and in the way if we leave it attached.
> 
> We had from another project some landing gear that were for moving a platform, each has 4 wheels rated for 300 pounds, so made some brackets to go between them and the interface.
> 
> For the front harbor freight has casters with similar wheel for 19 bucks so 2 of those.
> 
> Noticed a radio rack foot would work as a mount so a bit of drilling and it is doe.
> 
> Need to make a hitch bar to attach to tow vehicle.
> 
> Rides well on all of the wheels but it was parked on a hill, a bit of work to move.
> 
> Now we can just drag it new the bobcat and connect the lines and not need to attach.
> 
> Will get some jumper hoses so we do not need to get as close.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


Looks like landing gear for a Boeing. When can we expect the plane build???


----------



## tq60

They just came out like that.

We had a platform from an old cell site, steel beds and such, 8 x 12 and 2200 or so pounds.

Was going to put the hf green house on it and have it able to move in the yard.

Wheels rated for 300 pounds, were on sale for bucks so bought many.

Rest was from the scrap pile.

It did work, but changed project, platform rebuilt in different place and function, gear went in storage for next need...

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


----------



## ChazzC

FINALLY, completed my @Doug Gray Indexing Plates:




Deburred the edges & lightly buffed the faces on a Scotch(-ish)-Brite wheel, then a light coating of T-9: I like the aged look. Also made a couple of brass-tipped 10-24 set screws for use with softer materials.

Going to use them for my version of a Ratcheting Arbor Press Handle, stay tuned!


----------



## Doug Gray

ChazzC said:


> FINALLY, completed my @Doug Gray Indexing Plates:
> 
> View attachment 427728
> 
> 
> Deburred the edges & lightly buffed the faces on a Scotch(-ish)-Brite wheel, then a light coating of T-9: I like the aged look. Also made a couple of brass-tipped 10-24 set screws for use with softer materials.
> 
> Going to use them for my version of a matching Arbor Press Handle, stay tuned!


Very nice job Chazz!


----------



## ChazzC

Doug Gray said:


> Very nice job Chazz!


Thanks, Doug! Only took 18 months.

Happy belated Action de Grâce.


----------



## Doug Gray

mèsi anpil?


----------



## paradox_pete

ChazzC said:


> VERY nice! How do you retain the indicator in the block?


My initial hope was that I could bore the recess to be a very close fit, but this plan was stymied by the fact that the body of the indicator is not particularly round.  ( curses, foiled again! ).  At the moment I have opted for a simple o-ring on the stem which is holding the indicator tightly in place.   Seems to be working just fine.

-Pete


----------



## ChazzC

Doug Gray said:


> mèsi anpil?


Wow, that was an effort, you’re welcome:


----------



## dkemppai

%$^*@@#$^(*^%!!!

In all fairness, it may have been my fault. I did mistakenly use it as a C clamp!


----------



## dkemppai

So in the process of breaking things, something really did get accomplished. 

The DRO scales are now back on the old sheldon lathe. Still need to dial indicate the cross feed scale square, but it's mounted. Decided to mount the scale cantilevered past the carriage. This old lathe has such a short tailstock stroke, with the scale mounted in the previous position it was always in the way. 

So, the new solution was to mount a 1.5x1.5x1/4 wall square tube using some existing holes. That was used to mount some aluminum angle with a plate welded on to support the scale. (Them inside corner TIG welds are always fun!). The mount was machined square and bolted to the square tube. A small angle bracket was used to attach the read head to the way cover using existing holes again. Now it's out of the way. And the wires hang free. I'm curious if heavy cutting will cause anything to vibrate. I can tap the way cover and sometimes see the tenths digit jump during the tap. Was really glad to get all this mounted without any extra holes in the machine itself. 

 Getting closer to putting this old thing back to work!


----------



## pontiac428

I had to do some refurbishing on my shady eBay Dynasty 280DX.  The doghouse was the wrong shade of WTF for me, so I fixed it with a more classic shade of blue and some 1970's decals for retro class.




And we had to pause for a family photo.  Everybody say argon!


----------



## snoopdog

SHsh, top secret whittling


----------



## FOMOGO

Setting up the valve train on a new engine I donated for my sons 67 Galaxie. Mike


----------



## Eyerelief

FOMOGO said:


> Setting up the valve train on a new engine I donated for my sons 67 Galaxie. Mike


No doubt that one has been to the gym!  Looks good Mike


----------



## FOMOGO

Thanks. It's been rubbed on a little. Bored, stroked, cross bolted mains, hyd roller cam, ported heads, etc., backed by a five speed Tremek. Should get down the road in a satisfactory manor. Mike



Eyerelief said:


> No doubt that one has been to the gym! Looks good Mike


----------



## Eyerelief

FOMOGO said:


> Thanks. It's been rubbed on a little. Bored, stroked, cross bolted mains, hyd roller cam, ported heads, etc., backed by a five speed Tremek. Should get down the road in a satisfactory manor. Mike


I would think you would need a lot of CFM’s to feed all that displacement

Especially at altitude


----------



## Suzuki4evr

FOMOGO said:


> Setting up the valve train on a new engine I donated for my sons 67 Galaxie. Mike
> 
> View attachment 427950
> View attachment 427951


Would have liked to hear that kitten purr. Looks stunning Mike.


----------



## FOMOGO

I generally only work on it when Evan comes up from Denver. They were here over Thanksgiving, so we got a bit more done. I'll finish up the valve train, as that's a bit beyond his current skill level. It will get finished, and back in the car this summer, as he has the summer off from his teaching job. The old engine had an 800cfm carb on it. May try to get some video with sound when it is finished.The engine isn't huge, just 434 c.i. (originallly a 360 truck block), and may be upgrading to a Sniper fuel injection setup. should be making in the neighborhood of 520-550hp, with similar torque numbers. I have some more interesting engines coming up, but no solid schedule, just get to them when time allows. Mike



Eyerelief said:


> I would think you would need a lot of CFM’s to feed all that displacement





Suzuki4evr said:


> Would have liked to hear that kitten purr. Looks stunning Mike.


----------



## jmkasunich

Working on the largest chunk I've ever put on a bridgeport table.

This is the gantry for a 4x8 CNC router that I'm building with some friends.  The raw weldment is 60-1/2" long and somewhere around 120-130 lbs.  Two 4x4x3/16" square tubes with a 2-1/2" gap between for the ballscrew.  1/4" thick end plates and 2" square tube spacers holding them together.  1" wide strips to support the linear rails are stitch welded on the front.

First step was to get it mounted on the table.  We planned the design around this operation.  The 2x2 spacer tubes are cross drilled 5/8" for clamping studs and the outer two are located so they line up with the bridgeport table slots.  Since it is a weldment it is distorted.  We're supporting it on three points so that it won't spring after we unclamp it.  Dialed it in more-or-less parallel to the table since the final accuracy comes from the machining, not the original weldment.

Drilled three 0.250 reference holes in the front face of the upper tube.  One dead center, the others exactly 11" each way.  We have to rotate the turret and extend the ram to reach the ends, but we can put a dowel pin in a collet and pick up at least one reference hole at any turret location so we can properly set the DRO.

Pictured is milling the linear rail support strips.  We did the middle section first, then rotated the turret to the left and finally to the right.

The upper strip started 1/4" thick and we milled off about 0.030 full width in the middle.  Because the weldment is distorted it was closer to 0.070 at the ends, but the result is a flat front face.  The lower strip started out 5/16" thick.  It is milled flat to the other strip, so we took off about 0.090 in the middle and roughly 0.130 at the ends.  Unlike the top strip we didn't mill all the way across, instead we left a shoulder on what will be the bottom edge.  (See red arrow in the CAD screenshot.)  That way when we mount the linear rail we can clamp it against the shoulder so it will be straight in that axis.

Next step will be drilling and tapping the 50 holes to mount the linear rails.  Same setup on the bridgeport, again using the reference holes so we can continue the hole pattern accurately after moving the turret.  We were hoping to do it all last night but the milling went slowly and it got late.  We left everything set up for the drilling...


----------



## pontiac428

130 lbs just for the gantry beam?  Wow.  Is this machine going to run in super slowmo?  It must be a substantial machine, what are the specs?


----------



## jmkasunich

pontiac428 said:


> 130 lbs just for the gantry beam?  Wow.  Is this machine going to run in super slowmo?  It must be a substantial machine, what are the specs?


It's intended to be a pro-grade heavy duty wood router, suitable for cutting things like cabinet sides, etc.  With the goal of also being rigid enough to be able to cut aluminum.  2.2kW spindle motor, 4' x 8' table capacity.  On a par with something like a Shopbot Alpha  (https://www.shopbottools.com/products/alpha), Laguna Swift (https://lagunatools.com/cnc/swift-series/standard/), or Grizzly G0985 (https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-4-x-8-cnc-router/g0895)


----------



## dkemppai

jmkasunich said:


> It's intended to be a pro-grade heavy duty wood router, suitable for cutting things like cabinet sides, etc.  With the goal of also being rigid enough to be able to cut aluminum.



Naaah, You're building another workbench/storage unit. 
Trust me, that's what they usually get used for.


----------



## twhite

I tried making the Hemingway tailstock die holder. I watched a few vids and reverse engineered it. I need to make a 13/16” adapter and the Morse #2 shaft. It looks like it should work. Time will tell. 







Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## snoopdog

FOMOGO said:


> Setting up the valve train on a new engine I donated for my sons 67 Galaxie. Mike
> 
> View attachment 427950
> View attachment 427951


That valvetrain looks stout.


----------



## jwmelvin

I made a fixture plate for my rotary table to facilitate cutting radiuses. And cut a few.


----------



## snoopdog

Not today, but I completely forgot to post this awhile back, and I really didn't know if I should at the time. Any way, my company got a contract for chest and backplates for the Ukraine. Don't remember the composition of the steel but it wasn't common, pretty proud of it at the time, even tho had to deal with some questionable characters. Shipped by air immediately,. Pretty cool. We contracted it on being able to use the lazer, but ran into problems with the material, but plasma worked just fine.


----------



## Just for fun

3D printed a micrometer holder for my lathe.


----------



## dkemppai

Just for fun said:


> 3D printed a micrometer holder for my lathe.


That's an idea! I just finished repairing an old dial indicator that came in a lot of indicators. Now that it's working the plan was to make indicator holder for the toolpost. Never think of 3D printing, even though there's one sitting on the bench behind me as I type this! 

But, the big question. Can someone tell me what the tip of this indicator was for? It's three flats ground to make a point. Never seen on like this before. My guess is to check countersinks or something, but not sure. The sharp edges don't match a flat head screw, so that's out. Someone ovbiously spend some time making this, based on the ground surface it was certainly intentional. 

Anyway, this indicator now has a big button type end for lathe centering stuff...


----------



## extropic

dkemppai said:


> That's an idea! I just finished repairing an old dial indicator that came in a lot of indicators. Now that it's working the plan was to make indicator holder for the toolpost. Never think of 3D printing, even though there's one sitting on the bench behind me as I type this!
> 
> But, the big question. Can someone tell me what the tip of this indicator was for? It's three flats ground to make a point. Never seen on like this before. *My guess is to check countersinks or something*, but not sure. The sharp edges don't match a flat head screw, so that's out. Someone ovbiously spend some time making this, based on the ground surface it was certainly intentional.
> 
> Anyway, this indicator now has a big button type end for lathe centering stuff...



Metric flat heads are commonly 90°. US flatheads are commonly 82° and sometimes 100°. Will the tip match any of those angles?

My guess was for checking countersinks or chamfers (at holes). You'd have to mount the DI in a frame of some sort (similar to a depth gage with legs). If you wanted a countersink that was effectively .200" deep, the DI would read .200 on a flat surface and read zero in the countersink.


----------



## ChazzC

extropic said:


> Metric flat heads are commonly 90°. US flatheads are commonly 82° and sometimes 100°. Will the tip match any of those angles?
> 
> My guess was for checking countersinks or chamfers (at holes). You'd have to mount the DI in a frame of some sort (similar to a depth gage with legs). If you wanted a countersink that was effectively .200" deep, the DI would read .200 on a flat surface and read zero in the countersink.


Could be a shop-made modification; all of the countersink depth gauges I have seen have cones, and they're not cheap so fabricating one makes sense:


----------



## GoceKU

Today i finally had some time to work on the shed, its been waiting for outer sheet metal for half a month now. It's december but the weather seams to forgotten its still green and warm. On the shed i still need to make the front door and cover the front. I have some free time coming and there are lots of holidays in january, i'll finish it then it seams. I did have to move back all the sand bags next to it and still doesn't look great but is better.


----------



## NCjeeper

My big Jet lathe should have a lead screw support, but it was missing when I got the lathe. I started in on making one.




This will be the top block that rides on the V way. Chewing out as much material as I can before I tilt the head 45 degrees.


----------



## paradox_pete

Finally cobbled together a display mount for the TouchDRO tablet.....
	

		
			
		

		
	





The black arm is a TV mount arm obtained from Ebay.  I just put the arm on a bit of plate to mount it on the mill, and fabricated the tablet holder.

Also made a lathe tool height setting gizmo, following examples seen on Tom Lipton's youtube and others here.
	

		
			
		

		
	





Threaded 1/2-40 for precise adjustability.  There is a nylon tipped set screw fix the setting.

-Pete


----------



## rwm

The touch DRO is super cool looking but what it the advantage of the Bluetooth connection? You still have wires from the readers to the BT box, yes? Now you need 2 power supplies, one for the BT box and one for the display? 
I am struggling on a DRO for my lathe. The other problem is I need slim scales at least for my cross slide. It is only 1" thick.


----------



## ChazzC

Pro’s: Flexible location of the display (Mini-Mill doesn’t lend itself to mounting a large display), cables from scales can be confined to the machine, can use lower cost scales (for Mini-Mills the iGaging SS Absolute Plus scales provide adequate resolution), fewer power cables than using individual readouts,  you can use the tablet to access web-based resources and Yuriy - if you have issues or questions he actually gets back to you.

Cons: Separate power supply to the TouchDRO Box & tablet.


----------



## derfatdutchman

Nothing fun in the shop this weekend, just one of the things you have to do from time to time. Noticed the lathe was starting to turn a taper, and it's been some time since I checked. Cleaned it up and broke out the level. Once the basic leveling was done made a test bar and started the process of making test cuts. After some shimming and re-shimming got it dead nuts perfect. Tonight, I will check the tail stock alignment, and once that is dialed in, I can go back to making chips.


----------



## WobblyHand

Not quite POTD, but close, sort of.  Finally got a round tuit and finished a lathe tool holder rack and holders for the tool holders.  3d printed the dove tailed holders based on @vtcnc's design.  Had a stick of 1.5" 80/20 and mounted it to the lathe.  Sounded simple, right?  That silly stick and mounting it fought me for quite a while.  Most of it was me unestimating how much thread depth I needed.  There were some 5/16" holes in the 80/20 and for some silly reason I though I could screw some 5/16 screws in there and thread into the aluminum.  It went ok for one of the holes but not the other.  So off it came from the lathe and set it up on the milling table.

I used a 5/16 drill to center on the hole.  Then I used a 13/32" drill to open up the sides of the 80/20, so I could easily get a 3/8" tap in there.  Then tapped to 3/8-16.  I used a 1-1/4" 3/8" bolt to attach the stick to the lathe, but put in a 5 degree wedge between the back splash and the 80/20.  I had printed that along with the holders.  The wedge makes all the dovetails point up by 5 degrees so they won't fall off.  Finally got it all together.

It was a long day, because I was diagnosing a bum X DRO.  PM is sending me a new read head, so that is good. 

So finally, this round tuit is done.  Makes me happy to be able to clean up some of the clutter.  I need to make some more holders, including one for the live center and a drill chuck.  They will need to be a lot beefier.  I will have to keep my eye on the AXA4-D boring holder, that is a lot of weight hanging out there trying to twist the printed plastic.  May have to redesign that.  Hmm, must have taken the picture before I hung it up.  Take my word for it, the plastic section that grabs the 80/20 is only 1/2" wide, there's about 1.5" of steel hanging to the right of the dovetail.  Think when it gets warmer (next summer) there will be sagging, maybe even sooner.


----------



## snoopdog

Big run of tables lately at work, another 150 of these to be tapped. This bunch will have the cedarburg free and clear, woohoo!


----------



## NCjeeper

Made a new shaft for a customer. 2" diameter 1045 with 1/2" keyway and a couple of 5/8s thru holes.


----------



## francist

Finally managed to get this off my bench, I’ve been pecking away at it for nearly two months now!

I been wanting shelf for in front of one of my bay windows for quite a while so this was going to be it. A former neighbour had left me a nice board of teak but I could never really come up with the ideal project for it. I’m not a huge fan of teak itself and even less so as one monolithic board, so I decided to slice it up into strips and reconfigure it into something else. 

I wanted to keep a look of airiness and also play off the nice angles that the sun makes through a window so this is what I came up with. This is just after glue-up, the two legs will spring off the top of the baseboard to support the front edge.








And the same pieces after a couple coats of varnish. I like varnish, and I’m getting to like teak a bit more too.




And finally in place this morning. Thanks for looking!






-frank


----------



## GoceKU

Last few weeks i've been very busy but one by one i've been finishing the extra tasks and today i've got the entire afternoon free. Being me i spent it in the big garage working on the W210 mercedes. It needed some cosmetic work for which i don't have patience but the body shops around here don't want to fix parts. Prices for a new front bumper are more then what that car is worth. So i spent some time plasting welding and reinforcing all the cracks with stainless mesh on the front bumper, side skirts and had to fix one tire on it, they need replaced but that will have to wait. Now i need it to hold air so i can move it around, the tire machine is coming in very handy.


----------



## Eyerelief

Even a blind cow finds an oat every now and again.

I picked up an old, used Jacobs 18N bearing super duper chuck USA made on the bay for $70 delivered.  Here is a pic off the bay:


At first glance, I thought it may have had a little too much oxidation on it.  But I knew it could also be an old paraffin based rust inhibitor that had collected some dust and crap from sitting.  Turns out that is what it was.  The original owner had taken pretty good care of it.  The build up on the nose is aluminum, peeled off easy. It cleaned up very well using a scothbrite pad with the chuck spinning in the lathe. 



BUT!!  That is not what brings me before the alter of the Hobby Machinist........
If you notice in the first picture, it came with a 1.25" straight shank.  Really nice, very hard, fit nothing I had.  I set out to remove it and put a Morse taper 4 on it.  I don't know how old this chuck is, it says made in USA on it.  Something tells me the newer ones may not but I no very little about Jacobs super chucks and women.  The straight shank was firmly attached.  I did not have wedges to fit a 4JT so I tried going about it a different way.  I used a bearing puller.
The bearing puller did not quite fit in the groove at the base of the shank, so I chucked the hole mess up in the lathe and deepened and widened the groove in the shank with a parting tool.  About .040 deep and .125 wide was all it took to get a bite with the bearing puller.


Using the gaps in the bearing puller halves, I rubber banded a couple of .375 dowels to push against.  The dowels transfer the energy to the back of the chuck.  The rubber bands simply hold things in place until the pipe makes contact.  You could use a wire tie, tape etc.:



Tried and aluminum pipe as a pusher, but the dowels immediately dug into it.




 Yup, it was on there pretty good.  Switched over to a deep socket.  NOW I can get some beer behind it:


It took a fair amount of force but it did pop out.  Wedges have always given me fits, this did not.  Probably do it this way going forward.  If nothing else, I got to play with a lot more tools.................
I did press the chuck apart to get out all the old grease, cleaned it in the parts washer and reassembled.  Operates through its 3/4" range very smooth.  I dont know what runout will look like because I don't have an arbor yet, but since it is for use in the tailstock of the lathe, I am not overly concerned.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

That is a beauty, what a find! Looks mint. Good job on getting the arbor off. I've done a few of those large straight shank arbors and I now drill a 5/8" hole through the chuck and press it off with a short 5/8" dowel held lightly in the jaws


----------



## twhite

Got around to turning up the Morse taper shaft for the tailstock die holder. Fun little lathe job. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			






Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## Firstram

mattthemuppet2 said:


> That is a beauty, what a find! Looks mint. Good job on getting the arbor off. I've done a few of those large straight shank arbors and I now drill a 5/8" hole through the chuck and press it off with a short 5/8" dowel held lightly in the jaws


I like to drill and ream a 1/4 hole and fill the cavity with oil. A 1/4 rod for a piston and a solid wack with a hammer will hydraulic the arbor off with ease.


----------



## twhite

Firstram said:


> I like to drill and ream a 1/4 hole and fill the cavity with oil. A 1/4 rod for a piston and a solid wack with a hammer will hydraulic the arbor off with ease.



We did that all the time removing leader pin bushings from molds. I used grease as it did not spray out when the bushings came out. 


Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## francist

Knocked another little challenge off the list this afternoon. I made a fork.

A few days ago a buddy brought me another old Singer machine and, long story short, while I was trying to research a couple of the attachments I got sidetracked on a technique known as “hemstitching”. You don’t see it much nowadays but I’m sure lots of you may recall grandma’s nice tablecloth or one of grandad’s pocket handkerchiefs that had it around the border, even if nobody knew what it was called. 

Essentially it’s an open “ladder” of stitches that links two pieces of fabric but with nothing else in between — it’s entirely open, like a single row of mesh. There are dedicated machines to do this in a factory setting and there’s also attachments for domestic machines that allow you create it. And, you can also use an accessory called a “hemstitching fork”. So this got me curious. 

The forks are few and far between and I was not going to pay what the ones that I could find were going for. Heck, it’s a metal fork, I should be able to do that! Sooo…

Some 1/8” by 3/8” salvage from an old filing drawer divider would be the test material. I could see from pictures the real forks looked to be made from 1/8” x 3/16” maybe, but the width of the legs didn’t appear to me to be critical so I thought my 3/8 stuff would be okay. To put the bow into it though was going to be tough so I thinned the centre some on the little miller.






Then to the hot shop for bringing up to bright orange and wrapping the legs halfway around a stub sticking out of my vise. A little tweaking on the anvil to get things into alignment and it looks pretty passable.




Okay so the idea here is you fold your piece of fabric once over this fork thing, hold the fabric snuggly, and then run a row of stitching down the little gap between the two legs. Then you slit the fabric, open the two halves, and turn back the narrow edges to reveal your laddered stitches. Press open and stitch down the flaps and you’re done. Got it?




Here’s the finished product (complete with some incredibly crooked topstitching!) The two pieces of fabric are linked only by the stitches running at ninety degrees to the edge, there’s nothing else in between. 




Will I ever use this technique again? Nah, probably not, but it was cool to figure it out. Thanks for looking! 

-frank


----------



## savarin

I use a heap of worm drive clips on my aquaponics and garden irrigation and have always been (being polite) annoyed with them.
For some reason there has been a number of wire clamp projects all over the place and heaps were recommended to me by youtube.
So I thought I would have a go and make one.
It actually wasnt as simple as I first thought, the order of work was very important.
First I drilled three 4mm cross holes, one for the first cross bar and one at each end of what will be the slot in a bit of 12mm stainless.
Then I turned a taper on one end.
Then I drilled it to 8mm
Then I set it up in a tool holder and using a 4mm end mill I milled out the slot on one side, then turned it over to mill out the other side.


To get the end mill in alignment I passed it through one of the 4mm holes the adjusted the tool holder to the correct height but I milled each side separately. The finish was very smooth and just needed a quick touch up with a file on the edges.
The first attempt at drilling the all thread was a failure as the drill wandered slightly and the hole didnt line up with the slot so the second attempt I placed the M8x1.25 all thread in the body and clamped it in the tool holder and used the 4mm end mill to drill out the hole for the wider bar.
That worked a treat.
A brass end cap for looks and so the handle/nut wont gall and an acorn nut on the end so the handle wont spin off.


I milled a flat on one side of the handle to sit on the brass when tightening then a (very) quick polish and done.


----------



## Nutfarmer

Like how you used the tool post as a milling attachment.


----------



## ChazzC

"Fixed" my low-end adjustable parallels (you know, the ones that come in a blue case):



When I first received the set two years ago I had to strip them down and flush out all of the grit left from the grinding/sanding operation, then used some Starrett M1 oil on re-assembly. Complained to the Seller who offered to exchange them, but I figured that all of them would be the same and I did get them at a good price. I also asked if I could get some spare screws since the ones used were crappy, soft POS's: no luck.

When I was using one a few weeks ago I was again concerned that the soft screws would eventually be a problem, so I ordered a handful of M3-0.50 x 6mm insert screws (I had some shorter ones than fit well, but not much engagement). The screws finally arrived and after chasing the threads in the parallels (the original screws & the holes were a wee bit undersized), cleaning out the swarf and touching the backs of the parallels on some 220 grit to remove the burrs I have a smooth operating set that I am confident using without worrying about the screws.

Here are what the old screws looked like:


----------



## dkemppai

This is turning out to be a fix stuff day.

Have a small rental unit, and last night my renter texted asking for help, a part on his cross bow broke. (He's a partial quadriplegic, but has enough control to fire a bow or rifle with some extra tooling). Anyway, there is bracket where the cocking attachment hooks to the stock. It's a two piece clamp where a couple of button socket head cap screws pinch the clamp to the bow stock. Anyway, the screws broke. Quickest solution was to drill it all out, and go from a #8 button to a 1/4-20 SHCS. Quick drill and tap, and he was back in action for today.

Of course, then this morning he called. The well was out. Had to leave work early to chase that down. Turned out to be the start cap in the pump controller. Luckily, I'm a packrat, and had a suitable start cap from some equipment I scrapped years ago...  So, that's up and running again.


This old cap is most likely dried out. Cap meter said it was about 1000 times less than it should be!

On the way back, pulling into the garage a mouse run across my new garage floor. Off to the hardware store for 10 mouse traps. That isn't going to happen again! No way, No how. Will not tolerate mice in the new house! (A garage is way less sealed than a house, but still...)

One small shop project. Stashed a box of tool room wheels for SG from on line. These are only 6" dia, but the price was good enough. Supposed to be for HSS, so we'll see how these are. I'm no expert at picking out wheels, but I can tell right a way when I picked the wrong one! LOL



On to fixing more broken stuff!


----------



## dkemppai

savarin said:


> I use a heap of worm drive clips on my aquaponics and garden irrigation and have always been (being polite) annoyed with them.
> For some reason there has been a number of wire clamp projects all over the place and heaps were recommended to me by youtube.


Maybe I'm slower than the average squirrel... How do you use these? 

Or alternate version: 

They look great... what are they?


----------



## savarin

dkemppai said:


> Maybe I'm slower than the average squirrel... How do you use these?
> 
> Or alternate version:
> 
> They look great... what are they?


If I read your question correctly I believe this is what you are asking


----------



## Eyerelief

Recently bought me a used scissor style knarler.  The bolt that provides the force was badly damaged.  Bent and threads buggered up. I knew that when I bought it but thought it was as simple as replacing a swing bolt and done.  Its always that easy right.  The swing bolt was not standard, it had a .250 through hole and 3/8"-16 thread.  All I could find with 3/8 threads had 3/8 through holes.
So, I chucked up a piece of .750 steel, turned down a little over 3.25" of it to .375 diameter.  3/8-16 threaded about 3" of that.  Used the ball turner to put a radius on the other end.



Milled flat the ball end leaving it .374 thick.  Drilled a hole in the center and reamed to .251


Now the Eagle Rock is ready.


----------



## francist

Nicely done!


----------



## FOMOGO

Some nice work on all the above projects. I spent most of the day shoveling snow, and working on the backhoe, because I had failed to get winter fuel in it soon enough. bathing in diesel fuel is always such a joy. Mike


----------



## Eyerelief

FOMOGO said:


> Some nice work on all the above projects. I spent most of the day shoveling snow, and working on the backhoe, because I had failed to get winter fuel in it soon enough. bathing in diesel fuel is always such a joy. Mike


shoveling the weather without tires underneath you can make your back angry


----------



## GoceKU

Today is a holiday in my country, that means i have the day off. So i decided to start an overdue project, make some shelving and a stand for the corner where the fiat 600 used to lay. Before i start doing anything i need to clear out everything, that was lots of work. but one by one i managed to get it done, i also moved the tubing from the car trailer i cut apart combined with some new tubing i bought should be enough. Lots of work in a short amount of time, my hands feel 5 sm longer.


----------



## Steve-F

I wished I had a cement floor in my garage, I hate gravel!!


----------



## twhite

Got into work this morning and had to do a bit of scribing. Well it seems that my scribe grew legs and wandered off. So made myself a new one. I used a busted 1/16” carbide endmill for the tip. 







Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## devils4ever

twhite said:


> Got into work this morning and had to do a bit of scribing. Well it seems that my scribe grew legs and wandered off. So made myself a new one. I used a busted 1/16” carbide endmill for the tip.



What did you use to grind the carbide tip?


----------



## twhite

We have an 8” bench grinder with the green wheel for carbide. I just free handed it. Once the lock tite cures I will chuck it back up in the lathe and give it a go with a Diamond hone to get it evened out. 


Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## dkemppai

FOMOGO said:


> ... because I had failed to get winter fuel in it soon enough. bathing in diesel fuel is always such a joy. Mike


No fun!

Had fuel gel up in a tractor a few years back. Had added anti-gel to the tank, but failed to notice the tank was really two tanks connected with two hoses! Fluid never made it to the other tank. No heat in the garage at that time... not a fun problem.

I just started running number 1 early in the fall, and adding anti-gel year around.   Not sure if wear will be worse on these common rail engines with the #1 in warmer weather. My guess is not, but I think the old mechanical pump units wouldn't like it tho. Even if it's harder on the pump, it's worth it when we get those 10F degree cold snaps early. Sort of don't have a choice around here.


----------



## GoceKU

Today after work i got straight to making the shelving in the big garage, i did get some help from a relative. He is much younger and not that long ago learn to weld but hasn't practiced much mig welding, manly arc welding. For the shelfs i used the sides from the car trailer i cut apart just welded some new small tubing for legs and used round tubing on the top to make a tire rack then came time for the stool for the water container, it holds a tone so it needs to be strong, i used the thick tubing and made it with 5 legs, also ankerd it and the shelves to the wall and the floor. Last job was to paint all the shiny metal tubing and weld joints, i don't care about all the different colors but i don't want to see rust. It was much easier with two people and my relative did most of the welding he did learn a lot and the shelving got welded on every joint on every side just to practice.


----------



## AGCB97

What do you use the water container for?


----------



## GoceKU

Water or diesel fuel, dependent of the need.


----------



## NCjeeper

I made more progress on my lead screw support bracket.


----------



## slow-poke

Or     "What to do with old worn out screwdrivers and a fireplace poker handle"

I can now put the 15/16" wrench back in the tool box, the new handles offer more leverage.


----------



## JohnWold

Just finished up a set of 3-ball handles for my HF milling machine.


----------



## slow-poke

JohnWold said:


> Just finished up a set of 3-ball handles for my HF milling machine.


How do you go about getting the nice contour on the handle? 

This would be easy with a CNC machine, I would think not so easy with a manual machine.


----------



## JohnWold

slow-poke said:


> How do you go about getting the nice contour on the handle?
> 
> This would be easy with a CNC machine, I would think not so easy with a manual machine.


I used the cross slide on the lathe.
They have some specs in the Machinery handbook, but mine are slightly non-standard to fit the material.
It's easiest to draw the design on paper then take measurements directly from there. As Mr. Pete says, I used CAD (Cardboard Automated Design)
The balls on the big end screw on. The smaller end and machining was done with the part screwed onto a mandrel.


----------



## slow-poke

That seems like it would be tricky to get a really smooth contour?

Its a bit like trying to cut a circle with just the X & Y hand wheels on a mill the amount you turn each hand wheel keeps changing, (max on X when Y = 0 , and then the opposite and every possible combination in between. Effortless with CNC, pick a diameter and say go, the computer is much better at calculating and turning the wheels in real time.


----------



## Boswell

I've seen mulitple Youtube videos where you use the X & Y to cut a stepped approximation of the curve you want and then use a file to smooth it out. The more steps you put in, the less work with the file.


----------



## JohnWold

I'm sorry, I misspoke. 
I used the compound on the cross slide.  You just have to set the angle on the compound and crank the handle.


----------



## tjb

My lathe has a very nice factory chip shield for the chuck, but not for the tool post, so I decided to fabricate my own.  I've seen several that our members have made, but I was hoping to end up with something a little more compact and versatile.  After much pondering with regard to criteria and function, I came up with the following design:

1.  It occurred to me that there is sufficient thread exposed at the top of the tool post to attach a holder.



2.  I also had two very nice Noga indicator holders that I bought for a project quite some time ago.  They have been resting comfortably in one of my toolboxes ever since.  I decided one would be an excellent holder for a plexiglass shield mounted to the tool post.  So I fabricated top and bottom ends to replace the originals.  (I started by attempting to modify Noga's straight end but quickly changed my mind.  If I ever needed to use it again as a second indicator holder, I would still have the original parts.)



3.  The top end of the fabricated base is drilled and tapped to attach to the holder.  The bottom end is milled to a 7/8" hex and drilled and tapped to attach to the tool post.  Even though it is hex, it is mounted just barely over hand tight to keep it from slipping.  'Fort-Knox' lockdown is not necessary.  The clip that holds the plexiglass is a through-hole on the top face, and 10-32 threaded on the bottom.  I used a 1/4" end mill to machine the slot.  Since the plexiglass is 0.220 thou, I thought I would need to put a spacer in the slot, but it's very snug without it.






The shield is made out of a piece of scrap clear plexiglass.  The Noga body makes it fully adjustable and can be positioned to ride above the chuck shield for close-up work.  In addition, it would be a very easy matter to make different size plexiglass shields if necessary.  I'm going to experiment with it for awhile, but I suspect I'll end up making an L- or U-shaped shield to direct chips into the cabinet instead of on the floor.  We'll see.

Regards


----------



## GoceKU

With the fuel prices as high as they are here in europe and small distance between places and free charging electric cars are becoming more and more popular. I can't afford one, but people around me can and i get to prep and test them for our roads. This time i have a E- Golf, and it's a disappointment, the body style is very popular and it blends in much better than the priuses and the leafs. But being a golf more than 10 minutes ride my back hurts, the seats are rock hard, the suspension is stiff and has lots of roll in the corners. Now i have to make it better, have i mention the understeer, maybe the worst i've felt and i've driven some very sketchy cars. Thankfully VW safeties are easy to get around.


----------



## wayback machine

Looks more crowded in the "engine" bay than I thought an E-car would be, but still nothing like my V-6 Mercury mariner ;~)


----------



## GoceKU

To me looks like a parts bin car, i don't know which shock absorbers they used but they are too stiff and the springs are too soft. I have an appointment to have the shocks check because it's still under warranty. The engine bay also looks unfinished, if you want to see complicated check out my twin turbo 607 there is a thread on this forum about it when i rebuild the engine.


----------



## dkemppai

wayback machine said:


> Looks more crowded in the "engine" bay than I thought an E-car would be, but still nothing like my V-6 Mercury mariner ;~)


I have the Escape version of your Mercury (If you have the older body style). Actually that one isn't too bad under the hood. 

The engine bay in this E-bug actually looks good to me. The HV wiring appears to be short, and up high to protect it. Right on top of the Motor/Trans. The thing that a lot of people miss, is the fact that these cars do need liquid cooling. That piping and hoses is typically pretty ugly!


----------



## GoceKU

dkemppai said:


> I have the Escape version of your Mercury (If you have the older body style). Actually that one isn't too bad under the hood.
> 
> The engine bay in this E-bug actually looks good to me. The HV wiring appears to be short, and up high to protect it. Right on top of the Motor/Trans. The thing that a lot of people miss, is the fact that these cars do need liquid cooling. That piping and hoses is typically pretty ugly!


Talking about complicated engine bay, french do it best   








						Goce's 06 twin turbo diesel peugeot
					

There is Snow outside in April and i cannot go and drive in it, my city is in complete lockdown because of the coronavirus. So only thing i can do is rest or work in my workshop. I chose to get done as much as i can on the 607 to finish it, started with what remember being hard. Installing the...




					www.hobby-machinist.com


----------



## GoceKU

That golf must have a stronger charger, it nearly burns down the power company's electrical box. I have a 22Kw capable EV charger in the big garage but i've limited it to 25 amps and i have a 32amp breaker but saterly the big garage lost power after few checks i found this mess, the neutral wire caught fire and burns a hole in the 63 amp fuse next to it. I had a 50 amp fuse and there was a spare clamp in the box. I managed to get power restore, but that is not the right clamp to go from copper to aluminium wire. I did move the Golf to the small garage on a 10 amp slow charge.


----------



## paradox_pete

So this was more than 1 days work, but...I'll share, but keep this under your hat....top secret project, for a special customer.  Jolly old fellow, you might know him....White beard, Red suit?  


A "compact rotary broach" to Hemingway plans.   I actually started making duplicates of all the parts (one set for myself), but dropped that as deadline pressure mounted.  When they say "compact" they mean it!  I included the pen for scale.  It's remarkably small, and I think a fair bit of thought was put into making it as compact as possible.  Here's it is disassembled.


This was a really fun and (for me) challenging project.  Lots of close tolerances to hit for the bearings.  I'm pretty stoked that I managed to hit them all pretty good.  There is no perceptible play in the spindle either radially or axially, yet it spins freely.  I did have to polish in a couple of the fits with emery cloth.  The mic said I hit my dimension to the .0001", but the bearings still wouldn't go on. It didn't take much though.  

There is room for improvement in the broaches themselves.  The 2 I've made work, but I used a fiddly arrangement involving a collet block, angle block, and vise stops to machine them (from O1 tool steel) which could definitely be improved upon.  Probably need to make a chuck adapter for the rotary table so I can mount the collet chuck on it and use that.  The customer demands this ship tomorrow though, so that will have to wait....

-Pete


----------



## wayback machine

GoceKU said:


> Talking about complicated engine bay, french do it best
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Goce's 06 twin turbo diesel peugeot
> 
> 
> There is Snow outside in April and i cannot go and drive in it, my city is in complete lockdown because of the coronavirus. So only thing i can do is rest or work in my workshop. I chose to get done as much as i can on the 607 to finish it, started with what remember being hard. Installing the...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.hobby-machinist.com


WOW !


----------



## wayback machine

Living in the hot, humid south, I've always wondered how much running the air con, in an E-car, would cut down the driving range.
It's a fact of life here, for much of the year.


----------



## brino

wayback machine said:


> Living in the hot, humid south, I've always wondered how much running the air con, in an E-car, would cut down the driving range.
> It's a fact of life here, for much of the year.



....and conversely, up here a great heater and windshield defrost are absolute requirements. 
Worse, we need them most when it's colder, just when the batteries are at their least efficient.
The extra heat came for free* with internal combustion.
Brian

*-"free" discounting fuel costs and as long as mother nature can swallow more carbon


----------



## wayback machine

brino said:


> The extra heat came for free* with internal combustion.


Well, if dkemppai is correct, and the e-cars need a circulating liquid cooling system, that would hopefully take care of the heating.......Maybe.


----------



## rdean

I made a block with a ER32 nose.  I have seen these around for many years and wondered just why I needed one for my shop.  
I was making some expandable mandrels the other day and while slitting the end of mandrel it hit me. ( not the mandrel but a thought)  
If only I had a collet block I could make the second slit by just turning the block and have 4 equal sections without a lot of setup.  
Since I have thought of so many other uses that I can't see how I got along with out it.  
I did put a through hole in it for longer pieces.





Thanks for looking
Ray


----------



## ChazzC

Swapped the Summer tires for Winter ones on the wife's car yesterday (as part of an oil change deal - with the reduced miles we have been putting on the cars and since the Winter tires are already mounted we rotate/swap). checking the car afterwards I discovered that one of the "Deer Warns" was missing:



Apparently courtesy of a high parking spot stop block.

Not a disaster as I long ago stopped relying on the adhesive strips to keep the little buggers in place, substituting small SS FH wood screws so it wasn't a major chore the replace the mount and add a new "Warn:"



My wife's Trax has convenient stiffening contours molded into the underside of the bumper cover, just the right size.

And Yes, these do work in my experience: the only deer hits we ever had were when these weren't installed (daughter had two hits in two days and on the second day my wife's car also got hit). Now the deer run away.


----------



## brino

rdean said:


> Since I have thought of so many other uses that I can't see how I got along with out it.




....and don't forget a hex block!


----------



## GoceKU

To be honest here where i live is ideal for E-cars, its middle of december and for tomorrow forecast is 17 celsius (62F). Also the summers are mellow, every couple of years we get a hot summer or a cold winter. As for the cars all of the ones i've dealt with have electric heater and AC and they run the 1234f freon. When AC of heat is switched on the range is calculated and it drops, the leaf is very accurate, the VW is a very big optimist (lier). I just had a big debacle at the VW dealer, i'll write about it later when i get home or tomorrow.


----------



## GoceKU

ChazzC said:


> Not a disaster as I long ago stopped relying on the adhesive strips to keep the little buggers in place, substituting small SS FH wood screws so it wasn't a major chore the replace the mount and add a new "Warn:"
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> My wife's Trax has convenient stiffening contours molded into the underside of the bumper cover, just the right size.
> 
> And Yes, these do work in my experience: the only deer hits we ever had were when these weren't installed (daughter had two hits in two days and on the second day my wife's car also got hit). Now the deer run away.


I've never heard about those "Deer Warns" here we don't have that issue, is there something similar for dogs and chickens?


----------



## wayback machine

GoceKU said:


> I've never heard about those "Deer Warns" here we don't have that issue, is there something similar for dogs and chickens?


I lived in New England and New York State (A LOT of deer) for many years, and a lot of folks I knew had those deer whistles.
I also knew a lot of folks that hit deer, and a lot of them had the whistles - A mixed bag, at best
I've had deer run into the SIDE of my vehicles a couple times - I mean the deer were running flat out, full tilt, probably being chased by something, and would have paid no attention to any whistles, I think.
The BEST defense against hitting deer (as well as dogs and chickens), IMHO, is good headlights, and powerful fog / driving lights, that light up the sides of the road, as far back into the edge of the woods / fields as possible - You seeing them, and them seeing the lights early on gives you the best chance of stopping them, before they make a fatal choice.
But that's just my opinion, and YMMV.


----------



## Chris Hamel

rdean said:


> I made a block with a ER32 nose.  I have seen these around for many years and wondered just why I needed one for my shop.
> I was making some expandable mandrels the other day and while slitting the end of mandrel it hit me. ( not the mandrel but a thought)
> If only I had a collet block I could make the second slit by just turning the block and have 4 equal sections without a lot of setup.
> Since I have thought of so many other uses that I can't see how I got along with out it.
> I did put a through hole in it for longer pieces.
> 
> View attachment 430046
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for looking
> Ray


Looks good.  Maybe I'll make one myself


----------



## NCjeeper

I made aluminum bronze confetti.


----------



## pontiac428

paradox_pete said:


> So this was more than 1 days work, but...I'll share, but keep this under your hat....top secret project, for a special customer.  Jolly old fellow, you might know him....White beard, Red suit?
> View attachment 430012
> 
> A "compact rotary broach" to Hemingway plans.   I actually started making duplicates of all the parts (one set for myself), but dropped that as deadline pressure mounted.  When they say "compact" they mean it!  I included the pen for scale.  It's remarkably small, and I think a fair bit of thought was put into making it as compact as possible.  Here's it is disassembled.
> View attachment 430013
> 
> This was a really fun and (for me) challenging project.  Lots of close tolerances to hit for the bearings.  I'm pretty stoked that I managed to hit them all pretty good.  There is no perceptible play in the spindle either radially or axially, yet it spins freely.  I did have to polish in a couple of the fits with emery cloth.  The mic said I hit my dimension to the .0001", but the bearings still wouldn't go on. It didn't take much though.
> 
> There is room for improvement in the broaches themselves.  The 2 I've made work, but I used a fiddly arrangement involving a collet block, angle block, and vise stops to machine them (from O1 tool steel) which could definitely be improved upon.  Probably need to make a chuck adapter for the rotary table so I can mount the collet chuck on it and use that.  The customer demands this ship tomorrow though, so that will have to wait....
> 
> -Pete


Wait, is that wobble broach eccentric only, without any type of angular deflection?  I didn't know that was even possible.  Rotary broaches that pivot on a ball cut with the corners of the cutter, but on an eccentric the cutting action is completely different.  How does it work, with the tip being rigidly fixed to the axis like that?  Does it just rub around the work and wallow like a form tool, since it can't do any cutting just orbiting around like that!


----------



## ChazzC

wayback machine said:


> I lived in New England and New York State (A LOT of deer) for many years, and a lot of folks I knew had those deer whistles.
> I also knew a lot of folks that hit deer, and a lot of them had the whistles - A mixed bag, at best
> I've had deer run into the SIDE of my vehicles a couple times - I mean the deer were running flat out, full tilt, probably being chased by something, and would have paid no attention to any whistles, I think.
> The BEST defense against hitting deer (as well as dogs and chickens), IMHO, is good headlights, and powerful fog / driving lights, that light up the sides of the road, as far back into the edge of the woods / fields as possible - You seeing them, and them seeing the lights early on gives you the best chance of stopping them, before they make a fatal choice.
> But that's just my opinion, and YMMV.


The “warns” or whistles only work at speeds above 35 mph, so slower moving vehicles could fall victim. At slower speeds, legally pointing headlights & fog lights are helpful. I can report that I have seen deer (and other critters) preparing to cross in front of me turn away. Also, wife & daughter’s driving habits haven’t changed in the last 20 years, but there haven’t been any further collisions.


----------



## snoopdog

I'm much more a "whittler" than I am a machinist, so when I hit the target dia. on this backplate, I was pretty happy. I was concerned about the surface finish, and had .400 to start with and adjust/ w/ chuck diam, then I looked at the one I had been using, got both with my lathe purchase, and I was ok. Tuff stuff tho, now I have to drill the holes, not near as intimidated as I was.


----------



## brino

snoopdog said:


> I was concerned about the surface finish


It looks great.
Brian


----------



## snoopdog

brino said:


> It looks great.
> Brian


Thanks, I tried EVERYTHING


----------



## WobblyHand

snoopdog said:


> Thanks, I tried EVERYTHING


Well, you found the right combination!  Nice finish.


----------



## paradox_pete

pontiac428 said:


> Wait, is that wobble broach eccentric only, without any type of angular deflection?  I didn't know that was even possible.  Rotary broaches that pivot on a ball cut with the corners of the cutter, but on an eccentric the cutting action is completely different.  How does it work, with the tip being rigidly fixed to the axis like that?  Does it just rub around the work and wallow like a form tool, since it can't do any cutting just orbiting around like that!
> View attachment 430092


There is a 1* angle built in to the body of the broach.  

The shank is a separate piece from the body.  A 1* cut is made on the back of the body prior to assembly, and the parts are assembled offset such that the tip of the broach runs true (no eccentricity), but does "wobble".  

After it was assembled and tested, the outer diameter was turned down to also run true.  The front face does still wobble in use though.  This approach does require the broaches to all be the same length to a pretty close tolerance, as there is only one point where the tip runs true, without any eccentricity.

That's probably clear as mud....

-Pete


----------



## pontiac428

paradox_pete said:


> There is a 1* angle built in to the body of the broach.
> 
> The shank is a separate piece from the body.  A 1* cut is made on the back of the body prior to assembly, and the parts are assembled offset such that the tip of the broach runs true (no eccentricity), but does "wobble".
> 
> After it was assembled and tested, the outer diameter was turned down to also run true.  The front face does still wobble in use though.  This approach does require the broaches to all be the same length to a pretty close tolerance, as there is only one point where the tip runs true, without any eccentricity.
> 
> That's probably clear as mud....
> 
> -Pete


Thank you, that makes sense.  Do you have better pics of the internals?


----------



## GoceKU

Last few days i've been dealing with the main dealer for VW in macedonia with this E-golf. After lots of excuses i got the main menager he come opend the boot press i and said is moves golf is a sport car the have to be stiff. So i grab his suit and told him get in the car, i pretty much trow him inside. First few feet the parking lot is smooth he started talking but when we got on the street he actually bite his tongue from the hardness. That shut him up i pretty much hit all bumps i could find, when we go back he has blood dripping from his mouth and told the other manager to make a work order for replacement of all 4 shock absorbers and spring. One of the mechanics come and ask me how hard did you punch him. I did told him he was close to getting punched out but i did not do that to him. I left it to get fixed, i did take couple of pictures you can see that is a paved road and the outside is clear but even a camera can't focus from that hard ride.


----------



## snoopdog

Well,  my Chinese 4 jaw and backplate just came in. Looks like I'll be turning backplates this weekend. It wasn't supposed to be here till Monday. But I  learn the best if I  can do a repetition in short order,  so kinda glad, but dang it's tedious.


----------



## mmcmdl

I have a 2 hour plumbing job lined up for today . See you in 3 weeks !


----------



## ChazzC

mmcmdl said:


> I have a 2 hour plumbing job lined up for today . See you in 3 weeks !


Depends on how far you live from your supply source – I don't know what it is about plumbing projects, but you never get (the correct) (enough) fittings the first two trips to the store.


----------



## BGHansen

ChazzC said:


> Depends on how far you live from your supply source – I don't know what it is about plumbing projects, but you never get (the correct) (enough) fittings the first two trips to the store.


That was a lesson I learned from the plumbers when our house was built in 1993; their supply "cabinet" was 5-gallon buckets of fittings.  Need a 3/4" street elbow, 3/4" "T", 1/2" 45 elbow, 3/4" cap; 5-gallon buckets full of each item.  I always sketched my runs on paper and noted the elbows, T's, caps, etc.  Then ran to the store to buy what I needed, until I had to run back a second time.  Now I buy 3X of what I need and maybe return the leftovers later.

Kind of like the micrometers in my shop; I bought a lot more than I needed, and for some reason never returned the excess ones!

Bruce


----------



## ChazzC

BGHansen said:


> Kind of like the micrometers in my shop; I bought a lot more than I needed, and for some reason never returned the excess ones!
> 
> Bruce


Not "excess:" SPARES!


----------



## wayback machine

My wife and I go shopping together about every 2 weeks or so (a rural area, so we stock up), but if I have to get plumbing supplies, she REFUSES to go with me to the plumbing dept. - She just can't stand to see me standing there scratching my head, when they don't have what I wanted on my list, and I try to figure out what combination of stuff that they DO have, that might work ..........


----------



## erikmannie

My 30 year old friend Jack came over this morning for 6-1/2 hours of paid work. I showed him how use a knee mill to side mill the 5/8” mild steel plate that we cut with a torch 2 weeks ago. He had never used a knee mill before today, but he spent over 5 hours on one (doing so alone) on his first shot.

After that, I showed him how to face some torch cut 6” Sch 40 pipe on a 16” engine lathe. He had never used a lathe, but he seemed to like it even better than the knee mill. After an hour on the lathe, his girlfriend called & beckoned him home.

While he was on the milling machine, I assembled a Miller dual cylinder cart, hooked up some new regulators & a hose,  & organized my O/A goodies.

See below for pictures of the “medium torch + gas welding” cart, not to be confused with the “large torch + brazing cart” (not shown), as well as some of the before & after side milling work that Jack knocked out.

Jack will be back on a regular basis to machine pipe & plate welding coupons. This is a win/win for him & I.






Slivers for sale. PM me.


----------



## snoopdog

Put new stovepipe in today, carried in wood to the best of my ability. Machined pins, "since I dont have any transfer screws" to aligtn the holes on the chuck I was working on. Life got in the way this weekend, not a bad thing but anyway, get some pics tomorrow.


----------



## Just for fun

I did all kinds of neat stuff today, but no photos so you know how it goes.  So, I guess it never happened.... LOL


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Pootling about in the garage, wanted to make some chips, so turned down the arbor on this boring head to 5/8" (largest er25 collet I have). Gave it a bit of tlc in the process, works very smoothly now


----------



## pontiac428

My "good" boring head is also a Yuasa.  Good choice.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

thanks! It was a surprise find in a recent auction lot, one of those "buy a bench and everything that's on it and under it" deals. It fits nicely between my 2" boring head and my Enco boring and facing head (which is bloody huge). I also got a relatively small boring head (1-1/4"?), but I have to figure out how to make it fit. i think it was originally an adjustable boring bar.


----------



## dkemppai

Finishing up a really stupid project. We call him Phil Mjolnirson. (Thor's hammer being Mjolnir...  ) 

It's an old scrap bucket cross peen hammer (it was literally given to me in a scrap bucket). After cleaning it up, it looked like it needed engraving. After some engraving, it looked like it needed inlay. After inlay, it looked like it needed heat coloring. After heat coloring, it looks like it needs a handle. The handle is almost done... 

Anyway, a completely useless project. But my wife has been geeking out over it (Big Marvel fan, has a half bubble off level sense of humor like mine). I'm trying to get it done for her for Christmas. Of course she doesn't know it'll turn into a desk trinket for her yet...


----------



## GoceKU

Last few days i've been dealing with this electric golf, finally i managed to get the rock hard suspension fixed under warranty, the dealership changed all 4 shocks, front springs and front sway bar and its links and bushes. Not sure why the sway bar but now drives like any other VW. To make it better i stopped by the upholstery shop, they have ready to go seat covers, i just got them to glue 2 pieces of memory foam to the bottom and back to make the seats more comfortable. I also rip off the front window tint, it was like driving at night during the day and at night was hard to see out. With that done i can get it out and get back to dealing with normal broken cars. I've just got the word the Astra seams to die from what i've been told its not charging.


----------



## ChazzC

mattthemuppet2 said:


> I also got a relatively small boring head (1-1/4"?), but I have to figure out how to make it fit. i think it was originally an adjustable boring bar.


Turn it into a tailstock off-setting tool with a MT?


----------



## CJ5Dave

Not metal, but I turned out 5 of these leather valet trays this week, Some to  sell, some for gifts.


----------



## francist

I finally found a use for my tilting drill press vise! I’m sure everyone who sees these things for first time thinks “hey, what a great idea! I bet I’d really use that….” And then it sits on the shelf gathering dust for the next twenty years. That’s pretty much the case for mine, anyway. I think I’ve used it about half a dozen times in the past 15 years and hardly ever for drilling. Today was no exception. 

I’m doing some veneer repairs to the top of an old Singer treadle stand and was wishing that I had something to prop the top at an angle while I injected hide glue into the edge. Aha, the light bulb came on, and out came the little tilting vise. Worked great. Easy to adjust and enough ballast in itself to hold the top at a nice working angle.






Bonus points with this project is I get to use my little cast iron hot glue pot too. Made in Erie, PA it’s a Holland’s No. 000 that would hold around a pint or so but most of the time I heat much smaller quantities. I know I can buy a new electric one but I like using the old stuff. It’s got a nice feel about it.




Thanks for looking!

-frank


----------



## snoopdog

Pictures from this weekend as promised, stovepipe, it's supposed to be in the minus 20-30 windchill here Thursday night. Wanted this baby ready to rock and roll. Alignment pins for my chuck backplate, and more of  my cash cow ,table leg bottom tapping.  Very thankful to have something bringing in something to buy more stuff with!


----------



## f350ca

francist said:


> I finally found a use for my tilting drill press vise! I’m sure everyone who sees these things for first time thinks “hey, what a great idea! I bet I’d really use that….” And then it sits on the shelf gathering dust for the next twenty years. That’s pretty much the case for mine, anyway. I think I’ve used it about half a dozen times in the past 15 years and hardly ever for drilling. Today was no exception.


I was given a 6 inch titling milling vice 15 or so years ago. A monster, weighs more than I want to lift. You've used yours more than I have mine Frank. Can't remember the last time it was off the floor.
My son Charlie and I were talking about hot glue just the other day. How do you warm up the cast pot, as a double boiler?
Oh Yah nice repair.

Greg


----------



## francist

f350ca said:


> How do you warm up the cast pot, as a double boiler?


Indeed, that’s exactly right. The pot is originally meant for the glue to go right into the small inside tub but because I only make small amounts I make mine in a small jar (spice jar or similar) and surround it with water. There is also water in the large outside vessel so that’s the typical double-boiler effect. And, being a bachelor, I can heat it up on my kitchen stove but a hot plate or similar works fine too. For a time I used an old steam iron that I held sole side up in a wooden crib. It had really nice heat control!

-f


----------



## wayback machine

ChazzC said:


> The “warns” or whistles only work at speeds above 35 mph, so slower moving vehicles could fall victim. At slower speeds, legally pointing headlights & fog lights are helpful. I can report that I have seen deer (and other critters) preparing to cross in front of me turn away. Also, wife & daughter’s driving habits haven’t changed in the last 20 years, but there haven’t been any further collisions.


I had to look this up -








						How Effective Are Deer Whistles to Avoid Vehicle Collisions?
					

They're hyped as a great way to help drivers on roads, but how effective are deer whistles to avoid vehicle collisions and do they really work?




					www.deeranddeerhunting.com


----------



## rwm

Some years ago my girlfriend hit a deer on I95 with deer whistles on her car bumper. I found it humorous that the first point of contact between the deer and the car was the whistle itself!


----------



## BGHansen

wayback machine said:


> I had to look this up -
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> How Effective Are Deer Whistles to Avoid Vehicle Collisions?
> 
> 
> They're hyped as a great way to help drivers on roads, but how effective are deer whistles to avoid vehicle collisions and do they really work?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.deeranddeerhunting.com


Good to see some science behind it.  My mom had a number of bars of Irish Spring soap on shortage shelves in her garage.  She'd read (probably from a study conducted by the makers of Irish Spring. . .) that these would deter mice.  I didn't shoot pictures of the bars of soap with mouse turds/pee and chew marks on them, but I'd say there was conclusive evidence that the soap didn't work.

Bruce

p.s.  The original plant manager of the Lansing Grand River Assembly plant building Cadillac CTS's had them on his company car.  He hit two deer within a month.  Who knows, without them maybe he'd have hit three?


----------



## brino

BGHansen said:


> My mom had a number of bars of Irish Spring soap on shortage shelves in her garage. She'd read (probably from a study conducted by the makers of Irish Spring. . .) that these would deter mice.



Bruce, you just stirred a memory.....
My Mom told how in the early days of her and Dad taking over the old house (part 1800's log house with a "new" addition) she read that moth balls would deter the raccoons that had moved into the floor/ceiling between the first/second floor.

Until....... the young raccoons enjoyed playing with the moth balls and even batting them from end to end all night long!

With a smile on my face and a tear in my eye.....wow I miss her!
Thanks,
Brian


----------



## mmcmdl

Another aluminum run tonight . This WILL NOT GO INTO THE DUMPSTER !


----------



## brino

mmcmdl said:


> This WILL NOT GO INTO THE DUMPSTER !



Recycling at it's best! (.... repurposing)
Brian


----------



## mmcmdl

Good load tonight !  We'll look like Hickock on Youtube up in NY .


----------



## ChazzC

BGHansen said:


> Bruce
> 
> p.s.  The original plant manager of the Lansing Grand River Assembly plant building Cadillac CTS's had them on his company car.  He hit two deer within a month.  Who knows, without them maybe he'd have hit three?



I had them on my 97 Catera and never had any issues with critters of any kind (including birds). However, when driving loaner Devilles or Sevilles (DTS/STS) on numerous occasions (1st year Cateras had issues) wildlife seemed drawn to them on the same daily commute route: maybe it was just the higher end Cadillacs?


----------



## snoopdog

Getting the walls warm.


----------



## NCjeeper

^^^^
I can totally relate.


----------



## Aaron David

I took yesterday off from working on the upstairs bathroom remodel, and spent some time on this chuck:






Time for a bath






Now, that looks better! It took me a while to get all the junk out of the jaw threads, and it is still not quite as smooth as I would like, but it is fully functional at this point.


----------



## metric_taper

I was seeing several YouTube machinist channels show off their vertical bridgeport type machines with steering wheel quill feed. A few weeks ago, I found a seller that wanted $150, and had an adapter for a few Wells-Index machines, but not my model. So while checking to see what was different, I figured I could make the adapter from some scrap, and bought the wheel from eBay for $30.
The drive into the existing quill shaft was 2 1/4" roll pins 180 degrees apart, on a 1 in bolt circle (I had a assortment box of roll pins, that when measured, were not 1/4" but 6mm, so I drilled the holes for a nice fit). The steering wheel uses 6 M5x0.8 screws on a 70mm bolt circle (these came with the steering wheel). Easy work on the rotary table.



The original quill handle came bent and brazed repaired from the previous owner.
I have not used the machine, so I can't say if this is a good modification or not. It does look different.


----------



## Winegrower

metric_taper said:


> I have not used the machine, so I can't say if this is a good modification or not. It does look different.


Please comment when you have some hours on the wheel…it seems like it would be cumbersome, to me.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Finished wife's Christmas present this morning


----------



## finsruskw

Drilled and power tapped the set screw holes for a 3 piece die holder/toolbar to use on the press.
The 3 pieces get bolted together and a sleeve welded to the top center to accept the ram.


----------



## AGCB97

metric_taper said:


> I was seeing several YouTube machinist channels show off their vertical bridgeport type machines with steering wheel quill feed.


One of the best mods I made to my Bridgeport! It's the foot stool from a bar chair. I'm glad it's no smaller.
Aaron


----------



## finsruskw

I'd have to use a steering wheel from a Cub Cadet complete with center emblem!!


----------



## snoopdog

Finally got the backplate done for the 8in 3jaw. Dinked one of the mounting bolt holes by a few thousandths, for whatever reason. Bored it .025, and down the road we go. Now I have to do the one for the 4 jaw.


----------



## tq60

Charger shelf.

We picked up battery powered chainsaw and blower.

Chainsaw is "consumer level" and lower is commercial.

Chainsaw takes a smaller battery and comes with charger and battery, commercial blower is all separate, battery is bigger but will work in smaller charger.

Got a second battery for blower, with many trees the 2 batteries last as long as I do, but took too long to charge.

Trip to our favorite pawn shop and they had the hedge trimmer, battery and charger for fair price.

2 chargers allow faster cycle for chores but we have no shelf space, too much stuff.

Looked in the stock pile and found a relay rack foot, just about perfect size, fits 2 chargers with space in the middle to set batteries.

Chargers have key hole socks for wall mounting, yhey also have a deep hole so you can have keyhole screws with a pin to hold them on flat shelf.

Found a short Chunk of wall purlin under the power panel, perfect.

Would rather they be higher but no place to mount it.

There was already an outlet just above so easy and done.
	

	
	
		
		

		
			




















Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk


----------



## dkemppai

Finally made a little progress on the D Gray pinch knurler. Had to borrow the 1/2" reamer from work. We normally don't use that big stuff all that often...  



Anyway, decided to clean up all the surfaces, and I think they look pretty good. Something about making custom knives makes it really really hard to leave an unfinished surface anywhere. And this steel is pretty soft (compared to knife steels), so it was pretty easy to clean up...


----------



## erikmannie

After I bought a large lot of endmills, they wouldn’t fit in the existing drawers. In order to stay organized, I measured, sorted, put away & labeled all of the endmills in the shop. This took about 6 hours.


----------



## finsruskw

erikmannie said:


> After I bought a large lot of endmills, they wouldn’t fit in the existing drawers. In order to stay organized, I measured, sorted, put away & labeled all of the endmills in the shop. This took about 6 hours.
> 
> View attachment 431167


You have too much time on your hands!!
Looks great though!!


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Looks better than my system of baggies in a box


----------



## extropic

finsruskw said:


> You have too much time on your hands!!
> Looks great though!!



He has time because he's so organized.

@erikmannie, did you build the drawer cabinet too?


----------



## francist

I made an awl. I’ve been thinking on this for a while and had gone through various design permutations before finally settling down to try one out. In many ways this was an exercise to prove a design, test a process, and verify a comfortable shape and size. So, really a learning exercise more than anything else.

I started with a little scrap of teak left over from my recent shelf project. Rather than use the bigger wood lathe I opted to turn everything on the Atlas. I started with the blank for the handle, necked one end down to accept a ferrule, and drilled in a ways for the pokey part.






Then I flipped it around and gripped from the neck to turn the handle to shape. The plastic washer just spaces the blank off the collet a little. I also slipped the future pokey part into the hole so the neck wouldn’t collapse in the collet.






Then I pulled my small bearing centre out of the drawer and this happened! I don’t know how you can put something away in perfect order and then take it out later only to have it literally come apart in your hands but that’s what happened. Anyway, no harm done, and I put it back together and got back to the job at hand.




The handle would be a simple taper— I chose five degrees included angle so I set the compound to 2-1/2 degrees and roughed the first pass.




I knew my compound wouldn’t have enough travel to do the entire length of the taper in one shot so I did each pass in three segments. Here it is down to my final design size.




I made the ferrule next. I had originally intended to use aluminum, then I thought maybe brass, but when I looked in the scrap drawer the only thing that was really close to size was some black acetal. So, black acetal it is. The pokey part can be seen on the table in the background. I made it from a salvaged box spring mattress frame — it has a decent amount of spring to it and throws whitish sparks so I think it’ll hold up okay. I just shaped it by hand on the belt sander.






Here are the three components prior to assembly. As you can see, I blued the pokey bit. Not sure if I like it or not but again, it’s a proving exercise.




And after assembly. The shaft extends into the handle by just over an inch and is a snug fit. The ferrule is five-thousandths press fit on the handle but between the slight give in the acetal as well as some slight compression in the teak it pressed on nice and clean.




One last coat of varnish on the handle and it’s awl done. Thanks for looking!




-frank


----------



## f350ca

Nicely done Frank. 
I've tried turning wood in the metal lathe a few times and never got a cutter ground that would cut cleanly, always seamed to tear.

Greg


----------



## pontiac428

I don't think you told us what type of steel you used for the aptly-named pokey-part.

I went through the same moment of not sure if I was liking bluing the scribe.  Now that I'm used to it, yes, it is nice and helps with contrast!


----------



## Janderso

erikmannie said:


> After I bought a large lot of endmills, they wouldn’t fit in the existing drawers. In order to stay organized, I measured, sorted, put away & labeled all of the endmills in the shop. This took about 6 hours.
> 
> View attachment 431167


Golly, I have 5/16, 3/8, 1/2 and 3/4” end mills.
I guess I need to expand.


----------



## francist

pontiac428 said:


> I don't think you told us what type of steel you used for the aptly-named pokey-part.


I actually don’t know what the steel alloy is — it’s salvaged from an old box spring mattress years ago. When I first used it I didn’t expect it to be anything other than mild steel but when I tried to bend it (some garden thing I was working on) it was really tough. At that point I realized it was some kind of spring steel and had I thought about it beforehand it made perfect sense. 
The steel formed a rectangular “hoop” that ran around the top perimeter of the mattress and made it keep its shape. It was stitched into the corner seam between the side panels and the top of the mattress. I don’t think it’s as springy as a real spring spring, but it does not like bending and throws whitish sparkler sparks when I grind it. We’ll see how it holds up, however the awl will not be seeing heavy work. It’s more of a steering implement for manipulating fabric in tight quarters as it under the presser foot of a sewing machine.



f350ca said:


> never got a cutter ground that would cut cleanly


Thanks Greg, I just got lucky. It’s just a regular grind I have for turning metals so maybe 6 degrees rake on the top or something like that. I hone them pretty sharp though, and I think that helps a lot. That and sandpaper!


----------



## erikmannie

extropic said:


> He has time because he's so organized.
> 
> @erikmannie, did you build the drawer cabinet too?



The wooden door cabinet was an epic father/son project. Just the bottom section took 4 weeks.









						What Should I Do with All These Wooden Drawers?
					

These wooden drawers belonged to the late Byron Wilson, a successful jewelry designer.  He had them lined along shelves & on top of cabinets. I don’t have shelves (or room for shelves) in my shop.  I would like to make a chest for these drawers. I work with metal, & not wood.  I would have a...




					www.hobby-machinist.com
				




My Dad no longer has the manual dexterity, but he sat through the whole thing & directed my actions. When he did have the manual dexterity, he was a woodworker, as was his father before that.

We did it in his shop because I won’t have sawdust inside my shop.


----------



## jcp

Finally got around to building the eye forming tooling for my Harbor Freight bender. The shop I worked in had a Hossfield #2 and that's what I used for inspiration.  Working from memory I also wanted to make it from materials and tooling I had in the shop.....Southbend 9A, Clausing 8530 and a Vulcan multiprocess welder. The largest taps and dies I have are 1/2" so I had to do the threading on the lathe. It works so I'm going to call it a win.


----------



## brino

jcp said:


> It works so I'm going to call it a win.



The design looks great (you obviously have a better memory than I do!)
The results too!

Thanks for posting.
Brian


----------



## Winegrower

jcp said:


> Finally got around to building the eye forming tooling for my Harbor Freight bender.


Nice work!   I have this HF bender, and use it occasionally, but it is always a struggle to get a setup figured out.   It seems that this bender has more features and capabilities than I know about.   Anybody know of a good detailed video or discussion about this tool?   What Youtube stuff I’ve seen seems too elementary.   There must be more to it.


----------



## francist

Winegrower said:


> Anybody know of a good detailed video or discussion about this tool?



I don’t know if this will be relevant or not but Hossfeld has a number of tutorials on their website that may be useful. I’m only guessing that the HF bender is some fairly close facsimile of the Hossfeld and there’d be some crossover how they work. I don’t have either, just taking a shot in the dark.

-frank


----------



## NCjeeper

I made a little money today. Customer brought me an intake manifold with 4 broken bolts in it.


----------



## Winegrower

francist said:


> Hossfeld has a number of tutorials on their website


Yippee, thanks, francist.  Goodby Netflix for an evening.


----------



## jpackard56

metric_taper said:


> I was seeing several YouTube machinist channels show off their vertical bridgeport type machines with steering wheel quill feed. A few weeks ago, I found a seller that wanted $150, and had an adapter for a few Wells-Index machines, but not my model. So while checking to see what was different, I figured I could make the adapter from some scrap, and bought the wheel from eBay for $30.
> The drive into the existing quill shaft was 2 1/4" roll pins 180 degrees apart, on a 1 in bolt circle (I had a assortment box of roll pins, that when measured, were not 1/4" but 6mm, so I drilled the holes for a nice fit). The steering wheel uses 6 M5x0.8 screws on a 70mm bolt circle (these came with the steering wheel). Easy work on the rotary table.
> View attachment 430959
> 
> 
> The original quill handle came bent and brazed repaired from the previous owner.
> I have not used the machine, so I can't say if this is a good modification or not. It does look different.


Yes, please give some feedback after you've tried it for a while. It definitely looks interesting.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Nothing major, just fixing up a semesters worth of bike maintenance, which included fixing up one of my rear lights. The battery had gotten weak and the lens had disappeared when the light fell off my bike.

So, newish battery, all former cell phone batteries and the like, wired in parallel


Large piece of some clear plastic I found at the scrap yard for free (we don't sell plastic!), cleaned up and polished


Parting off, handy that you can see where the tool is 


Faced and polished the other side


Milled to fit the case


Installed, this time with a screw for extra security!


Now into the next project!


----------



## pontiac428

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Now into the next project!



Not until you calculate the index of refraction for that lens, young man!  I want that result in diopters and Fresnels.  Now get back to your room!


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Hmm, I think the results are "bloody hell that's bright" and "I can't see anymore"


----------



## ChazzC

After downsizing our Christmas decorations and utilizing under-bed storage bins for gift wrapping supplies I recaptured space in “my” portion of the basement & took advantage of Home Depot’s “storage & organization” sale and customized a wire shelving unit and optimized use of the space:




Hey, I’ve got empty space: just in time for Cabin Fever!!


----------



## snoopdog

I guess I'll try and drill it this weekend, went a little undersized on the front,  peened it,  nice and snug. A little nervous about drilling.


----------



## 682bear

I didn't make anything today... I did change the oil in my wife's car... that was a major accomplishment.

How can that be a major accomplishment? Mainly because I've been in the bed for 11 days dealing with a bad case of flu and bronchitis... I've been too weak to do pretty much anything.

It's warm here today and I'm tired of watching tv... so I changed her oil. It thoroughly wore me out, but it felt good to be useful for a change...

-Bear


----------



## Boswell

682bear said:


> It thoroughly wore me out, but it felt good to be useful for a change


Sorry to hear that things are going rough but good that you are starting to climb out of hole.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

A little project for a friend. We picked up a 5" taskmaster (Wilton copy) bench vise in our last auction, but one of the jaws was broken, so we made two new ones out of some 3/4" mild steel bar
	

		
			
		

		
	






He was super happy and I got a few pounds of venison in exchange


----------



## Gaffer

682bear said:


> I didn't make anything today... I did change the oil in my wife's car... that was a major accomplishment.
> 
> How can that be a major accomplishment? Mainly because I've been in the bed for 11 days dealing with a bad case of flu and bronchitis... I've been too weak to do pretty much anything.
> 
> It's warm here today and I'm tired of watching tv... so I changed her oil. It thoroughly wore me out, but it felt good to be useful for a change...
> 
> -Bear


It sounds like you're turning the corner. All the best to you for a speedier recovery!


----------



## tjb

682bear said:


> I didn't make anything today... I did change the oil in my wife's car... that was a major accomplishment.
> 
> How can that be a major accomplishment? Mainly because I've been in the bed for 11 days dealing with a bad case of flu and bronchitis... I've been too weak to do pretty much anything.
> 
> It's warm here today and I'm tired of watching tv... so I changed her oil. It thoroughly wore me out, but it felt good to be useful for a change...
> 
> -Bear


Bummer.

Get well, Bear.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Get well too Bear!

Last job of the day, finish up silver brazing a bunch of bandsaw bands. It's been in my list for an age and these should hopefully last a good while


----------



## snoopdog

Well,  it's on, a little tweaking probably. That's the fun part for me.


----------



## mmcmdl

NCjeeper said:


> I made a little money today. Customer brought me an intake manifold with 4 broken bolts in it.


LOL . Usually , when my customers come in with 2 broken bolts in the dies , I return them with 2 broken taps in the dies !  No problems getting the bolts out , but hardened dies don't take too well to re-tapping .


----------



## silverhawk

I have this project where I have to build some tool chests (not doing any more of these - those Gerstner chests are well worth the work that goes into each one).  I've hit a phase where it's time to do some drawers.  While doing the chest carcasses, I used some of those 90-degree clamps made out of aluminum - and they work way better than regular clamps.






My band saw cuts at a 15-degree angle, so I opted to make a table so I could cut the bars out vertically.  Transfer screws for the win!




Then, my laziness kicked in.  There was no way I'd be spending hours per cut pushing 3/4" stock through a bandsaw.  I had to fix the angled-cut.  I finally found the bearings had hex eccentric parts that could adjust (I'd tried for years to just twist it into place and tighten - nice to know this).  Now, my band saw cuts straight!




I can now finish making clamps.


----------



## francist

Oh no! I used my new awl for the first time and look what happened!…




Just kidding, it’s a design feature. Tailor’s awls come in two styles — straight and curved — so I figured I should make the curved style too. Most of the processes were the same as for making the straight version but with a couple variations. 

In addition to teak I used some scraps of Andaman Padauk I’ve had on the shelf forever. It typically has a pleasing deep brown colour but when you first open it up it’s quite a vivid orange. I also switched to aluminum for the ferrules instead of acetal.









To put the curve into the tip I clamped a stick of 5/16” rod vertically in a vise, heated the tip of the awl to a full orange heat with a propane torch, and then just pushed the tip around the rod using a scrap of brass block. It worked great, and with the gentle pushing instead of striking the cross-section of the tip didn’t get smushed. I did go through another heat-quench-temper cycle after the shaping but as I don’t know the composition of the steel I can’t really say if it’ll make any difference or not. Time will tell more than anything.







Not much left except assembly. I made three pairs in all, might give two each to my sisters if they’re interested. Thanks for looking!








-frank


----------



## ChazzC

francist said:


> In addition to teak I used some scraps of Andaman Padauk I’ve had on the shelf forever. It typically has a pleasing deep brown colour but when you first open it up it’s quite a vivid orange. I also switched to aluminum for the ferrules instead of acetal.
> 
> View attachment 431628
> 
> View attachment 431629
> 
> View attachment 431630
> 
> 
> View attachment 431635
> 
> 
> -frank



Ah, can't read "Andaman" without thinking of _The Sign of the Four._


----------



## GoceKU

ITs few hours before new year and i get a call from a friend he is passing thru my country, wants to grab a coffee and at the end of conversation mentions he is having some car trouble. I wasn't planning to spend any time in the garage of the shop but i had to. His troubles wore some what easy coolant leak from a O'Ring on the heater core and a rotten hose. ITs a french car so i have most of the parts needed on a shelf, also he had blown a tire and when i check the other side it was ready to blow, old rotten tires. Then he started to panic no tire shops are open, but the tire machine come in very useful, i had some used but still good tires to throw on it. Just as we said goodbye and send him off to Greece, a car transporter called to drop off the astra. Got the charged battery from the little niva out went about 3-4 km to meat him it was a bigger truck, no way he would made it in my suburb. That was a bit of a debacle because when organising the transport we notet not working car to be delivered in a very tight neighborhood, also there was lots of scratches on the roof and rear bumper was caved in and cracked like someone has pushed it with another car. They will have a big bill to pay from the body shop and it's all in a written contract. I did drive it in the big garage to diagnose it and the alternator is dead it also is buzzing and drawing current back in the alternator. Left the battery unhooked and on charger but it look like the battery is also damaged. Resembled the little niva with its good battery and still have few hours till 2023. Happy New Year Everyone!!!


----------



## erikmannie

I had a paying customer ($80) today. I only got one picture of the aluminum TIG work which I will post below. This .120” wall pipe is for a crabbing set up.

I was able to prep one of the 45° bevels (+ landing) on the lathe. I had to do the other bevel by hand (4-1/2” flap disk & a file), & that bevel really turned out badly.

I was very conscientious about having the material *super clean* because it had already spent time on the ocean.

I had to do about 20% of the work in the vertical position (the rest was in the flat position). 120A max, 120 Hz frequency, 75% AC balance (on a Miller Dynasty), 1/8” 4043 filler rod, 20 cfh Argon flow. I have always dipped the tungsten when I TIG welded, but the last two times that I have TIG welded I did not dip the tungsten.

The customer kept reminding me that it did not need to look pretty.


----------



## francist

ChazzC said:


> can't read "Andaman" without thinking of _The Sign of the Four._


Had to look that up. Must admit, I’ve never read any of his books…


----------



## brino

silverhawk said:


> While doing the chest carcasses, I used some of those 90-degree clamps made out of aluminum - and they work way better than regular clamps.



Joe,
Is there a name on that corner clamp set?
It looks very useful.
I have looked at this set from Lee Valley, but they seem stupidly expensive for what they are:
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/sho...ixtures/51101-90-assembly-braces?item=03F0305

Thanks!
Brian


----------



## brino

GoceKU said:


> ITs few hours before new year and i get a call from a friend he is passing thru my country, wants to grab a coffee and at the end of conversation mentions he is having some car trouble.





GoceKU said:


> he had blown a tire and when i check the other side it was ready to blow, old rotten tires. Then he started to panic no tire shops are open, but the tire machine come in very useful, i had some used but still good tires to throw on it.



Goce,
If I could pick a place for my vehicle to break down it would be anywhere near you!
Brian


----------



## NCjeeper

I did general shop and machine clean up while listening to sweaty Teddy.


----------



## mmcmdl

Well , busted my as$ from 6.15 till 5.30 tonight . New New pillow block bearings , new motor and couplings on one of our furnaces out in the sheds . Shaft was 1 15/16ths  diameter so imagine how heavy the pillow blocks were .  Well any ways , I went to H-M and before I logged in I saw the " what secretaries do in the office after hours " thingie  . I had to peek , and now I can't remember what I wanted to say on this post . 

Oh yeah , off at 7 in 50 minutes and plan on rehydrating at least until next year .


----------



## ChazzC

francist said:


> Had to look that up. Must admit, I’ve never read any of his books…


Really? Got hooked on Sherlock from a short story in grade school, then the original movies, radio plays, new movies & TV. Obviously dated, but still a good read. Even has a short story with some engineering content.


----------



## GoceKU

You are welcome to visit.


brino said:


> Goce,
> If I could pick a place for my vehicle to break down it would be anywhere near you!
> Brian


You are welcome to visit.


----------



## silverhawk

brino said:


> Joe,
> Is there a name on that corner clamp set?
> It looks very useful.
> I have looked at this set from Lee Valley, but they seem stupidly expensive for what they are:
> https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/sho...ixtures/51101-90-assembly-braces?item=03F0305
> 
> Thanks!
> Brian


They come in two sizes from what I can find, 4.7" and 5.5" . Just search on Amazon for "90 degree positioning squares right angle clamps", and you should see a whole slew of Chinese knock offs, about $40 for a pair or$70 for four. They are knock offs of Woodpecker squares from what I've gathered after a purchase. Check them for square, as not all are. 

Unfortunately, the drawers I am gluing up are smaller than the 4.7" size, and I cannot find them smaller, so I'm making a smaller set. 

Sent from my SM-T500 using Tapatalk


----------



## erikmannie

NCjeeper said:


> I did general shop and machine clean up while listening to sweaty Teddy.
> View attachment 431655




One of life’s greatest pleasures is TIG welding while listening to Ted Nugent’s Double Live Gonzo really loud on headphones. The trick is to have all the material prepped so you can be in the welding hood for the full length of the double album.


----------



## erikmannie

I gas welded a root weld on this 1” mild steel plate. I learned that *a #5 tip is much too small for this thick of plate*.

Recommended oxygen pressure is 6-12 psi, & recommended acetylene pressure is 5-8 psi.

It was a really bad time because it was so difficult to get the base material to puddle. The photo below is my attempt at the root weld using a 1/16” landing. Once it cools off, I will upload a photo of the back side to see if full penetration was achieved.

The filler rod is 3/32” RG45. I wish I would have had 1/8” filler rod.

A #7 tip is recommended for 1” plate, but I don’t have one because my 145 ft.³ cylinder can only support up to a #4 tip. This is because the maximum rate of acetylene withdrawal is 1/7 of the cylinder’s capacity per hour, & a #4 tip consumes 10-25 ft.³/hour.







This went so badly that I probably won’t gas weld on thicknesses greater than 1/2” ever again. Even thicknesses greater than 1/4” are approaching the limitations of a 145 ft.³ cylinder.


----------



## mksj

Project of last couple of days, finished up a replacement VFD control system for an Acra 1660TE lathe, today did the wire labeling and bench tested that the controls operated correctly. Ironically one of the relay contacts was bad and was replaced. Next will be building the VFD cabinet and programming. This system is built for use Hitachi WJ200-075LF, it will be run in derated mode for a 5Hp motor. The Yaskawa drives that I normally would use in these types of builds have an 4 month lead time. One aspect of the Sunmaster lathes that is often an issue is the limited space behind the front control panel, so the switches are mounted horizontal when possible and the wiring needs to be tucked in tightly. The Idec switches are much nicer than stock, but like everything these days are hard to get and much more expensive then the stock ones.


----------



## imagineer

Whereas I've been working in this for a few weeks, I did finish it today.  I built a 10 drawer companion tool chest to attach to the 17 drawer chest I built years ago.

The frame is 2x4 and 2x2 1/8" wall aluminum extrusion.    The drawers along with the chest sides and top are 1/8" aluminum.    The drawer pulls are cut from 1" square x 1/8" aluminum tube.    The drawer slides are 50lb, full extension slides.     It's all MIG welded using 5356 wire.

Long story shortened.   Years ago, I worked for an aluminum fabricator who was making aluminum concrete forms and I bartered for a short pallet (about 200 lbs worth) of 1/8" aluminum panels that got oxidized.   I'd always wanted a large tool chest but was at the time (and still am) too cheap to buy one...so I built my own.

Fast forward about 18 years, I needed a storage solution for all the recently acquired machining tools; and still have some of the old 1/8" aluminum left over.    I designed the largest chest that could be made with the material on hand, and have at least 8 drawers.

Some day when I don't have anything better to do, I'll buff out the drawer fronts and frame of the older chest to match the new one.


----------



## erikmannie

This is the most of the progress so far of 5/8” plate being side milled. Up next is face milling, & then half of them will get a bevel.

I bought a lot of this 5/8” plate a long time ago for *really* cheap.

I am not doing this work, although they are being done on my mill. I have some young whippersnapper helping me; he is really excited about learning to use the cutting torch, mill & lathe. He has a really good attitude & work ethic. Part of his compensation will be a *really* nice shop made bicycle with only 8 miles of use. I love making stuff, but I’m not very interested in riding around on a bicycle. He does not own a car, & he is currently commuting to work on an econo-import bicycle.


----------



## erikmannie

Update: 1” plate back side penetration of root weld is a fail. It was tacked with a 1/16” gap which mysteriously closed up upon welding.




This is what the back side looks like when you fail to keyhole.


----------



## ahazi

wachuko said:


> Espresso machine lever was rough... I have taken it apart several times to polish the main lever cam shaft... replaced all valves... and it would be smooth for a few shots and get rough again...
> 
> View attachment 390454
> 
> 
> Well, today I decided to figure out what the problem was.  Turns out it was a simple fix.  This stud, that the lever rides against, had some raised areas around the slot for the screwdriver... seems the previous owner was not careful when installing.
> 
> Removed it, filed down the raised areas... placed it on the lathe and use some fine sandpaper to smooth it out.  Finished with a 3000 grit then to the polishing wheel...  Also took the time to polished the lever cam shaft again...
> 
> View attachment 390455
> 
> 
> All working fine now... I will be able to confirm if I found the culprit if it continues to work smoothly for the rest of the week...
> 
> View attachment 390456
> 
> 
> View attachment 390460


Looks and sounds familiar. Don't neglect to do occasional citric acid flush. I was reluctant in doing it because I read somewhere that it can "destroy the espresso machine..." I went through replacing almost all the brass and rubber parts in the group head and it was just marginally better. Flushing the machine several times as described below brought it back to like new condition. My machine is a dual boiler with a rotary pump.






						Descaling Your Reservoir Espresso Machine
					

" When descaling a machine we use either straight white vinegar or 1-2oz of citric acid in 64oz of water.These compounds will not harm you or your machine if fully flushed from the system.Water Reservoir or Pour Over Espresso Machines Fill the reservoir with straight white vinegar or 1-2oz of...




					www.chriscoffee.com
				




Ariel


----------



## finsruskw

Mock up of parts for a #383 cat 0 setup on a 2072 Cub Cadet Super.
Making several of these.


----------



## mmcmdl

finsruskw said:


> Mock up of parts for a #383 cat 0 setup on a 2072 Cub Cadet Super.
> Making several of these.


LOL , I just scoped a 2072 out on CL .  I had to make a trip over for diesel for the Kubota and the truck . $100 don't go to far at the diesel pump any more .


----------



## erikmannie

My friend Jack had never used a grinder. Here is is putting a second edge on his Karambit knife which began life as a railroad spike.




Here it is before the hand filing:




…after more work with a flap disc and a poly-strip wheel. It took 6 man hours to get to this point. On to hand filing now.







Hand made, oven baked scabbard. Just like Mom used to make!


----------



## tjb

mmcmdl said:


> . . . $100 don't go to far at the diesel pump any more .


Nope.  I built a trailer that has a fifty gallon tank for off-road diesel and a fifty gallon tank for gasoline.  Last time I filled both it was around $400.  Prices have come down a little since then, but it'll still cost a dollar or two.


----------



## finsruskw

mmcmdl said:


> LOL , I just scoped a 2072 out on CL .  I had to make a trip over for diesel for the Kubota and the truck . $100 don't go to far at the diesel pump any more .


Dave, What are they asking for it?


----------



## GoceKU

First day of the year, i started with making a wooden plug for one of the water touts. I could use my pocket knife but it was faster on the lathe. I also had a very hard time to find an alternator for the astra, i could only fine the older style with the fixed pulley not the clutch type. The place that sell it guarantees that it will work, which is a must, because it's so tight and it also has a vacuum pump on it that is oil feed. I really don't want to do this job twice.


----------



## CJ5Dave

Might have needed to post this in the I Can’t Weld thread. My Harbor Freight welding helmet needed a headlight. Epoxied a sheet metal channel on and stuck a magnetic Harbor Freight LED oval light on it. Can pull it off when not needed, batteries die, or spatter clouds the lens.


----------



## NCjeeper

Well, my big Jet lathe should have come with a lead screw and rod support bracket, but it didn't. I assume the original owner removed it at some point and then it got lost. I decided to make one. 3-part video series on it will be coming out in a couple of weeks. I used aluminum bronze for the individual supports.


----------



## wachuko

ahazi said:


> Looks and sounds familiar. Don't neglect to do occasional citric acid flush. I was reluctant in doing it because I read somewhere that it can "destroy the espresso machine..." I went through replacing almost all the brass and rubber parts in the group head and it was just marginally better. Flushing the machine several times as described below brought it back to like new condition. My machine is a dual boiler with a rotary pump.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Descaling Your Reservoir Espresso Machine
> 
> 
> " When descaling a machine we use either straight white vinegar or 1-2oz of citric acid in 64oz of water.These compounds will not harm you or your machine if fully flushed from the system.Water Reservoir or Pour Over Espresso Machines Fill the reservoir with straight white vinegar or 1-2oz of...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.chriscoffee.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ariel


Oh yeah... ...backflush with Cafiza every so often... and at least once a year I take it all out to soak in Cafiza... replace rubber parts, teflon gaskets, screen gets replaced (old one cleaned and ready for next clean cycle), lube everything, etc.

Funny story is that my daughter moved to an apartment a few weeks back... baby has grown up... ... anyway, I told her (since we are moving and need to get rid of some stuff) that she could take anything from the house for her apartment... Guess, just guess what she took with her....  Let me give you a clue...  Notice anything missing?




Now at her place...




On other news... have not touched a project in awhile... between family activities, having to do some honey-do's-this from the list... and moving stuff over to the new house...

Not only am I behind on the projects (normal for me), but I gave away one of the projects I made... the base to raise the Pro-Ject brush arm for the turntable... Now I have to make another one for me...


----------



## snoopdog

Thankful for the work,  but dang it's boring, the laser wasn't cutting very good on these, holes not very good,  they were notified.


----------



## Winegrower

Not long ago I made a Hemingway tailstock die holder, with a simple and excellent clutch design.  You can cut threads under power right up to a shoulder and the clutch releases automatically.   It works great for dies, and I realized it would work for taps as well.   So I built a tap holder using an ER32 collet chuck to hold the tap.   This mounts just like a die would with set screws to hold it in (They’re on the far side, not showing in the picture).   It works just like it should, and now power tapping on the lathe is a lot like using a tapping head on the mill.

The ER collet chuck originally had a 1” straight shaft that I parted off to a stub.   I forget why I bought this piece in the first place, but I never used it, so the sacrifice was an easy decision.


----------



## twhite

Winegrower said:


> Not long ago I made a Hemingway tailstock die holder, with a simple and excellent clutch design. You can cut threads under power right up to a shoulder and the clutch releases automatically. It works great for dies, and I realized it would work for taps as well. So I built a tap holder using an ER32 collet chuck to hold the tap. This mounts just like a die would with set screws to hold it in (They’re on the far side, not showing in the picture). It works just like it should, and now power tapping on the lathe is a lot like using a tapping head on the mill.
> 
> The ER collet chuck originally had a 1” straight shaft that I parted off to a stub. I forget why I bought this piece in the first place, but I never used it, so the sacrifice was an easy decision.
> 
> View attachment 431791



Excellent idea. Now I have a new project to work on. 


Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## extropic

I wondered what type of clutch was incorporated in the Hemingway tailstock die holder design (that @Winegrower built).
A little research turned up a video that shows all.
FYI


----------



## GoceKU

Today after cutting the grass i got my daily driver in the small garage for some maintenance and fixes. Fixes include tire repair, oil and filter changes, good coolant flush, the heater is non existent. Also the coolant is disgusting you can see it in that water bottle. To get to the heater core hoses the intake manifold had to come out. Got it all finished, now it has good heat and the engine seems happier with new fluids.


----------



## mmcmdl

finsruskw said:


> Dave, What are they asking for it?


$1500 . Rough shape . As this is a hobby , it would be a $$$ losing project . $800 might leave some money on the bone but at that even , it would be nice if it ran .


----------



## mmcmdl

So back to the garage door issues . We wound the springs yesterday and the door was open all day . After 6 hours of throwing things away , I went to shut the door . The door closed quickly to the bottom and then popped up just as quick leaving a foot opening at the bottom .  This can NOT be this difficult getting these springs balanced . Do I have to back off on the spring tension ? One more attempt today before calling the garage door service 1/4 mile away .


----------



## jcp

mmcmdl said:


> LOL , I just scoped a 2072 out on CL .


Ha! I just finished John Deere's version of these tractors.....a 1968 year model 110. It had had a Krylon overhaul about 18/19 years ago and had been setting for at least 15 of those years with fuel in it. Stuck valves, carb glued together with dried fuel residue plus the overlooked mechanical issues. These tractors have a variable speed drive ahead of a 4 speed trans. You can drive at .4 thru 7 mph with the throttle against the governor keeping the PTO at full speed. Kind of a hydrostatic drive result with all mechanical components. Kool but complex. Took about a week to get it sorted. Amazingly I was able to buy all but one of the worn out parts from John Deere and it was easily made on the Southbend.


----------



## jcp

mmcmdl said:


> So back to the garage door issues . We wound the springs yesterday and the door was open all day .   This can NOT be this difficult getting these springs balanced . Do I have to back off on the spring tension ?


Seems as though it takes 30/33 quarter turns on most springs.....as best as I remember.


----------



## finsruskw

I doubt if a JD 110 is comparable to a Cub 2072 super in any way shape or form.
Maybe a narrow frame or a 108 or a 109 hydro.


----------



## NCjeeper

I made a mess today. I really hate flood coolant. Give me a Noga mister any day. I just didn't think that it would be enough to clear the chips.


----------



## ChazzC

mmcmdl said:


> So back to the garage door issues . We wound the springs yesterday and the door was open all day . After 6 hours of throwing things away , I went to shut the door . The door closed quickly to the bottom and then popped up just as quick leaving a foot opening at the bottom .  This can NOT be this difficult getting these springs balanced . Do I have to back off on the spring tension ? One more attempt today before calling the garage door service 1/4 mile away .


It’s been years since I had springs replaced (hope I’m not due again), but the door guy wound them so there are 8 rows on each side (which I think means 8 turns?). I have a 6’-8” x 16’ door with an opener, but works well manually.


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Bunch of miserable hole drilling, but I finally have my larger drills out of a box and somewhat organized. Not sure where to put them though...


----------



## tjb

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Not sure where to put them though...


I'll take 'em.


----------



## projectnut

NC jeeper you might try repositioning your coolant nozzle to flow down the blade guides rather than on the stock itself.  My Startrite saw has a block with the coolant hose attached at the rear of both blade guides.  The block is bolted to the guides and directs the coolant flow to the blade just before it enters the stock, and just after leaving the stock.  The chip pan has a series of small holes under the vise, and a tube at the bottom that drains the coolant into the reservoir.  Since mine was built as a wet saw it also has a series of holes under the drive wheel with a drain tube attached that returns this coolant to the reservoir.

I try not to use coolant because I hate to clean the tank.  However, the few times that I have tried it on the bandsaw the coolant flow remains confined within the machine.  On all 3 saws that are coolant capable there's a ball valve in the feed line just before nozzle.  The flow can be reduced to the amount needed to flush the swarf but low enough to avoid splashing beyond the machine boundaries.  It took a few times to dial in the one on the cold saw.  The drain is so small the coolant return trough will overflow if the flow isn't reduced by the ball valve.  On this particular machine I've found opening it about 1/3 provided enough flow to clear the swarf and avoid overflow onto the floor.

On Edit:  I just noticed you do have a ball valve in the coolant feed line. Maybe putting a T in the line and directing flow to both sides of the cut will reduce the volume flow in each one to avoid the overflow.


----------



## wachuko

Almost done installing the jackshaft garage door motor...  Now I have clear area for when I move the Wells Index to its final place... 




I thought about raising the rails... but that was going to be a lot of work as new springs, the need to relocating those (raise them as well), and other stuff is needed...  if the height of the rails become a PITA, then I will pay someone to do it... I am not tackling that...


----------



## Gnpenning

mmcmdl said:


> So back to the garage door issues . We wound the springs yesterday and the door was open all day . After 6 hours of throwing things away , I went to shut the door . The door closed quickly to the bottom and then popped up just as quick leaving a foot opening at the bottom .  This can NOT be this difficult getting these springs balanced . Do I have to back off on the spring tension ? One more attempt today before calling the garage door service 1/4 mile away .


I don't remember if I read your response to my questions when you asked before??   Springs are engineered for the height and weight of the door.  For normal residential doors 1 turn per foot of door height plus a 1/4 to 1/2 turn to maintain tension when the door is all the way up. 

Chazz's post shows a Barber pole effect. Before winding you paint a straight line down the spring and it's easy to keep track of the winds.  Plus if one happens to slip or break it is easy to tell.  Don't know why anyone would do it any other way?? 

Springs that are not correct for the door are all but impossible to balance.  

PM with a number if you want and I'll help you out.


----------



## Gnpenning

wachuko said:


> Almost done installing the jackshaft garage door motor...  Now I have clear area for when I move the Wells Index to its final place...
> 
> View attachment 431972
> 
> 
> I thought about raising the rails... but that was going to be a lot of work as new springs, the need to relocating those (raise them as well), and other stuff is needed...  if the height of the rails become a PITA, then I will pay someone to do it... I am not tackling that...


For none high lift doors I put pusher springs on the end of the track.  One time of a cable unwinding when you close it and the resulting birds nest of the cable you understand. 

You should like that opener.


----------



## mmcmdl

Gnpenning said:


> I don't remember if I read your response to my questions when you asked before?? Springs are engineered for the height and weight of the door. For normal residential doors 1 turn per foot of door height plus a 1/4 to 1/2 turn to maintain tension when the door is all the way up.
> 
> Chazz's post shows a Barber pole effect. Before winding you paint a straight line down the spring and it's easy to keep track of the winds. Plus if one happens to slip or break it is easy to tell. Don't know why anyone would do it any other way??
> 
> Springs that are not correct for the door are all but impossible to balance.


I think I finally got it . The trouble was I had large equipment packed in right next to the door and couldn't get where I needed to be . I swear this stuff has to go . 33 1/4 turns on the springs and it balanced .


----------



## GoceKU

Senta com a bit late for that car, A local body shop was restoring a buick grand national over the summer and it delivered a bad running condition and they of course destroyed the starter before towing it to me. I did take care of the engine the spark plugs wore just gunked from being started and turn off from moving it around the yard. So i ordered a new starter, had the body shop leave a deposit because of past experience. And the second day they started to call every 2 hours, when can they have it back they need to finish it. I visited the owner of the Body shop and told him the starter is melted, the new one will be weeks out. He insisted fix it as quickly as possible and drive it over, so i took the rotor to a friend he added paper to few places and lacquer it, i cleaned and replaced the brushes and one bushing. Made it work but it won't last, took it over there, got paid, and later heard that that car belongs to a notorious guy and when he passed by and seen it was missing and was told its being fixed he got mad. Long story short that car went to germany and today the new starter arraved, so i have very expensive paper weight. I wish i took couple of pictures but i was in a harry to fix it and had my hands full of work.


----------



## Steve-F

That's a Monster starter motor


----------



## twhite

After seeing @Winegrower Tap adapter for the Hemingway tailstock die holder. I started. It is all complete except for the 22MMx1.5 threads for the nut. I downloaded the metric gear set 100/127 for my Wards 10” lathe. Only problem is they are larger than my build envelope on my printer. I am having work print them out for me when they have a spare machine. It might take a few weeks. 

Glad I am a hoarder. As I found all of the ER16 collets in my scrap pile. Not good enough for holding cutters but will cleanup enough to hold taps. 







Cutting oil is my blood.


----------



## wachuko

Jackshaft garage door opener done!  Light mounted, lock, tensioner sensor, etc.  Amazed at how many accessories needed to be installed...  Limits and tension set...  It is done!




You can see that the power reel is disconected... I still have to move the reel... I wanted to leverage the base that was there from the other garage motor, but the cord is too short... Oh well...

And some refreshments to cool me down after a job well done...  I do not like to drink alone... so one for the wife and one for me.  That small fridge in the garage is awesome!  Glasses in the freezer...


----------



## mattthemuppet2

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Bunch of miserable hole drilling, but I finally have my larger drills out of a box and somewhat organized. Not sure where to put them though...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 431936


Problem solved with ugly garage scrap shelf


----------



## FOMOGO

Looks good. I have those openers on my 9'x12, and 10'x12 shop doors, and I love them. Really quiet, and dependable. The dual springs were a bit scary getting wound up. Not my first rodeo, but you definitely need to be paying attention. I use a two foot pipe wrench on the shaft locked into the wall as a safety while winding. Mike



wachuko said:


> Jackshaft garage door opener done! Light mounted, lock, tensioner sensor, etc. Amazed at how many accessories needed to be installed... Limits and tension set... It is done!


----------



## jcp

mattthemuppet2 said:


> Problem solved with ugly garage scrap shelf


Looks great. I desperately need to do something similar.


----------



## savarin

I desperately need to learn to tidy as I go, I've tried and tried and after all these years I still cant do it, All the good intentions under the sun and still I cant do it.
I am in awe of those shops full of clean machines and equipment with a place for everything and everything in its place.
I think I'm way too old to change now but honest I have tried.


----------



## GoceKU

Today White elephant No:1 come back for repairs, drivers side wheel bearing started to make noise, i had an entire spindle so i changed it completely. Took it for a drive it's quieter but all other wheel bearing are becoming noisy. I'll probably order 4 new bearings and replace them all. It has some new damage, on the front wings, it will need to visit the body shop after the astra. I also replaced the hood and trunk badges.


----------



## WobblyHand

@GoceKU I admire your repair skills.  You are very resourceful.  Too bad you have to use those skills so often.  It seems like every week or so you are fixing some car "disaster" or another.  Wishing you some spare time...


----------



## GoceKU

Yeah, sometimes i wish some of the cars are not such a disaster, but on the other hand they keep my skills sharp. Espacily my brothers cars are always a dumsterfire. This my brothers Ford it has the Mazda L series engine and drinks engine oil more than 2 Stroke engines. Just half an hour ago i check the oil in it and it was dry, so i started adding and it took 4,5 liter only very little left at the bottom of that jug. That means that engine only has 0,5 liters of oil in it.


----------



## extropic

@GoceKU
How many brothers do you have (that bring their cars for your care)?
All the damage and disregard, attributed to your brother, can not be caused by one person.


----------



## pontiac428

I think he makes the commute from Kumanovo to Skopje every day in 5:00 minutes flat...


----------



## extropic

pontiac428 said:


> I think he makes the commute from Kumanovo to Skopje every day in 5:00 minutes flat...
> View attachment 432145


 I don't know about the route, but the driving style fits perfectly.


----------



## pontiac428

The route's definitely wrong, the scrub landscape of southern California is just ugly compared to the majestic green mountains of Macedonia (FYROM).  Even though I spent my time there carrying a rifle and patrolling in HMMWVs, I didn't miss any opportunity to admire the landscape.  The women are astoundingly gorgeous, too.  So don't feel too sorry for Goce for living in a developing economy, it's really very nice there!


----------



## mattthemuppet2

Another little project off the list. I've wanted a larger tap handle for ages and this was in the last auction lot, but one of the jaws was cracked in half. I didn't want to buy a 7/16-20 lh tap just to fix this




So I dipped the end of the screw in anti splatter gunk, threaded it in and lightly tightened the jaws against a square grinding stone, then welded it up. Didn't quite get the end done properly, but it's good enough for me!



Anybody know the make?


----------



## Firstram

Perfect repair!


----------



## f350ca

Is there a reason some 5C collets aren't threaded for a collet stop?
Need to accurately index some small parts and neither of my two Hardinge 1/8th collets are threaded.
So we made a wedging one. Its not easily adjusted but it repeats, all I needed.
Threaded the back end for a 3/8th pipe plug then split it with the bandsaw.



Haven't tried it in any other collets, they may not be the same ID, almost looks like a forged finish on there.

Greg


----------



## dkemppai

Made some stuff, that fit into some stuff, that fit into some other stuff. None of it really intended to go together, but I'm gonna make it work!

Now, just waiting on the larger broach to cut some keys in the round parts. SF isn't great, it's just hot rolled cheap steel. For what it's for, it's perfectly fine.

Finally had a chance with this project to use the rebuilt Sheldon lathe. That machine is a dream to use now. Cut/bored the shafts/hubs to within couple tenths. No freeking taper! It was wonderful!







Few days ago, I made some more stuff, that this other stuff is intended to turn. 



First time cutting (almost typed cussing, which would have been correct!) a chain sprocket. Wow, if they are over size even a teensy bit the chain won't fit. Just milled it out on the CNC mill. Generated the shape in Sprocketeer 2.0 (internet download), imported into cad, and rounded the tooth just a bit. Started milling the steel just few thou over. At .002" diameter oversize, the chain wouldn't fit. Right on size, it fit great!


----------



## extropic

f350ca said:


> Is there a reason some 5C collets aren't threaded for a collet stop?
> 
> Greg



IMO, the collets without internal threads must have been a lower cost option. I can't think of another reason why no threads would be an advantage.


----------



## f350ca

My guess too, but how much could it cost to bore thread?

Greg


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## NCjeeper

Matt the tap wrench looks like a Card.


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## Aaron David

Spent the last couple days, when I had a spare minute or two getting the table for the shaper together.



Getting the top couple boards mounted



Assembling the WEN rolling base, essential in my small shop



Trial fitting everything before I move that beast


\
Here it is, moved over. And of course the mounting holes are being both too tight and hard to line up for the blind mounting threads. 

We will get there soon enough.


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## Dhal22

WobblyHand said:


> @GoceKU I admire your repair skills.  You are very resourceful.  Too bad you have to use those skills so often.  It seems like every week or so you are fixing some car "disaster" or another.  Wishing you some spare time...




My guess is that if he won the lottery he would buy multiple used cars vs new just so he has something to work on.


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## mattthemuppet2

NCjeeper said:


> Matt the tap wrench looks like a Card.


awesome, thanks! Found one on eBay that is a carbon copy of mine. Not that it makes the blindest bit of difference, but cool to know


----------



## K30

Steve-F said:


> That's a Monster starter motor


That's pretty normal for one of those old direct drive Delco style.  You should see the original ones for a 6.2L diesel.  
Life Hack: DB Electrical has a gear reduction Denso style that will work on almost any Chevy, and will wing a 454 over like it's nothing.  But it's not listed for that application.  You have to search for "Fed-Ex" apparently whatever engine they used in those box trucks uses a Chevy pattern starter.








						Mini Denso Style Starter for Chevy 305 350 454 & FEDEX Truck 3HP
					

Shop for the NEW MINI DENSO STYLE STARTER for CHEVY 305 350 454 & FEDEX TRUCK 3HP at DB Electrical. The best selection, low prices, fast shipping, and great customer service.




					www.dbelectrical.com


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## matthewsx

It’s not perfect yet but I have my nearly free lathe stand almost done. Just a little more positioning and a few more bolts and it’ll be finished. For now….



Side cabinets off Craigslist free, center drawers from a desk that was on the side of the road, even most of the fasteners are salvage. Can’t wait to finish and load it up with stuff thats scattered around other boxes, shelves, etc. Need to free up more room in my little shop.

John


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## Aaron David

Nice. My soon to be lathe stand is an old battleship desk, with a laminate top. So sorta free!


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## Ultradog MN

Well,
You gotta get Into the shop to do something there don't you?
Had about a foot of wet, heavy snow in the last 30 hours here so I spent some time moving it out of the way. My wife snapped a couple of photos of me on the little Ford moving snow.


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## GoceKU

pontiac428 said:


> I think he makes the commute from Kumanovo to Skopje every day in 5:00 minutes flat...
> View attachment 432145


I stick to the paved roads but they are full of potholes, couple days a week i do have to take that type of rute. You can see the houses but the road is where ever you make it, also the weather is 12 degrees celsius still and we haven't had snow yet this year.


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## BGHansen

Dhal22 said:


> My guess is that if he won the lottery he would buy multiple used cars vs new just so he has something to work on.


Or adopt more "brothers".

Bruce


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## Chaindog

Alright here's a highly specialized project I just threw on the 3D Printer! This is a funnel for putting natural fiber into a template for making a brush. 

I'll post a picture of it in use when the print finishes in a couple of hours


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## matthewsx

matthewsx said:


> It’s not perfect yet but I have my nearly free lathe stand almost done. Just a little more positioning and a few more bolts and it’ll be finished. For now….
> 
> View attachment 432218





matthewsx said:


> Side cabinets off Craigslist free, center drawers from a desk that was on the side of the road, even most of the fasteners are salvage. Can’t wait to finish and load it up with stuff thats scattered around other boxes, shelves, etc. Need to free up more room in my little shop.
> 
> John


Finished, for now. 

Raised the center section so I can get my engine hoist underneath (the bottom shelf in the brown cabinets comes out so I can actually get the hoist positioned correctly to lift the lathe). Snugged everything up and put some screws in to hold it all together. Now on to the other side of the shop.



John


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## WobblyHand

matthewsx said:


> Finished, for now.
> 
> Raised the center section so I can get my engine hoist underneath (the bottom shelf in the brown cabinets comes out so I can actually get the hoist positioned correctly to lift the lathe). Snugged everything up and put some screws in to hold it all together. Now on to the other side of the shop.
> View attachment 432282
> 
> 
> John


Nice and compact set up with storage.  Looks great.  I need to make something better for my lathe, as I have a critical lack of storage.


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## matthewsx

WobblyHand said:


> Nice and compact set up with storage.  Looks great.  I need to make something better for my lathe, as I have a critical lack of storage.


This one was a long time coming….

I really liked the design @davidpbest did, but ultimately couldn’t justify spending twice what I have into the lathe for a stand. Just keep watching Craigslist and I bet something will come up that will work for you.

John


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## dkemppai

Yet another side project arrived. It's not a correct fit. However,  I think I can cut and TIG braze or nickel weld this guy to fit. It needs to be shortened about .875 inches. Plenty of straight shot near the support to cut, mill, chamfer and fuse together.  I think I can fixture if on a plate, etc. 
Needs a little fitting on the V and flat ways, but not too bad. I'll probably try my hand at scraping it to fit the bed after the hot work is done.

I'll probably sit on this a few days, in the hopes that someone has a Sheldon lathe version of the correct height they'd be willing to trade. Even then, the vernier adjust screws in this one are nice. So, modifying to fit wouldn't be the end of the world. 

Honestly this thing looks unused. There's cosmoline that needs solvent to soften it up, and there's zero wear on the brass/bronze tips.


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## GoceKU

Today i had a need to test a power steering pump. I had no vehicle that it fits on also if it has trash in inside i don't want to contaminate the system. So i decided to use an electric motor with a pulley and bench test it. I try using the green motor but it seems to have some problem with a 20 mf run capacitor it just buzzes, with a 125mf runs but buzzes even louder and heat up the capacitor. i'm connecting it for 220v like on the diagram on the motor. With that not working i grabbed a brand new motor the grey one, that one work so i decade when i'm dealing with it i should make it better, so i wired up a 2 way switch and a socket. I tested the pump which leaked, so i'm on the hunt for a new one, and i'm thinking i should mount the electric motor under my work bench so i can test pumps and alternator before installation.


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## mattthemuppet2

Another little project done, putting a 12v lifepo4 car jump battery back together. Decent nickel strips make a world of difference - these came from as pack I just disassembled 
	

		
			
		

		
	



It's since been thoroughly wrapped in fabric tape.

This is the next big project, swapping these into my bike battery which is down to about 55% capacity after 16,000 miles
	

		
			
		

		
	



I'm also letting sleeping dogs lie


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## snoopdog

Had the customer re cut 120 of these,  almost done. Onwards to some fun stuff!


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## pontiac428

I got going on a second RPC install today, then I turned my attention to the ol' chip tray.  Needs some clean-up and a  stroke or two with the paintbrush!


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## mksj

Built out a VFD cabinet for a Hitachi WJ200-075LF VFD which will be running in a derated single phase input to drive a 5Hp motor, programmed and tested all the functions. Pretty much a turn key system for an Acra 1660TE.


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## Boswell

mksj said:


> Built out a VFD cabinet for a Hitachi WJ200-075LF VFD


MKSJ, what is the orange material that the VFD is mounted to?


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## mksj

This particular install I used a different enclosure source,  as the machine owner wanted a transparent window door, this brand must like the color orange as the metal back-plate and name is in orange. This is an all metal NEMA 12 enclosure 20x16x10 for this size VFD and no venting is required.
Mark


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## Martin W

Finished my machinist jacks this morning. Well they are more machine jacks,. 2” diameter x41/2 tpi are not easy to do. Lol. 
They go from 8-1/2” to 13”. To support a fixture on my mill along with some V blocks So I can cut a woodruff key in a crankshaft 
Martin


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## NCjeeper

I got my MT4 and MT5 drills organized and easy to reach now.


----------



## brino

Martin W said:


> Finished my machinist jacks this morning.


Nice.
Almost too beautiful to use!    (....almost!   )
Brian


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## Firstram

Turned 6 V-belt pulleys into rope pulleys.


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## ttabbal

Adapted an import power feed to the Y axis on the Bridgeport. Nothing it came with fit the mill. It was advertised as an X feed, so I expected to have to get creative. I got a little more than I expected. 

The little bearing sleeve was nowhere near the right size. So I made one on the lathe, no big deal... 

The mount for the table didn't come with the bearing retainer plate I expected to mount the feed motor. Mildly annoying, but whatever. Drill and tap 2 holes in the stock retainer plate. I do wish the unit used the same bolt circle distance. The holes ended up offset to the outside edge. I was concerned about the wall thickness, but it held up. 6mm bolts. Hmmm.. Not a great sign for a 50s machine. Turns out that the keyway in the drive gear was 3mm. Pfffttt. I had a some extra keys, so I cut one down a little. So it would fit both sides. 

Then needed a shaft extension to get the handle a little bit further out so that it wouldn't interfere. Mimicked the stock shaft end so the stock handle would fit. Broke a cheap 1/8 end mill cutting a keyway. Just wasn't careful enough. Thankfully I had a spare to finish up. Drilled and pinned the shaft extension and made a spacer for the handle so everything is snug when the handle is installed. 

It works, so a win, but a lot more work than the more expensive Z unit from PM. Interesting project though.


----------



## ChazzC

ttabbal said:


> Adapted an import power feed to the Y axis on the Bridgeport. Nothing it came with fit the mill. It was advertised as an X feed, so I expected to have to get creative. I got a little more than I expected.
> 
> The little bearing sleeve was nowhere near the right size. So I made one on the lathe, no big deal...
> 
> The mount for the table didn't come with the bearing retainer plate I expected to mount the feed motor. Mildly annoying, but whatever. Drill and tap 2 holes in the stock retainer plate. I do wish the unit used the same bolt circle distance. The holes ended up offset to the outside edge. I was concerned about the wall thickness, but it held up. 6mm bolts. Hmmm.. Not a great sign for a 50s machine. Turns out that the keyway in the drive gear was 3mm. Pfffttt. I had a some extra keys, so I cut one down a little. So it would fit both sides.
> 
> Then needed a shaft extension to get the handle a little bit further out so that it wouldn't interfere. Mimicked the stock shaft end so the stock handle would fit. Broke a cheap 1/8 end mill cutting a keyway. Just wasn't careful enough. Thankfully I had a spare to finish up. Drilled and pinned the shaft extension and made a spacer for the handle so everything is snug when the handle is installed.
> 
> It works, so a win, but a lot more work than the more expensive Z unit from PM. Interesting project though.


Photos?


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## GoceKU

Today i begin a new project, the project is to make a snow plow for the little niva. Here where i live there has not snowed at all this year. But i want to be ready, there are no snow plows available to buy anyer near me. I've seen this picture and plan to make it as close to it as i can. Also i plan to use as much of material i have sitting around as i can, steel is very expensive now. I have this big pressure cylinder, so i took my angle grinder to it and cut it in half and shorten in. After looking close the inside was covered in mud, so i pressure wash the halves this revealed that the metal is very pitted but still has enough thickness to do the job. I plan to work on this when i have some extra spare time and extra money to buy more steel.


----------



## Badabinski

A coworker of mine has a daughter who is on a rowing team. She wants a way to hang up her... Paddle? Oar? on the wall since it has their team and her name on the spoon. Unfortunately, they've been unable to find wall hooks big enough (the thing is like 3" in diameter).

He knows I do machining and asked me if I could make a wall hook. I've been looking for a project that would let me actually use my bender for something useful, so I agreed right away.

Yesterday, I made a 3" die for my bender and tested it out. Pictured is some 1/2" 353 brass rod I bent up as a test piece. This is definitely right at the capacity limit of my bender!






Also, I'm bad at bending and barely know what I'm doing.


----------



## MrCrankyface

"Rebuilt" my drill drawer with some new holders.
Now got all useable(for me) sizes between 1mm to 25mm sorted in one place instead of several.
All of them have <1/2" shaft so they work in almost any chuck, morse tapers will be stored in a second drawer.
Need to get a 13.5mm and 8.8mm then I should be set. 
Also need to attach a small label to the grey index, the top ledge was too small to print the numbers into it.


----------



## twhite

My son is getting married in September. He asked if I could make him a seal for the invitations. Also tie clips for the groomsmen. He sent me his design and this is what I have for him to check out on 
the first prototype. They are getting married in Tahoe 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			














Cutting oil is my blood.


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## GoceKU

Today i spent the entire morning changing tires. I had 3 cars to change tires on but i handled 24 tires. I did use the little niva to move them from one garage to the other. The tire machine is very handy also takes lot of time and energy, but still less than waiting at the tire shop and still having to pay for them to scratch your rims. Changing the tires wasn't hard i did have an issue with one valve stem, it was dryroded cut it off clean the surround pop a new one mounted the tire started to air it and it leaks, it has a defect in the rubber when it was molded. Defeated the tire broke the bead cut that one pull thru a new one that one the threads stripped, new valve stems are made from aluminium just painted gold to look like brass. Cut that one also installed a 3 rd valve steam and finished the job, thankfully all the tires hold air and mounted well. All the tires i moaned come second hand, i'm interested have you had issues with standard rubber tire valves, around here i can't find good quality ones, even the germany marked ones are made from aluminium ir zink just painted and fail on mouting.


----------



## snoopdog

Put the Black Diamond to work.


----------



## Gnpenning

GoceKU said:


> Today i spent the entire morning changing tires. I had 3 cars to change tires on but i handled 24 tires. I did use the little niva to move them from one garage to the other. The tire machine is very handy also takes lot of time and energy, but still less than waiting at the tire shop and still having to pay for them to scratch your rims. Changing the tires wasn't hard i did have an issue with one valve stem, it was dryroded cut it off clean the surround pop a new one mounted the tire started to air it and it leaks, it has a defect in the rubber when it was molded. Defeated the tire broke the bead cut that one pull thru a new one that one the threads stripped, new valve stems are made from aluminium just painted gold to look like brass. Cut that one also installed a 3 rd valve steam and finished the job, thankfully all the tires hold air and mounted well. All the tires i moaned come second hand, i'm interested have you had issues with standard rubber tire valves, around here i can't find good quality ones, even the germany marked ones are made from aluminium ir zink just painted and fail on mouting.
> View attachment 432888
> View attachment 432889


I have not had that problem.  To be fair, mine are several years old.  

I did buy a couple inner tubes and they were junk when I opened the box.  I hate trying to buy anything new anymore.  So much low quality stuff.  I can't believe how much time I spend trying to find better options and coming up empty.   Glad you caught it when you did. 

I feel your pain.


----------



## finsruskw

Got the RT figured out.
Les made a jig to mount the blanks that he had roughed out with his plasma cutter.
Making these as a fab job because we could find no tube the size needed for them and I have no way to bend them. It looks like  originals were made that way.
Did them in stacks of 4 pieces per cut.
They will be welded with a piece of 1-1/4" x 4" flat to the bottom.
These are the lower lift link/arm support mounts for a Cat "0" lift setup for my 2086 Cub Super, part #15
Making enough parts for 3 complete sets plus some extra parts to replace what was missing on the assembly I bought earlier last year.
Except for the bend, I have all the parts that make up # 6 finished plus #'s 3 & 4.
Part #11 is 5/16" plate that no one seems to have any of so I may have to go with 3/8"
All this has got us thinking CNC plasma table!!
OH well, we both have birthdays in July!! Hmmmm??


----------



## wayback machine

Nothing exiting or photo-worthy here - Spent the last couple days replacing all the hard brake lines on a Ford Expedition.
If you really DON'T want to enjoy life, do this on a dirt driveway.
And don't tell me it could be worse, by having to do it in the snow - I've done that too, in a past life .
I'm just getting too old for this, I think ..........


----------



## finsruskw

Couldn't be much worse than replacing frozen fuel filters on '68 F model Mack along a frozen Minnesota roadside in the middle of the night!
Been there and done that too, in a former life, about 4 million miles ago!!


----------



## pontiac428

finsruskw said:


> Got the RT figured out.
> Les made a jig to mount the blanks that he had roughed out with his plasma cutter.
> Making these as a fab job because we could find no tube the size needed for them and I have no way to bend them. It looks like  originals were made that way.
> Did them in stacks of 4 pieces per cut.


I like the way you think, tractor man!  Does this mean we think the same, opposite?


----------



## GoceKU

Today the weather cooled down it went as low as -2c. And of course the body shop called the Astra is done and you need to pick it up and keep it indoors and warm. So i took the battery from the little niva pick it up and drove it back. I got it the big garage its under ground and its warm. For those that haven't read the thread couple weeks ago this car die with a defective alternator in a near by city, the transportation company i used damaged the bodywork and unloaded it couple of kilometers away and i did specified i need it delivered home. Knowing it will be a pain to deal with that company i called a buddy who just became an attorney and wants to make a name for him self. He went after them guns ablazing, with in 3 days they were begging me to take it to my preferred body shop just to get him off there back. The body shop repair and repaint the roof, 2 door, rear and front bumper and both rear wings and rockers, that is more then half the car. Paint match was on point probably because they paint so many panels. When i ask to pay they said the transportation company owner its insurance agent and my buddy (The attorney) came about an hour or earlier and wired him the money. So after i parked it went to my buddy and ask to pay him, he said no way i'll ever charge you, anyway the towing company paid for my time. After that i come back and began taking apart the astra to change the alternator which is creme inthere and found out the water pump that is above it is leaking. By this time all the parts stores are close so i call it a day, tomorrow i'll buy a new water pump and finish the job. Long day with a pleasant surprise.


----------



## Boswell

GoceKU said:


> Today the weather cooled down it went as low as -2c. And of course the body shop called the Astra is done


Got to love it when things work out better than expected.


----------



## Dhal22

GoceKU said:


> Today the weather cooled down it went as low as -2c. And of course the body shop called the Astra is done and you need to pick it up and keep it indoors and warm. So i took the battery from the little niva pick it up and drove it back. I got it the big garage its under ground and its warm. For those that haven't read the thread couple weeks ago this car die with a defective alternator in a near by city, the transportation company i used damaged the bodywork and unloaded it couple of kilometers away and i did specified i need it delivered home. Knowing it will be a pain to deal with that company i called a buddy who just became an attorney and wants to make a name for him self. He went after them guns ablazing, with in 3 days they were begging me to take it to my preferred body shop just to get him off there back. The body shop repair and repaint the roof, 2 door, rear and front bumper and both rear wings and rockers, that is more then half the car. Paint match was on point probably because they paint so many panels. When i ask to pay they said the transportation company owner its insurance agent and my buddy (The attorney) came about an hour or earlier and wired him the money. So after i parked it went to my buddy and ask to pay him, he said no way i'll ever charge you, anyway the towing company paid for my time. After that i come back and began taking apart the astra to change the alternator which is creme inthere and found out the water pump that is above it is leaking. By this time all the parts stores are close so i call it a day, tomorrow i'll buy a new water pump and finish the job. Long day with a pleasant surprise.
> View attachment 433019
> View attachment 433016
> View attachment 433017
> View attachment 433018




More automotive work???


----------

