2014 POTD Thread Archive

Had a Wheelhorse tractor in the shop the other day for a new steering to be instaled. As most of this old stuff going NLA good used parts is the way to go. Well I was working on a B series tractor and they sent me parts for an A model. Well ended up 2 inches short. So I cut a piece of stock down and beveled it for the weld and ground the weld off. If I had a larger lathe I could have cut it off, but hey Im learning!

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I've been working on a refurbishing an AL-99 power feed for a used mill I bought a couple months ago. Somebody'd managed to let the magic blue smoke out of the motor armature. The folks at Bestline Products (www.bestlinepro.com) have been very supportive and helpful. They're the current importer of Align products.

Helpful and supportive - BUT - mine appears to be from the way-back-when original production run, and the manufacturer redesigned some vital parts, so I'm SOL in that respect. :(

I've deigned a fix, based on a 24 volt DC drill motor. Part of the conversion includes replacing the original 110 volt circuit breaker with a standard fuse. My goal has been to keep as many of the original parts and functions as possible. The breaker was mounted in a counterbored ~38" thru hole, which I had to enlarge and thread to fit the fuse holder. And there isn't enough room to use the retaining nut that came with the holder.

It turns out that the thread on the fuse holder is a real oddball - 13mm x 1mm pitch. I decided I had to make my own tap. I don't have a large stock of stock right now, but did have some steel rod (mystery metal) that was .547" diameter. Turned it down to 13mm, added a generous thread relief groove, then added a gentle taper to the end, using a file. Neither the turned section nor the threads were very pretty, due to the nature of the steel (cat's tongue syndrome), but the threads looked acceptable.

Went to the mill, and using a hexagonal C5 collet block to hold the part, added 6 relief grooves, leaving about 1/16" thread sections between them. After a bit of deburring and a quick pass with a Dremel cutoff wheel to sharpen, I did a test cut on a piece of polycarbonate. Again, not very pretty, but the fuse holder threaded in and the threads held when I gently tightened it.

I then hit the tap with a propane torch, gave it a dunk in water, and used the Dremel to give it a final sharpening.

The first picture shows the resulting threads in the AL-99 body:
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The second shows the fuse holder screwed into the AL-99. I was lucky here, as the side contact was facing up when the fuse holder was tightened, so I didn't have to fool with additional spacers:
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The third photo shows the tap (post heat treatment), as well as the initial test fit in the polycarbonate:
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Last Thursday I tore down my mill head so I could make some modifications to the casting to mount my Z-axis scale, locate the holes to mount my Z-axis drive, rebuild the spindle, replace belts, and do any other maintenance the head needed while I had it apart.

I sent the spindle out to the rebuilder on Monday to get a 5 bearing upgrade. I got the quill back from the rebuilder on Thursday, and got the rest of the drive section bearings today. So today I reassembled the head, sounds much better now.

I'll post pictures of the mods I made to the head and the scale install in the Projects section tomorrow when I get it done.

Now I'm going back out to the shop and help my son pull the engine out of his 71 Bronco, time for a rebuild.
 
Yesterday's Project of the day... Painting the Crescent band saw after fabricating the guard.
It has a 3hp 220 v motor so should handle some wood.

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When I get a little more time I will post some more pictures. I am sort of a machinist, and
enjoy this site a lot. Most of my projects are engine related, antique to all out race. I have been doing this for about 50 years but still learning. The first picture is a block I am line honing, the second picture is a big block chevy 2 bolt main that I convert to a 4 bolt main by machining and adding allen headed bolt to the outer part of the cap. I will put more pictures later . Thanks bob

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maxwell 026.jpg big block caps 013.jpg
 
The little Eatonia/Cooey boy's rifle that I acquired a few weeks ago was showing signs of age - the rim of a round blew out at the range last week, shearing off the extractor. Upon further inspection I found that the chamber had worn out where the extractor engages the casing, creating a weak point. I went to a local gunsmith who was able to provide and install a new extractor (on a pre-WWII bolt) and happily provided me with some advice on how to fix the problem.

DSC_2282_415net.JPGI decided to document the progress a bit too late - this is the stub of the barrel that I cut off - note the wear on the thin part of the chamber.


DSC_2287_417net.JPGNew extractor fitted to the bolt.


DSC_2285_416net.JPGFreshly cut barrel (breech end) with ugly looking hand-filed extractor ramp - it works though.


DSC_2290_414net.JPGUsing the newly-made shell reamer to chamber the barrel - first time that I've ever attempted heat treating metal.


DSC_2292_413net.JPGThe reamer - it has a .217" pilot to guide/centre the tool.

After pressing the barrel back into place I tested the action and was able to chamber and eject a round without difficulty - still need to get to the range to test fire it...

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Not really machined but certainly a product of my shop. The old saying that necessity is the mother of invention, certainly true in this case. Last weekend I purchased a 125,000 BTU Modine propane heater for the shop, trouble is mounts to the ceiling that is 9.5 feet up, weighs about 125lbs and is large and bulky. It occurred to me that I might be able to re-purpose my engine hoist (PepBoys/HF). A few hours in the shop and I have a hoist cum lift. I am quite happy with how it turned out, the platform stays nearly dead level over the length of travel. Of course I won't put anything really heavy on it but I did carefully have a seat on it and nothing felt shaky, I am not a small guy, so I am confident it will handle the heater without a problem. I used an old sub woofer cabinet as a test, figured it that fell off I just didn't care.

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[video=youtube_share;kVsDfK76dp8]http://youtu.be/kVsDfK76dp8[/video]

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