2015 POTD Thread Archive

[TomS]

Not machining related but I had a job at home I have been working on for the past several nights, late I might add.

I had to take a slight deviation from my utility trailer project. I have had so many personal projects that need to be done I have been trying to fit them in between the paying ones and time has been at a premium. My full-time job has been so hectic with new managment, I have been putting in 12+ hour days at work and then working until around 8:ish at night. Then start over @ 4:00 am and do it all over again. I really hope to get caught up at home and get our new management team settled in at work so I can relax and enjoy my summer. My wife and I have a lot of fun trips planned and so far I am stressed out wondering if we will be able to relax and enjoy them.

Anyway, the weather had been holding out thus far and I have been needing to put new tires on our 2003 Monaco Dynasty motorcoach. I have NOT been happy with the POS Goodyear G670 that were on the coach one bit. They have developed an irregular wear pattern and I thought I would have an alignment done prior to installing my new Michelin's.

The alignment was within spec but to the high side of the allowable thrust angle of the drive axle. Monaco Roadmaster rear suspensions are not adjustable, as many other heavy RV chassis are either. The guy who performed my lazer alignment told me he wouldn't do anything with it as it was within the allowable range. That isn't me. Between he and I we calculated that the driver's side drive axle needed to move forward just under .125" and the tag axle slightly less than that.

On many heavy OTR trucks they use adjustable ends on their suspension links and Volvo uses an ecentric that allows for some slight adjustment. I thought about drilling the holes out and machining some ecentrics but wasn't sure if I wanted to lose any material on the chassis mounting points as well as several of them would be difficult to get a drill in due to space limitations.

Again, the gentleman who did the alignment suggested leaving it if there were no adverse handling issues. My wife and I like to travel mainly on two lane country roads when we travel and I notice that due to road crown the coach does drift off slightly when letting go of the steering wheel. On concrete interstates it is fine. I opted to move the driver's side forward .125" so it will actually help to hold to the road crown a bit.

First off, the reason for all this. Baby gets new shoes. Michelin XZA2 Energy tires in a 295/80R22.5 size. I am replacing all four drive tires, taking the two best tires from the drive axle and moving them to the tag axle and I will also be putting two new steer tires on. Good thing I am done paying for my son's college because there went a years tuition.




Here are the two trailing arms (control arms) that I will be removing to lengthen. Upper and lower on driver's side. Don't worry, all the weight of the coach is NOT sitting on those two jackstands under the hub. I have my 20-ton jackstands under the rear of the frame and those two 6-ton jackstands are merely holding the weight of the drive axle because I dumped the air out of the rear suspension to allow some movement of the axle.


Make-shift jig setup on my welding table. I clamped some large tubing down so I could make two borders to hold the trailing arm, take some measurements, cut and then insert the trailing arm back into the jig and clamp it to the correct length.


Cutting the trailing arm in my horizontal bandsaw.


I had measured the outside diameter of the square tubing of the trailing arms and had prepared for two separate methods of sleeving the trailing arm. I dug through my steel supply and found a piece of trailer hitch receiver tubing left over from one of the various trailer hitch projects. This measures 2" inside diameter and would work to sleeve the outside of the trailing arm. I was really hoping that the 2" square tubing that Roadmaster used for the trailing arms was .250" wall thickness because I also had a few small pieces of 1.5" O.D. x .250" wall square tube in my scrap bin. This would be my preferred method which would allow me to sleeve the trailing arm internally keeping the outside dimension the same as OEM. Not that sleeving it externally would be any weaker or stronger, just that I wanted to keep the trailing arm as near OEM appearance without sacrificing strength as possible.

All the planets were in alignment, the wall thickness of the trailing arm was .250" so I was able to use 1.5" square tubing to sleeve internally.:rocker:


I then went one step further and put the trailing arm back into the horizontal bandsaw and removed a .125" sliver of steel. This will allow me to have just enought of a gap in the joint to allow full penetration and let the weld bite hard into the inner sleeve as well as both halves of the trailing arm for a very solid link. In addition, I knew there would be some shrinkage or pull back putting that much heat and weld into the trailing arm. I actually set the overall length @ .156" thinking it would pull back approx. 1/32" upon cooling.


I also drilled a few .500" holes in both halves of the trailing arm to allow me to rosette weld (plug weld) the inner sleeve to the trailing arm. Root weld and rosette welds completed. For some reason I don't have any pictures of the internal sleeve but there is a 6" length of 1.5" square tubing inside the trailing arm.


While I was waiting for the root weld to cool slightly I decided to grab some polish and run a coat of polish around my wheels.


When my wife and I bought the coach in 2007 the previous owner had neglected the wheels badly. I don't think they had seen a coat of polish in their first four years. Upon our purchasing the coach, I removed all the wheels and polished them with a compounding pad using tripoli and jewelers rouge bringing them back to nearly new shine. Now once or twice a year I merely have to run around them with a coat of Busch's Aluminum polish and they look amazing and bead water off nicely.

I then moved on to complete to top pass on the trailing arm.


After cooling I threw it back into the jig to test for the final measurement. Dead nuts on @ 1/8" over the starting length. It shrunk back exactly where it needed to be.:rocker:


After cooling I applied a heavy coat of chassis paint, installed the lower trailing arm, removed the upper trailing arm and performed the exact same procedure. Here is the upper trailing arm completed and ready for paint.


Moving on to the final pics of the modified trailing arms and wheels/tires installed.

Here is the upper trailing arm completed, painted and installed.


Here is the lower trailing arm completed, painted and installed.


Inner dual installed, Balance Master installed, Crossfire installed and torqueing the wheels on with my Proto 3/4" drive torque wrench. Yes that is snow that is starting to fall that you see on the ground. It started just as I crawled out from under the coach from tightening the last two bolts on the tag axle trailing arms.


View of completed project. You can see how much better it looks after all that work.:lol:




All in all, I am glad that job is done.

I set up an appointment for another alignment to verify the success of the modification for Wednesday afternoon. I am glad to say that the alignment is dead on the money. The guy doing the alignment was very impressed with the method in which I altered the suspension and impressed with how accurate it turned out. As was I, very happy it is dead on. I took it for about a 15-mile test drive the other night and it doesn't even feel like the same coach.

Mike.

Nice job! You can't be too careful when it comes to RV tires. Case in point: recently had two blowouts in two days on my 39" fifth wheel. Did about $5,000 in damage to the coach plus an extra eight days stuck in an RV park waiting on replacement tires. Take care of your "baby".

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice job! You can't be too careful when it comes to RV tires. Case in point: recently had two blowouts in two days on my 39" fifth wheel. Did about $5,000 in damage to the coach plus an extra eight days stuck in an RV park waiting on replacement tires. Take care of your "baby".

I agree. I am under the philosophy that I would rather "maintain" my vehicles than "repair" them. I also prefer to do them at home/shop rather than on the road. When we roll away from the house we are on vacation and I want to relax not work on stuff.

Mike.

 

[TomS]

I agree. I am under the philosophy that I would rather "maintain" my vehicles than "repair" them. I also prefer to do them at home/shop rather than on the road. When we roll away from the house we are on vacation and I want to relax not work on stuff.

Mike.

I share your philosophy. My tires were nearly new and came recommended by a local name brand tire store. Unfortunately they were crap. Live and learn.

Tom S

 

[FanMan]

This afternoon I finished working on a couple of old (circa early 1950's) saws. Just wanted to get them working, not trying to do any kind of proper restoration.

The first was a 10" Shopmaster band saw that my sister in law gave me. Last week I made a new blade guide bearing and refaced the brass blade side guides. It was too fast for metal cutting, though, so I wanted to slow it down. I had an old 3/4HP treadmill motor with a spring loaded variable pitch pulley I wanted to use, but it turned in the wrong direction and wasn't reversible. I considered running the belt in a figure 8 drive, but I still would have needed a new large pulley on the top. Instead, a jackshaft for a two stage reduction made more sense. I considered buying pillow block bearings for it, or making something, but then I decided to do a piece of true redneck engineering. Since the original motor had a double end shaft, I left it in place and put an old step pulley on the other side that I had removed from my drill press when the smallest pulley cracked... I only wanted to use the largest one. The motor I mounted on its original pivot shaft, pivoting on four cushioned cable clamps. A piece of 10-24 threaded rod bent with a crank on one end and a barrel nut made from some brass rod (you can't see it, it's under the shelf) to pull the motor and tension the belt to reduce the speed finished it off... turning the crank varies the blade speed from 2300 fpm down to around 900, still a bit on the fast side but OK for thin aluminum. Total cost $20 for a new belt.







Next was a Homecraft 16" scroll saw that I picked up out of the back of a hangar when the local airport closed. This was working when I got it, but when I found a scanned manual for it online, I learned that the spring loaded upper blade plunger included a piston intended to pump a small amount of air through a tube to blow chips away from the blade. The tube was missing and the piston seals were long gone. I cut a new piston seal from rubber sheet and bent up a copper tube to direct the air at the blade, and it works perfectly, just enough the blow the chips away so you can see where you're cutting without blowing them all over the place.

 

[cathead]

Thanks for the Homecraft notes. I got one at an estate sake for 5 bucks and got it up an running on
a home made stand. I didn't know however that it had a dust blower so will be checking that out to see
if I can get that feature to work on mine. Thanks for the information!

 

[drom68]

Eh, it'll probably be ready around 5-6 pm. Started at 11 am with cooking a pound of bacon. Put the bacon grease in a little saucepan with a stick of butter, added 2/3 cup unbleached flour, 1/3 cup of whole wheat flour. Put on medium high head, stir continuously until it's the color of a dark chocolate bar. It'll smoke, and smell like it's starting to burn, just keep stirring. Once it's done, pour quickly into a pyrex bowl, set off the heat, and let cool. Turns into a thick goop the color of coffee grounds, and smells heavenly. That's the roux. (pronounced 'roo').

Cut up two pounds of chicken breasts, into about 3/4" cubes. It's best to use a ceramic knife, on chicken that is just a tiny bit still frozen so it is easier to cut. Dump the chicken into a big (I'm using a 16 qt stock pot, and it's barely big enough) stock pot on medium high, and cook through. You'll get chunks and bits of chicken stuck to the bottom, along with a thick carmelized scum in the bottom of the pot. Leave it. Once the chicken is cooked, dump it into a large bowl, set aside in the microwave (not to cook, just to keep it out of the way and people from nibbling at it). While the chicken was cooking, I cut up:
Two big green peppers.
Two huge yellow peppers.
A huge red pepper and a little red pepper.
Two orange peppers.
Two Hungarian wax peppers (a little warm, because my wife doesn't like food too spicy. For myself I prefer jalapeno's)
An entire bag of celery, leaves and all
Two huge sweet onions

Those go into the stock pot, crank the heat to just under high, and let 'em cook. Stir once in awhile, and it gets all that stuck on chicken and baked-on-carmelized-goodness off the bottom of the pot. Keep cooking until the onions have gone translucent.

While that's cooking, cut up:
1 lb of andoulli sausage
1 lb smoked turkey sausage
1 lb turkey kielbasa

Now add two quarts of chicken stock. Due to a supply error, I'll be using one quart of chicken, one of beef.
Dump in the cut sausages, add water if necessary until the level is right around the top of the ingredients. Add a several heaping tablespoons of roux, a big tablespoon of crushed garlic, some salt, pepper, paprika, ground red (cayenne) pepper, and stir it in good. Let it come to a gentle boil, and cook for about 1-1.5 hours, until the sausages are mostly done. Dump the chicken back in, cook for another 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally. And yes, that's 5 lbs of meat and about 6 lbs of vegetables, plus stock. Takes up a bit more than half of a 16 quart pot.

Season to taste with salt, pepper, and ground red pepper. Serve over jasmine rice with a good cold beer on the side, maybe some deep fried breaded okra as a side dish. I generally make as big of a batch as I can, because it freezes really well, and it's quick 'n easy to make meals with the frozen portions. Just throw in a pot with a splash of water, when it's mostly thawed get some rice started in the rice cooker. by the time the rice is done, the gumbo is hot and ready to go.

Right now it's on the stove simmering. The aroma is making me drool, and it's driving the dogs insane. It's got about 30-35 minutes till the chicken goes back in, then it'll simmer until the chicken is just short of falling apart.

There's only a few things I can make really good.
Gumbo.
Sauerbraten.
Coffee.
Ice.

Made a pot of the gumbo, so delicious. Only hope it is half as good as OGBERI makes it.

 

[ogberi]

Made a pot of the gumbo, so delicious. Only hope it is half as good as OGBERI makes it.

Gumbo is my go-to comfort food. It's impossible to eat and not enjoy, which puts anybody in a better mood. Good food = good feelings. Hope yours turned out well! Nothing smells more appetizing than onions, celery, and peppers cooking.
Next weekend, it's time for a big 'ole sauerbraten roast. Marinates 3 days in a spice-infused trifecta of vinegars, then cooked in potatos, carrots, onions, and celery. Served over hand mashed potatoes, with a super-cold stout beer.

 

[cathead]

I machined up some bread...

 

[drom68]

Gumbo is my go-to comfort food. It's impossible to eat and not enjoy, which puts anybody in a better mood. Good food = good feelings. Hope yours turned out well! Nothing smells more appetizing than onions, celery, and peppers cooking.
Next weekend, it's time for a big 'ole sauerbraten roast. Marinates 3 days in a spice-infused trifecta of vinegars, then cooked in potatos, carrots, onions, and celery. Served over hand mashed potatoes, with a super-cold stout beer.

I can see… taste why it is the go-to food. The Mrs. and I were talking about how it makes you feel. Makes you want to have a another bowl as the flavors just flow out of it. For those that have not had/tried it, it is fun to make and the aroma makes you hungry while you are waiting for it. Thanks for posting the recipe. If you don't mind, how bout posting the recipe for the "big 'ole sauerbraten roast".

 

[CoopVA]

Finally got out to the shop today. It's about 16* outside and sleeting. Shop is up to about 31*.

Worked on the Sandblast Cabinet. Added a ground wire from the gun to the cabinet, and cabinet to the structure. Tested it out and it seems to have taken care of the static shocks I was getting.

I am calling the Sandblast Cabinet project complete.









Used a vendor sample I got from work of a trapeze hanger for conduit and cable as an air tool holder...






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