That looks great!
Makes me want to retrain for welding certs after retirement in the next year or two.
You have your own shop or work in someone else's business?
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2016 POTD Thread Archive
- Thread starter sanddan
- Start date
Makes me want to retrain for welding certs after retirement in the next year or two.
You have your own shop or work in someone else's business?
I was going to post up pics of a nice little adapter I spun up on the lathe for my harmonic balancer puller (same as Yamaha special tool) so I could use it on my bikes stator rotor, but the damned rotor is on so tight on the taper that it destroyed both the adapter and the puller!
I've rebuilt more engines than I can remember and I've never had one like this. I've been using this old puller for decades and am pretty sad to see it destroyed. Like seeing an old trusted friend die.
Need to figure out a different way to get the bloody thing off now. My puller wasn't cheap either. ACME threads and heavy cast iron with a thread insert. Destroyed the threads as well as toasting the adapter I made.
Scared as hell for when that thing finally lets go. I'm going to have to put some rope or heavy tie wraps on it so it doesn't rocket across the shop when it goes.....
I was proud of that adapter too.
Fit both the puller and the crank snout recess perfectly. I did it up in a minimum amount of time (for me) and was somewhat of a triumph for my very amateur machining skills and sloppy old atlas.
I even was able to part it with a minimum amount of chatter. At least I discovered some of my chatter problems were I wasn't feeding fast enough to keep that horrible squeal away. Seemed to me you really have to "hog out" the material when parting. Seemed way too fast but it didn't squeal/chatter....sure did work the lathe hard though. I think I'm going to have to look a little closer at trying to get a bit more rigidity in there somehow too.....
I've rebuilt more engines than I can remember and I've never had one like this. I've been using this old puller for decades and am pretty sad to see it destroyed. Like seeing an old trusted friend die.
Need to figure out a different way to get the bloody thing off now. My puller wasn't cheap either. ACME threads and heavy cast iron with a thread insert. Destroyed the threads as well as toasting the adapter I made.
Scared as hell for when that thing finally lets go. I'm going to have to put some rope or heavy tie wraps on it so it doesn't rocket across the shop when it goes.....
I was proud of that adapter too.
Fit both the puller and the crank snout recess perfectly. I did it up in a minimum amount of time (for me) and was somewhat of a triumph for my very amateur machining skills and sloppy old atlas.
I even was able to part it with a minimum amount of chatter. At least I discovered some of my chatter problems were I wasn't feeding fast enough to keep that horrible squeal away. Seemed to me you really have to "hog out" the material when parting. Seemed way too fast but it didn't squeal/chatter....sure did work the lathe hard though. I think I'm going to have to look a little closer at trying to get a bit more rigidity in there somehow too.....
F
Firestopper
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Thanks great white,
I work alone and from home part time, but if you ask my wife, 40-50 hrs/week is not part time haha. I work every other day in the shop as I have another career.
I no longer hold any welding certs but maintained them for for many years back in the US Navy welding on Submarines and when I maintained hi-rise building anchors for window washers in the late 80's early 90's.
I don't miss the time invested in maintaining certs and the type of work I do now really doesn't require certs. Fab/welding and machining will always keep food on the table and keep one active.
Nice work on the trailer repair. The diamond plate would make a good mounting point for a winch. Mike
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Firestopper
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Hi Mike,
Yes it would, in fact the future plan is to replace the damaged fenders, upgrade the axels, deck the top and add a tool box to the tongue that will house a winch. I may be able to talk the owner into a flush mount tool box as he has 10" of depth under the bed between the tongue to store his rigging. He wants to do it in phases so he's not left too long without a trailer.
Thanks for the input.
Paco
Yes it would, in fact the future plan is to replace the damaged fenders, upgrade the axels, deck the top and add a tool box to the tongue that will house a winch. I may be able to talk the owner into a flush mount tool box as he has 10" of depth under the bed between the tongue to store his rigging. He wants to do it in phases so he's not left too long without a trailer.
Thanks for the input.
Paco
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You mention pulse mig, what model do you have. I have a Kemppi Kempact pulse 3000. When its in pulse or double pulse mode I never get the stack of dimes look to my welds? It is always washed smooth almost like I have run a tig over the top.
Is that your machine or a technique to get that look?
Bought a Harbor Freight tool cart ($168) to centralize everything for my Grizzly G0709 lathe (chucks, steady rest, mics, caliper, tool holders, boring bars, etc.). A lot of my projects involve turning 1/4", 5/16", 3/8" and 1/2" brass. I really like 5-C collets for the work and went the extreme overkill route and bought a 65-pc. 1/8" - 1 1/8" set by 1/64" from CDCO for $200.
Instead of drilling and screwing a collet rack directly to the lid, I made a couple of brackets for attaching the rack. The brackets were a couple of pieces of 1/2" thick aluminum 2" wide by about 9" long (stock on hand). Milled a 1/8" slot for them to slip over the top lip of the lid. Milled about 0.100" off the edge that rests on the inside of the lid to compensate for the thickness of the lid and flange on the collet rack sides. Drilled/tapped a couple of 1/4" x 20 holes for a plate of aluminum to pin the brackets to the lid. Also replaced the gas struts on the lid with a couple of pieces of angle iron. Should make for a nice work station, everything tight and cozy.
By the way, the 72 pc. collet rack has a 9 x 8 grid with 8 on the vertical. The collets go up in size from top to bottom, then left to right. That way one horizontal line has the common sizes, i.e. 1/8", 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 5/8", 3/4", 7/8", 1", 1 1/8". Oh boy, everything looks so nice and shiny!!! The first 4 spots were left open for 1/16" - 7/64" collets that'll be added later to complete the set. Also have another smaller rack for square and hex collets in the future.
Very happy so far with the HF tool cart. Seems to be well made with very smooth ball bearing drawers. Casters are pretty beefy and roll easily. It'll help me keep the floor swept.
Bruce
Instead of drilling and screwing a collet rack directly to the lid, I made a couple of brackets for attaching the rack. The brackets were a couple of pieces of 1/2" thick aluminum 2" wide by about 9" long (stock on hand). Milled a 1/8" slot for them to slip over the top lip of the lid. Milled about 0.100" off the edge that rests on the inside of the lid to compensate for the thickness of the lid and flange on the collet rack sides. Drilled/tapped a couple of 1/4" x 20 holes for a plate of aluminum to pin the brackets to the lid. Also replaced the gas struts on the lid with a couple of pieces of angle iron. Should make for a nice work station, everything tight and cozy.
By the way, the 72 pc. collet rack has a 9 x 8 grid with 8 on the vertical. The collets go up in size from top to bottom, then left to right. That way one horizontal line has the common sizes, i.e. 1/8", 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 5/8", 3/4", 7/8", 1", 1 1/8". Oh boy, everything looks so nice and shiny!!! The first 4 spots were left open for 1/16" - 7/64" collets that'll be added later to complete the set. Also have another smaller rack for square and hex collets in the future.
Very happy so far with the HF tool cart. Seems to be well made with very smooth ball bearing drawers. Casters are pretty beefy and roll easily. It'll help me keep the floor swept.
Bruce
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British Steel
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Didn't get a lot done today, checked progress in EGBERT 1.1 (Electrolytic Gungy Bubblinig Encrustation Removal Tank, improved since last outing), brought in some nice skip dives (1 m square of 6mm stainless plate that may be a small welding table once I find some legs for it, high vacuum pump, Moore centring scope with condensation inside), electrical repair on housemate's sister-in-law's vacuum - amazing how little there is to 'em, particularly when you see the price they ask... At least with bright orange cable she shouldn't manage to mangle it again 
Dave H. (the other one)
Dave H. (the other one)
I am normally spending my time repairing old clocks for people. My 14 year old grand daughter has always liked working with me fixing clocks.
She has decided that she wants to make a working model of one of our historic Rideau Canal locks..complete with water. Soooo each Sunday she comes over and I mentor her on the construction. Behind the scenes I will make some jigs and fixtures so that my equipment will be appropriate, but she is going to be doing the machining.
There is an interesting conflict here. All of my equipment has dials using imperial measurements. She has been brought up totally metric, so I have to help her with that. Other than that here are a few pics of our afternoon today.
Everything is being made out of acrylic so that we can solvent weld it all together when we assemble everything.
Just awesome that she is like a sponge taking everything in and asking questions...AND providing suggestions for next steps. Never done this before, so it is all new to both of us.
David
She has decided that she wants to make a working model of one of our historic Rideau Canal locks..complete with water. Soooo each Sunday she comes over and I mentor her on the construction. Behind the scenes I will make some jigs and fixtures so that my equipment will be appropriate, but she is going to be doing the machining.
There is an interesting conflict here. All of my equipment has dials using imperial measurements. She has been brought up totally metric, so I have to help her with that. Other than that here are a few pics of our afternoon today.
Everything is being made out of acrylic so that we can solvent weld it all together when we assemble everything.
Just awesome that she is like a sponge taking everything in and asking questions...AND providing suggestions for next steps. Never done this before, so it is all new to both of us.
David
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