2020 POTD Thread Archive

[DavidR8]

Well I’m afraid this isn’t exactly a scintillating project but I haven’t spent much personal time in the shop lately. My industry was in the “first wave” of re-opening after COVID shutdown so most of my energy was coming up with engineering controls and product sourcing for work. Amazing how much juice that type of thing can suck out of a person!

But, back to the job at hand, I have one of the small commonly-available 10-ton hydraulic presses — a bench model much like this one:

View attachment 329200

I don’t use it terribly much, maybe half a dozen times a year if that, so like most of my other equipment I need to have it stow out of the way when not in use. So I scooped a second-hand machine stand off our used marketplace here and channeled it some to bring the depth down to about 12”.

Then I put some wheels on the legs — these are the cheapie solid rubber things you get for two dollars and change at the hardware store. I don’t need this thing to steer, just to roll in and out from the wall in a straight line, and not for any great distance either. I mount the wheels sideways onto the legs so I can keep the frame as open as possible at floor level.

View attachment 329201

After that I snipped off about 4” from each end of the base pieces on the press itself and bolted it down to the top of my wheelie stand. The most awkward part of this whole affair seems to be the hydraulic hose which, no matter where you try to put it, seems to be always straining to be somewhere else. The angled side mount appears to work the best for me so that’s what I did.

So far it does what I want and tucks cleanly out of the way when it needs to. I may make it an inch or two higher but for now I’ll try it the way it is. That would also be an excuse to redo the two MDF strips which I ham-fistedly counterbored way too close to the edges. As always, thanks for looking!

View attachment 329202

-frank

Hah! You beat me to that stand! Good on you


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[francist]

You beat me to that stand!

Well I can’t beat you at scooping actual machines so I have to settle for the stands!

Seriously, you mean building the stand or getting it? I traded for this one in January I think, used to be red. UsedVic.

-f

 

[DavidR8]

Well I can’t beat you at scooping actual machines so I have to settle for the stands!

Seriously, you mean building the stand or getting it? I traded for this one in January I think, used to be red. UsedVic.

-f

Ahh no, it was another on UsedVic or FB Marketplace.
I’ll race you to the next surface grinder tho’ !



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[Shootymacshootface]

Interesting, I thought it was that brake shoes got better in design, that the radius grinding was not so critical. I do remember a shop that did Big truck stuff, doing the grinding in the 70's, but they also had approximately 1/2" linings. That was the only time I saw shoes being matched to the drum. Thats back when we thought split rims were also a great hing.

I would certainly say that tolerances are worlds better today and shoes and drums fit together almost perfectly now.
Just to mention that my shoes could stand a bit of grinding. The contact points are in 4 places right now, the leading and trailing edges. But, not for long.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

made a bushing pusher and receiver to remove the rear bushings from the front lower control arms on my Subaru. They tear easily and I'm about to put in new shocks, so figured I'd get this done at the same time

old bushing, you can just make out the tearing

new one in place. Took a bit of fiddling but got it in the right orientation eventually.

pusher ended up worse for the wear, but got the job done

new one bolted up

shocks next weekend!

 

[mattthemuppet2]

crap, just noticed I got the bushing above 90deg off Have to fix that next weekend. At least it will take a lot less time to get out the 2nd time round!

 

[francist]

A little bit of woodwork over the past weekend. A few weeks ago my sister let me know that a rolling pin I had made for her as a Christmas present one year had come apart. I actually wasn’t surprised — I had made it back when I was pretty young, had absolutely no power equipment or machines, and had glued up the blank from several pieces using just regular hardware store tube epoxy. That it had lasted until now was pretty good, considering.

Anyway, I felt compelled to make her a new one — you know, “lifetime warranty” should be achievable, right?

So I bought a blank of ash....



Made a mess under my Sagar....



And came up with this....



I’m pretty sure this one will break its predecessor’s 40-year record, I know it’ll outlive me that’s for darn sure! Thanks for looking.

-frank

 

[DavidR8]

A little bit of woodwork over the past weekend. A few weeks ago my sister let me know that a rolling pin I had made for her as a Christmas present one year had come apart. I actually wasn’t surprised — I had made it back when I was pretty young, had absolutely no power equipment or machines, and had glued up the blank from several pieces using just regular hardware store tube epoxy. That it had lasted until now was pretty good, considering.

Anyway, I felt compelled to make her a new one — you know, “lifetime warranty” should be achievable, right?

So I bought a blank of ash....

View attachment 329684

Made a mess under my Sagar....

View attachment 329685

And came up with this....

View attachment 329686

I’m pretty sure this one will break its predecessor’s 40-year record, I know it’ll outlive me that’s for darn sure! Thanks for looking.

-frank

Very nice bit of work there!


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[devils4ever]

I made a set of four machinist jacks made from 1" hex 1018 steel stock. I single point threaded the 1/2-20 UNF external threads and used a long tap for the base. They are 2.25" high fully lowered.

Turning 1018 is not as nice as 12L14!

 

[tcarrington]

This is very trivial, but I got tired of trying to read the sizing die or the other dies marked as specific to the caliber. The real point of the die plates are to allow easy change out and setup of the next reloading task. I am using a popular progressive press for 9, 38 super, and 45 and to make it easier to quickly get the set of dies, This is what I did.
Drilled a hole in the thin section in the middle of the die holder plate to clear a #6. Made round slugs about 0.820 OD and 0.420 thick with a #6 thread on one end. The other end was left flat to attach a label. One could use brass or aluminum and engrave or stamp the information. If you had a label maker (which I don't at present) that would also allow. I spent more time than I should have getting a round looking label with large characters with something unique.
I used nylatron for the little slugs, wood glue for the adhesive and regular paper for the labels. I coated the top side of the label with more wood glue to make it more durable. Will see if the wood glue lasts. If it falls off, I will reattach with CA glue.
Additionally spotfaced a 3/16 diameter by 0.020 deep and filled it with red enamel paint. This helps with locating and placing the die plate in the press.