2021 POTD Thread Archive

[Tim9]

So…it’s like I’ve got so many irons in the fire…and nothing gets finished. But…today was a good day. I have an old Aloris BXA TPG tool. I got it cheap because someone put a grinder to it and screwed the pup. The insert just wouldn’t stay put. It would constantly turn a bit when I’d use it so the tool was useless.
Anyway, I forget what I paid but it was a cheap EBay find….probably like 40.00 to 50.00 bucks. Long story short…. The fix has never gone well. I tried to Tig some silicone bronze but with my scratch Tig without a pedal it just didn’t go well.it’s been one of those projects that has been sitting on the shelf while I give it thought as to how I would repair it.
So I just decided to MIG it. Building up some metal where it was ground down too much and then try to clean it up so the inserts stay put. I was thinking that I’d use a small 1/8” end mill to clean up the pocket for the TPG insert.

 

[Tim9]

Now…. Here’s where my day got good. I was trying to figure out how I would hold the tool to mill that triangular pocket. I figured I’d use my rotary table. But, that’s at my other house. I’m now at my moms house because she’s up in age. Anyway I just didn’t feel like running over there.
But I’d need some sort of swivel vise or the rotary table.
So I started looking around my shop to see what other tooling or set up would work.
And then it hit me. THE SHAPER ! ! !

 

[Tim9]

So here’s some pics of me setting up the shaper to cut out that triangular pocket. I just eyeballed the insert shim which sits underneath the tpg insert. The insert is held down with a clamp which has a chip-breaker.
It’s kind of hard to make out the pictures but at first I used a long cemented carbide tool I had but it was giving me trouble. It was just too wide and would interfere with the other side of the triangular pocket. So I then ground a 3/8 HSS tool. It worked okay

by the way…..I shimmed the BXA up with some folded paper to try and match what appeared to be some positive rake on the insert. Strictly eyeball type of shimming. I folded the paper 3 times so I’m guessing about 8 or 9 thousandths.

 

[Tim9]

And here’s the finished product. So… just to fill everybody in… another thing I didn’t mention is I had just moved the shaper in order to get a spot to place my new Surface Grinder. And when I did that… I spent the better part of the day tuning up the shaper. So it was kind of ready to go. Everything really went smooth.

( just had to give a little edit…insight to my joy of yesterday’s endeavor. Bottom line is even though I like the shaper. And it’s a cool machine. The truth is that 95% of the time whenever I have a job to tackle….a milling machine is the way to go. Shapers are awesome for internal slots , keyways, and I guess splines. But let’s face it…..how often do we need to do those. So when the lights lit up in my brain and I realized that a shaper would be perfect for the above job… Man that made my day. Because the truth is that my shaper just doesn’t get used often. And to make matters worse…when I was tuning it up I found out that the table/ram is out of whack. Or just worn. Because on a 7” stroke I’m coming up with like 4 thousandths taper. But….this was like a 1/2” stroke so it went perfect. It’s kind of funny…..the simple things that make me happy.)

okay….my rambling is over.

 

[Tim9]

View attachment 367473

I love that. Really too cool.

 

[GoceKU]

Today i begin by going straight to work cutting away the rusted and dented sill panel from the 206. Onec cut out i fited the new one over it and marked it, i could splace it anywhere but decided to use it entirely. So i continued cutting, i used my panch and bent plyers to make a flange for the new panel to slot in to. Then came the difficult part making the inner part and jacking point from scratch. I used some 1,5 mm sheet metal and layer it with 3 pieces. Then i grinded off all the rust i could then used some anti rust acid and finally i apply a coat of primer. I'll leave it to dry and tomorrow i should be able to weld the new sill in place. This car has very big and curvy sill panels for such a small car.

 

[NCjeeper]

I got the frame for my shop sign fabbed up and set in concrete. I also got the weather vane that I made installed.

 

[Tim9]

I got the frame for my shop sign fabbed up and set in concrete. I also got the weather vane that I made installed.
View attachment 368261

Fantastic weather vane. I was thinking just the other day that making a weather vane would be a cool project.

 

[NCjeeper]

I put a thrust bearing in there so it spins really easy.

 

[Tim9]

I put a thrust bearing in there so it spins really easy.

Great idea. I love the dog theme too. It’s really a great looking weather vane.