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POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?
- Thread starter wachuko
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2017
- Messages
- 2,455
Today My father's 405 needed some suspension work. Front anti roll bar started to make noise so it got new links and bushes. Buying new part for those cars is starting to be difficult. I had to go to 3 different parts store to buy those parts and all of them are different manufacturer but are 30 years newer than the one on the car. The links are easy to replace but the bushes are quite difficult. With them changed the 405 got back its handling i might have to change one more suspension bushes but it's much happier now, this car has been in my family more then 20 years.
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2019
- Messages
- 1,044
Close to finishing up two projects, well actually one only with two different items.
15 lift bar plates for narrow frame Cubs and a few, (in foreground) for wide frame units.
lots of drilling and tapping
Next step is the paint booth.
Next project will be re-purposing a file cabinet sans drawers for an upright steel storage rack for short stuff 18" to 3' plus to stand on end.
15 lift bar plates for narrow frame Cubs and a few, (in foreground) for wide frame units.
lots of drilling and tapping
Next step is the paint booth.
Next project will be re-purposing a file cabinet sans drawers for an upright steel storage rack for short stuff 18" to 3' plus to stand on end.
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- Joined
- Aug 6, 2015
- Messages
- 4,204
Sweet!
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2020
- Messages
- 542
I recently purchased a Diamond Tool Holder. The tool can be angled to go into chamfering mode, and I found myself turning it back and forth often. So I made up and tool post position handle. I used a 1" 12 point socket so it can go on and off easily and can be positioned to a convenient spot. I made up a plastic cap just to keep chips out of the drive end of the socket
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2013
- Messages
- 3,790
I haven’t been in the shop a lot lately, at least not for a specific project. But it was raining again today so I opted for a little change of pace.
I have a couple of old sad irons upstairs that used to belong to my grandmother. They’d be from the early 1940’s I imagine, she would have used them on the farm shortly after they came to Canada. I didn’t even realize they were around until we were going through the house after my Mom died and these are two that I saved from the garage sale. I use them as weights for when I’m laying out fabric or drafting a pattern.
Most of the time you only need two, but every now and again a second pair comes in handy. Trouble is, with this type of iron you would have multiple lowers for the same handle — it clips on using a spring loaded little set of jaws — so even though I have four lowers I only have two handles. Hmmm…
I figured I could come up with a couple of simple handles pretty quick and I wouldn’t have to modify the lowers to attach them, but I would need to get the latching and ironing pieces separated first. Yeah right, easier said than done. These are cast iron and have been routinely subjected to heat and water for all of their lives, steel screws were unlikely to come out without a fight!
And they didn’t. I ended up using a rotary burr in my Dremel to chew away enough of the screw heads so that the plate would come off, and then the same burr to waste away any remaining screw until I reached the cast iron. After that I just drilled out what was left and re-tapped the holes for 1/4”-20 which is about what they were in the beginning.
Here’s what the two lowers looked like with the latching plate recently separated and the screws ground down flush. The diamond-shaped piece in the top pair of parts is an interesting artifact that does not appear in any of the others. It’s a little lid for lack of a better word that fits beneath the latching plate and straddles the two partial cross-ribs in the lower body. For what reason I’m not sure, it seems a little elaborate to just cover over the hollowness of the body given the utilitarian nature of the item but who knows. I thought it might serve as a way to keep water from sloshing out of the body if it was filled but I don’t know if that was a done thing or not. At any rate, I’ve left it intact and will reinstate it for someone else to ponder after me.
Back to the main task, I cleaned up the castings a little with some moderate wire brushing. I thought about using Evaporust and even have a fresh jug on hand but in the end I decided against. I wanted to keep as much of the age on as I could and sometimes you lose that with too thorough of a job. With much of the surface rust off I applied a liberal coat of Boeshield T-9 and then gently warmed the castings before buffing off the excess. I like the look, just a very subtle glow on the high spots but not enough to look like there’s a coating.
For the handles I found a scrap of Honduras Mahogany that would give me both from the one piece so went with that. I didn’t really have a clear picture of what I wanted for shape and in the end I’m not sure I like what I came up with, but I’m staying with it for now. I made a couple little strap clamps to affix the handles but leave all the metal parts unharmed. A couple coats of varnish later and they were good to go.
The only thing left was to reassemble. The original screws were oval head steel but I knew any new steel would stand out like a sore thumb. So I figured I’d go with brass instead. I could only get flat head in 1/4”-20 but a bit of doctoring on the lathe turned them into oval heads in a matter of minutes. I think they look okay.
All in all what started as a quick afternoon project turned into the better part of two weeks, but that’s pretty par for course I guess. Thanks for looking!
-frank
I have a couple of old sad irons upstairs that used to belong to my grandmother. They’d be from the early 1940’s I imagine, she would have used them on the farm shortly after they came to Canada. I didn’t even realize they were around until we were going through the house after my Mom died and these are two that I saved from the garage sale. I use them as weights for when I’m laying out fabric or drafting a pattern.
Most of the time you only need two, but every now and again a second pair comes in handy. Trouble is, with this type of iron you would have multiple lowers for the same handle — it clips on using a spring loaded little set of jaws — so even though I have four lowers I only have two handles. Hmmm…
I figured I could come up with a couple of simple handles pretty quick and I wouldn’t have to modify the lowers to attach them, but I would need to get the latching and ironing pieces separated first. Yeah right, easier said than done. These are cast iron and have been routinely subjected to heat and water for all of their lives, steel screws were unlikely to come out without a fight!
And they didn’t. I ended up using a rotary burr in my Dremel to chew away enough of the screw heads so that the plate would come off, and then the same burr to waste away any remaining screw until I reached the cast iron. After that I just drilled out what was left and re-tapped the holes for 1/4”-20 which is about what they were in the beginning.
Here’s what the two lowers looked like with the latching plate recently separated and the screws ground down flush. The diamond-shaped piece in the top pair of parts is an interesting artifact that does not appear in any of the others. It’s a little lid for lack of a better word that fits beneath the latching plate and straddles the two partial cross-ribs in the lower body. For what reason I’m not sure, it seems a little elaborate to just cover over the hollowness of the body given the utilitarian nature of the item but who knows. I thought it might serve as a way to keep water from sloshing out of the body if it was filled but I don’t know if that was a done thing or not. At any rate, I’ve left it intact and will reinstate it for someone else to ponder after me.
Back to the main task, I cleaned up the castings a little with some moderate wire brushing. I thought about using Evaporust and even have a fresh jug on hand but in the end I decided against. I wanted to keep as much of the age on as I could and sometimes you lose that with too thorough of a job. With much of the surface rust off I applied a liberal coat of Boeshield T-9 and then gently warmed the castings before buffing off the excess. I like the look, just a very subtle glow on the high spots but not enough to look like there’s a coating.
For the handles I found a scrap of Honduras Mahogany that would give me both from the one piece so went with that. I didn’t really have a clear picture of what I wanted for shape and in the end I’m not sure I like what I came up with, but I’m staying with it for now. I made a couple little strap clamps to affix the handles but leave all the metal parts unharmed. A couple coats of varnish later and they were good to go.
The only thing left was to reassemble. The original screws were oval head steel but I knew any new steel would stand out like a sore thumb. So I figured I’d go with brass instead. I could only get flat head in 1/4”-20 but a bit of doctoring on the lathe turned them into oval heads in a matter of minutes. I think they look okay.
All in all what started as a quick afternoon project turned into the better part of two weeks, but that’s pretty par for course I guess. Thanks for looking!
-frank
