POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

I am wondering about those bearings. They are not designed to take lateral load, only axial? Will they work in this application?
Yes, but I will mount small Teflon tabs on the rim of the larger wheel to keep it centered. Most homebrew Dobsonian mounts use a round piece of plywood with a strip of countertop laminate glued to the rim, also riding on Teflon pads.

I’ll need something to slow down azimuth rotation, too. That lazy susan bearing has very little friction.

Rick “gotta travel so it will be a couple of weeks before cutting the wood” Denney
 
On my altitude bearings I use an adjustable friction band over the top of the disks.
A long stainless worm drive clip, cut in half, each half fixed to the top of the side plates, the drive can be undone to remove the scope.
My thoughts on the azimuth would be a friction block rubbing on the base plate with the pressure screw passing through the top plate so its easily adjustable.
Nice scopes.
 
needed some better washers for the grinder I picked up... so roughed these out.
I may make some more for all the grinders. I hate some of the stamped steel these days. My dads and my old grinders were machined. The cast ones from the garage sale were good, but there were 2 stamped as well, and they are deformed from over tightening, that's why I made these.
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Those look nice not rough...:)
 
I own an import repair shop and many times special tools are needed to do things. Unfortunately the need is discovered while doing the job and no one I know has any import tools I can borrow. We have a good rapport with other shops in town and lend tools willingly back and forth as needed, but usually I am on my own in that respect.

We had a Mini come in with a cam position tone ring problem. It is one of the later Minis with a (finally) BMW engine rather than the Peugeot or Chrysler engine. The tone ring is bolted onto the end of one of the cams and we could see through the position sensor hole that the ring was loose and could also se a 6 mm bolt that had backed out and broken a hole in the valve cover. Simple right? Pop the cover and bolt it back together. Flat rate time for just a cover replacement is 4 hours.

We discovered that not only the intake system and everything on top of the cover has to come off but the injectors have to be pulled as they are also in the way. I made a puller for the injectors out of flat stock that bolted to the injector mounting ring and could then use a small slide hammer to remove them. The fix was performed on the tone ring and it was simply clean up the threads on the bolt and hole in the cam and bolt it on with loctite this time. Replaced the cover and proceeded to put the injectors back in. Following the book there is a special tool that you use to space the injectors a certain amount from the fuel rail that you install them in before assembly. Them once properly spaced you bolt the fuel rail down to seat them in the head. This is a direct injection engine so they go through the head and into the cylinder. After bolting the fuel rail down then you tighten the injectors slowly to draw them up to the fuel rail. This pulls them back out of the head just the precise amount so they are all the same projection in the cylinder.

Sounds complex and I am sorry for the long winded post. Anyway we did not have the tool and it said without it you are likely to break an injector and if so all 3 have to be replace as a set and re coded to the ECU. They did show a picture of the tool and gave the thickness as 8.5mm so I quickly measured bolt spacing and the injector sleeve size and proceeded to make my best guesses.

The pictures show the special tool page with crude measurements (guesses) of sizing, and the final product. It worked like a charm and as you can see it was not a major project in any way, but it did save the day. I flycut a piece of aluminum plate to the desired thickness and cut it to size and milled the slot to my guessed dimensions.


inj tool.JPGinj tool1.JPGinj tool2.JPG
 
I own an import repair shop and many times special tools are needed to do things. Unfortunately the need is discovered while doing the job and no one I know has any import tools I can borrow. We have a good rapport with other shops in town and lend tools willingly back and forth as needed, but usually I am on my own in that respect.

We had a Mini come in with a cam position tone ring problem. It is one of the later Minis with a (finally) BMW engine rather than the Peugeot or Chrysler engine. The tone ring is bolted onto the end of one of the cams and we could see through the position sensor hole that the ring was loose and could also se a 6 mm bolt that had backed out and broken a hole in the valve cover. Simple right? Pop the cover and bolt it back together. Flat rate time for just a cover replacement is 4 hours.

We discovered that not only the intake system and everything on top of the cover has to come off but the injectors have to be pulled as they are also in the way. I made a puller for the injectors out of flat stock that bolted to the injector mounting ring and could then use a small slide hammer to remove them. The fix was performed on the tone ring and it was simply clean up the threads on the bolt and hole in the cam and bolt it on with loctite this time. Replaced the cover and proceeded to put the injectors back in. Following the book there is a special tool that you use to space the injectors a certain amount from the fuel rail that you install them in before assembly. Them once properly spaced you bolt the fuel rail down to seat them in the head. This is a direct injection engine so they go through the head and into the cylinder. After bolting the fuel rail down then you tighten the injectors slowly to draw them up to the fuel rail. This pulls them back out of the head just the precise amount so they are all the same projection in the cylinder.

Sounds complex and I am sorry for the long winded post. Anyway we did not have the tool and it said without it you are likely to break an injector and if so all 3 have to be replace as a set and re coded to the ECU. They did show a picture of the tool and gave the thickness as 8.5mm so I quickly measured bolt spacing and the injector sleeve size and proceeded to make my best guesses.

The pictures show the special tool page with crude measurements (guesses) of sizing, and the final product. It worked like a charm and as you can see it was not a major project in any way, but it did save the day. I flycut a piece of aluminum plate to the desired thickness and cut it to size and milled the slot to my guessed dimensions.


View attachment 493608View attachment 493606View attachment 493607
Probably saved $$$ in addition to the wait time on buying the tool from Mini! Don't forget to label the tool and put it somewhere you won't find it the next time.;)
 
We have a ever increasing shelf full of timing tools and other essentials. It will go in the appropriate Mini box with the others. I have made several tools over time, probably including some I have forgotten about. Often I get picture like this one, but not always.

Not having to push the car out in pieces and wait for the tool is more valuable than the cost of the tool usually. I am just glad that I can step up and partly justify owning machines that can make tools. Sometimes I make parts too if I can. I enjoy a new project as much as anyone.


Edit. I found the tool online and I can get one for $30.00. Much better to just make it in my opinion.
 
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Last weekend I serviced a Trav A Dial. Today I made the bracket and mounted it up.
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Material being cut with my little Craftsman. Where it will be mounted. There were already 2 tapped 3/8-16 holes. So first order was to promptly drill the first hole in the wrong position. Fixed that real quick. Lightening hole #1. Yes more to follow.
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So here it is mounted to the carriage. Notice the nice set of holes to mount the mounting plate. All fine and good. That is until I go to mount it. Funny thing that darned thing is only 90 deg off. Lightening holes 2-5. That was all of them.

All mounted up.
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Next is to calibrate. The first order is to get it tramed. Using my indicator I zeroed out the 2 small zeroing flats. Setting up my travel indicators 6” apart I ran the carriage back and forth 4 times. The trav a dial zeroed each time. Good for me. Next was to get the actual travel reading to zero out. .006 too much over 6”. Time to correct the nod. Using the 2 screws I adjusted and checked. Close but not quite. One more slight adjustment and zero over 6”
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Cutting oil is my blood.
 
I spent the weekend sweating through t-shirts to make space in my shop. Well, very little space was actually made, just little bits of space recovered and aggregated. I've got a lot more to do after letting my horizontal surfaces clutter up over the winter working on small projects. So behold, floor space!
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Sure doesn't look like much, but that space is right where I need it most. Time to get back on task with getting the Samurai back on the road (this is my 3rd gut-and-rebuild with that one) so I can make use of even more space once that's under its own power again.

Here's the rest of the clutter at the moment, no sense in hiding the reality from any of you...

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With the help of the children here today, I was able to move the car projects inside the workshop.

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So now I can work on organizing the other side. Also getting the double garage of the house clear to park my wife’s car…

It was a great weekend.
 
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