2018 POTD Thread Archive

[dave_r_1]

Continued with work on my trailer. Today, I almost finished up fixing the toolbox, which had two bullet hinges used for the lid, one of them had seized and then broke off the lid, and the other was pretty stiff. Also spent a bunch of time using an air hammer and angle grinder taking off the thick layer of bedliner the previous owner coated everything with.

The toolbox was originally mounted via 2 pieces of 2"x3/16" angle iron, welded down. I didn't want to damage the channel used for the frame, so I cut the angle iron by the box to remove it, then ground off the remnants from the box, cleaned it up, welded on some flat iron to strengthen the area where the bullet hinges are welded to the lid, then welded on the bullet hinges (yay, managed to get them on straight, so the lid opens smoothly). I remounted the box using 3 pieces of 1x1/8 angle iron on each side, welded to the frame and bolted to the box so the box is removable. Finally, I installed a new safety brake system (automatically will apply the brakes if the trailer separates from the truck) and hooked up the wiring to the breakout box

 

[Cadillac]

So I had ended up picking up a criterion 3” boring head awhile back for five bucks at the local flea market. I could see that the arbor was totally wrong. The boring head should thread to a shoulder which should be perpendicular to the threads. So my task was to make a new arbor. I first made a test piece for the threads. The threads on the original were the wrong pitch and way to small of the OD. I forgot the exact numbers but I believe it was 1 1/2 -16 and they had a 12 pitch.this pic will show the difference in overall OD. Way off.


I made a ring .005 smaller than the shank then heated and did a shrink fit to the arbor. Then I went and tigged the ring to the shank. After it cooled I mounted in the lathe and started machining . I first did the thread then cut the ring to properly seat on boring head. Then I removed and mounted it to the boring head.
Then I disassembled the boring head from the bottom portion where the actual boring bars go and mounted the top and shank assembled in the chuck. Dialed it in on the 4jaw. I did this to guarantee the shank would be in line with the axis of the boring head. Sorry thought I had a pick of this. I finished the arbor just under 1.0 at 9.995.

They have these set screws in to engage the threads but my others don’t have this I think the P.O. put them in and there crooked. I’m gonna cut down some set screws so there flush their may be only 4 threads so it’s gonna be tough I think the Allen broach is deeper than that? Turned out good and will find use in the shop now that it’s proper to operate.

 

[dave_r_1]

Continued on with working on my trailer today. Spent it working on the hinges between the trailer and one ramp,



Made the hinges by welding some tubing to some flat steel. Needed to weld together 2 pieces of 1/4"x1.25" and 1 piece of 1/8"x1.25" flat steel as the "base" for these hinges, so the center pin was offset enough from the ramp and trailer to make room for the ramp assist springs. And between the two hinges, I made a bushing of sorts for the assist springs as well from some 1" tubing and some flat steel for the ends (again, actual machining content for this, as I used my lathe to turn down the welded-on piece to size, drilled the end to 9/16", then using a boring bar to make it a smidgen™ larger so the 9/16" pin slides through it easily).

Now, I have to repeat this for the other ramp, make some handles for them, and weld them onto the trailer, then I can see if I need to use 1 or both assist springs for the ramps.

 

[BGHansen]

POTD was making a clamp screw for a Roper Whitney No. 5 Junior hand punch. A lot of my projects involve sheet metal. Punching is far superior to drilling holes in sheet metal, and being on the lazy side, I’m stocked with a drawer full of these No. 5 punches. I've picked up 3 or 4 of them off eBay for under $20 and have one set up for each of the hole sizes I commonly use. Pulled out one for a job and noticed a clamp/lever screw was missing. I could have used a different punch but that doesn’t replace the missing screw, so POTD.

I measured the thread from another clamp screw at 0.207” OD, 32 tpi. So, a 12-32 screw. No die in my drawer of that size, so was going to have to single point thread. I hit the stock screw with a file and to my surprise it wasn’t hardened. Decided to make a replacement from drill rod regardless.

Chucked up some 0.500” drill rod and turned the screw shank and knob to diameter. Cut a groove at the end of the knob head before knurling. My Eagle Rock knurler does a really nice job even on drill rod. Parted and faced after knurling.

Went to the mill to cut a screwdriver slot in the end of the knob. Mounted the screw blank in a 5-C collet which was in turn mounted in a square collet block and held in the vise. Mounted a slitting saw in an R-8 step arbor Found the center by pinning a piece of paper at the top of the screw (zero’d out Z on my DRO), then repeated at the bottom of the screw. No divide by 2 required with a modern DRO with a ‘1/2’ function.

The screw works great. I’m making another batch of Erector set part ‘ED’ triple-drum hoists which take seven 1 ¾” diameter 0.036” thick disks. Making up 20 of them, so lots of punching. By the way, I did find the stock screw after a little clean up on the bench, but now have a spare just in case.

Thanks for looking.

Bruce

 

[RJSakowski]

In my electronic business, I used to use the Roper Whitney style hand punch on almost a daily basis. Rather than mess with the screw for each of several punch changes, I replaced the screw with a hairpin cotter pin. A quick tug freed the lever to permit easily changing the punch. I cut the pin to shorten it and sprung the pin enough to permit easy insertion but not allow it to fall out

 

[jdedmon91]

Needed a replacement table lock for my mill. The head was stripped on one of them. I had a quick lock but not the correct size. So I picked up the correct bolt and modified the lock I had.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[GoceKU]

Over the last couple years all my battery drill batteries died, looked at the prices for new batteries and all new drills are cheaper, but i came upon couple new old stock batteries at a machinery seller i visited and bought them at a good price but they don't fit my drills, so i disassembled them and used the cells in my battery case, but had to cut the bottom out to fit them, on another i just changed the connector, and lastly i had to make connector to fit the makita and made a 18v 9Ah battery for it.

 

[GoceKU]

Things at work are finally coming down and is the first week in last year that i'm sleeping more than 3 hours a day. I have many things that need to be done before the winter starts and i need to start on them. First to tackle was changing the fuel rail and pressure regulator on one of my project car, i've had fuel leaks on this car ever since i've owned it, about 2 years ago i changed the entire system, and bought Aeromotive A1000-6 regulator AN6 fittings and stainless braided lines, also run 1/2' hard line to the back but the braided lines started to leak one by one and can't move this car to get to other cars behind it, so i got the OEM fuel rail out, clean it and started to change it, first thing, one of the injector connectors snap, so i had to change it, then one of the bolts that hold the fuel rail has bad threads, so i had to rethread it. Also had to change the o'rings on two injectors because they lacked. I installed a temporary fuel pump so i can move this car in and out the garage, should be a simple job but because of the setbacks took me 11/2 hour.

 

[francist]

Made a couple of small machinist jacks. Just for kicks.



Thanks for looking.

-frank

 

[Cooter Brown]

I just committed an act of Blasphemy..... I Desecrated an original Eagle 66 oil can.......





For my 2 milling machine's zerk fittings..... Works perfectly!