Quarantine Projects!

[FOMOGO]

Have been back home in CO now for two weeks. Had tickets to leave PR on April 7th, but decided to get back home while we still could. Have been doing honey do's, and vehicle repairs, but last week I found time to finish my Franken-vac project. Picked it up at a moving sale for $20. Its all stainless steel and cast aluminum construction, with a heavy duty motor, and a lot of sound insulation. When I went to check it out I found the on/off switch toggle was broken off. Replaced the switch and added a standoff to prevent breaking the new one when setting it upside down on the floor. On first start up the motor made a loud screaming sound. Pulled it apart, removed, disassembled, cleaned, lubed, and reassembled the upper and lower ball bearings, cleaned up the commutator, and reassembled the motor. Cleaned, and straightened up the three stage aluminum impellers.
The vac was originally a wet only unit, no filter just a float mechanism inside. I ordered two large filters, and made up some mounting plates and hardware. Used the plastic caps that came with the filters to join them together. It didn't come with a hose, so I modified it to accept an extra shop vac hose and accessory's I had on hand. Works better than any of the large plastic ones I've had in the past, and is much quieter. All in all, a fun little project. Cheers, Mike

 

[matthewsx]

My Craftsman 101.21200

From this.



to this:



John

 

[Weldo]

@FOMOGO Nice work on the vac! It's nice to have a vacuum with some personality.

Man I remember a few years ago we renovated this big old house that had a central vacuum system from the 1920s. Down in the basement was a huge canister for the debris and a large air pump. The hole thing was about the size of a 55 gallon drum and about 6 foot tall. The motor was mounted atop the canister.

I saved it and had plans to make it into the ultimate shop vac, mounted on a drum dolly but I lost track of it over the years. It was stored in a friend's garage and you know how that goes.

@matthewsx the lathe is looking brand new! How about the motor and such? Is it mounted under the table?

 

[matthewsx]

The motor will go back like it was before, just needs some paint.

John

 

[C-Bag]

I spent the last couple days doing a deep clean on the lathe and the mill from the ball turner project. Changed the oil in the old compressor.

Then decided it was time I finished off a project from a January. I took the stand I'd gotten with my HF beader and made mount and mechanism for my shrinker/stretcher. At first it was leg powered but that not only got REALLY old it turned out it was impossible to do the big 2x4 corregated tin pieces because I couldn't get to the leg pump. So I had to totatally redesign to be air powered. I had three air foot pedals laying around so I made a mount that clamps the foot pedal to the edge of stand and can be positioned where ever needed. Got me through the project but the spool valve in the foot pedal had no way to feather it. It went from off to full on and nothing in between. After much consideration I decided to try and put a notch in the side of the bore that goes to the cylinder. I used the diamond burr that's sticking up on in the set. I've finally got smooth control now. I can ease it down gently or slam it. Of course this is a month or 2 after I was doing the project but sooner or later the other end is going to be needing to be done and better late than never.

 

[C-Bag]

While doing the deep clean I saw a box I made to hide my Allen T's at work. Even though they are cheap HF's if they were easily seen on my assembly cart and not nailed down one of the field guys would liberate them. So while the bosses had me on hold I plasma'd this out of some scrap. It had been behind the lathe since we moved here so pulled it out and cleaned it up and put on my mobile workbench. I use HF magnets to keep the good Allen sets on top of the box. BTW the cart used to be red, the sun has not been kind

 

[Weldo]

While doing the deep clean I saw a box I made to hide my Allen T's at work.

Sneaky! It sucks that you gotta do stuff like this when you work with a bunch of other people.

 

[middle.road]

At least some are getting things done. I'm still trying to re-organize...
I wanna make chips!

 

[Weldo]

Getting organized is the first step to getting work done. That's also how I spent the first few days of lock down. Once you have a neat and clean space you can work freely!

 

[C-Bag]

Getting organized is the first step to getting work done. That's also how I spent the first few days of lock down. Once you have a neat and clean space you can work freely!

+1! But it's amazing how many projects getting organized generates though! I wish I'd taken the other tray organizer I made also. That was all plasma'd too.