What job did you do today in your shop?

[erikmannie]

Being new to this hobby Im finding “chip” clean up to be a royal PITA.
I feel like I make of mess cleaning

Being such a PITA is why the machines haven’t been cleaned in months.

Once the job is done, there is a sense of accomplishment to enjoy. I know that the machine is better off clean & oiled than neglected & covered with filth.

I should take the time to clean them at the end of every day.

 

[ChazzC]

My wife runs a family daycare out of our home. She was having some potential clients come over this morning, so Jack and I had to be quiet. We cleaned the lathe & mill. The machines have not been cleaned in a long while.

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Amongst the mountains of chips, I found this set screw for the 1” end mill holder. I had been looking for it for months.

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Looking good

 

[Shotgun]

I finished these tool holders for Sebastian's CXA toolpost.



In the process, I burned up the motor on the mill (gotta come up with a decent name for her). Turns out the old motor didn't like running slow on a VFD. On tearing it down, it was obvious the motor had been getting hot for a while, and the mud daubers nest couldn't have been helping that. Running at 400 RPM instead of the rated 1750 didn't provide much cooling air flow, and was too much for it. So I replaced it with a motor I had on the shelf. This is a "5Hp" 3ph from a commercial treadmill. The quotes are because these are those special Chinese horses that only work in treadmills. Going by the 230V/5.6A rating, it is more like 1.7Hp. It'll do for a mill that shipped with 1.5Hp motors.
For some extra insurance against burning it up, I drilled the shaft and tapped it for a 1/4-20 bolt so that I could add the extra fan at the top.


Trying it out on a 1.5" thick plate of unknown alloy (but probably A36) with a 2.25" facemill, I was taking .015" passes at a fairly fast feed rate and 400rpm. Looks good to me, and I couldn't detect any motor warming by touch, even after several passes.

 

[great white]

One of the steering brakes wasn’t working in my argo:



so I hauled it into the heated garage today and started looking. Turns out the brake pads had somehow become oil soaked. A quick check revealed no oil leaks so I wiped the disc with acetone and soaked the metallic pads in acetone as well. Then a good burn off with a propane torch to cook the remaining bits of oil out. A good sand on a flat plate to give them a final clean and back in they went.

then, while removing the front drive chains to install the snow tracks:



I noticed the engine shroud had a little grass hanging out.

A deeper look and sure enough, some damned mice had turned the engine into a mouse condo.

So then on to the major pitb of removing the engine shrouds to vacuum out the mouse condo. In the process, found everything else (air filter housing, battery box, etc) was also packed solid with leaves, grass and anything else they could drag in there. Of course, everything was also covered in mouse **** and crap.

luckily, nothing was chewed. I don’t think they were in there long enough to get to that point.

I hate mice. I can’t believe such a small animal can create such massive damage…

 

[matthewsx]

One of the steering brakes wasn’t working in my argo:

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so I hauled it into the heated garage today and started looking. Turns out the brake pads had somehow become oil soaked. A quick check revealed no oil leaks so I wiped the disc with acetone and soaked the metallic pads in acetone as well. Then a good burn off with a propane torch to cook the remaining bits of oil out. A good sand on a flat plate to give them a final clean and back in they went.

then, while removing the front drive chains to install the snow tracks:

View attachment 432401

I noticed the engine shroud had a little grass hanging out.

A deeper look and sure enough, some damned mice had turned the engine into a mouse condo.

So then on to the major pitb of removing the engine shrouds to vacuum out the mouse condo. In the process, found everything else (air filter housing, battery box, etc) was also packed solid with leaves, grass and anything else they could drag in there. Of course, everything was also covered in mouse **** and crap.

luckily, nothing was chewed. I don’t think they were in there long enough to get to that point.

I hate mice. I can’t believe such a small animal can create such massive damage…

Sweet ride

 

[great white]

Sweet ride

Skid steer and no suspension other than the tires, so it rides pretty rough.

The other side of that coin is you can throw 1500 lbs of cargo in it and (being amphibious) it will literally go anywhere. It's almost like a tank, it pushes nearly anything under it that will bend and just slides right over it.

Bloody unstoppable.

I have it set up to take a 2 hp outboard though, the tires don't do much for propulsion in the water. It needs special paddle tires to "swim" and the PO put these knobbies on it when he burned out the last set. The knobbies are horrible as they dig in instead of sliding when you try to steer it and it can get pretty abrupt. I understand why he did it as the paddle tires are just over 200-250 bucks a piece. Apparently, Argo owns the design and no one else is allowed to make them without paying a ridiculous royalty/commission/license of some sort. When you need 8 tires at around 250 a piece, it gets pretty pricey pretty fast.

I’m not really interested in spending 1200-1500 bucks on tires for an old rig I don’t use a lot anymore. When I used to hunt, maybe I would have ponied that up. Now that the Argo is relegated to an interesting toy, not so much. If I can’t build it or get it done economically, its not getting done. It’s just not worth it to me anymore to sink big dollars in to it.

That being said, I do have a plan on the back burner to convert it to an 8 wheel independent suspension buggy. Many many many other projects need to be done before going down that road though….

 

[great white]

Well, rolled the argo out today.

The brake rehab worked, perhaps too well. Where it would barely slow the rh wheels before, it damned near tossed me out the side of the rig the first time I grabbed a handful. Part of that is I was used to givibg a full length pull on the brake lever to get anything at all, so first pull was waaaaay too aggressive on my part.

Another issue has cropped up though. It idles fine, but after a blip of the throttle it hangs way too high. So high that the centrifugal clutch engages (its like a snowmobile) and you can’t shift the high low rev box and if you let go of the brakes it will just drive away with you. The throttle linkage was apart, so I suspect its caught or binding somewhere. Easy fix.

I’ll sort the throttle tomorrow and probably throw the snow tracks (called supertracks because these are extra wide for snow/swamp travel) on it. It is that time of year….even though we haven’t dropped below 0c for more than a couple days so far this winter.

Still, its worth putting the snow tracks on it if for no other reason than to beat down some paths for the dogs in deep snow.

Got a new pup:


So being able to easily make paths for him is a plus.

 

[mac1911]

One of the steering brakes wasn’t working in my argo:

View attachment 432400

so I hauled it into the heated garage today and started looking. Turns out the brake pads had somehow become oil soaked. A quick check revealed no oil leaks so I wiped the disc with acetone and soaked the metallic pads in acetone as well. Then a good burn off with a propane torch to cook the remaining bits of oil out. A good sand on a flat plate to give them a final clean and back in they went.

then, while removing the front drive chains to install the snow tracks:

View attachment 432401

I noticed the engine shroud had a little grass hanging out.

A deeper look and sure enough, some damned mice had turned the engine into a mouse condo.

So then on to the major pitb of removing the engine shrouds to vacuum out the mouse condo. In the process, found everything else (air filter housing, battery box, etc) was also packed solid with leaves, grass and anything else they could drag in there. Of course, everything was also covered in mouse **** and crap.

luckily, nothing was chewed. I don’t think they were in there long enough to get to that point.

I hate mice. I can’t believe such a small animal can create such massive damage…

Ugh , they get into everything
My new to me lathe/mill was only in my shed a few days . I have a bucket trap in continuous use.

 

[erikmannie]

I assembled this dual cylinder cart, & then added all the things that I have been spending my OT money on for 2 months: cylinders, regulators, hose, straight torch, cutting tips, IR5 face shield, & tip cleaning kit. I just noticed that I forgot to put the new strikers on before I took the pictures.

 

[mac1911]

I just reset the bucket trap around 6pm. Its the outer defense. I have snap traps in the shed.
If I see heavy signs in the shed I will set bucket trap in there again.