MetalworkingFun Forum
Todays Project - What did you do today? - Printable Version

+- MetalworkingFun Forum (http://www.metalworkingfun.com)
+-- Forum: Machining (http://www.metalworkingfun.com/forum-5.html)
+--- Forum: Projects (http://www.metalworkingfun.com/forum-7.html)
+--- Thread: Todays Project - What did you do today? (/thread-727.html)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551


RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - rubes - 05-11-2024

Here are the heater tubes I bent with the 3D printed die posted earlier.
Adding Vintage Air A/C in my 61 Impala. Since the heater core is now part of the underdash unit, their solution was to eliminate the heater box in the engine compartment and replace it with a really crappy plastic flat block-off plate with even uglier grommets for the heat and air lines to get inside. and then to bolt the new electric heater control valve to the inner fender. Didn't like that at all. So bent up these lines to use the original heater core cover, hide the new valve inside (there is all kinds of room because the heater core is no longer taking up that space). That cover is free to be taken on and off with no parts attached to it, so service should be covered. Well, except that the heater core is sealed into the glued together VA underdash unit. so replacement means taking out the entire unit from under the dash anyway.
[attachment=18662]
[attachment=18663]


RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - rubes - 05-29-2024

Cut some metric threads with my imperial Hardinge lathe.
needed a -6 AN to M12x1.75. That arrangement with 1.75 thread is hard to find (1.5 thread is everywhere). Found one at Amazon for $10 and $10 shipping. No thanx. I almost gave in and was gonna use a brass fitting with hose barb. Then I remembered that about 10 years ago a bought a set of custom gears for the Hardinge to do metric, and have never used them. I had a fitting with M16 threads I whittled down and re-threaded...presto changeo.
[attachment=18683]
By the way...its for an LS engine pre-luber. Cant just use a drill down the distributor hole to spin the oil pump like an old small or big block chevy. So, I had a "spare" big block chevy oil pump on the shelf, and a bucket. But like everything with me, it got way complicated and CNC is now involved in making other parts too. I'll share when I get it done.


RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - rleete - 05-29-2024

Custom car parts. I like it.


RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - rleete - 06-02-2024

Someone at work attempted to tighten a couple of Kant-twist clamps with a pair of vise grips.  In both cases, the screw was bent, and the clamps were quietly discarded.  I fished them out of the scrap bin to repair.  One, I was able to straighten the screw using a block of wood and judicious hammer blows.  Works just fine.  The other, while trying the same fix, ended up worse than before, and I had to cut the screw to get it out.  It has been sitting waiting to be fixed for many months.

[attachment=18688]

Lucky for me, they are expanding our building.  Aside from the fact that I get a huge new office all to myself, complete with all new furniture, the construction workers are throwing out all sorts of useful stuff.  Among the finds was several pieces of 3/8-16 threaded rod.  Perfect for the new screw.  Steel end is pinned to the threaded rod for extra secure fit.  Not shown is the tiny groove for the snap ring I had to file by hand.  No way I was going to replicate the original staked end.  Naturally, I had to blue it.

[attachment=18689]

And here she is all fixed.  It will be reserved a place of honor on my welding cart.

[attachment=18690]


RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - rubes - 06-02-2024

one of the few things...hmmm, make that the ONLY thing, I miss about working...I used to get tons of stuff from there.


RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - rubes - 06-07-2024

Swaged a copper fitting to increase the OD so I can press it into my oil pump pickup for my pre-luber.
Needing a pump pickup tube to reach the bottom of my bucket, I found a copper reducer fitting was "just" a bit to small to press into the hole on the pump. So I chucked it up in the lathe... spun a boring bar around backwards in the tool holder...rotated the tool post slightly so I had a "point contact" on the ID of the fitting...greased it up and rode the tool out while the fitting rotated at slowish RPM. Basically a metal spinning operation in miniature.
Grew the OD just enough to be a press fit into the pump pickup hole. Few more pieces still needed to extend to the bottom of the bucket.
I hope it has enough suck to lift the oil Yikes 

[attachment=18701]
[attachment=18700]


RE: Todays Project - What did you do today? - rleete - 06-08-2024

Creative solution.