Metalwork

Machine-made xmas gifts

admin — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 19:23:43 +0000

Machine-made xmas gifts

Predictably, after getting my little metal lathe, I spent the next few weeks getting to know the machine and trying to make some useful projects.

I played around with metal pen designs, using some UNI refills from the office store and working out dimensions from there. They have a screw-in plug for the top to extend/retract the tip, and various combinations of knurling or hex grips, and various proportions of aluminum or brass.

The spinning tops are brass with an aluminum handle and a 1/4" ball bearing for the base. I got that part of the design from one of the online top sellers and adapted it to the stock I had. For all of these (and the pens) i was mostly winging it other than a couple of fussy dimensions, so they're all a bit different.

The tops spin really well, since they're made on a lathe and fairly concentric, and have some weight from the brass. At one point i had 12 of them all spinning at the same time, and they go long enough i could probably spin twice as many before the first one stopped.

After that i tried a different challenge and made myself a scribe that uses old steel phonograph needles for the scribe point. The needles are hard steel, and i probably already have a lifetime supply from even the limited listening i do on my acoustic phonographs.

It's really just a single-size pin vise, with an aluminum collet modeled after the one in Dremel tools, but the depth limited to seat a phonograph needle with a usable amount of stick-out. There's a storage compartment in the top closed off with a screw cap that holds several more needles for replaceable tips, or to store the tip for transport.

admin Wed, 01/03/2024 - 13:23

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Makin' chips

admin — Sun, 03 Dec 2023 23:39:25 +0000

Makin' chips

I've been looking for a small metal lathe for maybe the last couple of years. Not for a specific project, but more because I kept doing projects where at some point I thought "man this would be easier if I had a small metal lathe". The small printing press I made this spring, multiple times on the car when I needed a spacer or custom bolt, or just needed to modify a part in some way that needed to be more accurate than I could do with a hand drill and hacksaw.

My semi-regular hobby of scrounging around estate sales finally paid off when this lathe was still at a sale on day 2:

$300, complete, with all the tooling I could find that fit. The sale was for a guy who was a gunsmith (among other jobs), and this was not his main lathe just one he picked up from a neighbor for small work. He was also selling a larger lathe that I would have wanted if I had the space for it. I've seen a couple of other mid-size lathes this summer at different sales, but I really don't have the space for anything bigger than this tabletop size.

The appeal of this one in particular is that it's 8x12, which is a size larger (and magnitude heavier) than the more common 7x12 size many places sell now. This one also came with a full set of tooling and a rather primitive quick change tool post, and seems to have all of the change gears, so it's surprisingly complete. This model is discontinued now, but it was sold by Harbor Freight as a 8x12 and by a company called Lathemaster (now gone, apparently) as a 8x14, same machine.

The downsides as compared to other hobby machines are that the spindle speed is changed by belts, rather than a motor controller, and the lead screw speed is set up with change gears rather than a gear box, as might be found on larger lathes. That means a little more planning for order of operations, especially when setting up for threading, but speed changes only take a minute or two now that I've done it a few times. The good parts are that it's a pretty beefy lathe overall (250 pounds), and the belt drive means that low speed also has a lot of torque, and it avoids some of the headaches in common 7x lathes, such as a far easier way to swivel the compound slide.

My friend Andy helped me haul it out of the guy's basement and into my basement, on an old drafting table that sits at a decent working height. I did a lot of cleaning, taking each area apart for a good inspection, cleanup, lube, and adjustment. I'm glad I did this first, because I learned a lot about how the lathe is set up and now I know that everything is in working order. No real surprises, it was mostly grungy from lack of maintenance but nothing broken or worn out. I don't think this machine has a ton of hours on it.

This is the lathe after a good cleaning and setting up a workable space:

The table is now reinforced with plywood sides so it's much stiffer, and I added some shelving around for the various tools and whatnot that I need for making work and maintaining the thing. I've done a few small projects to work out the kinks and finally got it bolted down and leveled properly. This photo is after an afternoon of creating an alignment bar and setup. Bed twist is down to 0.002 over 4", and the tailstock is now aligned within 0.0003" taper over 8", so I'm pretty happy with that for the parts I'll be making.

I also quickly got tired of using a wrench the tighten the tailstock and made a quick release using this design but with the lever located on the back side to keep it out of the way. I don't have a ball turner yet, so I used a worn-out rear shock link from the Triumph as the lever.

And now off to make some more chips

admin Sun, 12/03/2023 - 17:39

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Floor pan rust repair

admin — Mon, 17 May 2021 19:38:16 +0000

Floor pan rust repair

The previous Battery box repair was just the first step of rust repair i wanted to tackle while the engine was out, and it was a good way to practice some skills forming and welding metal. Since most of the interior is also out of the car, i wanted to tackle the floor pans as well.

I saw some rough metal from under the car, but the top side had been covered up by some galvanized sheet, screwed in at the edges:

It's a nicely formed piece of metal, but a shoddy repair. Removing it gave a better view of the rot:

Hard to see the surface vs through rust? A little backlighting helps.

Other patches included this hunk of steel and 1/2" of silicone. There were a couple more of these, including one covering the hole where the tach cable should have gone (it was going through the oil pressure line hole in the firewall).

This was the worst section i cut out, but went back further back from there.

I ended up going just behind the seat mounts, since one of the captive nuts for the seat track had already broken off. This way i'm getting all fresh fasteners. At the footwell, i also replaced the vertical firewall piece up 2-4", since that corner was mostly rotten.

Fully cut out, it looks very bare in there.

I didn't get a pic of all of the parts, but ended up with 2 patches at the toe end of the footwell, plus i replaced the end cap for the rocker panels, which was mostly rusted out too. I also replaced both splash panels, since the lower 1/2-1/3 was gone for both, with other patches of through-rust on the passenger side.

The hardest part was deciding where to stop, because i was finding small pockets that arguably should be patched in the lower front fender and around the end of the rockers, but i focused on just stabilizing what's there (with cleanup and rust converter) and patching to make it more solid and better sealed to keep what's there in decent shape. I feel confident that it'll be solid for a good while, and that i didn't make it too complicated for whoever decides to do a body-off restoration in the future.

After a lot of fiddly patch fitting and cleanup, i was able to get the welding done. It's mostly plug welded, with several good tacks along edges to reinforce.

The right (passenger) side had a lot of surface rust and some pitting, but not nearly as many holes, and generally more decent metal. Again, it seemed like primarily wet carpet/padding, concentrated in the corners, and the bottom side of that metal was in perfect shape. Everything that stayed got a good rust converter.

This shows the main section tacked in, and the toeboard/firewall patch, similar to what i did on the left side.

I painted the bottom of everything before welding and used a weld-through primer at all the joints, then seam sealer on each joint and a good coat of rustoleum on everything.

I removed the driver door and floor high beam switch for better access, so those are going back together now that the paint is dry. I also painted the engine bay (red, to match the main body), which was another big side project but i think will help a lot with the fresh engine in there.

I'm expecting to pick up all my parts from the machine shop this week, so the next update should be all about the engine assembly.

admin Mon, 05/17/2021 - 14:38

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Battery box repair

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 13:24:33 +0000

Battery box repair

While i'm waiting to hear back from the machine shop on my engine work, i'm going to try to fix a few areas of the body tub while i have so much of the car stripped down anyway. Since i'm still learning about patching things with sheet metal, i decided to start with the battery box area.

The main problem with this area is that traditional batteries leak, and even if they don't leak they make corrosive vapor at the vent caps. This generally leads to eating away the surrounding metal, and mine was no exception.

This was hidden beneath a sheet of aluminum that had been screwed over the damage. Well, it looked nicer, i guess. The floor part was thin, mostly toward the rear, but the vertical back panel was mostly gone.

There are 3 drain channels in the floor piece that i didn't want to lose, so i made up a quick wooden form to try to press that shape. First i routed out a channel to the size of the outer dimensions.

Then made an inner piece from some hard maple to fit the inner edge of the channel and lined everything up in a vise. This would have been much easier with a press.

They aren't as sharp as the factory versions, and the spacing is off by a bit, but not too bad a fit.

That's the heater box right behind the rotten firewall, and a mounting stud at the lower right. The original was a little chewed up, and more importantly, i lost the nut that was on it. I found a reasonable replacement from my stash. but it's metric, so that's gonna mess with some future owner.

After a lot more trimming and test fitting, i tacked the 2 pieces together.

Then, with the new piece fitting and marked for placement, i cut out the rust back to reasonably good metal. It's still a bit thin in a couple of areas, but i think will be plenty strong once welded in.

Then finish welded the parts together. It's not perfect, but i'd rather leave it on the stronger side than the prettier side. I'll seam seal all of the joints after painting.

Then, after some more cleanup, got it welded into place.

I mostly just knocked down the high spots from the welds (still not as tidy as i'd like), but got the front edge pretty clean both because it might be visible (if i don't re-use the plastic battery box) and so the drain channels will work.

This was tricky because i was working around the existing side mounts, rather than remove and replace them. I'm confident that i'm welded to good metal, and it didn't seem necessary to cut back farther, but that made it harder to get good welds in the corners. It should look fine once it's seam sealed and painted, but importantly, it's really solid again.

admin Mon, 04/05/2021 - 08:24

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New office chair

admin — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 12:52:35 +0000

New office chair

Like a lot of people, i've been working from home for the last few months during the pandemic, and that home office has been evolving the longer i work from home. I started at the dining room table, then moved to an unused bedroom so we could use the dining table for dining (or giant puzzles), but the dining chair followed me up because we have extras.

It's not a very comfortable chair, which does get me to limit sitting time, but i wanted something a little more comfortable that's also height adjustable, since my cheap desk is not. As soon as i decided to get a welder, i started designing a new seat: something simple and durable that i could potentially use other places if i'm ever not working at home full time.

For the durable part, i settled on something that adjusts with a screw, rather than a pneumatic cylinder. I've worked in offices long enough to see how often those things fail, and didn't want to buy a cheap chair only to replace it again soon. As it happens, i just got rid of vintage office chair a few months ago that would have made a perfect base for this, but i liked the challenge of building it from scratch anyway.

I sketched out a simple 3-legged stool with a 1x5 acme thread as the adjustment/support column. One of my local steel suppliers stocks the rod and huts to fit it, and i happened to have some round steel tubing in my garage that's about 2" and 14ga, so i used that. The upside to this tube is that i could use the same stock from all of the frame parts, and it's plenty stiff enough so it doesn't need additional bracing.

I don't have a metal chop saw, so all of the parts were hand cut and shaped with a grinder or flap wheel. I didn't take a picture of the parts, but here's the main joint, after welding:

I hesitate to show my still-learning welds close up, but some of these aren't terrible.

The 3 legs are mitered into the short main column, and the nut tacked on top. I tried to be clever at first and weld a nut at either end of the column, thinking it would help to have the extra support, but greatly underestimating the shrinking/warping forces of the welds. I had the screw in place to keep everything aligned, but even allowing for some gap, the ends pulled in enough that it was very difficult to move the screw at all. I hammered the tacks and that loosened it up some, but in the end i cut off the lower nut, and it seems perfectly stabler with just one. Hopefully it doesn't get too much wobble over time.

The top of the screw mounts to a heavy 6x6 plate, with the former lower nut welded on. I'm not going to lie, those are the ugliest welds in the whole thing. I welded a couple of the nut flats on with stick at the end, and I should have stick welded that on from the start, but since i already had the MIG in hand just cranked up the heat and went for it. It's a mess of globby ugly welds, but it's strong enough anyway.

You can also see i've mitered the feet to sit flat and welded on caps so it doesn't gouge up my wood floors.

The plywood base is just some 3/4 scrap i had around, attached with some machine screws because i couldn't find 4 matching wood screws the right size in my stock.

And the finished product. The camera angle makes the seat look huge, but it's just slightly smaller than the spread of the legs.

The cover is some spare fabric i had in the basement from some forgotten project, with 3" of foam from the fabric store. It just ties over the base, so it'll be easy to change if needed. I also added some felt to the feet so i can scootch around a bit if needed.

What would i do differently? More practice before welding the feet caps, since those welds are the most visible and they still look pretty rough even after some cleanup grinding. Honestly i just got tired of grinding them. A better holding system for the pipe while cutting, since they got a little dinged up in my vise. Getting a metal saw or chop saw would have made for better cuts and less damage. Using 2 nuts isn't necessary for strength, but a second nut would probably eliminate the little bit of rocking i get. If i were going that route i'd wait to put the 2nd nut on until after all the other welding was done and be more careful about compensating for weld shrinkage.

admin Mon, 06/08/2020 - 07:52

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new welder, new welding cart

admin — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 02:00:14 +0000

new welder, new welding cart

I've been wanting a welder for quite a while, mostly not getting one for lack of a specific need to justify it. While i've come up with a few projects that would make good use of a welder, the main catalyst for finally buying one was the prospect of a whole summer with no long vacations or other house projects. In short, plenty of time to learn a new skill.

I'll spare the details of research and decision-making, suffice it to say there's both a lot and very little helpful information on welding equipment online. I ended up with an Eastwood multiprocess machine because while i think i'll use MIG most often, i would like to learn TIG too, and even though it's not a great TIG machine, it seems like a reasonable way to start.

So like a lot of people, my first project after a few hundred feet of practice beads was to make myself a cart.

That thing on top is the next project.

The cart also doubles as a light welding table, since my main workbench is made of wood, and there's no room in my small garage for a second table. I designed this to fit into a specific space, just under the rails of my table saw, and to be fairly self-contained so i can keep most of the metal working tools together.

It's all 18ga 1" square tubing, expanded metal floor, sheet metal shelf, and a heavier steel top, maybe 10 gauge or so. It's not a heavy fabrication table, or super precise, but it's square and (for now) flat, and works great.

A view of the back of he cart:

There's an extended floor, with braces and strap rings for 2 tanks, with pads along the side rail. Feels like a secure and safe setup. Ideally that'll be one tank for MIG mix and a pure Argon tank for TIG (and stainless) once i'm ready for that. I have a holder for the MIG gun, but waiting to see if i need any other tool holders or hose hooks.

I'm already having fun with it, and looking forward to doing more projects. I'm starting a new stool for my home office next, and then need to fix our broken wheelbarrow.

admin Fri, 06/05/2020 - 21:00

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