Above 1200 Sq/FT Restored 1930's Auto Shop

[BB767]

Good morning everyone. It's raining so my outdoor work is on hold and I thought I'd take the opportunity to post. First off, I do check this thread anytime someone posts in. I've been very bad about responding but it seems most folks understand.

So in reverse order, Poor Ron, the Martin, US 131 race for Friday was canceled due to rain and they re-scheduled for a Saturday only event. I choose not to attend for only one day of racing. Still going to Stanton in September, rain or shine.

IMCA 38, those ECO pedestal air meters are pretty rare anymore and are priced accordingly!! The best part is they work very well and it's a vintage tool you can really use. I use both of mine frequently.

Fix Until Broken, thank you for introducing me to that gentleman. A very talented fellow spreading the gospel of "fix it, don't replace it!"

Unimat lathes; here is a link to Doug Feistamel's Unimat web site:

Unimat DB/SL Lathe, Belts, Manual,Links.

unimat,lathe,belts, manual, book emco, edelstaal,parts, db, sl, unimat 3, mini lathe, db200, sl1000

www.unimat-vintage-lathe.com

He only sells his parts direct, never on eBay, and his belts are the best there are IMO. BTW, it is highly recommended to store the lathe with the belts removed, they will last far longer that way. Mine are only installed for these pictures, otherwise they are removed. He has a few other very handy specialty parts for Unimats as well as bearing and pre-load washer sets. The bearing grease in most older Unimats has dried to the consistency of paste. Running them in this condition will cause brinelling of the bearing race and ultimately will destroy the bearings. Once you clean and repack or have to replace the bearings, you'll also need to replace the pre-load washers. Here's Doug's instructions for cleaning and greasing the bearings in a Unimat: Highly recommended.
Full disclosure, I get no special consideration from Doug. He's good people with good products. We're lucky to have him.



My Unimat is an exceptionally nice one, well cared for and lightly used.



It has a nice set...



... of collets as well as a host of...



...optional accessories. I equipped it with...


...with quick release levers for the tail stock and tool holder. Much handier than using the Allen wrench. I also installed...


...the chip tray and ...





...the underlying oak base board. Those items were attached to the lathe with...



...polished stainless steel acorn nuts in all 4 corners to give it a very nice, finished look. As you can imagine...



... the Unimat comes in quite handy with my clock repairs.

I've got other projects going on that I'll get posted as well. Take care all and thank you once more for all your support and encouragement.

Thomas

 

[Old Man Roger]

Thomas, I want my old lathe to come visit you for a while..lol

 

[TR6SR650]

Thomas, I want my old lathe to come visit you for a while..lol

Yes, tools go to Thomas's shop and then after a full moon, they look brand new again. LOL!

 

[Thirdyfivepickup]

I would ask what paint you used for the chip tray, but I know its probably powdercoated...

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Is all well in the Center of the Universe?

 

[BB767]

Hi Jeff and thanks for checking in on us. Yup, everything around the ranch is just fine. Lou, Chris and I just finished crewing at Road America last week...



...for Dan Cowdrey...



...and Roland Johnson. Those 2 Formula Fords we were supporting finished in a virtual dead heat, 1st and 2nd in the feature race. Dan won, beating Roland by .001 sec crossing the finish line. That's a successful race week!

For the 4th of July, we once again attended the small town parade of Seymour where Chris was...



... Home Coming Queen, Uni High, 1971 and Lou and I were in Gus...



...accompanied by a friend in the back throwing out candy to the kids lining the parade route.

Our county experienced a very bad storm during the summer...



...that damaged or destroyed numerous trees. We had relatively minor damage to trees and no property damage. Power was out for over 10 hours the first day and several hours more the second day. Our standby generator never missed a beat, we were only out of power 7 seconds until the generator came on line.

I acquired a 3rd BMW motorcycle this spring...


...a 1977, R 75/7. It's all original...



... with the exception of tires and battery...



...and just under 32,000 miles. A clean machine!

Our annual car club, "Picnic with the Payne's"...



...had perfect weather and a good turnout. During the festivities, one young man was particularly fond of...




...of my 1984, R 100 RS BMW in the shop. He said it fit him just right and I believed him!

Bonneville is coming up in a couple of weeks and Lou and I will be there. Last salt report was for smooth, dry, hard salt. If we can keep the rain away it promises to be a terrific year. Hope to see some of you out there.

I'm still repairing and servicing several clocks a week. There seems to be quite a demand for it.

That's just a few of the latest high lights Jeff and I do appreciate your and everyone else's interest. We are in great health and certainly staying busy!

Thomas

 

[scramboleer]

Great to hear all is well. Loved seeing Gus in the parade. Cheers!

 

[BB767]

Gus is always a big hit with everyone, especially kids and gets lots and lots of compliments.



He represents Willys-Overland exceptionally well!

Thomas

 

[budro35]

So good hearing from you Thomas! I’m sure you and Chris find enough projects to keep you both busy! Good luck at Bonneville and please keep us all informed!

 

[Grizz1963]

Nice update.

Back there soon.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Thomas, thank you for posting an update. I am certainly glad to hear you are not letting the grass grow under your feet! That FF race reminds me of the best race I ever saw while corner working at the old Mid America Raceway. If I recall correctly, It was a pair of Formula Vees that were very well matched and swapped the lead lap after lap until they both went into corner one at the end of the long straight and spun while their wheels were intertwined. I think all the corner workers almost had a heart attack, but the cars drifted apart while spinning, both came to a stop, checked traffic and roared back at it.

 

[Poor Ron]

Hoping to see you at Stanton Drags on Saturday.
Weather forecast looks OK.

 

[BB767]

I did an oil change on the Chevy II today as well as an overall inspection in preparation for Friday and Saturday's race.



It's loaded on the trailer and ready to go. Weather forecast looks fantastic. Stop by the pit and say hi. Be there or be square!

Thomas

 

[Boosted1]

That little lathe is really cool.
The Chevy II looks ready to go.
I see you have pool noodles and a drop cloth for your hauler.
Another tip is I have found Lowes Porch paint works good on the plywood and makes the occasional oil drip, dirt, etc easier to clean up.

 

[TR6SR650]

I really like the red line tires on the Chevy II.

 

[bulletpruf]

That little lathe is really cool.
The Chevy II looks ready to go.
I see you have pool noodles and a drop cloth for your hauler.
Another tip is I have found Lowes Porch paint works good on the plywood and makes the occasional oil drip, dirt, etc easier to clean up.

What are the pool noodles used for?

Thanks

 

[Cdubu52]

What are the pool noodles used for?

Thanks

Not to speak for someone else, but in my experience the trailer door wires. We have used the pool noodles to put over them so that they are visible. I have broken sunglasses before when walking into them. Some folks also use them as door bumpers inside the trailer. Multi functional.

 

[BB767]

Not to speak for someone else, but in my experience the trailer door wires. We have used the pool noodles to put over them so that they are visible. I have broken sunglasses before when walking into them. Some folks also use them as door bumpers inside the trailer. Multi functional.

That is exactly right Cdubu52. The trailer ramp door lift cables are very thin and not easily seen.



By sliding the pool noodles over the cables it makes them much more noticeable, as seen above.

For all of you who stopped by to say hi at Stanton on Friday or Saturday, many thanks for doing so. It's always fun for me to put faces to names or renew old acquaintances from our gang here. I'm never too busy stop and chat for a while.

As for an update on the Pure Stock Drag Race results, the Chevy II qualified against this...




...extremely nice 1969 yellow, 440 Barracuda seen here in the staging lanes. So it was small block Chevy vrs big block Mopar again in the Shootouts. In the best of 3 match, I managed to win all 3. You've heard me say it before, I'd rather be lucky than good. So another successful race event and the car was running when parked with nothing broken. That's always a good race result. Very likely that'll be the last race of the year.

For those of you in the Springfield, IL area, next Saturday the 23rd, beside the Route 66 Mother Road Festival downtown is the Lincoln Continental Owners Club, LCOC, Mid-America National Meet. Chris and I will be there with...



... her beloved 1993 Lincoln Mark VIII. If you're in the area stop by and say hi we'd love to see you. Thanks all.

Thomas

 

[TR6SR650]

That brought back memories for me. In 1969 I was racing my 68 Chevelle SS in E stock automatic. We were at the Bunker Hill Dragway in Indiana. I think that drag strip is closed now. For the previous races, I won them all. For the last one they paired me up with a 440 Dodge. If memory serves, it was a Super Bee. I got him off the line. I was in the left lane and at the 3/4 mark he caught up with me. At the finish line he got me for the win. I wish I would have kept that Chevelle. The kid I sold it to ended up putting the engine where the dash and the center console meet. He walked away from that.

 

[robin1731]

That brought back memories for me. In 1969 I was racing my 68 Chevelle SS in E stock automatic. We were at the Bunker Hill Dragway in Indiana. I think that drag strip is closed now. For the previous races, I won them all. For the last one they paired me up with a 440 Dodge. If memory serves, it was a Super Bee. I got him off the line. I was in the left lane and at the 3/4 mark he caught up with me. At the finish line he got me for the win. I wish I would have kept that Chevelle. The kid I sold it to ended up putting the engine where the dash and the center console meet. He walked away from that.

Bunker is still going strong.

 

[magnusk750]

Just saying hello, from being on GJ perhaps twice a year nowadays. Nice to see you're busy.

 

[bulletpruf]

Hi Thomas - Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving. Anything new at the COTU?

Scott

 

[BB767]

Hi Thomas - Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving. Anything new at the COTU?

Scott

Hello Scott, I haven't been ignoring you and your kind inquiry, honest. For the last several days I've been meaning to get an update on here but as usual Chris and I seem to fill our days with projects and other "stuff"! Hang in there with me and I'll catch you up.

We did have a low key, uneventful Thanksgiving with my brother and his wife here, thanks for asking. Standby for more news and a few pictures. Cheers,

Thomas

 

[Spareparts]

Patiently Waiting

 

[BB767]

Hello everyone who might still be around. Have I been busy, why yes I have, but a good kind of busy. Doing various clock repairs has taken an enormous amount of my time. I doubt that you'd be too terribly interested in seeing dozens of clocks but here is one of the more interesting ones I just finished a couple weeks ago...














It's a nine chime tube Herschede grandfather clock with moon dial and 3 selectable chime tunes. The base movement design derives from the very early 1900's and was incrementally changed little over the years. It's a tremendous instrument as I refer to it, that the repair and service involved many hours over a few weeks time. Besides normal, complete disassembly and ultrasonic cleaning it and bushing repair, I had to figure out and correct some issues it had. That done, it was reassembled, adjusted and installed back in the case. Note the right hand chime weight. It weighs a bit over 27 Lbs (12 kg). A normal clock chime weight would weigh around 5 - 7 Lbs. It has a complex chime train to drive and needs that large weight to power it. It also had a feature, a power maintainer, to power the time train movement while it's being rewound so as to not lose time while it's being wound. It's a highly accurate time piece. I've done literally dozens of other clocks over the last several months, but this was one of the more fun and challenging projects.

I'm also doing other on going projects, one of which involves my BMW...








... 1977 R75/7 that I'll save for another time. Chris and I continue to be hale, hearty and healthy and enjoying the house, the shop, the property and life in general. I trust everyone understands the long time delay between posts. I'm doing projects, just not posting about them as often as I should.

Enjoying life, Thomas

 

[drz rider]

I'm glad to read about any project you care to share with us! I've been a follower for many, many years. Thank you for sharing with us!

 

[jbmatth]

I am glad to hear ya'll are still doing well, that is a bit of a different grandfather clock, glad to see it is operational again. I do have to ask though, what are you doing on the lathe that is throwing so many sparks?

JB

 

[BB767]

That's a fair question JB. I'm re-lubing the input splines on the BMW. To pull the transmission back far enough to expose the input splines and not remove the driveshaft, I had to remove the swing arm pivot pins. The lock nuts that secure those pins...



...are situated in a recessed area on the frame...



...that a standard socket will not fit. The outside of the socket needs to be relieved to allow the socket to move inside the recess and onto the lock nut. BMW sells the special socket that will fit, but it's expensive for a 1 time use tool. Just because I could, I decided to buy a dedicated 27mm socket and just turn it down in a lathe.

NAPA had a sale on their tools and I bought a high quality chrome, 27 mm socket for just $5. Since it was chrome, my Southbend lathe wouldn't have enough power or speed to cut through the chrome. A good friend of mine had a very nice Monarch lathe I could use that was...



...equipped with a...




... 6 jaw chuck and carbide cutters. We turned the lathe at 2,000 RPM. The hard chrome and carbide cutters resulted in...



...a spectacular light show. We removed only .004" per pass and let it cool between passes to prevent taking the temper out of the metal in the socket. When the OD turning was done and the socket would fit inside the bike frame recess, I faced the socket...



... to get as much socket surface contact on the slim lock nut as I could. Above you can see the carbide facing cutter is glowing red. The socket was made out of high quality metal.



Here's the finished socket with nice surfaces on it and here...




...is the socket in use on the the bike. It worked perfectly. So to produce this nice, special socket and not buy BMW's expensive one, took a sale price $5 socket, 1/2 hour of my time and an $80,000 lathe. Easy, peasy.



I'll detail re-lubing those splines in another post.

Thanks JB for your continued interest and support. Did you ever finish repair/refinish Mr. Johnson's wood work bench? I don't recall if we ever saw it completely done-done, just remember the top done, but I could be wrong. I've slept since you last posed pictures of it! Cheers.

Thomas

 

[The Cobbler]

wow, that's some hard sh*t in that socket

 

[jbmatth]

@BB767, thank you for the information on the socket, that is something I need to do for a rotary engine I'm working on. The spark plugs are in a little boss that I can't get a normal deep well socket to fit.

Sadly I haven't worked on the wood work bench in quite a few years, I've been distracted by many automotive projects. I don't have the photos handy but when I left it off I had the new legs made and a new slab for the center top slab. It was green when I picked it up, but is well seasoned now but sadly very twisted, I need to built a router table and sled to plane it down and just haven't gotten back to it.

JB

*I went back through my thread and found one of the last photos I have of it:

 

[bulletpruf]

The clock refurbishing is quite impressive, Thomas! Not sure that's something that I'd want to tackle, but I imagine that it takes attention to detail to a whole new level.

Nice work on the socket, too.

Scott

 

[Old Man Roger]

Just to highlight one of the differences between me and Thomas. I would have chucked up that socket and hit it with an angle grinder..lol

Disclaimer for the uninitiated, don’t grind on your good lathe.lol

 

[BB767]

Roger, I've seen some other folks fashion this same type of socket using a bench grinder. I mean it worked and was functional and everything, but boy, was it ugly!! Since I knew I had access to a nice, powerful lathe and tooling that would get the job done, that's my preference. I'm not a tool snob, honest, I just happen to like working with nice tools. But in a pinch, anything that gets the job done is what counts. Oh and good disclaimer, for sure ya don't want to be grinding on your lathe!!

Thanks JB for your update. What's done on the bench so far looks great. Taking green dimensional lumber and not using it for a while is usually a big problem as you've seen. If you have enough material, you should be able to flatten it out. Just takes time which none of us seem to have enough of!
BTW, if you do turn down a socket, might I gently suggest one with an industrial finish and not chrome. It will turn down sooooo much easier than one with a hard chrome finish.

Thanks Scott for your kind words. That clock was, generally speaking, a pure joy to work on. It's such a well made piece and quite rewarding after it was reassembled, to hear it chime and strike. Just lovely.

Here's just a small sampling of clocks we've serviced in the clock shop. A good many of them seen here are pushing 100 years old or more...











... there have been dozens more and that's not counting the house calls made to service clocks. It does keep me out of the pool halls though and Chris doesn't seem to mind. The only drawback is I've got a bunch of other "stuff" that needs tending too. Anyway, it's lots of fun, challenging and rewarding.

Thomas

 

[Old Man Roger]

I just meant you tend to do it right, and I tend to do it just good enough. But I do inspire to be more like you.lol

 

[BB767]

I just meant you tend to do it right, and I tend to do it just good enough. But I do inspire to be more like you.lol

No worries Roger, I knew exactly what you meant. I didn't read anything sinister into it, honest! As always, I do appreciate your interest and support for all these many years. If wasn't for guys like you posting in I'd probably get really far behind here, thanks! Cheers,

Thomas

 

[PugetDude]

Just to highlight one of the differences between me and Thomas. I would have chucked up that socket and hit it with an angle grinder..lol

Disclaimer for the uninitiated, don’t grind on your good lathe.lol

Or this happens...

 

[Old Man Roger]

How’d you get in my garage?

But seriously, the grinding dust can quickly turn a decent lathe into a grinding lathe.

 

[Finallygotit]

That poor lathe! What did it do to you to inflict that nastiness?!?!

 

[BB767]

Also if I file using my lathe, I lay a shop rag on the bed rails to help prevent as Old Man Roger says, " turn a decent lathe into a grinding lathe." I never do any operation that would throw very small metal particles/dust into the air like grinding. I also keep a cover on my various lathes when they are not in use.

Thomas

 

[Bazsm]

Hi Thomas, this is my first post on your thread and whilst I’ve read much of your journey I have to admit I’ve never found the time to read every post. However I’m retiring soon so might find some time to catch-up!

It’s an incredible story and I’m sure your patience and attention to detail must have helped many people. I bookmarked post #408 for when I could find time to build a workbench for my garage and the time is near at last, your explanation for connecting the legs will def help me make a bench to last - that post is a great example of why your thread is so much more than many others.

All the best and I hope you’re enjoying the fruits of your labour

Barry