Fordkid's ADHD Fabrications

[fordkid88]

Well I discovered the motor had a gnarly oil leak that I couldnt find without stripping it down, so I stripped it partially down. Something must of have gotten lodged by the flywheel and it destroyed the stator for the 12v system and a couple of the magnets on the flywheel and in doing so cracked one of the mounts for the stator. Kind of a bummer as I wanted to use that for charging the battery for the lights. I was able to weld it , but aluminum is not my thing so I did not take pics of that. It does seem to hold oil and runs. I'm not sure what kind of vibration the motor will have from the loss of the magnets. If it doesn't hold up I'm only out 15 for a new carb.

 

[matt_i]

If all fails you could always get a "denso mini alternator" which are around $60 on ebay. Perfect for charging battery and small lights. I use them on my old tractors. Just invent the bracketry.

You remind me a little bit of me. I seem to have an idea a minute and take on about 5x the projects that I can actually do lol...case in point I'm just finishing up some stuff that I got last spring. I detested painting for the first 50 years of my life, was completely frustrating and I avoided it always. Going to try to take the next step this year

Congrats on the award. I find that people have built things and make great things plus a few mistakes are the best designers as they bake all of that experience in.

 

[csp]

You remind me a little bit of me. I seem to have an idea a minute and take on about 5x the projects that I can actually do lol

You're far from alone in that category. I've had to consciously stop looking at things that could possibly spawn a new idea for something new to work on. This website is one I've cut way back on.

 

[fordkid88]

If all fails you could always get a "denso mini alternator" which are around $60 on ebay. Perfect for charging battery and small lights. I use them on my old tractors. Just invent the bracketry.

You remind me a little bit of me. I seem to have an idea a minute and take on about 5x the projects that I can actually do lol...case in point I'm just finishing up some stuff that I got last spring. I detested painting for the first 50 years of my life, was completely frustrating and I avoided it always. Going to try to take the next step this year

Congrats on the award. I find that people have built things and make great things plus a few mistakes are the best designers as they bake all of that experience in.

Thanks for the kind words and tip.

Well folks it happened again. I was browsing market place for some parts for the kids kart and one of the things to pop up was a motor that turns over and has compression for 50 bucks. How much compression I do not know but it's complete, minus the points cover but I'm sure I have a donor. Then the guy sweetened the deal with a rolling frame and tank(iffy condition) for 125. He shot me his address and it was only 4 blocks down the road. When I got there I didn't even intially look at the motor, I saw the front disc brake and my inner monologue was like **** yeah buddy score!!!! Thank god I dragged my feet on doing all the bearings and seals on the bike.

I'm still going to drag my feet somewhat because I want to make some more progress on the kids kart first.



I'm starting to feel like a Mopar guy with these Honda's. I'll have a backyard full of parts rattling off the rarity and my intentions with said parts.

 

[fordkid88]

Re: Fordkid's ADHD Fabrications-6v to 12v and general wiring questions

Alright folks I've hit wall sorta, I'm completely clueless when it comes to wiring and especially for a bike. So I want to test this motor and see home much effort I have to put into, the harness I have is rough so I'm looking at getting a replacement. So my questions are:

1. The engine is a 6v system, what do I need to convert everything to a 12v system.

2.Bare minimum, for testing purposes what would I need to hook up to the motor just to get it running. I'm assuming whatever wire coming off the stator for the ignition coil and a kill switch.

Any help would be awesome.

 

[matt_i]

Take a look at Farmall letter series into the numbered series tractors. When the world went from 6v to 12v, the old breaker point ignitions were stuck on 6v and never made it to 12v. They use a "ballast resistor" to drop the 12vdc down to 6vdc so the points don't burn up. Sadly imo they gave away the extra energy that a 12v system could supply to the spark.

 

[fordkid88]

rain cartoon picture

Little teaser. I'll do a full post later on where Fronda is at currently.

 

[bonneyman]

You're far from alone in that category. I've had to consciously stop looking at things that could possibly spawn a new idea for something new to work on. This website is one I've cut way back on.

Oh yeah, I've got that disease - bad!

 

[harley jim]

I think we should rename you hondakid88
They used to call me little Honda Jim

Sent from my SM-A102U using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[fordkid88]

I think we should rename you hondakid88
They used to call me little Honda Jim

Sent from my SM-A102U using The Garage Journal mobile app

When it comes to bikes I do like me some Honda's!

 

[C91x]

The little Hondas are fun. I haven't built a bike in over 10 years but here's my second to last one. 76 cb550

Sent from my SM-G960U using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[fordkid88]

Sorry about disappearing for some time now but we got hit hard at work and I was on overtime, a lot of overtime for a few months and had zero time and energy to do much outside of the work and family.

The last two weekends I've been working on the plasma table.
I'm still not fully happy with the gantry but it could be me over thinking things. I've been using a 3d printer to prototype parts or make the mounts for the z axis.


tampa general medical group

I've got two brackets printing right now and Im thinking theyll need to be remade as I didn't take into account a max height mounting height of the z axis. I can throw them on the mill modify them and reprint if that works. That little printer is really coming in handy.

 

[fordkid88]

So as I'm really trying to not be all over the place with my builds, even though I have like 5 either started or in planning on my hard drive I'm sticking to working on the plasma table until it's in the software tweaking stages.

So I started machining the z supports, I have one of two mostly done. The cut finish ***** but I didn't want these to be a week long process so I just hogged out material with the crappy end mills I had on hand. And then I just hit it with the sand blaster to make it look less...crappy.



I found this large control panel on marketplace a half hour away for 75 so I snagged that up. Should hold everything with plenty of space to spare.



And a dumb little video of the x axis moving even though it still has the 3d printed supports and only the top one is on.

Once these are done I'll order the ball screws for the y axis and start getting all of that as I have all of the parts laser cut and sitting there but I made them long so I could adjust as necessary.

Side note if anyone needs any industrial confetti I've got a couple bags for you.

 

[fordkid88]

Finally got some more work done. I've just got the center mount and then that's done.



My last two ball screws were delivered yesterday, I'm awaiting a delivery on the right size couple so I can tack them in place with the motors appropriately aligned.

I've been helping my buddy work on his f150 alot lately and he sent me a link to a market place listing this morning for what he was hoping a was a decent air compressor. It wasn't but his intent was that he wanted to help set me with a better air compressor because I've a saved him a ton of money and we both know my little 21 gallon air compressor is no good for the equipment in my shop. So one thing led to another and he's pitching in and helping deliver a knew 60 gallon air compressor for the shop. Looks like another project got added to the list summer, I'll be putting up and air compressor shed.

 

[fordkid88]

Re: Fordkid's ADHD Fabrications-Plasma table saga.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!! So much compressed air goodness. I shouldnt really run into air problems for quite some time. I just hope this isnt like a computer where you think you'll never need that much ram or that much hard drive space.



Now for the plasma table I'm hoping I can machine the required spacers in an evening, I'm keeping the design as straight forward and simple as possible. I've changed my mind on how I plan to do the limit sensors or at least their location. I want to do one for each ball screw so I can use them to align the x to the y.

I'm considering using the Pokeys57cnc control board because it has room for the 4 servos and 8 inputs for the limits and it's ethernet based. They also have a torch height controller but I haven't found the documentation I need to know on how it works.

 

[fordkid88]

I've got it'll mocked up and shimmed so I can make the last few spacers. I'd be a little further along but when I went to crack the regulator on my argon bottle, I'd left it open and it had drained...luckily it was only a 1/3 full but still enough to piss off the pope.

Right now I've got 0.2 of a degree to track down between the gantry and the table but I think I've already found it but Im lacking the ambition to tear everything down and make the tweak.

Hopefully by the end of this month or mid next month I'll have it moving.

 

[fordkid88]

Alright I know I said I was gonna concentrate on one project at a time, but I was beginning to feel like I was banging my head against a wall with the electrical and I was gonna work on the Honda but I was home with the kiddo on a Saturday after work about three weeks ago and he we were watching car shows and a go kart show popped on and the little turd started making vroom noises and saying want one. Having started one and shelves it because I didn't like how it was going I started from scratch and it snow balled fast.


I decided instead of a box tube frame I would form the frame on the press brake with 11g hot roll.

https://imgur.com/dzUyRpn

I then jumped the gun and screwed myself a bit...I bought some 16g from Menards to form up the seat are because of that sweat 11% rebate and my local metal supplier having a tough time on certain things at the moment. Well I didn't realize it was delaminated and brittle...So I sheared it up at work setup the press brake and started forming. The first bend I heard something really strange that I had not encountered yet, I saw the material move strangely on the bend and noticed it wasnt even close to 90 degrees even if I backed the press off 2 degrees off of 90 so I didn't over bend it , it was about 20 degrees under bent. I pull the material out looked it over and saw that the material had ripped through half the thickness along the entire bend. Well at that point I was that far in so I decide to push on and I'd have to weld each bend. The last piece that I bent which required 20 degrees less in it actual broke completely. needless to say I'll be redoing that in the near future.

https://imgur.com/ikDNyyd

https://imgur.com/aZt8yZw

All that welding even low amperage, cooling between welds and moving around was enough to warp slightly and mess up the steering support to make it look like ****. So I'll be doing it out of 12g in the near future.

The foreman was happy with it though.

https://imgur.com/iT2rNoU

He checked on his project daily.

https://imgur.com/pvVNTLv

Then he said he need to fix his truck, so I got it up then air for him and took a look. I hate working on Chrysler products so I told him it was probably his rotary girder and let him go to town.

https://imgur.com/BcjJqL9

He put me on overtime so I stayed out in the shop late last weekend and got the steering linkage done and the wiring ran.

https://imgur.com/jPd2iho

He called me out to the shop early the next morning so he could show me a thing or two on setup. Guy thinks he knows everything.

https://imgur.com/jwZgE4l

Then I started blasting the mill scale off because I hate grinding the guy is even down my back with that part of the project...


As soon as most it's welded up he was on me to get it put back together so he could do some testing...The nerve of this guy.


After all of that he found out that I have a motor from a big red three wheeler sitting around that I had forgotten about and he wants that swapped in instead on the 212 6.5hp variants that are all over the place, a motor that the current steering linkage is designed around and will not work with the atc motor...he doesn't seem to think it's a big deal that I'll probably have to do some sort of chain linkage under the frame to do the steering with to clear this motor...some people kids I tell you...

 

[ScooterCO]

Stay on it! A happy customer is a good source of repeat business...

 

[fordkid88]

Oh I intend to. Functionally this project is 90% done, visually it's about 75% and that because I want to redo the seating area. I say that because it's somewhat disappointing that it's this far along because I figured it would be a couple of years before the little guy and I would be doing things together and it's happening and it's going to way to fast.

I'll have to figure out something we can fab together. Maybe a beer cooler trailer for it, I mean tow behind trailer.

 

[fordkid88]

Kinda got a wild hair in my *** about welding with a foot pedal way out of position for it only being able to weld for a little bit before my torch really heats up, so I started working on making my own thumb controller and liquid cooling unit. Since I work in a stainless steel fab shop that makes custom cheese and dairy equipment I took advantage of that. The body is 14. I used 1 in ferrule for the fill port, these are common for spool pieces and the majority of our piping have these on the end.

Everything was welded autogenously except for where the half couples and spool piece meet the body. There is a little undercut on the fittings because I didn't want to put anymore heat than I had to into this so I walked the cup real fast with .045 to just seal it.

I plan on using a trans cooler that I have, now I just have to figure out the pump.





upload pic

 

[fordkid88]

I mocked up the water cooled setup on a garden hose, it works great. I ran on 200 amps for about 10 mins without the torch get super hot, or really hot at all, just radiant heat from the work piece to the outside of the handle. I found a used procon setup on ebay that'll be here in a week and a half.

I modeled up a quick thumb control handle just to test, not the most elegant but it works.



Now to order some 20 series consumables because I have none.

 

[fordkid88]

Well the ebay dealer that I bought my pump from was real slow to ship so I did not receive it this weekend and amazon sent out all but 2 of my parts I need to keep working on the water cooler pump yesterday and they've left me in limbo as to when they'll ship and when I'll get them.

So I was on market place looking at fabrication **** that I don't need and I started looking at mig welders because I hate my Eastwood and one thing led to another and I just picked up a miller 200 cp with wire feed unit for 250. They're are a bunch of threads on converting it to single phase so I'm gonna start planning that and doing some minor upgrades and restoration to and hopefully have a decent mig unit.

 

[fordkid88]

Well I've got some tweaks to do, but it's pretty close to being done. I'm gonna talk the super genius in our pumps depart and see what he thinks and maybe makes some improvements.

Really the only major things left are to put a third half coupler in that I changed my mind on and now realize that I really do need it, get a transformer for the fans, mount the tank and radiator and design a cover to have laser cut. I may polish and put a grain in the front but depends on how I far I want to take this.

Everything so far has been made from 304 14g because we have a scrap rack full of it and I just buy it from the shop. The cover will be cold rolled mild because I plan on painting it to match the welder.

 

[fordkid88]

Landed this 60 series wire feeder for 200. Everything seems to work. It only has wire speed controls on it. I'm gonna take everything into work one of these nights and test it all and make sure it works before I do the conversion.

 

[fordkid88]

I have to add one more fan, move the pressure gauge to the front panel, tweak the plumbing and add sound dampening material to the inside, but for now it works pretty well.

 

[PugetDude]

Nice fab work, anxious to hear how it performs when you get it all finished up.

 

[fordkid88]

Nice fab work, anxious to hear how it performs when you get it all finished up.

It's louder than I hoped for but not bad, I ran beads at 200amps for 5 mins intervals with no problems at all with torch not getting hot at all.

 

[fordkid88]

The 3 phase to single phase conversion worked. The wire feeder is operational. I need to start messing with the settings and getting back into running mig, it's been 2 years but I'm looking forward to getting to some.045 dual shield.


ford focus ecoboost 2014

 

[fordkid88]

I've spent about an hour tuning it and running beads. The settings I'm running seem off but seem to be close based on sound and appearance. 24volts and 290 inches per minute with .030. the machine I'd run in school I like to set to 19.5 volts and 220 ipm on .035. I'm not sure if the voltage gauge is reading correctly or what affect the conversion had on the unit. I'd like to add a cheap digital voltage gauge in the unit in the future, maybe even a tachometer but it's not necessary.

Anyway this is 15 passes with no cool down. The piece was heat soaked and affecting the welds towards the end but I wanted to do some torture testing. 3/4 by 3/4 legs.(The photo is upside down if the bead structure looks funny)

 

[fordkid88]

So kinda where this thread started, I was able to go to fabtech again this year but this time with two of the lead fabricators from our shop to look for new equipment for the shop. Kinda of small compared to the last time I was there and I think it was a covid thing, but very educational event.

I did get to meet and shake Justin's hand from The Fabrication Series but he was pressed for time judging a weld competition so not a lot time to ********, but still cool.

 

[PugetDude]

So kinda where this thread started, I was able to go to fabtech again this year but this time with two of the lead fabricators from our shop to look for new equipment for the shop. Kinda of small compared to the last time I was there and I think it was a covid thing, but very educational event.

I did get to meet and shake Justin's hand from The Fabrication Series but he was pressed for time judging a weld competition so not a lot time to ********, but still cool.

I was a bit disappointed in Fabtech this year- understand they were down ~600 exhibitors, had 84 exhibitor no-shows on the day of the show.
Didn't see official attendance numbers, but our booth traffic was defintely off from previous years.

 

[fordkid88]

Well another cold Wisconsin winter is on its way and I had to do something so I could work out in the garage without burning hundreds of lbs of lp each winter. I also wanted to get my mill and little lathe out in the garage without them rusting and my wife could stop yelling at me for dragging chips through out the house no matter my efforts to sweep them up.

The solution was to partition of a small portion of the garage, say about 11 by 11 that I could run a heater and have a little fab space. I'm hoping I can have it 85%done by next week and functional.



According to auto cad and generous dimensioning of the equipment I'll have plenty of room for the equipment I want to throw in there.

 

[PugetDude]

Well another cold Wisconsin winter is on its way and I had to do something so I could work out in the garage without burning hundreds of lbs of lp each winter. I also wanted to get my mill and little lathe out in the garage without them rusting and my wife could stop yelling at me for dragging chips through out the house no matter my efforts to sweep them up.

The solution was to partition of a small portion of the garage, say about 11 by 11 that I could run a heater and have a little fab space. I'm hoping I can have it 85%done by next week and functional.



According to auto cad and generous dimensioning of the equipment I'll have plenty of room for the equipment I want to throw in there.

Great idea, no sense heating what you don't need. You'll find you can be pretty productive in a small space when you have to.
Post pics when youi have it filled up.

 

[fordkid88]

Well I've got my mill and the rest of the equipment I want in the little space. I'll grab a couple of pics once it's been organized. I've still got to grab all of the tooling from the basement.

I went after work yesterday with my coworker to pick up a screaming deal he found on an air compressor on market place, 2 stage Craftsman 30 gallon from 1982 which had never been used, just sat In it's box for the last 40 years, the power cord still have the label across the prongs. The receipt on the box was for 505 and some change, he snapped it up for 150. The gal selling said she was done going through her passed husband's items for the year but would be going through it in the spring and would let us know first. She had a top and bottom Gerstner tool box that never saw a tool in it!!! And the road and car signs!!!

I told him we should swing by Northern Tool to pick up some goods for his new compressor and I found my deal.



I walked out the door with the floor model with all the accessories for 67 bucks. I have no immediate uses for it at the moment but I may just try to make some projects for shits and giggles.

 

[PugetDude]

Well I've got my mill and the rest of the equipment I want in the little space. I'll grab a couple of pics once it's been organized. I've still got to grab all of the tooling from the basement.

I went after work yesterday with my coworker to pick up a screaming deal he found on an air compressor on market place, 2 stage Craftsman 30 gallon from 1982 which had never been used, just sat In it's box for the last 40 years, the power cord still have the label across the prongs. The receipt on the box was for 505 and some change, he snapped it up for 150. The gal selling said she was done going through her passed husband's items for the year but would be going through it in the spring and would let us know first. She had a top and bottom Gerstner tool box that never saw a tool in it!!! And the road and car signs!!!

I told him we should swing by Northern Tool to pick up some goods for his new compressor and I found my deal.



I walked out the door with the floor model with all the accessories for 67 bucks. I have no immediate uses for it at the moment but I may just try to make some projects for shits and giggles.

$67? You ****.

 

[fordkid88]

$67? You ****.

Haha thanks, this is the first thing I thought of when I saw it, "Oh man this is definitely a GJ You **** if I ever saw one"

 

[fordkid88]

It's a mess but it's coming along.

 

[fordkid88]

Been messing around and getting **** moved and cleaned up. Still have to hang the retractable air reel. Now onto the rest of the garage which got destroyed to do this project.

 

[fordkid88]

Got some time in on the table. Motors are hung and I'm working on the electrical. I threw an older gaming PC I built years ago, it's overkill but itx form factor so it doesn't take up a lot of room that is also couple with a 10in touch screen. My power supplies should be here Monday. The control board is supposed to be here the 5th, the seller fucked up a bit so I doubt that'll happen. I have a raspberry pi with a cnc hat that I may try to use in the mean time.

There is a ton of little stuff to do in the mean time but I just really want to see this thing move.

 

[loganb]

Nice progress!