Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Dollar Special - 20x20 from 1971

[j p smith]

A few incoming updates on stuff I've been doing with tools and around the garage.

First up, is a custom Milwaukee M12 belt sander that I made (3 of them, actually). I've seen a few links to adapter kits to graft a Harbor Freight belt sander (for a 3/8" x 13" belt) to a Milwaukee M12 Fuel 3" cut-off tool. I liked this idea, but I've used 3/8" belts before and generally much prefer the larger 3/4" x 20.5" belt size, which we have air-powered units at work and I use frequently.

I'm not sure who was the originator of the adapter idea, but it seems like a handful of companies make the adapter kit now...





So I eyeballed the larger 3/4" belt sander body next to a M12 3" cut-off tool, and figured there had to be a way to make the bigger tool frame fit on the M12 body.



I first had to remove the backing plate for the guard that comes on the cut-off tool, then I made a turned cylinder to mimic the air-powered belt sander's body, for the sanding frame to mount to and rotate about...









Next I machined a clearance chamfer to the stub base of the driving pulley, to clear the above shown torx screws. In hindsight, I'm not sure this was needed, but it was 'just in case' to make sure the pulley fit without rubbing...



Next I had to turn a pressed-in bushing to reduce the pulley's ID from ~1/2" to ~3/8" to fit on the output shaft of the cut-off tool...

Awesome job on the conversion

 

[frojoe]

Thanks! The M12 belt sander proved to work well.. so well that two friends pushed to have me make one for them, so I made one extra for one guy and gave mine to the other guy just to make them content.. now I don't have one. I have the M12 cut-off wheel tool and another donor sander chassis, but I'll have to remake the bits to create one for myself... again.

Following rusty1161's comments, I sourced a high-vis caution sticker for the whiteboard to alert that there's the breaker panel behind it. The whiteboard has proven to be so useful and convenient already, that I'm very hesitant to move it.. so hopefully this will suffice in the unlikely event of the master breaker needing to get flipped in an emergency.





I also expanded my small parts organization even more (I now have a third order of these, on the way) using these clear Flambeau 48-compartment organizer bins...











And I do have a storage idea for what will eventually be a total of 24 of these bins, that I'm hopefully going to get started on fabricating this weekend...

 

[frojoe]

Winter holiday is a great time for... organization! I had taken some of these Akro-Mills open organizer bins, and turns out I liked them, so I bought a bunch of various sizes, to see what would stick for material organization...





The way we have it in the welding/CNC shop at my work, is that [within reason] no offcut or small piece needs to be recycled, necessarily... little cylinders and tubes and pieces of sheet/plate/angle are always helpful for shimming on the fixturing table or the setup on the mill, or for using as locating mock-ups or pushing mandrels on the press.

I've accumulated quite the collection of random cutoffs, so I wanted to have some sort of order, ideally between solid bar, hollow tube, thick plate, thin sheet, and then aluminum vs mild/stainless steel. I got almost there, but turns out I needs a few more of these mid-sized bins...







These is more or less the best spot for the bins, and I couldn't decide if I wanted to stack them 3-high to save shelf space, or 2-high to have quicker access to the bin on the bottom, and to better group the profiles and materials...





Also did a bit of a clean, since the amount of **** accumulating on the floor had reached my limit...

 

[frojoe]

I was also browsing Craigslist, and found a BNIB Mitutoyo bevel protractor, and a used-but-great 12" digital caliper for great prices, so added those to my "precision measurement" toolbox drawer...





And continuing the organizer bins extravagance, I figured I could also use them to organize toolbox drawers.

This one it particular, was to group all of my machinist-clamp washers, hex nuts, T nuts, and couplers, but I had to trim it down to fit in the drawer...



I also made some separators, since the plastic once are like $30 for a 50-pack, which would have been excessive..

 

[frojoe]

Next up was a bit of garage organization. I have a stack of these tin reels for convoluted automotive loom, and they're annoying to deal with since they're so light they don't stack securely, and are all different sizes so don't nest nicely on a shelf.

I had previously jammed them all on a 48" F clamp, that was then clamped to my overhead shelf, just to literally get them out of the way so I'd stop knocking them over. This turned out to be a very convenient location, but I wanted to see if I could get them a bit more recessed, and mounted a bit more permanently.

Before...



I wanted to have them easily load onto a spindle, and also have a way to level the spindle so that they wouldn't walk side-to-side downhill when unreeling some lengths off them, so I welded a quick adjustable threaded bracket for an eye bolt...
















I also found yet another use for the wall-mounted E-track... a holder for the TIG torch cable. It's annoying to have the cabling hanging right off your wrist, all the way to the ground.. the weight of the ~4ft of cabling makes it difficult to lightly manipulate the torch in my hand/fingers.

But draping the cabling across hooks, above the welding bench, and having a length hang down just long enough to articulate easily and lightly... well that's primo!

 

[frojoe]

And last update for now... I had held out long enough, and needed to finally install a vise in the 'workroom'. I've had this Record 4" for for about 8 years, and it was given to me from out of an old machine shop where it collected dust for many, many years before that.

It developed some crust and surface rust, from being mounted in my parents' ventilated and un-insulated garage for many years, so I plucked it from there and gave it a bit of a resto before installing on my workbench..



I wanted to mount it mostly to one side, mainly to keep it out of the way of the rest of the bench...





And it only took me about 10mins with one wire wheel, before I had scuffed the paint up enough and knocked the surface rust off, before brushing some paint onto it...







I used this Tremclad 'Dark Blue' shade, that I read about in another GJ thread covering a Record restoration, and although the color strip on the top of the can appears falsely dark, the actual paint shade it pretty darn close considering how easy it was to find this paint at our local store...

 

[frojoe]

Due to the placement of the vise, and the doubled-up 2x4 wood frame under the bench top, I wanted to make an adapter plate to move the two big mid-vise mounting holes to the front edge of the bench top, instead of drilling thru the bench top, and a full 3.5" of SPF bench frame, and then have to source 6+" long bolts, since I already had all the shorter bolts I would need.

I trimmed the hex heads off two 1/2" UNF bolts, to weld to the adapter plate, to then turn these into studs that the vise could bolt to...





Studs are welded on both sides of the plate... fillet weld (visible here) and a rosette/plug weld on the underside...



This shows the 3rd vise mounting hole is actually thru the plate, and the bench top, since there is no 2x4 framing underneath that back area...



I had to clearance-countersink the underside of the vise mounting holes a bit, to clear my fillet welds...



And mounted...

 

[v6buick]

I like your space saving techniques! I'll be following this thread.

 

[jbrentd]

Seeing your thread for the first time today has given me many ideas for organization of my garage-in-progress and also makes me miss my old '72 Nova. Keep up the good work!

 

[frojoe]

Thanks guys! Lots more to come.. so many shop organizational ideas!

In the new year I treated myself to a few tools. Went to "buy casters", and came home with more... oops!





And I use metric hardware often enough that I thought it's time to finally invest in some metric drill bits....





I also cleared a bunch of clutter and boxes out of the garage, and was surprised with how much working floorpsace I have back, considering there's two cars within this 20'x20' footprint...





Also did some cleaning of the attached workroom, and started thinking about what to do with this 25"x53"x1" Ikea hardwood counter top that has just been leaning up in the corner....



I mocked up the countertop as an island for a few weeks to see how I liked working around it, and I finally decided that I was okay with having an 'immobile' island bench opposite the big workbench, to separate out stages of a single project, and thought I could also turn it into storage racks for my ever-growing collection of small parts organizer bins...







There's also just enough room for my 13" planer to store behind the organizer rack, and then room for longer stuff under the rack, and below the bottom shelf...

 

[frojoe]

I spent about an hour figuring out the sizing and configuration of the bins, and then went to pick up metal the next day during lunch...











These are "heavy duty" adjustable feet off of Amazon... weirdly I couldn't find any adjustable feet locally, so these will have to do. They appear to be solid and a very hard plastic.. maybe Delrin, but we shall see how they hold up over time. I welded a nut on the backside, and I will use a jam nut on the bottom side of the leg, to hold the weight...

 

[frojoe]

Then it came time to assemble the racking system. I wanted to use angle, spaced evenly, and welded to horizontal plate above, so the three columns are their own sub-assembly that would be partially welded to the the underside of the table, but could also be removed from the table and made to hang from something else in the future...



I made a spacer jig to keep the angle spacing consistent...









I then welded angle on the backs of each racking side, to stiffen it all up, and to create a stop for the organizer bins to hit...







And a diagonal strap across the underside of the racking columns, to keep them all evenly spaced...

 

[frojoe]

Then came time for paint, and installation! I'm super happy with how it turned out... brings an even more cohesive and purposeful look to was was once a "spare bedroom" for the previous owner of this house!...

 

[jbrentd]

Excellent job on the new island bench! I'm trying to teach myself how to use my mig so I can build small projects just like that.

 

[frojoe]

Excellent job on the new island bench! I'm trying to teach myself how to use my mig so I can build small projects just like that.

Great call! A mig would be incredibly helpful for zapping things together... and the ability to make things out of steel as well as wood never gets old. I like wooden benches/tables/shelves and the like, but when you're scraping be efficient with every foot and every inch of space, sometimes being able to make something out of thinner/stronger metal versus thicker 2x4 or 4x4, or 1" shelving, is just better.

 

[frojoe]

A few updates here.. not as much "garage related", but 100% car related, the last update is totally related to using the garage for fabrication.

First update is a little more organization for the small parts bins on the table/rack that I made... I got tired of removing two or three organizer bins before I found the one I was looking for. I'm not OCD, I swear!...





Seconds update, is I wanted to have a way to display my 1:18 scale car models, and other random automotive trinkets. I had a few, which were collecting dust in a few places around my home office, and then I purchased a few more, then a friend gave me another one as a Christmas pressent, and before I knew it.. I needed a nice place to congregate and display them...





So I bought a retail-quality glass display case, to jam between the car parts overflow storage shelves in my home office...

 

[frojoe]

And the last update, which is a big one.... is finally doing some real engineering and fabrication in the garage, which has been the functionality level that I feel like I've been working towards for years.

I have a 1989 Mustang notch that is the current project.. main goal for it is to be a light, simple, nimble, fun street car with good handling manners. I'll put a revvy all-aluminum built 5.3L LS engine in it, the new Tremec TKX 5spd transmission, coilovers, custom suspension linkage arms front+rear, all poly bushings, and keep things relatively simple. I want it to corner hard, but still have decent streetability and low-ish NVH.

Where this is going, is that the tubular front lower control arms I had bought unfortunately placed the front wheels at a stance and geometry I didn't like. With the brake and spindle combination I'm running (which requires a 3/8" wheel spacer) the lower control arms (LCA's) were too long, pushing the tires out too far, and would have required something like -4* camber to get the tire sidewalls to even approach being flush with the front fender lips... all this being too much compromise. So I decided to make my own LCA's.

After taking a bunch of K member measurements, coilover measurements, spindle and LCA measurements, I came up with what I thought would be a good geometry for a new control arm.



These were the "bolt on" arms I had purchased, along with a scrap steel test-fit LCA that I fashioned, with a heim to closely place the spindle's lower ball joint where I suspected I wanted it...







That proved to be a little too flexy to accurately place the wheel where I wanted, so I made a more rigid angle-iron mockup A arm, using the actual ball joint and pivot bushing housings that I machined.. more on that later.

 

[frojoe]

I selected a Energy Suspension bushing size that I liked, that's slightly over-length that I can trim to fit, and designed pivot bushing housings around it.

I made angle iron tabs to mimic the width of the mounting tabs on the K-member for two reasons:

1) The aluminum stepped "fixturing bushings" can also be used to mockup install the arm onto the K-member, without needing to press in and press out the poly bushings into the housings

2) If I ever decide to change the type or size of pivot bushing, I can keep the welding fixture the same, and only change the configuration of the housings on these (or new) arms, and just make sure the new configuration still fits within the geometry of the welding fixture locating tabs.



In order to make left and right arms symmetrically, I welded these bushing housing tabs to a steel plate, which then bolts on to the T-shape welding fixture. This way, I can just flip the sub-assembly to the opposite side of the T-fixture to get a mirror image layout.

It also means I can drill new mounting hole locations in the future, to move the bushing housings as a sub-assembly, if I want to change the offset of the bushings relative to the ball joint location.



I then needed to make a mount to hold the ball joint at the correct angle, height, and distance from the bushing housing axis...




I made a stepped slug to locate and clamp the ball joint housing to this angled block, and then this block bolts to the T-fixture. Again, this block can be flipped to the opposite side of the T-fixture to get a mirror image layout to create the passenger side LCA.





And finally doing some of the work and welding at the home garage...

 

[frojoe]

Then it was time to start notching tubing. I borrowed a JD Square tube notcher from a friend, and was super impressed with the quality. It was rigid and easy to use, and never had any variation to the cut angles.. I was super happy with it.

 

[frojoe]

...as well as adding a cross-brace tube to tie the leading and trailing main tubes, and complete the "A" shape of the LCA..







And nearing the end of the driver side LCA, it still needed a sway bar end link mounting location. I decided to cut the sway bar mount out of rectangular tube, to create a U-shaped mount, instead of the [much easier] individual double-shear tabs design... mainly to spread the loud across the sides better, as well as gain more weld length to the LCA main tube.









And then lastly, added some 3/16" gusset plates to reinforce the main A tubes to the bushing housings, and full welded.... all at home!! I love having this Dynasty 200DX hooked up to 240V only a few steps away...

 

[bobg03]

You are certainly organized and very skilled. Your Nova is beautiful, but I shed a tear everytime it has things stacked on it like it was a shelf or tabletop..

 

[jbrentd]

Nice job on the control arms! The quality and fitment look perfect from where I sit.

 

[frojoe]

You are certainly organized and very skilled. Your Nova is beautiful, but I shed a tear everytime it has things stacked on it like it was a shelf or tabletop..

Hah! That's the #1 comment I usually hear... and I agree that it isn't ideal, but it's unfortunately the arrangement I kinda need during the off season. The paint job on the car is a solid 25-footer anyway, so I'm not terribly concerned about it!

Nice job on the control arms! The quality and fitment look perfect from where I sit.

Thanks! I have a "two strikes rule".. if I buy a part (even that is rare these days) and it isn't quite the way I'd like it, I'll compromise to some degree in one aspect. As soon as the fit/finish/function falls short in a second way... I'm ready to pull the cord and start modifying it, or possibly even remaking it "right".... that's what happened with this front suspension build on the Fox.


If people on here are interested in seeing projects like this, versus just tool/garage status updates.. I'm happy to post more of that project stuff. I feel like I'm working on 2-5 fabrication projects in parallel, for multiple of my vehicles, so there's always custom fabrication going down that I'd be happy to share.

-Joe

 

[Chrisb62]

If people on here are interested in seeing projects like this, versus just tool/garage status updates.. I'm happy to post more of that project stuff. I feel like I'm working on 2-5 fabrication projects in parallel, for multiple of my vehicles, so there's always custom fabrication going down that I'd be happy to share.

-Joe

Can't speak for others but yes more please.

 

[grant00]

Awesome job on the control arms. Can't wait to see them finished. Also noticed your 3DConnexion space mouse in an earlier post. I have a Pro version that's a few years old and their full size CAD mouse pro.

Great organization and lots of ideas. Thanks for sharing!

 

[frojoe]

Can't speak for others but yes more please.

Sounds good, happy to! There's no shortage of machining/fabrication pics and updates to share haha.

Awesome job on the control arms. Can't wait to see them finished. Also noticed your 3DConnexion space mouse in an earlier post. I have a Pro version that's a few years old and their full size CAD mouse pro.

Great organization and lots of ideas. Thanks for sharing!

Awesome! I love my space mouse... it's become a vital extension of my 3D modeling daily workflow.. I've had to do some CAD and model manipulation with just the laptop keyboard and a wireless mouse... and man it is clunky... I don't know how I survived before I first tried out the space mouse!

 

[dmittz]

I just finished catching up, you have done an amazing job organizing your space. loved the work on the 'island organizer', and all the fab work you did. Lots of great organizing ideas. Thanks for sharing.