Above 1200 Sq/FT Ernie's Place

[Finallygotit]

The wife got me a new drone to help with roof inspections, and I’ve been putting some flight time in. Took it up over our roof for some practice and found this nice little surprise.



The edge tiles on the roof are pulling away from the house.





Cleaned out the debris and looks like the trim board that the tiles are anchored to was only held in place by a single nail every couple of feet. Guessing the weight of the dozen or so cement tiles just slowly pulled the board away from the house.



Pulled the edge tiles off and removed the few nails holding the trim board to the house. The board was still in good shape so just re-attached it using two deck screws every 12 inches or so. Overlapped new underlayment (after an obligatory trip to Home Depot) and put the tiles back. I learned that roof repairs are another fun way to spend your weekend. At least it doesn’t rain here much and there wasn’t any discernable water damage.





It was also a busy week for bringing more stuff home from work.

Scored this nice Lyon cabinet



Some more storage bins, still full of electrical supplies. The table behind the bins is 3’ x 4’ and the top is 1” steel plate. Thinking that might make for a nice fixture table if I can find a mag drill to put holes in it.



Brought home a ton (probably literally) of miscellaneous aluminum and steel pieces.



Also grabbed this piece of aluminum plate, roughly 4’ x 6’ x 1”. Thinking I might make this my new and improved workbench and welding table.

Todd, glad you found that roof issue and corrected it before monsoon season sets in.

Other than that, I am obliged to offer you a "you ****" for everything else you just acquired.

 

[Jayman17]

Good catch on the roof tile issue, drones are fun to fly. You are really scoring some useful stuff from your workplace!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Scott – Look at you, providing solutions and removing obstacles (and excuses) for me to finish a project! When I get this mess squared away I just might take you up on that offer. Much appreciated!


Dan – Thanks! We’re still not done and I keep bringing my truck to work…just in case.



Jayman17 – Yeah, the problem is all of this “stuff” is accumulating faster than I have free room to store it. Just too hard to pass up, especially knowing it’s likely to be scrapped or sold to a random Offer-Up person for next to nothing. Thanks for stopping by!




Been pretty busy the past week and managed to document some of it.


Oil change in the Tacoma, this time it left me with a parting gift. One of the last lug nuts to tighten before I was done for the day, of course.


Yay. One more thing added to the “Need to Fix” list.



Found the cheapest set of used 33’s on the market place and had them mounted on the new Scout wheels. Rolled the Scout out to do oil changes and snapped a couple pics. I think it has a decent stance and might be able to get away with lowering it an inch or two, depending on suspension packaging.







I usually take the newer vehicles, still under warranty, to the dealer for oil changes…but costs seem to have gone crazy. $130 for a simple oil change?? The oil is $36 and filer is $10, using the same type/brand as the factory. So I did my first lube, oil, filter for a diesel. Not much different than the Tacoma, really. Oh, and if I measured right there should be room for the lathe with this truck, too. Not sure I’ll be putting anything bigger on the lift than the one-ton.



While I was at it, I installed a new Fumoto valve for future oil changes. The kit I got came with a length of hose and a little plastic cap to keep dirt out.



All while being supervised by the latest shop-dog.




Dragged home more junk from work. Not sure I needed a whole tote full of miscellaneous bearings (and gauges? still haven't looked through the whole box), but too hard to pass up for free.



Been salvaging casters off of carts before they are sent to the scrap yard. I think I’m good for a while.

 

[StormcrowAz]

This Wilton on a stand came home with me.



Unfortunately it must have seen too much abuse, as it’s not functional. Need to brush up on the Vise threads, I’m betting it’s salvageable.



It’s getting crowded in the shop and only going to get worse. Figured I’d better do some cleaning and purge a bit of unused junk taking up valuable space. Does anyone else have a box full of audio/visual cables for “just in case”? I’ve had this tote full for the past 10 years and think I’ve taken one thing out of it. Do they even make anything that uses RCA cables any more? Time to pitch it.



Some of the stuff I’ve taken home is strictly for the raw material value. Like the work station with the steel top. It takes up a lot of acreage and needs to be deconstructed to free up room.



The divider was stitch welded to the top, easy enough to remove. Checked the top with a straight edge and it’s bowed up in the middle by about a quarter inch. The high spot along where those welds are at and wondering if that’s what caused it. I’ve seen where guys fixed this by just heating/welding the opposite sides to flatten it out and might try that.



Nice piece of 1” plate thought.





The rest of the table is mostly ¼” thick angle iron and square tubing, cut that apart for repurposing. I burned through two cutting wheels before remembering I owned a plasma cutter.

 

[SilverJimmy]

Has your soon to be former employer started to list stuff for sale yet? I’d really like to get a fire cabinet or two for my shop. A bigger welding table would be nice too!

 

[Bob Heine]

Does anyone else have a box full of audio/visual cables for “just in case”?

Todd, are you asking if anyone has boxes full of audio/visual cables for “just in case”? If so, I may have a couple...

 

[Finallygotit]

Todd, you ask If we have spare cables? Why yes I do. My wife and I affectionately call it the clump. It's a big tote full of all kinds of cables. In the past couple of months, I have been going through it purging the ancient from the not so ancient. A good portion of what now resides in that tote are spare extension cords. Now those I will keep. As for RCA cables, I have some audio equipment that uses them.

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

 

[StormcrowAz]

SilverJimmy – Yes, we started listing it about three weeks ago. There’s still some good stuff left, but no certified fire cabinets. Maybe a couple of the regular tall metal double-door cabinets that would be similar in size. We’ve got some metal work benches, but someone (!) pretty much absconded with the good full-sized pieces of plate in anticipation of making their own heavy-duty tables. There’s quite a few carts left (some still have casters on them ) We've got several Smog Hogs, a couple of high pressure water blaster set-ups that are probably 3ph 480v, and a bunch of misc. shelving/racks. If you’re in the neighborhood and want to see what we have left, shoot me a PM and I’ll send you the address.



Bob – The man that has it all, and all well organized! Do you still feel the cubic feet of storage still warrants keeping it, or most of it? With the recent acquisitions and seeing the potential need for storing lathe/mill tooling and such, I’m really questioning keeping the unused stuff I haven’t touched in years for those “Just in case” situations.



Dan – Need any more RCA cables?

 

[Bob Heine]

Do you still feel the cubic feet of storage still warrants keeping it, or most of it?

Todd, my current hoard has filled my space to capacity. On the bright side, keeping all that stuff prevents me from buying more vehicles -- a potentially life-threatening alternative.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Took the backsplash off the lathe for tie-down access. Looks like I have some cleaning to do…



Was somewhat of a battle getting this loaded onto the trailer, mostly in getting it into a good position over the axles. Used a forklift and chains to drag it into place.



A little bit of a nervous drive home, but the abundant amount of straps did their job and it arrived safely and upright.



From what I’ve read these engine lathes range from 2200 to 2700 lbs. depending the model. Regardless of which one I have, it exceeds my 1-ton gantry crane limit. The plan is to rig something for the Mohawk to do the heavy lifting. It’s going to be a few days before I can free up the time to get it off the trailer, so for now I just backed it up between the posts. Tight fit!

 

[Finallygotit]

Congrats on the new acquisition!

 

[PugetDude]

SilverJimmy – Yes, we started listing it about three weeks ago. There’s still some good stuff left, but no certified fire cabinets. Maybe a couple of the regular tall metal double-door cabinets that would be similar in size. We’ve got some metal work benches, but someone (!) pretty much absconded with the good full-sized pieces of plate in anticipation of making their own heavy-duty tables. There’s quite a few carts left (some still have casters on them ) We've got several Smog Hogs, a couple of high pressure water blaster set-ups that are probably 3ph 480v, and a bunch of misc. shelving/racks. If you’re in the neighborhood and want to see what we have left, shoot me a PM and I’ll send you the address.



Bob – The man that has it all, and all well organized! Do you still feel the cubic feet of storage still warrants keeping it, or most of it? With the recent acquisitions and seeing the potential need for storing lathe/mill tooling and such, I’m really questioning keeping the unused stuff I haven’t touched in years for those “Just in case” situations.



Dan – Need any more RCA cables?

Are any of those Smog Hogs portable?

 

[StormcrowAz]

Scott - If by portable you mean: "we'll help you load them into your truck using our forklift", then yes...portable.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Story time. Brother-in-law was a truck driver and wanted to start his own hot shot towing business. He bought a big dually and asked if we could help him with a new trailer as his credit was maxed out. Wife wanted to help so we said yes. He was also renting our old house for a very reasonably rate to further assist his endeavors. A couple years goes by and he got his truck repo’d and stopped making rent payments. Parked the trailer at his uncles place (no space for it at our old house) in Fresno and abandoned it there while he packed up his stuff and moved to New Mexico. BIL still owed money on the trailer which after much hassle eventually gets paid off by him and us. The uncle is extremely hard to get a hold of to see about getting the trailer back to AZ so we pretty much back-burnered it for a couple years. Wife gets a call a couple weeks ago that the uncle was killed in a car accident. At this point I’m thinking if we don’t immediately drive down and tow it back, there’s good odds it’s going to disappear. Google maps shows the trailer actually parked out front of the property, between the road and the property line fence. Have a good friend that lives an hour away and he was nice enough to do a drive-by to verify it was still there and double-check the VIN to make sure it was the right trailer. Considering the tires were probably 5+ years old and in unknown condition, I took a chance and bought 8 new ones here in Phoenix. Threw them plus every tool in the truck I could think of that might be needed in case of a trailer breakdown and made the 9 hour drive to Fresno.



Just to make sure everything was above-board and nobody is thinking I’m there stealing it, I called the county sheriff’s office and requested a civic standby. They came down, verified the title in our name matched the trailer, and gave us the green light to hook up and take it away.

After airing up the tires we drug it 5 miles down the road to the local tire shop and had them swap the new tires. They also helped with the hubs, as I brought grease for the bearings just in case. Turns out these are the oil bath type, which was a new learning experience for me.

This is the biggest trailer I’ve towed at 40’ and also my first experience with a gooseneck. It was an adventure.





Also happy I opted for the puck system in the bed of the truck. Made hooking up real easy.



Long story short – I now have a 40’ Big Tex gooseneck trailer that I’ll be selling as soon as I get some decent pictures of it.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Another adventure in the shop was getting the lathe off the smaller equipment trailer. The gantry is only rated for 1 ton and everything I’ve read about this late puts it somewhere between 2200 and 2800 pounds. Enter the Mohawk. Originally was going to use lifting straps, but between limited lifting height and the strap length, it just didn’t work. Chains did the trick, though. Raised enough to drive the trailer out from under it.



Temporarily set on some furniture dollies and 4x4’s. Just want to have enough room to swap in some of those heavy duty leveling casters.



Right now it has these leveling screws that were threaded through the base and sitting on steel pucks.



At this point I realized I better make sure this thing will run before I buy expensive casters. Pulled access panels and poked around.


I think a good indicator of it being a serious motor is when it comes with its own lifting eye-bolt.

Some sort of safety switch or disconnect, I suppose. No longer hooked up.



The size of the motor has me a bit concerned.



When I did research on air compressors I had read that 10hp motors are a bit much for home use. I does seem to be wired for 220 though, which is good.





This compartment under the tail stock has a transformer connection diagram that further supports it was wired for 220v.



The VFD on the belt sander, band saw, and mill seem to have no issues but those are all smaller motors. Need to do more research to see what my options are with this bigger motor. I’ve also read the VFD’s should be hooked straight to the motors as they don’t like switches and stuff in between them. Hoping this won’t be an issue as I think the only electronics on this lathe should be the start/stop buttons and maybe the forward/reverse lever. The VFD could take care of all that. Feeds and speeds and such should all be mechanical. Again, more reading and investigation required.

 

[PugetDude]

Worse case is you change out the motor. Might be cheaper than a big VFD in the long run.

 

[SilverJimmy]

Just leave it rigged up to your hoist, I’ll be right down and swap ya even up for my Craftsman 12x36 lathe, it’s like brand new and plugs right into a 115 volt outlet. Easy-peasy! See ya soon!

 

[SilverJimmy]

On a different note, what’s this? Some kind of railroad signal?

 

[j p smith]

Hey Todd, good job on getting the Lathe home!

 

[fartymarty]

On a different note, what’s this? Some kind of railroad signal?

I'm pretty sure it's a clock with various license plate numerals.....or perhaps...
it's a count down timer letting him know how little time he has left for completion of all his projects.

I think a good indicator of it being a serious motor is when it comes with its own lifting eye-bolt.

I'd have to agree, looks to be 172 lbs from the label plate. Seems serious to me.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Scott – A motor change is not out of the question. Will have to add that to my list of things to research.


Silver Jimmy – Thanks for the trade offer, I’ll take it under consideration. And FartyMarty is correct on the clock. The wife picked it up at a yard sale a while ago. Goes with the rest of the license plate collection, I suppose. Kind of a pain to change out the battery, though!



Jeff – Thanks! Now to get it mobile and operational. For moving it in place I’m thinking of going with these leveling casters instead of the pipe trick. Would be nice to be able to easily move it away from the wall occasionally, if needed.



FartyMarty – At this point, if I had to hang something representing my project completions…it would probably have to be a Mobius strip. A never-ending path with the beginnings lost to time and no end in sight.

 

[jollygreengiant]

Well I haven't been by this thread in a while so I was going through catching up on things, scrolling through post after post of al the things you scored from the day job, and I've never seen a more deserving "you ****!" award lol. It's also clear that you have much more self restraint than I do, I would have carted home everything I could fit in the shop and probably half of the yard lol.

 

[j p smith]

Todd did you guys at the machine shop have a set of hilman rollers to move equipment? Thats a good way to move heavier equipment.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Jollygreengiant – I’m not so sure on that self-restraint part, the shop is a mess and the new side addition has rapidly filled up as well. And there’s still more here I’ve got my eye on. I’m trying my best to not turn the place into a junk yard. Thanks for stopping by!


Jeff – I haven’t seen any kind of equipment skates or rollers. We’ve got a couple of really old and clapped out forklifts for the heavy lifting. One of them lost the brakes about six plus months ago and got parked. The alternator on the other one gave up the ghost and after finding out the replacement was $900 they decided to just run it off the battery, rotating an extra one off a charger when needed. As much as I’d love a forklift, I don’t think it would be worth taking either one home. Even for free.



And speaking of “stuff”, here’s some more that came home with me.


This is what came with the lathe.



Not a ton of stuff, but some nice extras to hopefully help get me started (when I can get the time and money to get it up and running)



Raided the hand finishing department stash. Most of the die grinders were pretty wore out, so passed on those, but there was a decent amount of consumables that I’ll put to good use. Belts, Roloc discs, carbides, etc.





Found some more casters, these had cast iron wheels and couldn’t pass them up. Don’t really need any chain, but it’s still new in the package. Should come in handy some way or some how, right? I might have a problem…



Here’s another table top. I just grabbed the top piece as I didn’t want to spend the time cutting up the base on this one. It is quarter-inch square plate that I believe will end up on the plasma table, turning into suspension brackets for the Scout.



The maintenance guy had these out back. Roughly 2’ x 5’ piece of one inch steel plate, and then an 8’ long piece of solid aluminum 2” thick and 8” wide.



Pulled these out of the scrap barrels – piece of round stock, some hand-made straightening tools, and two of those heavy rings, all steel.




And while we’re on the subject of “free”, a neighbor friend down the street called me on Tuesday saying he had an extra concert ticket if I wanted to go. Last minute on a school night, but hey, it’s the Rolling Stones.

 

[zanyad]

nice scores!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Zanyad – If I’m going…might as well take some of it with me. Thanks for stopping by!




Got a few things done this weekend. A little bit of organization and re-distribution of all the stuff. Unloaded both trucks full of the work plunder. I do like the gantry crane for all this heavy lifting.



Cut the divider off the table top, not only to find that it’s two sections of 2’ x 3’ plate, but instead of ¼” like I originally thought it’s 3/8”.



Meanwhile – the mighty Harbor Freight furniture dollies I put under the lathe gave up the ghost, just sitting there. Rated at a 1000lbs each, I thought they would at least hold up to a static load. Too optimistic, I suppose. Now I have 8 more cheap casters.



This got me squirreled into this mini-project I’ve had in mind for a while. This 5th-wheel hitch weighs in around 200lbs and I’ve been using two of those HF dollies to move it around when needed. They are just the wrong size to where one of them inevitably slips out from under the hitch when in motion. I grabbed this little angle iron table thing out of the scrap pile from work and now that I have “extra” casters figured I would make a little rolling base for the hitch.





Real quick, down-and-dirty, job. Welded casters straight to the frame, no hand-finishing or painting. But it works and the hitch no longer takes a nose-dive when rolling it around.



Cleaned out all the leveling pockets on the lathe and cut a backing plate on the plasma table for the casters. Looks like all the pockets are the same size, but for some reason the hole placement in each one is just slightly different. Each hole is off just enough so the backing plate only works in the one pocket I took the measurements from. I’ll have to move the hole locations for each plate, and will probably just cut blanks and then scribe from the bottom and hand-drill each one.



Last night I received one out of the six casters ordered. According to Amazon I’m getting these in four different shipments. Guess they are pulling inventory from separate locations.



At least it lets me do a test fit. The 16mm stem supplied is only about an inch long and too short to have any thread engagement inside the pocket. A longer full-thread bolt should do the trick, I think. Load capacity for each caster is supposed to be rated at 1760lbs each, or 3500lbs for 4. Hoping six of these casters on a 3000lb lathe will be enough to work marginally well.

 

[Bob Heine]

Todd, I bought the lightweight set of four of those for a movable workbench. They are oddly rated at 551 lbs each but 1102 lbs for the set of four. When I check FootMaster website all the specs seem to be in kilograms. The top plate on them is steel but the body is aluminum.

They work OK but it's hard to turn the red nylon wheel when engaging the caster. Works fine if you lever some of the weight off it.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Bob – Yep, the ones I got (GD-100) are the heavier duty versions. It looks like they also have a ratcheting system (GDR) for the leveling pad to make it easier to adjust, but that only goes up to the 80 series. And yep, they do have everything listed in kilograms. The ones I got are technically 800kg (1763.69lbs) each or 1600kg (3527.39lbs) for a set of 4. But since I think of weights in pounds, distance in inches/feet/miles, temperatures in degrees of Fahrenheit, and only speak American…I was lazy and rounded the conversions. Yee-haw!

 

[zanyad]

The ones I got are technically 800kg (1763.69lbs) each or 1600kg (3527.39lbs) for a set of 4.

Wouldn't it be 800kg * 4 = 2400kg (5291.094 lbs) for a set of four? Or am I missing something?

 

[PugetDude]

Wouldn't it be 800kg * 4 = 2400kg (5291.094 lbs) for a set of four? Or am I missing something?

You would think 1x4=4, but in this case 1x4=2. Maybe that's the new Chinese Common Core Cypherin' ?

 

[fartymarty]

Wouldn't it be 800kg * 4 = 2400kg (5291.094 lbs) for a set of four? Or am I missing something?

You would think 1x4=4, but in this case 1x4=2. Maybe that's the new Chinese Common Core Cypherin' ?

Just a rounding down error.

 

[zanyad]

Just a rounding down error.

Eh, what's a significant figure between friends?

 

[fartymarty]

Eh, what's a significant figure between friends?

Hey let's not bring *** into the discussion, that's Pine's job.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Wouldn't it be 800kg * 4 = 2400kg (5291.094 lbs) for a set of four? Or am I missing something?

I don't make the specs/ratings, or even claim to understand them. I just copy and paste them

Wheel Diameter	75 mm
Width of Tread	30 mm
Hardness of Tread	70 Shore D
Center Bolt	M16 x 2.0P
Bolt Length	24 mm
Leveling Extent	12 mm
Offset	53 mm
Overall Height	120 mm
Temperature	-10 ~ +90 ℃
Load Capacity / 1pcs	800 kg
Load Capacity / 4pcs	1,600 kg

 

[Finallygotit]

I don't make the specs/ratings, or even claim to understand them. I just copy and paste them

Wheel Diameter	75 mm
Width of Tread	30 mm
Hardness of Tread	70 Shore D
Center Bolt	M16 x 2.0P
Bolt Length	24 mm
Leveling Extent	12 mm
Offset	53 mm
Overall Height	120 mm
Temperature	-10 ~ +90 ℃
Load Capacity / 1pcs	800 kg
Load Capacity / 4pcs	1,600 kg

I don't know about you but this Chinese computation comes as no surprise to me.

 

[PugetDude]

I don't know about you but this Chinese computation comes as no surprise to me.

Are these by any chance sold by SumTingWong? I bought some TCT Annular cutters from them....lasted half as long as I expected (and my expectations were pretty low to start with...)

 

[StormcrowAz]

Got the rest of the leveling casters in and installed on the lathe. Was a little worried that these would actually work as advertised, but was pleasantly surprised that it was relatively easy to move into place.



Shouldn’t be in the way too much. A compromise for the added capability, I suppose.





Leaving the wheels down for now, so I can continue to clean it, re-install the splash shield, and work on getting the electronics squared away. And speaking of electronics, I think I can get away wiring the VFD directly to the motor and bypassing all the other switches on the lathe. The only electrical I could find were for the main On/Off, Coolant Pump, and the main Forward/Reverse lever that is hooked to a switch inside this panel. Not sure that cover had ever been removed before, the cavity was packed with chips.



Probably scraped 5lbs of chips out of there.



Pretty sure the rest of the levers controlling speeds and such are mechanically gear driven. It sure feels like it, at least. There’s this little canister labeled “Clutch Points” and from a little Google reading it appears to be for adjustments to the spindle clutch, maybe?

 

[StormcrowAz]

Got a little side-tracked and worked on this gantry crane project I’ve been thinking about. Been doing a bit of heavy lifting lately and think this will continue to come in handy. When I got the gantry it came with two trollies. I’ve got a standard chain fall hooked to one of them and the other has just been hanging out empty. The chain fall is great for slow precision work, but kind of a pain as it takes forever to raise and lower it fully. I had this 880lb electric hoist back when I made the temporary wood gantry and it’s been gathering dust on a shelf for a while. Figured I’d try to make an adapter plate for the extra trolley. Some measuring, Fusion 360, and the plasma table yields this



The electric hoist already has threaded holes for bolting it to stuff. I had originally just bolted a couple chains to it that wrapped around the main beam of the gantry.



Welded the trolley straight to the adapter plate





The middle slot allows the little hook plate to swing free if the electric hoist is removed. That way it can still be used as it was originally intended.


Added some extra support rods



This is the shenanigans I came up with for removing and re-installing the trolley. Unbolted one side from the top beam while the floor jack and square tube bears the weight while unsupported. The ratchet straps are pretty much just there for insurance and to keep things steady. I don’t like the idea of hanging a lot of weight off those rafters.



I lined up the center of the trolley with the anchor point of the hoist, figuring everything would be pulling in line with each other. That leaves the motor hanging a little off-center, which of course then tilts the assembly when there isn’t a load on it. So now it doesn’t roll freely. Might tack weld a counter weight on the other end to balance it out, shouldn’t take much. Tested it out with the 5th wheel hitch (200lbs) and seems to work just fine as-is. I’m no mechanical engineer, so will be standing well clear during operation in case my welds, and idea, fails in a spectacular fashion.

 

[Finallygotit]

Todd, this little do-dad should have a dial on its top. If I'm correct, it's a guide for cutting threads. It should be able to swing in and out slightly to engage its gear on the gear rack behind it.

 

[fartymarty]

Todd, this little do-dad should have a dial on its top. If I'm correct, it's a guide for cutting threads. It should be able to swing in and out slightly to engage its gear on the gear rack behind it.

Yep it's a Threading Dial.

https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/please-explain-how-a-threading-dial-works.48996/