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StormcrowAz

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Nov 3, 2011
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750
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Dan – Thanks! Glad someone got a chuckle out of it. But like any joke, the “one last thing” is probably getting stale and should be put to rest. I too, went out and did a video of everything relevant in the shop. Still bewildering on how I’ve managed to accumulate so much “stuff”.


Mike – I recently saw where someone bent up some sheet metal for table covers and might try that with aluminum in my spare time. The kydex is just a bit short exposing the ends of the table, plus thinking a bent lip at the rear of the table might be nice to keep round things from rolling off the back there.


Scott – I went over last night to help board up doors and windows while insurance and investigators are doing their thing. They said actual cause still hasn’t been determined, as it’s so difficult to establish with all of the flammable things typically found in a garage. Probably those pesky lithium batteries in cordless tools that catch everything on fire. Joking aside, and after seeing the devastation in the light of day, I’m considering storing the 2 or 3 batteries I do have in their own metal box when not in use. And making sure not to leave them on the charger overnight. Not sure I can comprehend how my state of being would be if my shop ended up like this.
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Ok, one last thi….oh ****, I said I wasn’t doing that any more. Considering tomorrow is my final day of employment here, it probably will be the last thing. Anyways, we’ve stacked all the salvaged electric motors on a pallet and yesterday morning I noticed this brand new unit sitting there. Must have been squirreled away somewhere and just surfaced. The rest of what we have left are old, junky, or just too big, but this is a brand new 5hp motor. Couldn’t pass it up.
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StormcrowAz

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Messages
750
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Got a new indicator that clamps to the mill spindle so I could dial the vise in. I’ve always heard that the machine is the cheap part and the tooling is what you’ll spend the most money on. I believe it.
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I’d like to start sneaking in some time on the Scout again. Next thing I figured would be the roll cage, so it’s about time to get the tube bender put together. It’s been sitting patiently on a shelf.
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This unit comes with a receiver hitch tube welded to the frame for easy attachment. I was thinking that I would just make another adapter for the weld table and swap the vise out when I needed to bend something. That was until I put all the pieces of the bender together. The frame plus ram, plus bending die makes for a very heavy assembly. I see now why people make a dedicated stand for it as I don’t think I want to be powerlifting this thing every time I want to use it. I’ve seen where guys modify an old engine stand for it and that looks pretty cool, but I only have one engine stand and would like to use it for, you know…engines. One of the free things I took home is this modified drill press:
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Since I don’t have a need for either a spot face machine or another drill press, that stand it’s on sure looks promising. So, I tore it apart.
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A little concerned about center of gravity and how tippy this would actually be, I tacked a piece of 2” square tube inside the base round tube and did a practical mock-up. It’s actually not too bad as-is.
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I’d like to make this thing mobile, so will add some wheels to it. Just so happens I have a brand-new set of 3” locking casters I bought a while back, but forgot what for. (isn’t that horrible? Getting old…) Spent some time on the computer programming mounting plates for the casters as well as refining the light bulb design for the horizontal band saw and making a tubing holder tool as well. Plasma cut on the table.
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The drill press base already has pre-drilled holes for wheels or maybe levelers. After dreaming up some overly-complicated designs I thought I’d better just keep it simple and bolt some 2” square tubing to the base. I’ll weld the caster plates to this tubing. Took some good measurements and used the Bridgeport and DRO to accurately place the holes. It sure was nice to not have to elongate holes with the die grinder in order for it to fit.
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Considering I’m adding height to the whole thing by adding these tubes and wheels, I’d like to stretch the overall footprint of the base to maybe incorporate a little more stabilization. I’ll do this by bending the excess square tubing at a 45” angle. Added a new lamp (got two free from work) to the new-to-me vertical band saw and cut slices out of the tubes. This thing cuts quite a bit smoother than the porta-band set-up.
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Bent and welded up.
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I got these square pieces of 3/8” plate for another project and ended up not using them. Just so happens they are the exact size to fit in between the tubes for support. Also adds a bit of extra weight there at the base. More anti-tip stabilization, hopefully. Rattle can black for good measure.
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PugetDude

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Mar 13, 2013
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22,353
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Superstition Mountains, AZ
Nice job on the stand. Great minds must think alike, Todd!
I just finished up a mobile base for the drill press I picked up from you last weekend and it looks eerily similar.... I designed mine as a drop-in because I had some 1-1/2" angle on hand. (And for you skeptics out there, we did NOT discuss mobile bases at all when I was picking up the drill press.)IMG_20241011_152948698.jpg
 
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StormcrowAz

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Nov 3, 2011
Messages
750
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Scott – Thanks, and yours turned out great as well. The drop-in style keeps it closer to the ground, which is nice.



Finished up the tube bender stand. Bolted the casters to it, and then the stand to the base assembly. After guesstimation on where I thought the overall working height would be most comfortable, did some math, and chopped the tube accordingly.
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Programmed and plasma cut a couple of these discs with the center cut out for 2” square tubing.
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Found the two most crusty 1-2-3 blocks that I recently acquired and dedicated them to dirty fabrication work. Using them here to square up those discs on the tube.
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Welded up
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Inserted that into the round tube and welded it in. Also drilled four holes in the round tube for the lower disc and rosette welded that in as well for good measure.
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All done for now. Rolls smooth and seems pretty stable. Might make a bin or some such that attaches to the column beneath the bender, for the little tools and such that gets used to facilitate bending tube. Gotta go get some tubing and learn how to use it.
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But since I don’t have any of the right sized tubing in stock…I started in on the new-to-me horizontal band saw instead. Worked on the main switch plate and then tearing pieces down for cleaning and such.
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I’m really digging this hydraulic cart. Not only for lifting heavy stuff, but it also makes for a nice mobile, and height-adjustable, flat surface as well.
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StormcrowAz

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750
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Phoenix, AZ
Continuing on with the horizontal bandsaw project – I pulled all the wiring out. It is old and crusty and I’m converting it to single-phase.
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The paint on this thing is atrocious. Looks like whoever put the last layer on didn’t prep very well. I’m toying with the idea of trying to do a real paint job (vs rattle-can) with a two-part polyurethane. Something that is resistant to oil and coolant. I’ve got the air compressor for it and figure it will be a perfect project to start with and learn on.
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I ordered some heavy-duty casters for the saw. It has this two-inch thick cast flange at the base with pre-drilled holes at the corners, probably for either mounting to the floor or possibly leveling. All the casters I found that I liked weren’t the stem type, so figured I’d make some adapters.
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Plasma cut the adapters out of 3/8” plate and cleaned the holes up on the Bridgeport. I know, I’m just using it as a glorified drill press at this point, but we’re still in the honeymoon phase in our relationship and I’m OK with taking is slow while we get to know each other.
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Cut the heads off some beefy bolts and welded them to the adapter plates
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Plates bolted to the casters
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Mounted to the saw.
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StormcrowAz

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Messages
750
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Side project – My little shop fan gave up the ghost a few weeks ago. On top of the cooling benefits, when grinding on rusty things, or say removing paint with a wire wheel, I like to have the airflow for blowing the dust away and out of the shop. Just so happens I had picked up two of these wall-mounted fans from work.
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While I am thinking of permanently mounting one someplace up high, this one will go mobile. I also got two these 55-gallon drum dollies from work and will re-purpose accordingly.
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The fan motor is actually kind of heavy, plus the overall fan/shroud size makes it a bit awkward to maneuver. Fortunately, it has an eyelet on the motor cover, so suspending it from the gantry made easy work for getting the desired height as well as putting it together.
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Since I’m not mounting it to a wall, the bracket gets chopped up and modified to accept a section of well pipe for the main upright.
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Added some triangulated reinforcement.
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Viola, new mobile shop fan. Pushes a decent amount of air and when on it doesn’t move around on the dolly as much as I thought it would.
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Back to the saw – Did a couple minor sheet metal crack repairs
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And a ton of cleaning. Pulled about 5 full dustpans full of chips and old dirt/grease out of the machine. Not counting what is on the ground.
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Misc. parts pulled off the saw. Will work on some wire wheeling and sandblasting today.
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Finallygotit

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Jul 6, 2013
Messages
4,079
Location
Tucson, AZ
Plasma cut the adapters out of 3/8” plate and cleaned the holes up on the Bridgeport. I know, I’m just using it as a glorified drill press at this point, but we’re still in the honeymoon phase in our relationship and I’m OK with taking is slow while we get to know each other.
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I had to chuckle a bit on your "honeymoon".

Man that saw is/was a mess......UGH! I'm sure it will be in good shape in no time.

:beer:
 
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StormcrowAz

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Nov 3, 2011
Messages
750
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Dan – Yeah, I suppose it is something of a basket case. The good things going for it is that it was cutting just fine up until they rolled it out of the maintenance shop, and it has a brand-new Leeson motor on it. Everything else needs work.


Scott – Haha! Whisky Tango Foxtrot! I’ll be Danny DeVito to your Arnold…your stuff looks way nicer than mine. Maybe that also explains why lately I’ve been thinking about making my own rolling shop stool…



More progress on the horizontal band saw. Cleaned up the coolant tank, filled it up with water, and was pleasantly surprised to find no leaks evident. The maintenance guy said that the coolant pump went out a long time ago, so I’m going to go with a pond pump set-up like I did on the Harbor Freight saw. Dropped it in the tank to test it and empty out the water.
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Cleaned up a bunch of the parts and pieces
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Removed the hydraulic down-feed system as it wasn’t working. Pulled the lines off and there was hardly any fluid in it. Going to try taking it apart to see if it’s rebuildable. Time to Google rebuilding videos.
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The VFD I’ve got to repower this saw comes with a built-in fan for cooling. Considering I’m enclosing it in a metal box, that’s probably not going to work too well. I went and picked up a small computer fan and modified the switch box to allow for a bit of ventilation. Drilled the fan mounting holes and used a hole saw on one side of the box.
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Fan in place
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The air has got to come from somewhere, so I cut out a section on the opposite end of the box and piece of perforated metal screen to match.
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Welded in place. Hopefully this should suffice.
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Made this little grate so I don’t have to fish drops/parts out of the coolant tank.
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On the other end I’m assuming, based off the four holes in the flange, there used to be a cover here. Guessing this is where you would pull out the chip tray and for general cleaning of the coolant tank.
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Re-purposed an old safety sign (grabbed half a dozen from work, as the backing is 1/8” aluminum sheet) for a new cover. Re-drilled the holes to fit 1/4-20 hardware and welded nuts to the back of those flanges.
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StormcrowAz

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Messages
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Phoenix, AZ
Finished cleaning up the saw. Ordered a new down feed cylinder as I wasn’t able to get the old one to work. Will need some modifications to it as I wasn’t able to find an exact replacement.
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Put the windshield and new-to-me half-cab on the Scout so I can get ready for figuring out the roll cage.
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Considering I am going to want full-length pieces of round tube for bending, I pulled the trailer out and found that two of the tires tread were separating where it meets the sidewall. Most likely due to UV exposure as this trailer has been living outside and exposed to the elements. After getting new replacement tires, I figured I better do something to keep sun exposure to a minimum. I’m doubting the longevity of regular fabric-type wheel covers, so decided to make one out of metal. I got this piece of 1/8” sheet from work (it was an old sign they cut to fit on the back of a pallet rack) and plasma cut it by hand to shape.
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Drilled a couple holes in the trailer fender and installed rivet nuts. On the cover I fabbed up a couple t-handles with a bolt welded to the end. This way I can mechanically attach it to the trailer without any tools. Also added a regular handle for moving the thing around as it is quite unwieldly.
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The tires stick out about an inch past the fender, so grabbed some misc. pieces of 2” square tube out of the drop pile and added them to the back of the cover to space it out for clearance. This should do the trick.
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While I had the plasma cutter removed from the CNC table, figured I would cut out the bulkhead section that separates the cab from the truck bed. The length exceeds my tables capacity and I didn’t want to make it in two sections. They do sell replacement bulkheads, but that costs money and I have all the material here on-hand for free. Just need to spend 40 hours of my time to make one. 😉 This piece of 1/8” steel I salvaged off one of those rolling tables I got from work.
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A little trimming and it fits nicely
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Rigged up some straps on the gantry crane so I can remove/replace the top by myself.
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StormcrowAz

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750
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Phoenix, AZ
Hand-cut and cleaned up the top flange that the cab will sit on.
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International was fond of using hardware of the Phillips variety. I’ve had to weld nuts to several of them that were stripped out and rusted in place.
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Tacked the top flange in place and used a 1.5” piece of flat strap for the bottom flange that gets bolted to the floor. I also added a piece of random angle iron in hopes to prevent warpage during welding.
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Not sure these were needed, but figured gussets wouldn’t be a bad idea. Hooked the plasma cutter back up to the table and cut these out.
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Welded everything up.
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Cut off the angle iron support and while it did keep it from waving across the piece, it does have a slight bathtub effect going on. Should have added a vertical piece or two to keep it flat in that plane as well. Not too bad though and was still able to install it.
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StormcrowAz

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Well, it’s been a minute since I last posted. They finally kicked me out of the old job and after a couple weeks of R&R I landed a new one. Hopefully it goes well as it seems pretty awesome so far. I’ve also been trying to keep up momentum on the Scout, working on it when time allows.


Added a little table to the tube bender and a foot actuated air pedal.
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Did some test bends and then took a bunch of measurements inside the cab. Chalked out the main hoop on the ground to give me something to reference.
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The hoop wasn’t too difficult
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Plasma cut some plates that will weld to the tubes and then bolt to the floor. Fitment isn’t too shabby.
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The side tubes that go from the front and tie into the main tube were a challenge. Several bends and one goes off-plane as well. A lot of head scratching to get these done.
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Spent some time reverse engineering link brackets for the suspension and then used up some of my quarter-inch plate on the plasma table. Should come in handy for later on.
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While I was at it, figured I’d make some grab handles for the roll cage.
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Finished cutting and tacking in all the cross tubes and supports, so pulled the top off, folded the windshield down, and was able to lift the cage up and out of the truck. Went to start welding on it and of course ran out of wire after the first joint was done. Happy with the progress so far.
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zanyad

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Love the grab handles! Is the text painted or cut out? They look like they're made of 3 layers: inside text, filler panel, outside text. Is that correct?
 
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StormcrowAz

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Phoenix, AZ
“Love the grab handles! Is the text painted or cut out? They look like they're made of 3 layers: inside text, filler panel, outside text. Is that correct?”

Zanyad – Yep, no paint. Text is plasma cut and then there’s a filler piece in between to add overall thickness to the handle plus that’s what will actually eventually get a different color paint to make the letters stand out.





Holy Smokes. How time flies. Other than looking up “how to” stuff, I really haven’t been on the computer/internet that much, sadly including GJ. I have been busy, though, still struggling with a long list of projects, a messy shop, and the general chaos that is life. Nothing new, I guess. Not sure where to start, but I have a ton of pictures. I’ll start with the horizontal bandsaw as it is pretty much complete at this point.



I believe I left off in the clean-up phase, where the saw and all accessories got wire wheeled to bare metal.
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I got a bunch of new stuff to put back into it. VFD, wiring, coolant pump, fish bubbler, fan, switches, etc. etc.
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Went with a direct-to-metal two-part polyurethane paint. From what I’ve read it’s supposed to be durable. Kind of funny, but I think one of the things that originally convinced me to get a full-sized drill press was seeing an old-timey brochure that showed them using it for a paint mixer and that stuck with me. This is the first time I’ve tried it, and it worked great.
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Each of the two parts are mixed independently prior to mixing them together. I made another little mini-paddle to mix smaller quart-sized quantities.
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Applied with rollers and brushes, and it turned out better than I was expecting it to. Kind of a hammered, bed-liner, kind of texture which I like.
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Went with a red color for contrast on some of the removable pieces
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Then it was time to start putting all back together. I wasn’t able to figure out how to fix/salvage the old hydraulic down-feed cylinder, so I just got a new one from Amazon. Couldn’t find an exact replacement for fitment so just got the closest one in the same size and stroke. 54349396418_ed9f341cea_b.jpg


The bottom end worked with a spacer sleeve (I think a piece of ceiling fan down-rod was just about the exact size needed. Just happened to have a piece in my junk pile). I chopped off the top of the cylinder rod end and welded a new piece to fit the old attachment. Was just barely able to squeeze it in there. I also used AN fittings for the new hose fittings. It was my first time using these types of fittings, and let’s just say that sometimes it’s worthwhile to read the instructions…
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StormcrowAz

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Phoenix, AZ
All new wiring
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New coolant pump and bubbler installed in the reservoir
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Used this sprocket (garage door opener, maybe?) for a handle on the reservoir cover. My attempt at pseudo-steampunk.
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Happy with how the control panel worked out. Programmed the VFD and everything is working but the lights. Still need to figure out what lights I want to use and where to plumb it, but it’s ready to plug and play.
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Loaded up a test piece of well pipe and it cuts. Does this weird pulsing thing, like it cuts and then pushes the arm up, cuts, pushes the arm up, etc. Thinking maybe there’s a big dull spot on the blade. Will have to get a new one and give it a try. Otherwise, I think it turned out pretty nice.
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Other random project – the mother-in-law occasionally visits for the weekend and has a nice 5th wheel parked on our back acre that she and her dogs can have to themselves. She’s got a black lab that’s pushing 16 (human years) and has trouble getting up and down those rickety folding steps on the RV. Considering her mom getting up there in years as well, figured it would be nice to make a little detached mini-deck for the trailer. I don’t do much wood work, and it was surprising that the materials came out to around $600. Just doesn’t seem like that much lumber to me.
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Set up the Workmate for the saw and drug the equipment trailer to have a flat surface, off the ground, to work on.
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Fairly robust and hopefully safe. Her mom was super happy and appreciative and the dog was able to get in and out of the trailer much easier.
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Many years ago she had the well plumbing replaced at her cabin and gave me all of the old piping. I thought it would be fitting to use a piece of that for the hand rail.
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StormcrowAz

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Location
Phoenix, AZ
Another small project – The Bridgeport came with dozen or so collets, but they are all old and a bunch were the same size (several 1/2, must be a popular size). So I treated myself to a new set of R8 collets, but didn’t want to leave them outside on the mill in the original holder. Between all the grinding metal dust and plain ole dust and dirt in a not-very-well sealed shop, I didn’t want to leave the collets in the open. So I programmed and plasma cut a piece of 1/8th plate and slapped together a half-inch square tube frame to support it.
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Cleaned out half of a drawer in one of the new cabinets next to the mill where the new collets will live in relative cleanliness.
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OK, now on to the important stuff. The Scout.


I think I left off here with putting the cage together. Finished fully welding it together, added gussets, and installed.
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Cage pretty much completed, it’s time to start working on mounting the seats. I welded some angle iron between the seat frame so I could attach the seat to these sliders I’ve had kicking around for a long time.
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Driver side seat base
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The passenger seat base frame is a little more complicated, as I wanted the seat to swing forward to allow access to the back seat when I take the pick-up top off, remove the bulkhead, and put the travel top on.
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The passenger side floorboard is also narrower and has the bump-out for transfer case clearance.
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Turns out the slider won’t work on the passenger side due to clearance issues. Not really a biggie, I think adjustable seating on the driver side is more important for short folks reaching the pedals. I think I can live without being able to slide the seat forward on the passenger side.
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From the factory, the seat base was basically just a box about the same size as the base frames I’m building. Difference is that all of that under-seat space was just wasted. I’m going with lockable drawers there instead. I had this old two-drawer filing cabinet I wasn’t using any more, and thought to myself: “self, it’s already in drawer shape…all the bends are in place so I can just cut it down to size and stitch it back together to save me some time.”
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Turns out that was a horribly bad idea. That sheet metal is super-thin and not welder-friendly. At least not for me. I managed to make a drawer but it was frankenstien-ish at best and I was really unhappy with it. So I scrapped the idea and just welded together a frame with half-inch angle iron and plasma cut the sides out of 16 gauge on the table. Should have just started with this and saved a bunch of time and frustration instead of trying to short-cut it.
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StormcrowAz

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Nov 3, 2011
Messages
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Phoenix, AZ
Drawer built, I cut more panels for the exterior base framework and welded those on. Riveted the drawer slides to the base and drawer. Cut some thick pieces for the locking mechanism and welded to the base/drawer.
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Installed with minimal headaches
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Nice thing about these seats is that they fold up nice and flat
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I trimmed some of the metal framework under the seat cover/cushion to allow for a couple more degrees of forward rotation.
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With all the experience gained on the passenger side, drivers side went much quicker and smoother.
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The driver’s side is wider and doesn’t have the transfer case bump-out, so the drawer is much larger.
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Installed
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Fully extended, there’s a quarter inch clearance before it hits. Totally planned it that way, yeah…
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StormcrowAz

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Seat bases squared away, it’s time to work on the steering column. Went with an Ididit as general consensus says it’s the one to get. One of the cheaper knock-offs might have been OK, but I classify steering as somewhat important, so opted to spend a bit more. I don’t remember what the factory column looked like (read: couldn’t find it amongst all my treasures) but this aftermarket one sits pretty low in the dash opening. Since it’s my dash and I can do what I want, I cut the bracket out with a spot-weld cutter, raised it up a half-inch or so, and welded it back in. Not sure if this is “correct”, or the right thing to do…but that’s what happened.
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I was able to find some of the holding brackets for where the column goes through the firewall, but I wasn’t really happy with that either, so I made my own set-up.
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Welded the top piece to the firewall
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The other bracket piece that bolts to that is original, and has a sort of dowl pin welded to it. I’m assuming this is for anti-rotation of the column purposes. So, I drilled a hole in the brand-new column to match and clamped it up. Seems to be a very solid set-up.
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And finally, installation of a new steering wheel. From what I read, the Ididit columns use a standard Chevy spline found in a wide range of models and years, but I wasn’t able to find any used ones that I liked that would bolt right up, so I went with a Momo.
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So that’s pretty much where I’m at now. Next up will be scary stuff like figuring out steering and suspension.
 

Bob Heine

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I also used AN fittings for the new hose fittings. It was my first time using these types of fittings, and let’s just say that sometimes it’s worthwhile to read the instructions…
Todd, I did a few too many stainless braided lines with nothing more than blue tape and changed most of my fingerprints. I broke down and bought the small set of Koul Tool socket capsules and they turned a ****** fight into a pleasant process.
Koul Tool AN Hose End Socket Capsule.jpg
 

jollygreengiant

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Nov 10, 2013
Messages
2,354
Location
Ontario, Canada
That's some good progress you've made, good to see you posting again.

I may suggest one thing though re the underseat storage bins. You may want to add a piece of foam between the padlocks and the drawer faces. I'd think that hearing those locks banging on the drawers would get a bit annoying after a while.
 

Finallygotit

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Todd, I did a few too many stainless braided lines with nothing more than blue tape and changed most of my fingerprints. I broke down and bought the small set of Koul Tool socket capsules and they turned a ****** fight into a pleasant process.
Koul Tool AN Hose End Socket Capsule.jpg
I wish I knew about these when I was plumbing the Cobra. There's a lot of blood lurking in those fittings..

:beer:
 
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StormcrowAz

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Phoenix, AZ
Scott – Work is still going good, thanks. It is a strange dichotomy of feeling like this is the best place I’ve ever worked at, yet at the same time still being anxious about being the new guy wanting to prove myself worthy of being here. Last week was one of the best working weeks I’ve had in a very long time. Five days of M134 training, including range time.



Dan – Busy is fairly accurate. And I didn’t bother to post the pics of the mundane stuff like replacing worn out light switches in the house, removing and unclogging toilets, replacing ceiling fans, adding an auto-fill to the dogs new water bowl, etc. etc. Still have a list of Honey-Do’s to finish. Thanks for stopping by!



Bob – Well that does look like it would be a huge time and PITA saver. The tool doesn’t work with Evil Energy fittings, which is what I used on the saw, but it would probably behoove me to use some better-quality fittings (Earls, maybe?) for the Scout. Thanks for the heads-up and helping me spend my money. 😉



JGG – That is an excellent point and that will definitely have to happen. I plan on taking this rig down some dirt roads and a constant rattle would drive me nuts. Thanks!
 

PugetDude

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Todd, Glad to hear you found a great new gig. Always believed that if you find something you love you'll never work a day in your life.
I finally got around to making handles for the 20" drill press I picked up from you last fall. . I used 1/2" cold rolled, knocked the ends down to 12mm and threaded them 12-1.75 with a $5.10 Irwin Die I bought on Amazon. Put on (3) new 38mm threaded phenolic balls, just slightly larger than the one that was on there. Elevation crank handle is next, will post pics when I get it all back together.
 
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StormcrowAz

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Scott – Good to know the drill press is working out for you. I occasionally ponder the mysterious disappearance of that chuck key. Either still lurking in some dark corner of my shop I haven’t cleaned yet or maybe magically swallowed up by your truck.


Jayman17 – Thanks and thanks for stopping by!





I should be working on the Scout, but am currently over-analyzing a solution for the power steering box. Instead, and at the risk losing a significant percentage of those who like, subscribe, and hit that little bell icon…here’s another boring square-type project build that took up an entire afternoon.
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A little back-story – When we moved into this house, I screwed together a couple of shelf boards and anchored them to a corner in my closet and that’s what I’ve been using for a laundry bin since.
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After a decade of watching me carry armloads of laundry back and forth across the house to the laundry room, and seeing the inevitable bread-crumb trail of random socks and shirts falling to the wayside on the journey there and back…the wife asked me: “Why don’t you put some wheels on that so you can just roll the whole thing back and forth?” Hmmm…maybe because I wasn’t smart enough to think of it first? So yeah, I made a laundry bin out of metal. Seems silly to me for some reason, but here it is.
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The obligatory rattle-can paint job.
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Oh, and I managed to burn myself in a new location this time, too. The temperature outside is in the Goldilocks zone (just right) so I didn’t bother putting on my welding beanie under the hood. After welding the square tubing to the top of the expanded metal, I reached inside the box to weld something at the bottom and of course touched my bald dome to the just-welded area of the bin, with the helmet still on no less. So yeah, new burn mark on the top of my head.


Anyways, new laundry bin rolled into place and I’ll spare you the sight of my dirty underwear.
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So that done and still procrastinating on the Scout, here’s another project I’ve had rattling around in my head since I built the belt sander and table. A swarf catcher. The belt sander produces a lot of metal dust that piles up right under the table. After cutting up that small filing cabinet for the failed Scout seat drawers, I threw what was left under the table and pulled a drawer out to see how well and how much it would collect.
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Turns out surprisingly well. I could have modified this further to permanently mount it there, but it was just a little short (you can see it’s just being propped up by some 2x4’s) so I drug out another piece of free work-provided material.
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There were more than 40 of these we practically gave away. Seems there isn’t a huge need to file paperwork anymore. I feel kind of bad for just cutting it up, as it looks to be well-built and vintage made-in-America stuff.
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Considering the alternative is to let it sit outside and rust, might as well do something with it. So yeah, chop it up.
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Sealed up the drawer to minimize swarf spillage
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It’s just the right length to span both lower table supports so just needed some tabs and self-tapping screws to lock it in place. There were two rolling tracks left in the bottom half of the cut cabinet piece, so I hacked up another drawer to act as a ramp of sorts to direct more debris into the lower catch drawer.
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On the back side I cut and bent another ramp to direct anything coming off the back of the belt. This will spring-load seal along the wall the table is against.
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Top drawer stays in place and the bottom is removable so you can throw away all the collected swarf.
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PugetDude

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Messages
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Todd, I prefer to describe my weld burns as organic temperature indicating crayons. I have them in many different shades. Living in AZ usually means I am welding in a T-shirt. My wife says if I ever go to the emergency room they will look at all the little spatter burns on the inside of my left arm and conclude I'm an addict of some sort. I did finally break down and buy some welding sleeves but most of my welds are fairly short so I don't take the time to dig them out and put them on. If I was welding production or hardfacing, etc I'd definitely wear them.

I hung a 5-gallon Homer bucket below the work table on my 2x72 grinder, it gets about 90% of the swarf. Your solution looks a lot better than mine.

The rolling laundry basket looks good. You should put a wagon handle on it to make it easier for your wife to haul your skivvies to and from the laundry room....🤣

We moved our washer and dryer into our oversized Master Bedroom closet, no more dragging laundry across the house.

Looks like we're both suffering from "need to get back to it-itis", you on the Scout and me on the '32.

Scott
 
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