Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Kwik Fab's Small Shop

[KwikFab]

Have you confirmed power thru the cord up to the compressor? Maybe the cord/plug STB...

I had checked continuity on the plug ends to the leads on the switch.

Although I can't remember if white is supposed to show up or not?

Funny you mention that though because as silly as it sounds, I've seen broken barrel connectors on the cable for a CNC table when I'd help people with their Langmuir.

Good question for sure.

I'm tired. Annoyed. And I'll yank the motor off tomorrow. I got the "key" out of the shaft for pulling the pulley off but it's got 1 more in left to go. Funny enough I gave away all my jaw pullers when I purged the garage in preparation of my press brake

So tomorrow I'll grab my tool box, undo the motor from the mount and maybe commit to the cheapest one I found online on Ebay. Still, $150 I wasn't prepared to spend.

 

[KwikFab]

@larry4406 You might be onto something - I do get continuity as I said I checked before you asked.

I checked again and it sounds on/off. Thinking it was just my crappy handling of the leads (since I'm basically probing with the sharp tips) I think the prong itself may have a broken connection in the molded plug.

Just ordered a new plug this way I'll chop off the old one and terminate it myself. Let's hope it's that simple but also super weird that the plug failed?

This is because no one uses my shop, and my air compressor never gets disconnected.

 

[KwikFab]

Wife suggests we go out for sushi so, shop time resumes tomorrow.

Figured my tarantula's hungry so I fed her the last cricket I had before we leave; doubt I ever shared her here.

 

[KwikFab]

Well, she fires up now



How the prong/wiring got severed for the neutral is beyond me.

If I wiggled the neutral prong I was able to achieve continuity when probing with my multimeter. But when I recall it being harder to do than the other two, made me suspect it was bad which is why I went back to try again.

I think all tools like these need to do away with molded plugs, but I understand it's for cost reasons.

 

[larry4406]

Well, she fires up now



How the prong/wiring got severed for the neutral is beyond me.

If I wiggled the neutral prong I was able to achieve continuity when probing with my multimeter. But when I recall it being harder to do than the other two, made me suspect it was bad which is why I went back to try again.

I think all tools like these need to do away with molded plugs, but I understand it's for cost reasons.

Easy is good!

I was originally thinking of checking for 120V at the device itself when plugged in vs continuity of each conductor, but I guess both methods of inspection work.

Much cheaper than a new motor!

 

[KwikFab]

We're back in business.



Already had a request pending so got these two panels cut and bent.

Need to cut the sides and center and it's mostly done.

 

[KwikFab]

And I'm probably jinxing myself by saying this but, the press brake is also running like normal.

I've done multiple 90 degree bends along with a 135 degree bend, not including the test cuts and bends made earlier.



This is because the last steel plate had a springback of 4.8 degrees for a 90 degree flange. This steel requires 6 degrees of compensation for a 90 degree flange.

At least now that I have the replacement motion control board, I will have minimal downtime if I run into that same issue as I did last week.

 

[KwikFab]

Setup looking good.

 

[KwikFab]

Customer wanted to see an item attached to the molle panels so here you guys go.

 

[KwikFab]

A few weeks back, I scored a new-in-box set of bed bars for a variety of trucks. Guy was selling his newly purchased $60k+ Tacoma since he ended up hating it which meant a great deal on this set ($200).



Anyway, it was missing some type of hardware for attaching to the truck itself.

I have no use for this setup until next year when we decide to do Rubicon anyway but my friend from Nevada recently asked if I can make him some mounts. That prompted me to use my truck as a mock-up (we have the same truck) since I need those mounting brackets made, as well as creating the mounts needed.

In the above picture, the long Z shaped mounts on the right sit on the bedside and require being attached to the bed's interior bed rail.

Here's the bracket I made to tie it all in.



The two holes on the bottom are what I came up with for running bolts to the T-nuts that go into the rail. Scored on Amazon.



The top hole I decided should carry a carriage bolt since it would be extremely hard to get a nut on the inside for running a bolt through. Seems my CAD work is on point



And here she is.



After this I mocked it up again to determine the length bolt I need since I was using hardware I had laying around. Ordered a 5/16 - 18 bolt at 5/8" long. And since the Z shaped rail stretches across the entire bedside, I opted to create 6 mounting brackets which will allow the rail to attach at the front, center, and rear of the bed.

For my friend since he only has two crossbars, I'm only making 4 mounts but also utilizing 2 holes each to mount to the bed.

Obligatory action shots.











She looks good!



The top hole will be used to mount his bars to the brackets since he simply wants his bars to sit squarely on top of the brackets. All that's left is for him to weld a plate with a nut on the backside to the ends of his bars.



Back to fulfilling orders! I made this in-between since the other stuff are repeats of things I've made and posted before.

 

[KwikFab]

Didn't even update this thread to show I got the parts back the other day.



I know my friend's going to be stoked because he wasn't expecting them to be powder coated. My hardware had also arrived and mock up looks good with the shorter length carriage bolts.





Also just started on another customer request which is a custom molle panel that mounts around the stem of a Sur-Ron e-bike.



Apparently the only company that makes such a panel in this size offers it as part of a bundle with a headlight for over $600. Good thing I know CAD and I've got tools to figure **** out

By making it a two piece design as shown, I'm giving the end user flexibility to swap out with different panel types if/when needed.

 

[KwikFab]

Man, had a small *** puckering moment in the shop today.







Everything was a breeze until I placed my 3/16" test strip for bending. About halfway through the cycle (because it's pretty quick) I heard a crack and immediately let off the pedal! It wasn't until I saw the TONNAGE ALARM that I realized ****!

I had run my program on the wrong die opening. Rather than using the 1.5" opening for 3/16", I accidentally had it with the 0.63" opening I last used.

The result was a warning on my screen, a large metallic crack sound that had me thinking the steel was going to shatter, and the need to reset my brake and home it.

Surprisingly, the steel test piece didn't even crack and the tooling is completely unscathed (which I knew already).

Here's 3/16" bent passed 90 with a tight as **** bend radius that'll make 1/8" jealous even.





Will definitely make sure I have the correct opening facing up next time! Otherwise, it was business as usual and the parts today were on point as expected.





Dropped off for powder coat.



I will say, even though my brake has a maximum tonnage of 25 tons and my tooling is rated for 20 tons per 12", I decided to dedicate this punch to thinner material.



I fully inspected the punch all around and saw not a single stress fracture or anything. The die opening (since it was 4", the steel piece was 3" wide) didn't even have an impression in the tooling so the punch and die should be good.

Still, I'd rather play it safe than sorry and chalk it up as a $50 mistake.