Puget Dude’s creations and fabrications (Random project thread.)

[PugetDude]

Got the clutch and brake pedals finished up. Had to make a tapered push rod for the Empi master cylinder. A straight rod ( left in the photo below) binds in the hole due to the arc in the pedal. Tapered Empi push rod is ~ $40 online. This one was basically free, dug a a 3/8" Grade 8 NF bolt out of the bolt bin, cut the head off, chucked it in the drill and tapered it in my 2x72 belt grinder. I am using a 3/8 Heim for the brake pedal, so this worked out great.
I probably could have tapered it in the lathe but I have them both cleaned up for sale. Polished the tapered bolt with a Scotch Brite disc in the M12 die grinder while it was spinning in the drill. Only took five minutes or so to make it. Clutch cylinder came with a 5/16 NF threaded end on the push rod, I did run a die down the push rod to get more adjustment for the reversed pedal position.




Needed positive stops to keep the pedals from coming back too far and disengaging the push rod(s). Welded a tab on the bottom of each pedal mount, then drilled and tapped a 8-24 hole in each one. (since I had a bunch of little 8-24 socket head cap screws already) these bottom out on a piece of 1/4" flat bar welded to the bottom of the pedal frame- pedal position/take up can be adjusted with the screw depth.

I'm thinking I should integrate the throttle pedal mount into this assembly rather than hang it from the flat firewall.

More tomorrow.

 

[Ohmthis]

Nice work on the pedals!

 

[larry4406]

Will you stake or Loctite the pedal stop screws? Nice work!

 

[PugetDude]

Will you stake or Loctite the pedal stop screws? Nice work!

I have room for a locknut.

 

[PugetDude]

“PD was here” would look good bead rolled into the interior side of firewall.

Still waiting on a fancy engraved brass placque from the North Florida Safety Skool. Or is it just another online diploma mill?

 

[Old Man Roger]

Bronze flip flops..lol

 

[PugetDude]

It's still a work in progress... I'll see if I have any photos of it going together.

Well, @larry4406 you shamed me into posting pics of my welding table... it's been a work in progress for almost a year. I spent a couple of hours on it today, it's mostly finished now.
I have a bunch of the build photos in my new phone but the file extensions got changed in the iPhone to Android conversion... and are now apparently incompatible with the GJ. If I can figure out how to post them I will come back and add them .

So we'll just skip to the most recent pics.
I built the table with a receiver hitch mount with the intention of adding a big heavy vise some day. Today was that day.
Started by cutting a 7-1/4" diameter circle out of 1/2" plate on the Portaband table.

Drilled mounting holes for the big ERON Vise I bought for $25 at an estate sale this summer. This thing is a beast, especially with the receiver tube mount. It's probably not going to get moved often. Curious what it weighs, I will try to remember to hang it from the crane scale the next time I have it up there.

One hole hade to be tapped 1/2"-13, other two were just through holes. This was for mounting to a piece of 2" x2" x 1/4" wall square tube to fit the receiver I welded into the table frame.

Capped the mounting tube with a piece of 1/8" diamond plate (for style points) and welded it to the 1/2" plate. Turned my Miller 211 all the way up- Really a nice change of pace from welding gauge stock.

Vise mounted, still need to add a locking pin.... and clean it up, the barn it came out of was pretty dusty.


Added a 5' long pull out stock support on the other end of the table. It's just 1-1/2" pipe runners with a 2x2 x1/4" angle welded on the end, nice snug fit inside the full 2x2 x 3/16" wall square tube receivers I welded into the top frame.
Closed:

Open:

Finished table (except for paint and any other ideas I may come up with or plagiarize)

The grinder holders were covered previously in this thread so I won't go into details here except to say they really work well in keeping the cords off the floor.

My little Jorgensen weld clamps just drop into place in the expanded metal shelf. Not sure I could come up with a better way to store them. The heavier Bessey clamps are just clamped to the shelf support on the end of the table for now, until I come up with a better idea. I only have six of them so it's not a big deal either way.


This table is really overbuilt. I used
4" heavy wall for the legs (brand new powder coated yellow parking bollards that someone scrapped out) with 4x4x 1/4" tube stanchions on the bottom ( cut the bollards in half and they were still too short) , 3" x 3" x 1/8" wall square tube top frame, 2" x 2" x 1/4" wall square tube for the intermediate shelf. Bottom bar ( foot rail ) is 1-1/2" x 3/16" wall square tube with a 1/8" diamond plate grounding tab on each corner. All of the steel came out of the remnant rack at the local steel yard, sizes determined design details . The 3' x 5' Top is 3/16 steel diamond plate, I originally purchased a 1/4" piece to be cut from a larger remnant , but when I went to pick it up (after paying for it...) the owner decided he didn't want to cut it up... so the yard guys basically gave me the 3/16" piece instead. I backed it up with 2x2 x 1/4" angle around the edges and plug welded it to the frame every 4" all the way around. Shelf is five pieces of expanded metal scraps I pieced together. Got them out of my way and made a nice shelf that won't fill up with grinding dust and weld spatter.
This table is heavy, reasonably flat, movable, and more than adequate for my needs. It rolls great on the 8" locking casters- same ones I used on the rolling gantry crane. These were the most expensive part of the build at $80 from Amazon Warehouse Deals.
Didn't really tally costs, but I probably have less than $150 in the whole thing, not including weld wire, gas and grinding discs.



Back on the '32 build on Monday.

 

[larry4406]

@PugetDude

That welding table is a beast!

 

[jhn9840]

Very nice table Puget. Does your anvil attach to the receiving tube as well?

jhn9840
John

 

[jjeffries]

That table is a real beauty. Nice job.

John, in Conn.

 

[PugetDude]

Very nice table Puget. Does your anvil attach to the receiving tube as well?

jhn9840
John

No, too much play in the receiver tube mount, I considered it but would have to make a custom tube that fit tighter in the receiver. (weld plates on two sides of the tube and then mill for a tight slip fit.)

I use it infrequently as an anvil but it makes a great hold down weight when I am welding.

 

[shortykorte]

Brass? We give gold plaques to our graduates. Yours must be lost in the mail.

 

[zmotorsports]

Awesome job on the welding table Scott.


I noticed that you were using Tap Magic for tapping lube. Although it is a good cutting fluid and I use it on occasion for drilling applications as it is convenient, have you ever tried Castrol Moly Dee tapping fluid? I used to use whatever cutting fluid I was using on the lathe for tapping fluid but about 15 or so years ago a friend mentioned the Castrol Moly Dee tapping fluid and I bought a small bottle to use as a side-by-side comparison to a few various cutting fluids. I found no comparison as it was so much better for tapping than anything I'd used previously. It is all I use now for tapping even though I use Relton's Rapid Tap and A-9 for cutting fluids.

Just thought it worth mentioning as I feel it has greatly prolonged the life of my taps as well as eased the manual tapping process.

 

[Ohmthis]

Awesome job on the welding table Scott.


I noticed that you were using Tap Magic for tapping lube. Although it is a good cutting fluid and I use it on occasion for drilling applications as it is convenient, have you ever tried Castrol Moly Dee tapping fluid? I used to use whatever cutting fluid I was using on the lathe for tapping fluid but about 15 or so years ago a friend mentioned the Castrol Moly Dee tapping fluid and I bought a small bottle to use as a side-by-side comparison to a few various cutting fluids. I found no comparison as it was so much better for tapping than anything I'd used previously. It is all I use now for tapping even though I use Relton's Rapid Tap and A-9 for cutting fluids.

Just thought it worth mentioning as I feel it has greatly prolonged the life of my taps as well as eased the manual tapping process.

Mike, it’s funny that you brought up an alternative to tap magic. I was literally thinking about this. I was told that the formulation is different now and doesn’t work as well. I am using anchor lube right now. It stays on the metal and does well, but I’m almost finished with it all. Thanks!

 

[cycle61]

I don't know about steel, but we started using Boelube paste for tapping really expensive aluminum parts and it worked better than anything I've ever tried.

BOELUBE® 70307-12 Blue Medium Paste Machining Lubricant - 12 oz Jar

Reduce friction and prolong the life of your tool's cutting edges by using Boelube 70307-12 from SkyGeek. The blue medium paste is sold in a 12-ounce jar.

skygeek.com

 

[PugetDude]

I used chain saw bar oil for drilling and tapping steel for years when I lived in Washington State. It's heavy bodied, sticky, seemed to work well, and I always had it in a little HF magnetic parts bowl with a chip brush next to the drill press. Bought the Tap Magic a few years ago when I moved and sold my old Stihl chainsaw and no longer had bar oil on the shelf.
I'll look into the options recommended.

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike, it’s funny that you brought up an alternative to tap magic. I was literally thinking about this. I was told that the formulation is different now and doesn’t work as well. I am using anchor lube right now. It stays on the metal and does well, but I’m almost finished with it all. Thanks!

I actually got a small sample bottle of Anchor-Lube a couple of years ago from a friend. I've only used it a few times in certain operations but what little experience I have with it, I like it.

I don't know about steel, but we started using Boelube paste for tapping really expensive aluminum parts and it worked better than anything I've ever tried.

BOELUBE® 70307-12 Blue Medium Paste Machining Lubricant - 12 oz Jar

Reduce friction and prolong the life of your tool's cutting edges by using Boelube 70307-12 from SkyGeek. The blue medium paste is sold in a 12-ounce jar.

skygeek.com

I got a tube of Boelube solid/stick about 20 years ago from our local Lawson rep and like the Anchor Lube, I've only used it a few times and in certain operations and it works well but isn't my go-to lubricant for single point work. Maybe I'll have to start using it more, at least enough to use up the original tube to see if it's worth replenishing.

I used chain saw bar oil for drilling and tapping steel for years when I lived in Washington State. It's heavy bodied, sticky, seemed to work well, and I always had it in a little HF magnetic parts bowl with a chip brush next to the drill press. Bought the Tap Magic a few years ago when I moved and sold my old Stihl chainsaw and no longer had bar oil on the shelf.
I'll look into the options recommended.

When I first started machining I used whatever was the cheapest and thickest, which at the time was a dark sulphur cutting oil like used for pipe threading. It worked well and I used it for years but I was then introduced to both Mobilmet 766 and Rapid Cut from Relton which I preferred over the cheaper cutting fluids.

 

[PugetDude]

Worked on the pedal assembly and the firewall today. When I was mocking this up. I realized I could integrate the steering column mount and the throttle pedal into one assembly. They are very close together and I figured it would be better to mount them on 3/16" plate than hanging them off the firewall.
So, more CADboard and scissors and I extended the pedal assembly about 6" vertically and 3" horizontally. Modeled the extension to complement the existing mount, cut it out of 3/16 diamond plate- I knew I was going to be grinding the welds flush, the raised diamonds were just collateral damage.

The steering column mount is a piece of 2" galvanized pipe, it's just a bit over 2" inside diameter. It spent the night in a citric acid bath to remove the zinc.

The throttle pedal is mounted on a piece of 3/8" plate drilled and tapped 1/4"-20.


I copied the spacing and relative pedal positions off the floor from my 2010 RAM. It's a comfortable ride...


Next step is to transfer the hole locations to the steel firewall. Marked the frame on the outside to register position, the column from the inside. (Reached in with a long nib marker, really impressed with how well it works to transfer hole locations) I broke the tack welds loose and then used the angled pipe to trace the outside cut line when I got it out of the footwell.

I roughed all the holes out before I quit for the day, will get it fitted back up in the car tomorrow.

 

[Ohmthis]

Worked on the pedal assembly and the firewall today. When I was mocking this up. I realized I could integrate the steering column mount and the throttle pedal into one assembly. They are very close together and I figured it would be better to mount them on 3/16" plate than hanging them off the firewall.
So, more CADboard and scissors and I extended the pedal assembly about 6" vertically and 3" horizontally. Modeled the extension to complement the existing mount, cut it out of 3/16 diamond plate- I knew I was going to be grinding the welds flush, the raised diamonds were just collateral damage.

The steering column mount is a piece of 2" galvanized pipe, it's just a bit over 2" inside diameter. It spent the night in a citric acid bath to remove the zinc.

The throttle pedal is mounted on a piece of 3/8" plate drilled and tapped 1/4"-20.


I copied the spacing and relative pedal positions off the floor from my 2010 RAM. It's a comfortable ride...


Next step is to transfer the hole locations to the steel firewall. Marked the frame on the outside to register position, the column from the inside. (Reached in with a long nib marker, really impressed with how well it works to transfer hole locations) I broke the tack welds loose and then used the angled pipe to trace the outside cut line when I got it out of the footwell.

I roughed all the holes out before I quit for the day, will get it fitted back up in the car tomorrow.

Great idea to make it a one piece assembly. That should be very stout. When you said that you modeled the pedal spacing from your truck, first thought was that there wasn’t room in a model A footwell……..Then I remembered you have a much smaller tunnel.

 

[LXCam]

Nice job bud

 

[zmotorsports]

Awesome job making the entire control panel one piece. Should be sturdy enough as well as add some rigidity to the firewall. Great solution as well as execution Scott.

 

[WoodsTruck]

I know this is a street rod, but do you have any concerns about grit/gravel getting under the pedal pivot points causing them to get stuck?
I used to run VW's back in the day and the pedals, at least on mine, were always needing attention to keep them clean. Side note, I couldn't wear my work boots and drive as the sole was big enough to contact all 3 pedals.

 

[PugetDude]

I know this is a street rod, but do you have any concerns about grit/gravel getting under the pedal pivot points causing them to get stuck?
I used to run VW's back in the day and the pedals, at least on mine, were always needing attention to keep them clean. Side note, I couldn't wear my work boots and drive as the sole was big enough to contact all 3 pedals.

No intending to drive gravel roads deliberately. This is going to be a limited use event cruiser. Think quick trip to a restaurant during nice weather, or maybe a low- key car show in the local church parking lot. Doubt there will be much debris getting into the footwell.

But, good point about the limited room below the pedal pivots.

 

[PugetDude]

Needed to work on the seat supports, I have abandoned the minivan bench seat for now...
Roughed out the dimensions with 2x6's, to match the seat angle (~15°) and height in the Ram.
Needed 7" in the front and 4-1/2" in the back. Stacked and tacked to ensure all four are identical.


I got lucky with the position in the car , I was able to pick up the heavy wall frame crossmember underneath the body with the front mounting tabs. Will have to add something to the frame for the rear supports, but everything is going to be bolted through Henry Fords body crossmember channels, too.



The body crossmembers are raised 5/8" above the floor pans so I used some 5/8" square tube to tie the supports together and act as a spacer for the mounting tabs. Tabs are some of the 1/8" x 4" diamond plate drop that never seems to get any smaller. I swear I have been cutting 2" pieces off it for three years now.




The seats are bolted to 3/16" x 1" flat bar welded flush with the top of the supports.



More on the bucket seats I am using later.....

 

[PugetDude]

With the driver's seat mocked up, I was able to get the steering column figured out. I have a 2" GM tilt column, looks like the drop is going to be about 3", but I need to add bracing to the dash to securely mount it. The Brookville dash is secured with period correct 12-24 slotted screws, but is just stamped sheet metal. It needs something more substantial than an 18 gauge x 1" wide flange to hang the column from.
Grabbed a piece of 1" square tube and tried bumping it with the HF bender but it didn't like square tube. At all.
So, I had to take on my biggest kerf/bend/clamp/weld exercise yet.
Marked the tube in 1" increments and kerfed them with the Portaband. The kerfs reversed from top to bottom on the ends to follow the dash profile.
I used every 6" Vise grip welding clamp I had to get it bent to shape, then tacked it into place.
I'll finish welding it up tomorrow, then get busy grinding.

 

[Ohmthis]

Looking good!

 

[larry4406]

I count 12 vise grip clamps! $$$$$$$$$$$

Nice work.

 

[Bears Fan]

Scott, nice job on that bracing

Larry "one can never have too many clamps"

 

[Old Man Roger]

I have 2 pretty big drawers of vise grips, now I feel like I need 3..lol

 

[zmotorsports]

Nicely done on the dash support Scott. That's a lot of clamps....

 

[PugetDude]

I do have a few more welding clamps...I keep them neatly organized in a drawer.

 

[Bodj Built]

I envy nothing about this job lol. Looks like a miserable amount of grinding and not fun welding

 

[Bob Heine]

I do have a few more welding clamps...I keep them neatly organized in a drawer.

Scott, I have to keep the few I have clamped to the welding cart. All of my top and bottom tool chest drawers are full.

 

[LXCam]

I envy nothing about this job lol. Looks like a miserable amount of grinding and not fun welding

/me nudges Bodj - he already borrowed my bead roller, he could have also borrowed my tube roller too.......

But don't say nothing to Scott, I know he's ancy to use up all these flap disc some yahoo gave him.

 

[PugetDude]

I envy nothing about this job lol. Looks like a miserable amount of grinding and not fun welding

Bodj, when you weld like I do you can't grab the grinder fast enough.

Empirical evidence suggests my welders have symbiotic relationships with the angle grinders.

 

[PugetDude]

/me nudges Bodj - he already borrowed my bead roller, he could have also borrowed my tube roller too.......

But don't say nothing to Scott, I know he's ancy to use up all these flap disc some yahoo gave him.

BB&G's flap discs got a good workout this morning, Cam.
Bead Roller is still on the floor in the back seat of the truck. Haven't finished hanging stuff on the firewall yet to see what I need for beads.

That double reverse compound curve would have been a ***** with a tube roller. It also isn't completely flat.

Turned out OK, (two clamps, minimal pressure) next step is getting it mounted so I can hang the steering column.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

I'm thinking since you have all the grinding discs, I'll just drop my projects off with you instead of me picking up the discs.....

 

[PugetDude]

I'm thinking since you have all the grinding discs, I'll just drop my projects off with you instead of me picking up the discs.....

Why not? I am better at working on other people's stuff than my own.

 

[PugetDude]

Well, after about a thousand tack welds, a few grinding discs, some firm persuasion with a deadblow mallet and a bit of colorful language I finally got the curved bracing fitting the way I wanted, so I mounted it to the dash panel with #6 sheet metal screws (hillbilly clecos until I get the nutserts in)


With it stuck together I was able to get the dash back in the car. I will need to sort out a simple bolted clip on each end to tie the 1" Square tube into the cowl bracing. Then I can finalize the drop design and install the steering column. That's the last major step to getting the firewall finished up and welded in permanently. It's been in and out a dozen times so far.


Thanks for looking.

 

[zmotorsports]

Turned out great Scott.