rattle_snake's random shop projects v0.1

[rattle_snake]

Austin, the seam is leaking again and the table will need to come off for proper repair. As much as I would like to do it now, it will push out other things. So plan is to get it back up and working, then draining pan will be easy-peazy for seam weld job. The plumbing and electrical will take some time to do it right.

 

[LXCam]

I forgot you had that massive conglomeration of “we’ll make it fit” stuff. I’d look for two things Justin. Check the fitment as mentioned earlier but maybe more importantly try to get how much linear movement you have with the converter and input shaft / pump. I’d be a little concerned it’s tight up against the pump and then add a little expansion and it might be eating your pump alive.

Did you have any issues seating the bell housing to the block when you assembled it. Did it fight you that last little bit?

Edit: I’m going to rephrase this question (sorry it’s a one finger posting evening). Once you got the bell housing bolted up, did you need to pull the converter tight to the adapter or adapter to flywheel or was it flush already?

 

[rattle_snake]

It seated fine. There was a slight gap between flax plate and the converter on bolted up, as expected. 0.125 or so. Curious to see what happened but busy with some other things for now.

 

[rattle_snake]

Finally got my new toy, 48" finger/box/pan break. While in transit, the freight company file ch 11. So it sat at empty terminal in PHX while I tried to figure out what happened. I had to go pick it up myself, so asked vendor (Northern) for at least lift gate fee refund. They refunded all shipping costs, $330. Guess I have to buy some more tools.
Next step is a stand for it.

 

[rattle_snake]

To go with the big meaty tires I replaced the exhaust stack cap with a flapper. Tightened down the hinge bolt so it stays where you adjust it to.
Why? Why not?

 

[PugetDude]

Dog appears very interested in the grease bucket.

 

[rattle_snake]

Yes he is...
Forever hopeful

 

[slodat]

Finally got my new toy, 48" finger/box/pan break. While in transit, the freight company file ch 11. So it sat at empty terminal in PHX while I tried to figure out what happened. I had to go pick it up myself, so asked vendor (Northern) for at least lift gate fee refund. They refunded all shipping costs, $330. Guess I have to buy some more tools.
Next step is a stand for it.

That looks rathe beefy. What thickness material is it rated for?

You're going to love having a brake! Parts turn out so nice when formed on a brake. It's addicting. You might want to think about storage for fingers and fasteners when not in use in your stand design.

 

[Clemson13]

Finally got my new toy, 48" finger/box/pan break. While in transit, the freight company file ch 11. So it sat at empty terminal in PHX while I tried to figure out what happened. I had to go pick it up myself, so asked vendor (Northern) for at least lift gate fee refund. They refunded all shipping costs, $330. Guess I have to buy some more tools.
Next step is a stand for it.

Sweet break! Which one did you order?

 

[Boosted1]

What will be first project with the finger / box break?
That would be a nice tool to have.

 

[Monza Harry]

Justin I'm only teasing with the "Bowtie" in my sig but the "General" has been pretty good with their "slushboxes" and there is a reason for the plethora of adapters available, their ******'s are a hard to beat combination of price and performance. I honestly think it should be thought about or discussed with your trans guy. Nice break too! I would suggest that you consider a cabinet instead of a straight stand, the foot print along with needed working envelope isn't insignificant, so some storage and ballast will be 2x win! Also consider some odd sized fingers for your break like a 1/2" 3/4" and 1-1/4" & 1-1/2" for the boxes that are never an even inch dimension. Harry

 

[ntsqd]

Not to mention storage for the custom fingers or intermediate tools that get made to form large radii bends.

 

[rattle_snake]

That looks rathe beefy. What thickness material is it rated for?

You're going to love having a brake! Parts turn out so nice when formed on a brake. It's addicting. You might want to think about storage for fingers and fasteners when not in use in your stand design.

Claims 22 ga, assume that is full width. Hmm, yes I should have.

Sweet break! Which one did you order?

This is branded as a 'Klutch' from northern tool. Considerably less expensive as the clones from others (Griz, Jet, ect)

What will be first project with the finger / box break?
That would be a nice tool to have.

I have already made a few things. A GMG chimney extension for my Dad, and a pump bracket for the CNC plasma.

Justin I'm only teasing with the "Bowtie" in my sig but the "General" has been pretty good with their "slushboxes" and there is a reason for the plethora of adapters available, their ******'s are a hard to beat combination of price and performance. I honestly think it should be thought about or discussed with your trans guy. Nice break too! I would suggest that you consider a cabinet instead of a straight stand, the foot print along with needed working envelope isn't insignificant, so some storage and ballast will be 2x win! Also consider some odd sized fingers for your break like a 1/2" 3/4" and 1-1/4" & 1-1/2" for the boxes that are never an even inch dimension. Harry

Well at this point I built a simple stand to get it off my welding table. However this brake can be used to make nice panels to convert to a cabinet later. Same plan for plasm table.

Not to mention storage for the custom fingers or intermediate tools that get made to form large radii bends.

Are the fingers somewhat standard as far as length and hole placement?
Perhaps an idea to help hide my mistake....

 

[rattle_snake]

Swapped the alternator out of the cobra. The existing one had no output. Good to go for now. I ordered a voltage regulator for the broken one, will see if that is all that is wrong. The diodes look like they got hot but not to the point the packaging is destroyed like before.

 

[ntsqd]

....
Are the fingers somewhat standard as far as length and hole placement?
Perhaps an idea to help hide my mistake....

EDIT: Not to my knowledge, but with my vast knowledge of these tools and $5 you might be able to buy a cup of coffee. I'd assume that the fingers are unique to each mfg.

On my little 24" box & pan brake I have a couple fingers that PO's have made narrower than any that came with it. I also have some large radii "adapters" that are basically a rod or a small tube tangentially welded to a piece of flat stock. To use those I back the fingers way back and adjust the clamp distance so that the fingers hold the "adapter" down tight on top of the work.

 

[rattle_snake]

Cobbled this together over the weekend. Had a few mistakes, so adapt and overcome. Didn't check zeroing of ALL axis, and ended up crashing machine and cutting the lower sheet to short. I patched with some expanded steel like it was supposed to be that way.
The upper shelf should not have had the corners cut out. To fill holes I added a piece of 1x1 tube as a brace to the tool mount plates.


Paint went OK but not really happy with the color. Too much area for rattle cans, so used HVLP gun and some acrylic paint. Mixed some white into grey to lighten the color and some hardener to speed process.


Holds the brake off the ground for now.

 

[rattle_snake]

Finished out the coolant plumbing system for the plasma cutter. Could have done something more simple, but ended up with this.
The bar drains are 1-1/2 but are NOT 1-1/2 MTP. Local pluming house had swivel adapters. Enough swivel fittings to remove the tank or any of the glued sections.


Since tank is not intended to be removed often, I put in provisions for a clean/pump out Hose connection and a valve to block the drain fill.


suction side starts with a check valve, filter then a 110v pump. The check valve seat pressure was way too much for suction use, so I modified it. Ripped out half of the spring. Now it is only a few lbs and works well. With clean out valve, check could be omitted. The pressure side dumps into drain, to fill up out of drains, but drain valve needs to be shut.
Time to fill (~13 gallons) is 1 minute, 40 seconds. Time to drain to 95% is about the same.

 

[rattle_snake]

A tool I have wanted to use a few times but never really own, 'cause the job it does *****.

yes the legs are upside down in this pic.

 

[ntsqd]

Just tell people that is so it fits under lowered cars easier.

 

[zmotorsports]

A tool I have wanted to use a few times but never really own, 'cause the job it does *****.

yes the legs are upside down in this pic.

***** about the trans. Justin. Hope you get the issues sorted soon so you can get back to enjoying the truck.

Curious, what brand and capacity is that transmission jack? I have the 1k pound NAPA jack back when Danaher was making their shop equipment that has been a good jack. A friend of mine just bought the Vevor one that looks like yours.

As for the legs, are you sure they are upside down? Mine are mounted in the same fashion and aren't upside down as it keeps the casters tucked under and the base lower to the ground.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Vevor from Amazon?

 

[rattle_snake]

Yes a Vevor. Same unit sold under a bunch of brands. Double telescopic. 2 of the casters are locking and they cannot rotate fully with legs as shown above.

Probably have to make some type of adapter for the 6R80. The one I made for the NP205 should work pretty well. Not looking forward to several of the bolts that were difficult when it went in. But I have more tools now.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Yes a Vevor. Same unit sold under a bunch of brands. Double telescopic.

I've had the same unit saved in my list for some time now, I see it has been "on sale" the last week or so. I should just probably pull the trigger.

 

[Boosted1]

The legs are upside down? My legs have been that way for years.

 

[rattle_snake]

Plan it to 'store' (or just leave) remnants of sheet on the upper shelf of the brake, so I added rubber mats to both. Looks a bit better as I'm not that happy with color. Probably rattle can to the darker grey used on mill and others as there is not much exposed area.

 

[rattle_snake]

Re-adapted my NP205 adapter to fit the new trans mount.


Bolted to jack


Heavy Mofo out easily as a one man show.

Very happy to have a lift (and in a shop that will fit one), and free use of one at that, but the floorplate style presents some issues. Would definitely go 10k overhead if/when I buy my own.

 

[86turbodsl]

Finished out the coolant plumbing system for the plasma cutter. Could have done something more simple, but ended up with this.
The bar drains are 1-1/2 but are NOT 1-1/2 MTP. Local pluming house had swivel adapters. Enough swivel fittings to remove the tank or any of the glued sections.


Since tank is not intended to be removed often, I put in provisions for a clean/pump out Hose connection and a valve to block the drain fill.


suction side starts with a check valve, filter then a 110v pump. The check valve seat pressure was way too much for suction use, so I modified it. Ripped out half of the spring. Now it is only a few lbs and works well. With clean out valve, check could be omitted. The pressure side dumps into drain, to fill up out of drains, but drain valve needs to be shut.
Time to fill (~13 gallons) is 1 minute, 40 seconds. Time to drain to 95% is about the same.

I always wondered how well these worked. THought about putting one on the work plasma table.

 

[86turbodsl]

Re-adapted my NP205 adapter to fit the new trans mount.


Bolted to jack


Heavy Mofo out easily as a one man show.

Very happy to have a lift (and in a shop that will fit one), and free use of one at that, but the floorplate style presents some issues. Would definitely go 10k overhead if/when I buy my own.

Floor plate would be a no go for me with a trans jack. Glad it worked!

 

[Monza Harry]

Justin just an errant thought, did your engine get line bored/honed? And if so were the correct offset dowels installed? Not a real common problem but it does happen. Even 0.005" offset will cause pretty quick destruction of input shaft seals. Harry

 

[rattle_snake]

Harry,
Thanks for helping to understand. No the machine work did not include a line hone. It's where ford put it originally dowel included. Didn't know that was a 'thing'.
Trying to go about this smartly and not just rip things out. Going to measure runout of flexplate/converter spacer to see if there is any problem there. Afraid just a new seal will fail again. Need to find root cause.

I did drain the fresh fluids before removal (I'm learning, slowly). TC gear oil was OK but slightly dirty as it is cleaning the case out a bit more. Recycled, will put in new synthetic fluid. Trans fluid was clean and no sparkles. Doubt there is damage to hard parts. Again recycled, would hate to introduce contaminates trying to be cheap.

Started making a cradle/adapter for the trans itself out of leftovers. Pan has a sump so need to protect that and support from pain rails.

 

[rattle_snake]

6R80 trans cradle.


Added a short bar on one side of brake for die storage.


Repainted the exposed parts with the same grey as the others. Not a big change but I'm happy with it now.

 

[rattle_snake]

Took the boat out on Saturday. Weather was much cooler, nice day until the wind came up in the afternoon. Had to plow through 10 miles of 2' wind chop but the big heavy hull is made for it.
Sunday was 'lazy' day, farted around on multiple little thing to avoid removing the broken truck transmission.

The trans pan sump was deeper than I thought so had to rebuild the jack adapter with taller 3" rec tube. Made it symmetrical so it can be installed on the jack the right way.


Measured axial runout of the flex plate starter ring to see if it's an issue. Measured =/-0.010", seems OK to me.

 

[rattle_snake]

Finished out the bandsaw cart with a deflector plate to capture the chips/shaving. Was waiting for the brake to make stuff like this.


Needed a lip inside of the saw frame to full cover.


should keep the chop saw below it and floor cleaner.

 

[ntsqd]

Am guessing that you can't accurately measure radial run-out until the trans is out. I suspect that will say a lot about if there's a run-out problem that is killing the pump.

 

[rattle_snake]

I emailed the trans adapter manufacturer for some insight into pump seal failure, but have not heard back. Stopped procrastinating and pulled the rest of the stuff off the trans in prep for removal. The torque converter doesn't have any measurable endplay, which is not good. The bent flexplate could do this but hard to tell through inspection hole. Trying to remember what happened exactly during assembly, I think I measured the 2 halves separately and they were good.

Beyond the 3 difficult to get to bolts, how to remove the trans with a 2" bell extension is another issue. I think to have any hope the TC spacer needs to come off TC and stay with motor while trans & TC come back and down.

Looking back at the before photos it appears that the seal was already seeping a bit over 80k miles.

 

[rattle_snake]

Back to trans avoidance and doing an artsy-fartsy project, a guitar stand. More specifically, a speed metal garage suitable stand for use in said garage. Car parts, rust, bare steel, etc.

I'm dabbling in music and picked up a cheap drum set, and another pair of amps. Have a line on a bass (a righty though ) and plan to build a bass cabinet with my daughter from some leftover parts.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

All good things Justin. I'm not willing to admit how much money I put in a "worthless" electric guitar. It was recently played by my best friend's(who did the upgrades on the guitar) little brother, who is not only an amazing guitarist, but builds his own guitars, amps, and pedals, and owns some really really nice vintage and late model stuff. Little bro couldn't believe how well it played and sounded...so you can polish a turd, haha!

We'll be needing some pics of course.

 

[ntsqd]

String and play the Bass upside down? Can you do that? Dunno.....
X2 on pics.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

String and play the Bass upside down? Can you do that? Dunno.....
X2 on pics.

Yes this is possible and is what Hendrix did...you have to reset the pickup height at a minimum.

 

[rattle_snake]

All good things Justin. I'm not willing to admit how much money I put in a "worthless" electric guitar. It was recently played by my best friend's(who did the upgrades on the guitar) little brother, who is not only an amazing guitarist, but builds his own guitars, amps, and pedals, and owns some really really nice vintage and late model stuff. Little bro couldn't believe how well it played and sounded...so you can polish a turd, haha!

We'll be needing some pics of course.

I can play OK right handed. I'm somewhat ambidextrous. Guitar takes skill in both hands at same time. Oddly, fret is weak handed.
My daughters are both backwards-handed (right) and want to play it, so going to leave it strung for right.

I bought my younger a used Schecter 6 string and you can feel and hear the quality difference. We are going to build a wall hanger for it together. Guitar and music equipment quality has an extremely wide range. Until I can somewhat properly operate what I have, I'll stick with it. Kinda like firearms....