94 Cobra #3815

[SublimeRT]

23 hours ago, Psychorugby said:

 

I have this on my electric stapler at work, so I definitely approve for badass heavy machinery!

 

Definitely sounds like a bad ass stapler! ??

 

2 minutes ago, RideTech_Ryan said:

that fighter plane scheme always reminds me of this

 

That is an awesome little drawing.  That Camaro is sweet too.  Pretty much anything with that kind of design is automatically bad ass.  Check out this project car, called the Ruptured Duck.  Based off a B25 and completely bad ass.  

http://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4

[RideTech_Ryan]

33 minutes ago, SublimeRT said:

 

Definitely sounds like a bad ass stapler! ??

 

 

That is an awesome little drawing.  That Camaro is sweet too.  Pretty much anything with that kind of design is automatically bad ass.  Check out this project car, called the Ruptured Duck.  Based off a B25 and completely bad ass.  

http://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4

Oh i am familiar with that build.  Such a high skill level to pull that off.  It is a great read.

 

[95riosnake]

Holy crap that build is badass! (the Ruptured Duck)

[Blackmage]

anytime i hear/see fbomb i always think of David Frieburgers car

 

http://www.nelsonracingengines.com/cars-and-projects/Nelson-Supercar-001.html

[RideTech_Ryan]

13 minutes ago, 95riosnake said:

Holy crap that build is badass! (the Ruptured Duck)

Eventually it will be " Holy crap that build is badass! (94 Cobra #3815)" 

[SublimeRT]

21 hours ago, RideTech_Ryan said:

Oh i am familiar with that build.  Such a high skill level to pull that off.  It is a great read.

 

 

Yeah, a very talented fellow.   Guys like him and builds like that are inspiring. 

 

20 hours ago, 95riosnake said:

Holy crap that build is badass! (the Ruptured Duck)

 

I thought you'd like that. 

 

20 hours ago, Blackmage said:

anytime i hear/see fbomb i always think of David Frieburgers car

 

http://www.nelsonracingengines.com/cars-and-projects/Nelson-Supercar-001.html

 

That's the one!  Great car. 

 

19 hours ago, RideTech_Ryan said:

Eventually it will be " Holy crap that build is badass! (94 Cobra #3815)" 

 

I like and appreciate your choice of words there.   Will.   Implying this car is GOING TO BE built.   

[SublimeRT]

So I needed a place to mount the Hand Nib.  It was not something I was actively looking for though.  I happened to place it on top of the kick punch one day to check it out and thought, you know that's actually not a bad place to put it.  The punch weighs about 450 lbs, so not easily moved. 

 

I took some leftover .5" bar stock from the chassis table and some .25" plate and three .5" bolts.  Traced the mounting pads on the Hand Nib to the plate, drilled some holes,  cut it out and welded it all up, dressed the edges and here it is. 

 

There are only three mounting holes in the Hand Nib.  The right rear was omitted,  I assume so any excess metal cut off does not get hung up by a bolt head as it curls down in that direction. 

 

The top of the punch was not welded up straight during construction I guess.  Back to front is twisted. BTW the top number on the level is what we're looking at.  The bottom number is for zeroing out the level. 

 

So I used some sheet metal as shims under the right side before welding it up, and yanked the shims out afterwards. 

 

Mounted it up. 

 

Test cut in 18 gauge, sharpie marks at the start and end of the cut. 

 

The Hand Nib has this, I assume user installed, table on it.  It is a nice chunk of metal but needed some work.  The table is not flush with the bottom blade, and it marks the backside of the workpiece while making a cut. 

 

Backside of the test piece.  You can see the mark about a quarter inch from the edge. 

 

Here's a disc I cut out.  It even bent the edge of this.  So this problem must be fixed. 

 

So I took it apart a bit for clearance for the handheld drill.  I believe all those holes left of the bottom blade are from previous owners. 

 

The only two holes in the table being used are the two in line.  The others don't even line up with any of the holes in the machine.  

 

So I drilled two more holes, ha.  I didn't feel any of the existing were suitable. 

 

Drilled and tapped two more in the table.  Made some scribe marks to round the edges and make this table a bit more presentable. 

 

Cut off the big chunks on the band saw, smoothed the edges on the disc sander. 

 

Filed a bevel on the edges and DA sanded the surface with 80 grit. 

 

Drilled out and chamfered the unused holes and TIG welded them up. 

 

Smoothed out again with the DA.

 

Mounted back up and put the Hand Nib back together. 

 

Made some more test cuts in 18 gauge.  This is the backside.  No more marking. Oh yeah. 

 

Cut out a little filler plug in 14 gauge for a hole in the frame rail on the Charger.  Quick smoothing of the edge on disc sander and this was ready for welding.  This is what I'm looking for; just being able to quickly and efficiently do what I need to do with no fuss.

 

That handle is about 16" long IIRC. Heinrich says a 28" long handle is the maximum recommended, so I'll have to address that someday. The table height of the shear is about shoulder level, which I like.  I can drop my head down a bit and have a good line of sight, and the handle is at a good height for my arm, just reach up and pull down. No funky stuff. 

 

 

 

[RideTech_Ryan]

On 12/22/2016 at 0:54 PM, SublimeRT said:

 

 

I like and appreciate your choice of words there.   Will.   Implying this car is GOING TO BE built.   

Lol it better get done!  im already on the hook to see come awesome metal fab skills!

[95riosnake]

Ugh, I get continually more and more jealous of your shop.

[Yeahloh95]

yes you have some very cool metal working tools ,nice find on the nibler

[RideTech_Ryan]

I 100% agree with Dan and Troy.  Luckily my wife told everyone to get me some gift cards to our local Rural King for Christmas because I have had my eye on one of the Hobart welders.    Next step is to buy the notch off of Josh's dad and start on the engine bay

 

[Tabres]

18 hours ago, RideTech_Ryan said:

I 100% agree with Dan and Troy.  Luckily my wife told everyone to get me some gift cards to our local Rural King for Christmas because I have had my eye on one of the Hobart welders.

 

 

I bought a Handler 140 back in September... super nice machine.

[SublimeRT]

On 12/23/2016 at 1:13 PM, RideTech_Ryan said:

 

On 12/23/2016 at 1:13 PM, RideTech_Ryan said:

Lol it better get done!  im already on the hook to see come awesome metal fab skills!

 

Gonna give it my best shot.

 

On 12/27/2016 at 6:35 AM, 95riosnake said:

Ugh, I get continually more and more jealous of your shop.

 

Dan, I am positive that once you really get out in your shop, many jaws will hit the floor. 

 

On 12/27/2016 at 8:40 AM, Yeahloh95 said:

yes you have some very cool metal working tools ,nice find on the nibler

 

Thank you very much. 

 

 

Ryan, the Hobarts are great machines.  My first welder that I still have is a Handler 140.  I've replaced the gun liner once or twice, I think due to me accidentally stepping on it, but it hasn't missed a beat.  And I've used the hell out of it.  I do wish I'd have at least sprung for the next size up at the time of purchase though.  The 140 advertises pretty thick material capability, 3/16" maybe?  I do think the upper limit of the ratings is a bit ambitious though.  So, something to think about if you can swing it.  The 140 will have no problem with sheet metal though like in the engine bay.  I did the subframe connectors in the Cobra with it too, which was 1/8" material.  I feel that's about the limit without doing things like large bevels and preheat.  The roll bar kit I had was 3/16" mild steel, and I decided with a safety device like that to not push my luck with the 140.

On 12/27/2016 at 3:09 PM, RideTech_Ryan said:

I 100% agree with Dan and Troy.  Luckily my wife told everyone to get me some gift cards to our local Rural King for Christmas because I have had my eye on one of the Hobart welders.    Next step is to buy the notch off of Josh's dad and start on the engine bay

 

[SublimeRT]

So my 'fab tables' have consisted of those fold up plastic party tables that people like to play beer pong on, a piece of plywood on saw horses, the small table on the band saw,  it is 1/4" steel,  with maybe 2 square feet to work with, of course with a band saw blade in the middle of, and sometimes the floor.   

 

Back in October around my birthday, a place called WeldTables.com was having a real nice sale on everything.  Been eye balling these things for a while.  I ended up getting a 2x3 Fab block and a 1 ft Fab wing extension. 

 

I didn't get many pics of building this thing, but there are plenty of videos and stuff on the net about them.  I DA'd everything with 80 grit before assembly.  I was thinking of painting the underside/inside and all that but decided against it. Bare metal rusts quick down here though so I will probably soak/wipe it down with Wd40, or there is a similar product called Gibbs I want to try. 

 

Tried to use parts of the wing to clamp down parts of the block, but ended up just making more little straps from leftover 1/4"plate. 

 

Tried to TIG this thing but ended up using the MIG for most of it. 

 

Putting the wing together.  Found 10 or 12' sections of 3/8" threaded rod for just a few bucks at Lowe's.  Got a couple of them and used a lot for the table and wing construction. 

 

Wing completed.  Attaches to the table with some clever little keyhole slots and special fasteners.  Now 3x3 to play with. 

 

Underside of the wing. 

 

Checking this thing everywhere with a straight edge, it is pretty damn flat. Even the seam where the wing meets the table, is incredibly tight and even. 

 

There is one section where a bit of a gap can be seen from maybe 6" in, to the edge. This will not cause me problems though.  I took a feeler gauge to it, and if I remember correctly it was about .020 or so. 

 

I'll go into more detail about this later, but to build a frame for the table, I scored this old Unipunch off ebay for $30.  That is a HF 20T press that I've begun to modify.  The limit of this particular Unipunch frame is a 5/8" hole through 1/4" plate.  Requires about 13 tons.  This works good because the holes in the table are 5/8".  I'll have to get video of this thing.  It's pretty wild. 

 

I didn't get pictures of everything step by step, but here's a later pic of one of the mounting plates for the table.  I punched all 4 holes in each plate, and drilled the center one to 3/4". I punched all the holes before cutting the plate down to the four individual plates needed.  

 

The casters I've used for the table are 5" total locking type, fastened with 5/16" hardware.  With a 5/16" punch and die in the Unipunch, the caster mounting plates were made. 

 

 

The legs were made with the 3.5" angle that was installed on the kick punch as a sort of table.  I simply cut 4 sections with the chop saw.  No pics of the process but small bevel on the plates and angle, TIG welded, and sanded smooth. 

 

Had some 2" angle that I chopped to length, then mitered the edges.  It is cut a bit short to avoid the radius on the inside of the angle. 

 

This is the top of the legs, with a 1/4" plate.  Again a 5/8" hole punched, then drilled to 3/4".  After welding the 2" angle to the legs, I had to drill the angle at that 3/4" hole for everything to work. 

 

Then some 3/4" nuts were welded to the top of the legs. 

 

 

At the top of these plates, will be all this.  3/4" left hand/right hand threaded studs, some RH nuts, the gold LH nuts, and some more RH nuts bored on the lathe, to get welded to the threaded studs. 

 

Cleaning up the coating in prep for welding.  Just wanna throw this out there.  I used to use flap discs to clean off mill scale and coatings, but have been using these strip discs from empire abrasives.  They work real well, and don't harm the base metal like flap discs.  Sometimes a bit of that blue coloring gets left behind, but it comes off quickly with a red scotch Brite pad.  If yall have any good methods for removing mill scale and such I wouldn't mind hearing.  This is my go to right now.  All the clean, bright metal you see from me in this post is thanks to these things. 

 

Welded up the LH nuts to the top plates. 

 

Welded the bored nuts to the studs. 

 

Put all the threaded bits together.  Used the cherry picker to lift the table off the saw horses and onto the base. 

 

All bolted down.  Those plates with the 3 holes bolt to the table.  I did all this so I can level out the table when I need to.  With the total locking casters it should all stay in place til I move it.  I plan to get another wing someday. Then it'll be a 3x4 table. 

 

Parked next to my big blue baby, where it will probably spend a lot of time.  Top of the table is about 3'.  Feels good to me on the stool. 

 

Edited December 30, 2016 by SublimeRT

[95riosnake]

Damnit man, every update is so satisfying to read lol. That fab table is pretty slick, looks very DIY but that's honestly preferable. And really, if you're buying a table to weld on, you shouldn't be scared to weld it together lol.
The punch is pretty sweet, that will no doubt save you a ton of time with all the holes I see you drilling all the time.

 

I vote for the base of the welding table to get a paint job to match the lathe stand. That would tie it together and make it somewhat of a theme.

[RideTech_Ryan]

On 12/29/2016 at 0:53 PM, SublimeRT said:

Ryan the Hobarts are great machines.  My first welder that I still have is a Handler 140.  I've replaced the gun liner once or twice, I think due to me accidentally stepping on it, but it hasn't missed a beat.  And I've used the hell out of it.  I do wish I'd have at least sprung for the next size up at the time of purchase though.  The 140 advertises pretty thick material capability, 3/16" maybe?  I do think the upper limit of the ratings is a bit ambitious though.  So, something to think about if you can swing it.  The 140 will have no problem with sheet metal though like in the engine bay.  I did the subframe connectors in the Cobra with it too, which was 1/8" material.  I feel that's about the limit without doing things like large bevels and preheat.  The roll bar kit I had was 3/16" mild steel, and I decided with a safety device like that to not push my luck with the 140.

 

Thanks for the advice.  This is the feedback that I like to hear.

[Steve-Oh]

Mmmm love me some updates to this thread! 

[SublimeRT]

13 hours ago, 95riosnake said:

Damnit man, every update is so satisfying to read lol. That fab table is pretty slick, looks very DIY but that's honestly preferable. And really, if you're buying a table to weld on, you shouldn't be scared to weld it together lol.
The punch is pretty sweet, that will no doubt save you a ton of time with all the holes I see you drilling all the time.

 

I vote for the base of the welding table to get a paint job to match the lathe stand. That would tie it together and make it somewhat of a theme.

 

Haha, thanks man.  Yeah, I think the table is a pretty good deal.  Should help out a lot with some future projects.  Some fab tables are just thick solid plates you know, and people just tack things all over them when building something or jigging something up.  And that's fine.  Probably sometimes preferable.  I'd actually like a table like that too.  For me right now though I think this style is more suitable.

 

The base would be cool, matched to the lathe table.  I've been thinking about how to do it up.  I actually found some powder coating guys around town and was thinking about talking to them.  Many things need paint around here, and honestly I don't like painting much.

 

 

9 hours ago, RideTech_Ryan said:

 

Thanks for the advice.  This is the feedback that I like to hear.

 

No problem.  Any questions or anything, feel free to ask.  I'll help as best as i can.

 

 

6 hours ago, Steve-Oh said:

Mmmm love me some updates to this thread! 

 

Thanks man!

[SublimeRT]

Yesterday I drove to Dallas with a U-Haul trailer in tow.  If my truck had some bags in the rear maybe I wouldn't have needed a trailer.  But I didn't feel like possibly riding on the bumpstops all the way home with my truck even though it has a small notch.  Even when I brought the punch home in the bed, which was about 450lbs, the rear really sagged and the truck was very soft feeling and all that jazz.  This trailer was overkill and larger than what I had called and reserved in advance, but it turned out this was all the guy had to rent.

 

After getting to the destination, loading was quite a chore and took about two and a half hours.  I'll spare some details, but the forklift they thought they would have access to, was inaccessible.  And the machine was located in the back of the warehouse, furthest from the docks and ramps.  The warehouse was also ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag.  This business I bought it from, buys the equipment from shut down factories, and resells it all.  It was mostly all electronics.  So the one guy there and I played Tetris, moving all this crap around to get the machine to the ramp.  Backed the trailer up it then I ratchet strapped the machine inch by inch onto the trailer.  

 

But hey I think I got a pretty good deal on it.  It is a 36" Tennsmith stomp shear, 16 gauge capacity.  I have some projects coming up that this will save so much time with and result in a better finished product.  The guy at the warehouse said it was from a factory that makes the Red Box machines, so that's kinda interesting.  Something happened with the contract and the factory was closed down and had to be emptied in something like six days.  It's in really good shape overall.  The rust on the table is just surface rust from sitting outside Monday night.  Got home at 11 and just went to bed.  The back gauges and front extensions are not present.  I'm not too concerned about the front extensions, but I will probably whip up a back gauge.

 

This thing has an advertised shipping weight of around 700 lbs, and all I have is a cherry picker, so to get it off I strapped it to that big oak tree and drove the truck forward a bit.  Then got the cherry picker and lifted it up and drove the trailer all the way out.

 

There is a small slope into the shop.  With 700 lbs, a small slope makes for a nice challenge by yourself.  Tried a few things that didn't work.  I ended up strapping the shear to the cherry picker, and the cherry picker to the truck with a tire from the Cobra between, and backed it up into the shop.  Had the straps off here already.

 

Played a bit more Tetris in the shop and moved some things around and got it into place.  Hard to tell in the pics, but the shear is a nice shade of green with white and black speckle paint on it.  Looks cool next to the splatter paint I think.  

 

Some random 18 gauge sheets I squared up real quick.  Works nice.  

 

 

 

 

[SublimeRT]

Alright so with the English wheel I think I left off with making the legs.  The legs got fully welded up and smoothed and casters welded to them.  In hindsight I wish I bolted them on.  Also the frame was fully welded up.  With the outside corners of all that 1/4" plate, I did two passes.  A root and capped off with a weave.  I knew I'd be smoothing it out so it was good practice.  I was actually pretty happy with most of the welding though.

 

I ended up going with three legs even though I cut out material for four.  A rigid caster in the rear and two total locking casters up front.  Here the position of the legs is being mocked up.

 

This air tank had a large bung on the bottom.  With the hole saw I removed it, capped it up, and smoothed it out.  Because lower is better.  The old wheels and brackets and stuff were also cut off and smoothed at this time.

 

After capping that bottom bung, the whole tank was DA'd with 80 grit.  Paint was removed in spots for the legs.  There were also spots that were shaved on the side and top of the tank where some fittings and things were from its previous air compressor iteration.  Legs were fully TIG welded on and here's the result.  I'm happy with the end result.  It is very stable and with the front casters locked it doesn't move at all when wheeling something.  Since the 5" wheels have bearings it rolls around the shop without fuss with the casters unlocked.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by SublimeRT

[SublimeRT]

Next up I took one of those big caps/fittings from the tank, turned it down and faced it on the lathe a bit, and drilled a hole in the top of the tank.  Then the threaded part of the fitting was welded flush with the tank, and smoothed.  I did this so I had a place to fill the tank with sand.  I didn't want to just fill it and weld it shut in case I need to empty it or something, even though that sounds like a nightmare.  I also wanted to be able to get some kind of desiccant bag in/out of it.  I can't find any pics of this so I'll snap some and add them later.  

 

It's been a while since I filled it but it took about four or five, fifty pound bags of play sand.  I laid out some tarps in the driveway and dried it out in the sun before funneling it into the tank.  

 

So the machine was stable before the sand, now it is very stable.  But it still rolls around nicely.

 

Next, I turned my attention to the adjuster.  There is slop everywhere.  I started by adding two more bolts in the side of the yellow block there.  With the factory setup of only two bolts, it pivoted/rocked on those bolts.  Also, that knob there is a dog point screw that fits into a slot in that chrome tube that the yellow block is bolted to.  There was slop in this also so I addressed it as well.

 

I turned down a nut in the lathe so I wouldn't have to drill such a big hole to fit the hex nut.

 

Next I turned down a bolt to make a new dog point screw that fit very tight in the slot. This dog point screw/slot setup keeps the chrome tube from rotating.

 

I guess I forgot to take pics, but I just got rid of the factory nut with a flap disc.  Drilled a hole for the turned down nut, welded it up, DA'd it smooth, and put it back together.  The result is much better looking in my opinion and much tighter.  There is no need for a handle like the factory setup.  I think they put a handle on it to lock it down to take out slop.  The problem with that though is any time you want to make small adjustments in pressure that the wheels have on the panel, you had to loosen that thing, make the adjustment, then lock it back down.  This is all being addressed to work correctly though.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by SublimeRT

[SublimeRT]

The factory acme screw used to move the lower anvil up and down and adjust pressure, was hot dog down a hallway sloppy.  There's just one acme nut welded to the bottom of that vertical square tube, and that's it.  The top of the screw just runs into the bottom of that yellow block and pushes it up.  But when you back off the screw and want less pressure/more gap between the wheels, since there is no positive connection, you back off the screw and everything else stays and has to be pushed down yourself.  Hopefully I'm making sense here.  But to address the slop in the screw, I took a UHMW tube with a 1" hole in it, and turned it down in the lathe to fit inside the chrome tube.  I drilled a series of holes on the drill press, then cleaned up the slot by mounting a little pneumatic dremel type tool in the lathe.  

 

 

I installed the UHMW tube in the chrome tube, lined up the slots and drilled/tapped two holes in each side for some flush mounted set screws.  This all worked out pretty good.  Here's a little video.  Starts out sloppy before the screw goes through the tube.  By the end of the video it is through and no more side to side movement and the screw actually has some resistance now in turning whereas before it was kind of like the wheel of fortune.  Just give it a good spin and it'll go on. 

[SublimeRT]

To address the problem of the lower anvil/holder not coming down with the screw when you back it off, I had a plan.  I ordered some supplies, which included some 1"-5 acme nuts.  These turned out to not fit the original acme screw.  I either measured it wrong, or it's metric.  Rather than screw around trying to find the right size nuts, I just ordered a new length of threaded acme rod.  

 

So here we have some acme threaded rod, nuts, stainless round bar, drills and taps, hardware, press in threaded inserts, mini pool balls, some oil impregnated thick washers, and a few other things.  Let's make something.

 

I took that chrome tube out and faced the end of it to true it up.  Cut out a circle of 1/4" steel to match the OD of the tube, then drilled a 1" hole in it on the lathe.

 

Welded it up, then just cleaned up the weld in the lathe.

 

In this next pic, many things have been done.  Two acme nuts were turned down.  One turned small enough to fit in the chrome tube, then welded to the new acme threaded rod.  One turned down enough to fit inside the yellow anvil block. The oilite bushings/washers were turned down as well.  It's my understanding this shouldn't really be done, but I did not find any in the size I needed.  If they fail, the whole setup can be disassembled.  The top acme nut and the threaded rod was also drilled for a roll pin, so the nut does not back off.  You can see the weld on the tube I turned down is a bit smaller diameter now than the tube.  The weld was a bit undercut, so I turned it more to clean it up.  This will not cause problems though.  Something to remember in the future though.

 

All put together.  

 

Next I needed to make some new handles for the bottom of the new acme screw.  I took some pool balls and drilled them to size and depth on the lathe for the threaded inserts.

 

I tried to drill them so the number on the balls would be perpendicular to the hole.

 

I had the JB Weld to glue these inserts, but they're a tight fit.  They also expand some when threaded onto their shaft.  So no glue.

 

I took the stainless rod, IIRC it was 303 grade, and turned some threads on both ends.  The green ball was the test subject for the pool balls.

 

I took another acme nut and drilled/tapped holes on three of the flats for the handles.  Also drilled it and the rod for a roll pin.  Also drilled and tapped the end of the threaded rod on the lathe for a bolt.  The end of the threaded rod is a bit shy of flush to the end of the nut, so that the bolt really tightens everything down.  Going to make a better looking washer/bolt setup here.  The whole machine will be torn down for final assembly/paint/finishing details.

 

Tried to orient the threads so that the numbers were facing up.  Got close.

 

 

So since the new acme screw size was apparently different than the old one, I had to drill out the factory acme nut on the bottom of that vertical square tube.  That really sucked, and wrecked a 1" drill bit, and my fairly new Makita drill has been making funny noises since.  BTW, I was a Dewalt guy, but people seemed to talk highly of Makita.  I'm not really happy with them.  What is your power tool brand of choice?  

 

But anyways I got the old one drilled out.  To fit a new acme nut there, I needed about an eighth of an inch off one of the flats.  I started out on the disc sander, and thought this will take forever.  So I went to the band saw.  When the saw finally got through it, I didn't stop pushing right away.  Just slipped up and in went my right index finger even though I was using a 6" or so piece of metal as a push block.

 

Of course this happened at night, so got it stitched up the next morning.

 

Luckily no serious nerve damage or loss of motion.  That's my trigger finger.  Bottom line though is I slipped up.  And it probably was not the right method for the job.  I think milling, either in a mill or maybe the lathe if I had it setup for that, would have been best.  Be careful out there though guys.

 

With the anvil block installed though, it all fits together nicely.  Now the adjuster is tight and smooth and the lower anvil goes up and down with the screw.  No slop at all.  I'm really happy with it.  I ended up not even using that UHMW tube I made.  The hole in it was actually too small for the new 1" acme screw.  But it doesn't even need it.  Another problem the factory setup had was while wheeling something, there was so much slop in everything, that the vibration would make the screw back off, and the pressure between the wheels on the panel would ease off.  Really annoying and nearly unusable.  It stays where I put it now, until I say otherwise.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by SublimeRT

[95riosnake]

Wow dude, on all of that. That shear is a really nice pickup. We have one that is pretty much identical at work, but it's an Enco so probably not as good quality. Regardless, it's a pleasure to use it vs. trying to cut and grind sheet metal to size. I can sympathize with your difficulties getting it loaded/unloaded... been there many times with various pieces of machinery both at my house and at buddies' houses. I almost bought a Yates American 14" cabinet saw (circa ~1910-20) but ended up deciding against it because getting 1700lbs of cast iron down into my basement would have surely resulted in something somewhere between paralyzation and death lol.

 

I have to say that HF english wheel is probably the most well sorted of its kind on the planet. Not to mention it's also pretty nice aesthetically. At this point you could have probably built your own from scratch, but the end result will be the same so it's all good. I really like how the compressor tank base turned out too. The billiard ball knobs look badass and I believe I will definitely be stealing that idea in the future. The finger injury definitely blows. I was cutting a piece of hardwood at work on a bandsaw, I was even using a miter gauge to push it... it was a hard cut and when it broke through finally, the miter gauge hit the blade and for some reason my left pinky was sitting proud of it. Cut half way through the length of my fingernail down to the bone. Still don't have any feeling in that finger tip. That brought the total of numb finger tips to 3 so far lol. Don't know about you, but every time I hurt myself, one of the worst parts is telling my wife about it. She seems to think I make conscious decisions to get hurt lol.

[Prokiller]

i think i get about half of what you're talking about in this thread but i still get really excited to read through them when there's an update.  always bad ass things to look at and learn.

 

@95riosnakedoesn't help that she's a nurse....

 

[RideTech_Ryan]

 

man this is great stuff............  Hell you should start your own youtube channel

 

[SublimeRT]

On 1/5/2017 at 6:01 AM, 95riosnake said:

Wow dude, on all of that. That shear is a really nice pickup. We have one that is pretty much identical at work, but it's an Enco so probably not as good quality. Regardless, it's a pleasure to use it vs. trying to cut and grind sheet metal to size. I can sympathize with your difficulties getting it loaded/unloaded... been there many times with various pieces of machinery both at my house and at buddies' houses. I almost bought a Yates American 14" cabinet saw (circa ~1910-20) but ended up deciding against it because getting 1700lbs of cast iron down into my basement would have surely resulted in something somewhere between paralyzation and death lol.

 

I have to say that HF english wheel is probably the most well sorted of its kind on the planet. Not to mention it's also pretty nice aesthetically. At this point you could have probably built your own from scratch, but the end result will be the same so it's all good. I really like how the compressor tank base turned out too. The billiard ball knobs look badass and I believe I will definitely be stealing that idea in the future. The finger injury definitely blows. I was cutting a piece of hardwood at work on a bandsaw, I was even using a miter gauge to push it... it was a hard cut and when it broke through finally, the miter gauge hit the blade and for some reason my left pinky was sitting proud of it. Cut half way through the length of my fingernail down to the bone. Still don't have any feeling in that finger tip. That brought the total of numb finger tips to 3 so far lol. Don't know about you, but every time I hurt myself, one of the worst parts is telling my wife about it. She seems to think I make conscious decisions to get hurt lol.

 

Thanks, man.  Wow, yeah I can't imagine another half ton compared to this shear, then trying to get it down the stairs.  I'll say, there have been times that @Steve-Oh's winch setup that was bolted to the floor, would sure be welcome.  Pretty much any time I gotta get something heavy up that slope by myself.  Though, I'm nearly tapped out in the shop as far as floor space for equipment is concerned.  The last few big additions have all resulted in lots of rearranging.  And I think the electrician said the electrical box is tapped out when he came to change a socket to fit the lathe plug.  So, maybe not too much more stuff to get in there.  I would like a mill though... 

 

With the English wheel, yeah, I should have just started from scratch.  But hey the HF piece got the ball rolling on the project, so that's the important thing.  I really wasn't planning on getting this involved with it initially.  But you know the Cobra I think started out as a carb swap/electrical cleanup/subframe connector job.  Haha.  Future plans for the wheel are to actually to turn it into a large throat bead rolling machine, and building another wheeling machine.  Gonna spend some time with it as a wheel first though, and maybe that will help better refine what I want/don't want in the next wheeling machine.  

 

Have at it with the pool balls.  I found them on ebay for $15 or so.  They're 1.5" dia and the threaded inserts are part # 94615A118 from McMaster.  The stainless rod was 1/2" 303 from McMaster as well.  I'm gonna get some more of those balls and use them as handles for other things around the shop too.

 

And geez man your bandsaw story is making my finger hurt just thinking about it!  Haha.  Three numb finger tips?  I can't imagine.  My finger and getting my eye drilled a few times for metal shards in it are the most serious injuries so far.  Yeah the wife gets onto me like that too, lol.  She'll say, "You be careful out there!!"  "Don't hurt yourself!"  She got me a big first aid kit for xmas, lol.

 

 

On 1/5/2017 at 9:33 AM, Prokiller said:

i think i get about half of what you're talking about in this thread but i still get really excited to read through them when there's an update.  always bad ass things to look at and learn.

 

@95riosnakedoesn't help that she's a nurse....

 

 

Haha, thanks man!  Maybe once some things get finished up and you can see them as a whole/see them in action, things will come together a bit.  And if you learn something here that's great.  In my opinion the best thing about forums and build threads is learning from each other and exchanging ideas.

 

 

1 hour ago, RideTech_Ryan said:

 

man this is great stuff............  Hell you should start your own youtube channel

 

 

Thanks man!  I think about making videos sometimes.  Maybe sometimes it would be an easier method of explaining/showing something in progress and be more interesting for people rather than a bunch of text and a few pictures.  We'll see.  I do snapchat sometimes right now though.  

[Lanter]

That HF english wheel is straight bad ass.  I love the look of it!  And the billiard ball handles is a great touch, I have scene guys use them for shifter handles or perhaps they are just standard shifter balls that are painted like billiard balls lol.  Either way it's a cool look.  I have to be completely honest though, every time your mustang makes it into the background of one of your update pictures I get way too excited, not that your tools and equipment aren't incredibly enjoyable to read about, but I am really looking forward to seeing the mustang under the knife.  Keep up the awesome work Blaise!

[SublimeRT]

3 hours ago, Lanter said:

That HF english wheel is straight bad ass.  I love the look of it!  And the billiard ball handles is a great touch, I have scene guys use them for shifter handles or perhaps they are just standard shifter balls that are painted like billiard balls lol.  Either way it's a cool look.  I have to be completely honest though, every time your mustang makes it into the background of one of your update pictures I get way too excited, not that your tools and equipment aren't incredibly enjoyable to read about, but I am really looking forward to seeing the mustang under the knife.  Keep up the awesome work Blaise!

 

Hey, thanks for the kind words and encouragement!  I'm not sure if those shifter balls are real billiards balls or not.  They are pretty cool though.  I love pool.  Yeah, sometimes I purposely get the Cobra in the background, just to keep things on topic, lol.  After all, this is its thread, not the tool's thread.  I didn't plan for it to turn into a tool thread.  I'm hoping though, by the end of all this, that the amount of tool content will be comparatively much less than car content.  I can't wait to work on the car.  I think I mentioned before, but the first order of business with it will be getting the glass out.  It will be pretty cold this weekend, so it might get put off again till it is a bit warmer.  I would think the windshield adhesive will be much tougher at the current ~45 degree shop temp.  Next weekend supposed to be back 60s/70s though.

[SublimeRT]

Just a quick little bit before bed.  I wiped down the shear with some warm soapy water.  Then began scrubbing the table with some WD40 and red scotch brite pads.  

 

After cleaning up the top, the side scales needed to be reinstalled.  I squared them up to the bottom blade of the shear, set the dial caliper to one inch, and found the scale was a bit far from the blade.

 

Slotting the holes in the scales was quick work with a round file, as they were made from aluminum.  They also got a light scrub with the scotch brite.  I found that the bolts were 5/16" which I happen to have some extra Allen heads from a project in that size.  I also realized I did not have to go through the trouble of measuring at an inch which was difficult to see.  

 

 

 

I found that the flat head screws for the plexiglass finger guard were 5/16" as well.

 

 

All wiped down, greased some things, table cleaned up, some hardware changed/cleaned up.

 

I'm thinking after I get a back gauge that more precise and repeatable cuts can be made, but just eye balling with the side scale this is pretty good I think.

 

Pretty square.

 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2017 by SublimeRT

[95riosnake]

The shear is looking good! Not sure if you put anything on the table surface after removing the rust but I've had good luck just using pure carnuba wax. Makes the surface buttery smooth and prevents future rust also.

[SublimeRT]

17 hours ago, 95riosnake said:

The shear is looking good! Not sure if you put anything on the table surface after removing the rust but I've had good luck just using pure carnuba wax. Makes the surface buttery smooth and prevents future rust also.

 

Thanks Dan!  I was gonna just wipe it with some WD40 now and then, but I like the sounds of the wax.  Gonna give it a try.  

[95riosnake]

I always used to use WD-40, and it works fine, but the nice thing about the wax is it doesn't transfer any oily residue onto parts. It's specifically useful on the work surfaces of woodworking machines where having oily residue would be a definite problem.

[SublimeRT]

Alright ya'll.  So more work on the English wheel here.  After getting the lower adjuster screw and tube all squared away, it was time to move up.  Next in line was the cast yellow block that acts as the cradle for the lower anvils.  

 

In this older pic here you can see how the block has holders for the anvil's axle cast into it.  I cut them off because, the stock axles had flats on the ends and the anvil cradle was cast to accommodate that (loosely, like everything else).  I wanted to switch over to just solid round axles as well.  I saw no need for having flats to prevent the axle from turning.  I also wanted to build some adjustability into this lower cradle, and have the ability to have different holders for different sized axles or anything else I can think to use as a lower wheel. 

 

After cutting off those holders and chucking it up in the 4 jaw on the lathe, it was faced nice and flat.

 

Just showing off this little deburring tool I picked up.  I don't know why it took me so long to get one.  This thing was only about $30 and saves so much time in situations where it can be used, where before I'd be hand filing or sanding.  It works great and leaves a nice consistent, finished, and safe edge.  I recommend picking one up if you do metal work.  And it can be anything, big chunks like this, sheet steel, aluminum, I've even used it on UHMW.  Lots of different blades available.  There are a few different brands.  I got this one for the aluminum handle, vs plastic.  I'm happy with it.  

 

I ended up taking a countersink to that center hole that I drilled on the lathe.  To create room for the weld bead on that plate I'm holding.  It is 1/4" steel.  A hole drilled, and a turned down nut to fit snugly into the hole drilled into the block.  Also some 1/4x20 holes tapped on each corner for some little leveling screws.

 

After that a few little beads to hold it on.  

 

Mounted back up, set screws installed in the corners, and a special bolt I picked up from McMaster with a machined shoulder, 1/2" diameter IIRC.

 

I made another plate out of 1/4" for the top.  That shoulder bolt keeps it all aligned, and will allow the lower cradle now to be rotated if needed.  For example like if I'm wheeling a large panel that hits the frame of the machine, the anvils could be turned 90*.  Also this is what I meant by different cradles.  If I ever get some different anvils with different axles I can just make another cradle and bolt it to the adjuster like pictured here.  The 1/4-20 screws in the corner of the lower plate help to make fine adjustments with the contact patch and alignment of the upper and lower wheels.

 

 

Edited January 26, 2017 by SublimeRT

[SublimeRT]

Next up was to make some holders for the axle.  I took some little bits of 1/4" steel, cleaned off the mill scale, drilled a hole in two of the plates, and plug welded them together with the TIG, making some 1/2" material.

 

After fiddling around a bit with some designs this is what I settled on.  Kinda looks like the legs for the machine.

 

Each piece was chucked up in the 4 jaw on the lathe again so the hole for the axle could be drilled and reamed to size.  The bearings in all these anvils accept a 20mm axle.  So I found a very nice 20mm reamer on ebay for something like $15.

 

Just messing around checking progress.

 

After the holes were finished some washers were fusion tacked into place.  This is so the sides of the anvil don't rub on the cradle.  In hindsight I'd have used something different here, but this is working fine so far.  

 

Next they were cut out and smoothed, sanded, edges dressed, etc. with the bandsaw, disc sander, a little 4.5" flap disc action, hand filing, hand sanding.  I tried very hard to get them both exactly the same height, as far as axle height, as to minimize use of those 1/4-20 screws I installed in the base.  I don't remember how close I got but it was very close according to the digital calipers.

 

Ready for welding onto the base.  Ladybug decided to join the party.  That anvil is one I started to polish a while ago.  Along with some 20mm TGP shaft I picked up, cut to length, and faced the ends.

 

 

Just some little beads to hold it.  Should be sufficient.  And installed.  Now the whole lower anvil assembly and adjuster is very solid.  Some English wheels are advertised as having a quick release that lowers the lower anvil and allowing the lower anvil to be pulled out the top of the cradle and swapped for a different radius anvil.  The quick release on this was an absolute joke.  It was really just a cam with a lever.  But no stops even, so this lever could be spun around and around, and like a camshaft in an engine, it would push the lower wheel up and down like a lifter.  Any downward pressure on the wheel, like when trying to shape a panel, would make the cam spin around to the lowered position.  With this new setup, I simply slide the axle out the side and pull the anvil out.  Take another anvil, slide it into the cradle, and slide the axle back through.  This is how Wray had his English wheels set up, with no quick release, and it just makes sense.  The axle has not walked its way out under operation thus far either, which perhaps means I got something straight.  I still might install a tab or block on one side.  We'll see.

 

 

And an overall shot of the machine.  Just here and there I have been working on smoothing all the welds on the outer frame, and the welds for the little tubes in the frame.  You can see a few little spots where I did some touch up welding of some low spots.  You can see the cap in the tank too that I said I'd get a pic of a while ago but forgot to and am just now remembering I said I'd get a pic of it.  

Edited January 26, 2017 by SublimeRT

[95riosnake]

That whole thing just looks so badass, I love it. Great, meticulous work on the cradle also. I really wish I could pick up a TIG for home use, so jealous of your nice weld beads. Not that MIG beads are ugly, but it would be so nice to have the option to TIG on my projects at home rather than having to bring them to work, which sometimes just isn't feasible. When I built the oval side exhaust, it involved so many lunch breaks and days off going back and forth from home to work. Some days when I would have normally made some progress, the drive to work to go use the TIG was so unappealing that I just said screw it lol.

 

When my wife and I were looking at houses I should have been smart and looked in your area, then just bring my junk over to your place when I need to fab stuff lol.

[Tabres]

How large is your shop/garage?  I'm constantly impressed by your projects and your ability to find and pick-up new tools, but at this point you have so many large items I'm having a hard time imagining how you fit it all in a single location as I was under the impression you were working out of like a 2-3 car garage size space.

[SublimeRT]

 

21 hours ago, 95riosnake said:

That whole thing just looks so badass, I love it. Great, meticulous work on the cradle also. I really wish I could pick up a TIG for home use, so jealous of your nice weld beads. Not that MIG beads are ugly, but it would be so nice to have the option to TIG on my projects at home rather than having to bring them to work, which sometimes just isn't feasible. When I built the oval side exhaust, it involved so many lunch breaks and days off going back and forth from home to work. Some days when I would have normally made some progress, the drive to work to go use the TIG was so unappealing that I just said screw it lol.

 

When my wife and I were looking at houses I should have been smart and looked in your area, then just bring my junk over to your place when I need to fab stuff lol.

 

Thanks, man.  The TIG is really much more versatile.  Those little beads on the side of the cradle are probably around 1/8" wide.  I don't think I could achieve that with the MIG.  If I couldn't TIG it, I'd have actually probably bolted it together.  

 

You know honestly before I stumbled upon the Syncrowave, which was a bit more than I wanted to spend at the time but was just too good of an opportunity to pass up, I was about to pull the trigger on a small Everlast.  Maybe check them out.  At this point I'd say my bare minimum requirements for a machine, and this covers about 99% of everything I do and have done with the TIG, would be about a 200 amp DC TIG, HF start, and have a pedal.  Looking at the Everlast site it looks like the machine that fits the bill is the ITIG201 for $699.  I know selling tools is a thing we do not do, but I'd even sell my trusty little Hobart MIG for a TIG.

 

And ya'll can come by and chop, cut, bend, shape, and melt metal anytime!  Haha

 

 

20 hours ago, Tabres said:

How large is your shop/garage?  I'm constantly impressed by your projects and your ability to find and pick-up new tools, but at this point you have so many large items I'm having a hard time imagining how you fit it all in a single location as I was under the impression you were working out of like a 2-3 car garage size space.

 

Thanks, man.  The shop is 30' deep, 50' wide.  Here, I'll give you a little tour.  You know what's funny though, and something I think sometimes, is that I could probably do everything I do in a 2 car shop or so.  The reason I say that is much of the available space is used as storage for mostly my Dad's cars and car parts/stuff that I do not utilize.  The front of the shop is mostly garage doors all the way across, two single doors, and one double.  About the only space I utilize along that wall is between the two singles where I keep the portaband/chop saw, drill press, and disc sander/vacuum.  

 

The main entry door is on the far left hand side of the shop.  When you enter, this is what is all along that left hand wall.  Welders stuffed into the corner on the left, the TIG actually is a bit in the way of the door.  Majority of the things in that wood cabinet and wood shelving I do not use.  Most of the stuff on the pegboard I don't use, and the old workbench space could be utilized much better.  Dad built that though when I was 3 or 4 so he's kind of fond of it.  On the right side of the pic is my tool box and the air compressor in the corner.  Actually thinking about putting it outside in an enclosure.  For space, noise, and because I have an irrational fear of air tanks, gas cylinders, and things of that nature exploding.  If this were a wider shot you'd see the lift to the right where Dad stores two of his cars in that first bay, one on top of the other.  I very rarely use the lift so that's essentially a whole bay I don't use.  The next bay over is occupied by the Mustang.

 

Walk down to the compressor and take a right and this is what you see.  The compressor is to the left of the engine and shelf pictured.  That's mostly extra car parts on that shelf.  A few parts for the Charger though like the seats and grille is on top of it, so once the car is put back together that'll empty out a bit.  That's also the Chargers engine on that stand.  Then the shrinker/stretcher, English wheel, shear, lathe, punch, brake, and hydraulic press wheeled up in front of the brake.  After that, all the way to the end of that wall is more shelving.  That tall gray shelf you see there is all Charger parts and will clear out when the car goes back together.  It's a 4 ft wide shelf IIRC, then there's another filled with extra car parts, then a wood shelf I built filled again, mostly with extra car parts, lol.  The Charger's tranny is in the middle of the floor there, because I'm rearranging/cleaning out/making some more space.

 

Here's actually an old shot during some rearranging.  A better shot of those gray shelves, there are/were four of them side by side along that wall.  I took them apart, welded them together, welded in a some angle iron reinforcements in all them, stacked and welded two essentially turning it into two tall shelves, and chained them to the building.  You can also see the wood shelf I built.  IIRC that's 12' lumber I used.  That's where I keep a lot of my extra metal and a few Mustang parts.  You can see the front fenders up there.  But it's mostly extra car parts as well.

 

 

At that point I built a booth around the Charger.  I can't recall the dimensions exactly but it's somewhere around 24-25' deep and 16' wide.  Framed up wall sections and bolted them together.  The front and rear walls are two sections each, the side walls are three.  The idea was it could be taken down and stored.

 

Lined it with heavy plastic, electric stapler is a lifesaver. Fully sealed it to the floor and all seams.  Installed filters on each end.  Open the garage door, install a duct I built with a big fan in the end of it, and it is a blasting/paint booth.  This way the mess is contained and media was scooped up, filtered, and reused.  Works well.  Sucks the door to the booth shut in a hurry with the fan going, and all the plastic sort of bubbles inwards a little.

 

Outside front of the booth.  A few feet to all those shelves.  Only about a foot and a half of space to that other side wall though.  Not much room for anything over there.

 

Cleaned the hell out of the booth, change filters, and then it's the paint booth.  Before final paint I will replace all the plastic and reseal it to really have the booth nice and fresh and clean.  

 

So yeah, without all the extra stuff being stored, the lift bay occupied, and the booth, I bet all the stuff I actually use often could fit into a smaller shop.  One thing I do more and more, and something I have to do almost every time I get a new piece of equipment, is a lot of rearranging, and building up.  Thankfully the ceiling is high in this shop.  I'll actually probably pick up some pallet racks someday to get all the extra stuff up out of the way though.  Got a few more things to add.  

 

 

Edited January 27, 2017 by SublimeRT

[Steve-Oh]

Damn dude, for one, great job on the cradle!  I love all your layout, makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.  You guys really utilize your space well!  It's weird seeing this space and how well it's organized, then I go to my friends shop (probably double the space you have) and it has barely the amount of room in half your shop size.  It's so cluttered and unorganized it's insane how they get shit done.  

 

Keep doing you, it's so awesome! 

[Steve-Oh]

Side note, is that a specific layout paint or did you just spray it with blue paint?  Very cool / good idea for laying out metal, never used nor have I seen it in our shops.