2015 POTD Thread Archive

I rebuilt a 1951 Willis Jeep about 20 years ago. I had always wanted to tear down and rebuild a vehicle. It was the loudest thing I've ever done and nearly deafened me. A lot of rust, a lot of pounding, sawing, welding and grinding and it completely dominated my shop for almost a year.

I took the transmission and transfer case apart and rebuilt it. After I put it back together, there was one part left over.It looked important, but I could not find it on any of the drawings I had. It was like a bearing, except a lozenge shape. I later found out it was a some kind of interlock to keep it out of low range in reverse to keep from twisting off the drive shafts.

I figured it was a good first rebuild project. They are simple. I took it completely down to the frame, restoring or rebuilding everything, including the brake lines. I didn't have to do anything to the engine. It had been rebuilt by some engineers at Texas Instruments to run a generator at some remote site. They had installed aircraft spark plugs on it and it ran like a top.

I've done it once and I got it completely out of my system. I don't think I ever want to do another one.
 
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I mostly use calipers. I have an old Mitutoyo dial caliper, and several Chinese digitals. I like the digitals because they convert metric to inch and one of them actually converts to fractions. I do find that I have to re-zero them often. But, the old Mitutoyo dial is really nicely made.

The problem I have with calipers is that they have to be exactly square on the part or there is some variance. It is the same with a micrometer, but the anvils on a micrometer are flat and it is easier to keep them square to the part you are measuring.

I purchased a Mitutoyo 1-2" model 103-262 micrometer on eBay today for $29.95 (free shipping). It will go with the 0-1" that I got years ago in a pawn shop.

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I've finally worked out the thread size for the oil hole set screws on thee cross slide byb the hand wheel and just above the acme thread actuator rod on my Atlas cum Sphere lathe.
It's no fun trying to measure such a small hole and count the threads . So knowing it was likely an Atlas made bit of kit and that it would have been UNF/ ANF I turned up a bit of rod so it just went down the threaded hole .....the rod dia was 0.1049 "

That took me to checking the MOLO where I found the nearest minor diameter and it turned out to be a No 6 40 tpi thread having and OD of 0.1380 " and a min dia of 0.1055 ( which is about the thickness of the lead in the pencil I was using ) .

I've not turned such a fine threaded screw on the old Sphere ,

Firstly after grinding the threading knife to 60 deg I forgot to stone it and round the point a tad which fair tore into the metal leaving it like a ploughed field .
Second attempt having sorted that little prob out I inadvertently did a carriage return without back off the cross slide whoops an anticlockwise scrawk ripped right across the thread form

Third attempt I was taking the final microscopic cleaning /finishing cut when the threaded bit fell off .. ( Honest your Honour I din't do nuffin :apologize:)
I eventually discovered it was the slop in the cross slide that allowed the tool to grab the work piece. There is nearly 3/32 th of end float that I cannot get rid of , so every time I back the cross slide off I have to take it well back , then screw in to take the slack then a bit more to offer the cutter to the work .:cautious:


Fourth time , " :cheerful: Eu bloody reeka " it is good and a slightly tight fit .:grin big:

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Tomorrow if I have time I will try and make two screw in stainless steel or some better steel such as an old twist drill shank as the mild steel scrap rod I used today was a bit too soft & didn't turn very well . Cutting them to 3/16 lengths with a conical bottom end & slotting them across the top for a tiny screw driver with a small Dremmel type grinder should be interesting . :encourage:

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Franko & Charles ,
I had fun trying to work out which Chinese measuring device was the most accurate .... The digital caliper or the metric micrometer I came to the expensive conclusion that it's neither as the caliper is 0.0015 mm out and the micrometer 0.0008 mm @ 13 oC.

My mate Paul who lives back in East Anglia would pee himself laughing at my results , for he is a specialist measuring technician for Peterbrotherhood Engineering , where with his laser devices he can measure in nano measurements
 
zmotorsports said:
Paco, sweet FJ40 and extremely nice shop. I had a similar looking FJ40 in my shop about a month ago doing some much needed repairs for a client. He had a SBC in it though and it was not what I would exactly call a "clean" installation. Absolutely no where near the condition of yours. Very nice for a daily driver.

My Jeep is far from old, actually the newest vehicle I have ever owned, but I plan on keeping it for many, many years and one day hope it will be a good representation of a well kept daily driver/ weekend wheeler/RV toad.

Mike.
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Thanks for the kind words Mike,

I plan on a 1HZ-T diesel for her someday but require importation. Many hours spent on her in the beginning, but reliable considering over the past two years building the shop she only saw oil changes.

I'm sure you've made some improvements to your jeep no doubt. Very capable platform and a blast to own.
 
Round in circles said:
Franko & Charles ,
I had fun trying to work out which Chinese measuring device was the most accurate .... The digital caliper or the metric micrometer I came to the expensive conclusion that it's neither as the caliper is 0.0015 mm out and the micrometer 0.0008 mm @ 13 oC.
Click to expand...

Your Chinese calipers must be better than mine. It started out with a variance of 0.0015" (0.038 mm). After I cleaned them up I was getting 0.0005" (0.012 mm).

My Starret micrometer measures to 0.0001". I know that it is accurate to at least 0.001" (0.025 mm). Beyond that I don't know because I don't have anything calibrated that finely. The consistency of measurement with the micrometer was much better than the caliper. However that could be the result of operator technique.
 
made a switch cover to convert it from a clicky (latching) switch to an electronic switch as the clicky switches kept giving me grief. Made from some scrap aluIMG_4092.JPG IMG_4093.JPG IMG_4094.JPG

finally had a eureka moment where I changed some code in the program that runs the driver and now the user interface is mostly how I want it. I've been staring at the code (C+?) for over a year so this is huge for me. The next steps, hidden strobe and 50% battery warning, will take considerably longer. I may end up just rebuilding the light as it is now - I don't want to be without it for another year!

Also fixed the air spring sleeve on my commuter bike suspension fork. Some soapy water showed that it was leaking from between the sleeve cylinder and the end cap. Used my new HF hot air gun to kill the loctite holding it together, replaced the o-ring inside and it's been holding air for a couple of days now. Very pleased with myself - a $10 tool saved me $60!

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savarin said:
I needed something to bore two different diameters for a flanged bearing.
Having played with the drive shaft chunk I thought of a use for it.
I turned down the first bit 12mm to fit the existing hole then to fit the bearing dia.
Then an angle grinder to roughly add some teeth.
One end for the bearing the other end for the flange diameters.
Pretty scrappy but it worked remarkably well and produced a clean hole.
Not having a mill I held the tool in the chuck, pressed the face of my tail stock drill chuck against the aluminium side plate to keep it square and allowed the side arm to spin until it hit the cross slide and spin no more
Heres the fit, the screws dont quite touch the flange.
Click to expand...


is that an old anvil from an impact wrench ?
 
Nothing machining related but over the past two nights I had to squeeze myself up into the rear of our coach between the frame and the transmission to replace the lift pump on the Cummins ISL400 in our coach. What a HUGE PITA to do. My back and chest are bruised to hell from squeezing my big self into a not so big space. In a Class 8 truck this would be a piece of cake, flip the hood up and it is staring at you, a 45-minute job tops. Cram that same engine into the rear of an RV where there is only about 8" between the frame rail and the engine block and it turned into a 3+ hour job and had to do the entire thing one handed because I could only get one arm to the pump.

Hope I don't have to do that again for a long, long time.

Mike.
 
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