2019 POTD Thread Archive

Couldn't have said it better, myself. Happy for you, Bruce.
 
Today i made a list what jobs to finish first so i won't be taking apart staff that i've assembled, an first was the thick wires to the starter, i've replaced them when i first bought this car but since then i've found out many things that someone made so badly that are unsafe, so i thought i'll check the starter, and yes instead of three M8 bolts someone used two M6 with nuts and one entity missing i disassembled and cleaned up the starter, the brushes are nearly new. I looked for a date and found that this is not the original starter this one is made in bulgaria, it is a very heavy starter, all cast iron so i painted the body to stop it from rusting and started assembling it. I run the wires thru two fireproof insulation and used shrink wrap and cable ties to secure it, then i focus on the wiring on this corner, i removed the old voltage regulator and other relays, wrapped the unused connectors and secued the rest of the wiring i got the dash gauges out and traced the wire to the light for the alternator and connected the Alternator with all new and insulated connectors, i put the connector for the headlights and indicators easy to access to be easy to trace if i ever need to. This job took me about 6 hours but now i'm sure the starter in bolted with proper M8 stainless bolts and this part of the wiring is sorted, i'll have to run wiring for the fans letter on. I thought Italian electrics are bad this is worse.
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Today I worked on pill bottle no spill containers. I make them and modified children’s paint cups as channel gifts
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I've been trying out some accessories I bought for the rotary table this winter.

View attachment 263165

It's a Vertex HV-8 8" rotary table. It fits pretty well on the 8x30 table of my mill.

Mounted a MT3 -> ER32 adapter into the rotary table. Had to make a thick washer and dig-out a metric bolt for a mini drawbar. It was cheap enough although the .002 runout isn't anything to write home about. It should do for many applications but for fussy stuff I will have to use a center + dog.

View attachment 263173

Also got the DP-2 dividing plate kit made for this rotary table. Had to do a bit of fitting (the crank wouldn't fit on the shaft) but it's working well now. I did briefly consider obtaining the popular BS-1 dividing head, but I have enough trouble keeping the rust off this thing without having another rarely used piece of tooling. Compared to the BS-1, the table doesn't pivot but those big plates support all divisions 100 and below, whereas most of the smaller heads start having trouble with divisions over 50. It's not a problem for this setup, but notice the plate's considerable overhang at the edge of the table.

Also picked-up a tailstock. It's not from Vertex, but this one was a bit cheaper and seems nicer. The height is adjustable with a knob and it has enough range for the rotary table at the top end and extends down to support collet blocks (on parallels) in the vise which should come in quite handy. I was also surprised the supplied mounting bolts fit in the smaller slots of this mill table.

Have a small job for the table tomorrow and then it's back onto the shelf. I'm so glad I didn't buy a bigger table as this thing is heavy enough to lug around.
What is the size of the spring clip that holds the guide and plate onto the shaft? I have the same table and plate but I think I was sent the clip for the smaller one. A photo with dimensions would really be appreciated.
Thanks
 
Today i continued working on the Little Niva. With the front painted i need to start assembling the cooling system, so i started with the fans, they have been fited before but i need to make couple of air deflectors to make the system efficient, i made the side pieces from galvanised steel and the top piece from aluminium, bending cutting the sheet steel is easier but still hard, so this took me close to 6 hours but i did everything right, all the brackets got painted, all the screws got lock washers i even double lock the main bolts for the radiator from the fear of them vibrating loose. It is looking great.
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it isn't real yet but figuring out how it worked and designing it in fusion 360 was a bit of a project. I'm wondering if I should make one?


this was inspired by a sculpture i stumbled on:

 
Today, I finished putting our tractor back together. The low range gear lost about a third of its teeth and in order to replace it, the tractor had to be split in two. To do so required draining the fuel, the hydraulic fluid, and the transmission fluid and removing the hydraulic reservoir and rear controls and the fuel tank. Also, the linkages for the transmission, the brakes and parking brakes, the PTO, the 4WD were disconnected. When that was complete, front end was set on blocks and the transmission was unbolted from the shuttle shift assembly. The rear end was then wheeled away from the front.

Nortrac Repair10 _01.JPG

Once the transmission was fully exposed it was apparent that the rear end would have to be completely disassembled. This meant pulling the brake assemblies, the differential assembly, the hydraulic unit, and the left and right half axles.

Figuring out how to do this was a bit of a challenge as there is no shop manual. I had to rely on the parts diagram and my general knowledge of things mechanical. Needless to say, there were a few missteps along the way.

Nortrac Repair 3 .JPGNortrac Repair 9 .JPG


Nortrac Repair 2 .JPG
The hydraulic unit removed. I had to buy a 2t. shop hoist from HF to do the job.

Nortrac Repair 1 .JPG
With the hudraulic unit removed, the rear half of the transmission was exposed. Everything except for the gold PTO shaft and the gearset at at the left hd to be removed.

Nortrac Repair 7 .JPG
The front half of the transmission. The damgad gearis below the gear cluster shownand everything had to be removed from this section as well.

With the new gears in place, reassembly began. I thought that it would be comparatively easy but was oh so wrong. There is a specific order that the reassembly must be done. Altering the order meant significantly harder assembly or having to unassemble. With two steps forward, one step back, the tractor was finally whole again after 60+hours of work and 17 days elapsed.

To make things more complicated, the humidity the last several days has been excessively oppressive. Although I was working in the relatively cool barn, the floor was below the dew point so moisture was condensing on the floor. I periodically spread a layer of Oil Dry and swept the floor but that was only good for an hour or two. Myself, I changed clothes three times a day and managed to drop ten lbs. in the ordeal.

A brief test of all the functions was successful and the tractor is ready for work again.
 
Good GRIEF!!!! An ordeal, indeed. Sounds like a brand new corollary of Murphy's law - the part that fails is the most inaccessible one in the entire assembly.
 
Today, I finished putting our tractor back together. The low range gear lost about a third of its teeth and in order to replace it, the tractor had to be split in two. To do so required draining the fuel, the hydraulic fluid, and the transmission fluid and removing the hydraulic reservoir and rear controls and the fuel tank. Also, the linkages for the transmission, the brakes and parking brakes, the PTO, the 4WD were disconnected. When that was complete, front end was set on blocks and the transmission was unbolted from the shuttle shift assembly. The rear end was then wheeled away from the front.

View attachment 297685

Once the transmission was fully exposed it was apparent that the rear end would have to be completely disassembled. This meant pulling the brake assemblies, the differential assembly, the hydraulic unit, and the left and right half axles.

Figuring out how to do this was a bit of a challenge as there is no shop manual. I had to rely on the parts diagram and my general knowledge of things mechanical. Needless to say, there were a few missteps along the way.

View attachment 297686View attachment 297687


View attachment 297689
The hydraulic unit removed. I had to buy a 2t. shop hoist from HF to do the job.

View attachment 297690
With the hudraulic unit removed, the rear half of the transmission was exposed. Everything except for the gold PTO shaft and the gearset at at the left hd to be removed.

View attachment 297691
The front half of the transmission. The damgad gearis below the gear cluster shownand everything had to be removed from this section as well.

With the new gears in place, reassembly began. I thought that it would be comparatively easy but was oh so wrong. There is a specific order that the reassembly must be done. Altering the order meant significantly harder assembly or having to unassemble. With two steps forward, one step back, the tractor was finally whole again after 60+hours of work and 17 days elapsed.

To make things more complicated, the humidity the last several days has been excessively oppressive. Although I was working in the relatively cool barn, the floor was below the dew point so moisture was condensing on the floor. I periodically spread a layer of Oil Dry and swept the floor but that was only good for an hour or two. Myself, I changed clothes three times a day and managed to drop ten lbs. in the ordeal.

A brief test of all the functions was successful and the tractor is ready for work again.
Ulysses!.
John.
 
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