2021 POTD Thread Archive

[mattthemuppet2]

and in another few months will be a call "bro, car won't start, come fix it for me", repeat ad infinitum.

nothing super interesting in my shop, lots of little projects that were on hold while I made the toolholders. One of the little projects was to paint the steady and follow rest for my SB9

 

[f350ca]

Not metal work, but Im working in the machine shop.
Need more storage space, who doesn't, so Im timber framing a 20 x 29 open front shed to park a couple of trailers and the tractor.
The posts and tie beams are 6 x 6 white pine, The main beams that support the rafters will be 6 x 10 white pine.
Lots of whittling to get the parts ready, then it goes up in a day.






A little machine work, using the surface grinder to sharpen my framing chisel



Greg

 

[FOMOGO]

That's some nice work on the posts, and beams. Should make for a great shed. Looking forward to seeing it go together. Mike

 

[Brento]

Yea that is fantastic. I dont know if i would have the patience to do all of that. I would prob just nail it all together. Just wouldnt be sturdy like yours

 

[GoceKU]

I just have to cringe at the thought of what the roads must be like over there in Macedonia!

Roads are not the issue, its some of the drivers. The police since the coronavirus has tightened on speeding and unsafe vehicles but not for the drivers that don't follow the signs and rules. I'll put a link below from an article in one hour the police wrote 80 speeding tickets in my city, and my city is the size of a big shopping centre in the US.

За еден час полицијата напиша 80 казни во Куманово (ФОТО)

Осумдесет казни напиша полицијата денеска во засилената акциска контрола низ сообраќајниците во Куманово. Loading... Како што информираше портпаролот на Министерството за внатрешни работи Тони Ангеловски, се преземаат сите неопходни мерки за да се стави ред на улиците. Loading... – Од...

kumanovskimuabeti.mk

 

[GoceKU]

Well after a full day in the garage cleaning and assembly i've got the new ( not sized) engine ina and running. Start the day with placing the engines in line and transferring all the bits from one to the other, the fly wheel bolts had lots of threadlocker on them i'm guessing have been reused many times without cleaning the old staff off. Then come the time for the turbocharger, it is a variable vane and it was stuck so i had to take it apart wash it and reassemble it, also the EGR and intake was full of carbon build up. This took lots of time but i did get it very clear, i should have called it enough here but i did not. I continued bolt by bolt and got it ready, pick up and installed in the chassis, from there it was relatively easy to get everything bottled up its been in one position for half a million km so wires and hoses have memory and fall in place easily. After connecting everything except for the cooling system i crank it but it wouldn't fire, i cracked an injector line loose and won't getting any fuel, so i vent to the big garage and got me an hand pump from a peugeot installed it and prime the injection pump with fuel. Turn the key again and it fired up instantly, didn't run it for long and got back to assembling, the radiator support was pushed back to the oil pan and all the radiator mounts wore ripped off. So i glued some of them and had couple new one laying around but could not install the radiator becouse of the bent metal so i fired it up drove id back and using an old seat belt tide it to the inspection pit. Then using the engine in reverse pulled the support straighten flatten it with a hummer. By this time it was past midnight so i stopped. The engine is running an by the onbordcomputer is consuming less fuel, i've just noticed is showing operating temp not sure why but is back together and is running well, i have few hours tomorrow to put it back together do an oil change drive it around and to call my brother to get it away from my garage.

 

[BGHansen]

POTD was a tune-up on our 1967 Williams Base Hit pitch and bat pinball machine. These were pretty popular back in the day, hit a button to "pitch" the ball (fast, curve or knuckle), and pull a lever to swing the bat. This version (there were variations from around 1950 - 1972) has targets that determine the outcome of the hit. The feature that makes these Williams pitch and bats stand out is the running man unit in the back box. It's cool watching the men run the bases!


1967 Williams Base Hit pitch and bat pinball machine


Men run the bases depending on the target hit by the batted ball



The 1967 version also has three ramps that elevate the ball into an upper tray for a home run. The problem I was having was getting home runs off the center ramp. There's a pot under the game for adjusting bat speed, but that didn't help. I pulled the cover glass to take a closer look. The problem was pretty obvious at that point, the ramp angle for the center ramp was too low to direct the ball into the home run tray.


My game has a reproduction "fence". I shined a light on the sign and could see all of the dents where the ball hits the "fence" off the center ramp


This is an "as it left the factory" fence. These are almost always cracked from balls whacking it. It was thin plastic, was attached to a piece of plywood at the very top and unsupported below. Mine has a piece of 1/4" aluminum for a fence.


Curious why the game designers at Williams would expect an identical center ramp closer to the fence to fly the same as the outer ramps. My game didn't have a problem with hits "clearing the fence" on the outer ramps, but always came up short at center field.


Here's the ramp angle of an outer ramp. Depending on ball speed, it'll comfortably clear the fence.


Center ramp. Pretty obvious why the "fence" was so dented in the middle.


The sheet metal ramp is attached to the table through a plastic boss. The rubber O-ring keeps the ball from hitting the boss.




My fix was to shim up the high side of the ramp. Oh, what a shame, had to add a couple of washers and play for a while to see if the balls were "flying out of the park" or bouncing off the fence! It took a few games, but I finally came up with a pretty good stack of shims. Chucked up a piece of 1/2" polyethylene, center drilled, drilled a clearance hole for the attaching screw, and parted to length.


Center drill


Clearance hole for the attaching screw to the table


Parting to length


Shims/nuts that worked well after MANY, MANY games! Finished bushing to the right.


Ramp angle with new bushing in place



Coming from an engineering background, we're trained to collect data to confirm our fixes. So, headed to the basement as soon as I hit "Post reply" to confirm I've got a right height bushing there!

Thanks for looking, Bruce

 

[francist]

I can hear it now just above the roar of the crowd…. “…it’s two away in the bottom of the third with BG Hansen stepping up to the plate…..CRAAACKKK…

 

[hman]

Bruce, that looks like a genuine home run to me!

 

[BGHansen]

Bruce, that looks like a genuine home run to me!

Thanks John. Yeah, great. Another reason to not be out in the shop!

Bruce


p.s. I picked up the machine a few weeks ago. I had fond memories of spending lots of quarters on them when visiting cousins. I won't pretend to understand all of the workings (yet). The pitch can be fast, curve (albeit labeled slow) and knuckle. So how do they put a spin on the ball? They don't. There are two electromagnets under the playfield that are energized by the appropriate pitch button. Hit the "SLOW" (curve), one electromagnet powers up. Knuckle ball powers up both. Maybe get the millennials off their phones when we host Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.