2021 POTD Thread Archive

[682bear]

This actually took a couple days, but I completed it today. At the end of last month I bought the die filer that Ray Bahr (@rbahr) advertised on the forum. He was able to disassemble, pack and ship it to me in 3 boxes, the last of which I got on 8/3. Unfortunately, the repair on the base (which Ray had mentioned in his ad) did not survive the trip. Not that it was in any way Ray's fault. He did a great job packing the parts, even lining the boxes with plywood. The heavy box with the base was just handled too roughly in transit. When I told Ray about the mishap, he even offered a partial refund, to pay for the material for a new base. I thanked him, but told him I already had something on hand.

What I used for the new base was a largish chunk of 3/4" MIC-6 aluminum tooling plate I'd salvaged from a piece of equipment HP had discarded many years ago. The aluminum was easy to saw to size (LOVE my new table saw!) The die filer body casting is open on the bottom and depends on the base to seal it off. Because the tooling plate was holey I cut a chunk of 1/8" aluminum to go between the casting and the tooling plate.
View attachment 374910

I stuck felt pads Ito the bottom of the tooling plate, to provide a bit of vibration damping.
View attachment 374911

Next, I made a new motor mount bracket. The original was a bit stiff and did not allow enough wrench access for the mounting bolt heads. In addition, it held the motor in a fixed axial location, even though the motor pulley has two grooves (for 350 or 450 strokes/minute). The new motor mount allows the motor to slide axially and keep the belt straight in either position.
View attachment 374912

These shots show the "finished product" from the front, with the belt cover on and off.
View attachment 374913
View attachment 374914

The T-wrench is for tightening the file clamp.
View attachment 374915

The other wrench is needed for now because the clamp screws for the file backup roller and the work hold-down have plain nuts on them. The filer originally had knurled knobs in these two places, and I plan to make some in the next few days.

Thanks again, Ray!

Was the original base cast iron, or cast aluminum?

I rebuilt an old DoAll / American die filer a while back that had a cast aluminum base plate... over the years, repeated 'overtightening' of the drive belt had cracked the base on both sides and had it pulled up into a shallow bow... I reused the original base, but added two extra supports under the middle to prevent it from bowing any farther.

-Bear

 

[hman]

The original was cast iron. Among other things, I don't yet have the skills to weld/braze that material.

 

[savarin]

Any details of that posted?

Thanks,
-brino

Here we go, the sizes and implementation are mine but the design is very common on line.

!.25" iron pipe, 1.25 to 1.5" reducer at the flame end, 1.25 to 1.75" reducer at the air inlet end. I think these are the correct measurement because iron pipe dimensions make no logical sense.
The burner end has been smoothed out inside to remove all the threads

and so has the air inlet end

The drilled out long bolt can be adjusted from here al the way to inside the pipe (for experimentation purposes)
The first melt had the gas jet (0.6mm mig nozzle) set at the beginning of the pipe, not this far out.
The original pipe had three air inlet holes that are still there but totally covered with a sliding shield (old experiment)
The air inlet adjuster turned from an old ingot can be set from no air to fully open that produces a very lean flame.



The first melt I kept at a very lean flame and poured as soon as completely liquid and seems to have produced a very homogeneous casting with no visible porosity.

edit- I should mention I use the propane straight from the bottle so its only regulated with the bottle tap

 

[Weldingrod1]

My most important mentor from Rice is turning 80, and his daughter chased me down; they want cards from his buddies as a surprise. Now, you know me... I'm not sending -paper- products!
Powder coat works great for filling letters or backfilling panels!

This was waaay easier than the last panel. Four reasons: i made it big enough to cut ok with 1/8", I bought 1/16" straight and 1mm tapered end mills to supplement my usual 1/8", and I skipped the horrid V bits.

I did the bulk 2mm deep cutting with 1/8", then successively outlined with smaller and smaller. Worked nicely!

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

[GoceKU]

After a week of no spare time, i finally today i had couple hours to spare so its time to work on the 206. My big garage is now completely a mess and in the few days i've let it seat no work got done on its own. First task was to change the timing belt on the engine that is going in, there is no better access then now, the belt on it dasen't have too many mileages but is like 10 years old. There was lots of oil leakage from the valve cover that i clean up. Then i moved to the interior started by removing the fuse panel, non A/C heater box then removed the brake pedal so i can remove the brake booster in the engine bay making room to remove the wiring loom. With the blue's wiring out i lay the one from the orange car next to it re wraped couple of wires to protect them better and fished it in the engine bay and back in the interior. Then i used my vacuum cleaner, couple brushes and clean off all the places that are covered by the heater and dash, then the A/C heater box and lines got instaled. Then the brake booster got installed back and everything looks like i've not done anything all day. I also found lots of cracked hoses that i'll be replacing for the LPG on the engine and couple on the cooling system, i also need to replace the valve cover gasket before i can pop the body over the engine, that will be fun to do.

 

[GoceKU]

Today was a very hot day, 607 thermometer measures 49 degrees centigrade (120 F) in the city centre, but it wasn't there where i needed to be more careful, it was on the highway. On my way back from work blue/ silver Bmw driver fell asleep i'm guessing and he bump my rear quarter and back bumper, of course next thing he did was to run away, he was on serbian plates so by the time i could do anything he will be out of the country. One more bump for the 607, no big deal. Just as i was getting ready to continue working on the 206 my brother called, white elephant No2 decided to throw a check engine and had a dead battery, he had left it up hill on a one way street in the city centre, so i went there scan it, it had a code for timing, which i know it throws it when it has low voltage, i barely go it to start and seen i had only 10,2V so i send my brother to go and buy a voltage regulator and i begian removing the one on the car with a very small ratchet set i had in my back pack. Just as i got rally dirty in front of everyone i know i got the regulator out and my brother bought me a new one, installation was fuster, also sun was going down. The battery was dead so i call over the dump truck driver to push me with the truck, bumper to bumper, dropped the clutch in 3 gear it fired up and keep running, thenk the dump truck driver and went home. The sun gave me a good headache.

 

[Gaffer]

Your brother is very fortunate to have you! I'm not sure if I should feel inspired by you, or ashamed I couldn't keep up with you on my best day Keep up the great work!

 

[mksj]

Built a micrometer stop, body is 7075, thumb wheel and rod is O1 steel and threaded at 20 TPI (scribe marks are 0.002"), There is an alignment pin underneath that prevents it form turning. Foot is 1018 CRS. Hard to get my greasy paw prints from messing up the finish. This design is quite compact, but offers about 1.1" of travel.

 

[vtcnc]

My most important mentor from Rice is turning 80, and his daughter chased me down; they want cards from his buddies as a surprise. Now, you know me... I'm not sending -paper- products!
Powder coat works great for filling letters or backfilling panels!

This was waaay easier than the last panel. Four reasons: i made it big enough to cut ok with 1/8", I bought 1/16" straight and 1mm tapered end mills to supplement my usual 1/8", and I skipped the horrid V bits.

I did the bulk 2mm deep cutting with 1/8", then successively outlined with smaller and smaller. Worked nicely!

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

Very, very nicely done!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[f350ca]

Cleaned up and repaired a 40 ton Manley press. 70 years old by the tag and back pushing the world around. As the neighbour said, it hasn't seen much love over the years.





Greg