POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

[Janderso]

Needed a seal driver for the crank seal on the wife’s mini. Didn’t have anything in my box that fit, so:

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fished around in my scrap bin and came out with a couple pieces that were close. A little whittling on the lathe and a zap with the mig et voila! Custom seal driver.

I didn’t put a lot of time into making it “pretty” as its going to be a one time use thing. I’ll chuck it in my “DIY Tools” drawer and maybe find another use for it sometime in the future…

That’s using your head

 

[francist]

Hydro tested my Speedaire compressor tank.

That looks like nifty little rig for hydro testing. Yours or did you rent it somewhere?

-frank

 

[DavidR8]

That looks like nifty little rig for hydro testing. Yours or did you rent it somewhere?

-frank

I bought it actually. Seemed like a handy thing to have.

 

[AGCB97]

A few hour project.

When I was cleaning out a friend's dad's shop a few years ago, there was an old Whitney_Jensen 10-ton punch press that they were going to let go to scrap. Because it was 120 volt and at scrap price, I bought it. In further cleaning, every time I ran into punches and dies of any kind/size I grabbed them. Ended up with about 150 pounds of them in various size boxes.

The other day they were all dumped out on my big steel table so they could be sorted and matched. I then put them away in two wooden boxes built for the purpose. I also learned how to adapt different sizes to fit the press and how to quickly center the punch in the die.

Then I gathered a small box of the specific tools needed to put it all together so they would be close at hand. Now it will be quick to assemble a set of the size/shape I need.




Keeping good stuff from the smelter!
Aaron

 

[Larry$]

Those things can be very productive but they can also be very dangerous. I ran one punching out 1/2" homosote. We made rule dies for it. It was a big monster that shook the building. Also made 1/4" steel into handles to be welded onto horse trailers. Auto fed from a coil of 1/4" steel wire.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

Finished up my brazing run
Note bits of broken off end mill flutes! The small threading bar rod was originally a solid carbide boring bar that had the head snapped off, so I used the other end



Also got to use my new collet chuck for the first time. It worked really well!

 

[woodchucker]

POTD a little more work on our Case 580 backhoe. The fuel gauge hasn’t worked in 20 years. My work around had been a dowel dropped into the fuel tank to check the level. I knew what the problem was, but was too lazy at the time to fix it. Looking in an access hole above the tank, I could see mice had made a nest on top of the fuel tank and had chewed through the sender wire.


Fuel sender is below the access hole next to the fuel fill. Impossible to get to unless you pull the front of dash which supports the air filter and hydraulic system filter
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Hard to see, but the sender and its chewed through wires are visible through this hole (along with a large mouse nest)
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Okay, the sender has one lead, but the harness has two leads. So what am I missing?

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As long as I had the engine cover off to take care of my fuel issue, I figured I might as well fix the fuel gauge too. I pulled the front of dash to get access to the top of the fuel tank and noticed a 2nd wire was chewed through also. I pretty sure this must be a line to a pressure switch (?) at the hydraulic filter. Threw a wet towel on top of the tank and soldered extension wires to both leads. Then ran a length of flex conduit over the leads to give future mice a bit more of a challenge.


Ah, the second lead goes to a pressure switch at the hydraulic system filter. Soldered on extensions with a wet towel over the fuel tank.
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And slipped the leads into some flexible conduit. Hopefully something mice don't like the flavor of!
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And all back together and ready to dig! It was 90+F today, supposed to be down to 80 early next week. I'll post some photos of the Case in action.
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I didn’t show it, but I fired up the backhoe and the fuel gauge is working. Now what to do with my fuel “dipstick”?

Thanks for looking, Bruce

forget that, the mice love those tubes. My fuel system has that same piping for the return to the gas tank filler.. Mice ate through. The part is over 600 and the job they want over 800. I spliced it but made a mistake using silicone, and silicone tape. Found out that they are not compatible with gas or gas fumes. I need to redo it.

 

[Martin W]

Neighbors got an old Continental 163 engine that had the exhaust flap left open. Helping him rebuild it. Cleaned up the exhaust manifold and resurfaced the head.
Martin

 

[Martin W]

First pass on the manifold. I had to make two passes .015” total to clean it up.
Martin

 

[Dhal22]

That looks like nifty little rig for hydro testing. Yours or did you rent it somewhere?

-frank

Us (we?) plumbers use this hydrostic pump regularly.