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

[Danzo187]

Long story short, I walked out to the shop a little while ago & wanted to make the mounting situation better (no spacers).
So I ended up cutting 1” off of both of those studs, remounted & indicated the vise in. Good to go

Thank you for saying something about that. It made me do better & also realize that I wasn’t thinking when I made spacers & called it good enough.

where did you get the anti-fatigue mats from? I priced some last week, and the cost was ridiculous.
those would be perfect for when you drop small screws, parts etc... that seem to make their way to areas in the garage never to be seen again.

 

[ChazzC]

where did you get the anti-fatigue mats from? I priced some last week, and the cost was ridiculous.
those would be perfect for when you drop small screws, parts etc... that seem to make their way to areas in the garage never to be seen again.

I had red-ish orange mats like that that I git a Sam’s years ago; they were hard so didn’t provide much comfort and everything collected in the holes. They make relatively good walk-off mats, but I can’t recommend them for general use.

 

[RandallsRaceShop]

where did you get the anti-fatigue mats from? I priced some last week, and the cost was ridiculous.
those would be perfect for when you drop small screws, parts etc... that seem to make their way to areas in the garage never to be seen again.

You know, I random like walked down a flooring aisle at Home Depot this past winter & they were in that aisle. I didn’t even hesitate, I picked 3 of them up. They weren’t terribly expensive at all.
The bad part, is I was at HD to get something last week & wanted to get a few more…nowhere to be found! I do hope they were only out of stock, because you’re right, most good anti fatigue mats are incredibly expensive!
To make this worse, I don’t have any idea the brand. Sorry man.

 

[Danzo187]

You know, I random like walked down a flooring aisle at Home Depot this past winter & they were in that aisle. I didn’t even hesitate, I picked 3 of them up. They weren’t terribly expensive at all.
The bad part, is I was at HD to get something last week & wanted to get a few more…nowhere to be found! I do hope they were only out of stock, because you’re right, most good anti fatigue mats are incredibly expensive!
To make this worse, I don’t have any idea the brand. Sorry man.

Thanks, I'll check out HD

 

[Provincial]

I'm working on our John Deere 318 mower. It has been sitting for a long time waiting for parts. Today I put the seat back on, and one of the seat attach knobs was frozen on the stud. The stud sheared off, so I had to replace it. The stud had a flat head on the back side that wouldn't come loose, so I had to drill it out. To center the drill, I center drilled another bolt in my 10" Atlas lathe, then clamped a drill press vice to the mill table and held the bolt in the vertical groove in the jaw. I centered the spindle by using a 60 degree center, then swapped out the bolt for the broken stud, which luckily had enough left of the shank to grip. I center drilled the head of the stud and changed to a stub drill the size of the threads. When I started getting rust flakes in the drill shavings, I knew I was into the threads and quit. The old threads broke off just right and I had a perfect hole to weld the bolt into.



I pushed the new bolt into place and welded the head. All better now!

 

[finsruskw]

Did final jig fitment on a Cub super frame and Les welded the assemblies together.
Have yet to fit and finish drilling the drawbars for the Cat 'O' 3 point lifts we are making.
I have 2 of them sold and have to deliver them this week.

 

[dkemppai]

I think we REALLY need a project of the year. Er, maybe decade thread.

Finally managed to get all the rollers mounted. I'm sure it's over constrained somewhere. But the all seem to turn as expected, so no major issues if it is. Took a little welding to get this last angle in place. The process went something like: Tap, check, tap check, weld, check, cut, tap, check, weld, good enough. Then one last shaft to turn, and it needed a few holes drilled and tapped. Of course that means changing out half the tooling on the mill for one little part.


But, it all went together. Then cut a chunk of chain for the sprockets. Also, needed to taper the teeth on the sprockets. I knew this was coming, but decided it would be faster with a flap disk than trying to get these oddballs on the lathe. Few minutes and it was done. Finally, after forever building it, I get to take it for a spin. Sorry about the shaky video, not sure what was going on...

View attachment ItsAlive.mp4


And lastly, mount the thing on the bridge with the driveshaft. That turned out be an hour of hand fitting. There were pads designed into the bolted joint between the square drive bearing support, and the base with the gearbox. Being a bespoke design, it was easier to plan on hand fitting those pads to get the joint aligned than trying to hit everything perfectly. Especially with welded structures.



It might be apparent what this handwheel does now. It drives the driveshaft, which moves and keeps the bridge clocked. Videos below may explain it better.

View attachment POTY.mp4

I have a little more filing on the inside of the square drive. Some welding pulled it in just a touch, and the square drive shaft is oversize on one end just enough that it's stiff moving. Also considering adding four or eight rollers on the square drive for the square shaft. That would probably take care of it. Zero sliding surfaces, all bearings/rollers everywhere.

 

[rabler]

I think we REALLY need a project of the year. Er, maybe decade thread.

That is an impressive project. Of course if you want a project of the century thread, you're suppose to start a unique thread for your crane!

 

[pontiac428]

where did you get the anti-fatigue mats from? I priced some last week, and the cost was ridiculous.
those would be perfect for when you drop small screws, parts etc... that seem to make their way to areas in the garage never to be seen again.

I dun picked me up a stall mat from the local yee-haw store. Cheap, no holes to swallow small parts, springy enough for Trigger's hooves, and while you're there, you can pick up a 12 pack of baby chicks for the air fryer!

 

[Provincial]

I was working on the mower and needed to refresh the threads on a 3/8NC wing nut. There was a bin of taps nearby that I had picked up at a garage sale, but hadn't sorted into my bins that seemed to have the right tap. The first one I picked up said 3/8-16 on it, but it wouldn't fit in the old threads, so I set it down and grabbed another that also said 3/8-16 and it fit, so I ran it through and worked well.

I picked up the first tap and looked at it closer, seeing below the 3/8-16 it said Helicoil. So I put it with my Helicoil sets.