Saving An Old Craftsman Floor Jack

[astroracer]

A friend of mine broke the diecast universal joint in his Craftsman floor jack. He couldn't find a replacement universal so, in looking at the broke pieces, I figured it wouldn't be that hard to make a new one out of steel.

The pieces aren't that big. Only 3/4" in diameter. All of the parts after dis-assembly.


I found a piece of 3/4" diameter steel in the drop pile.

I cleaned up the OD in the lathe, faced off the ends and drilled out the bore's for the mating parts. Test fitting the parts.


With that done I clamped the piece in the vise on the mill and machined off both sides.


With that done I picked up the ends and center drilled for the pin holes.

After drilling out the pin holes I flipped the part 90 degrees in the vise and hogged out the center portion with a 1/2" end mill.


After some deburring and cleanup.

I split the piece into two.

After rounding over the cut ends and a bit of assembly and I had a new U-Joint!



This was fun project and it will save an old jack from the scrap pile.
Mark

 

[newbydave]

That is why it is fun to be a hobby machinist. I have also made small repair parts for something that would otherwise ended in the garbage or recycle bin.

A friend of mine broke the diecast universal joint in his Craftsman floor jack. He couldn't find a replacement universal so, in looking at the broke pieces, I figured it wouldn't be that hard to make a new one out of steel.

The pieces aren't that big. Only 3/4" in diameter. All of the parts after dis-assembly.


I found a piece of 3/4" diameter steel in the drop pile.

I cleaned up the OD in the lathe, faced off the ends and drilled out the bore's for the mating parts. Test fitting the parts.


With that done I clamped the piece in the vise on the mill and machined off both sides.


With that done I picked up the ends and center drilled for the pin holes.

After drilling out the pin holes I flipped the part 90 degrees in the vise and hogged out the center portion with a 1/2" end mill.


After some deburring and cleanup.

I split the piece into two.

After rounding over the cut ends and a bit of assembly and I had a new U-Joint!



This was fun project and it will save an old jack from the scrap pile.
Mark

 

[Micke S]

Nice work !

 

[kvt]

That looks good, and will prob outlast the rest of the jack.

 

[FOMOGO]

Nice job. Always good to save something useful. Mike

 

[A618fan2]

Nice work - clever too! Those look to be the same as the ones on an Atlas mill power feed. The universals on my Atlas mill where broken when I bought it and I made replacements but never thought to mill both sides at once - that's just mad problem solving skills!