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Shop Project

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billd View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote billd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jan/28/2016 at 7:38am
Originally posted by WARBED WARBED wrote:

Very nice Bar, Had a Vulcan/Storm but ended up selling it, never had the chance to use it and had to make some room. Funny but the one I had came from the same dealer that I worked at for 30 years. Found out that the owners son took it back in the 70's and sold it to a local Machine shop. At the time they thought the body shop manager stole it, When I bought my Lathe at the local closed down Napa the owner Joe and I got into a conversation and I mentioned the boring bar, He told me that Billy (dealers son) tried selling it to him but he new he swiped it. Very small world. The one I had actually mounted on the engine and it was still in the original shipping crate with the bill of sale in a leather pouch. When I worked at a Linc/Merc store in Ohio they were throwing a Engine stand away because it was old and hard to move around. owner gave it to me and I lugged that thing around since 1979.  Ended up selling it on Ebay. It weighed as much as an engine and was 100% cast iron. It was made for the Ford flathead blocks and mounted to the side of the engine instead of the back trans area. wish I could keep every thing but just don't have the room anymore, I do like your shop layout but before you know it it just seams to get smaller and smaller.


The boring bar is a Van Norman 777. A lot of machinists that hang out in the machinist type forums and other places still really like them for accuracy, versatility and so on. Over the past year or so I've seen quite a few times where someone came into one of their forums and said "I have chance at a xxxxxx, what do you think" and the responses always included "I have one........." or "I used one for years in the shop and you can't beat them......." and so on. I've yet to see/hear anything negative unless it's perhaps someone saying they have a model or two larger with longer stroke or whatever. That's the only time I've ever seen anything that wasn't very positive - when someone said they needed to do a longer bore, but often those guys had a 777 AND a larger one - or even two!
They have the "cat paws" that run in the bore and help keep things straight, and this one has all that would have come with it. The tool set is complete as well as we could figure - except for the piece that helps pull the cutter out of the bar - Art made the one seen in the picture with the long hand hold area, normally they simply had a loop for holding while you hooked the cutter and pulled it out. I've got some photos of the original tool IN the box so I can extrapolate the correct original size fairly close and will some day (HAHA) duplicate one that fits into the spot in that box for that tool.
Some comments I've seen included "few can bore a straighter hole than the Van Norman" so I felt ok getting it.

It's mounted on that table so you can bore motorcycle cylinders, small engines - things other than or smaller than auto engines. Otherwise, it's "portable" - yeah, right, ok, that means my table saw is a portable saw, too, right? At about 600 pounds ya just haul it down the stairs and toss it into the pickup and take it to the construction site. Fine....... it only took 2 guys to get the cast iron top up the stairs.   LOL  This bar is portable if you have a nice beam in your shop and a chain hoist on a trolley, I suppose.
Anyway, the idea was that you could strip an engine down leaving the block in the car, set the bar on the block and bore it where it sat.   If I still had my F20 tractor that would be good as I could pull the top and bottom off and set the bar on the block and bore it right in the frame. (not that it needed it, the engine was physically very sound)
But you note Art had made that V-block of sorts to hold the engine blocks, he set the blocks in that V-block, pulled the boring bar off the table and mounted it on the engine block to bore.
He said the last he did with this were Chevrolet 400s and so on, 4"  and similar bore sizes. (he's a corvette person) But he also had that table with mounting provisions on the bottom of the steel plate to mount smaller blocks as he did a few of those for people.
It runs and it's smooth and quiet, but then he always took decent care of stuff. (example, the valve grinder that looks almost show-room new). 

Thanks for the torque plate tip - Their torque plates are pretty decent looking - I mean looks like they are well designed and made, ok, and decent looking in that they'd also make good, although not cheap, WALL ART.  Those are worthy of having out on display.

No pictures yet but I did make a bit more progress last night. It was rough - this morning is rough, as I went through the beginning step of the next phase of my nose/sinus/breathing passages treatments and fixes. Ugh, nasty stuff and I've got a bloody sinus headache that makes my skull hurt...... she said "that will pass and you'll be starting to breathe easier and better soon". Hope you are right, doc! This is distracting and slows me down a lot and I hate taking that much pain meds and constant antibiotics to make sure things don't get infected during this process. I feel like a farmer's livestock being fed antibiotics every day "to prevent......"
Anyway, I actually cleared a few feet of floor space where the blast cabinets belong (for now, until I can afford and have time to make a dedicated blasting and powder coating room by enclosing the lean-to next year)
Since dust is a huge problem - and a huge problem for the cars and other stuff in the shop, I've got to do even better with dust control than I was doing with the buckets before.
I have done a ton of reading and it seems like maybe my shop vac was TOO strong and pulling water out of the one bucket. It's a balancing act, for a cyclone type dust and debris "sorter" as I call them, you need to keep air speed up - but not so much you make the stuff that's settled air-born again. And too much will splash the water when using a water bucket (sort of like a Rainbow vacuum system used to use) and end up pulling water into the vacuum making a mess.
I'm going to try a multiple-phase system - a cyclone type right outside the blast cabinet, then hose that into the bucket that is supposed to trap finer dust in the water, then to the vacuum - perhaps using bags instead of just the cheap paper filters with a foam sleeve. The really fine dust went right through the shop vac, sort of like sheetrock dust does - it takes special bags and filters for that stuff as it will blow right through any other vacuum. If that isn't enough, I'll add a second water bucket running through the cyclone, then two water buckets in series, THEN the vacuum with a filter bag. But for now am trying the cyclone and 1 water bucket.
If all else fails, I will get cheapie vacuums on sale and make sure they have air-out ports and bore a hole in the wall and vet the vacuum out the wall to the outside. I hate to put a hole in that wall, things are so well insulated, but if I can't take care of dust otherwise, not sure what else to do.

So, once the blast cabinets are in place, the dust system plumbed and all set up, then I go over to the west wall and put things away on shelves there to clear off the small alternator bench and FINALLY I can get back to working on them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My goal - that will hopefully be THIS WEEKEND.

I've had folks sort of wonder "what's up and why is this taking so long and how come that isn't done or why are you so slow getting this back together and so on........ not many, but even 2 or 3 bother me so........ here it is:
My work days in my for-now real day job are 9 hours. Anyone here work an 8 or 9 hour day? Are you gone from home exactly 8 or 9 hours? Didn't think so.  I leave at 6am - unless weather is bad or I need gas, then I leave at 5:40 AM. I get back home IF I don't have to pick up one of the multitude of drugs all these "doctors" have me on, about 5:00 PM. If I have to make a stop that could change to, well, like it was a couple of days ago, 6:00 or 6:30PM.
Then it's nice to at least say "hi" to Barbara - and eat supper.  Not being 20 any more it's nice to have an hour or two of down time.
Then back out to the shop for a little while, perhaps there's an hour or two that evening if I'm lucky, then in, do paperwork or whatever, and to bed hopefully by 11 although the doctors insist I really need to be in bed by 9, 10 at the very latest.
Then up at about 4:30 AM the next day and do it all over again.  I've been TRYING to get to a class or seminar now and then related to what I do....... and like last Thursday, I left for work at 5:45 AM and got home at 8:30 PM. That left a lot of time for shop work. That'll happen today, too.
The weekends - sales taxes are due this weekend, and gotta this year try to get the income taxes sorted out before the deadline. Barbara likes to every so often go eat Chinese so every 2nd or 3rd Saturday we try to do that. It's about the only times we really are out and about and not working, etc. So if I'm not unplugging a drain pipe using a long drill-powered snake like I was last weekend, or scooping snow, that sort of thing I can generally get a good day, maybe day and a half in the shop.
It's safer to say I don't really have or get much, if any, shop time week days thanks to work and home chores and being totally exhausted doing the work of 3 or 4 people through the day.
Weekends are hit and miss..... anyone with family knows all about that HAHA - if you own a home, unless you hire every little thing done, well........

Ah, but like Barbara says - hang in there, only about 390 days left until retirement and then things will get better.   That's one reason all the shop stuff is going on now and I'm doing everything I can to get it nice and usable, the equipment brought in and things in place. She says "get all this ready so it will be there when you retire".
I almost forgot - this week I've also been working with a company to turn her big quilting machine into a - and folks like Matt of Bulltear will appreciate this - a CNC machine. Yup - she's done hand-guided quilting for years with her various quilting machines she's had over the years, now she's wanting to add the ability to plug in a design/pattern and have the machine do it while she runs the embroidery machine or does her quilt piecing.
So I'm dealing with a company to get that capability added - they will add a tablet running Linux and their software, and the wheels that will make the X and Y axis moves as determined by the computer/tablet.   She's saved her pennies over the years for this eventual goal, she's worked her butt off for this and now she can finally make it happen.
So while you and I run our tools by hand - well, most of us, she'll be setting up the computer for what I call "CNC quilting".  (I know, a gross misuse of the terms)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote billd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/02/2016 at 2:21pm
Did make some weekend progress - good thing since yesterday was a bust. Left early (5:45am) to get gas with the storm predicting up to a foot of snow (since revised down to 5 or 6") and then getting home at 8:30pm. So no time outside at all Monday, bummer.

Good progress although it was quite slow due to the testing, fitting, checking/testing and all involved - and trying to think it through logically.
The bead blasting is set up and ready. The other media blasting, not so much. It may be a gun problem - it's a cheapy that came with the cabinet from Northern Tools but I've used it for a few years so can't complain too much. It really doesn't pull media and it has very little impact on either paint or rust, even light rust, or what we in Iowa consider light rust! HA
I tried the black stuff, not much luck, then tried the steel filings I found recommended on a blasting site, not much good there and extremely expensive! It sounded really good as described, but it just doesn't hit the piece with any real impact.
The same air supply, pressure and all do GREAT in the bead blasting, though, so I can't blame the air supply really. So maybe I need to look for a decent quality gun for the cabinet - suction type, of course, in this case.

Anyway, dust being an issue - dust inside blocking the view of the progress and dust getting into the shop making a mess with that dust and grit and crap all over everything, including CARS and tools.   Then there's my sinus issues...... so dust needed to be controlled, not an option as it's getting painful and expensive having my own head fixed  ;-)

I've used multiple means before, did tons of research, digging, exploring and learning way back but wasn't very happy with the results - and neither were any shop vacs I used. On a budget, this seems to work about the best of what I've done so far. In the future - when things move to a different room if I get the lean-to enclosed, I'll even route the vacuum exhaust out through the wall or window to get what may escape through the vacuum exhausted outdoors in case of really fine stuff getting through.

First, I hated having to take the hose connection off one cabinet and moving it to the other when I changed gears, so to speak. It was simple enough, but a pain. So I opted to plumb the exhaust from each cabinet out to a T and go from there.
I used the mill and cut a small channel in one of the fittings so I could use a plastic slide to block off the larger cabinet when using the bead blast cabinet. Will do similar on the bead cabinet but for now will simply block the passage inside the cabinet to make sure only one is evacuated at a given time.
The exhaust then goes into a "cyclone" separator where the bulk of the dust and debris that's "in the air" in the cabinet will be trapped and drop into a bucket. And it's a LOT. Doing just one part of an alternator frame for a test showed a whole lot of stuff gets pulled into that cyclone and drops out.
From there the air goes into a bucket that has a long pipe going straight down - which terminates about 1" above 2" of water in the bucket. The idea is that the dust and particles have mass - and thus inertia - and will want to keep going straight and hit the water while the air can change direction and go back up to the other port at the top.
I did a test and was still getting more in the vacuum than I wanted, so I got another bucket and made another such system to hopefully catch more. I think though that the water isn't wet enough.
Has anyone here seen what happens when water runs into or onto the dust from a typical vacuum cleaner? It BEADS UP. The dust doesn't immediately get wet! So, I wonder if a little antifreeze might help make the water wetter so the dust sticks to the water instead of bouncing off. Sort of break the water's surface tension?
Any thoughts or opinions??
Well, I put another water filter bucket in series, then to the vacuum. LOL - then I got crazy and added a similar setup to the vacuum's exhaust. That one I actually stuck the pipe slightly into the water. I cut an angle on the pipe and the pipe is just below the surface so the air actually blow out more across the surface of the water in that last bucket. From there I'd take it outside through the wall or something - if I really want to CUT A HOLE in the wall............... ugh. Might wait for the lean-to to be enclosed in a year or two.
In any case, after blasting a couple of starter drive ends there's very little at all in the vacuum itself.
Time will tell.
I found that teeny little vacuum was too much for the standard factory vent in the cabinet - so had to cut a hole in the side. I did this opposite the exit side so the air movement would go across left to right, helping to clear the air more easily. I put a filter in place to ensure that it didn't let dust out should there be not enough vacuum. That still was a bit much, the air movement was so fast that the gloves still pulled into the cabinet quite a bit with the vac on so I drilled holes in one of the pipes and can slide a hose back and forth to adjust the release of vacuum if or as needed. Also if the velocity is too great, the cyclone will not work as well as the high wind speed catches some of the debris back into the flow and it exits out instead of staying put.
It will be a balance - enough to cause the dust and debris to be spun out and/or slammed into the water, but not so much that the dust can't ever settle out, or that the wind picks water up and carries it into the vacuum.

The big deal about this is that now it's just a matter of getting the rest of the tools and parts dug out and accessible, and enough stuff put away to clear off the bench I use for starters and alternators - and that means likely this coming weekend I'll be to the point far enough along I can start working on those again!!!

An over view -









Closer view - out of cyclone into first white bucket, close to the water, back out to the green bucket, close to the water, then out to the vacuum.
From vacuum through blue hose into the final bucket.



I used the mill and cut the notch for a white acrylic sliding valve of sorts.
I got tired of moving one connection back and forth so T'd into a single hose from both cabinets allowing me to leave both connected.



The high-quality billet air filter cover. (*billet Masonite??)



The elbow (black) keeps the blasted beads from directly entering the air being pulled out. Sort of minimizes it instead of allowing the beads to get blasted directly into the exhaust hole.



The hole I cut to let air in - even with this the gloves pull in more than just a little when the vac is on.  That little thing has quite a pull.



The little vac hangs right on the end - and it lifts off the bracket so if I want to use it elsewhere really quick, it's simple to just pull the hoses and unplug it, lift and go.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rodney Schultz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Feb/06/2016 at 10:41pm
Bill, so glad I stumbled into this section of the forum tonight. I had been wondering what you were up to these days, and missing your frequent posting elsewhere (even though you did say that you would be scaling back...)

Excellent progress on your shop space! Glad to hear that you are recuperating as well as can be expected, and that your wife is still your biggest cheerleader.

Blessings on your continued journey to retirement. It is great that you have a plan and are working the plan to get there. I know of too many people that get there and say "now what?"

Anyway, just needed to chime in, and I'll be checking back now that I know where to find you!

Rodney
'78 Gremlin... The never ending project... But we will succeed!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote billd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/02/2016 at 2:38pm
Ugh, time - is that available at Amazon, or online somewhere? Anyone sell it by the bottle?
I had to stop trying to get things ALL put away and finished. I gave up on the south half, save for the blasting area, which with any luck will move to a different room when I enclose the lean-to next summer (hopefully, anyway).
I got into alternators again - and realized, dang, where are all of those parts? I looked everywhere. I know I had them boxed up and stashed away, and was SURE I'd brought all boxes back in from under the tarps and from inside the back end of the garage, but after digging through every box I had taken back into the shop - at least twice, I was unable to find any of the NOS alternator parts as well as some NOS wiper and starter parts. Not tons of them, but enough I wasn't happy that I couldn't find them. I needed them! I had 3 alternators on the bench I needed those parts for ASAP.
My wife pointed out that the 73 had a flat tire - and I was checking to order a new master cylinder and just making sure the car really DID have drum front brakes, and checking the tire sizes, and to get down next to the car and look under it and at the tires with a flashlight I kneeled down and put my hand on a couple of boxes stacked next to the car.......... crap. There's those parts.
So putting those away recently I noticed that many had part numbers crossed out on the boxes. They had been reboxed generically and labeled with computer printed labels but the numbers wre crossed out in pencil and pen. I had originally sorted them out by part number - talking about diodes, negative and positive. I had a BAAAD feeling - there's a reason someone did that years ago. Sure enough, when I opened each sealed box I found that I did not have nearly equal numbers of pos and neg diodes, what I really had were nearly ALL positive diodes - for 71 and later alternators. Great, so now what? I thought I had several dozen of others and instead almost all are later model positive. That means I have almost no 70 and earlier positive diodes and fewer negatives than I figured. So now I must find a source for Motorola diodes. Good luck with that.
I got those boxes emptied, relabeled the diode boxes properly, with correct numbers - both AMC and Motorola numbers (which are simple - 1-2, 1-1, 1-5, 1-6 and so on)
The bead blasting setup works pretty well so far - will see how well that cheapy small vac holds up but the bucket system seems to be catching far more than any prior setup I'd ever had.
My big bench is still stacked so full of "stuff" that things tend to fall off now and then, and the SW corner of the shop is filled with things not put away, but I have what is needed to get something accomplished. I must find some space for the plating supplies and equipment, though.
At this point I still can't plate anything. It was a mess before - and a steel bench doesn't hold up well with the acids and other chemicals, lye, etc. so not sure how to handle that. Need something to support buckets and tubs of solution.
Before I can do much more with alternators and wipers and starters I have to be able to do at least basic plating. (or find a source to have it done until I can find TIME to get it set up again.
Speaking of time - I had contacted my friendly neighborhood concrete guy about ripping up and redoing the shop approach - and he said he'd call me a couple of days before he was ready to start.
Yeah, he stopped by late last Sunday, a week ago, and said he was coming by the next day to start. Wonderful, SCRAMBLE to find places to put vehicles as it would be a week before being able to get in and out of the shop once he started.

You can't really tell in these but when this approach was ripped out, I found out what a crappy job the other guy had done on the floor and approach - the floor was supposed to be 4" thick, it made a whopping 3.5 and then was only 3" in spots. I bet I got a yard of concrete stuffed under the floor, especially at the corners of the shop, to fill the VOIDS there. No wonder the floor had settled badly on the west side. The front corners were pretty hollow under them, but not any more.
there went a day of vacation - and other time as well, I had intended on spending on other things in the shop.







The NEW approach is 6" - a full 6", compared to the supposed to be 4" that was really 3 to 3.5" before. We also took a lot of the slope out of it, and there's a drain in part of it now.







These show how much the approach was raised, especially on the west end, where the other guy had a really crazy drop in it. The bottom of the new approach is a bit above where the top of the other had been. The old was almost even with the ground on this end - and you see how much this stands proud of the ground here.
They brought in 2 truck loads of fill - recycled asphalt, to build things up.





I have more of the shop inside, tools and equipment, etc. but may spend later tonight trying to get caught up on a couple dozen PMs!

Retirement 11 months and counting....... then full-time into restoration and repair.
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