General Tech What did you work on Today?

Continuing on with the tube roller cart....


Preparing the upper framework to mate with the base and getting it level.



Next I wanted to make a mount for a fold down handle as well as a sleeve for the handle. To the mill and lathe I went.


Drilled and reamed a 5/8" hole to receive the machined sleeve.


Sleeve fusion welded into place in the handle.


Mount welded to the vertical post and handle test fit.





Ready to complete the handle and fabricate some posts to hang the dies on the vertical post.



That's as far as I've made it so far before cleaning up my fabrication area and machining equipment.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

With the exception of painting the steel ramps and maybe a mild polish or sanding of the aluminum, these suckers are finally done. Also, some bed liner will be applied to the deck and around areas where parts were welded to the rear of the bed. A buddy that does liners will handle that.

UT410 said:

My wife's new Volvo didn't have a spot for her sunglasses. There's an optional caddy that Volvo offers that replaces the oh-s#!t handle. We priced it out at the dealer and, of course, it was $$$.

I ordered the part on eBay, which seems like the place to go, lately, for new OEM parts. I saved about $30 vs dealer price.

The installation cost was $80, if I remember correctly. It had to be simple. Even if I needed a special torx, I figured it would be worth it.

Turns out, it was stupid simple, which is my preferred level of complexity... hahaha.

Two 7mm bolts and a few minutes.


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That is a genius place to put a sunglass pocket.

Todays adventures...

This was after I got it holding air again. It was completely flat, and off the front bead. Took some time getting it high enough to air back up.


After getting it aired up, found the hole:



Love when one of, if not both of the other guys that use this truck can't take care of the tools or put them away correctly. Noticed after the hydraulic bead breaker that is very crucial piece to this puzzle broke, that one of the bolts (opposite side pictured) was completely missing. Awesome!

Luckily before it broke, it was able to get some of the bead broken on the rear tire of the assembly. LOTS of prying with bars later, I got it off.



Oh, look! My old repair lol.



New repair done, and ready to go back together.



Big @SS pry bars to get it back on the wheel



Bead ring, Safety clip, O-ring, and C-clip back on, airing up, and finishing up.



Told them this is a temporary repair, no guarantees it will hold being where it was located. Trying to help them from buying a ~$1700-2200 tire...

My daughter’s ‘69-‘71 Jeepster Commando has been sitting for a few years. Decided to get it sorted a bit so she can use it again for her birthday.

Old fuel had varnished up the external fuel pump, which never was that reliable - so I decided to install an in tank and fix the fuel gauge while we were in there.


Yeah. It needs alot of love.


This was fresh clear 88 returning after I first started her up… feeding and returning into the bucket like coffee. Cleared up after a few cycles.
No wonder the old pump was stuck. The 3800 ran good even on this crud!!


Bought a new fangled arm-less fuel sender and the 6-hole to 5-hole adapter for it. Nice piece that nobody will ever see again!!😆

The cut out is to fit an eBay in-tank fuel pump kit that comes from the folks that used to run Downey judging from the instructions. I probably wouldn’t buy this kit again. Live and learn. I filled the tank with water before using a cut off wheel. You can see my one slip up. Doh.


Sliding in the pump. I shortened that hose on the feed before final install. And yes, I welded the hole for a level sender up as it wouldn’t fit with everything else going on in the same place.



Some wire wheel time and a muriatic acid bath or three…some Rust Seal and a coat of Rustoleum and it looks like this:


How do these simple projects get so time consuming??

Still playing with bumper stuff, since they are more of a decoration than a bumper we will take the frame mounted brackets off, fill the bracket holes on the fenders and build a mounting system directly to the fenders.


I'm thinking they'll end up an inch away from the fender creating a floating look

The expedition had a nasty shudder at high speed braking. Threw on some new slotted and drilled rotors tonight.. you know, because it’s a race car.

I have 2 shops now and two of most tools but I only have one tube bender and one dragoon machine. This will save me alot in scrap being able to move a few full length sticks of tube when needed.

👌🇺🇸

Yesterday I performed a LOF service on our 2006 2500HD Chevy.



Oil & Filters at the ready.


Oil drained, suspension lubed and all tires rotated and installed with the exception of passenger's front so I can replace the fuel filter.


Double checking fluids after test drive. Also cleaned the exhaust tip that had a nasty bit of road tar on it.



Thanks for looking.

Last week I got a call from a guy to machine some bushings. I figured I'd start on them Tuesday after the material arrived on Monday from McMaster Carr.

Upon a first couple of passes in the C932 Bronze material, I detected that my lathe was off by a couple thousandths in only about 4-5 inches. Completely unacceptable so I commenced finding out why. I ended up leveling the lathe again as my shop must have settled a bit over the past several years. The lathe bed wasn't twisted as it was off in a single plane but my OCD wouldn't allow it to be off plum.

Lathe leveled front to back at headstock.


Lathe leveled front to back at tailstock.



Lathe leveled side to side (headstock to tailstock).


Large 2.5" aluminum to start measuring for adjustment.


Nice surface finish during test cuts.


And this is where I landed after a couple of hours worth of tweaking the headstock. Next was aligning the tailstock with the headstock but that is usually a much easier process.


All in all I am pretty pleased with the outcome of only being off .0001" in about 10 inches. I can live with that.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

Then I could begin on the bushings in which I actually had started on.


Machining the OD to .975" on the first cuts. Great surface finish on this bronze material.


Next steps in the first setup process were to machine a step down to .625". The drawing called out for this step to be .250" deep but I went .260" to allow for a facing the step to length after boring the ID which the drawing called out to be .400" prior to parting off.


A .400" gage pin will fit in the bore.


Whereas a .401" will not.


A couple bushings done with the first setup procedures. For the first setup I was able to produce about 4.5 bushings per hour.


Moving on to the second and final setup procedure was to face the major OD to length and chamfer the OD and ID.


Sixteen bushings completed. I have a seventeenth one also as I had a brain fart and faced one down too far by a bit so hopefully the gentleman can use the extra one as well.


After final checks I figured I'd clean up the mess. My lathe hasn't been that filthy in quite some time. Wondered if I'd ever get it clean again.


I really did a poor job of bidding this job but and lost my butt, but I learned a lesson so I guess it wasn't all bad.

I usually don't do production runs for this reason and only do onesie-twosie jobs. I bid this job based on about an hour and a half of actual machine time plus materials but it ended up taking me about four hours to complete the bushings. Yes, a huge learning experience on bidding piece work.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

Worked on adding a license plate light and rear mud flaps to the adventure trailer... need to get inspected by the Highway Patrol so I can finally get it titled and plated.

Greg said:

Worked on adding a license plate light and rear mud flaps to the adventure trailer... need to get inspected by the Highway Patrol so I can finally get it titled and plated.

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Trailer looks great Greg.

With the Gladiator's bed, is there a reason you went with a trailer vs. just hauling in the bed or using a bed rack?

zmotorsports said:

Trailer looks great Greg.

With the Gladiator's bed, is there a reason you went with a trailer vs. just hauling in the bed or using a bed rack?

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I built the trailer to go behind our JKU, which made sense. Now with the Gladiator, it's incredibly redundant as I'm pretty much towing a truck bed around... with a truck.

So my plan is to get it titled, so I can sell it. I'd like to set up a modular rack and be able to carry the items that are in the trailer, in either my JT or the wife's F150; Roof top tent, 20 gallon water tank, propane tank, water pump, propane water heater and stove for cooking.

Greg said:

I built the trailer to go behind our JKU, which made sense. Now with the Gladiator, it's incredibly redundant as I'm pretty much towing a truck bed around... with a truck.

So my plan is to get it titled, so I can sell it. I'd like to set up a modular rack and be able to carry the items that are in the trailer, in either my JT or the wife's F150; Roof top tent, 20 gallon water tank, propane tank, water pump, propane water heater and stove for cooking.

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Thanks for the response clarifying the trailer Greg. I didn't realize you originally built it for the JKU but that I understand.

Mike

Yesterday upon returning home from work I ran around the front lawn as my son racked his 2002 Duramax so he could replace his front unit bearings. He detected a small amount of play last LOF service and then last Thursday evening when he did another LOF service he noticed that the wear had increased slightly. I picked up a couple of new unit bearings for him on Friday and last night he came over to replace them.

Truck racked and the front tires/wheels removed.


Passenger side brake caliper removed and supported with an S-hook. Rotor removed and the four unit bearing bolts have been removed.


Passenger side completed. Unit bearings torqued to 133 ft/lbs, axle nut torqued to 177 ft/lbs and the brake caliper bracket to the knuckle torqued to 221 ft/lbs. Also ABS sensor wiring is routed in OEM location back to the connector on top of the frame rail.


Driver's side coming apart next in the same fashion.


Unit bearing bore and axle splines cleaned with stainless steel wire brush and a coating of Fluid Film applied to the bore prior to installation of the unit bearing.


After the axle nut is torqued to 177 ft/lbs a small amount of Torque Seal is applied as an indicator.


I also apply a small amount to the back of the unit bearing fasteners as well as brake mounting fasteners.



I noticed as we were torquing the unit bearings to spec that my socket slipped off. At first I thought I rounded the head of the fastener so I grabbed another socket from my toolbox and it was fine. Upon closer inspection of the Carlyle 15mm deep chrome 1/2" drive socket, I noticed it had broken and the end had flared. This is the first Carlyle tool that I have had fail on me. Kind of disappointing actually.








Thanks for looking.

Mike

After my son left to head home and I cleaned the shop up for the evening my wife arrived home from work to inform me that she had a rock chip in her new windshield that we just replaced two weeks ago. I am getting really sick and tired of the shit roads we have around here and all of the construction leaving rocks and debris on our public roads. I have had more rock chips in the past 8 months than I've had in the past 8 years combined and now two brand new windshields in which I've already had to repair chips.

I did the front brakes, unit bearings, and cv shafts in the front end of my 2002 DMax a few weeks ago, so all of that looks very familiar.

Bart said:

I did the front brakes, unit bearings, and cv shafts in the front end of my 2002 DMax a few weeks ago, so all of that looks very familiar.

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We did brakes, rotors and ball joints on my son's right after he bought it and we got it running along with his Cognito leveling kit but the unit bearings were still in good condition. He bought it non-running with 228k miles on it about 6 years ago and now it has just over 270k miles and runs like a top.

How is yours holding up so far?