Long Time Coming

I'm not sure there is actually anybody that reads this blog, but if there is anybody out there, I pity them mostly because I rarely ever update it :)

This is the last big project I have taken on....

My buddy Kirk let me rescue this South Bend 9a metal lathe from his barn.  His Grandfather was a collector of old machines and this one was in pretty rough shape, but I thought it would be able to be salvaged. 

I stripped it of all the paint, grease, and took it apart down to every last nut, bolt pin, gear, etc.  I then chased every thread with a tap or die and made minor repairs where needed.

The cleaning and stripping was the biggest part of the project.  Painting it was relaxing and went pretty quickly.  I brushed on 3 coats of Rustoleum hammer finish enamel very carefully with a 1/2 inch brush.  I used a different color of the same paint for the cabinet, and black automotive paint for the top surface of the cabinet.

I then assembled what seemed to be a couple million parts and made some adjustments and oiled everything up.

It works really well now and I am having more fun with it since it is adjusted so much better and is easier to keep clean.

I really wanted to document this process, but soon after getting into it, I realized that it was going to take a long time and I needed to have it up and running as soon as possible, so i just focused on getting it finished.

I still need to attach the gear chart, and the belt tension plate, but these items are pretty much for convenience, so they will wait.

Nearly every part is the original from when it was made in 1943, and I suspect that the leather belt is the original as well.  It is on it's last legs, but I will keep using it until it can no longer be repaired.

Coming Soon:  Metal Casting using patterns made with sculpey, and petrobond sand molds.

see you soon!!

Mom's Birthday Present

It has been ages since I posted an entry into my blog, but I recently completed a project that I am pretty proud of, so I figured I would share a picture and explain how it was made. This is a necklace rack that I built for my mother as a birthday present.

The base is a disk that I cast out of aluminum a while back. I machined the casting and added a step to it using my 1943 South Bend Lathe (thanks to Kirk Stephens for one of the coolest gifts ever). With the disk machined, I set forth to do another casting. Being sick of the smell and soot of using a charcoal fueled foundry, i decided to upgrade to a propane burner. I got the design of the burner from the web. It was designed by Ron Reil. He has an excellent website. I actually had most of the burner built a while back, but was waiting for the right time to approach the minister of finance about buying the high pressure regulator, hose, and propane tank. Well, last weekend was the right time, and with my purchases in hand, i finished the burner, fired up my new gas fueled foundry and cast the cube at the top.

The new burner worked very well and cut the melting time in half or less, compared to using charcoal. It didn't smell at all, and I was very pleased with it's performance. I quickly got the furnace up to temperature, and with the sand mold ready, I poured the first melt using my new burner. After the cube was cast, I chucked it up in my four jaw chuck and faced off all six sides using my lathe. The next step was to create the center post. This started off as 3/4 inch round aluminum stock, I secured one end with the 3 jaw chuck, and the other was center drilled and supported with a dead center mounted in the tailstock. I machined this part, and then center drilled both ends about 1/2 inch deep with a #7 drill bit. The holes were then threaded with a 1/4-20tpi tap.

With the center post finished, I center drilled the base disk and threaded it with the same thread as the post. The cube was next and I drilled straight through the center of two adjacent faces, and halfway through the bottom face. I tapped the holes with the same 1/4-20tpi tap and then used 1 short length of threaded steel rod to attach the base to the centerpost, and another piece of threaded rod to secure the cube to the top of the centerpost.

The four arms started as 1/4 inch round bar about 6 inches long each. I turned a recess on one end, and threaded about 3/8 inch of the other end using the lathe. The quick change gearbox on the old south bend can make just about any standard thread pitch. After finishing the four arms, I threaded them into the cube and VOILA, my project was finally finished.

Seasons

While I do enjoy winter, spring is a whole lot of fun. You can still do winter sports like snowboarding, skiing etc, but then the door to summer fun is open as well. Mary and I just got back from a fun 40 minute motorbike ride, and we are planning on doing some more rock climbing in the very near future. My Bike needs a bit of work, and I think that some new steering head bearings, as well as a valve adjustment and carb tuning is going to take place in the very near future. I would like to document that work and post it on this blog, so keep coming back and there might be some pictures on the horizon.

It is Sushi time, so I have to run for now.... check in later folks!

projects by the wayside

I haven't really been doing much in the way of projects lately. I think that the cold weather really saps my enthusiasm for working on the cars and bikes, and the only things I really do are: eat, sleep, work and sometimes go snowboarding.. I think that once cabin fever sets in a little further, i will tackle the closet renovation project that I have been thinking about doing for quite some time now. Mary will be happy to have a closet that she can actually work with if I ever get around to it. Until then, we are happy to just hang out and play scrabble, watch movies and make yummy food to eat!
till next time, folks!

Weekend of snowboarding

With Mary out at the movies on Friday night I hunkered down at home and tuned my snowboards, and watched a documentary about Troy Bayliss. Any documentary about motorcycle racing that is narrated by Ewan McGregor must be pretty good right? Saturday, I ventured over to my friend Kevin's house and met up with him and his buddy Rich. We headed out to Hunger mountain and slogged our way up. It was a long haul, and I would have really suffered if I didn't have the both of them breaking trail for me the whole way up. Riding down was a blast. There was quite a bit of fresh snow, and some great lines through the trees. We hung out for a bit back at Kevin's house and then I hopped back home to have a quick shower and go out to dinner with Mary and our friend Angela. We had a great dinner at Sweetwaters, and then home for some much needed sleep.

Today, Mary and I went snowboarding at Sugarbush. We rode an afternoon half day at Mount Ellen. The snow was good, but the powder was well ridden and the choppy conditions were a challenge for Mary. She handled it well and added another skill to her repertoire. We watched some movies on netflix and now it is time for bed..

mouth to mouth!

I think it is time for me to resuscitate my blog..
Christmas and New Years were filled with family and fun, and Mary and I have even made it out snowboarding a few times this season. We got a new snail for our fish tank! Mary got a Subaru to replace her Golf... Everybody is healthy, happy and looking towards a good year...
More later!

NEW YORK ROCKS!

Yes, the thing on the left is not actually a tree, it is my wife mimicking her environment in an attempt to become invisible. We had a great weekend, staying in Plattsburg on Friday night and then at a bed and breakfast in Elizabethtown for Saturday night. We went to Ausable Chasm on Saturday morning and then did a short hike up Baxter mountain in the afternoon. We had dinner in Lake Placid at one of our favorite restaurants, and then grabbed a pint of ice cream and some whoppers to bring back to the inn. Sunday, we had breakfast at the in and drove down to Slingerlands to visit with family. We hung out with relatives and stuffed ourselves with home cooked goodies, and then I slept for half the car ride, while Mary managed to make fantastic time on the throughway. I am a slow driver, but she has pretty heavy boots, so we make better time with her behind the wheel. I tend to want to stop and see stuff, get a soda, go to a yard sale, ya know all the stuff that keeps you from getting to your destination. We love visiting New York, and have high hopes to get back over there to enjoy some climbing in the Adirondacks.