2011 at the Hammond Barn

[Stuart Fedak]

Originally Posted by RHClarke

After lunch, I assembled parts for my "Sunshine" roof hatch repair. We take advantage of a local machine shop to do custom work that we are too clumsy to do. In this case, I had our friend rebuild one of my hatch roller arms. A new step rivet and a brass roller bar were machined and then attached to the arm. The quality of work was outstanding.

The Hammond crew may be interested in taking the Hobbyist Machine Shop course at Algonquin College. I took this course last year, and will most likely take it again this February. You get to learn on the lathe; milling machines; grinders; press, etc.... The instructor last year was great........

The course is very unstructured. Many of the students are in the day machinist program, and are working on class projects. Others are the full range of beginners to seasoned machine shop types, working on personal projects. A great way to learn how to make things on the lathe, such as the brass ends on your roof hatch roller arms. In fact, you could get into the manufacture of reproduction parts for trade/swap.......

I finally have my small 3 in 1 combination lathe/mill/drill set up at home. I know Bob has a nice commercial lathe at the barn. Lots of potential with that machine. Great for making reproduction bolts and various fittings.

ref http://xweb.algonquincollege.com/woo...spx?id=MAC0001
HOBBYIST MACHINE SHOP
Course: MAC0001

For the Machine Shop handy-man and handy-woman hobbyist, students can construct their own projects with a helpful instructor to assist in hints and strategies. Students must provide their own blueprints, supply their own material, and projects must be kept to a minimal size. The College provides all layout tools, drill presses, lathes and milling machines. Students may bring their own cutting tools, if desired. Please note that all students must supply their own safety glasses and safety footwear which MUST be worn in shop at all times. Students must have basic machine shop experience.

Cheers!

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Stuart

Sounds interesting ..... just to have access to the equipment..... not to mention the network that can be developed with other more skillful individuals.

I have a small metal lathe in the basement...... circa 1938 sold by Ogilvie store on Rideau....... 6" Atlas with all the screw cutting attachements..... set up with a variable speed DC motor. ...... But I am not to good at working on it. Been practicing using solid plastic and nylon blanks from Canus plastic.

Getting some basic instructions from the course would be wonderful.

I need to fabricate the tie downs for the leather straps on the 2B1..... they are made of brass and look like miniature capstan winch drum.

Will need to check what the hours of the course are and how they fit with my commute.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Bob

[Stuart Fedak]

Bob,
I found it well worth the cost and the time. Good to learn on various machines. I also needed the instruction on the whys and hows of shop safety using such equipment. It is very easy to get injured with lathes and mills. Better to be yelled at by a skilled instructor before things happen, than yelled at by the ambulance crew..........

While in university, I had worked in structural steel shops. Having seen what can happen, I have a healthy respect for safe operations. There were a lot of fellows with missing fingers..........

When I took the course, I did not have a project lined up, so just worked on a tack hammer. That project gets you to do a lot of processes on the lathe and mill. I can see on the CMP, there are a lot of fittings and parts that were most likely made on a lathe.

If I take the course, I will most likely make a mount for a lathe cutting tool. I will also make some lathe keys and other things that I need for the lathe. I am interested in tool making. On the Iltis, there are a few speciality tools needed for repairs. One is a device for removal of the wheel bearings, which is a job I need to do on some salvage hubs. I prefer to do it correctly, rather than beat the bearings out..........

Anyways, check out the dates and times and see if they work for you. It would be nice to get a few ROTters in the course.....

Cheers!
Stuart

[RHClarke]

It has been an interesting few weeks to say the least. Bob was down but not out with his ticker acting up, Guy had some parts of his leg replaced, and my knees decided to pack it in for a few weeks. I am not sure how Grant has been faring, as I saw him once these past weeks. Bob seems to be doing quite well, Guy is on the mend and my knees have improved. So much for the walking wounded.

Barn wise, Grant moved his truck out of the barn and into its winter storage shed. Bob moved the trusty tractor into the barn. We cleaned up around and in the barn so that we could actually work in the barn now that the cold weather is upon us. Bob and Grant nailed together a new wood crib to replace the large crib that fed Lucifer. Lucifer's feed was changed from a fiber (wood) centric diet to a fat (oil) centric diet. The wood starts the fire going, and the oil keeps us nice and warm.

When my knees allowed, I trekked to the barn to work on some of the Pilot HUP parts. Anything that could fit into the cabinet sandblaster got cleaned up nicely. This past Saturday was very quiet with Bob out Christmas shopping and Grant at work. Guy was out to show off his new cane, and my knees have returned to a less sensitive state. The weather was quite nippy (-10 oC), so I fired up Lucifer.

The rest of Saturday was spent cleaning dirt out of one of the support channels that run the width of the rear compartment by the rear door. With the aid of an air nozzle and a trusty Shop-Vac, I managed to clean out years of sand, gravel and cement that had accumulated. The bad news was that the cleaning exposed where the cement reacted with the metal and moisture to eat a hole in the channel. This hole did not show up when I did the frame off sandblasting of the truck. After some poking and prodding, a good sized lump of cement came away with a good chunk of rusted metal. I'm not much for upside down welding, so I think I will line the hole with metal glue and press a metal plate over it. The underneath part will be sprayed with rocker panel coating. The final task of the day was to remove two metal bars that had been welded to the rear of the compartment. These bars were welded to the tabs that hold the two wall mounted bucket seats in the HUP.

Once that fun was completed, I took the HUP for a run over the snow covered trail. The braking and clutching action reminded me that the knees were still a bit sensitive, so the joy ride was called off and I returned the HUP to its shelter. Unfortunately, I had to head home early so that the missus could get to work early - this being the busy time of year for retailers.

Hopefully, Bob and Grant can fill in some of the blanks over the past few weeks.

Photos:

1 - Sandblasting fodder
2 - The boys playing "crib"
3 - The barn - a study in winter
4 - HUP repair site
5 - The hole in the channel

[Bob Carriere]

....and no heat......

Lucifer needed bypass surgery...... the oil line got plugged...... pipe thread for the line going through the firebox had the thread stripped so we invented a new better way of dripping oil into the fire....... took most of the day but it is now loaded up ready to be fired on my next day off.

Moved another crib full of firewood to the house ready for onloading into the basement chute.

Grant and I went for breaky at the restaurant only to run into some folks I work with at the office...... funny she didn't recognise me at first ... not wearing my usual suit and tie.

Ran out of time and energy but had enough to bring in the Xmas tree and let it thaw out a bit before decorating this week.

Another weekend gone. Back to the salt mines tomorrow.

Bob

[Grant Bowker]

Yesterday was an exercise in making the basement of the house stink by painting the driveshafts. not worthy of photos.

They are now sitting on the floor next to the completed transfer case. 4 of the 6 bearings and races needed replacing along with all input/output seals and speedi-sleeves on the yokes. The previous owners had a love of RTV sealant and used it in place of all gaskets when they put the case together. The lack of gaskets made most bearing adjustments too tight, the front drive hardly turned. I now understand why the manual advises to keep the shims for each cap together as a starting point for adjustments. It makes life much easier if you work from a "too thick" shim pack to "just right" rather than the other way round - I didn't understand how much easier until after doing the first adjustment the hard way. Also after the fact, read the manual for the C60X and realized they had a different (better?) procedure - rather than trial and error they tell you to place the adjustment cap onto the shaft and bearing (no shims) and measure the gap between the cap and the housing. Also, it is surprising the difference in feel having the seals rubbing on the shafts makes. The manual is right that bearing adjustments should be done without seals in place to be able to feel for drag and free play.

One of today's tasks was working on repairing my hedge trimmer. It isn't needed right now but on the last hedge for the year (had to finish with an electric trimmer - don't want to do any more of that) it sheared the driveshaft at a weld just after the centrifugal clutch. The stub of the shaft remained threaded into the clutch drum located down a well in the housing that made gripping the stub next to impossible. I used our tested technique of welding a nut on to provide a grip. I was nervous about the heat from the weld cooking the seal and lube in the bearing so had an air line ready to speed the cooling after welding. Once the nut was welded and cooled, it was a fairly simple matter to jam the clutch drum in the housing and put a socket on the nut to back out the nut and stub. The same technique has worked on multiple bolts sheared flush (including throttle bellcrank studs corroded/frozen into the block). Now to buy a new driveshaft and put it in place.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Grant

Sealing the shims on the transfer case has come up before, at the time I did the transfer case on the HUP I could not find the shellac type sealant that had apparently been used originally. Well I think I have found a source for it in the Permatex line http://permatex.com/products/Automot...c_Compound.htm has anybody tried this and is it a very thin liquid that will seal without adding thickness?

As to repair of the hedge trimmer, isn't repairing it, it let alone have the skill necessary to carry out the repair going against the new consumable based product design. All kidding aside I hate having to replace something the logic tells me can be repaired.

Cheers Phil