2016 at the Hammond Barn

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Bob

Yup it's cold, the nice Canadian air arrived, here in New Hampshire, last night -27C on nice breezes of 10-20 MPH. Trying to figure how to it send back north.

Lucifer isn't up to taking the chill of the air in the shop? Have you ever figured out how many BTUs Lucifer puts out at full bore?

Good weather to curl up and read a book.

Is it valentine's day Canada, that's my excuse here for not being out in the shop

Cheers Phil

PS Have shared the Ground Hog Day photo with the family, everybody loves it.

[Bob Carriere]

Lucifer hails from the East coast made by Kerr. Originaly intended to heat up a large 2500 sq. foot house..... owners didn't like having to cut wood and stock the fires.

Got it slightly used.... air tight design rated at 100,000 BTU....however once fired up nice and hot we drip used motor oil (mixed oil, kerosene, atf, old deisel, skunky gas, paint thinner even axle gear oil).....drips in cast iron frypan resting on coal...... tends to burn pure white....very hot and no smoke from the chimney.

Problem at -30C the oil soup hardly flows from the gravity set up with the tank outside and it takes so long to warm up the air, and all the steel and the concrete slab floor forms a huge heat sink that has to be overcomed. Normally in 2 hours we can work in a ligth jacket..... by mid afternoon it is not usual to see thawed out mosquitoes buzzing around at 60 F.

But today I am staying inside the house.

After this cold snap the next weather front will bring snow and temperature of
+1 C on Tuesday...... then will send it your way.

Cheers

[Bob Carriere]

Finally got around to reskinning my doors.

Doing the top bends and side bends of the skin using our 36inch pan box brake made our job a lot easier.

We started out using an 18 g sheet metal at least it was sold as 18 g but that measured something like 0.0475

Prepainted the inside facing of the sheet metal with POR 15 leaving clean section for edge spot welding.

We had very little difficulties doing the straight edges but admitedly very nervous about the bottom curved section,

So we designed a test jig that duplicated the curvature of the door.... tacked everything in place and clamped it to the heavy work table,

Grant found that the hand held dolly shown in the pictures to be invaluable to get the skin to slow roll over and the curve of the dolly was a good match for the curve of the door.

Here are some pictures.
1doortestrezcro[res.jpg

2DSC03346crok.jpg

Once the skin is beatten or tapped near 90 degrees the jig was turned over to finish the remaining 90 degrees of the bend.

You will noticed that we spot welded the skin on the test jig the same as we had spot welded the real door. We used a special flat tip for the bottom electrode and a pencil tip for the upper electrode.
The flat bottom electrode wad on the good face of the door and minimized any cratering that might occur. The skin will be buffed with sanding paper and the small remaining depression filled with a very small amount of JB weld for a smooth finish.

The door edge was supported by a 1/2 half inch thick by 2 in. bar stock that we had rooled at the local fabricator..... we actually tweaked the curvature with our hydraulic press to get a perfect match ot the door.

The door is actually 1.75 in. thick so we shimmed the door with 1/4 in. stock so it could be clammed very tigth to the table.

We were pleased to see that the metal stretched very easily with a series of light tap with small ballpeen hammer than went on with the hand held dolly.
Again tap, tap, tap into submission.

After reaching about 45 degrees we fired up the oxy-acet and warmed up the metal to take out stress.....allowed to cool thenresumed tapping.

Once we reached a 90 degree bend we made sure that the bend was square against the 14 g door section to insure a tight fit/bend.

We heated and allowed to cool at least 3 times.

The sheet metal stetched beautifully until almost flat. At that point we turned the door over and hammered with a large ballpeen hammer against the flat of the table. Table top is 5/8 SS and very ridgid.

more to follow.

[Bob Carriere]

Once we had proof that the metal could be rolled over and flattened without buckling or geting wavy we did the real door.

This picture is of the real door.

Next we will tackle doing a cab 13 skin..... which will have its own learning curve. The biggest challenge is figuring out the sequence that you do the bends in the pan box brake..... or you literaly box yourself in a corner.

No heat was used during the skin bending and tapping better describes the process rather than hammering.

[Alex van de Wetering]

guys...thanks for taking the time to share these experiences. Just like your recent adventures with the bead breaker tool; I am reading these one-hand experiences with great interest.

Bob, it looks like your cab is coming along nicely. Dare I ask what you have planned for the rear body? Do you have a salvagable box in the yard?

Alex

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Alex

I have 3 rear 2B1 bodies or maybe should be called cadavers......

I have my original cab 11 box and two from Cab 12.

Sadly all of them are badly rusted BUT between the 3 boxes I have one badly twisted tail gate and two sets of good side drop panels.

Only one cab 12 floor still has the original inside the box rectangular fenders.

Plans are to reverse engineer and built one new box. I have enough to use as patterns for a new fabrication. Mainly 14 and 16 gauge except for the floor.

I need to build a rotisserie first so I can swing the new box 180 degrees for fabrication.

I rough estimate is near a $1000 for the steel and maybe as much for the custom bending at a local fabricator... minimum charge $75...set up time then bending... might consider making parts for a second box once the set up time is paid for. Another possibility is buying my own 6 foot 12 gauge pan box brake but would need to build at least 3 boxes to break even. My own time and Mig welding not included.

Construction is fairly simple and most pieces needing bending is less than 5 feet long except for the head piece and tail gate. I would hope to be able to generate some pictures, sketches with measurements plus pit falls to avoid.

Plans are to safety the vehicle this Spring EVEN if I have to install a M101A trailer box temporarily or maybe one of the rusted box for a short while.

Grant is restoring a 20cwt trailer box and I may get some worth while experience with me as humble assistant.

Cheers

[Alex van de Wetering]

Bob,

Good to hear that you at least have some boxes as a base. Even cadavers are better than nothing, right?

There are a bunch of tutorials on making a DIY sheet metal brakes on youtube....I was just watching a few vids recently with a vision of maybe making a small sheet metal brake myself. Maybe something to think about for the barn as well? ....even though 6 foot is quite long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOYczH-yiWI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzc3NvkaC5Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3B9kJIfx2A

Alex