Projects rebuilding after the crash

Todays fun included moving my mill from the rental house in town to my current place in the country. The mill is a old gorton made in racine, wi. Its a big heavy old thing but it works good until i can get a bridgeport. We had to take it apart to move it. Luckily no one lost any body parts moving these heavy pieces.

 

I Thought the silo was part of the mill at a glance lol

Glad the move went well

 

That made me take a second look, too!

 

I i should be able to wrap up this job monday. I need to move the car and enclosed trailer out of the shop first. I can then use the car lift to get the mill off the trailer. I will use pipes under the mill to roll it into place. The hoist will be used to put the motor and spindle back on. It will be worth it in the end.

 

View attachment 3820322 The street bear claws were picked up today. I quickly ran them over to get the tires mounted. Im happy with the look of the street tires. now the fronts can be done. The entire shop needed to be rearranged to get the mill off the trailer and in place. I used the car lift to pick up the mill from the trailer. I then pulled it across the shop using a strap and my truck. We used a engine hoist for the final positioning. Im glad that job is done.

 

I didn’t mention when I saw the lip on the bear claws at the polishers for fear of being annoying but I’m not going to leave alone this detail. Nice hub caps on the trailer! You are a loyalist aren’t ya.
Oh and nothing shines like polished mag as the roller chassis pic shows.


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The wheels look great on the car. Do you use mothers polish to keep them looking good? I have a lot of stuff for polishing stuff and have thought of polishing mine completely. What does your shop use to mount them, other that soap and water, that will eat the mag? Is your mill 3phase, if it is let me know. I bought a $150 vfd, and Mark had it wired up and rpm matched in about a hour with a beer break. Way easier than setting up amother electric motor for the 3rd leg. I did mine that way the first time, and never again.
Tony

 

The wheels are very cool.
Heavy machinery in your home shop is also very cool.
Yet again I am envious

 

tony I mount the wheels dry. the motor is three phase. I use a phase converter box that's matched to the motors hp level. if you and mark plan on any road trips south stop by I will buy lunch and beer to get it wired back up. that alone gives you good reason to come get the dana 60. I use a lot of mothers to keep them looking nice. they are a lot of work but worth it to me.

 

It ain`t so much the cost of the machinery,but the cost of the tooling that will eat your lunch.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

i got the mill 15 years ago for free. a friend was no longer using it in his machine shop. its a old tracer machine built for the war effort. it still has the government tags on it. the tracer parts have been removed. the machine has been sitting at the old house for the last seven years. we are selling the place so I was forced into moving it. I pick up tooling when I can find it cheap. I don't do anything too complicated so I don't need very much. its nice to have around when you need to make a part to get to the track and its 3am. with a lathe and a mill a lot of stuff can be made. the machines take up a lot of room but they are nice to have around when needed.

 

You might have to add on and make
"RACER X's PERFORMANCE MACHINE SHOP"

 

The wait is finally over. I ordered these sleeves right after the pri show in early december. The final piece of the puzzle showed up today. The ones i took out were 4.5 inches the new ones are 4.187 this combined with the 4.5 stroke crank make a 498 inch hemi. This is the common size for a nhra fuel car. viewed from the bottom the thickness of the new sleeves is very evident. The extra strength will help with the ring seal due to less flex. I sent them one i pulled out so the correct o ring groove and pushrod clearences could be cut. The registers for the deck and rod reliefs also need to match the originals. They are bored -.002 for finish honing. The block will be heated then the sleeves installed. The block is allowed to cool then honed to - .001 under. Due to the honing process creating heat its allowed to cool again. Then finish honed. I have extra sleeves that i ordered. The extras will also be sized so at the track im ready to change out a damaged one. Its time to build a late model hemi.

 

Viewed from the top the pushrod clearence cuts and o ring groove can be seen. The sleeves have flats cut on each side. They are there to keep the sleeves from rotating. when installed all the sleeves lock together. They have to maintain the proper position due to the rod reliefs cut on the bottom. looking at the old and new sleeve from the top shows the extra material from the bore to the o ring groove. this will help seal up the engine and reduce torching a gasket.

 

Can the spares just be honed to size? And still be correct after being switched? How warm would it need to be to switch one at the track? Stout is kind of an understatement for those!

 

The sleeve gets changed as soon as its determined one needs to be changed after a pass. It needs to be done before the engine cools. Because the engine is being built it will be heated slowly to 200 degrees. In a emergency the spare sleeves will do. They will have a extra thousanth or two. To make up for any loss of power a few more percent makes up for that.

 

Thanks, fascinating to follow what you're doing!

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I love this thread, it’s my favorite on HAMB!

 

Im glad you guys like it. I think i have lost some followers lately. I think i have been a little heavy on the nitro tech. Most hambers are not into that. I put it in my thread because its all the small details that make it work. I actually leave alot out so i dont bore everyone.

 

I'll admit that it's way beyond my level and I'll never use the information, but I like reading about it anyway, and it improves my appreciation of what it takes to compete at this level. Don't hold back!

 

Yeah, I used to watch top fuel pits as a kid and wonder what they were doing. You explain the reasons and tech well, keep it up please.

 

You have not lost me, it is super interesting and I am sorta local and should stop some time. Thanks

 

Don't worry too much about the lost followers. This thread has been going about 2 1/2 years now. Most of us can't stay focused on our own projects that long without an occasional dropout period, much less someone else. They will be back.

 

You haven't lost me at all. My dad raced AA/FA when I was a wee tot and it was always so cool to be able to brag about him and a couple of speed records he had at Green Valley Raceway. Lately I've been going through some old paperwork and found some receipts from when he started building the car about 1969. He'd been racing before that but this was his first run at Nitro. Reading through this thread in the past few months, I realized that my dad was about 24 or 25 years old when he started with fuel and he sold the car before he was 30. It makes me miss him all the more because I never asked how in the hell he learned all that stuff. I know it's dangerous, but he never blew anything up and did test and tune in front of our houses in Fort Worth and North Richland Hills.

Said all that to say, keep going, because it's fascinating the attention to detail that must be paid, and to realize my dad did it with three kids and a crazy wife in his 20s. Thanks @racer-x

 

I don't think you are a bore to anyone....

 

Not at all boring,
Informative and exciting....will it hold...will it burst...willing it to run great.

 

Couldn't chase me off with a shitty stick.

 

This is as close as I ever expected to get to true nitro fueled racing. A lot of dreams, but never knew anybody in the game, much less anybody that would take time to explain this stuff to me. This stuff fascinates me. Keep on going, subscribed forever!

 

I know I will never use the info but I'm certainly not bored with the nitro tech! Oh, and I'm still following anxious for every new post to see what is next.

 

I for one am really enjoying the insight on the nitro stuff, keep it coming.