home made tools and equipment...

Now that is a cool idea, thanks

 

That light is a great idea, I can't see crap when I am welding anymore as it is too dark. Do you find that the light trips the self darkening feature prematurely ? I tried putting a light near my welding and the mask got dark before I stuck an arc.

Don

 

I bet they would work... My helmet darkens if I shine a light at it or fast movements.. but If I hold a flashlight where I want to weld its usually OK. Pretty great idea!

 

I could never get a light to work when welding.

 

great idea----what did you search? i cant find them--thx

 

Me neither. The light would reflect off of the shiny metal I was welding and would cause the self darkening feature to activate. So I would be even more blinded than if the light were not on. But evidently he has found a way to get those led's to not do that. I'd like to know more about that.

Don

 

Maybe his helmet has a sesitivity setting mine does

 

If your helmet has a sensitivity adjustment then it should not be a problem. I have been using a trouble light but I like this idea, a lot easier to position. Thanks for the tip.

On E-bay http://www.ebay.com/itm/ESAB-Easy-L...712?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51ab2526f0

 

I recently started using halogen lights ( big ones) to lite up my welding area. They have improved my welding a bunch. As long as the lights are pointed at the work they do not trigger the auto dark feature.

 

I recently took one of those little LED flshlights that Harbor Freight was giving away and made a simple brkt to attach it to the mig torch so it focuses right on the spot where the welding is taking place. No chance of it interfering with the auto-darkening helmet. Because it is so close to the heat, I punched out some clear shield disks to cover the lense in hopes that it will last awhile.

 

Did the same thing with HF flashlight,
Its getting brown and clouded from the heat. Shield sounds like good idea.


Ago

 

Thank you, guys! I am glad that you enjoyed this simple idea .
I bought this LED flashlight there http://www.ebay.com/itm/190704203755
This flashlight can be rotated 360 degree, and so it can be easily adjusted.

 

NotGettingRich, do you have any pics of your setup?

 

Arm & Hammer washing powder + dc welder + 55 gallon plastic barrel equals clean parts. 1 tsp per gallon equals correct ratio, it actually works slower with more soda.
http://bbssystem.com/viewtopic.php?t=1260 A pdf where I did a whole truck by this method. It also goes over the saftey of the process.

Warning, Lethal voltages, water present. Most people use a battery charger, (in the right conditions 12 volts will knock the heck out of ya) I find about 50 amps about right for a engine block. (picture shows a 327 in soup). Bubbles are hydrogen (flammable), heats fluid up so grease sheets off, paint looks like paint remover has been on it after 24 hours and wrinkles up.

TURN unit off before sticking hand into fluid or you might learn to break-dance..

YES, I have new cam bearings on the way. (before ya start ragging on a Gawgia Hillbilly)

I tried to "spin polish" out the crank with emery cloth.. nope.. had to send it out.. It almost worked.. a flat spot on 3-4 journal defeated me.

Use what you got to your best advantage.. It don't always work out but your brain is your best tool.

 

l

Don, I think I see what your problem is;

Your welding shiny metal. Just leave the rust in place and no reflection!

Bruce

 

Valve spring compressor to go into my C-press (listed earlier this topic)

Made from things "literally" picked up from floor. I think the plate with the round hole used to be a 74ci Harley engine stand that went on a "V8" stand.

Making it? I cut a cardboard template of the bath-tub shaped combustion chamber, laid into the head, welded that to a 2x2 socket to slip into the holder on the C-press, cut a cardboard template to press the two valves, welded the 1" tube between the "screw" press on the C-press and the forked shaped pusher to compress the springs..

Not cleaned up or painted yet. Neither are the heads. My engine takes priority over the jigs and tooling. I had a "factory" job, it kept shooting the springs by my head. I loaned it out, he says I gave it to him. So I needed one here for a chevy.

About a hour in it. Need probably two to clean it's edges up and paint it.

 

Now that's a unique way to compress springs alright. I've got a big arbor press with rack and pinion in my shop and your idea is giving me thought about using my Bridgeport mill to make a good valve spring compressor attachment for the old press!

 

Hi Buddy.

C press In use. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYPoPUKsYD4&feature=youtu.be

Please forgive my messy "destroyed workshop". (health issues) I have a couple of crazed squirrels that think they "own the place". They run down and chatter at me over my head making me think they are fixing to pounce on me. I miss that 12 foot long snake I had in the ceiling for a while. There was no tree-rats when it was there.

My wife is leaving for Michigan next week, perhaps I can get the 57 backed out of the shop and get back to the things I love most. My hotrods. The tooling is just a "cheap ass way to get what I want".

Anyways, instead of building it "just for" a chevy, you could think more than I did and do one for all types of engines. (improve my poor design)

 

Banjo rear end holder for my engine stand






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Is it pretty stable? I would have guessed it would need a counter weight on the other end of the stand. Going to need to make one like it.

 

For more stability, how about spinning it around 180 so the housing is over the stand like an engine would be.

 

Great idea but it looks too heavy on one side. Weld counter weights?

 

Here’s my contribution. Scratch built CNC I just compleated. I made it mainly so I could produce patterns faster for my aluminum casting, then also to do some machining on the aluminum castings. Plus there are just so many other things to make on it like pc boards, engraving, and such. I am still debugging it but below is also a photo of a dash pattern for casting that I just did this afternoon.

Smokey

 

You made a CNC machine!? More details on that (even though its so far over my head) BADASS

 

You made a CNC machine!? More details on that (even though its so far over my head) BADASS
x2

 

This was something that had been wanting to make for myself for quite awhile and finally got one made. My main interest has been to aid me in my aluminum casting for patterns and such. This machine is based on a diy cnc called Momus cnc. I adapted it to my wants and needs with a few improvements as far as the vs spindle, good led lighting, tapped table, and a few mods to make it more rigid overall. It has a working area of about 16” x 16” x 5”. I also made the motion control board and motor driver boards from scratch. Just got it up and running about a week ago so as I said earlier, still working out the bugs. The mechanics are pretty straight forward but the electronics and software are where all the gremlins seem to hide. (at least for me) I had already started on on my second machine before this one was done. It is more of micro mill for doing just pcbs and engraving. Hope this gives you some of the details you were looking for and thanks for your guy’s interest.

Smokey

 

DIY cnc???? jeez well here is my pic of a shop made tool. The rear axle holder is mine, pumpkin holder is a Speedway purchase.

 

I needed to make a bead like this, total of 11 feet long, some of it had to be curved in an 8" radius some of it straight. I decided that the best way for me was to build a dedicated rolling machine to do it. I was taking a CNC machining course at my local technical college, so I talked the instructor into helping me with the parts of the project that was over and above the course parameters. I really didn't have a good method of getting exact dimensions off the original part, (couldn't get it to a coordinate measuring machine) so I made a very accurate template. I took that to school and used their CMM to measure it and input the info to a CAD system, from there we generated tool paths for both the male and female rollers. With $50 worth of 4" scrapyard steel shafting and the magic of computers and machine tools I had 3 rollers. I have a pretty nice scrap pile, so with some pieces out of the pile and a neighbors junk bike I made a rolling machine.

 

I built this quick and dirty, without bearings because its life is short. I will never need this particular shape again and may never use the machine again.
I don't have a good picture of it, but my roller can be set up with 1 male and 1 female roller to roll out straight pieces, or as shown in the pictures with 1 male and 2 female rollers to form a radiused part.
In use, I rolled all my pieces out straight using the 2 roller method, then converted to the 3 roller set-up and rolled the radiused pieces a second time to get the correct radius. I lost a bit of the shape due to spring back of the sheetmetal but I don't think it will be noticeable to the unknowing masses that have never seen an Autocar before. I'm pretty happy with the results!

 

wow, very impressive.