I have been following the young fella on "Micro Machines" for a couple of years he has great skills and I go back and re watch some episodes for inspiration. He has just finished his degree and has picked up a job at space X , Elon must be watching him as well, so his speedster is on hold for a while. Make it custom looks good as well, I have looked at a couple of his now. I find YouTube a great resource as someone has usually done it before, we are lucky to have it.
A bit more progress Made up a fire wall frame, I was going to try bending the square tube, but made up a box instead, much easier, fuel tank turned up as well, hopefully 40 litres will be enough!
I just saw that macromachines vid. It was in my suggested feed for a while but I didn’t bother until a few days ago. Can’t believe it’s been 4 yrs. Sad to see him park his project, but life goes on.
Well, first you have to figure out what you're going to make. Then decide on the material. Then look thru your stash for something close, so that you don't spend hours cutting it down. Then determine what tools you have that will get the job done mostly. Now you're ready to start, but first you have to establish dimensions. Then cut off the material a little bit oversized just because. Start the machining. Realize that you don't have a sharp drill bit. Then decide on getting a new one or sharpening the one you have. Both take time. Now you start making progress. Oops, should have cut a little closer to the final dimensions, as it takes extra time to shorten it up. Finally, it's done, only 7 more to go. 6...5...4...3...2...final one. Done! Let's see, 10 minutes, plus 5 1/2 hours for the setup and all that... Yeah, we've all been there! Time well spent
Ok there is a story to the vice. As an apprentice electrician for REPCO an Australian car part manufacturer, now only retail, training was taken seriously so all fitters received 12 months full time training on machine work, and so the sparkies could be multi skilled we got 6 months full time training on machine work. Our final module was turn up a bottle jack which had left hand and right hand, inside and outside multi start square threads. Fast forward 10 years I was working at some research laboratories, and we had a great workshop with lathes and mills, our metal work guy and I were talking one day I said I needed a vice for home and was thinking about making one as they are expensive and I could not afford to buy one, he said its not possible and could not be made successfully, challenge accepted! Started with turning up a square thread shaft and nut, welded up the rest out of stock steel and machined in brass sliders and brass jaws. The vice has been on my bench for 30 years and has been abused hundreds of times and is still going strong, it opens wider than most vices and has a little anvil on the back for extra abuse. I could now afford a brand name vice but I still get a smile when I think of the challenge I accepted, It may not be the pretist tool in my shed but it is definetly the most used.
So is this backup for the rare occasions when the banger won't run? Like the little rowboats pulled behind bigger sailboats?
That's neat! But my warped mind immediately jumped to Monty Python, and could picture the group of them split up into opposite sides jousting! You need to make dimensional drawings of it for us all to make modern interpretations of the thing. I'm sure that more than a few would build one.
Not sure my skills are up to aluminium, 2 but welds many hours and 1/2 a bottle of gas. I may be better using sheet steel.
Almost thinking you need to invest in a spool gun for your mig welder and run co2 shielding gas. I think that would fix your welding issue... You got alot of puddle there that you were chasing for sure.
The Jalopy Journal
