Idle hands: assorted projects

[UnderControl]

A lot of trimming and crawling in and out of the dash a few dozen times and I have a friction fit box.

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty happy with the progress I've been making with aluminum welding too. Still need to work on not blowing out the ends.

 

 

This was a bit awkward with the fixturing and the other side of the box so I'm stoked at how consistent I was able to keep the bead with so many stops and restarts. Even better was flipping it over to see full pen. Not as consistent but I expected to have to weld both sides, so I'll call it a win.

 

 

[]2eDeYe]

Tack the ends first and start from there so the heat works towards the middle of the plate.

[UnderControl]

Eh, as much as possible I like to keep my weld going one direction, and especially with tig I want to run a bead straight from one end to the other. Less of an issue on aluminum since it doesn't distort like steel. Had this been steel starting from either side and meeting in the middle would end up with gradual shrink to the middle which would shrink a lot. 

 

In this case I had tacked the ends, and ran straight from one side to the other, the half dozen stops/starts aside, just needed to come off the pedal sooner and just jam all of the rod into it. Considering last time I touched aluminum was over a month ago and 1/8" plate, I'll take a little boogering on some 0.063.

Edited December 18, 2023 by UnderControl
Clicked submit on accident

[UnderControl]

Back of the box is bent up and tacked on. I really need work on my autogenous tacks, and expand my clamp collection.

 

 

 

One corner dips in to clear the cowl and made everything more difficult. Need to do one more test fit and then I'll get to properly test my steady rest welding it all up.

[UnderControl]

It ain't exactly pretty, but it fits and is welded.

 

 

[datsunfreak]

10 hours ago, UnderControl said:

It ain't exactly pretty, but it fits and is welded.

 

For some reason, I really like spending too much time on things no one but me will ever see...  😋

[UnderControl]

54 minutes ago, datsunfreak said:

 

For some reason, I really like spending too much time on things no one but me will ever see...  😋

 

Haha, I don't necessarily, but I love an excuse to learn something. I've been wanting to do more work with aluminum and this seemed like a low stakes way to go about getting some practice. Got me a bunch of practice welding in awkward positions and around funny shapes too.

[datsunfreak]

3 hours ago, UnderControl said:

I love an excuse to learn something

 

Same. 👍

 

Learning to weld aluminum is one of the last things on my "car guy bucket list", that and painting a car the proper way. Both are scary though...

[UnderControl]

Paint is kind of on my list and since I'm planning to try to paint this car I'm hoping to pick it up pretty quick. Ultimately I don't actually care to get good at paint, as long as I can correct it, and if I can't there's always wraps.

[UnderControl]

Another thing on my list is improving efficiency in the shop. To that end I've finally gotten around to making a stand for my bead roller. Up till now I've just been chucking it up in the vice, same vice I use for basically everything, including the shrinker/stretcher and English wheel. All tools I tend to use together making for very inefficient work. Now my bead roller at least has it's own roll around stand to be used rarely, but effectively.

 

 

 

Plan currently is to add stands off the back for the shrinker and stretcher.

[UnderControl]

Well, the shrinker and stretcher are mounted and I have some foot pedals setup. I need to get better about properly testing things as I go. Do to space consideration I shortened the handle the foot pedal controls and lost basically all leverage making it pretty well useless. Nothing a little rework can't fix.

 

 

[UnderControl]

Rework complete, and now at least everything is useable. Ended up doing a combination of extending the lever off the tool and scalloping the pedals to get an extra inch of travel.

 

 

 

I still need to add bracing to keep things from flopping around, and I picked up a plate to turn into a table for the bead roller, but those are things I don't have to stop other work to do.

[UnderControl]

Fast forwarding a bit and the passenger side sail panel lead seam I started working on a very long time ago is gone.

 

 

In the meantime I ended up picking up a new mig since my Hobart is officially ded. Didn't really want to spend a lot of money on a mig right now, so took a shot on the Eastwood 180. So far, it's OK. It works at all, so big step up and I do like the variable voltage selection over the few fixed positions of the Hobart. The spool holder is absolute garbage and I believe contributes to or maybe the entire reason for what feels like a jerky feed. End of the day it gets the job done and with a few tweaks it should run smoother.

 

Quick lap test on 16ga. Upper is little e's lower straight drag and pause.

 

 

 

 

[UnderControl]

Last of the rust repair on the list is the passenger fender. I started making one patch for it a while ago and while I decided if I'm going to scrap it I figured I'd start on the other corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[UnderControl]

Several hours of banging, wheeling and shrinking down, several more to go.

 

 

[UnderControl]

At the frustratingly tedious part of fine tuning the patch panel and really until it's ready it'll pretty well look the same.  In the meantime I got back to the press break I had started working on moons ago. While not technically finished, it's done enough to give it a test run. Just a quick run at it with a bit of 1.5" x 0.25 and 15" of 11ga. Managed to bend them each about 3* passed 90 before bottoming out.

 

 

 

[UnderControl]

Continuing to move along with little shop improvements. This time around I got to making the hitch receiver style tool mount for the bench I've been threatening to make for years. 

 

 

For the first tool to stand I figured on a mount for my extra vise.

 

 

[Rustbin]

Your giving me IDEAS, I am planning to do the hitch receiver tool mount but hadn't though of attaching it to the bench. As for the patch panel sometimes it needs to be welded in to do the final adjustments. Your work looks good.

[UnderControl]

I've got a few more ideas for additional tool posts I'll sprinkle in as I get to them. For the fender patch I was mostly having a bitch of a time getting the arch developed. Ended up making a die out of a chunk of 3/4 plate and was able to get the shape, but got a bit off the line and well, now I'm doing wiring.

 

Was recently reminded that I need this car drivable this summer, and bolt on body panels don't actually make it drive. Not a lot to show at this point I have the fuse block roughly fixed into place, then undid basically all of the pre-branching I had done on the bench.

 

 

 

[Duncan]

On 12/22/2023 at 7:04 AM, UnderControl said:

Paint is kind of on my list and since I'm planning to try to paint this car I'm hoping to pick it up pretty quick. Ultimately I don't actually care to get good at paint, as long as I can correct it, and if I can't there's always wraps.

 

As a guy who paints, I can tell you that painting is the (relatively) easy part.  Prep is what makes a nice paint job.  

 

Nice looking metal work.  I like the receiver hitch mounted to the bench.  Great idea!

 

 

Edited March 6 by Duncan

[]2eDeYe]

Nice work consolidating your tools.  

[EDM620]

On 3/5/2024 at 9:23 PM, Duncan said:

I like the receiver hitch mounted to the bench.  Great idea!

Indeed. I want to do something like that for a few tools.

 

I have seen a woodworker who built a table where he could swing a platform up from under the bench, then "flip" the tabletop portion over to switch from one tool to another (small band saw & belt sander I think).

 

A buddy has built a tri-stand for his shop that combines a drill press plus shrinker/stretcher? and bench grinder. I haven't seen it yet but gains him some shop floor space.

[UnderControl]

I'm mulling over some ideas for a "shaping station". Mostly for having a place to put the sandbag that isn't otherwise a work surface, but working on ways to incorporate more tooling options.  In the meantime I added some additional accessories.