Smart storage, when you outgrow your workshop

Disclaimer: You are about to see some pictures from my garage/workshop. This in no way represents good practice nor should the rest of the team be judged by my standards. Do not try this at home. Remember cleanliness is next to godliness. Now let's talk shop saftey and smart storage.

A machined surface is a surface you make using your machine. Hopefully with some degree of precision. A machine surface is a somewhat flat surface on your machine where you can store tools, parts, rags, catalogs, fast food, etc. Preferably under a big pile of metal chips. Sometimes your machined parts can become the storage space for other parts and projects. That's a practical way to save space. The fun part is when you finally dig in to the pile of parts you have and find all the neat things you have been looking for. So really, slacking with the cleaning up is just like giving you a surprice christmas every now and then. If you know what to look for you can see more than a few ongoing, well not completely abandoned, projects.

Oh there's one of my flathead blocks under my soon to be bass cabinet under some Ford Model B engine parts. At least the stack has wheels and can be rolled.

Other Ford parts on my washing machine

In a recent blog entry I showed you some machining of our flywheel. To do that I had to fire up my trusty old Warner & Swasey turret lathe. And by trusty old I mean old... and not that trusty. Make  no mistake, it will turn big chunks of solid metal into tiny chips in a heartbeat. But the clutch drag in neutral and the difficult to stop 50+ kg chuck sometimes worry me. But hey, moving the forward/reverse lever slightly to reverse the chuck is held stationary most of the times.

Poor old Bridgeport

 I really like older machines with all the knobs, wheels and levers. Big heavy castings, functional design, useful damn nice looking and a lot of space to pile up parts. But what really want to say is that I'm in desperate need of a larger workshop. Much much larger.

OK enough of the stupid rant . Enjoy the horror.

Using my MIG weld as a cart for my TIG welder. How's that for weldporn?

What is this neglected machines? Hardly anything stored on them. 

Until next time: Eat, sleep, salt slush, repeat.

Billet not bought

As regular readers will remember we had some problems adapting our Volvo 6-cylinder to the T56 Magnum. But step by step we made them bolt together like a match made in heaven. Or at least a matched made on Ringön where all sorts of strange things can happen, trust me on that. The last thing to finish was the actual flywheel. We made the blank a while back but to make it work with the Tilton triple disc clutch and the cut off ring gear there was some machining to do. The blank was made from a nice shiny, thick, flat stainless steel plate we happened to have. OK the choice of stainless could be questioned, but it was the only thick plate we had on hand.

The final machining was long overdue, so my Warner and Swasey turret lathe had to dig in. The game plan was easy. Take a light skim cut on the face of the flywheel, machine the step for the Tilton pressure plate and machine a step for the ring gear piece.

First I had to make an arbor holding the blank true in my not so true running chuck. Then face off the flywheel. Well that nice, seemingly flat, almost precision ground surface wasn’t flat at all. Nope, but after almost 1 millimeter was shaved off it was OK. After that turn a step for the pressure plate, flip it around facing off the backside and a turn down a step for the ring gear.

Now this wasn’t that hard at all, but machining stainless is tedious. And what was left of our big nice blank? Well a whole lot less. I don’t know what it weighs or what it did weigh before. But let me put it like this, it’s more race than family car now.

Oh scrap! If someone wants to make a wig, I can set you up. Heavy metal style.

In a dark corner of my work shop, a Ford Model B is on the Bridgeport getting milled for a new crankshaft thrust bearing. Maybe I’ll get back to that one day. Both the Bridgeport and the Model B.

I come from a world where billet car parts are frowned upon and for a good reason. But making your own car parts, engine parts, speed parts and so on is always cool. I must say that I’m actually quite proud of what we made here. Made using old machines, still capable of doing a good job. Billet not bought!! But on the other hand there are probably no company out there offering a Volvo flywheel set up for a Tilton clutch.