General Tech What did you work on Today?

[frieed]

I decided to make the oxy-acetylene setup fixed to the wall with a 50' hose instead of on a cart so today I made a restraint/hose hanger.

tanks secured:


50' hose and regulators attached:



If I ever really need it to be mobile, I get out the short hose and strap the tanks to a hand truck like I had them initially.

Pondering a wall mounted box to hold the accessories.

 

[ricsrx]

Is this gonna be ready to drift at RMR this summer ?

I hope, if it is that means i have been getting some serious shop time

 

[RogueJeepr]

Keep us posted. It would be cool to this thing in action.

 

[RogueJeepr]

Decided to ditch the sky blue in favor of a really light grey. It's more of a universal color since we dont have a blue tow vehicle and should help for a selling point.


The cabinets are soaking it up.
Another coat tomorrow.


Plus multi colored LED strips will be installed.

 

[frieed]

Almost ashamed to put this here in light of Mike's (zmotorsports) work, but this is my very first real project in aluminum, a tray to hold the accessories for the oxy-fuel setup.
Just for fun, I made it challenging; 0.050 diamond plate from a hacked up truck tool box (thanks sixstringsteve), left out in the elements for years, and far from perfectly cut. All because it was sitting around.

pretty crappy welds, but I'm working on it:


on the wall with parts in it:


and the long view:

 

[Bart]

Nice, and it works. Much better than I could have done.

 

[zmotorsports]

Almost ashamed to put this here in light of Mike's (zmotorsports) work, but this is my very first real project in aluminum, a tray to hold the accessories for the oxy-fuel setup.
Just for fun, I made it challenging; 0.050 diamond plate from a hacked up truck tool box (thanks sixstringsteve), left out in the elements for years, and far from perfectly cut. All because it was sitting around.

pretty crappy welds, but I'm working on it:
View attachment 112367

on the wall with parts in it:
View attachment 112368

and the long view:
View attachment 112369

I think it looks pretty good for your first time welding aluminum.

Aluminum (non-ferrous) can be a bit tricky because it doesn't turn colors when it gets hot, just shiny and it can get away from you a lot quicker than your carbon steels.

Like steel , you just have to get into a rhythm of dab & move with the proper spacing. Remember, welding is only about 5% theory and the other 95% is practice. The last part is where I need to focus more on, I don't seem to get the hood time that I once did and need more practice.

Mike

 

[frieed]

The biggest problem I had was the diamond plate bumps preventing a tight fitup and the edges wanting to melt away from each other.

 

[zmotorsports]

The biggest problem I had was the diamond plate bumps preventing a tight fitup and the edges wanting to melt away from each other.

Yeah, ATP isn't the best stuff to learn or even practice on. But look on the bright side, if you can weld well on ATP, flat plate should be a breeze.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

Another couple of tips on tacking. Keep them small so you can keep the bead going right over the top and when tacking a corner, don't actually tack right at the corner. Stay off the corner a quarter or half inch. Otherwise if you tack right on the corner and then come in to get your arc started on the corner and said tack, as soon as the tack goes molten any stresses on that corner will pop the corner loose and raise the corner up. By tacking a quarter or half inch off the corner, when you start your molten puddle at the corner the tack will still hold everything in place and by the time you get to the tack, the corner you just welded has already solidified.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

This past weekend's shop projects.

Finished up the oil change on the Toro Timecutter ZTR Saturday morning as well as a video review.

Drained the oil from the engine.

I did some research and found the WIX/Napa Gold equivalent to the Toro oil filter. It appears to be the same one many of the other OPE manufacturers use. It crosses over to a WIX # 51394 or a NAPA Gold 1394.

Following the mower service I moved on to polishing the headlights out on my 2006 Chevrolet Duramax. I’m ashamed to say that they have been neglected for a few years. I usually run the cleaner and polish over them a couple times a year but have gotten a bit behind. Now that my truck will be parked indoors all of the time except the once or twice a week I drive it, I am sure they will stay looking good much longer with probably only require a quick touch up with the cleaner or polish once a year.

I did a video and will be posting it to my channel shortly, but I completely forgot to take a before picture of how bad they were. A few years ago I did a similar write up on my original projects thread where I restored the headlights on our 2003 Monaco Dynasty coach.

Here are the materials that I use on headlights.

Final results. Look as good as new.

Headlight polishing/restoration video.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

I had about an hour after work last night so I thought I would make the most of it. I looked over my white board and a task jumped out at me that I thought fit the time frame I had available.

At my last shop I had my my JMR tube notcher welded to a tube/pedestal that was then bolted to my floor. I really didn’t want to mount it permanently nor in the same fashion in my new shop so I opted to make another adapter in which to fasten to my fabrication table when needed.

This is what I started with ready to cut the welds and separate the vertical tube from the mounting base of the notcher.

Separated and ready to knock the remaining weld down.

I inserted the 2”x 1/4” wall tubing into the receiver tubing and tack welded the notcher after leveling.

Completed and ready for paint.

Wiped down with pre-cleaner and painted.

Ready for years of notching tube.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

I started on a cart or dolly for my deionized filtration system yesterday. I’ve been researching and waffling on a system for a few years now as it generally takes me around 2-1/2 hours to wash and chamois my coach. I hope to be able to more than cut that in half. I finally pulled the trigger on the Pro 100 tank/system from DI Rinse.

The tank measures 9” in diameter. I had some 1-1/4” x .095” DOM tubing left over from a previous project and my 1-1/4” die is a 4-1/2” centerline radius so that should be perfect.

Next I decided to bend up another 180-degree hoop in which will go up and back down to the bottom hoop. Thus will allow the tank to actually nestle back into it and merely need a strap to secure it.

Next to the lathe in which to start on the axle assembly.

Im making a couple of tube adapters in which will be welded into another piece of 1-1/4” tube that will be botched and welded to the back of the bottom hoop where the tank will rest.

Parting the tube adapter off.

Chamfering to allow void or channel for weld after pressing into tube.

Tube adapters complete.

Test fit into tube.

I then used a couple of 1/2”-13 x 3” bolts through the tube adapters and the heads welded on the inside on the adapters and welded the adapters into the tube using my MK Products weld positioner and TIG arm rest.

Axle then clamped and welded to the lower hoop.

So far this is where it is at.

Here is the video of my Deionized Filtration Cart Part 1.

More to come, stay tuned.....

 

[BlueWolfFab]

Put a new battery in the squarebody Chev and drove it around the block yesterday. It's been sitting since 2014 with that same gas in it, cranked over for probably ~15 seconds then fired right up and purred beautifully

 

[RogueJeepr]

Amazing, considering the old gas.

 

[BlueWolfFab]

Amazing, considering the old gas.

When I test drove it when I was buying it I noticed it was almost out of fuel. The kid I bought it from confirmed the fuel gauge read correctly. After I bought and paid for the truck I had to go run out to @I_lean 's house for something, and I forgot to put gas in it and I ran out of gas on i215. Had to walk to the next exit and buy a gas can and some gas and walked back, that's the one and only time I've ever put gas in it.

 

[moab_cj5]

I removed the factory power antenna on my FZJ80, but ordered the wrong coax to install my new setup. My buddy built me a new Ham antenna mount, and I installed a new crappy antenna for the radio. I am hoping the other antenna I ordered will be better than the one I installed tonight.

In fairness though, I need to try the new antenna with the rig out of my garage.

I have a pile of stuff to install, but ran into too many slow downs tonight to make much progress. No pictures even...

 

[nnnnnate]

@zmotorsports is the deionizer tank like a water softener? Sorry if you explained that in your video.

Also, those headlights look pretty clean. I've been trying to get hard water deposits off my shower doors and wonder if something like headlight polisher would work. I've tried everything else I can find mention of online with limited success.

 

[Thursty]

@zmotorsports is the deionizer tank like a water softener? Sorry if you explained that in your video.

Also, those headlights look pretty clean. I've been trying to get hard water deposits off my shower doors and wonder if something like headlight polisher would work. I've tried everything else I can find mention of online with limited success.

I've used vinegar on hard water stains with success.

 

[zmotorsports]

@zmotorsports is the deionizer tank like a water softener? Sorry if you explained that in your video.

Also, those headlights look pretty clean. I've been trying to get hard water deposits off my shower doors and wonder if something like headlight polisher would work. I've tried everything else I can find mention of online with limited success.

Nate, the DI tank removes all of the impurities out of the water, more like a reverse osmosis than a water softener.

As for polishing a shower door, I don't think the polish would work well because the shower door is more than likely glass and the headlights plastic. When polishing headlights, you are sanding down finer and finer until you use the polish to remove the sand scratches. I doubt that would work on glass.

I have used a vinegar and water mix to remove hard water spots though, you may give that a try. I had a neighbor at my last place turn the sprinkler on my coach and enclosed trailer one night and by the time I noticed it the next day it had baked in the hot sun all day and although it took some work, the vinegar and water solution ended up taking the hard water off.

Mike