What did you do today?

[Dan Dubeau]

I hit one of those on the hwy in New Brunswick about 6 years ago. Lady merging onto the hwy cut off a dump truck ahead of me. He nailed the brakes, and spit that out the back end. It went right, I slowed down and went left to avoid it, but it hit a pothole and changed course right in front of me. I straddled it with the wheels, and heard a loud BANG as I went over it. The lady behind me took it right in the middle of her small car. I pulled over, shut it off, and crawled underneath expecting to see oil pouring out everywhere but couldn't find even the slightest mark of where it hit. Lady who cut off the truck continued on her merry way oblivious to what happened behind her. We borrowed my Father in laws van for the trip, and had my 6mo son with us and were on our way home from 10 days of touring. Not a situation I wanted to be in a couple 1000km s away from home. Made for a nervous trip home not knowing where, or what it hit, but there was no damage. When I got back home we crawled under it again and went over everything again and still have no idea what it hit. I was dead sure it was the rear axle, but there's not a mark on it. It was loud though lol.

[HunterL]

First post here, but today I made a YouTube video about my South Bend 10K lathe: https://hunterwlong.com/new-video-so...-10k-wired-up/

[Willy]

First post here, but today I made a YouTube video about my South Bend 10K lathe: https://hunterwlong.com/new-video-so...-10k-wired-up/

Looks like you've got a good start on the shop already, I think you'll have fun out there by the looks of it.
Thanks for the video, nice to have the VFD hooked up and the lathe in place. The VFD is the only way to power a lathe in my opinion, don't think I'd like to go back without one.

I hope you'll enjoy your time here, lots of helpful and knowledgeable folks here more than willing to help so if you have questions don't be afraid to ask.

[Willy]

Willy , long time ago I bought a Gear Hobbing machine at an auction in KAMLOOPS. . Across from McDonalds.
Sold it a while later to the motorcycle sprocket guy in Vancouver.
We set out in my buddies crane truck to deliver it.
Coming down the hill to the Coldwater River west of Merritt, there was a big crunch and some whirring noise.
We coasted down to the off ramp and parked by the creek.
It was the shaft or bearings to the second diff, I think we tore the diff open.

We were there most of the day till Miltons Towing arrived to slowly pull us back to Kelowna.

While we were there we did not see anyone on a bike with a spare shaft...

WOW, sounds like the second diff grenaded and not the interaxle shaft dropping out. Did you have to pull the axles on the rear driver or was it too late for that already. Sometimes you can pull the axles out of the housing cap the hole with cardboard get home on the front driver only, but not without at least pulling the inter axle drive shaft first.

Can`t believe that not only Matt but Dan as well were witness to someone dropping that shaft, incredible, must be some real junk out there. Two steps away from being a third world country. In almost 40 years of trucking I have never seen anything like that. This on some of the worst roads and the most trying conditions while being chained up, power divider on and all diffs locked while being pulled over stumps, mud, and boulders by Cats and skidders. Not to me or anybody I know has ever experienced anything like this.
I have seen main drive shafts twisted like a pretzel on several occasions, ether from abuse or very severe conditions, but to drop an inter axle shaft U-joints and yokes have to be in a deplorable state of repair. Idiots, it`s guys like that that give a black eye to the whole industry.
Good grief!

[Willy]

Made up a quick tool today in order help my neighbor out with his chainsaw. He needed to remove the clutch and it was one that I didn't have a tool for it so I cobbled one together real fast. I wanted to use something a little stronger for the driving pins but all I had was welding rod . So I knocked the coating off of one cut it to size and drove them into the holes I`d drilled and tacked them and a nut for the impact into place. Not pretty but it held. LOL

[Dan Dubeau]

While it's been a while since it happened and I don't remember all the details in great clarity, I don't recall the truck being a shining example of preventative maintenance.

[gellfex]

I hit one of those on the hwy in New Brunswick about 6 years ago. Lady merging onto the hwy cut off a dump truck ahead of me. He nailed the brakes, and spit that out the back end. It went right, I slowed down and went left to avoid it, but it hit a pothole and changed course right in front of me. I straddled it with the wheels, and heard a loud BANG as I went over it. The lady behind me took it right in the middle of her small car. I pulled over, shut it off, and crawled underneath expecting to see oil pouring out everywhere but couldn't find even the slightest mark of where it hit. Lady who cut off the truck continued on her merry way oblivious to what happened behind her. We borrowed my Father in laws van for the trip, and had my 6mo son with us and were on our way home from 10 days of touring. Not a situation I wanted to be in a couple 1000km s away from home. Made for a nervous trip home not knowing where, or what it hit, but there was no damage. When I got back home we crawled under it again and went over everything again and still have no idea what it hit. I was dead sure it was the rear axle, but there's not a mark on it. It was loud though lol.

I had a similar incident on a rural road in the Idaho mountains. We were leaving the state in an overloaded 87 Maxima at 5pm on a Friday to drive to NY after 3 weeks kayaking in ID, and a piece of angle iron in road that I put between the wheels apparenlty flipped up from the suction and did a great impersonation of an IUD, putting several holes in my exhaust and gas tank. We actually located a local dude who towed us to his welding shop, welded the exhaust and pulled & brazed the tank so we were on our way that night. Goddamn hero!

FWIW today I got 2 18"x12" PE cutting boards in from Amazon, blue and red, and cut them down to 2 11x9s each, rounding and smoothing the cut edges. 11" long cutting boards fit perfectly standing on edge in the kitchen cabinet over the work surface, easy to grab for that little cutting job without getting out a big one. Red for meat, blue for other stuff. Yay, I created!

[754]

Willy it probably was the rear diff, I remember they pulled the axles and put cardboard on and there was a big oil spot by the road., I distinctly remember using the crane to swing in the replacement diff, close to the truck...

Now I will relate a very gross scrap on the road tale .
A BIKE GUY I know in Nakusp , works on Italian bikes. Riding with his son, near Nanton Alberta, he was ahead of his son a bit..
After a while not seeing him he stopped, then not seeing him, backtracked, went back a few mikes and found his son on the side of the road , he had gone down.. I believe by then there were people helping his son.
Apparently a truck had been hauling scrap or spare parts ahead of the son, and a forklift fork fell off the truck, and bounced up and took the kids leg off below the knee..
DAMN THAT WAS ONE ****TY DEAL, THEY COULD NOT RE ATTACH.. ****ty..

[PStechPaul]

Some years ago I was driving a small rental car on the road through the San Gabriel mountains, where fallen rock often wound up in the road. I rounded a curve, with some guy on a three wheel motorcycle not far behind me, when I encountered a rock maybe 6-8" in size, and I was used to driving my Isuzu Trooper, so I just aimed the car so it would safely clear it. But as I got closer, I sensed that it was too big for the "low rider", and I felt a loud thump as it hit beneath the car. The rock rolled around on the road behind me and the cyclist had to execute some tricky maneuvers, but he was OK. I pulled over when I could, and looked under the car, which seemed OK.

Some time in the late 60s I was driving my 1960 Ford Falcon on the beltway, when I ran over a steel pipe. In the rear view mirror I saw that it was spinning around and it didn't seem to have done any damage to my car, so I continued on. But then I saw a guy in a VW pull alongside, beeping his horn, and asking me to pull over. That's when I saw that his windshield was smashed and he had some cuts on his head. He was not badly injured, so we just exchanged insurance info, and went on our respective ways, and I never heard anything more. But that could have turned out a lot worse.

[Willy]

I can`t imagine the pain that kid went through. The wait for help must have felt like an eternity.
I think most of us have all had some bad encounters in the past with steel, it is the most unforgiving material I have ever been hit with. Poor kid was lucky, if you want to call it that, that he wasn`t cut in half.

Damn, now I have another phobia to add to the list while riding.
Oh well still better than riding the bus, LOL!

[Arcane]

I have a 36" Sony Trinitron TV that was given to me a few years back and just recently it started to cycle between on and standby mode with the on cycle being about 2 seconds long and the standby mode being a little longer about 2 1/2 seconds by the time honoured one Mississippi two Mississippi method of timing events. Darn thing is only 15 years old too! Up until then it was working perfectly and it replaced a 30 yo Curtis Mathis that finally gave up the ghost. It's time for a new one but in the interim I decided to hook up an old 13" color TV I bought back in 1975. It works like a charm! Not bad for a 43 year old unit, eh!

[wierdscience]

It happens sometimes,failure during quench.One of the studs cracked in the quench,gotta make another one and heat treat it.Probably should have used oil for the quench,but lesson learned.Hard to see in the picture,but the crack runs across the minor diameter to the mid-point and then axialy about 1/4".

[Dave C]

It happens sometimes,failure during quench.One of the studs cracked in the quench,gotta make another one and heat treat it.Probably should have used oil for the quench,but lesson learned.Hard to see in the picture,but the crack runs across the minor diameter to the mid-point and then axialy about 1/4".

Well, that just sucks

[JRouche]

Heat treated the T-bolts and Toolpost nuts for the lathe project today.SAE 1045,bagged in stainless foil with a wad of paper inside to consume the remaining oxygen.Heated to 1525*F and held for an hour before quenching in soap water.Tempered at 700*F for one hour before oven off to cool down overnight.No hardness tester,but a file just barely marks it.

Very nice looking work. I love the color. I bought a couple rolls of SS foil from enco before they dumped. Havent used it yet.

Thanks for the paper trick.

Water quench? Some folks say its too aggressive and causes stresses? Dunno.

Thanks for sharing. JR

[Willy]

It happens sometimes,failure during quench.One of the studs cracked in the quench,gotta make another one and heat treat it.Probably should have used oil for the quench,but lesson learned.Hard to see in the picture,but the crack runs across the minor diameter to the mid-point and then axialy about 1/4".

Thanks for posting this.
Most folks don't post their failures but heck that's how we learn.