What did you do today?

[mattthemuppet]

Beautiful work Peter and Dennis.

I chased some threads for a neighbour who's rebuilding a 60's pickup. The rear suspension kit he bought to install struts wouldn't thread together. First time I used a 3/4-16 tap that I have and he was pretty chuffed too.

Also got halfway through making a new poly-V pulley for my lathe motor. Hopefully finish it tomorrow.

[DennisCA]

Thanks! Today I took apart the vertical spindle:





The red stuff had me worried at first, but it's just old grease.



Fortunately it looks to be in good condition as I can tell. Spindle housing / outer race:





Spindle / inner race with the smaller cage removed



Close up of the cage after some quick cleaning



I would like to soak the cages in something like lacquer thinner but not sure if that could possibly do any harm. Kerosene is safer but I know from experience it wouldn't get it really clean. Diesel might work too, I think that should be fine with brass.

[brian Rupnow]

You don't have anything there that laquer thinners would hurt. It is all metal, isn't it?

[Peter.]

Nice job Peter!

Thanks Dave (and Matt).

I ground the tool from a 8mm drill bit, since I couldn't find anything more suitable that would fit in my shop-made bar. I tested the end of the drill with a file and found it to be hard along it's whole length. Shame to wreck a good drill but it was in a very good cause. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the thread came out.

[darryl]

What I did today- cleaned up a work table. Now that I can see the whole surface at once, I'm a bit repelled by the color and the texture. This is an old door that is kind of pastel blue and is weathered. I need to cover it with some mdf or hdf.

[Tim Clarke]

You don't have anything there that laquer thinners would hurt. It is all metal, isn't it?

Brian has it, Clean everything twice with laquer thinner, dry it with lint free towels, or compressed air. cover it so no dust or shop dirt can enter. use whatever lube is recommended, from a new package, or one that has never been open to contamination. assemble with clean hands, and don't worry about it after that

[DennisCA]

I've cleaned up the parts and then I did a dry assembly to test the play, as per the instructions I have read.

I mounted the spindle back in the vertical head and sat it down on my surface plate so it would be stable, plan was to use the magnetic base against the casting but the magnet just didn't get a solid connection on the casting, too thick a layer of paint perhaps. So I had to resort to this setup, a big flat block of steel that I made sure was decently flat.



The indicator (2um) is moving consistently 3 ticks on the dial which to me seems pretty good, at one spot it felt like 3.5 ticks but otherwise it was very consistent and definitely within specs, infact the play is so good I wonder if I did anything wrong. To clarify what I am doing, I am rotating the spindle and then pushing up and down on the spindle to test the play/runout (holding the whole casting firmly down on on the plate).

After that I disassembled again, cleaned everything off again, used brake cleaner this time. Then I greased the parts needing it with the right kind of grease, this small tube was 25 euros.

[The Metal Butcher]

I had to finish painting a roof Monday, metal with ridges every 10 inches or so. I had been using a roller which was working really poorly. So I got two 4" harbor freight brushes and put them together. Way faster, cheaper, and did a much better job.

[RichR]

Very clever. Now get that wrench out of the dirt before it starts to rust.

[The Metal Butcher]

Very clever. Now get that wrench out of the dirt before it starts to rust.

It was there maybe all of three hours. I'm not mean to my tools, but I'm use them, they can't sit there and look pretty.

[mattthemuppet]

+1, what a cool solution.

Neat threading tool Peter, though you must have a fairly chunky lathe to cut a thread that coarse!

I've just finished overcoming my fear of heights and fixed the soffiting at the edge of my roof which had popped out. I HATE going up ladders (even step ladders), so I'm very happy to be sitting under a fan, drinking a coffee, very close to the ground.

[PStechPaul]

Yesterday I tackled the jungle of weeds that have overgrown the area where I am planning to build a storage shed. The cherry tree stump is not visible because it is still alive and has many branches that have grown out of it:





I think I will use my HF "Armstrong" sledge hammer and break up the existing old, ugly foundation. Most of it is just rubble sitting on the ground, and I can move it with a pry bar.




I was going to lay out a 12' wide x 8' deep foundation below the old one, but I think it will be better to excavate the lower left corner and make it 8' wide x 12' deep, which will go 4' deeper into the hill. That will mean having a masonry rear wall and at least partial side walls, or separate retaining walls to get a flat and level foundation.


This is one load of brush. I also used my renovated electric weed whacker to clean up some of the further area of "lawn":

[Tim Clarke]

[QUOTE=DennisCA;1246557]I've cleaned up the parts and then I did a dry assembly to test the play, as per the instructions I have read.

I mounted the spindle back in the vertical head and sat it down on my surface plate so it would be stable, plan was to use the magnetic base against the casting but the magnet just didn't get a solid connection on the casting, too thick a layer of paint perhaps. So I had to resort to this setup, a big flat block of steel that I made sure was decently flat.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/eR9QmJMh.jpg[/imThe indicator (2um) is moving consistently 3 ticks on the dial which to me seems pretty good, at one spot it felt like 3.5 ticks but otherwise it was very consistent and definitely within specs, infact the play is so good I wonder if I did anything wrong. To clarify what I am doing, I am rotating the spindle and then pushing up and down on the spindle to test the play/runout (holding the whole casting firmly down on on the plate).

After that I disassembled again, cleaned everything off again, used brake cleaner this time. Then I greased the parts needing it with the right kind of grease, this small tube was 25 euros.

Yes, the Kluber grease is as good as it gets, it is what is specified for critical applications. Nice work!

[RB211]

Going to Home Depot to buy supplies to move the 10EE

[Mcgyver]

Fortunately it looks to be in good condition as I can tell. Spindle housing / outer race:

Is this one of the ones with the races being the spindle housing and/or shaft? Horrible bloody design in that there is about no way to recover at the end of the bearing life....my aciera is like that. With 6 microns of play you may be fine, but I still think its a cursed spindle design where you can't replace the bearings