180-971 F1 Crane Truck

[Ravvin]

Yes, I'd definitely recommend an ultrasonic cleaner for carbs. Especially if they have ever had any fuel with ethanol through them.
You really have to play around with what you use in the cleaners, too. Some chemicals change the colour of the aluminium parts, but its surface colour only. If you were going to paint the outside, I'd probable give it a good wash with turps or thinners before the primer went on. Any steel parts need to be dried off as they come out of the cleaner and sprayed or dunked in something to stop them flash-rusting.
Just remember to work out what size ultrasonic cleaner you need, then get one size bigger. You can still do smaller items in a bigger cleaner. Just put them in a good strong zip-lock bag with your cleaning liquid and put them in the machine with enough water to support the bag. The water will heat and support the bag and transfer the vibrations. No need to use a full bath of cleaner.

The shelter tunnel is going really well. We have had many gales come through since I put it up, with winds over 80km/h and a few times over 100km/h. I've had to replace the rope lashing that holds the northern end in place as the stuff they supplied rubbed through. I used really big cable-ties as a temporary fix until I had weather calm enough to get the big ladder up to replace the rope. This worked, but only for a few months. (It seemed to be working, so why change it? ) Problem with cable-ties is that they are great if everything is tight. Friction works for them. When you get constant changing tensions pulling them in different directions, they tend to stretch a bit then all snap at once. It was never just a single tie that broke.

I think the main thing you need to watch out for is that over the first few years you need to watch all lashings and other tensioning systems for slackness and tighten them up as the cover stretches with heat and wind. I think mine has finished stretching now. One thing I did that I think helped is I ran some cheap ratchet straps across the ends from side to side. Not super tight so that it would bow the uprights in. I ran one from side to side in the middle and then one from the top where the curved pole joins, down to the far foot-plate. Same on the other side, so it looks like the 3 stripes of the Union Jack. I did this because I get most of the gale-force winds from the South to South-West. I saw the way the end panel was bowing in, sometimes enough to touch the radiator guard on the truck. The straps stop it going so far back, hopefully preventing it from stretching. Ideally, I should have made up a pole that crossed the middle. This would stop the side poles bowing in when the wind hit the end panel. Or maybe 2 poles, crossing diagonally. This would also help when it got hit with strong westerlies, which hit flat onto the long side of the tunnel. It really creaks and squeaks when the wind is howling. They also really need a stronger pole that runs across the ends at ground level, to hold the end panels from lifting up. Mine have both bowed alarmingly. On one end, I put a board from outside to the inside, over the pole, and sat the massive steel towbar that was on the truck on it, to hold it down. The towbar is made of 100x100 steel box, really heavy walled. I can't lift it, but I can just flip it over if I get the right angle. The other end I did the same but stacked a heap of old truck batteries on it. It really needs another concrete pier poured with some threaded rods poking up so I could drop a plate over them and bolt down.
I was a bit worried when I first put it up and saw the way the concrete footings were moving in the first big blow it went through. The ground out there is a layer of old sand blown in from the beach, over a nasty slimy yellow clay pan. The footings are 300x300x300 but they were moving around, creating a socket. I mixed up a thin slurry of water and cement powder and poured over each footing, then poked around the sides with a thin reinforcing rod to get the slurry down into the surrounding sand. So far, it has worked really well. No movement at all now. Going to be fun for whoever eventually has to pull them out.

Greg.

[Ravvin]

Hi all. Just a small update.
I've been playing with the lathe, trying to remember stuff from back in high school. And we didn't have carbide insert tools then.
Luckily, there are some really good Youtube channels that are really good and run through enough of the basics that I've been able to work most of it out.
If anyone is interested, Blondihacks is a Canadian lady that is into building small stationary steam engines, model steam trains and a lot of her own tools and lathe/mill upgrades. She has a whole playlist for beginners that takes you from setting up and levelling your lathe, through to turning, boring and thread cutting.
Two Australian channels I like are Matty's Workshop and Max Grant, The Swan Valley Machine Shop.

I've been working on making new metal cups for the rubber bushings that support the transfer case. I need 16 in total; 6 for each side of the cross-member that the transfer case bolts to and another 4 for the bracing struts that connect from the bottom of the transfer case to the chassis. The old ones had the metal lip worn away and the rubbers were rock hard and starting to crumble away.



This is a pic of the only 2 shells that still had most of the lip. They look just like the bearing races that used to be on the top and bottom of the push-bike head stem. The shells and rubber bushing are listed in the RPS books as being made by Dept of Defence (Vic), so no chance of getting new ones there. I chased around online and got nowhere. Finally, I found a mob in Queensland called Superpro made a set of bushings for a Nissan of some sort that had 2 SPF0082 types in it that would work for me. I contacted them and explained what I was doing and the guy I spoke to was more than happy to do a special order for me and the next time they did a run of that bushing type, they shipped me 16 of them.
The original shells were thin pressed metal and the bushings had round edges. The new ones I have are all straight sides and 90? angles, so turning new cups is turning out easier than I thought it would be.
The mystery steel bar I found at the scrappy is 45mm. It has a really hard surface, either from the rusting effect or maybe its been treated. I found that if I took a 1mm deep cut, it removed the rust and hard layer. Then I could do a light 0.5mm cut and take it down to 42mm and a fairly nice finish. I then run a few drills up the centre and that leaves me with a centre bore of 14mm. I bought a set of drill bits that go from 15mm up to 20mm in 0.5mm steps. Unfortunately, they are totally bloody useless.



You wouldn't believe how many tries it took to get this pic, poor as it is. Can you see the issue?
Every single drill bit in the set has been sharpened like this. Those shiny spots on the back of he flutes is the only part that touches when you try to enlarge the hole.
Looks like I am going to have to learn how to sharpen drill bits.
Anyway, after swearing at the drill bits for a while, I used a boring bar and opened the hole up to 24mm. I then opened the first 12mm of it up to 38mm.
Next, I measure along the outside 14mm and mark it. I switch to the parting tool and run it in 14mm. This leaves it with a wall thickness of 2mm. I then move the parting tool across a bit and run it in, cutting the cup off the main steel rod and its done. Just needs a bit of deburring. If you want a real fright, look up the cost of a set of Noga deburring tools.



Just have 13 to go. One of the shells in the pic above is undersize, so I won't use it. My bushings and shells are 12mm higher than the originals, but that shouldn't matter. I'll just use longer bolts.

That will do for now. I'll post again when I get a bit more done.

Greg.

[Lionelgee]

Hello Greg,

It is great to see you posting again. Thank you for keeping us in the loop while you settle into using your new lathe. Yes, the time since high school is more easier to count in decades for me. Then I decide not to calculate the time since I attended high school.

Keep us posted please Greg.

Kind regards
Lionel

[Chazza]

Good work Greg.

I agree, Blondihacks rocks! Every time i watch an episode I learn a new technique,

Cheers Charlie

[Ravvin]

Well, after many attempts, I got them done.



I spent last Sunday turning bolts into twisted bits of metal. These bolts were used to hold the lathe to the heavy plywood skid when it was shipped from overseas. Unfortunately, the metal was so soft that, even with tailstock support, it would flex away from the lathe tool and then flick up over the top and bend.
During the week I was able to get a metre of 6mm bright steel rod. This stuff was so much better. I turned the whole shaft down to 5.5mm in one pass, then turned the thread section down to 3.1mm with several light passes. I just used a hacksaw to take the little section off the end where the tailstock was supporting the shaft, then used a 3mm die to cut the thread on the end.
I was trying to work out how to turn the circlip groove on the far end, then remembered my dremel has a heap of really thin cut-off wheels. My dremel has a long flexible shaft and I was able to clamp it in one of my spare tool holders and set it up on the lathe. From there, it was a simple matter to run the lathe in reverse, fire up the dremel, move it in until it touches then gradually move it in until it has cut a 0.75mm deep groove.
Finally, spin the shaft around in the lathe and part off the excess.
The next step will be turning up a couple of small plugs to go on the bottom, below the pump plunger. The original ones were aluminium. I don't have any, so I'll see if I can get a bit locally, otherwise I'll just use mild steel.

As usual, more updates when I get something done.

Greg.

[Chazza]

Well done! You will never regret buying a lathe.