Shop and Tools: Tips and Tricks

If its a sharp tap, I dont think twice about running a 3/8" into something.

The 1/4" ones (like in my pic :laughing:) dont seem to put up much of a fight, before saying **** you. Still gotta try it every so often though
 
Penetrode Offroad said:
Would this be a decent alignment bar for axle housing mods? Tight tolerance low carbon steel, 1" rod. Saw another guy on here that uses 1.5" but that's 280 bones. Or is there another option that's better cheaper?

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I've never used a bar and never ****ed one up. A bar is a measurement tool, not a fixture and there's other ways to measure. Welding force will have no problem bending it.
 
Yeah I only use the bar to put 4 good tacks on the bearing ends or machine snouts offset with my 4 jaw chuck lathe to get them to slip in and line up then proceed with plug welds to hold in place. Then I remove the bar fully before welding it all. I also make sure to do full pass at once to keep heat even and prevent any warping
 
Steve300xcw said:
Yea but the washer was found on the floor of my shop, and was free. Also if I was truly worried about it, I would stop using drills and impact guns to tap holes.

There is a reason why tap sockets are black like an impact socket.........................
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I'm not arguing what you did worked, I'm just pointing out that there is a tool for that, one that many haven't ran across before.

It's precisely because I use a 1/4 hex drive impact with a socket adapter to drive taps that I own these :laughing:
 
I do a press fit inner sleeve and then weld it with no ****s given. Toss on hubs and wheels, spin the housing with a mic on the wheel to find where it's out and then lay a big glob of weld to try and bend it back.

Edit: By press fit I mean it'd be a press fit at same temperature. I size the sleeve so it's a thou or so slip fit at 400deg or so. And the sleeve will stretch the tube a little as it cools so if you have some bracket or something that's a perfect slip fit over the tube it won't fit anymore and you'll need to open it up by a few thou. This is more of a concern for putting spindles into tube ends and then installing brake flanges than it is for shortening axles though.
 
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I was working on fitting some offset tubes today and figured this might help someone out.

-Put/hold/clamp the tube where you want it.
-Find biggest gap, in this case it was about 1.75” so I just made it 2” because that’s what I had.
-Hold it against the tube and mark it on all 4 sides.
-Cut and check fit.
-Do the same with the other end.
This will get you pretty close
Can’t tell from the Picture but it’s not just a plain angle cut on both ends. They are offset. I’ll get a better picture and add it later
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An old end mill that maybe the side flutes are trashed, if the end is still decent, you can grind some relief into the side flutes and use it as a boring bar. This NMTB50 Beaver boring head uses 1" diameter bars or 7/8" square, I didn't have either but did have a beat up old end mill that was in a box of scrap HSS.
Worked excellent. I also though about making a little adapter that has a slight angle drilled into it so that the relief grind isn't necessary and any old end mill of the decided diameter would work. I have a pile of 1/2" ones.

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AlxJ64 said:
An old end mill that maybe the side flutes are trashed, if the end is still decent, you can grind some relief into the side flutes and use it as a boring bar. This NMTB50 Beaver boring head uses 1" diameter bars or 7/8" square, I didn't have either but did have a beat up old end mill that was in a box of scrap HSS.
Worked excellent. I also though about making a little adapter that has a slight angle drilled into it so that the relief grind isn't necessary and any old end mill of the decided diameter would work. I have a pile of 1/2" ones.
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It appears to work good, but it kind of begs the question, why do you have a boring head and no bar to go with it?
 
WaterH said:
It appears to work good, but it kind of begs the question, why do you have a boring head and no bar to go with it?
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Because it was the first time ever using it and I hadn't looked that closely at it. I have a Criterion with an MT2 shank that uses 1/2" bars that goes on my bridgeport. I have a Criterion with a straight shank that I've put in the lathe before and mounted parts to the T nut slots in the carriage for turning the lathe into an HBM, and I even have an R8 shanked Criterion that I've never used but it came in a tool lot.

I got two Beaver NMTB 50 boring heads from cj7jeep81 like 2 years ago now, and they were shoved in a cabinet and finally dug out to get used. I have an abundance of random boring bars but none were 1" and I was standing there on a Saturday evening like... well damn, I'd like to get this part finished.

Firstram said:
I would be a broke **********er if I tried to flush out all of my equipment!
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This as well! Good lord, even today I find myself in want - thought I had a 63/64" drill bit that I was going to then ream to a clean 1" diameter for pin hole and nope. Have a 31/32", and even have a 1-1/64"... and a 1" even. Sometimes ya just gotta figure it out or wait and get stuff when you can find it. Almost all of my tooling is surplus or auction deals anyways.
 
AlxJ64 said:
Because it was the first time ever using it and I hadn't looked that closely at it. I have a Criterion with an MT2 shank that uses 1/2" bars that goes on my bridgeport. I have a Criterion with a straight shank that I've put in the lathe before and mounted parts to the T nut slots in the carriage for turning the lathe into an HBM, and I even have an R8 shanked Criterion that I've never used but it came in a tool lot.

I got two Beaver NMTB 50 boring heads from cj7jeep81 like 2 years ago now, and they were shoved in a cabinet and finally dug out to get used. I have an abundance of random boring bars but none were 1" and I was standing there on a Saturday evening like... well damn, I'd like to get this part finished.


This as well! Good lord, even today I find myself in want - thought I had a 63/64" drill bit that I was going to then ream to a clean 1" diameter for pin hole and nope. Have a 31/32", and even have a 1-1/64"... and a 1" even. Sometimes ya just gotta figure it out or wait and get stuff when you can find it. Almost all of my tooling is surplus or auction deals anyways.
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Who can afford to buy every size by 64ths, even if you did, it would be the wrong length! Just slightly grind the OD of an annular cutter and get it done.
 
I should do that. I'd notch a lot more tube if I didn't have to drag out the notcher and put it in the vise and get out the big corded drill every time. :laughing:


Table and stand are completely unnecessary. Would be super easy to ghetto fab something to hold the notcher and then just weld it all to something. Welding it to an engine stand plate like with the pipe kinker is probably a good move.

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That notcher in a drill press is the only way to keep them alive. I used to clamp mine into my vertical drill press and it worked great.
 
TTMotorsports said:
I don't see the belt on that drill press even holding it tight enough to keep the hole saw from stopping everytime it got a little pressure against it.
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I used to have one of those HF benchtop 5spd presses I abused the **** out of. They stall before they slip. With a hole saw in tube (i.e. not a ton of area contacting the work) it'll be fine. Can always ditch the top cover and throw a bigger pulley on if you need to. That might be why they used the 12spd though, double reduction vs single for the 5spd.
 
TTMotorsports said:
I don't see the belt on that drill press even holding it tight enough to keep the hole saw from stopping everytime it got a little pressure against it.
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I didn't use the HF drill press, but I never had an issue with stalling out unless the tube slips in the notcher and binds up the holesaw.
 
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