Project: Midnight Panic

[Skipped_Link]

 

[gt1guy]

That was awesome.

How long was it in real time?

 

[Grendel]

I think I need to send you some street signs

 

[Skipped_Link]

That was awesome.

How long was it in real time?

Pretty close to 9 hours,

The I-phone time laps is interesting,
Doesn’t matter of you record 5 minutes, or 5 hours, it tries to condense it down to about 30 seconds (or close)
The first 24 seconds in this video is 3.5 hours, the next 30 seconds is about half that,
The 24?seconds or so where Allison is watching was maybe 15 minutes, so you can see what we’re actually doing better,

If I do the time laps again I’ll reset the camera about every hour I think.

I did some with the go pro too, but it was using way more batteries, plus at its record rate 3 hours would have been a 10 minute video,
Nobody wants to watch me wonder around the shop that much, 😆

 

[Firstram]

Fanfuckingtastic video! Having your wife join you to watch for a while makes it even better

 

[ExWrench]

The 24?seconds or so where Allison is watching was maybe 15 minutes, so you can see what we’re actually doing better,

That was really cool to see you took the time to show her what you were doing

Also, as usual, thanks for sharing such an awesome build. I'm damn near intimidated

 

[shortbus4x4]

You should bring that up to Havoc next year so some of us lower life forms can gawk at it and drool over it.

 

[ridered3]

You should bring that up to Havoc next year so some of us lower life forms can gawk at it and drool over it.

You mean enter it into Havoc…

 

[Skipped_Link]

Well, I did enough welding last week that apparently I thought I needed a new machine, So Thursday my local weld supply joint got a fist full of Benjies for this unit,

Theoretically this Mutimatic 220 should replace both the Hobart 230 in the background (thats only a few years old) & my 20+ year old Synchrowave 180SD, Unfortunately this thing cost nearly double what those two machines combined did!

Right out of the gate I tried out the DC TIG feature to finish out the coolant fittings that are welded into the chassis, It does seem to TIG pretty nice, the WP-17 torch with a 10 ft hose/lead is kind of bulky & short, so I'll be adapting my 25 ft WP-9 in short order,

After all the fittings were welded, they were capped off, & each main tube that will carry coolant was then pressure tested to 30 PSI & left for several hours,

On the second tube I had a very small leak that took quite some time to find, After checking & double checking every cap & fitting, then going over them all again with soapy water, I finally found one of the plug welds at the rear section of the chassis was letting air out,
Pretty crazy since visually it looked fine, but obviously the plug weld just missed bonding into the tube in a tiny area,
Structurally I probably would never have noticed, but if it won't hold air, it probably won't hold water,
The plug weld was completely drilled out back to the tube insert, then re-welded, & that tube was pressure checked again, this time holding 30 PSI over night,

Next test for the new welder was finish welding all the tabs & mounts of the axles, A new roll of .035 was loaded in the machine & after pulling the steering parts off, welding commenced,

The majority of parts were 3/8" plate, with some 1/4" gussets, The housings vary up to 3/4"+ in some areas,

I was kind of surprised that I didn't have to set the new welder strait to nuclear to get these parts burned on,

I'm pretty new to the auto set feature on these new Miller machines, Is this just a way to skip the step of opening the door & adjusting the machine to a recommended setting based on Gas, wire size, & material thickness, then fine tuning from there? Or is the machine making adjustments while in operation? A google search mostly just pulled up reviews & youtube was all "unboxing" & "first impressions"

For now I'll just stick to setting the welder where I feel it's working & semi permanently install parts.

To finish up the front axle a couple 1/8" filler plates/gussets were welded on,

I still have a couple steering cylinder supports that will get welded on, then the rear diff will be drug in & get the sme treatment,

 

[ExWrench]

I never trust the auto-set enough to leave it alone - no reason
It's probably awesome, but I set heat & wire speed manually 99x/100.
My welder's 10 YO & your box's auto-set is probably 100x better.

 

[gt1guy]

The auto set feature is for people that don't know how to fine tune the settings or set them up to begin with. Which is pretty cool really.
What it doesn't know is if you welding thick to thin, if there's thick mil scale or surface rust, welding up hill/down hill/overhead/flat. I'm sure there's a bunch of fine tuning left on the table for someone who already knows how to set up a machine.

 

[Skipped_Link]

So basically it’s the chart inside the door, at the push of a button, no more than that.

 

[gt1guy]

So basically it’s the chart inside the door, at the push of a button, no more than that.

Yes.

 

[Firstram]

So basically it’s the chart inside the door, at the push of a button, no more than that.

I think it does compensate for arc length or something, I use it all of the time for stuff thats not critical. It is fantastic to just push a button if you're jumping back and forth on material thickness. It is a great shortcut to the chart when things are important!

 

[Skipped_Link]

So this week I continued welding the tabs & mounts on the axles,
Curiosity had me wondering, so I setup my phone & took video of the welder since it displays amperage while welding, I was surprised to see amperage varying by 20 amps or more while welding, & thought this might be part of the autoset feature, however, it does the same thing when the machine is run in manual set mode,

Either way, the machine welds nice, & after a good portion of another day the rear axle was completed to match the front,

A couple brackets were bolted back in place, then the air locker actuators were removed & replaced with a couple block off plates before being loaded up to go to the sand blaster,

I knew it would be a couple days before I got them back, & once I did I would need a place to paint the axles,
So work commenced in the storage side of the shop, where I am setting up a quick erect paint booth,

Long story short, one corner of the building was cleaned out to give me about a 12ftx20ft area to do paint work,
Two, 12ft x 20ft & one, 12ft x 12ft tarps were purchased, then hung in place using a combination of cables & turnbuckles to form two walls & a ceiling,

Here you can see the first wall to go up using the 12x12 tarp, which slides on the cable like a curtain,

The second wall (12x20) also slides on a cable, the "ceiling" portion will stay in place,

The chains are just "training" the short flap before hog ringing the tarp to a second cable,

If you look closely there is a small cable every 5ft to help support the ceiling tarp, these will also provide a good place to hang lights,

I was only able to put a good long day into the paint booth, but there is probably only a short days worth of work to finish it up,
Finish up the ceiling, hang some lights, & install some form of exhaust fan, & it should be ready for use,

The rest of my time was put into the chassis making sure it was ready to go & got it loaded,

Unfortunately the powder coater hasn't quite finished expanding his oven to fit the chassis, so it'll have to sit & wait until next days off, hopefully,
Slightly disappointing, but he did get the axles all sandblasted, So I finished this days off by bring those back home,

With any luck, next week the chassis will finally go to town, & the axles will get some color.

 

[ridered3]

Skipped_Link thanks for the update and what a cool tow rig/chassis on a trailer combo!

 

[gt1guy]

So this week I continued welding the tabs & mounts on the axles,
Curiosity had me wondering, so I setup my phone & took video of the welder since it displays amperage while welding, I was surprised to see amperage varying by 20 amps or more while welding, & thought this might be part of the autoset feature, however, it does the same thing when the machine is run in manual set mode,

MIG right?

That's because the machine is running CV (constant voltage). The voltage doesn't change but the machine will adjust the amps to keep the same energy going into the part due to long arcing or what have you.

If TIG welding, the machine is running on CC (constant current) so the amps don't change, the volts adjust to keep everything happy.

All welding machines are this way.




All the parts you have there look heavy......very very heavy. Very cool and heavy.

 

[Skipped_Link]

After all these years I suppose I never put 2 & 2 together with the CC & CV, makes sense though.

 

[Skipped_Link]

Still no powder coating, & the chassis is still sitting in the yard on a trailer,
But I did get to put 4 days into the paint booth & axles,
First order was finishing the booth & rounding up a couple engine hoists to hang the axles from during painting,
Then everything was moved into the booth,

A couple good coats of etch primer was applied, followed by nearly a quart of Ford "Sterling Grey" base coat, & then finally clear coat over the top of it all,

Axletech 4000's are entirely too rough for a base/clear paint job, but I'm hoping it will make cleaning them a little better,

In one pic you can see all the king pin / steering arm bolts are masked off, this was to keep any paint/coating off the bolt heads since they were going to get their own re-finishing,

I was going to buy all new bolts, but good M20x1.5x50mm bolts are anywhere from $10-$15 each, or more!
You can imagine 32 of them would be a good chunk of change,
I couldn't leave them to rust after the black oxide coating was removed along with the military paint during sandblasting, so I ordered a zinc/tin plating kit from Eastwood,

This was my first attempt at any kind of coating process like this, & all the videos I watched made the whole deal seem pretty simple,

Of course it did not work quite as smoothly for me, in all the videos & instructions they say if the part comes out "crusty" or "crystalized" it is over plating & should be left in the solution a shorter amount of time,

This was in for maybe 1 minute,

It was really easy to clean the crust off with water & a tooth brush, & you could tell it was clearly plated,

Here you can see (left to right) a bolt right out of the axle, after prepping, plating & washing, & finally after light hand polishing with the compound that comes in the plating kit,
Looks comparable to what I seen on video, but I never seen anyone pull crusty parts out, & every one of mine were?

I just kept messing with it & finally got a system that seemed to work good this size part
1) Wire brush the crap out of the bolt, the better the finish going in the better it will be when done, (much like every other thing we do) then clean with a degreaser/surface prep & blow/air dry
2) Hang the part in the solution & "electrify" for 5 & a half to 6 min, periodically rocking the bolt (that recessed bolt head traps the air bubbles that are created during the plating process)
3) Remove the part, (at this time I would put another bolt in the solution & reset the timer) immediately scrub the crust off with a soft bristle brush in a small bucket of water, then blow/air dry, (now is a good time to rock the bolt hanging in the solution & let the air bubble out,
4) By now the bolt looks like the center bolt in the above pic, if there are any issues or unplated spots (like in that recessed area if you don't let the built up air bubble out) set that one off to the side.
5) If the plating looks good lightly hit the plated area with a soft bristled wire brush, this will shine it up a bit, then apply a little metal polish compound & either hand polish or use soft buffing pad on your prefered power tool, (I had my bench grinder set up with a wire wheel on one end for initial cleanup, & a buffing wheel on the other end for finishing them up)
6) Rock the bolt hanging in the plating solution, by now it's been hanging in there for about 3-3.5 min. I'd spend the remaining couple minutes wire wheeling & degreasing another bolt,
7) Repeat,
Any bolts that had plating issues or missed spots & lightly wire wheeled again (not trying to remove the plating), de-grease & hang them in the soution again, this time only for a couple minutes & continue from there,
I found this schedule produced acceptable results.

These eight bolts were a little over an hours worth the work.

 

[Skipped_Link]

The aluminum steering arms got cleaned up, & I had planned on doing a clear powder coat to protect them, but I got to wondering about heating the arms to 375* for 15 min or so,
A little research found most common grades of aluminum would not lose a lot of strength, (up to maybe 5% with 6061 in some cases)
7075-T6 like these arms on the other hand could see strength reduction almost immediately at those temps, or so I read.
So I opted to clear coat them with Cerekote MC-160, supposidly it's pretty good stuff,

The aluminum lower king pin caps that replaced the original steering arms also got the Cerekote treatment before install,
These things have been sitting in a box on the shelf since I built them, now finally installed for the first time,

Story time.

Along with the four 20x1.5mm bolts, each high steer arm is tied into the top of the knuckle with two 16mm dowel pins,
In factory form there are dowels in only one knuckle where the original upper steering arm attaches, both knucles are drilled for the pins, but they are left out of one side where not needed,
On the knuckle that does have pins, they only protrude about .188-.200" this seemed a bit lacking for my aluminum arms so I removed the short pins from each axle prior to sandblasting, this was a bit of a job & required welding a nut to each dowel & using a slide hammer to get them out,
I then bought new, longer 16mm dowels from Mcmaster Carr,
One problem though I had used a 5/8" x1" dowel as a test piece to make sure 1" would be the correct length,
When I installed the first 16mm x 1" pin I could clearly see it was too long, (closer to 1.125") Shortening the new pins was not a big deal, but now I had to get this one out, & was not to keen on welding around my fresh paint,
I've seen collet style dowel pin pullers, but I didn't have one, but I do have collets!
I dug around & found enough stuff to build a collet holder that fit my Bridgeport R8 collets, & adapt it to a slide hammer,

Now I can hammer out about any dowel pin from 1/16-7/8"

Back to Axletechs,
All the dowels were shortened, & installed, then the Aluminum arms were bolted on,

If I remember correctly 440 ft/lbs is the torq spec on these bolts, I've seen literature stating an M20x1.5mm bolt going as high as 530 ft/lbs,
On the buggy steering arms I just give them all ugga-nuggas that my 1/2 Titanium IR had, then put the 3/4 gun on each bolt & give it a couple pops, those bolts have never loosened up on me.

These arms I was questioning squishing the aluminum arms that hard, plus I was not sure how that new plating would hold up to the impact.(I know )

So this set got blue loc-tite on the threads, & ARP molly torque lube under the bolt head, torqued to 250 ft/lbs (max my 1/2 torque wrench will go) Then I used my 32" breaker bar to pull a half a flat of rotation, (My back was not a happy camper after each set of four!)

As a test for both torque & plating durability I did put the 3/4" impact on one bolt & lett'r rip, The bolt didn't move, & the plating seemed to hold up pretty good as well.

With all four arms installed, along with the cylinders & tie-rods, the only thing the diffs are lacking is oil, & locker actuators, Maybe I'll get those brand new ones Grendel sent me cleaned up & installed next week.

 

[Firstram]

The R8 adapter was a great idea

 

[bdkw1]

I've used an ER32 extension to remove dowels many times. Works well.

 

[Firstram]

I've used an ER32 extension to remove dowels many times. Works well.

I don’t have any ER stuff. The nice thing about R8 or 5C is that you can grab short dowels. I will be copying this in the future!

 

[Grendel]

greNdel - BTW, you still owe me shipping for those. I'll take a hat or a hoodie.

 

[Skipped_Link]

greNdel - BTW, you still owe me shipping for those. I'll take a hat or a hoodie.

some day you’ll get a “not so surprise” package in the mail

And believe it or not I already corrected your username once, 😆

 

[ridered3]

Great update and always fun to make a custom tool for a specific job.

It’s been probably mentioned before in this thread, but what does one of those Axletech’s weight?

 

[Skipped_Link]

Great update and always fun to make a custom tool for a specific job.

It’s been probably mentioned before in this thread, but what does one of those Axletech’s weight?

If I remember correctly a steer axle is 1600 lbs with the factory rotors, calipers & tie rod,
Closer to 1300 de-braked,

 

[bdkw1]

RE: powder coating aluminum. 300* won't do shit to it once it cools down. Yes it starts to loose minor amounts of strength at that level, but as soon as it cools it goes right back to where it was. You need to get above 775* for it to anneal . 300 for 24 hours then air cool is aging......

 

[ridered3]

If I remember correctly a steer axle is 1600 lbs with the factory rotors, calipers & tie rod,
Closer to 1300 de-braked,

That’s a big ole axle!

 

[Skipped_Link]

RE: powder coating aluminum. 300* won't do shit to it once it cools down. Yes it starts to loose minor amounts of strength at that level, but as soon as it cools it goes right back to where it was. You need to get above 775* for it to anneal . 300 for 24 hours then air cool is aging......

I’m not claiming this as gospel,
I’m just being over cautious with an already questionable part.