What did you do to your non-G body project today? [2019]

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Finished hogging out the outlet to my blower and installed my modified blower inlet. Will slap on truck tomorrow. Will also be butthurt if I see no performance increase as I have spent time, money, and asspain to make it rip harder. And also to clear my recently installed hydroboost.

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Well this setup added zero boost. Had to have the intake rewelded after I pounded it for more clearance. So now I have ample clearance but blew about $200 on a grinder and bits to hog it all out. **** me, right?
 
I'm a 17th grader!!!

Being back in Engineering school means I have access to a well equipped machine shop again. One of my master's classes is interfacing microcontrollers into mechanical systems. A class mate and I are building a mini coordinate measuring machine. Readouts are $30 units off fleabay. They read down to 10 micron or a bit less than 0.0005". Not too shabby! Pretty happy with the structure so far. Been in the shop for half a dozen hours this week, feels good to be back to cutting chips since I spent quite a few hours on a bridgeport 3-7 years ago.

The machine shop is pretty well equipped but its a lot of undergrads that don't know their arse from an endmill. There is one crusty old machinist that tries to run around and help people but he is overwhelmed. I am a moderately accomplished machinist so I am down there throwing levers, switches and stuff pretty damn fast. He asks me a basic question every now and then, I tell him why I am doing it, he realizes I know what I am doing and leaves me be.

I was inadvertently a total dbag to an undergrad yesterday. Being closer to 30 than 20, and sorta looking the part with a beard and being over 6ft tall, along with working fast, people keep asking me for help. No problem, I am willing to help, I worked as an apprentice in the univ machine shop as an undergrad under a retired master tool maker. I helped people a lot, its just been 3 years.

There was 3 guys that needed to counterbore some holes for some 3/8 socket head cap screws in an existing part. They were trying to decide how large to make the counterbores for the bolt heads. They were saying "oh we can just make it a bit bigger than the head" and a bit of me died inside since there is a standard for that and realized nobody ever teaches that to you in engineering school so I'll throw them a bone. I keep a mini machinery handbook in my pocket when im machining for easy decimal to fraction conversions, tap and clearance drill specs, ect. My book had the exact table they needed so I took it out of my pocket, flipped it to the page and handed it to one of them and said "read it". I finished cleaning up, put the tools away since I was done and came back. They were confused. They didn't know what a F drill or a #8 drill bit was. Silly freshmen!

Well I told them what to generally do and what tools to get, one of them asked how to do something (find a hole center) and I said use a center finder. Long story short, of those 3 guys, only two were asking for help, the 3rd was the part time undergrad shop help that was trying to help the other two. I swooped in and inadvertently destroyed 90% of the instructions the part time help was telling the other two guys. I bet he felt crushed, I apologized when I realized I basically said everything he told them to do was wrong.

Anyways, it reminds me I gotta rescue my 70 year old behemoth lathe out of my buddies house 3 hrs away and get it into my house. I miss machining car parts. I could do a bunch of whacky stuff as an undergrad since I had 24hr access to the weld and machine labs. I think the staff would look at me funny if I brought a cylinder head for machining or some turbo piping for tig welding in.

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They didn't know what a F drill or a #8 drill bit was.
I think a little embarrassment is in order. I'm sorry but how did they get into a machine shop without knowing that there are number, letter, and fractional drill sizes? I don't think they are very serious about that line of work. Kind of like a guy that is going to "rebuild my motor" but doesn't know what a torque wrench is.
 
I had a problem with my little Whaler boat. No matter where I mounted the all-around light it ruined my night vision. A guy on CONTINUOUSWAVE.com , a Whaler site, came up with the idea of mounting a removable pole light on the center console. I took that idea and modified it. I mounted the original Whaler-issue PERKO all-around light on a short piece of 3/4" tubing. I mounted that inside a 3 foot section of 7/8" aluminum tube with a set screw. I took another 3 foot section of 3/4" aluminum tubing and slipped that inside the 7/8" tubing. At the end I inserted the PERKO removable pole light double contact end. I connected the light and contact end with coiled wire like they use on telephone handsets. That way the pole can extend and retract without pinching the wire. The 7/8" pole is from a Bimini top and has a wing nut set screw for adjustability. Finally I replaced the incandescent bulbs with the Sylvania ZEVO LED #194 bulbs you guys informed me of. BRIGHT!! They should cover the two mile visibility legal requirement. The collapsed pole is 40" and can stow away under my stern bench seat. Extended it is 68" and on top of the console the max height will be 102" or 8.5 feet. I am 5.5' so it can be 3 ' above my head. This model light housing reduces downward glare as it is and I can raise it way out of sight while remaining legal at night. In the Spring I can mount the PERKO water-proof removable base on the console. This should solve the problem for good.
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More progress. Today I attacked the exhaust flange studs that I had to cut off. I cut them flush thinking I could drill them out. Wrong! Even my best Harbor Freight cobalt bits were useless. So I use a cut-off tool to cut slots in the flange and the studs just dropped out. I can use bolts/nuts/washers to re-attach the pipes. Worst case I weld studs back on. Then I removed the battery tray so I can get the rusty metal replaced. Good thing I am an ex-mailman and too stupid to notice how cold it was today.
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