So, just a couple of housekeeping projects that I have finished up. This shot is of the new bases that I elected to make for my work lights. These are 1000 lumen LED units but their "feet" are just some cheap flat plate that looks like it got recycled from the fender of a subaru that was originally built from the door skin of a buick. The raw stock is a combination of 1/8th flat plate and angle, along with some .060 wall tube. Didn't have the correct color of industrial yellow to spray them with so they will stay as is until I can find a can.
These next two shots are of a pair of gizmos that I created to help me lift the incoming transmission for my non G-Body G-Body, that being my G-10 van. The original idea was to attach them to the mounting ears of the t-mission bell as shown in the one pic and loop slings through each of them and then pick the slings up with the cherry picker hook. That idea got a rethink due to the possibility of stressing and breaking the ears by hanging the weight of the t-mission off them directly. So Plan B is to use them as sling guides instead. The sling will go through one guide, wrap under the t-mission, and return topside through the other one. As guides they will keep the sling located where i want it to be and not wander off as slings are prone to do.
For the curious who are by now wondering "WTF"?? What you are looking at is two edges made from section of 1/8th angle that have been tack welded to a piece of 1/8th flat plate. The two chain links are where they are because they are going to be welded on next in the locations that you see.. Once this is completed it will get attached to the corpse of an old back t-mission mount that I gutted the rubber biscuit out of. The objective is to create a locating guide that will accept another sling and by slipping it through the links keep it both centered and secured from moving around. The whole device will get bolted onto the tailshaft housing just like it would if it was a real rear t-mission mount. The objective here is to create a stable cradle for the t-mission using the slings and having them located using the gizmos and the guide so that they will stay in place once I have threaded them into position. Since this job is likely to be just me and no helping hands for the most part, having mechanical "helpers" to make the work easier tends to come in handy. I may post a pic of the rear guide once it is all burned together.
So, going back to the work lights for just a paragraph or two more, this is one of the older units that is still mounted to the factory version of the "H" base. This is sort of the template that I used to replicate my bases, only in heavier material and different measurements for greater stability and less tip over. What you see is a section of light tube that has been tacked to one of the columns on my 20T press. It has a large enough ID that the end tubes on the light base can slip into it. This gives me a light that swivels back and forth as well as having head adjustment to focus the light where needed. If I need it elsewhere I can just slip it out of the tube and wander off with it. As a side note, the end tubes on my new H bases will also fit into that sleeve; which is sort of serendipity cause I had not measured the tube that I used prior to welding it to the cross pieces. It was mostly a case of what I had was what I used and it all seems to get along with itself.
Finally, just a shot of my garage/shop/shed/cave resident heirloom. The backstory on this old vice is that my grandfather worked as a stationary engineer at one of the local grain elevators during the depression and the war. During those times nothing got thrown away unless it was considered to be beyond repair or salvage. Grandpa got around by using a bicycle when it was warm and the trolley when it wasn't; no money for a car and no license to operate one.
When he passed, this vice was sitting on a bench down in the basement of his house. How he got it home, attached to the fender of a bicycle, is a comment on Scottish determination and ingenuity. Anyway, one of my uncles called dibs on it and it disappeared for many years. Not sure if he ever did much with it because he was more of a woodworker and this old beast definitely has a machine shop or foundry pedigree. His wife, my aunt had asked me to do some work for her and I happened to notice it sitting on a work table in her basement and asked her if she had plans for it. She said no and that I could have it in due course. Due course came along and it followed me home to its current resting place. The keen eyed will have noticed that the one mounting ear shows signs of repair. The "repair" is the actual re-attachment of the complete ear to the side/base of the vice body by means of brazing using what I suspect is high tensile bronze alloy rod. The elevators were like the shipyards and had their own machine and repair shops so this type of repair would have been a cheap date for the machinists and millwrights of that time. Whether it got repaired and then never returned to service or was broken and trashed and Grandpa did some horse trading or side jobs to score it and and get it repaired, I just don't know. it was typical of the era that people traded work for work and repaired what they could in exchange for getting stuff repaired that they needed to get fixed. For now it is home. I have discovered others like it on E-Gay for muy mas $$$ but the mfgr is defunct/extinct/gonzo. It's grasp of the obvious is not as good as it used to be; the teeth on the jaws have worn close to smooth over the decades, but then my grasp of the obvious is about as worn to that degree as well so we make a good pair.
Nick
