A little history tour.

[el bob]

Thanks for posting and sharing the wrecker project. Very cool stuff and I like what you did with it.

[irish fixit]

Thanks for posting and sharing the wrecker project. Very cool stuff and I like what you did with it.

Thanks and You're Welcome

Here's another batch. This time one of my haylifts I build into flat beds. It's a early one but definitely not the first. Looking at it I'd say it's the first or second of my early standardized design. I made a few changes over the years trying to improve some things mostly in the hinge. In this one I'm still using a 1" pipe and a 15/16" rod for the hinge. Later I changed to doubling the side plates and drilling 1 1/4" holes for 1 1 1/4" rod for the hinge and running it through the bottom square tube.
Looks like I'm still cutting the bed out with a sawzall from the looks of the cut.

The last two pics show my poor mans taper attachment.

On later models I started using commercial made forged spears so I didn't have to to that tapering of the spear.

[irish fixit]

Here's some shots of another line boring job. This would of been the second one of these I'd done and it's while I'm still at my former employers.

[irish fixit]

Ok here's some shots of my used oil burning setup. This is just after I got it rigged up the first time. I've since built and modified whole new stove with the same burner in it.

That burner actually came from a commercial used oil burning ceiling mounted furnace. One of those that you mount to the ceiling and it blows the hot air down to the floor. It came from the same Chevron station building that I built my shop from. But the furnace had been burned out with the heat exchanger having holes so I put the burner in my wood stove (it's actually a coal stove but I never had any to put in it) that I'd used to heat my former shop as well as this one for years.

I managed to do some trading to get the tank and pump that the former owner had used with the burner.

That's all I've found for 02 so far. I'll leave it at that tonight. Thanks for looking.

[irish fixit]

Ok here's some shots of my old tractor. I went to change the spark plugs and they hadn't been changed in forever. When I finally managed to get one of the plugs out (by welding to it of course) the threads where pretty much gone.

So I drill and tap it for a bolt size slightly bigger and made the insert for it on the lathe. Fortunately I had a tap the right size to tap the insert but the threads where single pointed on the lathe.

The final shot also shows the post auger I built for it. It's pretty much bullet proof made from the rear end of a about a 2 ton truck.

Looking at the final pic I'd say this is the summer of 02 when this was done. I hadn't installed the air compressor yet.

[Scott Young]

Seriously, I would have loved to be your neighbor or better a hand. Seems you do a lot of the same work I have been doing only I have worked and scrapped by from place to place. The mrs and I just moved and have settled down. No more moving for me!

Keep the pictures coming!

[irish fixit]

Seriously, I would have loved to be your neighbor or better a hand. Seems you do a lot of the same work I have been doing only I have worked and scrapped by from place to place. The mrs and I just moved and have settled down. No more moving for me!

Keep the pictures coming!

Thanks for the praise.

I consider myself a jack of all trades. I can't and won't claim mastery of anything. I know enough to be dangerous and get by most of the time though. Always learning new things.

I tend to settle down and push through any problems that get in the way even when it's to my detriment. I'm not one to do much moving or changing very often. But I rarely let anything win against me.

[leightrepairs]

Thats all very impressive Irish. You have alot to be proud of.

[irish fixit]

Thats all very impressive Irish. You have alot to be proud of.

Thanks.

[farmshop]

Juice pics Irish. I like your teal world solutions to problems. Everything isn't always neat and easy sometimes the PhD in afro engineering comes in handy

[farmshop]

Sorry should read nice pics damn phone

[irish fixit]

Juice pics Irish. I like your teal world solutions to problems. Everything isn't always neat and easy sometimes the PhD in afro engineering comes in handy

Sorry should read nice pics damn phone

Thanks. I like to at least give homage to the KISS principle on most things.

[irish fixit]

Ok here's a few more.

This looks to be sometime in the first half of 02.

Not really enough pics to tell the whole story. Anyway it's a anhydrous trailer that needed 5th wheel repair. I had to do a little straightening of the plate so no problem just put it in the press.

Also looks like i had to do a lot of heating to get the pin out of the other plate.

[irish fixit]

Here's a couple of milling jobs. I think these would of been in 03.

Many of you may already be familiar with these pics. I have them on my website but for those of you who don't go there here they are.

First is the front axle out of a International tractor. Common problem for these is the pins wearing out.

Second is boring the cylinders out of my friends John Deere B tractor. It took every last bit of travel on my mill to do that job. I made a special shank for the boring head for the job.

[irish fixit]

Here's a front end loader bucket I built. The old one had been rotted clean away from handling fertilizer.

I built the dies to bend the 3/16" plate in my big press. I'm sure I've got some pics of them somewhere but can't find them right now.

[irish fixit]

Ok here's some shots of the shop in 03

As you can see in the first two overall shots I'm staying busy. Looks like I've got a backhoe split to repair the transmission, two stock trailers, a anhydrous plow, and other projects going on.

The third shot shows my welders at the time. On the left a Linde Plasma cutter (which I never really got to work right), my old Hobart Cybertig, a Millermatic 200, and a Millermatic 135.

The fourth and fifth shots shows my new toolboxes. I managed to get those at a grand reopening (new store) of a Atwoods not to far from here. Both top and bottom boxes where around $300 a set. Needless to say money or no a deal like that can't be passed up.

[irish fixit]

Here's some more from the same batch.

The first two show the front of the shop.

The third shows the side with my new storage box.

The fourth shows the new metal rack umm fence. (My step mother insisted on a fence to hide my junk but I took it as a chance to build a metal rack )

The fifth shows some stranger beside my big press (that can't be me can it)

That's all I've found so far from 03 though there might be more as I sort through this mess.

[handtpipeline]

I don't respond often, but I always enjoy your posts. You do quite impressive work, and this goes to prove that with experience, determination and the right attitude very high quality work can be performed without a million dollar facility with another million dollars worth of tools and equipment.

I have no experience in machine work, but would LOVE to have a lathe and a milling machine. I have quite a few ideas of projects I'd like to fabricate, but the machine work involved has made it cost prohibitive for the most part so far.

As someone that's not real familiar with machine equipment, what is that one machine you pictured, I think you called it a "shaper"?

What would you consider as an "affordable" lathe and milling machine, for someone wanting to fabricate their own things like excavator attachment (thumbs, ears for buckets, pins...), bushings with say an inside diameter of up to 3", 3" diameter pins maybe 2' long... things like that? I'm primarily an excavation contractor, also do utilities and pipeline. I can think of a lot of things I'd like to build for my own equipment... I have to keep in mind, I don't have 3 phase power (electric company wanted about $7,000 to hook it up last time I checked), so machines that I have seen that I would be interested in are usually out of the picture.

[larphead]

WOW!

What can I say that has not been said already? You have built something out of nothing and have never been handed anything. You have every right to be proud man.

That old power hacksaw brings back a memory for me. When I first got in the Guard in '96 they had one just like that in the shop I work in now. I got to use it for a few years on drill and such. It was slow as molasses but you could stack 20 pieces of 2"x2"x1/4" angle in it and it cut every one of them dead straight every time.
In early 2002 with new funds from the war on terror they decided to replace it with a band saw. I went to drill one weekend and the E7 shop chief (who later became my 1st Sgt in Iraq and is now my civilian contractor boss) came to me and said "John boy, I got a job for you." The higher ups was not gonna let them simply keep both saws and because the old one didnt have any of the OSHA required guards and safeties we had to decommission it. I got chosen to be the one to take a cutting torch to it.
The new saw got moved to the new shop and now I have a MSC band saw sitting there,

[irish fixit]

I don't respond often, but I always enjoy your posts. You do quite impressive work, and this goes to prove that with experience, determination and the right attitude very high quality work can be performed without a million dollar facility with another million dollars worth of tools and equipment.

I have no experience in machine work, but would LOVE to have a lathe and a milling machine. I have quite a few ideas of projects I'd like to fabricate, but the machine work involved has made it cost prohibitive for the most part so far.

As someone that's not real familiar with machine equipment, what is that one machine you pictured, I think you called it a "shaper"?

What would you consider as an "affordable" lathe and milling machine, for someone wanting to fabricate their own things like excavator attachment (thumbs, ears for buckets, pins...), bushings with say an inside diameter of up to 3", 3" diameter pins maybe 2' long... things like that? I'm primarily an excavation contractor, also do utilities and pipeline. I can think of a lot of things I'd like to build for my own equipment... I have to keep in mind, I don't have 3 phase power (electric company wanted about $7,000 to hook it up last time I checked), so machines that I have seen that I would be interested in are usually out of the picture.

Thanks. High praise coming from people who know what it's like to run a business.

As for machining it's a whole new ball game. There's so much I'm still learning on the subject that it's hard to know where to start (I don't think anybody ever learns it all). I guess we'll start with the first question the shaper.

Shapers are obsolete machines first developed during the industrial revolution. While lathes had been around for a while the revolution showed the need to generate flat surfaces. Thus the shaper was born (at least that's how I understand it someone will probably correct me if I'm wrong).

A shaper is a slow but fairly versatile machine that works by running a cutting tool back and forth across the work in a straight line. It can be used to make a flat surface, dovetails, internal keyways, straight cut gears, even helical and herringbone gears with the right setup. In other words it's fairly versatile but very slow for some things when compared to a milling machine which is why it's pretty much obsolete now days. I must admit that I don't use mine to often though when I do need it I really need it. The great thing about a shaper is that it doesn't require high dollar tooling to make it work. A simple tool steel blank can be hand ground to say a gear tooth profile for example and then used to make that gear.

The rear raise blocks on that LeBlonde heavy duty in the pics from my former employer where made on that old shaper as well as the Vee block I showed on the straightening press thread was made on my Gemco shaper. But my main purpose for having one is to do internal keyways which I can't do with anything else I've got other than broaches. A keyseater would be better but is a rarer tool to find much less find cheap.

Now for the lathe and mill I recommend old heavy iron for that especially for the size of parts you're wanting to make. You're located in a pretty decent area to find that kind of stuff (at least compared to me). For occasional none production use nearly anything that's not been completely ruined will get you by for non-critical work. With your line of business you've probably got everything you need to move the heavy iron saving you a big cost in the machines. Large machines don't usually bring a lot of money mostly due to people not having room or a means of moving them. But as for which machine that pretty much has to be taken on a case by case basis. Mostly look for no rust, ways not to badly worn, also the tooling coming with it can be as important as the machine.

Do not worry about the 3 phase issue. There's several ways around that. A rotary converter can be made fairly easily, or you can go with a VFD (variable frequency drive), or you can simply replace the motor on the machine.

For mills well that's another story. Bridgeports and clones are popular but a little small for what you're wanting to do IMHO (though many people do great work with them). The options for larger machines are a little more limited. Many are horizontal machines which is fine for many things but more difficult for the beginner (and some experienced people) to figure out how to setup. It takes a different mind set to use them. Vertical capability can sometimes be added to them but it can be hard to find the parts for it now days. A very few where made that had both capabilities but you'd have to get lucky to find one.

To be truthful I think you're needing something to make big reasonably accurate holes more than anything. That's a whole other area. A radial drill (probably the most used tool in my shop) like I have is great but not something that's easy to find cheap (I got lucky on mine). Then there's the tooling of it which is not cheap either. Other options that might be better suited are the larger magnetic drills. Not super cheap either but better than some alternatives. Then there's always the old drill presses like I've shown above. They can be a very useful tool.

That and a decent lathe can get you a long ways to making parts for equipment. Throw in a boring setup even home made and you can do a lot of stuff.

WOW!

What can I say that has not been said already? You have built something out of nothing and have never been handed anything. You have every right to be proud man.

That old power hacksaw brings back a memory for me. When I first got in the Guard in '96 they had one just like that in the shop I work in now. I got to use it for a few years on drill and such. It was slow as molasses but you could stack 20 pieces of 2"x2"x1/4" angle in it and it cut every one of them dead straight every time.
In early 2002 with new funds from the war on terror they decided to replace it with a band saw. I went to drill one weekend and the E7 shop chief (who later became my 1st Sgt in Iraq and is now my civilian contractor boss) came to me and said "John boy, I got a job for you." The higher ups was not gonna let them simply keep both saws and because the old one didnt have any of the OSHA required guards and safeties we had to decommission it. I got chosen to be the one to take a cutting torch to it.
The new saw got moved to the new shop and now I have a MSC band saw sitting there,

Thanks.

Yes the old saws are great if you're not in a hurry. But I hate it when the government does stuff like that. One of the reasons I got out when I did.

[SPG]

wow man; just wow
you have built it all, turned it all
very impressive

[VPT]

Excellent stuff IF! I love the poor mans taper attachment on the lathe!

[irish fixit]

wow man; just wow
you have built it all, turned it all
very impressive

Thanks.

Nobody can say they've done it all.

Excellent stuff IF! I love the poor mans taper attachment on the lathe!

Thanks. I thought some might get a kick out of that.

[tnjind]

I'm goin to steal your taper "jig" the next time I need to turn one.


Thanks for the pics and ideas.

[irish fixit]

I'm goin to steal your taper "jig" the next time I need to turn one.


Thanks for the pics and ideas.

Go right ahead. I'm pretty sure I got the technique from one of the old Lindsay shop tips books. But I believe they show making a kind of pulley to go on the cross feed screw.

Loosing those books and others was one of the hardest parts of my house burning down and it looks like Lindsay has gone out of business.

You're Welcome