Junkyard's work thread.....maybe haha

[Junkyard]

I'll snap some tomorrow when I get back to the shop. Been in the haul truck today. I did manage to get the old bear-lock nut off the pinion and clean that up to prepare to install the new one. This is the later model rotary so it's got 47 ring gear bolts as opposed to the one I showed awhile back that had 24. They've been known to shear all 24! A Watson might be simple but it'll darn sure drill some holes and is really effective in rock.

Tomorrow's duties, assuming nobody else did them, will be to wash up the drive lug cover and main case cover, check ring gear bolt torque, get the pinion preload set and lock it down the the bear-lock. There are three big seals that need replaced and two require the big bottom bearing race to be removed. It's really easy to fubar those big seals installing them as well as assembling the rotary.

It's a wonder I get anything back together correctly as often as I'm pulled out of the shop to move a rig. It's almost burnt me out again lol. At the rate I'm going I'll have 2 million miles in a few years.

 

[StanRUS]

I'll snap some tomorrow when I get back to the shop. Been in the haul truck today. I did manage to get the old bear-lock nut off the pinion and clean that up to prepare to install the new one. This is the later model rotary so it's got 47 ring gear bolts as opposed to the one I showed awhile back that had 24. They've been known to shear all 24! A Watson might be simple but it'll darn sure drill some holes and is really effective in rock.

Tomorrow's duties, assuming nobody else did them, will be to wash up the drive lug cover and main case cover, check ring gear bolt torque, get the pinion preload set and lock it down the the bear-lock. There are three big seals that need replaced and two require the big bottom bearing race to be removed. It's really easy to fubar those big seals installing them as well as assembling the rotary.

It's a wonder I get anything back together correctly as often as I'm pulled out of the shop to move a rig. It's almost burnt me out again lol. At the rate I'm going I'll have 2 million miles in a few years.

2 million miles club; that is lots steering wheel time, LOL
If you run into a problems drilling heat treated ring gears just use a solid carbide end mill. Setting pinion pre-load with press fit bearing cups that use shims; purchase extra cup(s) and use a die grinder with abrasive flap wheel and remove 0.0015" and grind a couple sloths so you can slip heel bars underneath to pry the cups out. Set pre-load and exchange the cups. Saves time.

Installing seals, manual lathe is really handy to make seal installers. Some imports are reasonable to purchase without breaking the bank account. Careful with used, repair parts are expensive!

Stay cool

 

[Junkyard]

I like that idea for the pre-load. This one uses that bear-lock for that. Something like 7-9 lbs force is what the book says. The end of the pinion shaft is threaded so I assume I can run a bolt in and lock it down with a jam nut then use a torque wrench. Only drawback at this moment is the rest of the gears are still on the housing so I'd have some friction there as well. They actually give two methods of checking preload. One on an assembled rotary and one with fresh parts. I'm kinda workin with neither lol.

We discovered a few machines back that the instructions for the bearlocks are not correct and have since made the appropriate changes to technique and it's cured our problems.

I'd love to have a lathe and mill. Well that and the knowledge to use them without creating a bunch of doorstops!

 

[alskdjfhg]

I'd love to have a lathe and mill. Well that and the knowledge to use them without creating a bunch of doorstops!

It aint too hard to get the hang of the basics, but you'll spend more on cutting tools, measureing tools and set up stuff than you ever will for a machine. It's like tooling up a service truck from zero, it gets expensive FAST. A mill and lathe are super handy around a heavy equipment shop.

If you ever get a lathe and mill, go join Practical Machinist, it's the machinist equivalent to this site. The guys there are super knowledgeable and very helpful. It's a larger forum than this one, with a little more drama and silliness, but it's well worth putting up with.

 

[Junkyard]

I've looked around there some. Have several books on it as well. I've collected a lot of tooling here and there. I'd probably be in pretty good shape. I also have a good selection of measuring tools from building things and buying stuff from an older retired guy. I've got enough to be dangerous lol.

If a deal I'm kicking around now works out I'll end up with 3 phase in the shop. If that's the case it will open up lots of machine options. Learning what to look for will become the new challenge.

 

[alskdjfhg]

If a deal I'm kicking around now works out I'll end up with 3 phase in the shop. If that's the case it will open up lots of machine options. Learning what to look for will become the new challenge.

I don't want to hijack your thread, and you may know this already; but not having 3 phase ins't the end of the world.

You can run a 3 phase motor on single, but it won't start it. To start it you have to supply power to the missing legs with capacitors or get the motor turning over by hand or with another motor.

You can also build or buy phase converters. The simplest are just 3 phase motors with a small motor to start it spinning and then hit it with the single phase voltage. You can also get what's called a Phase Perfect, which uses electronic magic to make three phase from single. Touted as being nearly 100% efficient (97% IIRC) and makes more balanced power than what you get from the power company.

 

[Junkyard]

I don't want to hijack your thread, and you may know this already; but not having 3 phase ins't the end of the world.

You can run a 3 phase motor on single, but it won't start it. To start it you have to supply power to the missing legs with capacitors or get the motor turning over by hand or with another motor.

You can also build or buy phase converters. The simplest are just 3 phase motors with a small motor to start it spinning and then hit it with the single phase voltage. You can also get what's called a Phase Perfect, which uses electronic magic to make three phase from single. Touted as being nearly 100% efficient (97% IIRC) and makes more balanced power than what you get from the power company.

No worries. I've seen and used converters before. If this takes place there will be welders and a rather large press running off of it. I'm right off the highway so getting it run shouldn't be too bad.

The main thing I seem to see in regards to machines are 3 phase are pound for pound cheaper on larger machines due to the lack of 3 phase in most places. May or may not be worth it. I wouldn't do it just for that reason.

When I was a kid we had an irrigation motor burn so we converted to electric motors for the pumps and ran 3 phase for it. I couldn't sleep for a couple weeks after being used to the old Allis Chalmers motor barking all night about 300 yards from my window

 

[alskdjfhg]

The main thing I seem to see in regards to machines are 3 phase are pound for pound cheaper on larger machines due to the lack of 3 phase in most places. May or may not be worth it. I wouldn't do it just for that reason.

Yeah 3 phase is generally less attractive to the hobbyists, also machines that weight more than 5k lbs are general less attractive to the home shop guys. But in a machine shop mass is everything, so generally the heavier the machine the better.

 

[Junkyard]

Yeah 3 phase is generally less attractive to the hobbyists, also machines that weight more than 5k lbs are general less attractive to the home shop guys. But in a machine shop mass is everything, so generally the heavier the machine the better.

I have the space, the machinery to load/unload and possibly the power. When I worked for the crane company we set lots of machines. Spent many hours on my knees as we skated them here and there. It is a pretty low priority at the moment. Oldest moves into her dorm Sunday.... sheesh

 

[alskdjfhg]

Oldest moves into her dorm Sunday.... sheesh

An exciting time. I didn't care for the dorm myself, but it's very convenient. My last day of summer class was yesterday and now I've got to pay my tuition bill for the fall this week.....

 

[Junkyard]

An exciting time. I didn't care for the dorm myself, but it's very convenient. My last day of summer class was yesterday and now I've got to pay my tuition bill for the fall this week.....

We/she are lucky. I'd say 85-90% of her tuition etc were covered by scholarships or grants. For the school she's going to the cost my wife and I will incur is minor compared to the education she will get. I never did the full college experience. A couple years at community college was enough for me.

Summer class? Over achiever haha

 

[alskdjfhg]

Summer class? Over achiever haha

Haha, as if. My degree plan has a minimum course load of 17-20 hours a semester, I've found that it's nice to be able to get some sleep every-once in a while, so I leave a class or two for the summer to make it easier during the normal semester.

 

[Junkyard]

That's an ambitious plan. Plenty of credit hours for sure. What degree are you working towards?

 

[alskdjfhg]

What degree are you working towards?

Mechanical engineering through the honors college, I'll be a junior in the fall. I want to say my coarse load for the fall will 19 hours, but only 9 of those are engineering classes and only 6 of those will be hard.

Hopefully next year I won't have to take any summer classes.

 

[Junkyard]

Mechanical engineering through the honors college, I'll be a junior in the fall. I want to say my coarse load for the fall will 19 hours, but only 9 of those are engineering classes and only 6 of those will be hard.

Hopefully next year I won't have to take any summer classes.

Excellent. Good choice (not that my opinion matters ). I should have done that myself. I've self taught a lot of that stuff over the years though. Just enough to be dangerous lol. Mainly structural stuff for trailers and whatnot. Deflection, section modulus stuff like that. You can go a lot of places with that. If I'd have stayed in trucking my next step was to find a young aspiring engineer to help through school so I could design and build a lot of equipment.

 

[alskdjfhg]

If I'd have stayed in trucking my next step was to find a young aspiring engineer to help through school so I could design and build a lot of equipment.

That's pretty much why I'm doing it, even though I really love turning wrenches and running equipment. I want to be able to stuff and know it's safe with out just going crazy and over building. Also want to try and take some civil engineering classes if possible, be useful to be able to design concrete structures and foundations a little better than I can now.

Also the Uiversity of Houston (where I go) has like a 98% percent placement rate for mech engineering, that along with an average starting salary of 60-80k make it worth the slog to get the degree.

 

[Junkyard]

Started to clean and inspect the rotary and wouldn't you know it.....got sent back out to move rigs. A day in the life haha. I ordered all my parts, checked things out and it all looks good. I'm going to replace the ring gear bolts and the new ones will be drilled for safety wire. The bear-lock is on but I won't lock it down until we're almost back together with it.

A thorough cleaning when the time comes to assemble it. No rush on this one, boom will be gone for awhile getting repaired.

 

[Junkyard]

Another nifty trick I learned this week.....

I was helping one of the guys who's been with MF for going on 30 years. He goes back far enough he was around in their early masonry days. We were building new sideboards for a little flatbed truck they just got. He asked the welder to cut him some pieces of rod, 3/32 or so I'd guess, and sharpen one end like you would a tig tungsten. We were using 2x8's so the rods were a bit over 9" long.

The whole time I'm asking myself, wtf are those for? As we cut the boards to length he marked them on the edge every 4' or so. As I held them he drilled pilot holes. I still have no clue at this point. He then chucked one of the rods in the drill and proceeded to drill into the pilot hole until it came out the bottom.

He curled the ends over and drove them into the edge to the point they were below surface and looked like a staple. I then realized he was doing that to keep them from splitting. I asked where that came from. He said they did it back in the day on scaffold planks. He then said, only real reason he did that here was somebody sure did a $hitty job of picking out lumber for the sides.

Sure glad it wasn't me that picked the lumber! Learn somethin new every day!!

 

[dirty4fun]

That's a great idea to help keep the boards from splitting. I have to put new boards on my dump truck will give that a try. Demo work is mighty hard on them.

 

[Junkyard]

Spent all week truckin. Moved three rigs and the water truck down by OKC. About 2,000 miles worth which doesn't sound like much....my body begs to differ haha. Other than passing through the shop Wednesday to get the water truck I was gone. Somehow managed to sleep in my own bed all week even!

Had a drive tire blow yesterday. They were about toast anyway so this morning I got 8 new skins on the back. Continental HDL-2's. I like them so far (moved a rig today so they got a couple hundred heavy miles), a little more tread on the ground than usual width wise. Closed shoulder, chip and cut resistant so they should work well for our needs. I got almost 150k (148,025 in case you're keeping notes) out of the original drives. Not too shabby for a heavy haul truck.

Next week appears to be all shop, possibly one rig move.

On another note, I plan to start assembling my 63 A-car soon. Have to build the bed and whatnot. I did decide on paint colors. I'm going back a factory color, Whimbledon White. Planning on some red which is not factory but I like it. Viper red is what I had on my 359. Interesting thing about the white is Ford painted mustangs that color during the same time period.

I plan to have the grill shell chromed and I will have it lettered and pin striped by hand. Maybe even some gold leaf

Of course this will take the rest of this decade I'm sure no more free time than I have!!

If anybody wants to help I have free beer and my wife is a good cook!! Haha