Stuff I've Been Doing While Off the Grid.

[Oddbod]

Hi folks, its been a tough time away from the forum with some health and family issues.
Like they say what dont kill you just makes you stronger.
We all have our own journey in life, so I dont expect any sympathy, but can say its good to be able to touch base with you all.

Even when not on top of the world a man needs to have some shop interest, so I've been fooling around with tire and wheel stuff.
Kinder not a project too big to complicate life, yet something meaningful that can be walked away from if things get too tough at times.

Well, I saw this rim splitting and welding gizmo on YouTube which I liked so I decided to make one.
Apparently, they do alot of this kind of stuff in Europe.
I messaged the guy who I was guessing was in Poland or similar seeking some help with material choices and dimensions.
No reply was received so I just made a start and figured it out as I went.
I must say I was disappointed with no reply...

So here are a couple of pictures of what I came up with.
It is a difficult gizmo to photograpgh actually.
I have attached the YouTube link of the item I copied.

You must remember I use what I've got and not what I can buy from the shop or online.
The princple of this machine lets call it, is to accurately cut steel rims and be able to narrow or widen them.
In my case narrowing was my first interest as new rims are too wide for old hot rod style cars and narrow tires seem to run best up front.
Widening on the other hand was something that was done years ago by adding a hooped iron band in between the cut where the rim was split.

The gizmo I copied did not have any means of making a hoop.
In my version I have used a a small hydraulic car jack as an adjuster and use the driven main shaft of my project as one of the 3 rollers required to make the hoop.

Difficult to see and photograph as I have already mentioned.
It is not quite finished and did take much more lathe work than I expected.
I have made my own rim centering cone but have also made a flange plate that allows me to bolt up Ford, Chev and Jaguar wheel pattern with screw in studs.

My main shaft is driven by a reversible electric motor with reduction gearbox and chain driven sprockets.
My main shaft can also be disconnected to free wheel if required when setting up etc.
Wiring has not been done although I have the switches and cabling.

Youtube link;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ3vIzjcZ2U

Getting this project almost finished, then raised the issue of finding wheels suitable.
Most wheels I found were free or cheap but all had old tires on them.
Where I live the tire guys want $40 to remove an old tire plus an additional $10 to dispose of it.
Seemed like too much for a retired old guy.

So this has lead me to further small projects to deal with tires stuff.
I will post this again soon just to keep you interested.
At my age I'm looking to make life easy and fun.

Let me know what you think.

[r1lark]

Very nice setup.......you have done a great fabricating job!

I skipped thru the video; was very impressed that he set his machine up to basically do an automatic MIG weld. The welds look great, hopefully he got good penetration.

[Oddbod]

Thankyou for your endorsement.
Yes, I have make an attachment that will hold my MIG gun also, not sure how well it will go, probably require some fine tuning but if successful it will be great.

My main focus is working with 15 inch rims, but have made my gizmo to accommodate from 13 to 17 inches diameter.
God only knows why I do this stuff but it sure keeps me off the streets.

[Esteban]

Always so entertaining to see how you tinker with so many different things, always using what you have at hand.

Hope your health issues are a thing of the past now.

[Oddbod]

Thanks Esteban, yes I like doing this stuff I find it is good for my soul...

You might recall I had a thread here for my tube bender, well if you care to look at page 7 about the first post you will see the table with a hole and a drive shaft visibl.

Well while the tube bender does not see lots of action, I've decided to take advantage of this drive.
I mentioned that dealing with rims sees me more often than not need to remove old tires from rims that I want to use.
So I decided to make another gizmo that will drive off this shaft and rotate an arm that will remove and install tires.
In my case I've decided to lock the wheel from rotating and have the arm with the duckbill head to rotate.

I've stripped and fitted tires several tires now and I am finally get my head around this task.
Lubricant is critical to success.

[RiverPatrol]

Amazing as always. Good to know you've got your head above water for the time being. Life is interesting.

[Esteban]

Amazing!!!

[Oddbod]

I'm glad to be able to entertain you guys and gals.
I know it is not main stream Nissan Patrol stuff, but you never know something may give an idea that could be helpful.

I feel like, I've approached all my tire/wheel project stuff back to front.
I keep making stuff, that then creates a need for something else to make it work out.

After making the rim splitter and then the tire remover, it struck me that I needed a bead breaker before I can take the tires off.
Well, as luck would have it, I own a electric/hydraulic log splitter, a homemade item that I bought off a guy who I thought had done a really decent job of it.
He was selling up as he and his wife had bought a sea going yacht and were going to sail around the world.
Not my cup of tea, but I wished him well and bought his log splitter.

As you will see in the picture, this thing is a beast and super powerful.
I dont even use firewood, I bought it because I liked it and figured it was strong enough to use a a horizontal press to bend steel plate.
Well, it sure does that well, but I dont use it all that much.

So, my need for a bead breaker had me looking at this log splitter.
With a improvised drop over fabricated metal block to cover the log split blade and a paddle like they use on shop machines and I was away.
I must confess by saying, it has taken some learning and is not nearly as good as a shop device, but it does get the job done.
I need to review what I have with it, as I dont like wrestling with stuff and breaking a sweat when the machine should be doing all the work.
It needs to better direct its power on to the bead.
There is no shortage of power and fingers need to stay clear.
I've done about 6 tires so far and its been slow.

I just need some quiet time when I can and look it over and tune up what I have...

Enjoy.

[Oddbod]

As you all know I love my gizmo's and enjoy making something out of nothing or at the least out of very little.
I have a problem as I dont like waste and throwing stuff away that is of worth and maybe helpfull later so to speak.
Probablky due to my poor and humble up bring as a child and some good advice I was given by my Scottish grandfather who came from even pooer and humbler origins as some of you may appreciate.

All that aside, in previous Threads I posted the fact that I got a newer lathe which has been a great addition to my shop equipment and I use it often.
Unfortunately, this lathe came with few accessories as did my previous lathe.
I've spend quite a bit of time fabricating and purchasing items that will make my lathe use easier and more efficient.

Now, I have a 2nd lathe, I've been modifying items that I made for the first lathe so if possible they can also be used on the 2nd lathe. For the most part this has been successful and boy it helps speed making stuff up.

I always wanted a tool that can clock my chuck in degrees.
This is only used by hand and not when it is running under power.
In my case it would be used with my drill attachment to dial evenly spaced holes in say a flange.
The drill then spot drills the location evenly of each hole and normally I would then removed the work piece from the lathe and complete the hole drilling on my drill press.

Obviously accuracy is paramount, so dont laugh when I tell you I've been looking for a pedal sprocket off a kids bicycle to use as the spaced out clock mechanism.
I've been looking for ages at bicycles dumped on the side of the road during junk collection days.
Sadly, I spent much time county sprocket teeeth but finding the sprocket with 36 teeth had been difficult to find.
Well, as luck would have it I recently found one.
You see, 36 teeth gives me a pointed tooth marking for every 10 degrees of a circle and then I came to the conclusion if I could make a locking device for every tooth I could hold the rotation of the chuck and spot drill the job.
During this process I also came to the realisation that if my locking device could also locate the lows in the sprocket, I could get every 5 degree increments which would be pretty darn good for a piece of off the side of the road junk.

So when the time was right I decided to fabricate my own version of a sprocket that could attach to the opposite end of my chuch shaft and be removeable that I could lock and count the degrees of roation according to my project needs.

Attached are a couple of pictures of my gizmo.
I've used it twice now and once was for 4 holes and the accuarcy surprised me actually.
Its not a tool I'd be using every day but is helpful on the days that I do need it.
You will see in one photo, the blue drilling device that I made previously, which was for my 1st lathe and I have now adapted it to work on my 2nd lathe.

You will note on the second last pic that the end is jusyt an expanding friction grip device that locks on by doing a nut up at the sprocket end and to remove just loosen the nut and give it a gentle tap and it is loose.
In saying all that, it is not quite finished to my stisfaction just yet but it does work.
I need to incorprate a over centre locking device to hold my sprocket tooth setting while drilling.
Currently, I must use one hand to hold the lock on the sprocket tooth and drill with the other hand, not really perfect to my way of thinking...

[RiverPatrol]

A second lathe sounds very handy to have. Great use of a bicycle sprocket.