MadModder

OK the plot thickens!

Looking at the photo of the tool disk on the lathe there appears to be two location dowels 180 degrees apart threaded for a slide hammer, and an adjacent threaded hole possibly to screw in an extractor bolt.

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

Looking at the spare disk it seems someone has been here before me. I suspect that they broke off an extractor bolt and tried to drill it out on one side, and there are extra holes drilled at a further offset from the axis. Was this an attempt in the past to make new threaded holes for an extractor.

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

Not quite sure where to go from here !

Oh yes - some shifting. That's today's task.

Clear the way from the roller shutter (external access) to the lathe and prove that the electric roller shutter still works. I ended up earlier in the year with a massive wasp's nest in / on / and about the roller shutter and the pest controller fellow wasn't sure at the time how much debris had gone inside. I couldn't open it then as the 3D printer and it's gubbins had cables too close to risk moving it.

A late start as this morning I had an interesting talk on Concord(e) at the local U3A but after that cracked on before the next two sets of cottage guests arrive (due 15:00).

The Versatool cabinet with the communications receiver on top was massively heavy as full of tooling and the castors are too small a diameter, but using levers I moved it out of the way along with various other bits of clobber.

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

Then moving the desk with the 3D printer on it let me shift the cables so I could try the roller shutter. Apart from getting tangled in the 'Chuck Crane' it amazingly worked fine (not been lifted in perhaps two years) shedding detritus all over the place.

Just need to find a temporary home for two pressure washers.

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

Now at least the dog can see the rabbit and I can start rigging the fork lift. Approaching like this leaves full access to the bits that I need to unbolt to remove the heavy bits.

I suppose that I should load up the extended forks and see what droop I get over their considerable length with a heavy lump on the far end!

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

So not huge progress but with a little bit each day I should get there. (How do you eat an elephant - one bit at a time!!)

   looks like you got your work cut out there Andrew..........Carry on!...

Thanks chaps - I really do appreciate the encouragement as enthusiasm declines with lack of success (as well as age!)

Today's task is to find a suitable skyhook.There are several heavy chunks that are filled with an excess of gravity and are not man manoeuvrable in their current positions.

A/ The Tool disk.

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

B/ The Tool Disk Servo Motor.

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

C/ The X-Axis Turret Assembly

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

Yesterday I tried to get my Engine Crane into position. The tape measure said no-go but I wanted to prove it as it would have been ideal. The man on the ground agreed with the tape measure - it would be ok if its legs would go under the lathe but they need 7" and the clearance is only about 2"

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

My next thought was the crane I made a few years back  to lift big chucks onto the spindle. Another no-go as it only gives 39 inches of clearance and I need considerably more than that.

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

Now I have two knocked down scaffold towers outside the workshop but despite much cogitation there is no room to erect them in suitable places.

OK I thought - what we need is a counter-balanced boom coming in from the chuck end dangling a hoist in the right place. It needs to be movable to lower all this gravity in the right places. Pallet load of sand bags and a pallet jack maybe with a construction mounted on top.

Then I thought - you daft fool, you have a fork lift truck that is a nice heavy counter balance and easily can lift the weights we talking about, it 'just' needs its forks extending to 10 foot. What have I got that's 10+a fork length and likely not to bend too much in this dodgy configuration.

A quick inspection of the  welding shop 'stock pile' (sadly rather rusty from my inaction) revealed not one but TWO possible solutions:

A/ A full stick of about 100 mm heavy box section - so probably 20 foot long

B/ 10 foot length of 3" channel section

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

The 4" box isn't quite big enough to slip over the forks so would have to be clamped above them as would the 3" channel so for a first try it's the channel.

A fair amount of clobber will have to be shifted before the fork lift can get up close and personal with the lathe - but do-able as I think most of it is on castors.

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

Good to see you're back on it, Andrew.