Garage Hangout

Quote from: Uncle Buck on May 12, 2026, 07:28 PMNicely done, great score!

Yeah the prices were right.

Carb on my weed whacker is acting up. So I took it apart to put in the sonic cleaner.

It's late spring here and we had 85f here today. Supposed to be 92 tomorrow.

I have one of those, made by PEC out of Los Angeles. It is very nice, except working on sub half inch stock.

Here's a handy $22.00 magnetic soft jaw set for a bench vice. The magnets are strong enough to hold the soft jaws firmly in place. While avoiding damage to fragile items,

Thank  you guys!

Further disassembly and cleaning of what I am now calling Project 218.


spent a little time getting the safely back in working order.


While letting some screws soak, I started cleaning up the stock. This has some very Germanic lines too it, no?

look at that hand cut checkering! This is the work of a master craftsman.

The final parts came apart fairly easily, but one screw refused to budge, and the slot was starting to get deformed, so I had to step up my plan of attack.

I started with a #35 bit, slowly stepped up until I was just shy of the diameter of the screw head, which you can just see at the tip of the bit.

This left just enough

to unscrew with the aid of a pair of ViseGrips. After that, the old scope mount came right off. And, oddly enough, the mount was an early Redfield, and while there were some few screw holes underneath, I need to see if any match European style mounts. I am pretty sure that the barrel is original, and with no provision for any other sights this rifle is becoming more and more of a mystery.

Next up is to make a new extractor, and the parts to do so should arrive on Monday from McMaster-Carr.

 
Here's a handy, budget-friendly $12.00 tool to add to your tool chest. Saw it last month and had to purchase..   

Center Finder reading at .005" from top dead center..


Top dead center looks like this..
.

Switch out the Center Finder with a drill chuck, using a center drill spot the hole before drilling. It's withing .001" of true center. Far less work than other ways to locate the center.

Over the past six week and several hundred hours, my Ingersoll performed like an absolute dream. This week all things hydraulic shut down, No power to the wheels, deck shut down, and no power steering.. But the engine kept running. Sadly I was caught mowing at the far end of my property. And towed it back to my garage with my baby Deere Tractor. Once on the lift I could see that the pump shaft was not  turning while cranking the engine..

Rather than removing the entire engine again. I removed the four screws that attaches the pump shaft flange to the engine. Then removed all the pumps hydraulic lines, making enough room to remove the flange from the pump shaft... There are two set screws on the flange, 90 degrees apart, with  one directly over the key. There was no Woodruff Key!  I'm certain the tractor ran 35 years with only the two set screws. As the woodruff keyway was packed with dirt and grim. Fortunately I have hundreds of shaft keys, including Woodruff style.. Reassembled and is now runny again...

I never removed the adapter off the pump shaft


Tight quarters to remove hydraulic lines to move pump from the adapter


Wooddruff key

By all means go out of your way to see BigBoy. It's totally awesome. Nothing comes close...


Ever since I was a young child. I was drawn to the sights, sounds, and smell of a coal fired steam locomotives. The golden age of steam power was a powerful era of mechanical beauty and early human ingenuity. Traveling around the USA or over seas, I always make it a point seek out and ride steam locomotives. Pictures below brings back memories when steam was king.   

In Melbourne Australia I took a day trip on "Puffing Billy."


The Engineer gave me the opportunity to ride locomotive on one leg of a day's journey... Feeding the boiler no less...

Adding to my vast collection of measuring tools. I picked up a few used specialty micrometers this month. $25.00 each..

Brown & Sharp #215 Disk Micrometer 0-1"




Lufkin #3611 Disk Micrometer 0-1"




Lufkin #1951 Blade Micrometer 0-1"




Blade micrometer is used to reach bottom of  a narrow grove.. Previous owner altered this mic by grounding the spindle to a smaller diameter, and relieving the frame above the anvil.. Still usable and accurate...


A disk micrometer is used to measure groove widths.