somebody had to do it. |
|
Front Bumper P.95/9/2019 I got the driver corner finished:  I knew i was going to be doing some tube work, so i ordered some stuff, and took a couple days to upgrade the bender:  New base with swiveling locking castors, and a hydraulic conversion courtesy of SWAG Offroad.
Just in case i might ever want to switch back to manual for some dumb reason, i added 1/2" holes to bolt it to the floor, and the castors are bolted in place via tapped holes in the base plate. It is soo much easier to use than by hand! Wish i did this years ago, makes bending tube so much easier to do by myself. No spring-back on the bends either, which is a huge plus over manual bending. So with that done, lets bend some tube! homebrew sheetmetal brake3/23/2018 Ive always wanted a sheet metal brake, but never really had the room to store such a big piece of equipment. Well, now that i have a decent workshop, and a pretty big project to work on (the bronco rebuild) i decided it was time to get one. But, didnt want a big press taking up space, so i decided to try and build a smaller compact press. So this is what i came up with: One piece of 3" angle iron bolted to bench top, with a 2" piece of angle iron attached to that via 2 4" hinges. Both are 36" wide, which gives me 28" between the hinges. Thats got to be plenty big. The 2 ½" bolts secure it to the bench.  So this is the basic motion. Those 2 3/8" studs sticking up with springs on them, will hold another piece of 2x¼" angle iron, which serves as the jaw that clamps the sheet metal in place  Some slight trimming of the jaw to clear the hinges. Wing nuts to clamp it down w/o needing any special tools, and the springs will lift it back up when loosened to remove the piece or put another in  On the underside of the hinged piece of angle iron, is 2 pieces of pipe welded in place, for a pair of handles made out of ¾" bar stock  test bend!   Removed from bench for 'storage' (actually i was cleaning). The handles fit under the clamping jaw for storage.  Set back up, and im now ready to resume work on the bronco!  Looks like its gonna work just fine!  Axle stands and more progress!2/15/2017 I shouldve built these years ago!!!! So, since I wont have my wedges for a few days, I decided to finish a shop project that I started over a year ago: Axle stands One finished  both done!  That said, I effortlessly rolled the axle out from under the truck, so that tomorrow (after some cleanup) I can begin refurbishing the brakes  The top of the stand is slotted to accept exhaust ubolts of various sizes, to clamp around the axle tubes. They actually work really good at holding the axle in place, to the point you can roll it around freely, or even set pinion angle.
|