When it rains, it pours...the old reed prentice lathe

So, I just got the mill back running (here) and now my manual lathe needs some work.

There were several bearings that needed some attention and the actuation clutch was completely worn out.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find much information on these lathes let alone replacement parts.  It looks like I am just going to have to make the parts I need...

More playground stuff....

I took my daughter to the 3rd annual Wings and Wheels at the Ernie Hall Aviation Museum at Sloas Airfield in Warren, Ohio. 

http://www.erniehallaviationmuseum.org/

She absolutely loved it and absolutely loved the airplanes.  Naturally, she wanted one at home...so we built this....

It will eventually get painted and have a propeller but for right now, I can't keep her out of it...

The BSA tank is done....

It still needs some paint, but at least there are no dents....

The RTS Ford F150 Transmission....

Apparently, this is the hot setup for overdrive in a Model A.

In conjunction with our Model A to S-10 T5 adapters, mentioned here, I am looking into offering the Ford F150 RTS conversion.  

The first step in this conversion is to remove the original tail shaft and make a retainer plate that can accept the original Model A torque tube ball. The blue part is a 3-d printed test piece and will eventually be made out of aluminum.

The output shaft will need to be shortened and re-splined for the Model A u-joint. Surprisingly, this trans lends itself very well to this conversion.

I will add more updates the further I progress along...

More cutaway display models....

This time of a large torque limiter....

This one is going to China apparently....

I really like doing these cutaways, they are a nice diversion.

Dent removal on a BSA tank....

A customer sent me his tank off of a 60's something BSA to see if I could maybe take a couple of dents out of it.  After years of faithful service, its bound to have a few bumps and bruises.  But, because BSA polished their tanks, you can't hide these under layers of filler and paint.

Unfortunately, the only good way to remove these is to get to them from the inside.  This meant cutting the entire bottom out.

Once I could get inside, I could start bumping the metal back out with a couple of dollies.  There wasn't enough room to swing a hammer so I had to use one dollie as the hammer.  Once it was brought back close,  I could hit it with a body file, then some 80 grit and eventually work my way down to 1000 grit before polishing...

There still is a long way to go with the polishing, but at least you get the point...

Back in business!!!!

#406 is back up running and making chips....Today is a good day.

All of the adapters should be back in stock shortly.