Luv2Wrench

Phil the engine looks great, I'm sure you'll have the car ready for it soon. Maybe a video when you fire it for the first time??

Mad respect. Hopefully that's me in 31 years...

I never could get the lantern tool post and rocker to work for me, I had to go to the QCTP. I think machine work is an interesting reflection of one's patience. The ability of Joe to get what he gets done using what he uses is, I think, a reflection of his patience... as my inability is a reflection of my lack of patience. In addition, I believe the improvements I've made over the years are a direct reflection of my ability to become more patient. Reading Joe's post and, in a sense, watching him work through problems has been very helpful for my machining growth. I sure couldn't have gotten this far without it and I think I can go a lot further as well. Can't wait to get back on the Metz!!

Fantastic!! I think I need one of those.

I guess there would be a pretty good chance that one of those would be just what you're looking for. Do take some pictures!

There is some irony there because I wasn't even going to get it until you said I should. I figured you knew something... sure glad I listened.

Got some good time in the shop however it was spent on getting the drill press running. While not the subject of this thread, I thought I would make another post about the drill press as it seems interesting. While I had heard that you "needed" a sliding head drill press, I wasn't 100% sure it was really something that I would really use that much. I guess I couldn't have been more wrong. To illustrate why... let's look at the first project I did once I got the motor hooked up. I need to drill 17/32" holes in 1.5" plate. I needed to get them within a couple thousandths as well. As such I planned on using center drill to get the hole placed correctly, 1/4" drill for the first pass and finally 17/32" on the last pass. With a typical drill press this present a real challenge. It is hard to get the table in a position where these 3 different drills would all reach the workpiece as well as penetrate 1.5". This requires moving the table up and down which is problematic for the accuracy of the hole. With the sliding head this is trivial. Chuck up the center drill and drop the head right down on the work piece. Raise it back up, switch to the 1/4" drill, lower, drill, raise, switch, etc. The yellow handle just left of the head turns about 1/4 turn and you can move the head, 1/4 turn back and it is locked. Fast and effortless. Once you've used it a few times you pretty much can't imagine not having it. One other wonderful feature is the big wide belts. They are very easy to switch between the steps on the cone pulley making changing speed a breeze. With my other DP the v-belt pulleys were up on the top and cumbersome to get to and change... as a result, I set it on a low speed and left it there. With the big belts it is trivial to step around the corner and change them. I've got it setup so I can go between 360 and about 3000 using the 4 steps on the cone pulley and 3 steps on the motor.. so effectively 12 speeds.

I think you're doing the right thing, you don't have many choice and pretty much none of them very good. My situation might have been similar except I caught a lucky break. I went to multiple machine shops and got turned away at all of them. I had done some other machining work (not engine related) with an older gentleman up the road from me a bit. Old school guy. I went and asked him and he said I needed "Cobb's boy". Seriously. "Cobb's boy" turned out to be Jim Cobb the son of a very respected engine builder and machinist. Of course Jim is older than me so I can only guess how old his dad is. Jim doesn't even work on engines like mine, but he's old school as well, has all the machines and can read. Give him the dimensions and the parts and he'll machine it to fit. Assembling the engine was fairly easy after that. If I didn't have Jim I'd be in the same boat as you... I'd probably have my engine at some machine shop somewhere and it still wouldn't be done.

Looking good!! Farming out the blasting is a good idea. Hopefully they will be faster than your machine shop(s).

Either Fred is a small man or that's a big engine. Glad you took the camera to the shop, great to see some shots of it going together.

Drill press is home. Normally I over-restore these things as well as get them in top functional form. This time, at least for now, I just did a simple clean and service as I reassembled the drill press. The drill press was in such good condition and my schedule is such that I just didn't think it was the right time to do more than this. I have even more respect for this machine after going through it. The table is nearly 2' by 2' and the flat surface area is 15"x15" and 7/8" thick. Yeah, 7/8" thick. It is like having surface plate for a table. It weighs an incredible amount (I can't pick it up) but it moves up and down with just one hand spinning the wheel under it. The head slides very easily (chain goes to a counterweight) and it is trivial to adjust the height such that there is minimal spindle extension for the part you're working on. I'm going to work on a different mount for the motor and then it will be fully functional. As per the MG, I've started going over the body with 80 grit. I'm doing about a 3'x3' area and bumping any low spots I see. Once I'm done with this I'll prime the panels. I've got some repair work to do and then I'll go back over all the panels and get them ready for paint.

eh, idk, looks in proper scale to me... nice job!

The secret is knowing which tap should be the last tap.

Wow, I got major envy now... need the tractor and the chipper.

The chuck is a nice ball-bearing Jacobs. I can't wait to measure the runout as I really think it will be better than the Buffalo which was nearly zero. I couldn't see anything with my eyes and I can see the 2 thou on the Buffalo. Could be wishful thinking though. I'm back at home now. I hope to go right back up but I don't think that will be an option. Probably need to go next weekend as there's a lot of stuff that needs attention around the house. Like an MG...

The head slides up and down so you can get the quill right on your work. I'm not entirely sure why the bottom part is so long, it might be adjusted incorrectly or maybe that was the minimum about needed for the #2 Morse Taper.

I have a reasonable T-Slot cross slide to use right-away... but yes, a t-slot table is now on the hunt list. I do know where I can get one but it is a bit of a drive even if the price would be right. Hopefully I still have the lady's contact info. I do like the HUGE size of the table. My 10" L-W Chuck Co. Universal Dividing Head will easily fit on there so that's super useful. Another neat feature on the table is that it setup for coolant. Notice from the pictures the edges are raised considerably and on the near side is the drain. A collector bolts to the underside of the table and goes around back to the base where the coolant is stored in a big box (motor is sitting on top of this) in the casting. A pump would fit in the left side of that tank to pump it back up. Very neat!

Still out of town at golf tournaments but having a great time with my son and managed to pick this vintage Leland-Grifford drill press up along with a nice bounty of other smaller stuff. I'll be driving back up in the next week or two to pick it up. This drill press has a sliding spindle which is a very nice feature. Instead of having to adjust the table a lot you can move the spindle up and down. The spindle and knee/table are also on dovetail slides so they are very rigid and the knee even has a nice acme thread to adjust the height. Probably from around 1920 yet was still designed to run off a line-shaft. Runs very, very smooth. I plan to remove the guards so you can see the natural beauty of the camelback style belt drive. Right guard houses a set of 3-step cone pulleys that allow one to change the speed.

I think you're right, I bought my interior during the sale in the Spring. I should remind you that the Clogmaster prefers the low-humidity winters and that it's going to be a stretch to think you can get 3 minutes tomorrow. You might try taking handfuls of media and throwing it at the surface rust... might work better. When I'm in a bad mood I imagine my Clogmaster falling off a tall cliff and smashing into a million pieces... always cheers me up. Joking aside, you're doing a great job of maintaining forward progress. I've been mostly idle since Thanksgiving due to various real life stuff and I admire your tenacity to get out there and get something done. I need more of that.

Thanks for taking the time to add the detail and the individual steps. I've learned just about all of my painting and bodywork online and I'm grateful to those that take that extra time to really explain it.

Love the tractor!! Now I "need" one.

I put the frame in the skin and closed over the edges. As I got to the lower rear corner I noticed the wood giving some as I folded the edge over. While the frame in this area looked fine when I took it apart, the hammering over of the edges loosened it up some and I decided it needed to come out. Fortunately I was able to get access to the area and I cut out the questionable part, created a template, cut some new wood and put it in place. I folded the edges back over, drilled some holes in the new wood to match the old and that pretty much wrapped up getting the frame in the skin. There is a metal strengthener that runs along the inside that needs some attention and then I'll put it in. That will finish the door and it will be on to the scuttle.

Got the door skin primed and the frame mostly ready to go back in. Still need to fill in some of the nail holes and then it will be ready to go back in the door skin. I think I'll work on the scuttle next. In prep for that I'm going to get the oxy-acetylene rig out and get some practice in. It has literally been years since I last did any significant welding so I need the practice. Since the last time I used the rig I've gotten the regulators rebuilt and the oxygen spring changed so I'm hopeful that I'll be able to dial the settings in better this time.

Indeed, I miss the Metz more than ever now.

Happy to be back! Had a blast with my son and he's been playing really well. So well that.... yeah, I'm going to be gone a bit more. I do have the next two weeks here before we hit the road again so I'm going to try and get some work done. As a bit of a review... I have mostly stripped things off the car down to the major bodywork. I took both doors off to fix the wood frame inside. I got one done before the interruption and have the wood completed for the second one. I took some time today to hang the driver's side door and see how it fit. I've heard horror stories on getting these doors to fit properly as it seems they were somewhat custom fit to the car. Both the doors had some issues before I took them off so I was hoping that fixing the wood frame would fix these. I was happy to find that the driver's side fit perfectly. I'm not sure if I'll have the same good luck with the passenger's side door but at least I don't have to worry with this one. I need to fit the frame into the passenger's door, shoot the skin with primer and then re-assemble. Hopefully that's something I can get done this weekend. The next step is to remove any major dents from the fenders and remove them so I can focus on the scuttle and the tub. I need to patch both side of the scuttle where the windshield attaches and the tub has a bad area on the passenger's side just below the door hinges. Some wood will need to be replaced in this area as well so the entire rear quarter panel and part of the back skin will need to be removed.