Luv2Wrench

Wowzer... the red Dykem on the boring bar sure looked like blood when I first glanced at it!!! Great work on the pump, I love being able to live vicariously through your work while I'm on the road and otherwise away from the shop.

Well Chris at least you're making progress even if everyone around you stands still... I wish you were in my area and you could use my machine shop guy and I could help you with the engine. We could have gotten that thing done in a week or two. Great progress!

As will I...

So another "no" update... the house work is mostly done and while I'm clear to get back on the MG... I'm now out of town for most of June. That's the bad news, the good news is that I'm with my son as he plays in his last few big junior golf tournament before heading off to college next year. We're having a great time and, as he the last one out of the nest, I fully realize that there will never be another time like this so I'm throughly enjoying it. I miss the MG and I miss you guys but I'll be back in 3 weeks.

I think we got your 100 degree heat Wonderful job on the tractor!

I like the copper spoon trick.. care to share some more details?

Stopping is one of the best lessons. The number of times I wished I had stopped probably equals the number of screw-ups You progress is steady and inspiring. I long to get back in the shop but seeing your journey does take away some of the disappointment of not being in the shop. I keep thinking I'm close and then something else comes up. Such is life!

Wow... a month has gone by! I'm close to getting the house ready for summer and will be back on the MG pretty soon. I need to replace all our shutters (we've got the real shutters that swing out from the house on hinges) and once that's done then I'll be back in the shop.

George, note that Wayne left his email address in his post. sierranw@comcast.net

Wow, that looks great and gives me an idea for a piece on the Metz that I wasn't sure how to do.

That sounds really frustrating. Wish I could help.

The saw just looks scary. ☠️

Looks like they were designed by a Matt... but a Matt Kline. Maybe that's why they are similar? The plans are available from Red Wing Steel Works for the nice price of free. Along with a body roller/lift and trailer. http://redwingsteelworksplans.com

I'm doing the same. I thought it would be a week or so, looks like it will be most of Spring. Ah well, it'll happen.

Well done! Do you have an estimate of how long it took you and how much money you spent on the materials?

The threads look really good. Threading is something I need a lot more practice on. Unfortunately I'm usually pressed for time and I can use a tap or die to get the job done so I wimp out and do so.

You're making great progress! I think you'll be done before I can get my spring time work done around the house and get back on the MG.

It does seem like no one is as interested in your stuff as you are... and you have to call and call to find out if anything is going on. After a while you begin to deduce that lies have been told because you know things don't take that long and even if they did, then they'd need to be billing you for that and you're not getting 6 months of billed time from the machine shop (at least, you better not!!!). This was the primary motivator for me to try and do everything... and I think you've said a reason that you've done many times more on this restoration as well. I'm sorry it isn't working out for you but you'll do more and more and it should go smoother and smoother. Don't even get me started on the mechanics that can't find problems... you stand a better chance of educating yourself and fixing just about any mechanical issue with a car these days as you do finding someone that can fix something without a computer telling them how.

Looks great Phil. If you tried that down here at my place you'd have yellow jugs in about 20 minutes. The pollen here is pretty intense right now but I have a feeling it is just getting started!!!

As experience with the first door suggested... the other door had hidden issues. While not as bad it does require some attention. The plan is to cut out the bottom section on the vertical piece and replace about half of the bottom of the horizontal piece. I glued up a little extra hard maple expecting to need more than one attempt to get the other one fixed so I have some of that on hand. Door skin did need some attention and will benefit from getting epoxy... that will need to wait though as we've had a burst of cooler weather. I should be able to get this done sometime next week and be ready to move on to bigger tasks by next weekend. Didn't really do that much this weekend but it was productive.

Needing only hand rotation to pick-up and pump is very good. Probably an example of what precision machining does to a simple and robust design.

Don't worry Joe, you have so much credit here at my shop, you'll never get a bill.

I didn't have much luck getting a suitable piece of ash to make the replacement. I did have a nice piece of hard maple left over from a project 15 years ago. To get the required thickness (the piece isn't that thick but it is curved) I needed to laminate three boards. I glued that up a couple of days ago and shot the door skin with some epoxy primer. The curve in the lower frame member is compound but as long as you cut the outside curve first you're ok. I made the cuts on the bandsaw and then test fit in the frame. I used polyurethane glue this time because it is good for soaking into the older wood and dries water proof. As a rule I don't like or use the polyurethane glue but it is certainly the correct glue for this application. It is ridiculously strong but super messy and stains your skin. The frame finished very solid and I slid it back in the door skin, folded the edges over and nailed it down. While I think the other door is fine, after taking this one apart and seeing the surface rust behind the wood, I'll be doing the same thing to the other door.

I think a rheostat will hurt the motor if it does run. There are, however, single phase VFD (variable frequency drives). I'm looking to get one for my mill and possibly the lathe as well.

There is clearly a problem here (US) but it probably isn't to the extent you see/hear. The people that are doing the really good work and are generous with their time and put others first are here... they're everywhere, but you don't hear about them. You might not often run across them. The general public tends to act like what the hear about, and as long as what we hear about is garbage, well... I'm afraid people don't have a lot of incentive to do differently. One day in the future the pendulum ball will swing back towards the great things that people here and around the world do and I do look forward to that day. Until then I'll keep doing the best I can and enjoy the fine efforts and generosity of my fellow forum members. Roger, when I see the latest pictures I do believe I have a similar amount of disbelief as I did seeing your model progress. I know a good bit of time transpired between the images you have for us, but even considering this it is a lot of accomplishment.