Fred R Clark & Son Machineworks

[Nitro]

Spent another busy weekend at the shop and got a lot done.
I made a few replacement parts in order to build the gear train on our Garvin horizontal milling machine.
The gear train enables the dividing head on the table to be driven by the table feed to produce a helical cut.

Yellow: Modified bronze shouldered bushing
Red: Standard hex headed bolt with the head thinned to fit in the banjo
Green: Retaining bushing to fix the assembly to the banjo

Gear train and banjo fitted to the machine

It worked well, but the old leather feed belt wasn't offering enough drive with the added strain on her, so after an attempt to clean it, a disassembly was in order to replace it.

Yanked her apart to replace the belt because the belt was scarfed and one piece.

That still didn't stop me from hand feeding it

I have found the Garvin chart that will allow me to select the helix I am after.
Who says that 100 year old machines didn't have it going on

 

[Nitro]

The next part was moving the Rhoads shaper across the shop.

Simple cable come-along tied off to our massive Wood generator made easy work of that part.
From there, it was walking it by rotating it side to side and occasionally using a huge screwdriver as a way to alleviate some friction.
Heavy strenuous work in 80F heat, but someone had to do it.

Moved 30 feet, but not exactly where it was needed

Line shaft assembly that will eventually drive it

Motor removed to clear the way for the pillow blocks and flat belt pulley

Switcho-chango kids
(more grunt work.

I will select the needed parts for the new drive assembly and machine it at home.

 

[Nitro]

After that was done, it was onto the next project of moving 12 park benches outdoors that required placing all of the crap I piled on them over the winter to the top of two barricades I was able to finally move

Lots of "stuff"

The "Horse" got a new home for a minute too

Note my world renowned plumber's nightmare of an exhaust system

There are still 8 more benches in the middle of the floor, but they will be leaving soon enough.
Only 33 more days until showtime!

 

[Nitro]

I did take a little time out to take a putt on the "Horse"

 

[Rodafina]

I hope your back is feeling okay after all that.

 

[Nitro]

He's back!

Yep, another three days spent at the machineworks.

First up, my vintage Bernz-o-matic torch set

I finally got a bag for my NOCO lithium ion battery booster set

 

[Nitro]

So from there, it was on to a few smaller projects that needed done:

I got a little more done on the boring bar project too

I reassembled the feed mechanism on the old Garvin and got it to work with the worn out old leather belt and some duck tape
Since the pillow blocks showed up before I left, I got a lot of the engineering completed on the pulley and shaft support for the Rhoads shaper project too.

 

[Nitro]

Only 19 days until showtime again!

Worked on several projects and did some needed adjustments to the equipment.

What is really cool is to now use the machinery to make parts and repairs for the other ones.
Like waking up dinosaurs just to help the other ones.
The Rhoads shaper project is moving forward.
Here are a few details of the new drive assembly:
Milling the hardwood spacer blocks for the pillow bearings.
That spiffy looking vise is the one that was modified on this machine for this machine.
The arbor is the ER32 unit I purchased for it.

Aluminum block being turned into a drill and tap guide to modify the cast iron motor mount.

This helped hold the cordless drill at the correct position to drill the holes then guide the tap to thread them.

After some careful layout was done, the holes were spot drilled at their center punched marks then the guide was c clamped in place to hold it steady.

 

[Nitro]

Spacer block being drilled:

Installed after the tapped holes were finished

Everything lined up perfect

The 3/4 inch driveshaft was woodruff key seated on the sprocket end, just to make it proper

I brought the pulley home with me so I could fit the shaft adapter to it on better suited equipment, but so far, the adaptation from the electric motor to the belt shaft system is moving forward at a positive rate.

 

[Nitro]

Time for a trailer hitch adapter for the Wheel Horse.

Poking the 3/4 inch hole for the ball hitch.

I took the hitch off the Horse and beat the mangled mess out of it with a sledge hammer.
The aluminum tongue was made for hauling my lawn cart behind it too.
The hitch ball will be how I move the tiny house on wheels around, but that is a project for another day.

 

[Nitro]

Drilling a hole for a bigger drive dog for the Garvin mill.

The hole was tapped for a bolt needed to drive it.

 

[Nitro]

I finally got the drive belt issue sorted out on the old Monarch lathe and got to hog off some steel with her.
This is the boring bar I made for the Cincinnati mill project.
I got the hold downs finished and the bar installed on it, but the pix will have to wait.
The project?
A 1928 Ford model A engine clock being set up to refinish the cylinder bores


Man, I love playing with this old stuff

 

[Nitro]

 

[Jeff T]

In previous posts I'd wondered what the side-valve engine block was, and if it was a project. Is it going back into a Model A?
The use of water pipe for an exhaust is one I'd not considered previously. It should last a long while!
That shop is a candy store to me!
Curious, do you have a blast cabinet or area?
Rotating the generator to move to a new spot is one that is relateable. A few years back I was doing same with the OLD two-post car lift that was abandoned when I bought this place. Nine feet high of 3/4" steel, scary wobbling it across to where I wanted to bolt it down! If I'd wobbled it too much it would look like a steamroller had tangled with me.

 

[Nitro]

In previous posts I'd wondered what the side-valve engine block was, and if it was a project. Is it going back into a Model A?
The use of water pipe for an exhaust is one I'd not considered previously. It should last a long while!
That shop is a candy store to me!
Curious, do you have a blast cabinet or area?
Rotating the generator to move to a new spot is one that is relateable. A few years back I was doing same with the OLD two-post car lift that was abandoned when I bought this place. Nine feet high of 3/4" steel, scary wobbling it across to where I wanted to bolt it down! If I'd wobbled it too much it would look like a steamroller had tangled with me.

I have a glass bead blasting cabinet at home as well as sand blasting equipment.
The Ford block is scrap I salvaged out of a pile and is only being set up to provide continuity of our 1920s theme.
The #3 Cinci it is set up on would require more power than our present line can deliver, so for now it will only be a static display until I construct one that will run it.

This show will offer a few improvements to existing machinery we have up and running as well as aesthetic improvements to the display areas.
Our spring show coming up will be the fourth one where the shop finally went live, and I hope it will draw even more attention than it already has.

I got a ton of show buttons from previous show years that I will be handing out to the kids who will get to punch an actual vintage timeclock if they choose to.
The buttons were destined for the dumpster.
I literally have thousands of them

On the bottom shelf of my tool cart is my vintage hand drill collection that will be on display too:

 

[Nitro]

Time for a trailer hitch adapter for the Wheel Horse.
View attachment 102093
View attachment 102094

Poking the 3/4 inch hole for the ball hitch.

I took the hitch off the Horse and beat the mangled mess out of it with a sledge hammer.
The aluminum tongue was made for hauling my lawn cart behind it too.
The hitch ball will be how I move the tiny house on wheels around, but that is a project for another day.

This is typical of how I set up my riding mower hitches:

My riders are all set up with class 3 receiver hitches with mounts
I added myself, so I make these modifications to standard sized trailer drop hitches.
These let me move full sized up to 2000 pound road capable trailers around the yard when needed.
Unlike my other mowers, the Horse already has it's own dedicated hitch so I added the pin tongue to the existing assembly.

 

[tazz]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Nitro]

In previous posts I'd wondered what the side-valve engine block was, and if it was a project. Is it going back into a Model A?
The use of water pipe for an exhaust is one I'd not considered previously. It should last a long while!
That shop is a candy store to me!
Curious, do you have a blast cabinet or area?
Rotating the generator to move to a new spot is one that is relateable. A few years back I was doing same with the OLD two-post car lift that was abandoned when I bought this place. Nine feet high of 3/4" steel, scary wobbling it across to where I wanted to bolt it down! If I'd wobbled it too much it would look like a steamroller had tangled with me.

I converted another media blast cabinet to use crushed walnut shells for cleaning internal combustion engine internal parts.
My Dad will be rebuilding his 80+ year old Continental engine for his 1941 Taylorcraft in the near future, and this is an FAA approved method for cleaning it

Mods:
lighting

Anti-surge pickup assembly

Dust removal shield

Air bulkhead fitting

Just a scrappy Harbor Freight unit I turned into what I needed.
The dust collection system has a Harbor Freight cyclone filtering rig attached to it too.

 

[Nitro]

Flat belt pulley for the little shaper project:

New sleeve to adapt the 1 inch bore to the 3/4 inch shaft

Drill bushing to guide the drill thru the sleeve to spot drill the driven shaft.

After the shaft is spot drilled, I will open the bore in the sleeve to clear a 3/8 inch ball bearing that will be held in place by the cup pointed set screws.

The definition of machine work: hours of boredom interrupted by micro-seconds of sheer terror

 

[maycontainthunder]

Seeing a horizontal mill used like that is unusual. Good bit of improvisation! Often machines like that had a bolt on vertical head like this on a Tom Senior. The big problem was that you lost most of the height making things difficult especially if you had the head without quill feed!