Custom Billet Shift Knob BS

It isn't in my personality to say we're talking about cool shit in here. IMO, others can decide if what I'm doing in here is cool or not ... for me it is just normal every day stuff.

As for the latest update, I have been taking my time trying to figure out placement for the lathe. It will end up about 90 degrees rotation from where I actually want it to be. After a few dry runs, my engine hoist just can't make the turn to put it where I want it. Most other lathes would not require such a turn, but this one has a foot brake that prevents me from being able to go straight at it. I could still try to put it where I prefer, but would have to disassemble my desk and shelving on either side of the lathe area for still a very high risk of installation failure. Instead of having a 6ft x 6ft square of empty space with my truck in the garage, I will only have about 2ft between the truck and end of the lathe. I still get a good deal of space, but rather than having that one open box, it becomes U shaped.

Since deciding on that placement, I have sourced a 14"x14" x 1/2" thick steel plate to put under the LH side of the lathe stand. This will take up the bulk of the leveling just so I don't have to max out the 1/2" stroke of the supplied leveling pads.

I have the stock China motor off as well (got the USA made Baldor motor upgrade, but it did not come installed). I still need to swap the pulley, so I'm going to try to get a loaner gear puller from Autozone if I can't find material to rig up a DIY contraption.

The pulley is cast iron, and where the gear puller would concentrate its force is a rather uncomfortably thin wall. So, making something up myself to direct the forces to a stronger part of the pulley will be ideal believe it or not.

If all goes well I will get it up onto the stand tonight!

 

Quick sketches ...

I prefer this,



but will have to settle for this,

 

Interesting, I didn't realize you had a blue truck

 

Gray truck, but it has blue truck nuts.

 

That honestly sucks! Garage space is essential and I got none of it. I would screwing around for days to get the upper layout to work.

Hahaha! I could see a couple blue @7r41lbr34k3r knobs in a sack hanging from the receiver.

 

I have 900 sq ft of garage space, and always seem to be filling it with something. There is a gym and a wood stove in the other side, with quite a few plastic bins full of camping gear. There's also an attic, which is where all of my brewing equipment is. Doesn't matter if I had double this size, wouldn't be enough!

 

Nice. We were supposed to have 22 x 22, but in reality we ended up with 19 x 19 with a little extra space on about half the garage under the stair. It was a great space when we had one car, one regular motorcycle, and the sidcar rig. Now, it's tight. The next place will have a serious garage / shop area with some extra height. I need some space.

 

Update: I’ve tried a drill with max torque settings (23 ft lb) and still nothing. Any ideas anyone?

@tonered no, I’m not sure where the bolts are underneath. I think I found the one of the four.

 

They are torqued to 37N-m (27ft-lb). It will take more than that to break them loose.

Sorry, but, lefty-loosey / righty-tighty? I'm a dyslexic lefty, so I'm always saying that in my head.

 

Okay. Good to know. I was about to head over the the torque spec thread.

Yeah. And I tried the method of going left and right to hopefully break through the rust as well.

Anyone have an impact gun?

 

I have a Harbor Freight electric impact that has worked great for lug nuts and such. It was a deal at $40.

 

We really need a habor freight up here. Guess I’ll just have to wait until I move back to NC. Plenty of harbor freight a down there.

Yes, we have other stores like lowe’s / Home Depot, but the savings is not the same.

 

try using a breaker bar?

 

I don’t own one. Haven’t got around to purchasing one yet. But I figured if I couldn’t do it with a drill, then a breaker bar might not be of much help. There’s not a lot of room to fit a breaker bar down there anyway tbh. Not sure if I could make that happen

 

Harbor freight has been instrumental in helping me set the shop up. They just opened a store near me about a year ago. In fact, I just grabbed their small 6x4 band saw for 20% off. People seem to love it, so why not?

I ended up making a tool to help swap the motor pulleys, and finally got the lathe up on the stand today. Looks pretty level with a standard level, but the precision level next to it shows otherwise.

Getting there, slowly but surely. Now I have to figure out where to run all of these wires.

 

Look at all that space and cool toys! I like it.

Can I come over and play?

 

Of course, any time!

 

It looks like fun.

 

BTW, I don't know if you saw, but there is a person selling round seat spacers in the BST section. It looks like he's selling from inventory, but he also mentioned doing work at will.

 

Nice, he can get them addicted at that price ... and I can provide the botique version.