Yeah I know. I figured while I'm upgrading it I might as well trick it out with all the bells and whistles that are available. Its such an easy thing to make so I figured I'd just throw one together. Resawing wood may be on the list of things to do in the future so its nice to have. Working on finishing the cabinet up now.
Zap, I am enjoying your personal rebuild. I too like to rebuild machines. Most of the machines I like to rebuild back to factory original with maybe some small personal modifications. The very first thing I do is have a discussion with myself on investment versus recovery of investment. -I try to never invest time or money into a machine that does not have a sex appeal to me or others. -I try to never invest time or money into a machine that I might not recover. -I try not to invest time or money into a machine that somebody can just buy off-the-shelf or, at auction cheaper. If the modification monetary value and time can be justified as Time savings operating the machine I have another discussion with myself (and my wife sometimes). One contractor I used to work with hit it home with me. There's no sense in putting gold plated bathroom fixtures in a townhouse. You'll never get your money back and it will be an education on investment. I've learned over time that you could spend hundreds of hours making something great or Beautiful and 10 minutes later watching somebody destroy all the beauty with the disc grinder to make it work cheaply with a stupid steering wheel. I think you know what I mean.
Matt like this????? Look at the comment I left for Barry. He usually responds to me. He didn't this time. The almighty dollar has a way of changing things. I bet my left nut he knows this thing looks stupid as hell. "It may work well, but that is the stupidest ford pinto looking wheel I have ever seen. You mean to tell me H&W couldn't design their own wheel that more looks the part????? My dirty old bridgeport may look sad, but if I strap that red thing to it, I bet it would leave me!"
This is another crappy invention. It would be better if there was a triple handle. Most sensitive drill presses already implement this. Most Bridgeport milling machines have already thought this with about dozens of pin locations to make the pull more user-friendly. Using a milling machine, I don't want a big steering wheel in the way. Or even a big triple handle. The Bridgeport and EX-CELLO made it right from the beginning. A milling machine is a great drill press. But, a great drill press or radial arm drill press with feed and numerous speeds will outperform a milling machine. Most machine shops will do centre drilling pitching on a milling machine and pass on the work to somebody working on a drill press or radial arm drill press.
Thanks.. I'm enjoying the rebuild too. Problem I keep having is they don't make proper solid machines anymore. Even the high end stuff today is way over priced and not solid metal like it used to be. For a nice band saw you could pay 1500 bucks. If I invest 3 to 400 total into mine I could have the same performance but it will last another 100 years. They wanted 300 bucks for the bearing blade guides and 100 for the riser block. Thats like $20 worth of materials. I can't justify being taken like that! I'd love a bridgeport and a nice drill press. I saw one with a 2 hp motor at horrible freight. Looked actually fairly decent for the price. Very heavy solid looking thing. Might be worth picking up at some point. My current 3/4 hp one whimps out and can't drill anything over 1/2" without chattering and slowing to a stop. I made a lot of progress today. I finished up the cabinet. Unfortunately my threaded insert mandrel broke and I do not have a spare so I'll have to buy another tool to get it or wait a week for shipping to arrive. Very annoying. I switched to stainless steel inserts which are probably tougher on the cheap mandrel than the aluminum ones that came with the HF tool. Here's a pic of the inserts and my new nice brass thumb screws that came today.
Is that a rivnut? When we bought our airplane, some jack ass used them in a few places instead of installing proper nutplates. I have a serious dislike for them. When they spin on you, you're screwed. Pun intended. For light duty work where they don't see much action, they can be okay. Ours where aluminum and useless!
Could just reinsert the tool and tighten them up if they started to spin. I've never used them before but they are fun. Maybe I'll learn to hate them like you say but I bet vibrations on an aircraft probably aren't helpful for staying put either!
I had some old stock blank electronics cases that are supplied in flat pack form and held together with steel rivnuts in aluminium: about half the rivnuts had electrolysis corrosion damage and spun in the aluminium sheet.
Steel or stainless fasteners don't go too well with aluminium, it tends weld together, I just tried getting some 4mm stainless screws out of an aluminium alloy casting where it's been in the weather for years....now I'll have to redrill and tap the holes in a new spot as they all snapped off, even with some penetrating fluid applied beforehand. Mild steel corrodes in aluminium and stainless causes the aluminium to corrode instead...no easy solution...maybe brass would be better.
I've never seen that type of fastener before. I can see it spinning in the wrong application. Finger tight on a machine cover seems perfect. Even if the grip in the drill hole gets dicey a little loctite should firm it back up. Again, given the application and environment, I doubt bimetallic corrosion is going to be much of an issue. It can be a huge issue in other applications but this one will be minimal. For small fasteners like this, or like self tapping steel screws into exterior aluminum sign frames, I use dielectric grease. You can get a 3oz tube at autozone that will last for years. I also use it for automotive electrical connections. I just smear it into the connectors pin holes when changing headlights, snowplow wiring, etc. If you want extra insurance you could wipe a tiny bit of it into each of the rivnuts before assembly and you'd probably never have to think of it again. Pete
Rivnuts, nutserts, there all just trade names for threaded rivets. They're inexpensive, fast, and very useful for adding mounting hardware to sheet metal. I'd rather use them than sheet metal screws. I use them frequently but usually just for light duty fastening. I use them for up to 1/4" fasteners in sheet metal, but by 1/4", I'll usually use a weld nut unless I cant get at the backside to weld. If you set the gun up and install them properly, and are using the correct grip length fastener, I don't have a problem with them spinning. The downside to them is the typically have a head the protrudes from the surface. Some offer countersunk heads but you cant use them on thin sheet. Best, Kelly
I'm using stainless inserts with brass thumbscrews on mild steel sheet metal. There's a correct grip length? For each insert? How do I tell how far to set the hand grips for my inserts? I think I messed up and set it too high which is what broke my mandrel. I'm using the horrible freight insert tool
The ones I use (and probably you too) will grip up to a certain thickness......I forget max but probably, <1/8" so they're good for most all sheet metal. The rest is all how set up the stops on the mandrel and the gun. There should be instructions with your gun and several mandrels for different size hardware. I think I have 5 or 6 mandrels. If you under compress the rivet it can spin. Over compress it and the threads will be tight and you risk beraking the mandrel, especially on the smaller hardware. I only use them on 16ga and less. Above an 1/8" I'd just tap it. Some of the higher end and milspec stuff use the inserts to cope with dissimilar metals and they will install them in much thicker materials and that is where grip length is a factor in the fasteners design. Best, Kelly
I broke another God damn mandrel. Ugh! No instructions with my gun. I think the mandrels are crap quality from hf. They are high carbon steel and are very brittle. What I need is a grade 8 bolt to handle it. I'll order some replacements online. Hopefully better quality metal. I still have like 12 holes to rivet.
You do know you don't need a mandrel or special tool, don't you? Go to youtube, type "diy rivnut tool" into the search and you'll find lots of alternatives.
D'Oh! Thats great to know. I'll finish installing them tomorrow then. I really had not wanted to wait a week for replacements to ship. I got so much done but it doesn't lend itself to photos. Lots of painting, blasting, disassembling and aligning the bandsaw with the 6 inch riser block and the guides. Got it all sorted out nicely. I did however start painting the frame of the stand. Anyone got an idea where I could get a mild steel dome shape approx 4 to 5 inches deep and about 12 inches wide? I want to extend the back of my cabinet panel out to give the new 2 hp motor space inside the cabinet. This would be a perfect job for an English wheel. But I don't have one yet. Oh and also here's a picture of my adoring cat from earlier today. She's a real sweetie.
In a pinch, you can set them with a bolt and a nut, with a washer under the nut to protect the head of the threaded rivet, but I wouldn't want to do too many that way. You need a strong bolt like a socket head cap screw, a similarly hard nut, a couple of washers under the nut with antisieze between the washers and on the bolt threads. Hold the bolt head with a wrench so it doesn't spin and crank on the nut until the rivet sets. It's hard to keep it positioned and seated while you're doing all that but it can be done. -I've done it. The manual Rivnut installation tools are just amore refined form of what I describe. Best, Kelly
I would've just drilled and tapped the structural tubing for #8-32(or36) button head screws. They have a tensile strength of over 2500 pounds if you're using Unbrako. Depending on the wall thickness I might even go to a #6-40(or36) which still has over 1500 pounds of tensile strength.
