Well it's a new month today and we're a little over halfway through the long weekend. So far for me the weather has been great and we've had a great week. Spent some time in the shop working on the lathe and I also went home to spend some time with the parents and to help my Dad in re-roofing a lean-to shed on his garage. Went home Thursday and by 1300 was on the roof tearing off the old shingles. By 1300 the next day we were on our way to the dump to get rid of all the debris, and the new shingles were installed. We were in no rush and definitely took some breaks and stayed hydrated what with the 35degC weather including the humidex. Came home today around noon and after cleaning up a little spent a few hours in the shop. So here's what we accomplished this week.
I picked up the extra oxygen cylinders I needed and completed the installation of the two trays onto the bracket. The top shelf needed to be done first to be able to properly install the rivets. I turned the assembly upside down and placed a steel block under the rivet heads. I then clamped the assembly to the welding table. I heated up the rivet tails to a cherry red colour and with a few whacks from a heavy hammer pounded the tails flat. I initially attempted to use a steel bar with a small dimpled hole on the one end to try and give the rivet tail a rounded look however this did not work as well as I anticipated so I just resorted to pounding a flattened tail instead. Once the four rivets were installed I carefully ground the top of the rivest smooth with the surface of the tray. This worked quite well and although you can see the rivet outline there is no real lip to catch anything on the tray surface. Well ok maybe your fingernail might catch it but nothing I place on the tray will notice the extremely slight lip. Once the top tray was done then I had to do the same with the bottom tray. This was a little more problematic as trying to clamp the middle of the tray down with the clamps I had was not working too well. However we persevered and eventually all four rivets for the lower tray where installed. One may not be as tight as it could be however it does the job. Here are a couple of pictures showing the top tray after the 4 rivets were installed with some primer over them then a couple shots of the entire assembly being painted.

Once the tray assembly was completely riveted and painted I could concentrate on making the screws. However concentration was slightly lacking when cleaning up from working on the rivet tails. "Note to self never use bare fingers to pick up steel scrap that was used to support rivet tails after being heated to cherry red. Metal is still hot for long time." Turning the 8 bolts needed for both the #39 and the #86 lathe was pretty uneventful. Turned the thread down to 5/16" then used a standard die to thread the rod. Once all 8 were threaded I took a piece of leftover hex rod and drilled and tapped it to the same thread as the bolts. This piece was then secured in the chuck and allowed me the capability of machining all the boltheads to the exact same length by threading them in till the head hit the shoulder of the leftover piece and then I just turned the bolts to length. After they were all turned to length I carefully used a bastard file and sandpaper to round the edges. Here is a picture showing the bolt being threaded into the leftover hex bar prior to being cut to length.

Once all the bolts were cut to length and the firstTray assembly was dry I could install the assembly on the #39 lathe. Here are a couple of pictures showing the tray installed as well as a close up of the bolt head to show the round over. The bolt is shiny because once they were machined I ran them through a buffing process on my grinder. The tray assembly for the # 86 will be done once the tray bracket is cleaned and repainted.

                                                       
Now we could get back to working on some stuff for the #86 lathe. Today I used a Foredom grinding machine with a small wire wheel on the end to carefully clean the Quick change casting. This casting had previously been stripped using paint stripper and then degreased using Varsol. The wire wheel was used to clean what was left and "polish" up the cast iron prior to it getting a coat of primer. Once all the wire wheeling was done we chased as many holes as we could with taps and then plugged and covered with painters tape the areas that were not being painted. I wasn't too concerned with some areas as once the finish coat is done I can use a razor blade to clean up the machined surfaces. Here are two pictures showing the casting ready for priming and then sitting there with a coat of primer on it.

I thought I'd leave you with this final picture. This is a picture of the #39 lathe as it sits today with her tray assembly attached. 

 Over the next week I'll most likely be working on the QC gear housing and the gearing that goes inside it as well as cleaning the tray bracket casting for the #86 Lathe. Well until next week enjoy what's left of the Labor day weekend and remember the children will be on the streets starting Tuesday going to school so please be careful out there.

Harold