12000 lb Car Trailer Rebuild

Located a milling machine in Ohmaha NE.   Have not ID'ed it so I don't have a weight.  But it has a 48x10 or so table so it will be a bit of a load.  Only senseable way to go after it is with the car trailer.  But it has a broken spring.  So I looked into new ones.

The places on the net say to measure between the eyes.  Well it came out to 27" and such springs exist but are not plentiful.   Meaning they are a bit more money.

But after a bit of thinking I realized that he center pivoting bit is pivoted due to the  flattening of the old springs.   So I am guessing that the more common 25 1/4" springs are the ticket.

But having gone out and looked again I realized these are 5 leaf springs!  Good and bad.  Means its like a beefier trailer but springs are $$$.  Not quite too bad found 3000lb 5 leaf springs for $35.50 a Libra Trailer Parts. so $142 for the set.  And maybe no tax.  That means I get 12K lbs of springs.  Should be able to haul any lathe or mill on that.

Hit the suspension bolts with PB Blaster.  And rechecked that 25 1/4 springs will fit. Looks like it would.  The rear shackle moves back and forth to accommodate change in spring length.  Need to get pictures of that.

Discovered the bolts are welded to the spring perches and shackles on the back side.  Need to raise the trailer on blocks to gain access to the welds and grind them off.  One of the equalizers is hosed.  But it and the shackles are made from 1/8" plate so I should be able to make new ones.  This will also allow me to make adjustment to the shackle length if needed.

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Cut off a few bolts to remove the old suspension.

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1/8 is too thick for the press to bend.  Ordered an entire suspension kit.   Have the axles and fenders off the trailer.  Too windy to flip it over.  Put 2 car tires from the green town car on trailer wheels and mounted them on an axle.  Plan is to flip over the trailer and move it on this axle.

Found cheap trailer on simplyTire.com.  $63.96 each
Called them and they said the tires can be up to 3 years old.   But returns without question are on them.

https://simpletire.com/trailer-king-st225-75r15-rst53t-tires

Maybe it would be a good idea to fix up the engine power compressor and mount it to the pickup bed.  That way I could mount tires on the road.  Have several 15 in tires but all old.


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Saturday

Did the trailer flip.  Working from the bottom will make it easier to remove and replace the spring perches.

This bolt is typical of the worn out trailer suspension.

Removed the two rear spring perches.  They were looks which connected to shackles.   The new setup has both shackles on the equalizer with the front of the front and back of the back spring eyes in perches.

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Sunday April 12th

Too cold just above freezing.   I have acclimated to warmer temperatures.

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Monday was too cold to be out.  Today, Tuesday was cold too but I did remove one of the front spring perches.   Still have the other side front and both center perches.   The centers maybe more difficult because they have a side support.  If possible I would like to retain that.

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Thursday April 16

Found this site has suggestions for welding on the spring perches.
Best to weld them to a strip of metal welded to the frame to reduce stress.
https://mechanicalelements.com/mounting-trailer-axle-springs/

Brown & Sharp No 6 Screw Machine

A conversation on hobby-machinist resulted in this image of the turret lathe.

From vintagemachinery.org this was added 02/03/2020.  Which explains why I did not see it when I obtained the lathe.

Also includes specs but nothing else.

Ergo Scrap Wood Push Stick

While working on another project I got feed up with my old push sticks and make this one.  Except for time required for the glue to dry it was only a few minutes.

The wood already had a large dado in it.   I alternated which side it was on and it worked out to be a great grip with just a bit of work on the belt sander.

When the bottom is used up I can just glue on a new one.  Should last as long as I need it.

Started with this stock.  Some sort of sticker or such tossed out by the lumber yard.

Ubuntu VirtualBox Windows7 "Make The Cut" Cricut

Because I purchased "Make The Cut" prior to the author getting sued by provocraft I can use MTC with my cricut expression.

Installed VirtualBox, VirtualBox-ext-pack, and VirtualBox-guest-additions from the ubuntu package manager Synaptic.     Do not use the installation from within virtual box.

Enabled the USB and COM3 (in my case).  This has to be done with the windows 7 virtual machine stopped.

Downloaded the driver from within MTC.   Help>Advanced>Download and Install FTDI XXXX drivers.

Select cut project

"Do not use serial port" should be unchecked.

"COM3(FTDI Serial Port)" should be selected.

That is all I remember.   Need to create a new virtual machine and document the steps better some time.

Apparently MTC has not been updated in 6 years and the author was last on the forum 3 years ago.

Burn out oven repair

In the mean time I tested my sodium silicate.  Measured out .01lb of SS and added it to .24lb of play sand for a 4% mix.  Mixed sand with a plastic spoon on a paper plate.  Nuked for 60s, 30s,  cooled, then another 120s.   Total 3m 30s.

Results were very good.  Wonder why it did not work well last time I tried it.

Antique Dresser With Knapp Joints

See a YouTube vid on Knapp joints a few days later I found them on an old dresser I was about to toss.  Turns out they were only used from 1870 to 1900.

Maybe its a keeper

First step in dust collection.

I have had this jet 1.5HP dust collector for 15 or so years.   When I moved from the big shop to the 2 car garage there was not enough floor space.   I have gotten to the point where I really miss it.

I have started mounting it in the rafters next to the gable end away from the house.  Initially I will be blowing the dust and chips to the open air.   If that don't work and I don't think it will I can add the bags or a cyclone on the outside wall.

At this point the blower has been hoisted to the rafters using a come-a-long and a snatch block bolted into the roof sheeting.   Had just enough clearance to make it work.  Had I bolted it to the rafters I would have come up short.


The blower is resting on 2 2x6's.  Need to screw them down then bolt the blower to them.   Cut a hole in the outside wall and hook up the 2 4" flex hoses on the inside.   Thinking both will go to the table saw.  One to clear the chips from the saw's body and the other suspended above the blade.  That will be nice especially when resawing the old redwood fence boards to remove the paint and top layer of weathered wood.

Start of a hole to the outside. A few false starts on where to put it but the extra drill holes ended up in the disk I cut out.

The fly cutter had stripped positioning bolts.  Touched up the M5 bolts and used M5 bolts with external nuts to jam aka jam nuts.

Next Day

Exhaust hose recycled from the portable setup.

The switch is not a magnetic contractor.  It stays on even if power to it is lost.























Screwed down the 2x6 supports and bolted the blower unit to them.

The six inch to twin 4 inch connector never fit well.   I have strapped it in place with a bungy cord.

Connection to bottom of the table saw.  Yes the hose is connected to a up cycled tin can.

A mess but it illustrates that one leg of the connector will pull dust from the blade and the one on the back right of the table connect to the dust collection port under the table.