Progress has been slow I haven't touched the truck much lately after getting burnt out with the clutch debacle. But on the subject of drivetrain I decided I needed another shifter ball and plate for a remote shifter idea. This came off a Tremec TKO 600 which is a 5 speed but I think I can make it work in some ass-backwards way. I tore it down and degreasefied it. Modeling it up in Solidworks so I can attempt to over engineer yet another piece of this eBay parts bin puzzle.
Finally was able to get the trans and engine mated up with the help of two friends. It took all of 15 minutes to do after I have spent the better part of the last two weeks swearing at the transmission intermittently.
The powertrain combo was then test fit in the truck and more sheet metal was removed. I'm starting to get a bit burnt out on the truck, the C4 suspension took longer than I anticipated and took a lot out of me. I need to at least get the engine and trans mounts made and then I can take a break from fabrication and work on plumbing and electrical for a bit. I'm definitely not going to hit the late September date I was shooting for which kinda sucks but I don't want to rush this thing too much. I have a couple other projects that have been on the back burner too long that I need to get done too.
I 100% feel you on hitting more work than anticipated and feeling the burn-out from it. I've missed one date already and will probably miss the next one based on how much I want to spend compared to how much I need to spend, haha. Just keep working one step at a time and take the small victories.
Good work!
Take you time, do it right, take a break if you need it. That said, it's looking good!
Very nice!
I vote no break. I want to see it run.
It's been a little while since I've done anything on the truck but I wanted to update this thread regardless. I've been sidetracked by side projects and a new woman that is much more understanding of my hobbies and mad scientist mentality.
TL;DR: I have four 3D Printers now. If you have any 3D printing needs PM me I'm happy to print just about anything for a modest price.
So behind cars and metal working I really enjoy 3D printing if that was not apparent previously in this thread. I bought my first printer a little over 2 years ago to 3D print a gauge cluster for the truck, I still plan on doing that. That printer did a good job of teaching me all of the ins and outs of 3d printing and got me through a couple engineering school projects. It was a very cheap, very chinesey kit that had a lot of problems and turned into just a pile of parts. Last fall I decided to replace it with a bigger, faster more reliable printer for my final semester of school when I would have a lot of projects that it would come in handy for since the prototype lab at school was not known for their speed or reliability.
I bought another large printer this spring when I was helping a friend crank out 3d printed Honda CRX cupholders. This guy sits idle most of the time and is mostly just for really berkeleying big pieces.
The company that made the printer in the first picture just started making an updated version of that printer that now includes a dual extruder setup. That means two colors or one and a soluble support material. Well I ordered one with an eBay coupon and then that company couldn't even ship it, so I canceled that and bought one again from eBay with a coupon but this time straight from the manufacturer. That printer got lost for a week somewhere between Ohio and Milwaukee thanks to the men in brown shorts. So 3 weeks later this finally shows up at my door.
All the while I've been making a massive 8020 work bench to hold this new printer and it's older brother. Work bench is 114" long by 34" deep and stands about 40" tall.
Plywood top because prices of large sections of butcher block are outrageous.
I even washed the Dirty Jellybean
I got the new printer dialed in pretty well and started messing around with a couple ideas I've had floating around in my head for generating some side business cash flow.
RS and ST keychains still a work in progress.
I have an even more recent addition to the work bench. I was cruising through craigslist late last week and found an estate sale ad that had a 3d printer listed... Interesting.
I looked at the pictures and saw a Prusa MK2/MK3 and 2 big boxes of filament... cool. I figured they would want too much for it or it would be gone right away Friday when the estate sale started. Saturday I was booked accompanying my new lady friend to her cousin's wedding, that's fine I have the most negotiating power Sunday afternoon anyway. Got to the estate sale looked around at the other stuff and found the printer and the filament. There's 4 boxes of filament and they wanted almost list price for the printer. I powered the printer on and it prompted me for calibration, I think to myself damn it's brand spanking new. Check the settings and memory, 2hours and 31minutes of run time so far. Perfect, time for my favorite parts, let's bargain. After a little bit of himming and hawing from the estate sale lady I walked away with a $700 printer and close to $2000 in filament for less than $500. That's a damn good deal. I know have 4 printers in varying sizes and capabilities. I need to find a niche and start exploiting it.
Whoa man, that's a lot of 3d printing stuff! Good luck, I'm interested to see what you do with it-
I have a friend that started a 3d printing company, https://www.cosineadditive.com/. They are very large, like 3' x 3' x 3' ish prints. It seems this stuff is not that easy to do, so if you can do it, it sure seems like there should be a business opportunity there? I know so little about it, I just watch with interest :)
Cheers! I haven't given up on this minitruck project!
damen
In reply to badwaytolive :
Thanks man! I haven't given up on it either just slowed down on it a little bit. I hope to have a truck update within the next week.
The really large format stuff is really cool and kinda the next frontier with 3d printing I definitely will check those guys out.
Picked up some steel for seat rails and a battery box from the cutoff scraps pile at the local metal supplier, they charge roughly $1/lb for their hot rolled cutoffs and are starting to know me by name.
Engine mounts we meet again...
Managed to get the engine and trans positioned in roughly the right spot and started on refabricating the engine mounts. I didn't make a lot of progress before it got dark and was time to eat but it was still good to be back out in garage burning metal since I haven't done much of that sort of thing since I met my new lady friend. She even staked out a corner in the garage to hangout and do some painting. No complaints of loud noises, weird garage smells or my angry white boy music. This one is a keeper.
Small steps add up!
Do you have any deadline you're eye-balling for the truck right now? Like a meet, or show, or auto-x or anything like that?
damen
In reply to badwaytolive :
No deadline set currently to have the truck on the road. The only milestone I currently have set is the drivetrain package needs to be mounted to the truck in a solid manner before the snow starts flying so the garage can go into winter mode. I can plug away at the trans tunnel, controls and wiring this winter. It gets pretty damn cold up here but I have a torpedo heater and Milwaukee Heated Gear to help me power through.
I was out in the garage after work yesterday reorganizing my ever growing collection of tools and ended up making a little bit of progress on the engine mounts. Plus I got some fresh bandsaw blades so I had no excuse to tell myself anymore.
I stacked some scrap metal on the handle of the bandsaw so it would "auto-feed" since I tend to get impatient and burn out blades too fast. I are enguneeer.
Several cuts and a few tacks later.
Started playing with DC pulse frequency on my welder. It might not have been the most effective on this weld but this was the first time I've played with that setting. I'm just making this up and learning as I go but I could see how it would be very helpful on thin wall butt and root joints.
Just catching up with your 3D printer exploits. I'm half tempted to send you a janky ass Subaru cup holder and see if you can figure out a design that doesn't suck. You're doing cool stuff.
Details on your bandsaw setup? Do you like it? Is it precise? What is it exactly?
I got an abrasive chop saw recently, but I've found that it is not as accurate as I would have hoped for some smaller stuff.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
I'd be more than happy to take a look at it. I'm working on some similar interior bits for Focus ST and Fiesta ST right now.
In reply to AWSX1686 :
Bandsaw setup consist of the Milwaukee M18 Deep Cut Bandsaw (2729) and Trick Tools EZCUT Jig Trick Tools did most of the engineering on how this thing operates, the Milwaukee just moves the cutting teeth around in a big circle.
It has a lot less blade walk than an abrasive saw, doesn't really leave any burrs and doesn't make your ears bleed. Those were always my biggest gripes with abrasive chop saws when I was building tube frame chassis. I really wanted to step up to a dry or cold cut saw but didn't have the space for another table top miter saw. Also cost was a big factor, Milwaukee discontinued their dry cut saw and comparable dry cut saws were an extra $250 plus blade cost on top that. This can also be used as a vertical bandsaw which is how I cut a lot of my suspension tabs and mounts. The vertical saw feature is what really sold me on it. It's sometime difficult to clamp smaller pieces but you don't get that stupid bounce you do from abrasive saws that throws your work piece and tries to eat your fingers.
It has adjustment side to side and you can also adjust the hinge to align and square your cuts so it's only as good as your setup. You can still walk the blade if you apply too much normal force to the handle but it cuts pretty damn well for something that fits in the back seat of my Fiesta. Blades are easy to change and fairly standard. To be completely honest, I am fairly biased towards the red tools since they pay my bills and I get a hefty discount. However, after using this saw for the last 8 months I would pay retail on it. It's just so compact, portable and versatile.
In reply to Ram50Ron :
Very cool thank you!
Welds look good from here!
I second the portaband- I have the yellow one and it's great, about 57 orders of magnitude better than the HF Abrasive chop saw I had; that thing is comfortably in first place as my least favorite power tool. May it die in a hot hot fire.
In reply to badwaytolive :
Also on the porta band wagon (chuckle). On and off of the Swag off-road table it has come in handy sooo many times.
Your build is bold. Props for tackling all of the things simultaneously
In reply to GoLucky :
This truck is the physical embodiment of scope creep and I also lack self control.
The Swag table is what I was going to buy until I stumbled upon the Trick Tools one.
With the days getting shorter, temperature dropping and the ever increasing presence of the lady friend on week days it's harder and harder to get stuff done in the garage. I'm still slowly chipping away at the engine mounts.
Tacked in the chassis mounts, chopped a piece of tube and and tried to tack the tube to the bushing carrier. I forgot that polyurethane does a decent job at insulating electrical currents. The high frequency start shocked me three times before I figured out that grounding on the frame wasn't going to work. After much swearing and threatening to throw tools I got it tacked together and then welded on the bench.
And mounted on the truck.
I still need to weld the ears on the frame rail in completely and then replicate this on the other side. Little by little it's coming together.
Engine mounts are done! Not super proud of them but I really just wanted to get them done and move on to the next project.
Engine supported by it's own mounts.
Take all of the crap out of the bed and she's sitting pretty.
Ram50Ron said:With the days getting shorter, temperature dropping and the ever increasing presence of the lady friend on week days it's harder and harder to get stuff done in the garage. I'm still slowly chipping away at the engine mounts.
Hear ya on that. Truck looks great, good to see the engine mounted! That's awesome progress and I know it feels good
I was cleaning the cobwebs off my CD009 in the corner the other day which reminded me:
What's the news, man? Any progress?
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