Odds & Ends

[John Evans]

A little hot rodder project that required use of a interesting piece of tooling I own. Putting F-1 Ford [early 50s] into a Model A Ford while still retaining the A steering wheel and hand controls on the mast. The F-1 box is worm & roller verses the A being worm & sector,much easier steering. The A box mounting flange is 2 bolt and has about a 7* angle to the sector bore,needed to bore to take a seal ,how to hold . This is a cut and weld deal ,cutting off both mounting flanges and welding the A flange to the F-1 box. Also cut and splice the steering wheel shafts to retain the A wheel.
I have a fair set of JFK internal expanding 5-C collet tooling great for bushing work etc. Turned one to fit at housing bore and rather than pulling the lathe chuck and putting in the 5-C sleeve and draw bar I used a 5-C hex collet block in the chuck . This allowed me to bore for the seal concentric with the bore. See the pictures and all will become clear.
And before someone brings up welding cast iron both box housings are cast steel ,MIG welds nice. Me I would use TIG but my customer only has the MIG ,we have done several of these conversions in the last few years.
And a quick tip for finding center in round stock to drill a hole on the mill or drill press. Use a concentric pointer in the drill chuck and a 6" ruler ,look for horizontal on the rule.This is similar to finding center on the lathe,keep light pressure on the quill as you move the table and you will soon see when on center. This is NOT a replacement for using edge finders etc. when absolute center is needed,but for many uses just fine.

[liveaboard]

Cool work;
I love putting disparate things together to make new things.
It's satisfying.