Diversity

 

Top photo shows the thrust washer for the vise job and a couple of parts for Surly that needed some welding. The piece on the left was a bit of rework. I welded around a slug that was pressed in but I think I had a cold start at the beginning and the weld didn't penetrate fully. There's no pressure behind it or anything structural so I was concentrating on getting a pretty weld and not leaving any tracks on the surface of the part. If you leave arc strikes on a surface that's going to be machined, it will leave a hard spot that won't machine properly. In fact, if you strike outside the weld groove on a guided bend test, that's an automatic disqualification.

Bottom photo shows my wiring supplies for when I get ready to wire the jitney. Copper wire has gone up in price but the 16 ga. wire I got at Menards was reasonable. The ring terminals pictured have heat shrink insulators and solder built in as well as the usual mechanical crimping. This should eliminate any problems with moisture or loose wires later on.

The vise is all finished now. I had to sand the OD of the thrust washer a bit but that only took a couple of minutes. I can put this one in the finished column.

I dug out the can of rivets and the rivet set. The dimple in the end didn't quite match the profile of the head on the rivet so I chucked it up in the lathe and put a new radius in it. The radius is 1/2". It would have been real simple with a 1" ball mill but I don't have one of those. Likewise, if I had a 1"ball bearing I could have done it blacksmith style by heating the bar up red hot and then driving the ball into the end. Instead, I free-handed the radius with the help of a 1/2" radius gauge. 

The practice piece looks good - no marks on the rivet head. There was a bit of marking on the sheet around the head, so I chucked the rivet set back up in the lathe and rounded the end a bit more. I should be ready to rivet the sheets on the cab now.