Random Shenanigans - The big cat's back

With the painting done it can start going back together.
First one is to refit the windscreen, a fiddly job but we won it over in the end.


Then the side lights can all be reconnected which there is plenty of.


The rear end is getting some lights too,
Along with the original top corners its also got high level brake light along with 2 bright spot lights, one for reversing when not on the road of course, and one to light the ramp for loading the horses ect.


To complete the look we also bought a few more lights to help mark out the sides of the box, these are running and brake lights.



With the lights all back on it can be used on the road again. So we loaded it up with scrap and took it for a drive to the local scrappy.


The trip served 2 purposes, one was to get rid of the mountain of scrap we had and the other was to see how much the wagon weighs empty since the scrappy weighs you on the way in and again on the way out.

And as it stands we weigh a smidge under 5 ton with half a tank of fuel, me and dog in the cab.
Thats not a bad result considering the amount of steel work we have added in. so 2.5 ton to play with for fitting out and accounting for 2 donkeys.

Primary target now i guess is to get it useable for horses. So start kitting out the horse area.
We had a few designs in mind how we are going to make the partitions so way back when we ordered the steelwork for everything else we also bought a few lengths of 50mm tube. We may have over specced it though as its 3mm wall.
And we bought an el cheapo tube bender and a notcher at the same time.
I spent a bit of time doing research on how to use one of these benders to make acceptable bends.
After a few tests which some went well and some didnt.



We settled on a winning combination of packing the tube with sand, using a die smaller than it says to use which was still a bit big so packed it up with leather from knackered welding gloves, also add some sacrificial tube to the rollers to stop them denting the tube, oh and always make sure the weld is on the side of the bend not top or bottom.
Started to give decent results


Before long we had most of the bends we needed


While we worked someone else found a sunny spot


Lots of chopping and notching they started coming together


We made up a bottom rail for them to hang off. Its bolted through the steelwork at either end so is also acting as a brace for the wall.


The uprights got a pin in the bottom and a sprung pin at the top


All tacked together they are looking good


And fully welded



A stainless tube was found that fits nicely inside the partition to create the front fixing point


Some 5mm stainless flat bar gets bent to make the fixing point, and welded onto the tubes.


At this point we realised there was a bit of a miscalculation and they needed to come further forwards so cut them in half and welded a 4” extension piece into the top and bottom


They also got tabs for the wooden centers to bolt to and bars in the top


You can see here the reason for having the front most one cranked over at hinge is so that when they are open it goes flat rather than sticking its front into the ramp area.


You might also notice where most of the design work was done

We used what was the old front of the box to cut the centers out from. My dad is the joiner so the most skilled with a jigsaw so he did that while i welded.


And in they go


The front needed something to fasten too so i made that up


And that looks like it works.


And everything came back out to be cleaned up and sent for galvanising

You must have increased its value x 5 since starting the works !

fascinating build , even if it is for dragging tins of glue on legs around!

Quite a transformation.

Looks great, might be in time to get to a few horsey shows now?!

So a simple job made more complex because, well i dont really know why. It just kind of happened.

To start you off on the journey of discovery much how i started on the same path ill give you a brief brief.
The switch on the back of the wagon which controls the loading light has an indicator/halo light on it.
That halo will be handy for finding the switch if its dark ect.
For obvious reasons we dont want it on all the time
When will it be needed?
After arriving somewhere
When getting ready to come home from somewhere
So it appears to me we need something that turns the light on when the ignition is turned off and keep it on for ~ 10mins.
We also want it to stay on if the ramp is open ready for loading to come home.
In itself not a particularly difficult problem.
I started off thinking we can just use a capacitor on a relay but after doing a bit of measuring and maths the capacitor would have to be huge.
So an alternative solution raised came to mind. Mosfets
So i drew a schematic


As you can see it evolved slightly from my original capacitor across the relay design.
Nothing too complicated.
When ignition is on the capacitors charge and when its off the capacitors slowly drain holding open the mosfet which is part of the light circuit.

A very quick design review with my manager didnt raise any concerns so i got on and did the layout.


Between other things one evening i printed out the layout and transferred it to some FR4 copper sheet.


And etched it


Cleaned the toner off and your left with the copper only where you want it.


I changed my mind on a few bits at this point so did a respin and made another one.


Considerably smaller this time too.
Got it populated


And tested it works.

Need to trim it down and get it fitted in the wagon which i will get round to eventually. Currently the girls have been taking it out quite alot which is nice to see it getting some use again but does make it hard to get stuff done on it.

I have acquired a new toy last weekend.
A bit of back story a fellow mr2 owner and friend is a retired tool-die maker. We got chatting about the cars and other projects and he mentioned having a lathe sat around.
He brought it home a couple of years back after the company he was at were trying to send it for scrap.
Since then it hasn't been run as its a 3ph and being in a home garage he only had single phase available.
I suggested a VFD and offered to help wire it up for him. The conversation went on a bit and he said if it was any use to me and i could get it running then i could have it.


Here’s the unit in question, A 1974 Colchester Chipmaster
A bit of research suggests they are a well regarded machine for the ability to hold tight tolerances and good surface finishes (when in good condition). A big footprint for quite a small bed but big enough for what im likely to be making.

Forward a couple of months and now i have a bit of space in the workshop i went and collected it.


If you look closely in the back of that photo you can see his pup wasnt too impressed at things changing and kept trying to come home with me too.
I got it unloaded back home and bolted a few of the parts back on.


There was a few trays of parts with it and some tooling.


Whats the plan?
First up is needs a good clean, a few years of no use and living on the coast there is a little bit of surface rust on exposed metal.
In general it doesnt look like its been leaking much which is nice.
The reason it was being removed in the first place is partly due to an issue with the variable speed controller, also known as a kopp variator. It had the wrong oil at some point, and before being removed was slipping under any reasonable cut depths. It was apparently fairly quiet when running which is promising.


They are a common failure point on these machines, usually due to wrong types of oil or no oil being used. It weighs a ton and while they can be rebuilt you need some fairly deep pockets if sending it back to the manufacturer.

I have some destructions for it so at the risk of making it even worse i decided to open it up and have a gander.


First impressions are good, the drive balls and cones are not showing signs of overheating or serious damage. Although they might benefit from a polish


Again the drive cones look reasonable although the input side is showing more wear than the output. This is opposite to the balls so i suspect someone has been in here before and already inverted the balls.


Something i have noticed is these top components on the spindle, show some signs of rubbing and galling


They seem to have been rubbing against the adjustment end plates.


I am having issues finding an exact parts list for this model of variator, the exploded diagram in the chipmasters manual doesnt show those plates so im starting to wonder if they are supposed to be there.


I would suspect they are supposed to be some sort of oil diverter since there is no shaft seals on the unit and no mention of them either.

So with it all in pieces whats the plan?
Im leaning towards removing those unknown parts.
Then clean and rebuild.

I would love the resurface the drive cones but i’m told these parts are beyond hard and require a ceramic cutter to even touch it.
I dont have that available so think it will stay as it is for now.

I started giving the lathe a bit of a clean since it was a little grubby in the end cover




The headstock end is a little oily


The change gears got a quick scrub with penetrating oil and scotchbrite


Along with some other bits around the back of the spindle, it looks like there may be a small oil leak out the back of the spindle. Ill be looking for an oil seal for it so at some point in the future i can change it out.


The coolant system will need some attention, i would like the coolant up and running but its not essential right now.
It seems like the pump housing has corroded and broken


And its all rather manky



I found a nut and bolt in the bottom of the motor fan shroud.


Which appears to have come from the motor end case, so that got bolted back up.


And taken off a few fins on its way out
I picked up a 4KW VFD at the weekend so i need to see if i can get it all running off that.

I have a kopp variator going spare ... I assume it was from a chipmaster ,it was attached to a 5hp single phase ( ! )motor i bought .. yours for the postage ,condition unknown though. I' ll dig it out from under the bench and photograph it , i can't remember if its the same as yours . I have a Smart and Brown model M so its no use to me !

What does it do exactly? Provide an infinitely variable speed facility?