Recent content by AlanS

Here’s a picture of what I’ve been working on for the last few weeks. Cat Sixty gas tank, the tank mounts and the fittings. There are four fittings, on top the filler and a vent, underneath a drain cock and the fuel shut off cock. There’s a baffle in the tank, 60% is for fuel and the...

I posted an image several days ago in Machine Modifications to show my modified George Thomas Versatile Dividing Head. I should have posted that picture in the Boo Boo section. The image showed drilling and milling the starting rod holes in the flywheel of my model Cat Sixty crawler tractor...

Doug: The whole lathe is grease lubricated with the exception of the bed and an occasional squirt of gear oil on the change gears. Greasing is seldom and always done while the lathe is running, the Timkens on the spindle get listened to while being greased.

I did the same with the pillar tool, roughly 135% bigger within the limitations of standard diameter materials. Instead of bushings I used needle roller bearings. Same with several of George’s other designs, they were all made chunkier. The only one I made but ended up not using was the...

I really admire the designs of George Thomas, having made most of them over the years. Castings are available for his versatile dividing head and universal pillar tool. They, like all of his designs are suited for smaller workshop equipment, particularly the Myford series 7 lathe. When...

Craig: The bright finish on handwheels comes from regular use with oily or dirty hands. I have a home made ball turner based on the “up and over” design by George Thomas. It has an integral dovetail mount to match the BX tool post I dislike uncomfortable and ugly handles on tools, I’ve got...

Steve, it’s just a Taiwanese round column mill, I’ve breathed on it a little same as the lathe. Here’s a fairly recent photo drilling 1/16” dowel holes in a 3/16” rod. Better handles all round, much longer table feed screw nuts, several changes of spindle bearings, budget digital readouts...

Same as full size, three forward one reverse. Main clutch to shift these speeds, a steering clutch and a steering brake for each track. PTO at the back when in neutral. I’ve arranged the steering clutches and brakes to be force neutral so I don’t need to be hands on to watch it drive in a...

Steve, As requested here are a few more images of my Atlas lathe. I’ve been modifying this lathe for the last 40 years, making it less of a hassle to use. Almost all of the zinc alloy castings have gone, replaced by steel or bronze where appropriate. Clutch: This mod was coupled with replacing...

It will weigh 60 pounds with the final engine, the temporary Seal Major engine will be a bit lighter. It’s 1 1/2 inch to the foot.

Here are two shots of my model Caterpillar Sixty from the rear and top. The seat is removed to access the clutch linkage so I can adjust the relationship between engine and clutch. In the top view are the steering brake and clutch linkages for either tracks. The hardest part to make was the...

The biggest change was the rack and pinion feed. Much faster for peck drilling and way more sensitive for small drills, smallest so far has been number 70. The rack housing almost doubles the contact length of the spindle, convenient ejector at the end. It also has a lever lock to the bed...

Here's another build picture, this one is boring the crankshaft openings in the Seal Major crankcase casting. This is the main reason I added a T slot cross slide to my lathe, turns it into a horizontal boring machine. As you'll see the lathe has had a lot of additions made for ease of...

The manifold bolt is missing because I lost it last time I had the engine stripped down for revisions to the crankshaft. I haven’t got around to making a replacement. I have spare domed head nuts so it isn’t a big deal making the #5-40 body. The manifold isn’t under compression so I’m not...

I have some sketches of track components but no formal plans. Making two sets of tracks was what drew me to a model crawler, in particular the jigs and fixtures I’d to make to produce the parts. The parts were all made on conventional machine tools and to keep my round column mill cutting I...