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Anyone interested in seeing a "real time" video clip from my evening in the shop....?

[youtube]6FO1-ThtbzE[/youtube]

Enjoy! :waytogo:

....back to work.

-G
 
Anyone interested in seeing a "real time" video clip from my evening in the shop....?


Enjoy! :waytogo:

....back to work.

-G


You are such a geek. :haha::haha:

You got some crazy stuff going on. Thank god I'm good on flat stock, before the Greg72 caused shortage hits the West cost. :whistle: :D
 
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That's cool! I like watching it work in the video,much better than just pictures. Great job! Now I can see what takes so long to figure out all the angles. :bow:
 
Nothing stays the same for long....... :rolleyes:


You probably remember that back when I first built the flat-style steering arm plates (the 3/8" thick part of this assembly) they rubbed against the inside sidewall of the tires? I snipped off the worst-offending corner so that I could keep progress moving forward but since I'm now trying to weld up the steering arm components to that plate I need to get it trimmed down to it's final dimensions so I know what kind of areas are available to actually weld to....

The basic idea was to scribe an arc-shaped cut-line that would roughly mimic the wheel diameter. So I created this clever gizmo with a ruler, some clamps and a speed-square....

IMG_9248.jpg


This allowed me to scribe a line 1.25" smaller than the current notch, and will hopefully give me the necessary clearance for the tire sidewall.

IMG_9254.jpg


As you will notice though, the topmost plate is already hanging partially over that area (and cannot be welded at all), so once I cut it back even further it's going to be a real nightmare to secure that plate at all. :thinking:

So this is the idea I had to resolve that:

IMG_9258.jpg


I traced out the best possible clearance around the PHB bracket I could manage and ended-up with a pretty thin upper bracket. However, I also realized that I could drill a 1-3/8" through-hole and drop a nice thick-walled tube spud to pick up the bolt that currently secures the PS tierod heim..... by running a nice, long bolt up all the way through the upper plate I can add a lot of strength in the area where I can no longer weld it to the main (vertical) steering plate.

This looks like it will work killer... hopefully tonight I'll get a chance to render this piece in steel and try it out. Fortunately, I won't have any of these issues on the driver's side, since I only have to fit the tie rod heim down low....


-G
 
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When are you going to calculate the weight of all that plate for us? I want to see some creative calculus and trig that would prevent you from having to actually weigh anything... :)
 
When are you going to calculate the weight of all that plate for us? I want to see some creative calculus and trig that would prevent you from having to actually weigh anything... :)


Yeah.....um, no.

It's bad enough that by the time I get this truck to BB2018, I'll probably be wearing Depends and using a Hurry-cane just to move around.

I can almost imagine the dialogue from other Meet-N-Greet attendees now:

"Hey...... dude, who's that really old guy over there?"
"The one standing next to that cool truck?"
"Yeah..."
"Dunno, man. He looks like a fossil or something"
"Whoa! He just fell over and broke his hip. We should probably go help him"
"Hold on just a minute, I don't want my burger to get cold"



-G
 
ps. A big shout out to JekquistK5 for that cutting fluid recommendation.... Amazon delivered it on Friday and I had a chance to use it this weekend. MUCH nicer than WD-40, and the applicator spout makes it a lot simpler to apply it where it needs to go during the cutting process. Saves me a ton of mess and cleanup. :waytogo:



-G


Wow I feel honored. Thanks greg! Great work as always
 
Very nice video, I wanted to do a fast motion suspension cycle with mine this weekend. :thumb: I somewhat feel your pain, as you saw in my thread I ran into all kind of clearance issues myself. But you definitely take the cake. :eek1:
 
2014.06.17 - UPDATE! - FROM PAPER TO STEEL....

There is something awfully powerful about the templating process.... Draw up a sample part that you like, then render it in steel and make it permanent forever! :waytogo:

Case in point, yesterday's idea for a new upper steering arm:

3CBAF3C3-896D-4CC0-9FB2-F4E8C1B048C0.jpg


...drop it in place to confirm that it does what you actually need it to do...

0C8AF569-4EC6-4F10-BEF9-EE76AD33ECC1.jpg


From there, add the thick DOM spud and a longer bolt for extra beef:

A3EFBB20-4BFD-42B6-9A78-5889D21EB5EE.jpg


Ultimately, all of this effort for the new upper plate was to allow me to trim back the large vertical 3/8" plate so that it won't rub on the inner tire sidewall. Here's a shot of the arc cut into that plate and cleaned-up. It also shows the clearance that exists now between the steering arm and the PHB.

266B5627-5141-4B4B-8CE8-9472BC4078A0.jpg


.... A more distant shot of the same area.

A30F6457-43AF-4AA3-96B3-6EDFAD1A37CB.jpg


I mounted up the tire and took a peek at the clearance between the tire sidewall and the steering arm....... Much better! :waytogo:

9F565A39-AD4B-475E-A3F4-FE16BFB449FA.jpg


.....and a parting shot for the night:

0951BB9C-4802-47EC-B531-430F46A09D27.jpg


Next up: Replicate that arc-shaped cut on the drivers side steering arm, and render the mounting plates for the tierod on that side. Once that's done, it's time to CYCLE, CYCLE, CYCLE.... the front suspension one final time. :woot:


-G
 
Think that old man may be me I will be 50 by then :rolleyes:

.....and I'll be 52. :doah:

Guess we should see if we can get that Hover-Round company to set up a display booth at BlazerBash, so we can check all out their battery powered carts!!!

:haha:


-G
 
.....and I'll be 52. :doah:

Guess we should see if we can get that Hover-Round company to set up a display booth at BlazerBash, so we can check all out their battery powered carts!!!

:haha:


-G

That's funny. My wife and I were discussing my inability to climb into the Jimmy. She asked if Hoveround made a wheeling model. I'll be 55 by then.
 
Dang... That's all I got, dang. Very impressive work man, you're creating something amazing here.
 
Looks great Greg! Well worth the effort!

Dang... That's all I got, dang. Very impressive work man, you're creating something amazing here.


Thanks gents! :pimp:

I'm looking forward to moving on to something else in the near future. It's been well over a year since I began focusing on the front axle build and all of it's associated suspension and linkages....

Sometimes when I'm feeling down about the slow-progress I go back in this thread just to see where things were 1 year ago, or 2 years ago.... just to get some perspective about how much I've actually accomplished.

There is no doubt that building a complete front axle and suspension from scratch was a HUGE undertaking, so I guess it shouldn't be much of a surprise that it has consumed so many hours of my time and so many PAGES of this build thread.

Even so, it will be a nice change of pace to jump around and work on smaller and more easily completed tasks in the coming months.



-G
 
Anyone interested in seeing a "real time" video clip from my evening in the shop....?

[youtube]6FO1-ThtbzE[/youtube]

Enjoy! :waytogo:

....back to work.

-G

Absolutely....nice to see parts in action....I think you need to plan on a GoPro mounted when you do your first realtime suspension/steering cycle!

That's cool! I like watching it work in the video,much better than just pictures. Great job! Now I can see what takes so long to figure out all the angles. :bow:
:waytogo:

Think that old man may be me I will be 50 by then :rolleyes:

I don't want to hear it, I'll be a few months shy of 60!
 
.....and I'll be 52. :doah:

Guess we should see if we can get that Hover-Round company to set up a display booth at BlazerBash, so we can check all out their battery powered carts!!!

:haha:


-G
that is some fuzzy math there.
aren't you born in 69 or 67?
I will be 52 then and you can't be more than 51 or 49.
Now I am almost positive you will be 51... born in 67
 

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