'34 Dodge Brothers, double build.

[BillM]

Great progress MM. When I was building the Model A for my uncle, I got fed up with messing around with the stupid horn button in the wheel and just mounted one on the underside of the dash. You can't see it, but once you are used to where it is, beep beep.

 

[MercuryMac]

That would be the easiest solution, Bill, and I've thought of it, but I, weirdly, try to beat the odds and make it look stock. After two weeks of fooling around I'll probably go that way.

 

[MercuryMac]

After more imagineering, I shortened the column tube a wee bit and made a plastic bushing for the bottom end. Pic one is setting up a chunk of plastic to get trimmed down so it will fit into the tube. Pic two is the bushing lathed down and the centre hole bored out big enough, then greased and assembled. I started making the column floor mount, which is a couple of sizes bigger than the column tube, so the U-joint hub will fit in it and still turn.

 

[kenny c]

Nice job! I like your lathe. That's farm ingenuity.[cl[cl

 

[Old Iron]

nice job! I like your lathe. That's farm ingenuity.[cl[cl

x2
[P[P[P

 

[lowbudget50]

love it!! use what ya got to get the job done!!

 

[MercuryMac]

Thank you guys. I've used my lathe quite a bit.

 

[soltz]

Nice job [cl
I have better luck with the stand up type lath
~~[P~~

 

[MercuryMac]

Soltz, I've never really tried my 'vertical lathe'.
I finished making the floor mount for the column. Then the shaft is made double 'D' on the end, and there is a little hole in the shaft to bring the horn wire out of.

 

[Torchie]

[P [P [P
Torchie

 

[DozerII]

That will work. [P[P

 

[soltz]

Coming along nicely[cl

VV[PVV

 

[MercuryMac]

Thanks guys.
A little more horn headway today. I made a plastic and brass ring to mount over the steering shaft, near the bottom end. The plastic part fits against the shaft, so insulates the electricity from getting from the wire in the middle of the shaft to the shaft. Then the brass ring hooks to the bottom end of the wire and I will make an electrode that will rub against the ring. The brass ring turns with the shaft but is not connected electrically to it. I fished the wire through the hollow shaft, hooked both ends up and screwed on the horn button. The contraption was then tested electrically, successfully.
The last picture is the floor mount plate about in place.

 

[Torchie]

Very nice.
[cl
[P [P [P
Torchie

 

[MercuryMac]

It turns out that quite a bit of my progress today was the sideways kind. Last night I started to worry that the steering wheel and shaft had no hold down mechanism to stop it from rising up in the column and bumping my new brass ring out of place. Today I took the ring off of there and cut a shallow groove in the shaft between where the brass ring was and the plastic bushing at the bottom of the column. I put a cute little snap-ring on there and then built another wider plastic bushing to go under the brass. These improvements make me quite a bit happier. There was a lesson learned, though. To lathe in the snap-ring groove I just put an air impact and socket on the steering wheel nut and got that 86 year old wheel spinning wildly. Pieces of the wheel were never found again.
Anyhow, I made a full brass ring next and mounted it lower on the shaft. Wires will run from these two rings to the horn relay, and everything will be hunky-dorey.

 

[Torchie]

What????
No pictures of the wheel? Or what’s left of it
Torchie

 

[BillM]

Thanks MM.....my coffee just made an exit through my nose! I can picture that, and it's hilarious.

 

[MercuryMac]

I wonder if there are any other forums with a slap-stick comedy build section. Maybe Tripper's got something good going here. [ddd[cl[cl

 

[smallfoot]

I know the "pieces were never seen again" Routine well!

 

[I-R-POPS]

I can see it clearly in my mind!
Sadly I have experienced the same effects using an actual lathe.