Car Shock

[Darren]

Uh Oh, he's at it again....

I was looking at this old car shock, pondering, thinking......that shaft is precision ground hard chrome plated,
Not only that but with bearings and a ready made housing too...umm

I feel a plan forming here......



Slotted the plastic end cap cos I was too weedy to pull it off.....!



I then cut around the old tubing and this is what was inside
Here you can see I'm removing the end cap/bearing housing with a C Spanner



The end cap was just pushed on, not threaded, you can see the sintered bearing in the middle.



The other end of the shaft held the other bearing....




I can see a plan forming here, alas I need two identical shocks and I have 3 odd ones.
I understand these shafts are nice to turn on the lathe as well, so that should help.

[Bernd]

Those look strangley like strut shocks out of a front end.

You say the shaft will machine nice in a lathe? Ok what are you up to? 

Bernd

[Darren]

Something like this Bernd, with a sliding section in the middle......can you guess what it is 

I think I'll be ok with just the one shaft cut in half.

The idea is no lift on the movable jaw no matter what it holds.
Could have removable sections on top of the jaws for longer stuff.

What ya think, is it a goer?

[Rog02]

Yes, those old McPherson struts do ante up some great possible materials.  The shafts are ground and hard plated for wear resistance but most turn rather well.  I use them frequently for such things as custom drive punches and bushing installers.  Best part of it, they are generally free for the asking at about any repair facility that does suspension work.

Also do not overlook the regular piston shock absorbers.  The are a good source of smaller rod.

The other neat trick is to gut them and use the cylinder sleeve and rod to make up you own little air cylinders or low pressure hydraulic applications.  You will need to make the piston and end caps to suit your needs but the expensive parts are there.  I used a VW shock for the basis of the hydraulic downfeed cylinder for my 6X7 horizontal band saw. 

From time to time we needed special application pneumatic cylinders for fixtures at the helicopter company.  The owner was refusing to build one such fixture due to the cost of the cylinders.  You should have seen the look on his face when I came in with a couple of old shocks, procured at the shop next door, and proceeded to build the needed cylinders for basically the cost of labor.  Since we needed 16 of the cylinders and the owner wasn't about to pay my wages to stand and turn out that many simple parts, I went back to the fiber glass department and grabbed a kid that was sanding parts for the minimum pay scale and brought him up to the lathe and showed him how to do the first couple of parts, then turned him loose making the rest of the parts needed.  The young man had expressed interest in learning something about machine work and this was his introduction to the trade.  He was permanently transferred to the machine shop and became their apprentice/goffer, which was a promotion for him.  Last time I spoke with the guy, he was working at a shop and was programming CNC and doing CAD work.  Not a bad life for a kid that walked in a door with no experience and asked for a job.

[Darren]

Really nice story about the kid Rog, great stuff 

Please tell me more about the air cylinders and what you would use them for....

[Bernd]

Kuddo's to you Rog for taking that kid under your wing and teaching him. 

Ya, what Darren said. I've got a couple of VW's that need to donate some of those parts.

Bernd

[Rog02]

First off, the kudos go to the kid.  He saw a "Help Wanted" sign and asked for an application at a helicopter company when he had only seen helicopters fly on TV.  He did not ask for a high paying job, just wanting to sweep floors because he thought that was all he was qualified for.  He was willing to take any position just to be a part of the company.  He came to work every morning with a smile on his face, kept his mouth shut when he was given instruction except to ask for clarification.  He was inquisitive about all the new things he was exposed to and asked good questions.  He expressed a great aptitude for all things mechanical and exhibited a nature talent for said things. 

I only gave him a chance to do something he could do with minimal instruction.  I pawned him off on Terry and Fred, our two full-time machinists to educate him in the basics of the machine shop.  He swept floors, shoveled swarf off machines, de-burred parts, fish mouthed tubing and acted as the general goffer for those two.  He took it upon himself to enroll in the area vocational center and learn the math and other things he needed to know. 

It was him who endured the tirades of a crazy company owner and crazier chief tech when we would go at it over some obscure point of design.  It was him who kept a smile on his face every day even when it was 100+ degrees in the shop and we had a major air show to prepare for.  He would spend his own personal time hanging around the shop just in case he could be of some help, without the promise of pay or compensation. 

It was him, who earned himself a better life by working hard to better himself.  We were just lucky to have him walk in our door instead of going up the road to the gasket company. 

[Darren]

Yes Rog,

But it was somebody who gave a nobody a chance....you must have spotted something even if only the willingness and a smile......

Nobody else did.....

[bogstandard]

Hi Darren,

This design you have come up with looks just like a fast action camlock drilling vice I have in my shop.

I will get a couple of shots of it for you, it might show you a good way to go.

I don't want to dribble on your design, but they are not all that rigid. You can't beat good old solid metal.

John

[Darren]

Hi John,

Well I've not started anything on this as yet so feel free to shoot it down.....

The last thing I wish to do is spend some time on a known failure 
Have to find something else to do with those shafts then, put me thinkin cap on....

[bogstandard]

Darren,

If it is a good bit of stuff, it will never go to waste. It will sit in the background until the right project comes along, eventually (some of my stuff is still here, 20 years later).

I will post some piccies tomorrow.

John

[bogstandard]

Here we are Darren,

I have put a few piccies at the bottom.

Basically you push the black ball in until the moveable jaw hits the job, then you push down on the red one to tighten everything up.

It is designed as a high speed drilling vice, where you can quickly mount and dismount the part to be drilled.

As I said, not overly rigid, OK for drilling, not for heavy machining.


John

[Darren]

Thanks John,

Yes that is eery, similar to "wot I just invented" oh well someone got there first, at least it's not my name associated with a disappointing clamping device....

Ok, I realise it does well for what it was intended for and that I'd be simply stretching it beyond it's design criteria...

I won't make one then....I think a Vertex may be coming my way soon.....

[bogstandard]

There are very few new designs and inventions Darren, just old discoveries, resurrected by the use of modern materials and techniques, that now make them a viable proposition, whereas in their day, could not be seen to be a profitable exercise.

The vice I show here is a rather expensive unit, and at the forefront of cutting edge technology, for manual drilling vices. Machining vices are in another world.

I think your choice of going for the Vertex is a good one.

Bogs