The laboratory has been buzzin' again

[Luvmyhelis]

I always get great advice here. Looks like my drawing board needs to get busy. Thanks for not only answering but elaborating with great logic. LMH

[nightflyr]

That's what the " Lab " is here for ....

[nightflyr]

Ok ...
I'm sure I'll catch grief for doing this but........
While looking for a servo lead for another project I came across my RCTek I2 flybarless head.



I had forgotten about completely...
Anyways it had suffered some damage way back when I maiden the 1000E, and swapped it out for the stock ALIGN FBL head at the time and figured I would get around to ordering replacement grip links that were broken.

After looking at it for a bit I conjured up a way to patch it back together using spares I have on hand...













Now that I think about it....gonna have to find the matching swash ......

[nightflyr]

The time has been long over due to give a little love to my good old Xterra...

First off...
Time to freshen up the front grille from sun fading with a little spray Plasti Dip and after refinishing the head light lens.... add a little smoke to them.



Then it was time to do a little rewiring and clean up under the hood..
Added a new 4X fuse block to run off some of the driving lights and inverter.





Then replace my old battery isolator with a new one..works much better IMHO....
Just waiting on a new set of battery cables to arrive.



Then moved along to relocating the knock sensor on top of the intake manifold instead of buried under the intake manifold ( $900.00 to have it serviced under there)





Then for giggles installed a oil catch can to the PVC system... time will tell if this was worth the effort.

[pril250]

Impressive considering it is only a 6 pot rice burner

[nightflyr]

Originally Posted by pril250

Impressive considering it is only a 6 pot rice burner

Only other engine was a super charged version.... Never an 8 cylinder

[pril250]

Originally Posted by nightflyr

Only other engine was a super charged version.... Never an 8 cylinder

Short of sticking a V8 Hemi in there

[nightflyr]

Naaa...
She's been good to me for the last 12 1/2 years...
I'll do some tweaks here and there, but as long as she runs good... " If it ain't broke, don't be fixin' it "

[nightflyr]

Ok...So it took a week for the rest of the hard ware to arrive, but worth the wait..

Nice thing with installing twin Optima Yellow top batteries....
They have dual battery posts which makes hooking up triple grounds very easy..










Then install a high output alternator to keep those batteries happy



Wire in a pair of high amp fuses to protect the batteries and alternator and insulate the posts ( not a whole lot of room to squeeze this new hardware in )



Then replace the single stage oil catch can with a proper 2 stage unit

[runesb]

Nice.... works well then ?

[nightflyr]

No leaks or fires as of yet, I hope so......

[nightflyr]

Ahhh....
The Lab has been tinkering again ...
But on a different venue this time.
The story began about 20 years ago.
While on a weekend trip, I came across in a shop a sword.
Though it did look interesting I wasn't really in the mind set of purchasing one that day.
The owner of the shop saw that I was looking at it and told me," the scabbard and handle may look on the cheap side, but the blade was quite well made.
So after a little back and forth with the shop owner I purchased it, not really believing all he said.
Jump forward to a month ago ....
While doing some cleaning, I happened to take the sword off the wall to clean it then placed it on the table.
My fault for not paying closer attention, it fell off the table.
Well it hit the floor and partially shattered the handle ( which was some kind of composite ) and broke the scabbard.

Picking up the pieces and putting them back on the table I finished up around the house.
Then coming back to take a closer look at the damage.
The handle was basically trashed, so I removed the holding pins to find that it was full tang construction.
Most if not all of these type of "display" swords have a small rod welded to the end of the blade to mount the handle to.
This makes them useless for anything other than a wall display.

In doing some research I found this was a combat blade, someone along the line decided to fit it with a composite handle and cheap scabbard.

Doing some searching, I decided perhaps I would try to make a new handle and matching scabbard.

So I went ahead and reshaped the back end of the blade, I wanted to shorten it by about 4 inches.
Set it into the stock blanks about 3/4 into the depth of the handle and began shaping it.
Well with out the proper belt sanding machine, I decided to try the old fashion shoe polish method with some 30 inch belts.
Took a while but got the results I was looking for.

Now to the scabbard .....
Though it is finished now, after doing it I think I would have taken a different path.
I ended up building it using 4 pieces of stock 2 3" x 1/2" for the top and bottom and 2 pieces of 1/4" thick stock.
My thinking was to use the 1/4" stock which would give me the slot for the blade to fit into.
It did work, but in hind sight.. I think it would have been easier just to use the router table and cut 2 1/8" slots into the top and bottom.
Perhaps I may redo it, but it did turn out fairly decent.
Next time I may well order the wood so that the color is consistent.

[franknsled]

Where did everyone go? Is the lab still running?

[nightflyr]

The "Lab" is always running......

[franknsled]

Looks like the "lab" is now a garage and armory!

[nightflyr]

Always a good thing to have a wide venue of interests.

[Koopyetz]

Wow. What varied interests. Great thread. From helicopter blades to sword blades. Perhaps you should combine them . Maybe a kamikaze kopter.

Nice work on the scabbard .

Regards

Rick

[runesb]

Hooohh... its been a long time ...

[nightflyr]

Well for medical reasons ...
I needed to come up with a solution for my SUV.
The spare tire is normally located up underneath and lowered by a chain hoist.
Being that crawling around under the back of the truck in case of a flat tire is no longer a option.
Add to the fact, anyone who has their spare up underneath the back end of their vehicle .. when was the last time you even check the tire pressure??

Anyways, the obvious solution would be rear hinged tire carrier.
But, first off they are very costly.
Second, I really didn't want to add and extra 250 - 300 lbs on the back end of my truck just to be able to carry my spare, considering I already have a tow bar installed

.

The solution was quite simple and only cost $100.00
A clevis hitch pined to a standard 2" trailer mount held in place with a Heim joint.
Now just pull a pin and the tire folds down to the ground enabling the rear hatch to be opened.

[franknsled]

Not to rain on your parade nightflyr, but you need some padlocks on those pins if you want to know where that spare is all the time.