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Old 03-15-2015, 10:56 AM
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MP&C MP&C is offline
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Default A weekend at Dan's

Well, not really a weekend as it started on an early Wednesday morning. To preface, I had posted a WTB ad for a 52" shear and Dan had sent me a PM about the one he had in his shop. It was getting replaced with a 6' machine, and he suggested I come to his spring meet and pick it up from there. This conflicts with a mother's day event that I must attend every year (annual yard sale....I'm the furniture mover ), so I picked a window of opportunity that left minimal chance for the white powdery stuff falling from the sky. Namely, this past week. I departed Southern MD at about 12:45 am on Wednesday and drove through (rather un-eventful), arriving at Dan's at about 8:45 pm the same day. I recommend Mountain Dew and sunflower seeds for such an undertaking.

Here we are, finally getting close to the destination...





......and I'm looking forward to a break from the 55 wagon and to help out on some of the many challenging projects that Dan has shown us over the years. So Dan, what have you got to work on? Oh, this car here over in the corner, he says......





I restrained my enthusiasm as best I could in true Charlie Brown fashion





(just kidding Dan) As I had been up for a good 20 hours or so at this point Dan pointed me to the bunk room and a restful nights sleep. I think the only thing that kept me up was a craving for a midnight snack, so I raided the freezer and found these. Very tasty, and one just never seems enough, so I'll just say I had a few..





Got up the next morning to the aromatic awakening of French toast. We talked quite a bit over breakfast, and I told Dan nothing could finish off this breakfast better than what I had eaten as a midnight snack. So I retrieved another couple bars from the freezer. He expressed concern that these were someone's private stash, the forbidden elixir of Unicorn blood by comparison, but I insisted. "Trust me Dan". Boy that first box went pretty quickly.


We walked down the hill to the shop and Dan had experienced some fitment issues with some of the panels on the 55 and asked that I take a look. RichardK showed up mid-morning and we proceeded to take measurements and cross diagonals nine ways to Sunday. We verified these to a sample car sitting out in the yard, and still didn't have that ah-ha moment. Everything we checked seemed to be within factory specs, although that was pretty loose in 1955.


My plans were to work around the shop for a day, load up the shear the next morning (Friday), and leave around noon. I have a cousin, Nancy E. Rueckert, who lives in Litchfield that had been in an industrial accident at work. Now she was paralyzed, and I was going to visit her that evening. Dan wisely pointed out that we should load the shear to have everything ready to go, and then worry about other shop activity.


So here is the shear prior to the John Deere moving it...





...and for anyone with sufficient space available, Dan has this nifty equipment hoist...





As there was some rain forecast for the east coast on Friday, the shear got some appropriate attention..





It was about time for me to get cleaned up for the visit to my cousin's, and Richard mentioned that he had a buddy who lived in Howard Lake, a short drive before Litchfield. Since the truck was hooked to the trailer, he offered to drive me to Howard Lake, where he could visit his friend and I could continue to Litchfield. What a true gentleman, and as I've seen with Dan, genuine MN hospitality.

Had a nice visit with Nancy, and I think our conversations got carried away that when I looked at my watch I was worried Richard would put out an APB on his car Here's Nancy with her husband Dan.. (to eliminate confusion, let's call him Dan2)





I made it back to Howard Lake and got a chance to meet Richard's friend, Jan Gilmer. He's well known in the Midget racing world and even more so, since his retirement, in his meticulous reproductions of 1/4 scale RC replicas. Here are some pictures of a restored Midget from 1956...











.....along with Richard's thread posted here about the body he built for the car.. A work of art to say the least.


http://www.allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?t=2768


And here are some links on Jan Gilmer for those interested...


http://www.herald-journal.com/archiv...Australia.html

http://www.quarterscalelegends.com/gilmer/gilmer.htm


Jan has a small machinist shop and still produces amazingly accurate 1/4 scale reproductions to this day. They are highly sought after, and after seeing them in person, I can see why.

Richard and I returned to Dan's with only one close call with a couple of Minnesota's 4 legged Bambi creatures.. Even as late as it was, Dan greeted me and I think we talked of more metalshaping stories for the next couple hours. My day job has me heading to Oahu in the near future, and he was telling me of his visit to the only Pullmax owner on the island of Oahu, let's call him George. So I hope to meet up with George on my next visit to HI. We talked for quite a bit and I've lost track at this point of all the "private stash" ice cream toffee bars we've been through. He says they were being saved for someone but at this point, I must be a bad influence.


Woke up the next morning to the smell of Bacon. I really enjoy these "alarm clocks" that Dan uses.. We finished breakfast and headed down to the shop. Shortly afterward, the local Schwan's delivery truck showed up. I thought Dan was getting a delivery, but the driver had stopped to let him know they were all out of the Toffee Bars and the three boxes he had dropped off last week would be all there was for at least a month or so.. Well Dan is nothing if he isn't hospitable, and he suggested that since I had eaten so much of Will's private stash (who is this Will guy, anyhow...) that we may as well finish up the last two bars left. A perfect mid-morning snack I must say.

Back on the 55, it wasn't until we took the height dimension of the windshield that we came up with the answer, there was a quite a difference there. Dan had installed a new roof on this from a donor car, one of the seams being in the A post. We found a slight excess in vertical made for quite a jump in the windshield opening. So with a bit of slicing, our height adjustment at the a-pillar made for quite an improvement and a more consistent and parallel gap to the door behind it..








Since I wasn't going to be at Dan's spring event, he spent quite a bit of time showing me some shop tricks...


Band Saw "guide" for cutting convex shapes on the band saw... Slides into the blade and gets bolted to the table.... Essentially moves the table surface for those oddball shapes that don't fit the table..








Linear stretch dies for the Pullmax








The cantilevered and jack bolted design allows you to adjust the stretch for a tight radius, and the pointed ends allow you to get into the corner as tightly as needed...





Adjustable backstop for thinning a panel for sharper bends





Delrin die to use for panel beading.. in conjunction with MDF forms.. (partially unscrewed to show threads)





"tank roll" or 45* radius tipping dies for the Pullmax... 3 pieces were laser cut in 1/4" stock and welded together to form the 3/4 shank..








Flanging/step die using an MDF guide....





Imagine this for a bed side...





At this time I think my target departure time had come and gone.. But no visit to Dan's shop is complete until you've used the Yoder....





All packed up, ready to head east.





I made mention to Dan that Friday the 13th was not a good day to travel. About halfway down I39 in Indiana proved this. I had just passed by a semi and pulled back into the slow lane in front of him when I noticed a set of headlights coming toward me.... in the fast lane I had just moved out of. I made out of that rather lucky. About a mile down the road some scattered auto debris and one car against the center divider showed they weren't as lucky. Everyone was OK, and I think most of the damage was them swerving to miss the clown heading north in the southbound lane. The rest of the trip was rather uneventful, and the rain added to the snow from last week has made my driveway a swamp. Looks like we will unload the trailer when this has dried up a bit.

I personally want to thank Dan for his hospitality, and I'm sure the little bit I learned in such a short time will be the tip of the iceberg when compared to his spring event (May 7, 8, 9th). A must attend for sure. Special thanks to Richard for driving me two hours (each direction) to visit my cousin. He has a very analytical mind, and it was good to share the time even for a small window of how those wheels are turning. Will, I must apologize for breaking into your private stash and the continual breach that followed. I'm to understand that's the only reason you come to Dan's, and I must say that alone would be worth the trip..



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Last edited by MP&C; 03-15-2015 at 12:33 PM.
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Old 03-15-2015, 12:13 PM
route56wingnut route56wingnut is offline
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Always great to put a face and personality with a name and avitar . Had a good time and the door is always open for a return visit .

Got my new to me shear in place and everything back in (Dan order) I will have to get pics of it in place . It is a bit bigger than yours but with upcoming project that require a bit longer piece , it is a welcome replacement to a shear I thought would be the last one I would ever need .
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Old 03-16-2015, 05:48 AM
RockHillWill RockHillWill is offline
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Good morning Robert.

Thanks for sharing your exploits with a very friendly and experienced 'gentleman'. (I use that term loosely ).

You both now have a nice tool that will make your work much smoother, but you better stay away from those toffee bars, as they are VERY habit forming.
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Old 03-16-2015, 08:50 AM
toreadorxlt toreadorxlt is offline
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awesome pics! thanks for sharing. Can anybody give info on how to get the threads into delrin? Is there something I can buy thats already equipped with threads like that pullmax die?

also on the linear stretch setup, thats really trick.. how does it work compared to a planishing hammer setup? Do you set the dies up for contact?
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Old 03-16-2015, 09:07 AM
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Steve, Dan had indicated he chucked the delrin into his lathe to drill the center hole and tapped it.

For the linear stretch die, the jack bolt design allows you to pinch more toward the outside where one would expect the need for more stretch at the larger (outside) radius. So it should work more effectively than a die that is a straight gap. They were set up for contact with the metal, and adjusted in (up?) farther as the metal thinned, per the bent piece pictured below the stretch dies..
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Old 03-16-2015, 05:15 PM
John Buchtenkirch John Buchtenkirch is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by route56wingnut View Post
It is a bit bigger than yours but with upcoming project that require a bit longer piece , it is a welcome replacement to a shear I thought would be the last one I would ever need .
Yeah Dan, good luck on that. I thought the same thing when I bought shear #3, now somehow I’m going thru and upgrading shear #5 but at 67 I’m pretty sure this is it for me……. . Sadly, I just don't have the drive I once had. ~ John Buchtenkirch
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Old 03-16-2015, 06:49 PM
route56wingnut route56wingnut is offline
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John with the kind of work we do I would think I can get to the promised land with a 6 footer
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Old 03-16-2015, 10:29 PM
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slobitz slobitz is offline
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John, at 80 I am still gathering tools.
I plan on making it until 100 then get shot by a jealous husband.
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Old 03-21-2015, 08:17 PM
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MP&C MP&C is offline
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This morning started at my brother-in-laws to pick up the new shear. It's been parked in his garage since last week while my driveway has been drying out..



Here's his El Camino project, narrowing the frame rails in the rear....



One of the neighbors a few miles down the road has a Pettibone forklift. I had him lined up to help lift the shear off the trailer today. He made it about 1/4 mile and had the brakes locking up and frying, so we had to back up and punt. Another buddy has a skid steer with the fork attachment, but the shear was on his trailer. So we dropped off the trailer/shear at the shop, went and got another trailer and picked up the skid steer.. I will say this shear is about at the limits of the lifting capacity of this skid steer, the back end was trying to go airborne when lifting it off the trailer. So we inched it up in the air and then pulled the trailer out from under it. Here's the placement...





Now just need to finish the electrical hookup...

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