Hi Guys
Well I was thinking that it was about time for my quarterly Pacific update.
I have been able to carve out some shop time in the last few weeks to work on the battery box. The battery box is one of the last pieces that I wanted to finish before I pull the whole thing down to complete the wood work on the base and painting of the engine and pump.
I decided to use the same vintage Douglas fir that I used on the water tank skid. This is real nice material that was cut 75 plus years ago. It was salvage from an old house that my friend was re-modeling.
The box was modeled in Alibre design including all the hardware. I did search for some proper hardware but couldn’t find anything that I liked, so I decided to make it.
The wood was re-sawn and the blanks band sawed oversized. I don’t have any wood working tools so all the wood parts were done on my CNC mill at work.
Here are all the pieces ready to be assembled, the display base has already been drilled and taped for the box and the large hole is for the hall sensor connector on the S&S ignition module. All the nail and screw holes were pre drilled to insure alignment and keep from splitting the thin panels.
The box was carefully glued and clamped together. The bottom screws to the sides with #2 flat head wood screws and the sides are nailed. I inserted the nails just far enough to align all the parts; then after the glue had set enough to hold, the holes were cleaned out with a drill bit in a pin chuck and the nails pressed into place.
I wanted to dress it up by adding some lettering to the lid. Using my hobby vinyl cutting machine the text was designed and a stencil cut. The font I chose matches what was used on some early Pacific advertizing that have; I used some black decal vinyl that I had on hand to make the stencil. Here the transfer paper has been applied to the stencil the letters carefully removed and then applied to the lid of the box.
The transfer paper is then removed exposing the wood and the letters sprayed with some rattle can black paint. The sides were also masked with tape to protect from overspray.
After the paint had dried the stencil was carefully removed. At this time the letters were very dark and bold. 320 grit sandpaper on a small block was use to carefully sand all the letters down until the wood grain just started to show through, kind of hoping for the old faded look.
After all the assembly and painting the wood parts were all treated with linseed oil thinned 50/50 with turpentine.
With all the wood parts pretty much finished it was time to get going on the hardware. The hinges and hasp are the same width so I was able to combine some of the machining operations. I didn’t take any pictures but as you can see the stock has been thinned down and the boss formed where the pin goes. I decided to cheat a little and just machine everything from solid, instead of forming sheet stock.
In this picture one of the hinge halves is set up to drill for the pin. The one being used for a spacer is a scrap one that the hole wandered.
Here one of the halves has been drilled for the pin. I ran a few test pieces and was having trouble with the drill wondering, so I decided to drill half way from each side which worked better. It’s just a hinge after all.
This is my set up for slotting the fingers. The shim is removed before the slots are machined.
Here is one of the parts after slotting.
All the parts have been slotted and ready for the mounting holes to be drilled and counter sunk for the #1 flat head wood screws.
The assembly process begins, 1/16” welding rod was polished down for a nice fit in the bore. It was left just a squeak large on the end to be a press fit. The milling machine vise was used to press the pin home after it was cut to length in the lathe. Here the fit is being checked after polishing.
All the parts are complete and ready for final assembly. I didn’t take any pictures of the hasp catch; but it was pretty simple construction. After the plate was machined the hoop was formed from 3/32” stock and silver soldered in place. Left a bit long on the back sided and filed down to the plate.
Below are some pictures of the completed box ready to be mounted on the display base. I’m pleased with how it turned out considering how much I dislike working with the brown stuff.
Hopefully it won’t be too long now and I can post a video of it running. Then the fun begins taking it all apart to do the finish work.
Thanks for checking in.
Dave