Took the first step towards building my shop

[Crusty]

A memorial for the Hindenberg crash?

That was the first thing that came to mind, might not be spot on.

[Frank S]

A memorial for the Hindenberg crash?

That was the first thing that came to mind, might not be spot on.

Not spot on, what will be positioned there went into service 20 years before the Hindenburg fire and was still in service through the 1963 presidential election its number is 14 that is all the hint I'm giving

[Crusty]

Ah-ha! Gotta be a lathe.

[Frank S]

Ah-ha! Gotta be a lathe.

well it does have electric motors on it but no its not a lathe.
and for years it had a lot of coal on it

[Frank S]

I'll have to take some close up pictures of the motors and drives.
But yes there is a reduction drive I'm not exactly sure what the ratio is.
there were 2 different voltage motors used on these trucks some had 85/90volt DC motors some had 60volt motors and different sizes for the smaller 1/2 through 3 ton trucks. C.T. designed most of the componentry for the truck not all parts were made by C.T. Such as the Batteries are Edison nickel Iron in this one but some of them had lead acid Some of the trucks had Westinghouse motors and a few had General electric both manufactures made them for C.T. the ceramic insulators and screw in sockets were off the shelf items of the time.
You need to remember until last week I had forgotten all about this truck other than I knew Eddy was bringing it to me for he and I to restore eventually right now it is in a preservation state. When we start on it he will have to source some old growth white Oak trees and I will come up with a band saw and probably a circular saw mill
He is of the mind that he can just have a miller cut him the lumber to the sizes he wants and that will be that but if the truck is to match original then the saw lines should match as well to include the proper tooth pitch of the era. A lot depends on how close to a factory match he will allow me to re fabricate the truck
There are some missing and broken forgings that I am positive I will have to make unless he already has an assortment of them in the container packed in and around the Factory 4 wheel drive 59 ford that was disassembled to the last bolt some of those parts have been refurbished and many have not
possibly not this truck but some of the trucks in the fleet pulled a trailer which also had batteries and motors in each wheel.
this truck has the receptacle for the trailer control but none of the drawbar parts there are only the 2 holes where it may have been mounted.

[metric_taper]

When we start on it he will have to source some old growth white Oak trees and I will come up with a band saw and probably a circular saw mill
He is of the mind that he can just have a miller cut him the lumber to the sizes he wants and that will be that but if the truck is to match original then the saw lines should match as well to include the proper tooth pitch of the era. A lot depends on how close to a factory match he will allow me to re fabricate the truck

That's the sort of restorations I like, the machine needs to look exactly the way it left the factory. Mint condition. That can be hard to do.

I watched a video the other day of some back alley shop in India rebuilding 12 volt auto batteries. Lots of recycling of the original components. I assume that will be a major task.
I recall that the 6 volt battery used on the electric start Ford Model T, were rebuilt. Their price was crazy from seeing it listed in a price sheet, ~$85, that would probably be $3K in today's cost.

Good luck with the restoration. Seems your too busy to start thinking retirement.

[Frank S]

Over 2 years of adding the red sandy clay fill to the shop floor and it being packed down over and over had turned it almost into sand stone.
But now it is time to break it up for the next step in the process of making it into a durable floor that hopefully will not sluff off dust everytime something hard is dragged across it To do this the fill must first be broken up.

the rake Eddy was dragging behind his little tractor would scratch and scratch and eventually do a pretty good job but not nearly deep enough.
My leveling drag blade was too un wieldy in the confined area given its size plus it would just drag over the super hard spots.
I tried my tandem disk and this broke up some of the area quite well but I needed to bare down with so much force I was destroying it and still couldn't make it penetrate the really hard spots very well.
Even using the teeth on the back hoe bucket took all day to do less than 1/3 of the floor but at least with a lot of banging and only taking short gouging cuts each time it is finally being loosened into large rock like clods that should break up more easily

[Frank S]

Had a trailer load of stuff arrive last night.
Some will be for the shop some needs to be repaired some will be moving on to another place
and some just because I wanted it









the dog has the right idea

so now I get a post hole digger



everyone needs a 15 KW PTO driven generator Right?


This used to be a 4 post Globe 5000lb cable driven car lift

[Crusty]

From the previous clues Frank's given us I'm thinking it must be an electric truck from the early part of last century. I'd call it a lead+acid sled.

[metric_taper]

Crusty, Frank hinted at Coal being on it. It could have come from some coal mining operation, that was underground large enough to drive this size truck in.
So this truck will be back in vogue in 2035 when California requires all vehicles to be battery driven.