April 14 – 20, 2008
Because of the backorder on the motor I decided to do the next best thing – make a full scale model. Netgain has real good specifications online so I figured why not. I cut two 9” circles on the
band saw and turned them nice and round on the lathe. I machined the parts that make up the shaft, cut a keyway in one end and press fit them together. I used 2x2 to support the plywood circles and cut thick poster board to make up the outer shell of the motor. I guess I could paint it red and fool everyone. I was even able to drill and tap the plywood to locate the mounting holes on both ends. I feel confident that if I make everything to fit the model, I should be able to swap out the real motor when it arrives and easily be within a 1/32 of an inch – we’ll see. I also took the time to prime and paint the cradle and finish installing all of my parts. At home I crawled under the car and removed all of the A/C and heater tubing, the gas tank, radiator and whatever else I could get out. I have my pile ready to sell and will try to get it posted this week. 
The adapter plate is still on my mind. I was hoping to use a plasma cutter from another teacher, but he thought the ¼” plate might be too much for his small cutter. I then thought about using a torch (oxyacetylene), but the one I have at school is very old and does not cut that well. I have a small cutting torch at home and took it to school to hook up to my tanks there, but the fitting were wrong. So I went with my old stand by, a Milwaukee Saw-All. It was slow
cutting, but I got the rough piece from the larger chunk of plate steel. Next I went to the metal cutting band saw and it cut but was very slow again. I knew the torch was still my best bet, so I brought everything to school on Sunday and it still would not fit the tanks. I went back to the band saw and got everything close. Next came the 4-1/2 hand grinder (gotta love those sparks) and before long I had the whole outside done. I finished it off with a flap-wheel grinder (sandpaper type on the same grinder) and it turned out really nice. Now comes my hexagon – boy I wish the torch was working. I drilled out the six corners so I could get a saber saw into the piece. The metal cutting blade I was using worked, but again, reallllllly slow. I found a more aggressive blade which sped things up a bit, but it was a lot of work for this small of a saw – time from Mr. Milwaukee. I cut just a long enough slot with the saber saw to get the bigger 
blade in. What would have taken me less than 10 minutes with the torch turned into about 40 minutes with the saws, but the cut was very minimal and just a little touch up with the hand grinder and I was done. All-in-all a good day. Next up – drilling the holes for the motor plate and transmission adapter. Until next week…
Because of the backorder on the motor I decided to do the next best thing – make a full scale model. Netgain has real good specifications online so I figured why not. I cut two 9” circles on the
band saw and turned them nice and round on the lathe. I machined the parts that make up the shaft, cut a keyway in one end and press fit them together. I used 2x2 to support the plywood circles and cut thick poster board to make up the outer shell of the motor. I guess I could paint it red and fool everyone. I was even able to drill and tap the plywood to locate the mounting holes on both ends. I feel confident that if I make everything to fit the model, I should be able to swap out the real motor when it arrives and easily be within a 1/32 of an inch – we’ll see. I also took the time to prime and paint the cradle and finish installing all of my parts. At home I crawled under the car and removed all of the A/C and heater tubing, the gas tank, radiator and whatever else I could get out. I have my pile ready to sell and will try to get it posted this week. 
The adapter plate is still on my mind. I was hoping to use a plasma cutter from another teacher, but he thought the ¼” plate might be too much for his small cutter. I then thought about using a torch (oxyacetylene), but the one I have at school is very old and does not cut that well. I have a small cutting torch at home and took it to school to hook up to my tanks there, but the fitting were wrong. So I went with my old stand by, a Milwaukee Saw-All. It was slow
cutting, but I got the rough piece from the larger chunk of plate steel. Next I went to the metal cutting band saw and it cut but was very slow again. I knew the torch was still my best bet, so I brought everything to school on Sunday and it still would not fit the tanks. I went back to the band saw and got everything close. Next came the 4-1/2 hand grinder (gotta love those sparks) and before long I had the whole outside done. I finished it off with a flap-wheel grinder (sandpaper type on the same grinder) and it turned out really nice. Now comes my hexagon – boy I wish the torch was working. I drilled out the six corners so I could get a saber saw into the piece. The metal cutting blade I was using worked, but again, reallllllly slow. I found a more aggressive blade which sped things up a bit, but it was a lot of work for this small of a saw – time from Mr. Milwaukee. I cut just a long enough slot with the saber saw to get the bigger 
blade in. What would have taken me less than 10 minutes with the torch turned into about 40 minutes with the saws, but the cut was very minimal and just a little touch up with the hand grinder and I was done. All-in-all a good day. Next up – drilling the holes for the motor plate and transmission adapter. Until next week…
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