My Rat Rod Mower

Nice. I would like to have a go at porting sometime, will have to look at buying a die grinder or dremel.

Yeah this was my first go at it, wasn't as hard I thought it would be.

I got a dremel I think. It's for wood working. My wife got it for me, from Aldi's of all places, $50. Been using it for years for porting engine heads, aluminum and cast iron. Works real good. What matters when picking one out mostly are the features. Variable speed comes in handy alot. Just spinning fast will load the cutting tool up with metal, need to slow down the tool to make it last or spin fast to keep the cutting tool clean, depends on the metal. The collet or the part you put the cutting tool in, there are 2 sizes, 1/8 and 1/4. The 1/4 inch collet is the best to get because there are multiple tools you can use, tootsie rolls, stones, carbide cutters to little buffing wheels for porting. You can go to a machinist store to buy the carbide cutters for around $20 each and they last forever which is way better then the stones and tootsie rolls (sandpaper rolls). Comes in handy when doing a V8, LOL. Plus most adapters fit the 1/4 collet that you can buy later, like a cable drive which is lighter to hold then the motor part itself and less cumbersome for the touchy areas. The 1/8 collet is mostly used buy jewelers and limited in the sanding department to where you could only get stones and sanding drums which are small which is OK if you are just doing a 1 or 2 cylinder port job. I done port jobs on 1 cylinders with a drill and stones. took a while but worked great.

For those of you just starting out in this area.

Good information prancstaman! I've about worn out my old dremmel and need to replace it sometime. Thanks for the information!

Mine doesn't have variable speeds, so I had to feather the trigger, haha.

Got everything all back together and ready to go!




Gonna fire it up for the first time in a while tomorrow, might make a video of it but I'm not sure yet. Stay tuned!

Looks great, really stands out from the rest of the mower. :-)

prancstaman wrote:

I got a dremel I think. It's for wood working. My wife got it for me, from Aldi's of all places, $50. Been using it for years for porting engine heads, aluminum and cast iron. Works real good. What matters when picking one out mostly are the features. Variable speed comes in handy alot. Just spinning fast will load the cutting tool up with metal, need to slow down the tool to make it last or spin fast to keep the cutting tool clean, depends on the metal. The collet or the part you put the cutting tool in, there are 2 sizes, 1/8 and 1/4. The 1/4 inch collet is the best to get because there are multiple tools you can use, tootsie rolls, stones, carbide cutters to little buffing wheels for porting. You can go to a machinist store to buy the carbide cutters for around $20 each and they last forever which is way better then the stones and tootsie rolls (sandpaper rolls). Comes in handy when doing a V8, LOL. Plus most adapters fit the 1/4 collet that you can buy later, like a cable drive which is lighter to hold then the motor part itself and less cumbersome for the touchy areas. The 1/8 collet is mostly used buy jewelers and limited in the sanding department to where you could only get stones and sanding drums which are small which is OK if you are just doing a 1 or 2 cylinder port job. I done port jobs on 1 cylinders with a drill and stones. took a while but worked great.

For those of you just starting out in this area.

Thanks Prancstaman! I was looking at this air powered one - BERGEN 15pc MINI 1/4" AIR DIE GRINDER

It comes with 1/8" and 1/4" collets and various tools. Seems decent for 15 quid. Not sure if it has variable speeds or not.

BTW mower looks great Allis!

mightyraze wrote:

Looks great, really stands out from the rest of the mower.  :-)

Thanks!

Any other cool things you have planned?

A couple small things, but the list will continue to go on I'm sure hahaha!

On another note, I got 'er running today! Sorry no video, I figured I should " finish" it before I make a video of it.
But here she is!


More welding to do tomorrow so I might get some pics of that. Let me know what ya think!

Lookin good. Not sure if you mentioned this before. You putting the hand crank back on the front?

Thanks mighty! Naw that's where the badge is gonna go. I think I'm gonna strap it to the side of the dash or something though, make it look like that's where it goes after you crank the engine over, haha.

That would be cool. I forgot about the badge! That thing will look great up there!

A bit of welding today;

I made a fully adjustable stop for the throttle pedal so that it will rest against something when at full throttle.





Should be much better!
I also inserted and welded some washers in the gap between the spindle knuckles and the axle beams.



Don't need the knuckles breaking loose! Hahaha, let me know what ya think!

Looks good, only question:

Being that you put the adjuster on the side like that, in a moment of excitement is it possible that you could bend or break it off?

I thought of that as well, haha. I've been doing it by feel for a while now, so I can only hope I won't press too hard on it. But we' ll see, hahaha!

HAHA...

I'd be like WHOA and smash it. HAHA...

Hahaha, it's tempting aha. Anyway nothing new today, just gave 'er a good wash for the first time in too long, haha. I'll see what I end up doing on Monday!

OH NO! Not the dirt that holds the rust together!

LOL, that's something I use to tease my friend about back in high school.

Hahaha! No it's ok, I left the dirt in some spots to help hold everything together.

MatthewD wrote:

prancstaman wrote:

I got a dremel I think. It's for wood working. My wife got it for me, from Aldi's of all places, $50. Been using it for years for porting engine heads, aluminum and cast iron. Works real good. What matters when picking one out mostly are the features. Variable speed comes in handy alot. Just spinning fast will load the cutting tool up with metal, need to slow down the tool to make it last or spin fast to keep the cutting tool clean, depends on the metal. The collet or the part you put the cutting tool in, there are 2 sizes, 1/8 and 1/4. The 1/4 inch collet is the best to get because there are multiple tools you can use, tootsie rolls, stones, carbide cutters to little buffing wheels for porting. You can go to a machinist store to buy the carbide cutters for around $20 each and they last forever which is way better then the stones and tootsie rolls (sandpaper rolls). Comes in handy when doing a V8, LOL. Plus most adapters fit the 1/4 collet that you can buy later, like a cable drive which is lighter to hold then the motor part itself and less cumbersome for the touchy areas. The 1/8 collet is mostly used buy jewelers and limited in the sanding department to where you could only get stones and sanding drums which are small which is OK if you are just doing a 1 or 2 cylinder port job. I done port jobs on 1 cylinders with a drill and stones. took a while but worked great.

For those of you just starting out in this area.

Thanks Prancstaman! I was looking at this air powered one - BERGEN 15pc MINI 1/4" AIR DIE GRINDER

It comes with 1/8" and 1/4" collets and various tools. Seems decent for 15 quid. Not sure if it has variable speeds or not.

BTW mower looks great Allis!

Yes, it is variable speed either by the trigger handle, a flat head screw in the housing, or a screw on air valve. But at the lower speeds they usually don't have much torque. Best to use them at medium and high speed since they get their strength from the rpm. All air die grinders are like that. Find out the cfm it uses to make sure your air compressor can keep up, other wise you'll be grinding for 30 seconds and waiting 3 minutes for the air compressor to charge back up.

Looks pretty good. Going to need some run flats for when the cops throw out the spike strips, LOL.

prancstaman wrote:

Going to need some run flats for when the cops throw out the spike strips, LOL.

That's a riot!

Id grind down, and reweld the axle. Grind the welds flush, and any porosity or undercut try and grind that out too. Because it was welded once, I wouldnt be afraid to turn the welder up some when welding over it. Just pay attention, it will start to sound different when it gets too hot and close to burning through.

Thats not something you want to break loose when your runnin away from the cops!
That and, if you deceide to slap some paint on there, that will be the first place you see rust coming through. Then you will be mad. Like me.  



Another thought, for your throttle stop... IF it end up breaking off.... Drill a hole in the floor board for a long bolt, then use 2 nuts to keep it tight. That should be pretty stout.

prancstaman wrote:

Looks pretty good. Going to need some run flats for when the cops throw out the spike strips, LOL.

Hahaha, they can't catch me! Haha, thanks!