Making parts when you can not find them . Machinist

[Bill Balkie 24172]

Hello ,
    I have been in the machining  business all my life .  This April I will turn 70 and I will be retiring to Florida .  Over the years I have found myself making a lot of parts when they are not readily available. I have a 70 Coupe DeVille and have noticed the the adjustment bracket on the A/C Power Servo were made out of plastic and over the years ( 52 ) these plastic parts have A tendency to get dry and brittle. I have not been able to find them anywhere except in junkyards and even those parts are dry and brittle. This is what I will miss most about retiring is having the opportunity and the capability to re-manufacture parts when needed. It took me about five hours to make this part. Over the years I have made parts for several people never charging them but never making parts to sell for a profit. I feel sad in a way that I will not have the opportunity to do this anymore but in another way I feel happy that I was able to make  many different parts and keep our classic cars running .  Here is a couple of photos of my latest part.
     Bill

[Lexi]

Bill that is awesome work. I wish that I had become more involved in machining. I did work with plastics a while back on the job. Found many products that would augment various hobbies. Here is a group of 1940s radio knob copies, original was black bakelite, (not pictured), and damaged. I made these copies of a pristine one out of various rigid urethanes. The shiny "aluminum" copy was another grey one like that on the far left, but polished to reveal this luster. Looks like metal & has not dulled in 35 years. Other colors are available. I can see your machining skills plus the addition of this plastic work, with perhaps even some 3D printing further expanding the work that people such as yourself did. Think of the fantastic replacement gear shifter or turn signal levers that could be made for our old Cadillacs? A great combination of new machining and exact repro knobs. Threaded machined inserts could be sunk into the plastic prior to setting, so they could be screwed onto new metal parts. Clay/Lexi

[walt chomosh #23510]

Bill,
  Rarely does a day go by that I'm not "making" parts for something.....join the club!....walt...tulsa,ok

[Lexi]

Bill what brand and model of lathe did you use for most of your Cadillac small parts work? Clay/Lexi

[Bill Balkie 24172]

Lexi and Walt ,
       I have had 3 Classic Cadillac in the past  16 years .    1957 Seville , 1957 Biarritz , 1970 coupe Deville .I honestly do not know how people maintain these cars without having Custom parts Made .  I must of made numerous parts for each car . Convertible top parts , custom bolts , Springs , Brackets , Repaired window parts. Repairing and welding  the aluminum  bumpers for the 57 Eldorado's . ETC. ETC Etc. just to keep the cars road worthy . Fortunatelly the one car that i have now is almost perfect .  Most of the parts i made were for myself however i made several parts for friends . They always offer to pay you for your time .  But truth be told these parts take time .  Some Several hours .  Most people appreciate it and i am happy to help them out .  I look at it this way . You take your everyday driver in to get brakes installed and your lucky to come  out with a bill less then 700 dollars .  The guys uses standared parts and has two hous invested . How do you charge a friend  700 /1000 dollars  For  custom parts made with precision  machinery ?  I don't . I do it because they are my friend .  That is all coming to an end when i move to Florida .
  Bill

[Bill Balkie 24172]

Hello Lexi ,
    HES lathe 24 inch swing . but most parts were made on a Hardinge tool room lathe . Non Better .

      Bill

[Jay Friedman]

Bill,

I have a vintage (1935) 9 inch South Bend Lathe with a milling attachment that I've owned for 25+ years as well as a modern Taig mini lathe.  I was never a professional machinist like you and what little machining skill I have I learned by taking a night course at a local technical college.  Parts for my 1949 Cadillac are fairly plentiful, so I've never had to make many parts as you have.  Nonetheless, I've made a few small and simple parts for the car as well as some metal parts to replace broken plastic parts on household items. 

I have heard that a Hardinge is the Cadillac of lathes. 

Jay

[Bill Balkie 24172]

Hello Jay ,
     Looks like you have some nice equipment. And yes the Hardinge Lathe is  the Cadillac of all lathes . But I have to share this with you. Our company was started in 1937 shortly after that we purchased the southbend  9 inch lathe in 1941 . ( Before i was Born ) similar to yours but without a milling attachment. Some years ago we decided to chrome plate this Lathe and keep it for show in our office . At one time it was the backbone of our shop. Now loaded with five Axis   milling centers numerous CNC machines the South Bend still has a place in our at our shop .
       Bill

[Lexi]

Bill thanks. Don't you just love fine tools? Thanks for sharing. Once I had to turn a wooden "bearing" for my '56 Caddy's throttle linkage at the firewall. The sleeved rubber grommet bearing was not available. So I chose the hardest wood I had here, (elm), turned it on my General wood lathe, soaked it in grease, and installed it. Ran fine for 3 years until I found an actual replacement. I remember making wooden blanks for my Father's old clock repair business and knew that some antique clocks had wooden movements. So I figured why not do the same for the Caddy. Ran well, but would have loved to have one of those Hardinge lathes and work one in metal. Clay/Lexi

[Bill Balkie 24172]

Bill,
  Rarely does a day go by that I'm not "making" parts for something.....join the club!....walt...tulsa,ok

Hello Walt ,
  Your Car and what looks like a Airstream are Beautiful . Is that a recent Picture ? Or is that some 60 years ago ?

   Absolutely  Beautiful ,
          Bill

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

G'day Bill,

Welcome to the world of retirement, or as I put it, Getting a Life.

Does this move to Florida mean that you are moving into a place that has a huge restriction on having and using power tools?   If so, then that sucks.

In my little Garage/workshop I have a vast array of power tools, and have been making my own special tools, especially after I left work, as I used to use the tools available there.   Re-supplying my aforementioned tools cost a bit, but really worth it.

Bruce.

PS.   I am self-taught in the metal work department, and virtually everything else, but I was a Shipwright by trade.   Working mostly with wood.   Metal work got farmed out.

[Ralph Messina CLC 4937]

Bill,

There's no reason you can't set up a small shop to indulge your passion. Hell, Roger Zimmerman has been building whole cars in his spare time: http://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org/index.php?topic=156394.0

Sunshine, cars and a shop .......sounds like heaven

[Roger Zimmermann]

I would love to have the same (or similar) machines like Bill has. Unfortunately, my flat is too small and at 76 years old it's out of question to buy a house or a shop! What I'm doing with my small lathe/milling machine is just good for small parts; I would also love to modify the air cleaners from my Brougham and Biarritz, but I can't!
I did once with my small lathe a spacer going between the crankshaft and transmission; I had also hours to machine it because small machine = small quantity of metal cut in one pass...All that for maybe $ 20.00 as selling price!
Bill, if you intend to have a small lathe for small parts, I can recommend the Sherline products; you probably know that brand.

Edit: About radio knobs: a guy from Switzerland/Netherland restoring a '57 Brougham was missing his radio knobs. He asked if I would reproduce them, which I did. A lot of work again, but the end product, once chromed, was very near from the original knob (the one which is chromed on the pictures).

[Ohjai]

"knew that some antique clocks had wooden movements".  Clay/Lexi

John Harrison made the first Chronometer in 1713 with the gears made of wood.  This clock is still running and on display at the Science Museum in Greenwich England. This is the invention that solve the problem of finding ones longitude at sea.


Jim

[Lexi]

Roger, as usual your work is superb. Clay/Lexi

[Roger Zimmermann]

Thanks Clay!

[Lexi]

John Harrison made the first Chronometer in 1713 with the gears made of wood.  This clock is still running and on display at the Science Museum in Greenwich England. This is the invention that solve the problem of finding ones longitude at sea.

Jim

The wooden geared clocks we worked on had brass escapements. That is a high wear part compared to the other wheels. So I suppose they had to be made from a more robust material. The other slower moving wheels were wooden and usually showed little signs of wear, even well after 100 years. The wooden bearing I made for my Cadillac's throttle linkage also showed no wear after 3 years of use, after I replaced it with an original. Again, that was a part that was not subjected to high wear. For parts like that the main concerns would be what kind of wood is used, was it cut quickly after being felled and was it properly dried to hopefully to eliminate seasoning checking. Speaking of wood, once I got into my '56 Caddy's interior I was surprised to see how much wood was used in the construction of the arm balusters (with possible steam bending) and rear window frame. Add wood working to the skills subset necessary for restoration work on old cars. Clay/Lexi

[Bill Balkie 24172]

Hello Guys ,
   My whole purpose of retirement is not to have machinery in my Garage .  I want to start a complete new chapter in my life .  I plan on having my 1970 Cadillac and enjoying it for the rest of my life .  But no more machining . Everybody is different  but that is the way I feel . It's time for me my wife and my Grandchildren .  But then again never say never .

      Bill

[Jay Friedman]

John Harrison made the first Chronometer in 1713 with the gears made of wood.  This clock is still running and on display at the Science Museum in Greenwich England. This is the invention that solve the problem of finding ones longitude at sea.


Jim

The wooden parts in John Harrison's clocks were made of oak and lignum vitae, the latter being a very dense wood which also has a natural lubricant in the wood itself.  Harrison tried to avoid having to use oil or grease as lubricants.  He did all this before the invention of modern machine tools: screw-cutting lathes and milling machines.  His fascinating story is recounted in a great book by Dava Sobel, Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. 

[Ohjai]

Dava Sobel's book "Longitude" is fantastic.  I have read it several time, and given many copies away,  especially to young people interested in science.  A very easy book to read and understand.  It took the mystery of how longitude is determined.


Jim