mild steel

Steel thumbscrews & jig

What I’m making: M8 wingbolt

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Made these tabs to weld onto bolt heads (details in CAD file below)

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Replacing these plastic ones (some have broken)

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Stock used in making a welding & alignment jig (to help make the wingbolts)

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Materials:
1 x 50x50x6 mm (2"x2"x1/4") flat section mild steel
2 x 50x25x3 mm (2"x1"x1/8") equal angle mild steel
1 x 100x14 mm (4"x9/16") hex bar mild steel

All pickled, de-smutted & deburred.
Jig copes with 6mm to 8mm (1/4" to 5/16") bolts

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8mm hole in centre (top side)

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Countersunk 90° included angle (underside)

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Marked all & drilled (8mm) holes in uprights

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Going to plug weld (MIG) through holes to base

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Using a wingbolt tab, as a spacer, wrapped in masking tape to add some clearance

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Welded

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Dressed with angle grinder flapwheel

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Marked and sliced through only the angle iron sections

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Cleaned up

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Nuts, bevelled, threaded & marked. From hex stock

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90° included angle

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Different threaded nuts

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Nuts hold the bolts in good contact & alignment

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Tabs are centre marked, drop in with good alignment, ready for welding

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What’s in the CAD file

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knoba – steel thumbscrews & jig – 2018.dxf

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Ford transit mt75 gearbox quickchange

Original gear lever assembly
knoba - transit mt75 gearbox quickchange

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knoba - transit mt75 gearbox quickchange

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knoba - transit mt75 gearbox quickchange

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knoba - transit mt75 gearbox quickchange

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Pin and spherical part (some chrome alloy) may have been brazed
knoba - transit mt75 gearbox quickchange

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Welded & machined assembly adds an extra 20mm to the selector end
knoba - transit mt75 gearbox quickchange

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knoba - transit mt75 gearbox quickchange

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knoba - transit mt75 gearbox quickchange

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Gearbox housing spacer cast and machined from aluminium
knoba - transit mt75 gearbox quickchange

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knoba - transit mt75 gearbox quickchange

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Completed assembly reduces top-end throws from 6″, to 4″ ~ 33% reduction.
knoba - transit mt75 gearbox quickchange

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knoba – metal casting furnace

knoba – ball turning fixture for lathe

Wiki – Lever

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Emery roll dispenser

Made out of scraps around the workshop: 4mm & 6mm plywood, 10x26mm pine, 4mm rosewood dowels, stainless steel sheet, mild steel pins, nylon 66, brass rivets with a linseed oil finish…
knoba - Emery roll dispenser