Final Big Push for the Caterpillar

This weekend I was on call at work and despite working most of the day Saturday and part of Sunday I had time to finish getting the Caterpillar motor mounts shaved down and even had time to get the motor installed and running.  No need to jump ahead of myself so I will start with the beginning.  This morning after going on an early morning no heat call in Turner I stopped in at Grampa's house with the four aluminum motor mounts two of which needed to be cut down a grand total of 85 thousandths of an inch each.  

This is the start of the process all set up in the milling machine.  We got the mount level side to side within 1 thousandths of an inch. 

Once it was ready we had to set the milling machine to take the whole eighty-five thousandths of an inch all at once.  When milling down aluminum you can take a lot more at once and at a much faster speed than when milling down steel.  We were able to mill down both of the motor mounts down in around an hours time. 



This was the first of the mounts being planed down and there is really nothing overly exciting about watching it get done.  I enjoy working with the milling machine and the lathe as it is very precision work but the end result is very satisfying.  After finishing with the mounts and cleaning the milling machine up Grampa and I fixed a rolling pin as well but alas I did not snap any pictures of that process.  After lunch I ran another service call and headed home with my finished mounts and freshly tuned up motor for the Caterpillar. After contemplating the rain a bit I headed out the door to work on the Caterpillar.

 Before you know it the mounts were back under the motor with brand new bolts and washers.  This is one project where my Milwaukee auto ratchet came in extremely handy.

 This time around before running the engine I checked  multiple times to make sure that the coupling was square and level.  I was able to rig the Lovejoy with a two inch wide steel band clamp on the seam of the two couplings to hold it together properly while bolting the engine down.  Doing that I believe kept everything from shifting and moving. 
                                                            The Caterpillar end result
Even though I do forget to take pictures while I am working on the equipment because I am so excited to get it running I didn't forget to take a video to share with all of you.  Now that the engine is running right thanks to Adams Small Engine in Livermore Maine, and the coupling is not self destructing on itself, the machine goes great.  Allyssia was able to play on it a little bit in the rain and enjoyed it!

 The best part for me is not having to carry the firewood in by the handful and I think that it will cut down on my shoveling drastically.  It has been a very expensive, time consuming , and frustrating shovel/wood hauler but I think it will be worth it in the long run.   Remember to check back often I am always doing something here at the farm.  Until next time stay tuned!!