Todays Project - What did you do today?

[Pete O]

Another time-consuming job on the tractor; the front axle kingpin bushes all needed replacing, as I posted the other day I needed to cut through them with the shaper to get the old ones out, once the new bushes were pressed into place, the top ones had squeezed down too tight to take the spindles. I don't have a reamer of the appropriate size (frustratingly I have one big adjustable reamer that comes up about 1mm shy of the required diameter) so I decided to set up in the mill and bore the bush to size.
Not enough Z-axis headroom under the vertical attachment on the U2 so I had to tram the attachment to horizontal and use the X-axis.
Turned a spigot to take the far end of the workpiece and centered it on the big angle plate using a small dead-centre in the drill chuck.
   
Positioned the workpiece over the spigot, used the outside taper of the drill chuck to get the working end centered and used a bunch of machinist jacks and clamps to hold it there.
   
   
I've thought a few times that I have acquired too many machinist jacks and I should flog a few off on eBay. This job changed my mind on that.
I've really got to get myself a decent 1/2" boring bar for the little chicom boring head, the only 1/2" boring bar I have with enough reach for this task is part of one of those miserable brazed-carbide cheapy sets that come in a wooden block. Got the job done though.

I'd be interested to know how the more experienced machinists (i.e. everyone) on here would have approached this job.

I'm waiting on seals for the stub-axles so couldn't get the outer front axles finished today, so I moved on to another part of the tractor and achieved a major milestone- got the gearbox re-mounted.