That's right, our video was selected as the winner of the BurnTables CNC plasma Table giveaway! Holly cow! with so many deserving participants we are stoked to have been chosen.
Now comes the hard part. Figuring out where is the best location for it. Buying a new plasma cutter dedicated to it. Determining if we want to upgrade the size… etc. We want to put it in an efficient and useful location, but we also want to show it off and provide good exposure to BurnTables.
For the short term, it's going to go in my garage where I can use my buggy to assist in mocking up some new prototypes; not to mention all the brackets and tabs that need to be cut for the buggy its self.
Since winning the table my mind has been filling with ideas for both new products and spins on existing products. I am pretty glad that I am a web developer by day as setting up an online store will be like any other day at the office. So look forward to more posts on that subject in the future.
Any friends out there that need parts cut. Feel free to call or email me. If you buy the material you got yourself some parts.
Every once in a while an outstanding Pirate4x4 vendor steps up with an unbelievable giveaway. Right now that vendor is Riggen Industries. They are giving away one of their CNC BurnTables with all the trimmings! It's like Christmas in February. The winner of the giveaway will get a 4x2 table, motor kit, computer, software, and free training! It's really quite the package and perfect size for us.
The rules were pretty straight forward. "Submit a home video explaining how you would use a BurnTables CNC Plasma/Router Table to further improve your ability to start or finish your project, help with your business, or starting a new business."
Joe hit me up on messenger the night they posted it. He said: We have to win this! We almost bought a Torchemate 2x2 plasma but got priced out of it when they got distribution. Here was another chance to get a CNC plasma table and we immediately started brainstorming some ideas. We tossed around several ideas before settling on the zombie movie idea.
The idea was perfect. We have never made a movie before—outside of family videos—and first time filmmakers always cut their teeth on a zombie flick. I think it's considered a right of passage or something?
We started working on some sketches to flesh out our ideas. We also needed to figure out how we were going to film it. I recalled a high school film project I was involved in. I was the boom mic holder guy but I payed attention to the cameraman. I knew the information would be valuable some day. I always thought it was going to be porn, but this is a pretty close second.
Then my wife goes into labor...
Joe was hooked! He was pretty excited about our project. He knew we had a pretty good chance to win this. When Joe cam to visit us in the hospital all he could do besides smile at baby Caleb was talk about the script. I was useless after not sleeping for 4 days straight but we worked out what we could.
After a few days of planning and writing we had enough to start filming. My video camera was on the fritz, but my regular photo camera has a video mode. So, we made due with that. I have wanted to shoot some video with it anyway so this was a pretty good project to test it out on. I think the end result turned out pretty good, even if our lighting came from Home Depot.
We broke the scenes into two groups and shot them over just two weekends. The first week were all the scenes that didn't include zombies. Mostly the scenes of Joe and I talking in the shop. Fortunately my friend Gilda was able to come help us do the filming. Week two—Supper Bowl Sunday—we shot all the zombie scenes. This was by far the best day. I mean there were zombies for crying out loud. Whats better than post apocalyptic Zombies? Nothing!
I have to say thanks to all of our friends and family that came out to help. On Super Bowl Sunday no less! Even if we don't win, it was the best movie making experience ever and well worth the excuse to hang out eat pizza and drink beer!
The word on the street is "good things come to those who wait". If there is any truth to that then my 151 buggy-code named "ultra poor"-should be pretty much bad ass.
I picked up my rolling chassis from the Trent Fabrication shop back in October of this year. Since then, I have had a hard time doing anything but stare at it. Between lack of funds to buy some necessary components, and not being home for (I lost count) how many weekends it pretty much sat there in the garage.
This weekend was a different story though. I picked up some 1.75 DOM from Golden State Motorsports and began cutting and notching. Although it's not much, I was able to get the "A" pillars in place, and started notching the tubes for the subframe boatsides. With any luck I will get the, finished up tomorrow after work.
While I was down at Golden State Motorsports, I was talking to owner Jeff about the headder issuse that I didn't particularly care for on the other Trent Fabrication buggies. They like to route the collector on the driver side up and over the top of the engine, something I don't really like. He told me about these circle track headers and pulled an old set off a shelf and lent them to me. They fit great overall however, I am going to borrow inspiration from their design in order to make a custom set of my own that will still allow for a passenger.
Im just happy to have actually got some work done.
Back in February I posted an update about my 4 seat chassis being built by Trent Fabrication. Well here it is 8 months later and I am happy to report that I now have the chassis in my garage. Joe and I made the trip to Sparks NV. to pick it up and bring it home.
Unfortunately the only weekend we would be able to go get the chassis was also the weekend it snowed several feet up on Interstate 80. This ment the road was covered in salt and trailering it back on an open trailer caused it to get completely covered in a salty mist. (bummer)
Although it may not have been ideal, Derek recommended that I strip the chassis and paint it right away. I still have some welding to do, but at least it's not too much and I can always grind off the paint before welding and touch it up after wards.
Here are a few photos from the first weekend when Joe and I picked up the chassis from Trent Fabrication and brought it home.
What's Next
According to Derek the next phase is setting the carrier bearing mount and mid-shaft. But before I can do that, I need to get the right transmission in place. I have a TH400 that I was planning to have rebuilt, but I am second guessing that decision and looking to possibly get should of one that is already built and ready to drop in. I have to have it before I can install the atlas transfer case so I think those two components are next on the list.
The big key to setting the carrier bearing is to get it as straight as possible. According to Taylor Tracy, getting that right is the single biggest factor in determining how fast you can go. I really want to make sure I get ti right.
Joe and I found ourselves with some downtime this weekend while we replacing his broken bell housing. We decided to remove the interlock pills from his Dana 20 transfer case.
Removing the interlock pills will give us the ability to shift the rear wheels into neutral and the front wheels into low range and perform what's known as a "front dig". This is really handy when your in a competition and wish to avoid taking unnecessary points for backups. (scoring is similar to golf where a lower score is better)
The process is pretty easy. Neither Joe or myself are very accomplished mechanics so if we can do anyone can do it.
DIY Twin sticks
It's worth mentioning here that adding twin sticks to your vehicle does not require you to remove the interlock pills. However, a standard bolt on twin-stick kit will only give you 2wd low. The interlock pills prevent you from accidentally shifting into two gears at once. As you can imaging, that would be the beginning of a bad day.
If you want front digs on your rig, then the removal of the interlock pills is required. Obviously you need to be careful when shifting in and out of gears. On my old rig we created a single shifter dubbed the "Comp Stick" that made it easy to focus on front digs only while in competition. More on that later.
Tear down
1. Remove the lower inspection cover.
2. Remove the rear output yoke.
3. Remove the bull gear (if present.)
4. Remove the inspection tag and keeper that holds the intermediate shaft in place.
5. With brass drift or wood dowel pound out the intermediate gear shaft.
6. Remove the intermediate gear. The bearings will fall out. Make sure you gather them all up. There are also three washers, make sure you keep them too.
7. Take note of orientation of brass washers. The side with the groves faces inward toward the intermediate gear. They are keyed so they only fit one way.
8. Remove the dust caps from the back of the case that cover the rods.
9. Remove the two pugs from the top of the shift rails.
10. Use a 3/16 allen wrench to remove the locking bolt from the shift fork
11. Remove front output yoke nut
12. Shift both rails into neutral. Use a brass hammer to knock the rails backwards or forwards until they are both in the center position.
13. Turn the shaft closes to the middle of the case a 1/4 turn counter clockwise. This prevents the poppets from locking the rail into the case.
14. Knock the shift rail forward with a drift to free the shaft from the case
15. Catch the spring and poppet ball when the shaft comes free.
16. Finish removing the front housing from the second shift rail. May require some force or tapping from a rubber mallet.
17. Clamp the shift fork housing into a vise or onto a bench.
18. Drill out the two plugs found on the side of the shift rail.
TIP:
Use a bit that is smaller than the actual diameter of the plugs. As soon as the drill breaks the back side surface they should spin free and pop out.
19. The interlock pills will now fall out.
At this point you are done with the hard part. You just need to clean and reassemble your transfer case. We included some reassembly instructions in case this was your first time tearing apart a tcase.
Reassembly
1. Start with the reinstallation of the front shift fork cover. We couldn't get a gasket set, so we used rtv to make a gasket.
2. Place the spring back into the hole and place the poppet ball on top of the spring. Use a small dowel to press in on the poppet ball just enough to allow the shift rail to start into the hole.
NOTE: it's easy to let go too soon here and accidentally shoot the poppet ball across the room. Do not loose the ball. Use tape a rag to cover the holes until the shift rail has gone past the poppet ball.
3. Reinsert the second shift rail. Remember it need to go back in starting with the 1/4 turn. This 1/4 turn is what allows the shift fork to slide past the poppet ball without getting stuck.
Use the dowel method again to push the poppet ball down while you get the shaft started.
4. Reinstall the forward shift lever with the locking bolt. Use a dab of loc-tight and torque to 14 ft lbs.
NOTE: Turn the shift rod back into position only after pushing the shift rod all the way back into the low rang position.
5. Reinstall all the bearings and washers. Use a liberal amount of grease to hold the bearings in place while you insert them.
There are three washers that go into the intermediate gear. One of those washers goes in the middle to separate the two rows of bearings. So on final assembly it should be: outer washer, bearings, middle washer, bearings, outer washer.
6. Apply some grease to the brass washers and stick them back into the case with the grooved side towards the intermediate gear.
7. Insert the intermediate gear back into position and reinstall the the shaft from the back of the case. Make sure that shaft is installed so that the flat edge is facing the locking tab.
8. Install the rear output yoke.
That's pretty much all there is to it, becides putting it all back into your rig.
February 23 2012 by 
Mark Aplet
2 comments 
