Iron Pan Refurb

 I've had this 14 inch Lodge Fry Pan since the 1990's.  So many foods in a couple decades.  All they typical stuff like Bacon, Breakfast Sausage, and Fried Chicken, but also many other things like Pan Pizza.  Well all the diversity has left it with a really thick layer of seasoning which is kinda funky.  It doesn't smell bad, but there is something I don't like about it.  Maybe its the mixture of spices, or fats give it a smell I just don't like.  So I decided to refinish the pan, and remove the seasoning layer.

 

 

I researched this a lot before doing it.  There is an abundance of opinions about cleaning, seasoning, stripping, and then maybe polishing an iron pan.  I really do not want to resurface the pan.  I like the rough texture of the Lodge Iron Pan because I think it helps brown the meat in a searing process.  Want I want is to strip all the carbonized fats from the surface of the iron, and then lay down a new, fresh layer of carbonized fats on the freshly cleaned iron.  Easy right?  LOL! 

 I started with this little stripping wheel.  It is a Non-Woven Mesh Abrasive.  You use a junior version of this at the kitchen sink, the Scotch-Brite pad.  Non-Woven abrasive a popular in industry for all kinds of things.  At the hardware store you find them for tasks like stripping paint.  So the carbonized fats that are stuck to the pan are very similar to the polymers that are used to make paint.  I had this tool available and thought I would give it a try.

The carbonized fats from the pan, the seasoning, are very sticky, and were building up on the abrasive wheel.  The tool was becoming ineffective because of the buildup, and I was not able to clean the wheel very well, so I found another one.  This one is considerably bigger, but that worked to my advantage.  

 

I had removed most of the seasoning layer with the smaller wheel.  The bigger wheel was more effective at getting down to the metal.  I was able to make the pan bright and shiny, but not resurface the iron.  I'm looking to preserve the texture of the pan, and not machine it.  And I think that worked good. 

Now we have to re-establish the seasoning layer.  There are so many suggestions out there about what oil to use to season your iron pan.  I think the two factors that are important to me are the smoke point, and the stability of the oil.  I am sure I do not want to use an oil that will go rancid.  So we can scratch most organic animal, and plant oils.  You might want to pick an oil that is used to finish cutting boards.  But there is also the heat factor, we're going to cook in the pan.  So I would want an oil with a high smoke point.  Other factors are cost, and availability.  You picked something, does your local store have it?  If they do, is it expensive?  So, after all the factoring I picked Avocado Oil, cheap, plentiful, high smoke point, and resistant to rancidity.

 Seasoning is a process.  There is an initial seasoning, but then it keeps going every time you use the pan.  You'll have to oil the pan before using it.  Then wash it, and oil it again when it is waiting to be used.  I like to cover the iron pans when they are not in use.

For he initial seasoning I coated the cooking surfaces of the pan with Avocado Oil, and then wiped off all the excess oil.  Then I put the pan in a 450F oven for an hour.  Then pull the pan out of the over, and let it cool.  Then for the second coat of oil I fried a pan of Bacon.  The pan looks much better now, and that weird smell is gone...

RX300 Door Lock Actuators

 Possibly the most irritating problem I've had with the RX300 is the door lock actuators failing.  This is not a problem that is obvious at first.  You have to press the key fob buttons a little more at first, and wonder why.  Then the lock on one door might stick a little.  When you lock the car it may take several attempts to get a locked signal from the car.  Eventually the actuator loses it automatic control, and you are locking doors manually.  Then in cold weather the car may refuse to lock, or unlock.  Ultimately I was having to use the key manually, in the door, which wound up setting off the alarm until I could get the key in the ignition.  These are all symptoms of the door lock actuators failing.  Once you find out that these are $10 parts the stress from the part failing is alleviated temporarily.

 Then you find out that the labor is rated at 3 hours each!  Wut!  The door lock actuators live at the latch of the door.  So they are in one of the least accessible spaces.  To replace four of these door lock actuators you have to disassemble all four doors.  So, the labor makes sense, you have to get through all the trim, and replace the parts that are inside the door.  The first door did take a full three hours, but each successive door went quicker with experience.

 The door lock actuator itself, bone colored piece above left, is part of the latch assembly.  This is the latch mechanism for the door, and it connects to both the exterior handle, and the interior handle.  Once you get the latch assembly removed then there is a little more disassembly to get to the door lock actuator.

 You can see it a little better in the picture above.  These actuators are servo mechanisms which have a motor, and a gear set that do the lock, and unlock functions.  The motor drives one way to lock the door, and the other way to unlock the door.  This module is separate from the door latch, and door handle interface functions.  The door lock actuators also provide feedback to the computer for the status of the lock.  These $10 parts are the sensors for the security function.  If the car has trouble locking a door, and the door is not in a locked status, then the lock the car function will not return the car locked status beep when you press the lock button on the key fob.  These modules are an important part of your security system.

RX300: Replacing the Media Display

 Well, Debugging the Information Display yielded little results.  There are issues with the original unit for sure, and maybe a little beyond my capabilities at the moment.  But, a replacement part was available, and not too expensive, $225.  It is worth it to have a legible display.

In the old display the is cracking on the touch screen where I press it frequently.  The display itself is also kinda weirdly distorted.  Then the backlight is another issue.  At first I was thinking that the backlight was failing, but at the end the screen was mostly white, like the data wasn't getting to the screen, and the backlight was full on.  The old display is out of Truk now, so I can troubleshoot it without having to take Truk apart.

 Replacing the Media Display is relatively easy once you are acclimated to working on Toyota interiors.  The place to start is learning where to pry up the trim.  The head unit is held by four bolts, and there are like 14 connectors to remove.  Toyotas are neat in this way, each of the connectors for the head unit are unique, and that makes getting them reconnected wrong nearly impossible, except for expert repair people like me.  The operation was around 15 minutes, and now I can see things like the temperature outside, and the vent settings again, oh, and the 23 year old GPS Map...  Whoo Hoo!

Tap, Stud, Nut, and Cap

 I had ordered 1.25 inch threaded rods for the studs.  Once I got them I realized that the pilot holes needed to be a little deeper.  Then there was another crossroad, cut the rods, or deepen the holes.  At this point I had already tapped fourteen holes.  So, well, the easiest rework was to make the holes deeper which was cutting aluminum.  Otherwise I would have been cutting twenty four steel rods.  Also, I am thinking I want more steel content around the periphery of the rotor for a little flywheel effect.

When I first cut the pilot holes around the periphery I made them 800 mils (0.8 inch) deep.  Then, after picking, and buying the threaded rods I realized that the pilot holes needed to be right at 1 inch.  So I have to rearrange the Mini Mill to do radial indexing again, and align the rotor to make all the pilot holes 200 mils deeper.  This went fairly quickly because I had already set up this operation.  After making the pilot holes deeper, I could tap all the holes deeper, then install the hardware.  I did have the issue of drilling holes that were already tapped.  This did work well because the original pilot holes are still there, and the threads are cut into the walls of the pilot holes, so you just have to be careful to run the drill bit between the existing threads, and not chew on the walls of the pilot holes.

The last task on the rotor was to increase the size of the center hole so that I can mount the rotor on the arbor that I will use to hold the rotor on the motor.  I have used this center hole as a center in all the machining processes.  So I want to change the size of this hole without affecting the position in the X, and Y axes.  The right thing to do would be to put the rotor on a lathe, spin the part, and use the center chuck to hold a drill bit to bore out the center hole.  So, instead, I used drill bits on the drill press to do this.  I didn't firmly clamp the part so that the drill bit could center itself in the hole.  Then used a series of bits to increase the size of the hole incrementally.  So, in about six steps I increased the size of the hole from around 230 mils to 375 mils.  Then gave it a test fit on the arbor.

The completed rotor weighs 22 ounces, which is heavier than I thought it would be.  I've also been thinking about things like the flywheel effect, and the gyroscopic effect.  When I spin it the torque effect from the spinning rotor will drag the frame in the same direction.  So, having mounted it, and spun it a little, like five minutes ago, it does seem to be reasonably balanced to spin at low speeds.  As the speed goes up, it does vibrate a little more, so when I start finishing the part I'll pay more attention to the balance on the rotor.

So, now I need to start thinking about fabricating the stator which is the collector for the system.  Yeah!  It Spins...

CEG Rotor

 OK, I finally have the major cuts done on the CEG Rotor.  This includes the radial cut where I made the round shape of the rotor, and the peripheral holes for the electrodes.  The Rotor is four inches in diameter, and a half inch thick.  Then there are the holes around the periphery which are pilot holes for 1/4-20 screws.  There are 24 pilot holes spaced 15 degrees apart, at the four inch diameter of the Rotor.  At this point it is a rough cut piece.  There are more operations to perform.

Now take a look at the drawing.  The outer diameter of the cut is the same, and the 24 pilot holes are there.  But the drawing has more features that haven't been machined into the part yet.  There are chamfers around the edge of the Rotor on both the top, and bottom sides.  The center hole is a larger diameter.  The tooling holes are not in the drawing.  The pilot holes are the same diameter, but both the drawing, and the part do not have the 1/4-20 threads.

So, yeah, there is more work to be done in the machine shop.  The center hole was first used to align the part to the center pin on the Rotary Table.  When I finish the machine operations that use the Rotary Table I will increase the size of the center hole to 0.375" to fit the Arbor I picked to hold the Rotor in the assembly.  Also, I will need to tap the pilot holes for 1/4-20 screws in order to hold the electrodes.

Here I have revised the CEG Rotor drawing a little.  I changed the Chamfers to make the angle a little steeper.  The Tooling Holes have been added.  The change in the Chamfers is to accommodate the tooling holes.  We want some nice flat, level areas where the clamping screws are holding the part in case there is some reason I want to put it on the Rotary Table again.

Radial Indexing

 The next cut that I need to make on the New Rotor are the radial holes around the periphery of the Rotor.  When I was cutting the radius of the Rotor I was using the Rotary Table as a Rotary Chuck, the idea being the Rotary Chuck holds, and turns the part while the Mill is cutting around the periphery.  In that configuration the Rotary Table was horizontal.

Now I want to Drill Holes from the periphery of the Rotor toward the center of the Rotor.  In this configuration the Rotary Table has to be mounted vertically on the Machine Table, and the machine will be drilling holes into the Rotor in the Z axis.  So, we are still dealing with the three axes of alignment, and a rotary axis.  This time we want X, Y, and rotary axes of movement clamped while we do a Drill operation in the Z axis.  Then I'll loosen the clamp on the rotary axis, move the rotary axis 15 degrees, clamp the rotary axis again, and do another drill operation.

The first obstacle is the Rotor itself.  The Rotor's diameter, four inches, is a little longer than the distance between the center of the Rotary Table, and the vertical mounting surface of the Rotary Table.  This means the Rotor protrudes past the mounting surface of the Rotary Table by about 275 mils. and we need a short riser to get the Rotor above the surface of the machine table.  We need to freely rotate the Rotor around the axis of the Rotary Table to make the peripheral holes.  Also, we need to assemble the Rotary Table assembly on the Drill Press Machine Table, and not on the Milling Table.  When the Milling Table is on the Drill Press there is insufficient vertical clearance to make these peripheral cuts.

Here I have used a 0.375 inch Aluminum plate to be the short riser to get the periphery of the Rotor off the machine table.  The mounting screws are countersinked into the short riser plate so the short riser plate can sit flat on the machine table.  Then I can slide the Rotary Table assembly around the machine table for the X, and Y axes alignment.  There are two C-Clamps that secure the Rotary Table assembly to the machine table once it is aligned.  I have scratched a line around the periphery of the Rotor to indicate the center of the periphery of the Rotor.  I also have some lines on the face of the Rotor which will help with the X, and Y axes alignment.  I used a framing square, the center of the Rotary Table, the Drill bit, and the center line of the periphery of the Rotor to perform the X, and Y axes of alignment of the Rotary Table assembly to the Machine Table, and the Drill.  Blarg...  Thatz a mouthful...

 There is a compass around the edge of the Rotary Table.  Once I had the X, and Y axes alignment locked I rotated the Rotary Table to 0 degrees.  I spent a considerable about of time scrutinizing the X/Y alignment, Rotary Alignment, and depth of cut before I felt confident to make a cut.  The more time you spend fabricating a part, the more valuable it becomes.  As its value increases you feel compelled to overthink each following cut, and don't want to make any mistakes.  This is where it ceases to be a part, and becomes an investment.  Any mistakes could lead to considerable rework, or even scrapping this part, and starting again.

I have made five holes so far, and my process seems to be working well.  At this point I'm going to take a break, and think through this again.  I'll make some measurements on the holes I have cut, and look at the consistency of the cuts.  At first glance it looks like it is going well...

Full Circle

 This was a very aggressive cut for my Mini Mill.  I was hanging over the limits, and had a couple incidents where this became obvious.  The Chuck is held to the Quill with a Morse Taper.  This is the way that Drill Presses typically hold the Chuck.  It is perfectly OK when you are drilling, down cutting into the material, because the force applied to the Quill, Morse Taper, Chuck, and Bit is downward.  This keeps the Morse Taper thoroughly seated, and locked.  You will never have a problem drilling.

I call this thing a Mini Mill.  OK, there in lies the problem.  I'm milling, side cutting, with no downward force.  The force applied to the cut is from the side, and is a cutting action so this force is cyclic causing vibration.  This applies the force through the Bit, into the Chuck, on up to the Morse Taper, and into the Quill causing the entire machine to vibrate with this sideways force.  Drill presses are not meant to do this.  Some would say this type of cutting is not possible, and you will never get a good cut.  I'm going to say that is wrong.  You can use you drill press as a Mill when you keep everything tight, don't over load the machine, and make relatively small cuts that don't create excessive vibrations.  The depth of the cut is relative to the amount of vibration you get, and the tool will let you know when you are cutting too deep.

In the first incident the Chuck came off the Morse Taper while I was cutting.  The Chuck stopped spinning, and I had to abort the cut.  There was no adverse effect because when the Chuck is disconnected from the Morse Taper it will stop spinning.  In the second incident the Morse Taper came out of the Quill.  In this case the Mill continued to spin, and I kept cutting, but the cut was going deeper as I went around the radius of the part.  The amount of vibration, and noise that the machine was making increased.  I noticed it visually, and then immediately aborted the cut.  This did have an effect, but that effect was the cut got deeper, and didn't affect the radius of the cut.  If anything it caused the Mill to move away from the radius of the cut.

This is the Mini Mill configured to cut the radius of this part.  There are a lot of things that I can improve on this machine.  I noticed that the X Axis will move with vibration, and I had to work around that issue.  It would be nice to have clamps that hold the axes that don't move with a cut.  There is not depth hold on the Z Axis, really another clamp, but with this cut I was holding the Z Axis with one hand, while doing the part feed with the other hand.  It does have a depth limit, but not a hold at depth clamp, and that would be handy, LOL!  Milling machines have a screw that goes through the Quill, Morse Taper, and Chuck which holds the rotating assembly together vertically, and that, also, would have been very handy.  Then there are the bearings that the Quill is riding on.  In a Drill Press these bearings are meant to handle a downward force.  With a Milling Machine these bearings are capable of handling downward, and side loaded forces.  I think what I am telling myself here is this I need a Milling Machine...  and a Lathe...