Recent Projects

[Tim#1]

Hey Guys,

I just thought I'd share a couple of my recent projects with you all. I modified my 6" rotary table by mounting a spare 4" 3-jaw chuck, according to an article in MW/HSM. It works great and I've machined annular o-ring grooves in eight stainless steel (304) flanges with this set-up. It's also a great time saver when drilling bolt hole circles too. Nothing new here, but I didn't have this capability before.

I also began a repair on an 80-tooth cast iron spur gear for the lathe. It's a spare gear with two broken teeth. Again, I got the idea from a recent article in MW/HSM. The differences in my case was that I decided to do this on the spur of the moment and did not have brass/bronze brazing flux. So, I tried some silver brazing flux with phosphor-bronze rod and it worked fine. I don't have milling cutter to cut the new teeth, so I'll use a similar gear (same tooth geometry) as a master and file the new teeth by hand. I know, this is pretty exciting stuff. I learn something new everyday.

Regards,

TIM

[darryl]

I'm not sure if this deserves a new post or not, but it's interesting to see what others have done to modify or improve existing equipment. My latest change, as suggested by SGW, was replacing 2 of the crosslide gib setscrews with bolts, which have short plates bolted to them, acting as cranks. These are connected by a link which has a slot milled into it for a locking screw. This allows me to turn both these gib screws simultaneously, to adjust play, or tighten the slide against motion, and lock the adjustment there. Lots easier than fooling with the adjusting screws and locking nuts separately.

[Dave Opincarne]

My most recent project was moving to new digs which is a process that has taken the better part of a year since moving out of a rented shop space. The wood shop has been set up for a while, but just recently I moved my metal shop into the other garage of the duplex we ocupy. Part of this process was making new stands for my mill/drill and surface plate and getting my EMCO V10P lathe properly instaled.

The mill stand is a shelf bracket type made from 2x2x1/8 'L' chanel. The stand was welded using my lincoln wire feed welder and mounted to the concreat wall with 1/2" Hilti anchors. After lifting the mill up with my shop crane (another recent project) and bolting it down I can say that it is more solid than it ever was mounted on a bench.

I got my 2'x3' surface plate as a bonus from a previous employer over two years ago but have never gotten around to making a base for it until now since my smaller plate has been adiquate. The stand is made in the same way as the mill stand with the use of 4" hard rubber ball bearing casters. The stand is very rigid and rolls well over the concret slab. Eventualy I'll make rail and stile doors and panels to enclose the base.

The lathe was the most problimatic. My original intent was to simply level the base using leveling feet but when I tried to level the bed I found that the rigidity of the bed was too much for gravity to overcome. Also, I discovered a major design flaw in the base. The feet are mounted on the outside bottom of what is esentialy two open ended steel columns. The bed mounts are on the inside of the column. Since the cabinets are open ended, the base is quite suseptable to shear forces. Even light pressure on the front of the lathe caused the base to flex. After taking the lathe off the base I welded in plates at the top of each cabinet to close it off. After remounting the lathe I mounted the base onto 1/2" studs drilled into the floor. The lathe now shows no twist as indicated by a 6" Starett machinist's level and the bubble barely budges when I lean hard on the front of the lathe.

-Dave

[capperbar]

Thanks to some great input from this board I rebuilt four large blocks for a 1924 schooner. I learned how to bore out the cast iron sheaves to size,turn the bronze bushings to size,insert and bore to fit the new clevis pins. Getting a lot better at measuring bores.All together very satifying to see the 70 foot main boom hanging on "my" topping lift blocks. Couldn't be more fun.Now to see how they hold up.
Dave

[gunbuilder]

I have a "new" homemade grinder stand. I built it from 1 1/8 angle iron, round tubing and a disc blade. The top is big enough for both my import tool grinders. Just today I made new pins for the hitch on the snowblower.

Thanks,
Paul

[Thrud]

I found some hairballs on the shop floor. I know what you are thinking - "Thrud can see the floor!"

[uute]

Hairballs aside, I'm fairly excited. Got my lathe "lifted" and set in place, leveled (or there abouts), wired up and running!!!!!

About the first thing was to turn a 3MT arbor for tailstock drill chuck, and it even fit pretty well.

Close your eyes and plug your ears, a little wooden machining was next.

Maybe that's another story. : )

uute

[Paul Gauthier]

Have been working on a new barrel and scope mount for my TCR 87 rifle. Will have pictures soon.

------------------
Paul G.

[spope14]

My most recent project was to indicate THREE. repeat THREE Kurt vises on a CNC Knee Mill (good size unit) in line on the solid jaw, and to the same height and Z axis straightness to within .0001 between the three in line, the height, and the Z axis. Took about three hours to do right with all the fussing and the bolting pressure and such.

Then on my other CNC Knee mill, I on two vises, and milled a set of jaws for thin work, and circular interpolated the jaws of the other to hold 1", 1.25, 1.5, and 1.75 parts diameter (aluminum jaws.

All of this in prep for my next class projects.

We are making little Gas powered motors, but also have job for a company that requires 100 holes drilled and reamed over a 20 inch length of 1/4' x 1.75 width milled aluminum with a True position of .003 each, thus the jaws and heights being so freaking fussy.

My next job tonight is to grind three ets of parallels to height within less than .0001.

Having fun. Sounds like a bit of drudgery, but when all is said and done, I will have quite the vise set-up with the three, and quite the flex on the other machine.

[spkrman15]

Building a front pump bracket for my dad`s Ford 4000. Cleaning my shop seems to be taking a priority and i built a trailer for my buddy last month. If i could get my scanner up and running i would have some pics for you all, but not so far....

Spkrman15

[This message has been edited by spkrman15 (edited 04-01-2003).]

[trap]

Broke my right hand when I was jerked overboard by a hook while shark fishing. Started dating a skinny fashion model. Almost finished rebuilding my Brown & Sharpe mill. Don't have much spare time.

[Thrud]

trap:
I was reading a stat that said the most dangerous job known to man was dating a skinny fashion model...no wait, maybe it was a fisherman...

...and why were you trolling for lawyers?

[This message has been edited by Thrud (edited 04-03-2003).]

[OutlawSmithy]

I'm in the process of building/machining a 1/8th scale monster truck, complete with ladder-type frame, a 4-link AND independant suspension and a .90ci engine. All machined, with the exception of the engine, from 6061 & 7075 alloy and some titanium.

[gunbuilder]

"Started dating a skinny fashion model."

Me too, and she has a nice butt too.

Thanks,
Paul

[CCWKen]

Nice butt on a skinny fashion model?... impossible.
I'm imbarrased to say my "real" job has kept me pretty busy. (25 Ford Touring, 31 Tudor, 48 Hudson, 64 Karmin Gia) I did manage to build a base, motorize and beef-up my beading machine, polish the dies and make a guide. Other than that, it's just been work, work, work.