Shop Made Tools

[chucketn]

Stefan,
Where did you get the design for the low profile clamps? Again, nice work!

Chuck

[Dan Dubeau]

Indicator holder that I can clamp onto edge finder. Had a bunch of really quick run stuff last week, with all differing z heights. Pain in the rear to swap tools between my indicator, and edge finder all the time to set offsets, so I made this. Have yet to make a nice thumbscrew for the back, but it's on the to do list (right after I make a set of rope knurls....)


Cut the dovetail using the dovetail cutter I made a few years ago (also in this thread).

[Arthur.Marks]

Where did you get the design for the low profile clamps?

AMF - a German workholding company. They have a number of other unique, low-profile designs. Peruse >here< for convenience.

[chucketn]

Thank you, Arthur! i'll be busy for hours checking that site out!

Chuck

[KJ1I]

Arthur -

That's one dangerous site. They even provide CAD models!!!

Drool on the keyboard is bad.

[stefang]

thats a really neat design one i've not seen before.

They are not my design, i have seen those made by AMF

I feel that kind of clamp on thinner parts also tends to bend them up in the middle, something a vise doesn't do with the longer clamping surfaces involved. Less pressure on the low-profile clamps would be required if they had knurled or serrated surfaces at the clamping points. Do they have that?

They put out a incredible amount of side clamping force that will bend thin parts with ease, you have to be quite carefull not to do that. The clamping surfaces are not serated i like them smooth. If more friction is needed i like a piece of copy paper in between...

Stefan

[mars-red]

The Jacobs chuck that came with my Rivett, while nice to use, is only 3/8" capacity. I didn't think that would be a big deal at all, but after a couple of days of using the machine I was quickly aggravated... I guess I was pretty used to having a 1/2" capacity chuck after all. Of course the Rivetts are a proprietary, and from what I can tell undocumented, taper... and I don't have a taper attachment... but I set about making a couple of adapters anyway. I had never turned accurate long tapers like this before (just short tapers for collet shanks, etc), so as a test I started by making an adapter for a tiny little Rohm chuck that I have. I may use it once in a blue moon. That turned out pretty respectable, so I turned my attention toward a JT33 adapter to fit my cheap-o 1/2" chuck. I started with 1" diameter O1. I started with measurements from my existing tailstock fittings to determine an angle that was in the ballpark, and made a few roughing cuts between centers until I got an alright fit. I heat treated the roughed part, then returned it to centers for final tweaks to the angle and finishing. After a finishing pass, I did a quick polish then borrowed from some of my horological finishing knowledge and burnished the surface using a 5/8" wide HSS blank with a grain lapped into it. This is by far the largest part I've ever burnished but it worked pretty well.

I didn't start taking pictures until after the Rivett taper was finished - here it is between centers, using my shop-made driving dog:


And here it is after reversing and turning the JT33 taper. Notice my down-and-dirty improvised driving dog:


And the completed adapter - fairly professional looking, if I do say so myself!


And here it is in the tailstock, with the chuck installed:


Maybe I should have turned the JT33 taper a bit more to get the chuck closer to the shoulder... but it's fine I guess. I'm really happy with the fit of the tapers. Installing with a sharp rap from a small block of wood, it took a surprising amount of force to loosen it back up.

[sasquatch]

Nice work.

[mattthemuppet]

crikey, that's a nice bit of work. Certainly looks a whole lot better than my attempts at making arbors! I didn't get the burnishing bit though - how does that work? Are you impressing some kind of grit into a HSS blank and using it as a sort of grinder/ polisher thing?

[vpt]

Needs a couple springs yet.

[mars-red]

crikey, that's a nice bit of work. Certainly looks a whole lot better than my attempts at making arbors! I didn't get the burnishing bit though - how does that work? Are you impressing some kind of grit into a HSS blank and using it as a sort of grinder/ polisher thing?

Thanks very much!

Burnishing is common practice in watchmaking but I rarely hear about its use in any other context. It's a very effective way of obtaining a final finish while at the same time work hardening the surface. No grit is used, just a smear of clean light oil (wintergreen oil supposedly works the best for steel, but I don't have any). Burnishing a flat surface, you'd use a flat burnishing tool that could be made of anything hard... high speed steel, carbide, and sapphire/ruby are the most common. A light grain is applied to the burnisher's surface by lapping it against a fine abrasive (the surface must be flat and polished beforehand), so that the direction of the grain is a bit like a single cut file - usually at a bit of an angle as it goes across the face, or in some cases straight across. I break the corners on mine with a fine abrasive. The burnisher is used sort of like a file, but with lots of pressure and with the work spinning quite fast - you want a really high surface speed. The oil will darken up with the particles of material removed, but there is more material displacement and compression than removal. Your work needs to have a real nice polish before you start, otherwise you'll just end up with a lot of bright rings across the surface.

I typically use this technique an very very small work, and it goes very quickly. Here's an example of a watch part being turned from 5mm diameter stock - the large seat in the middle, and everything to the right of it, have been polished and then burnished (wish the focus was better in this shot):

[chip's]

Andy,nice work on the brake for your press. Could you give some details on the building, please?

[_Paul_]

I always seem to be at the wrong end of the Bridgeport's table when I need to stop the power feed, I have tried to grab the bare rod and manipulate that with varying results, so I made a second handle even tried to replicate the shape of the original handle.









Paul

[vpt]

Andy,nice work on the brake for your press. Could you give some details on the building, please?

Thanks! Not much to it, a couple of press dies from the local machine shop for $30, couple tubes the fit inside of each other from the scrap bin, and a couple lengths of heavy wall square tube for the base/fit the die tang. Weld it all up and there is a press die. Like I mentioned I do need to get springs for it yet so it returns up on its own.

Unfortunately the dies are made to make a 120ish degree bend which is ok But I would ultimately like to make a jig to have removable dies for box and pan and interchangeable die forms.

[sasquatch]

Nice work everyone!! (Couldn't find that "Like Button". Lol)