Shop Made Tools

[medwards]

Correct, the V-jaw is fixed. The other jaw of the vise floats in sort of a box way under the v-jaw. With the V-jaw fixed, the tube is always positioned in the same place. It's a very simple setup.

alsinaj -The rotary motion and clamping are the same as the compound would be on the lathe. The two t-bolts that hold the compound on, also hold the riser.

[bg7m]

This is my favorite shop made tool. It is a slotter that mounts on the cross slide in place of the compound on my South Bend 9. It can make gears, dial markings, cog belt pulleys, splines and of course keyways, internal and external. Different size tool holders can be fitted to the business end to work in small openings or large.

Sir, that is a beautiful tool.

[fortcollinsjerry]

I build 18th century flintlocks (actually I putter but they do get finished eventually ) and part of that is holding the brass or steel furniture parts while I finish them. Cast pieces have a lot of flash along the edges. I trashed one ram rod thimble befor I started making these. I have several sizes - parts from one brass casting set are often different in size.

I turn down a shaft so there is a sliding fit for the part, drill and tap it for a hex head screw. The end part I'm going to cut off is drilled a slopy clearance fit for the screw so it moves.


Then I slice it about in half on an angle. I slide on the thimble tighten up on the screw head with an allen wrench (I've also used screws). The angle cut moves against itself and holds the part tight.





I can hold the part in a vise without damaging it and work all the way around the piece.

[Mark K]

Very nice, Jerry. I surely would like to see some of your 'eventually finished' work.

Mark

[fortcollinsjerry]

Here's a Hawken style half stock planes rifle I completed a few years ago. Kinda hard to see any details but it shoots really well - 54 caliber. This was made from a bunch of parts I bought at Friendship Indiana one year. The walnut stock was a blank and all the parts were cast steel. Lot of hand work. Took me months to get it finished.

[fortcollinsjerry]

Mark - is your's an original? would live to see it if it is.

[Mark K]

Yup, Jerry, it's an original in 54. The wood grain was sort of bland until I rubbed a lot of neat Ballistol into it.



Mark

I should probably have started a new thread here. Sorry, won't happen again.

[gary hart]

I guess Hawkins are tools. Besides for hunting they come in handy going up steep slopes to use as a third leg. Built mine in 1973. The barrel started out 50 caliber but by time got done lapping the barrel it was 52 cal.

[macona]

I showed my shop made tubing bender a few pages back. But, what good is a tubing bender without a tubing notcher. I just finished my lathe notcher parts. Works great, especially with the power feed.

Ditch the hole saws and get some annular cutters. Even the cheap ones on ebay are better than a hole saw and they are only about $20. A friend of mine was using them to cope joints out of chrome moly for a recumbent bicycle.

[bborr01]

Ditch the hole saws and get some annular cutters. Even the cheap ones on ebay are better than a hole saw and they are only about $20. A friend of mine was using them to cope joints out of chrome moly for a recumbent bicycle.

Hi Macona,

Thanks for the tip on the annular cutters. They look like a light duty shell mill, and do look like they would work a lot better than a hole saw for notching tubing.

Brian

[The Artful Bodger]

A simple shop made tool, centre drill arbor.

Do you ever get tired of swapping the centre drill in and out with other drills in your tailstock chuck? Me too, so this I what I did this morning.


First I found a centre with a drilled centre at the small end.



I mounted that in the lathe. One could say "A centre between centres"!



I used my DRO to accurately align the axis of the compound with the side of the centre.


I turned a taper using just the compound being careful to lock the cross slide and carriage.


END Part One

[The Artful Bodger]

I also drilled and tapped the end of the taper.



After removing the chuck I could test my taper in the spindle, good fit!



I turned the end of the work so that there was a parallel piece and another taper. The small bit was parted off after I had cut a thread on the parallel section.


Using a specially ground tool I was able to run the spindle backwards and with the compound still set for the taper angle I cut another taper inside the end of the workpiece.

END Part Two

[The Artful Bodger]

The end of the workpiece was then tapped deeper.



Then I tried the small piece screwed into the end of the workpiece. It looked good.



This is the completed small piece, you can see the thread, the taper, the hole through the middle that matches the diameter of the centre drill and of course the slots that I cut with the HACK saw.



Not much more to do except to put the assembly in Sally shaper to cut spanner flats on it.


END of Part Three

[The Artful Bodger]

Here it is mounted in the tail stock. I also put a plug in the small end so that the tail stock ejector thingy would have something to bear on.

Although not the most elegant device to be posted on THSM&MWS I must confess to being quite pleased with the outcome.


END

[John Stevenson]

See post 32 for a variation on this, not the holder part , which is very good but the length.

A lot of import lathes with small tailstock travels would not be able to reach the work with a short holder.

.