Shop Made Tools

[Westline]

Blasting Box

My homemade blasting box.
It's made from 20mm Shutterply with standerd downlights as lighting for the box and for gloves I used drain pipe joints glued and screwed to the box and rubber glove slipped over the edges of the pipe on the inside.
The box design had a few snags but they are all sorted now.
The main problem was dust on the inside.
To get rid of that I build a water filter recycle system from a motor I scrapped at work ,a bucket half filled with water and some pool pipeing.


The air used to run fom the box through the water filter into a water catcher and then into the motor and back into the box.
Now I just blow the air into the shop after the motor since this creates a vacuum in the box keeping any dust from popping out of the seams when I start balsting.
I know it's not a good idea to use wood for the box but it is cheap, easy to work with and after 2 years stil no damage from blasting.
The only reason I made it myself is it's cheap and way bigger that store bought boxes( just to give you a idea I'm 1.85m tall and I climbed into the box while building it I could even move around inside)

[Mr Fixit]

Westline,
The air filter you are using is very ingenious can you tell us more about the water filter, is it just a bucket of water with WHAT between the inlet and outlet. I would like to duplicate (copy your great idea) this for my shop blasting cabinet.

TX Chris
Mr. Fixit for the Family

[wierdscience]

My homemade blasting box.
It's made from 20mm Shutterply with standerd downlights as lighting for the box and for gloves I used drain pipe joints glued and screwed to the box and rubber glove slipped over the edges of the pipe on the inside.
The box design had a few snags but they are all sorted now.
The main problem was dust on the inside.
To get rid of that I build a water filter recycle system from a motor I scrapped at work ,a bucket half filled with water and some pool pipeing.
The air used to run fom the box through the water filter into a water catcher and then into the motor and back into the box.
Now I just blow the air into the shop after the motor since this creates a vacuum in the box keeping any dust from popping out of the seams when I start balsting.
I know it's not a good idea to use wood for the box but it is cheap, easy to work with and after 2 years stil no damage from blasting.
The only reason I made it myself is it's cheap and way bigger that store bought boxes( just to give you a idea I'm 1.85m tall and I climbed into the box while building it I could even move around inside)

Absolutly nothing wrong with using wood for a blast cabinet.

I have in mind an idea to make a large cabinet with collapsible canvas sides so when the cabinet isn't in use it can be folded flat against the wall.

[Westline]

Westline,
The air filter you are using is very ingenious can you tell us more about the water filter, is it just a bucket of water with WHAT between the inlet and outlet. I would like to duplicate (copy your great idea) this for my shop blasting cabinet.

Hey
I made you a little mockup of how it works.

Run the inlet into the bucket under the water and run it paralell under the water level.
Make small holes in the pipes sides and plug the end.(you want small bubble to escape and not big splashes.)
The smaller the bubble the better the filter works since more of the dusty air is in contact with the water.
When choosing a "bucket" it has to be rigid (otherwise it will crush under the vacuum) and it has to be air tight.
Try and get as much space between the surface of the water and the outlet to stop the splashing water to get sucked into your pump.
Also put in a water catcher between the filter and your pump just to be safe it does not have to be fancy. I used a Fridge water bottle and just mounted it up side down. ( see the middle of the box in my pic's)
Just make sure your switch off the pump before you try and open the cap on the water catcher else it looses vacuum and try to suck in air through the cap and all the trapped water with it.
Just a few things I have have picked up to improve the design.
To filter better and stop giant bubbles of water getting sucked up in to your pump, place a filter type fabric under the water level to stop violent splashing of the water.
If your are using a flexable pipe for the inlet just brace it to something to keep it under the water (I braced it by duct taping it to Alu rod) else as soon as the pipe fills with air it starts to float on the water.
If you are not going to drain the water often just put a bit of Chlorine or Amonia in the water to kill any little bugs that wants to start growing in the still standing water. You don't want to turn your shop into a biolab

[Westline]

My little toolpost grinder

I needed to do a internal grind on a 8mm bore on SS.
Just the excuse I needed to make a new toy.
I wanted to firstly have it fit my QCTP the be able to adjust the height, secondly it had to be as simple as possible to make and lastly have as little as possible between the grinder and material when I run the grinder paralalle to the work.
I ran into a few snags like always ...the main bore for holding had to be offset to oneside of a round bar I had....the problem No 4 jaw chuck.... the solution upgrade your medical insurance and do this at low rpm.


Next just drilled and tapped 3 holes, machine the backend for a QCTP grip.
Then Ta DAAAA.


The only problem I have now it when I try to release the tool the holder does not spring back but stays a little bent.
The material is Bright Mild Steel.
I thought hardening it may solve my problem ......any surgestions??

[strokersix]

Put a jack screw or two in from the bottom to spread the gap.

[Lew Hartswick]

The only problem I have now it when I try to release the tool the holder does not spring back but stays a little bent.
The material is Bright Mild Steel.
I thought hardening it may solve my problem ......any surgestions??

I would say that means you madet he hole a bit too large and youre
exceeding the "elastic limit" of the material. :-)
...lew...

[Westline]

Put a jack screw or two in from the bottom to spread the gap.

Thanks good idea, I think I'll go with that one.

[Alistair Hosie]

This was beautifully set out on a four jaw chuck, about which I have experience in my head re the rights and wrongs around this,but little practice.In other words I know how it's done but have not done it alone, with any degree of accuracy.So with my lack ofconfidence I would be tempted to do thjis in a drill press and mill.Would that not work for off centre drilling of holes?Alistair

[glenn105]

5C SPIN INDEXERS - the truth

This idea I picked up on another web site it was posted by Mr Glass, he was reluctant to post here so I picked up on the idea and thought I would share it. The idea is to take out the endplay that is common with these spin Jigs, as it is maintained by a ring with set screws that come loose.

A bushing with two lock rings installed over the barrel and held in place with roll pins.

I've seen this mod done by several people out there. It seems that many people use these 5C Spin Indexers for MILLING, rather than for their intended purpose of GRINDING. Although it is a cheap tool that some people choose to use for milling indexed parts, it is really not meant to be used this way.

The spindle collar with the set screw that you have eliminated and replaced with threaded locking collars was meant to allow for setting spindle travel while grinding cylindrical parts on a surface grinder. Hence the name, "SPIN INDEXER." It is not for "removing endplay from the spindle."

For example, if you hold a 5/16" shaft in a 5C collet in the spin indexer and want to grind the end of the shaft down to 1/4", you would SPIN the spindle while lowering the surface grinding head a fraction at a time until the 1/4" diameter is achieved. However, you are limited to grinding an area only as wide as the grinding wheel if you lock your spindle with threaded collars. The Spin Indexer normally allows you to loosen the set screw in the spindle collar and slide the collar back as far as you need to allow adjustable movement of the spindle. This way, if you want to grind the end of the shaft down to a 1/4" for a distance of say 1.5" along the shaft, you can set the collar 1-1/2" back on the spindle and lock it with the set screw. Then, you can spin the spindle while sliding the shaft forward as you grind to cover a greater area of the shaft. The collar with set screw tightened will act as a STOP for the 1.5" travel of the spindle so that you will grind your shaft to the exact length desired.

Again, I can understand if you bought one of these tools as a cheap method of being able to mill indexed parts on occasion, but it truly was NOT designed for this purpose, which is also why they do not have T-SLOT holding provisions for milling tables. The 5c Spin Indexers are not very rigid and therefore have limited capabilities when it comes to precision milling. These 5C Spin Indexers were meant to be simply be held in place on a surface grinder's magnetic chuck, so bolt-down provisions are not required features of these tools.

If you own one of these 5C Spin Indexers and plan on modifying it with the threaded lock rings, you might want to re-consider unless you have two of them. One for grinding and one set up for milling. Otherwise, you're just ruining your 5C Grinding Spin Indexer.

If you are planning on modifying one of these tools for milling, adding slots for bolts to hold it down on a milling table is a good idea, but I would also recommend bolting KEYS on the bottom of the indexer to fit your table T-SLOTS in order to align it properly in the X-direction, parallel to your milling head.

-Glenn

[John R]

Spin Index

Glenn105
If you pull the shaft out as you describe would you loss the rotational position ? The pin is not very long
John R

[glenn105]

John R - rotational position?

Hi, john -

I'm not sure that I understand your question. The only pin that is used with these Spin Indexers is the LOCK PIN for setting the index at a particular angle. This would be for grinding a flat or other feature on a shaft held by the 5c collet.

What I was talking about is if you are SPINNING a shaft using the handle at the back of the spindle to fully grind the diameter of the shaft. You would NOT use the lock pin at all when spinning these indexers. It's the LOCK RING at the rear of the spindle that I was saying you can slide back by loosening the set screw. Then re-tighten the set screw when the lock ring is set wherever you need it to be. This will give you however much travel you want on the spindle to be able to grind longer sections of the shaft to a particular diameter.

-Glenn

[John R]

OK Now I understand
thanks
John R

[Tel]

Tailstock turret for the Myford



.. with tooling

[gary hart]

Copied couple of tools already shown, same principle only a little different.

Copied ehughes for holding small parts to silver braze. One end has screw to move carbon in or out of thin wall brass tube and other end is spring loaded to push against first carbon.






Copied Wierdscience's band saw circle cutting jig. Mine is for a smaller 16" Walker-Turner saw and not as ridgid support where it clamps on, but on inital test seems it will work good.



Shown in use the jig is clamped round shaft with flat on one side that holds upper bearing guides,