Shop Made Tools

[moe1942]

Great ideas..KISS wins every time.

[DATo]

All Angle Tool Grinding Fixture

This is a fixture for grinding lathe tools on the surface grinder. The body tilts 15 degrees in each horizontal plane and translates through 180 degrees on the top turret. In one view the table tilt appears to be off the 15 degree scale but the opposite face is recording the tilt in the negative plane.



The base was cut from a solid piece of material despite the suggestion of a casting. The cavities for the half round tilting planes were cut on a Brown & Sharp horizontal mill using a side-cutting horizontal cutter. The slotted screw below the top graduations locks an internal brass dog to a dovetailed slot in the top turret (unseen) and the slightest pressure locks it securely. There is another such screw on the opposite side (two locks).



The flipper-like paddles on the sides lock the horizontal planes in position.




EDIT: I gave this fixture a clean-up for its internet debut but it is actually 43 years old. I made this in advanced machine shop class (third year) when I was 17 years old. The emphasis in "advanced" class was surface, form, and cylindrical grinding to close tolerances. The teacher, Mr. Paul Wolf, was the ultimate perfectionist and lest we get a big head over our project he saved the best for last ... though we had many turntables we had to FREEHAND turn the radii on the elevated pads of the baseplate using the X and Y axis of the mill synchronously with a ball end mill. My butt was so tight during this last operation you wouldn't have been able to pull a pin out with a tractor. Imagine scraping on your last day of the project *L*

[Ken_Shea]

OK DATo Fess up, where'd you buy that at

That is really very nice workmanship, any issues in actual use?

[sasquatch]

Impressive looking piece!!!! Very nice workmanship!!

[DATo]

OK DATo Fess up, where'd you buy that at

That is really very nice workmanship, any issues in actual use?

Greetings Kenny ! To the best of my knowledge there is only one way to get one of these ... you have to make it yourself. *LOL* Read the edit in my OP - explains it all.

EDIT: oooops, forgot to answer your question ... no issues at all, it works great. I have even used additional fixturing in the toolholding slot to hold round and polygon shapes like D punches ect and it has always done the job for me.

[plunger]

I am curious to know how you do the elevated area where the slots are ? When you say you do it freehand with x and y are you eyeballing it or is maths involved. For those who are mathematically challenged is there a simpler way to do this.How do you get that snazzy pattern on the side plates. I bet I am not the only one who would like to see this in all its separate pieces and do you know where one can get hold of the original blue prints. Nice work.

[DATo]

I am curious to know how you do the elevated area where the slots are ? When you say you do it freehand with x and y are you eyeballing it or is maths involved. For those who are mathematically challenged is there a simpler way to do this.How do you get that snazzy pattern on the side plates. I bet I am not the only one who would like to see this in all its separate pieces and do you know where one can get hold of the original blue prints. Nice work.

Hi Plunger ! The material all around the elevated pads was removed thus decreasing the height of the surface. Originally the teacher told us to leave the edges around the elevated pads as rectangular in shape and wider than the drawing dimensions, he then later told us to make it rounded.

The "rounding" was done on a short table Bridgeport milling machine. There are ways to do this very precisely using a device called a "turntable" (or "rotary table"); however, the teacher insisted that we do it "freehand". By "freehand" I mean that we were to turn the X axis handle and the Y axis handle at the same time. If you turn only one handle the cut would be linear but by turning both handles you can generate a radius, but it is extremely difficult to do to any degree of accuracy. If you look closely at one of the pictures you can see that the radius is far from perfect.

This instructor had a habit of teaching his students a lesson in humility when they thought they had done a great job by giving them a task that would almost certainly result in less than perfect results. It was his way of saying that we still had far to go and much to learn despite how well we may have thought of ourselves at the time. He was a good teacher and I am grateful for everything he taught me and in a very strange sort of way I am even proud of those less than perfect radii despite the imperfections because that was the very best I could have done at the time with my limited experience.

[DATo]

An quick and easy to make 5C collet stop

Monday of this week I had a "hay job" going in the shaper (squaring s.s. blocks) which was going to last all day. The engineers were playing with the next set of drawings and material was on order for the next phase of the project so I had nothing to do but watch the ram of the shaper going back and forth. I decided to try out an idea for a 5C collet stop I had been playing with so as the shaper shaped away i went over to the lathe and started whipping this baby together. I had no plans or prints - I just sort of made it on the fly making small adjustments as I went along. It turned out to work surprisingly good and I thought I'd share it with you guys.



1) The screw is a piece of brass 1/2-20 threaded rod with one end turned to a shoulder to accept the knurled brass adjustment knob which was simply Loctited in place. The other end of the screw is tapped as deep as I could go with a 5/16- 24 thread to accept the small hex screw which locks to it with the small hex jam nut. The large brass hex nut locks the whole thing to the inside of the collet.

2) The solid conical piece is made of CRS with a 1/2 dia. hole running through it. The largest diameter (the rim opposite the small end of the cone) is slightly smaller than the OD of a 5C collet such that the drawbar can easily clear it to engage the threads of the collet. The diameter at the large end of the taper is slightly smaller than the ID of the 5C.

3) The split, internally cut conical piece is also made of CRS and is tapped 1/2 - 20. The OD is the same as the male conical part. The angle on both CRS pieces is 15 degrees on the compound (30 degrees included angle). The female tapered part was marked, by eye, on the end opposite the taper while it was still one piece at approximately 120 degrees, then held by the ends in the mill vise, and split with a .025 slitting saw into three pieces.



The interesting thing about this design is the O ring groove on the split female tapered part. The O ring size was chosen to fit very tightly to the bottom of the groove when the part was still solid, and the groove was cut to a depth such that the O ring would protrude slightly above the OD of the part. When the split parts are reassembled on the 1/2 - 20 screw the O ring holds them all in place, and when you put the adaptor into the 5C collet the rubber acts to create an interference fit keeping the adaptor from falling out accidently. You have to sort of "pop" it in with the palm of your hand. CAUTION: If you intend to make this be sure to test the fit with the O ring in place in a collet BEFORE you split the part or it might be too tight to go in and it will be very difficult to recut after it has been split.



By holding on slightly to the rim of the adaptor (CRS) which protrudes from the back of the 5C in assembly and tightening the large brass nut the female taper is pulled along the male taper and expands to lock the internal assembly in place. The knurled knob is used only as a fine adjustment to adjust the position of the "stop" (the 5/16 hex screw at the other end). I've tried it out and it seems to work well.

EDIT: And, of course, you can make a variety of different shaped "stops" (5/16 hex screw) to accommodate different needs; and also, the 1/2 -20 screw can be drilled much deeper for times when you want to remove the 5/16 -24 "stop" and have longer work pieces go deeper into the collet to bottom out at the bottom of the 1/2 -20 drilled hole.

EDIT 2 : If you don't have O rings available try doubling up a couple of heavy duty rubber bands ... for real.

[Randy]

Vise Caddy

I had thought of making a vise caddy ever since the first time I saw one in an SPI catalog many years ago. But how to mount it? To the column dovetail like the commercial unit? How about the overarm dovetail? Maybe the turret bolts? They all had downsides in complexity or loss of table travel. I could never make a decision before losing interest for another year. Eventually it dawned on me, just mount it on the wall! So I gave my forehead a V8 slap and made this. I wish I'd thought of it years ago.



Of course, most of the time it's parked against the wall, empty. I should make an accessory tool tray to fit it, or at least a cup holder.

[DATo]

That is one slick idea Randy. I've never seen one like that before. I also like the idea of an accessory tool tray. The arm closest to the vise would make a great support for a rack of R8s, chucks ect. One could just pull it over when needed and tuck it away when done. Very, very cool !!!

[GRH]

I would like a shelf about 1/4 to 3/4 below so as if it starts to slip it will not fall or move very far. The holding the entire weight of the vice by the jaws bothers me especially if they start to slip.

Graeme H.

[danlb]

I would like a shelf about 1/4 to 3/4 below so as if it starts to slip it will not fall or move very far. The holding the entire weight of the vice by the jaws bothers me especially if they start to slip.

Graeme H.

The trick to cure that problem is to have small protrusions on the face of the bar that you clamp onto. The studs match the holes for the screws that hold the fixed jaw on. It does not need to be much to totally negate any slippage.

Dan

[The Fixer]

If the vise hasn't let a workpiece go during a heavy cut it ain't gonna fall of the arm!! Sometimes things get a bit over-thunk! lol
jmho
al

Edit: and vice versa (pun intended) If it drops off the arm you should put a garbage can under it instead of a shelf! lol

[Randy]

Vice Caddy

Dan,

You mean like this?

[sasquatch]

vise,

That is a practical idea, especially for some of us old geezers here with a bad back.
Thanks for the pics.