What did you do today?

[fasto]

Pulled apart the X-axis drive on my Hurco. Took off the servo & the motor mount. Remove the ballscrew bearing housing. Pulled the table keeper plates & the gib. Removed the table, flipped it over, removed all the X-axis auto-oiling system. Replaced the five metering valves, blew out all the lines. Checked the ways & the Turcite, it's great except for the missing piece (?). Put it all back together.
Now, I won't have to oil the X-axis ways with a brush anymore, and I can remount the chip shields! Tomorrow, have to reset the gib & reshim the keeper plates, and fix the graphics CRT driver board.

[MrDan]

I finished installing my new Teco VFD for the lathe. One minor setback and it was done. Works great. Thanks for all the info on the site, I perused it all before placing the order.

Then I worked on the door for my in the process of being built shop wood stove. That project has taken longer than I thought.

Then lastly I started working on the basketball goal I'm building for my kids, which will all be from scratch, quite literally because part of the wood is from a tree on my property that I cut down.

Oh, and I snuck ice cream to my 3 year old daughter at the store, and despite her wearing half of it on the ride home, I got by the mommy radar without getting caught.

A fairly productive day.

[Doc Nickel]

Got a little further on this:



It's a full underdrive stand for my 10" Lewis shaper. I've had the bloody thing for some three years now, never liked the "cobbled" rear drive that came with it (Lewis' were sold as "kits" to be finished, you made your own drive) and decided to make a stand/drive/tray cabinet like the older Logans had.

This has been a "spare time" project for at least three months now- and that's after I made the basic box, tray and foot almost three years ago, and then let it sit- but it's getting close. The internal motor mount and jackshaft is done, later this evening I'l set the shaper back on top and give it a final test fit and test run before I blow it all back apart for bodywork and paint.

Oh, and I have to make a latch for the door.

Doc.

[darryl]

Besides trying to figure out how to make a better widget, I've been eating a lot of Fudgee wafer stix. Mmm. Got some sun today, walked about here and there. Looked for (and found) some copper and got some good laughs from people I asked about it- the classic line- "ooh, that's gonna cost a pretty penny", or "I don't know WHERE you're gonna find THAT now". Or some reference to copper having been launched somehow "Oh, that stuff's gone through the roof ". Or a suggestion that I was going to lose a limb or two over it- "gonna cost you an arm and a leg"-

Made a few drawings, went for breaky at a place where I used to go, and apparently wasn't going to be welcome (according to someone who isn't very happy with me these days)- they were so nice to me. They make great pancakes with real strawberries and real syrup, yummy.

Paid some bills- that was costly. Now I'm thinking of going out for a french vanilla- hmm

[KiddZimaHater]

Mowed the grass for the first time this spring.
Finished grouting the wall tile in the kitchen.
Made 3 parts for a customer on the lathe.
Went to the nursery, time to start the garden.

[knudsen]

I machined off a small portion of my bank account. Ordered a lathe and bought a vise local.

This is smart, belongs in shop made tools thread! Care if I copy it in, Tiers?

I decided my new 3" x 4" tilting table needed clamps and t-nuts. So I made a few clamps out of some small thick-wall pipe.

They can be tightened down really quite tight, which surprised me somewhat. I still will probably make some more traditional ones with step blocks.

The table




Here are some of the clamps holding down a knob (for no particular reason other than the picture.)

[dp]

I converted a VHS vid to DVD, bought 42 primroses, seeded the lawn, fed the moss, swung by the shop and admired my new rotary table, bought a new RAM mezzanine for one of my servers, uploaded my new DVD to YouTube, buddied up with a stray cat, fed all the raccoons, swung by the shop and turned the crank on my new rotary table, read a chapter from my Guy Lautard's bedside reader, bought an expansion tank for my water heater, bought a new DVD burner for my MacBook Pro laptop, swung by the shop and checked the fit of my MT2 taper and centered it with my fake Blake coax indicator, re-assembled my power hacksaw, then put my Harley up for sale again.

Still had time to fry up some bacon for fried rice dinner - damn that was good.

After that I checked the fit of a small 4-jaw chuck I bought with the intent of fitting it to the new rotary table - it will be a perfect fit and I don't even have to drill new holes. I will have to make some T nuts assuming I find time to kill the moss.

And somewhere in all that I still had time to piss off another HSMer for being a speeling nazi. It's been a good day.

[knudsen]

Damn, dp, I got tired just reading about what you did today

What kinda RT did you get? They sho are fun.

[dp]

I have a small mill so got a small table - 6" from Grizzly. This guy:

http://grizzly.com/products/6-Rotary-Table-w-Div-Plates/H7527

And it's still rather large, truth be known, as it's a really small mill: http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2010/Main/531

[Peter N]

I had a very productive 2 days (Friday/Saturday) making parts for my old 1975 RD350 restoration, as I definitely want it on the road for this summer.

First up was a replacement rod and clevis for the rear drum brake, made from stainless. Here are the old and new parts:



Next up was a stainless rear wheel spindle to replace the original corroded and bent part:





And finally made some new stainless fork top bolts to replace the scruffy old aluminium items:




Now the weathers getting better the Bike is taking priority over the workshop, although it's nice to be able to combine the two.

Peter

[oldtiffie]

Nice

Nice choice Dennis.

You will like that rotary table. It should fit on your mill fine. Any smaller and it is just that much harder to get clamps and packing on as well as the job. Any bigger and its a PITA to get on and off - and you will need a hoist as lifting it is asking for back trouble. No such problems with the 6".

And just what do you do with your spare time - if you can remember what it is.

[Doc Nickel]

Since my "day" only just ended, this technically still applies.



Tomorrow is deciding where to mount the switch, figuring up a latch for the door, and finding the proper length belts.

Doc.

[John Stevenson]

Non machining day.

Was stood at the side of the pond counting my small change when I dropped a 50 pence piece in.

Finished up having to drain the pond.



Oh well off the the pub today to make up for it..

.

[knudsen]

Nice lookin' parts, Peter.

I have a small mill so got a small table - 6" from Grizzly. This guy:

http://grizzly.com/products/6-Rotary-Table-w-Div-Plates/H7527

And it's still rather large, truth be known, as it's are really small mill: http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2010/Main/531

I have the same mill, in HF clothing. If you haven't already, you might want to up the z-axis travel. I just added the longer rack ( http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...232&category=6 ) and stripped off the torsion lift parts: instant 12" z-axis travel!

Nice garden, John. If I swing by after paddling across the pond, can I go fishing in your pond?

[nheng]

Traded a gift card to a restaurant we hate for a 0.5 x 3" x 8' piece of precision ground 6061 bar. Very nice deal and the wife doesn't mind

Bought a digital bit error rate test for electronic experiments for $35. I bought the same one new for $35,000 at work ... in '85

Filed and stoned the burrs off the sides of a Palmgren dp vise I bought in high school in '71 then recut the tops of the jaws while clamped on a piece of scrap. Held shop vac near cut as I'm freaky about getting CI on the machines. Will hold small parts more precisely and looks great.

Did eye survey of shop area to figure out a way to make it look organized

Generally a smiley day with a metal theme

Den