What did you do today?

[RichR]

They sure are purdy, nice work.

[plunger]

TGTOOL what are they and how do you get the pretty little lines on?

[batt-man]

They sure are purdy, nice work.

agreed - VERY nice work indeed.

I'd also be interested to know how you did the marking...

[TGTool]

TGTOOL what are they and how do you get the pretty little lines on?

My customer is building or modifying some fixtures for their customer. The requirement is for small movements to adjust position. They sorted out how to make the slides but contracted out the dials for operator re-positioning. Because of their particular space requirements they drew up somewhat odd shaped dials.

I built a small tool that mounts on the QCTP and acts as a short stroke hand shaper. For graduations it has a pointed tool mounted and a turret stop for different stroke lengths. To get rotational positioning I've drilled holes around the periphery of the backplate of the chuck so a spring loaded detent pin mounted on the ways by the chuck gives a quick index. Then it's all just count and stroke.

Thinking that others might also benefit from the tool I've got drawings and kits with drawings at my website. Other cutters I can mount are for internal keyways.

[vpt]

Bathroom wall bracing. Finally done as of today with this bathroom work.

[duckman]

I did a project for our local library, had to repair the automatic door closer/leave open thingy the screws that were in there were to short and look like a #16 they don't make or/have in stock 3" long screws so I bought some 3" lag bolts 5/16" X 3" long , turned the head round cut the taper and then cut the screw driver slot they look professional.

[digiex_chris]

I finished making a boring head! It was way too much work for how much a cheap but passable one goes for, but I can never find out of the cheap ones have a removable arbor since I don't have an R8 head. They never have either the 5/8" shank or 3/8" shank holes that I want to use either. I'll buy the next one and modify if needed, this was a lot of work. It was the only thing standing in my way of this model engine block but every time I ran into that problem I found something else to keep me busy or another way to do it, so I forgot when I'd be browsing ebay. This time, it's the only way to do this one operation, and I thought "how much work could it be?" turns out, enough to make buying one worth it. Pretty pleased though, stainless steel, nice graduated dial with 0.001, 0.005, and 0.01 divisions, and only one ugly hacksaw slot (because of me being stupid with a slitting saw)!


(oops!)

[R.Bolte.Jr]

Finally got around to adding a (cheap) dial indicator to the cross slide on the Logan...

Just had a little time to try it out... Should have done that YEARS ago!

Made a stop rod for it for threading also...

Just have to get a nicer looking cap head for the stop, hardware store quality was all I had in a 10-32x1 on a Sunday.

[J Tiers]

made a fixture to bend heatsinks for a Power Integrations chip.... HS is 1mm aluminum, with slots for a clip. Already stuck it in the briefcase, and I'm too lazy to go get it for a pic.

Also cleaned up a chuck that came on that metalcraft lathe I am cleaning up (in spare time) for my friend. Some german maker, no idea who. But it is virtually identical to (but bigger than) a chuck I have that came on an EMCO-Maier lathe about 20 years ago.

[plunger]

Today I got to use my homemade tap on its second job.This is an adapter I made for a shower mixer .I made this adapter from delrin. It takes a thread very well. I was expecting alot of stringy threads but it came out real clean. I also got a chance to use my dividing head and its the first time I have used a ball nose cutter to make the nut.

This is to allow a plumbing company to use their clever american system to repair burst pipes by injecting epoxy into the pipes to repair the burst pipe.www.nuflow.co.za

[KiddZimaHater]

A customer came by the other day with a broken Chinese casting.
It's part of a new wood-working machine that he ordered from China.
(Naturally it arrived broken into 5 pieces)
I glued it together, took measurements, and machined a new part for him out of a solid plate of 1018 steel.
Part is 13" long, 7" wide, 2.5" thick.
My part's on top, the original broken Chinese casting is on bottom.
........

........
And here's the final assembly, with everything attached:
............

[winchman]

I welded up this roll-around stand for this 48"x72" whiteboard that was originally mounted on a wall.



When I started out, the big flat work table was occupied, so I had to do some bizarre things to put it together. I wish I'd taken a picture of it, but... Anyway, I finally got a chance to put it on the table.



It looks like I did OK putting it together.





The bad thing is there's a similar 48" x 96" whiteboard left to do Monday. I hope it turns out as well.

[Arcane]

Today was a good day. I baked a couple of loaves of bread (from frozen loafs...I'm not that into baking ) then I visited my buddy on his acreage and gifted him and his wife with a meat/food slicer. They've been talking of buying one for awhile but never got around to it. Then he and I went out and finished the wiring for the lights in my shop (40' x 60' x 15' ceiling). Now we have lights at the flick of a switch...actually lots of light since we installed a total of 8 four foot long 6 bulb T5 fixtures and the shop's interior is white.

[danlb]

I fixed a little HF grinder that I use to sharpen tungstens. I discovered some badly tapped holes and malformed screws when I put it back together. The threads on the screws did not match any of my SAE or metric threads gages.

Having a well equipped shop, I grabbed one of my tap sets and drilled out the holes and re-tapped for #10-24. Then I found I had zero/none/zilch #10-24 screws or bolts. Lots and lots of #10-32 but none in 24 tpi.

I was debating a trip to the hardware store VS single pointing a screw from 1/4 inch stock on the lathe when I came across a 3 foot length of #10-24 and a drawer full of nuts. I have a TIG welder, so 5 minutes later I had a couple of bolts, ready to use.



Dan

[darryl]

Made a mounting fixture for the mill. Started with a piece of 3x3 1/2 inch thick angle, cut two pieces to 6 inches long to suit my mill table. Cut one flange on each piece to 1-3/4 inch wide, faced both surfaces so the large flange lays flat on the table and the other is an accurate vertical. Milled a groove across the large flange and fitted a key using bolts and JB weld. This drops into the center T-slot. Bolt this down using T-nuts in the other two slots, and I have a quick and accurate vertical reference surface at precisely 90 degrees across the table to bolt stuff to, or to use for aligning something to 90 before bolting it down.

These are basically vise jaws. The other identical piece is the second jaw, but doesn't have the key. I can lay something flat on parallels between them, then use C-clamps to pinch the jaws together. Makes for a solid way to mount something and keeps it close to the table, plus it has a large capacity. I quite often work with sizeable pieces of pvc plate, so if I need more distance between jaws than my C clamps can handle, I'll use threaded rod through holes in the jaws to get clamping force.

I have another set of 'jaws' like this, but not with a key to get a quick setting to 90 degrees. I made these new ones to 1-3/4 inch height so now I have a range of jaw heights I can use from 3/4 inch up to 3 inches.

My next project in a similar vein could be another similar piece of angle, but longer and keyed to fit the x axis. That will make it easier and quicker to fixture in that direction. For the limited rigidity that my mill is capable of, the 1/2 inch angle is plenty strong enough for this type of fixturing.