What did you do today?

[Duffy]

Changing the engine on a chipper/shredder. B&S dont have parts ,(fuel tank and carburetor,) for the old 5 hp, or IF I can find em, they will be as much as Princess Auto's Chinese 6.5 hp engine- $120.00. BUT Murphy never sleeps. The old engine had a 1" crankshaft with a 1/4" keyway. The new one is 3/4" (turned down from 1") with a 3/16" keyway. Made a bushing, now to cut a stepped key. Duffy

[vpt]

Nice!
Had been thinking of doing that for a long time as well, so it was a noticeable difference then?

Yes! Very big difference! I had my cross slide all adjusted perfectly before the bearing install. After the bearing install the cross slide moved so effortlessly I was able to tighten down the gibs more which should help in the never ending battle of eliminating the random atlas chatter. I am so pleased with the results I am going out today to measure up the carriage handwheel shaft to get bearings and do the same mod. I just replaced the bushing for the handwheel a few months ago because it had some side to side slop in it. But now I see the light of bearings and want them everywhere! lol



Today as far as building stuff I may make a new cross slide nut. I already made a new screw and now have the bearings installed so the only thing left for the cross slide is the nut.


Some great stuff people built already in this thread! It makes my day to see things people have built or are working on. It also gives me great motivation.

[J Tiers]

The little tilt table now has the last part needed, table keys. Longways and crossways both, just in case I need both.

It's convenient that the mill table works with 3/8" keystock, just a little trimming needed, usually.

I also finished a wall plastering job I have needed to do for a year or three ....... no machining content on that one.

[Punkinhead]

I bought a Bridgeport two weeks ago so decided to put a heater in the garage since I'll be spending more time out there. I took a bunch of drywall off one wall in preparation for the plumber to run the gas line. Took the opportunity to hang a couple extra 220V and 110V outlets while the drywall was out of the way. The plumber came out to give a quote last week and, of course, he'll be running the gas line up the wall directly behind the Bridgeport. So I spent today replacing the drywall I'd torn out, moving the Bridgeport out of the way, and tearing out the drywall for the gas line. I also got the heater hung (ceiling mount, wasn't particularly pleasant) and ran the line for the thermostat. I'm still working up the nerve to cut a hole in the roof for the vent.

Guess I'll get more practice tramming the head when I move the mill back into its corner.

[darryl]

Sir John, Earl of Pubwater, I'm concerned- did you find your 50 pence?

[vpt]

It was 61F outisde today so I eneded up raking and picking up sticks from winter. I did get time to get out and start working on that cross feed nut today, just have to drill and tap the two holes.

[Carld]

I snapped a 1/2" dia x 2" length M42 roughing endmill like snapping a pencil in half. It slapped the wall like someone threw a rock.

Tomorrow I will order a new one to finish the job.

[John Stevenson]

Sir John, Earl of Pubwater, I'm concerned- did you find your 50 pence?

But of course, this was priority, how could I go to the pub on Sunday without my 50 pence ?

[winchman]

I built these two fixtures:



for lifting a set of transmission shaft and gear assemblies:



after they're assembled on the stands I built several months ago:

[vpt]

I finished the nut cross feed nut and there was little improvement. I think an adjustable nut would be the only way to get .050 or better backlash with the little acme screw.

[danlb]

I made a screwdriver last night.

I bought a new UPS for my wife's computer. Of course, I had to open the old one to see about replacing the battery. The case was held together with philips screws at the end of a narrow 7 inch deep hole.

My longest thin philips head screwdriver was too thick to go in the hole.

I made the scredriver from a 10 inch piece of 1/4 inch cold rolled rod. I cut it on my mill. The spin indxer set at a slight angle to the X axis with the front elevated 1/4 inch. That let me carve away 40% of the height and thickness at 90 degree intervals. Looking from the end, it left a cross that was tapered. It was still straight sided, so a minute on the bench grinder provided the typical V shape when looking from the side.

Less than 10 minutes to make a sloppy tool that worked on the first try. None of the angles were measured. It's probably way off.

Dan

[BadDog]

I made a screwdriver last night.

I have had to make several of them. One was to help my son replace a broken case on a DS3 (or something like that, hand held game system). It used tiny little 3 point screws (similar to Phillips, but 3 point). I turned the end profile on a proper sized drill blank, then mounted it in a collet block. Next I mounted a finely dressed (using Norbide, to desired angle) dremmel wheel in the mill, and used it to notch the end. Mounted it in a pin vise/chuck and it worked like a charm. I love making tools to defeat proprietary "keep the owner out" fasteners...

[J Tiers]

I love making tools to defeat proprietary "keep the owner out" fasteners...

So do I..... Until I find that I could have bought the driver end for 50 cents.

just about all of them are available in hex bits, just as fast as they come out with new ones they show up on the open market. of course sometimes hex bits won't fit

[Ken_Shea]

So do I..... Until I find that I could have bought the driver end for 50 cents.

That's called "sticking it to the man", meaning us

[hojpoj]

I made a screwdriver last night.

I would have, but I was out of Orange Juice

Finished making a DI holder so I could finally figure out how out-of-tram my recently acquired mill-drill's head is. The result is somewhere between 'horribly' and 'disastrously' so (about .008 per 4" along Y, .002 per 4" along X). Haven't done a teardown of it yet, so it may just need snugging-up of the column gibs.