Miracle ;-)

[rmatel]

After 12 hrs [ hey, I'm a newbee using a 3in1 ] I finally finished a cast iron backing plate for my new Bison 5C chuck.
Mounted it and checked runout on the tapered surface; less than plus or minus .0005". got so excited I peed my pants. Now on top of having to clean up all than dirty swarf I got to clean that up too ;-)
Bob
P.S. Cast Iron ought to be banned from home shops ;-)

[Rotate]

Keep the iron filing and let the kids have field day with a magnet. You can spray it on top of paper with a magnet underneath and you can do a show and tell on magnetic field. Ok, that's pretty lame...may be we should ban it

BTW, isn't it amazing how time flies when you're machining.

Albert

[Thrud]

Bob
Yeah, cast Iron sure is messy. That is why I use Mr. ShopVac! Sucks all that crap right up and out of your life. Of course I would not recommend doing that if you are using suds (I do it dry).

You do not want to ban it - it is way too useful. I would suggest "Depends" (the man's panty liner) if you keep getting so excited over new toys. I find time only drags while waiting for your tax refund, a pay check, or telling a biker "nice Honda - for a girl" in front of all the other girlie men. (you could hear a pin drop...)

[bspooh]

You're starting to scare me Dave........

bent

[bighammer]

Congrats on the back plate. As for the iron dust try a shop vac like Dave. Make a make do funnel out of card board or tin and duct tape it to catch most of the cuttings if you have a lot of iron to turn.

As for the other,when we were babies we wore diapers,,,when you are older,, it Depends!!

[JIM DEWOLF]

Cast iron is a bit of a problem on small machines. Shop vac is great. I am using mine to pick up all the milling chips, wet or dry and it sure does a great job. Only thing is the hole on the 2 inch hose is getting smaller. Gee, I wonder why?
Talking about cast iron, when I was just a young guy - in the very early 50's I was running a 36 inch Bertrum boring mill (Vertical lathe). One of the main josbs was machining 12 groove "D" section sheaves about 30 inches in diameter. These are two head machines so you can be finishing the ID and facing the OD at the same time, keeping you on your toes (and making the foreman happy). So cutting the D grooves is great because you can sit down (unheard of in those days) and concentrate on the grooves. After half an hour or so, your boots are totaly submerged in cast chips. All of a sudden the heat gets through to your feet and the only way to get relief is to kik them off or run for the water hose. This only happens once!
I was making $1.95 an hour which was top rate. But if I could get those big sheaves done in (what I thought ) 8 hours, I could get a raise of 5 cents, and I wanted that bad.
So I finely got my time down to 8 hours including keyseating, and setscrewing. Man, was I proud! So I asked the boss, a one eye'd B. (lost his other eye on that same machine) if I could get my nickel couse I did it so fast. He looks at me with that one eye and says - "If I couldent do that job in 5 hours, I would give up the trade and clean toilets".
I was so pissed off that in a coulpe of days I had it down to 5 hours, and I got my nickel! O well! By the way, cat iron chips are great for the flower garden.
Jim

[kap pullen]

rmartel,
good job!

Jim,
Good story.
I ran a King Boring Mill in the seventes.
Three headed brute with an 84" table.
Think she had thirty five horse power, and went to forty r.p.m..
You had better have a good excuse to be running just two heads if the big headed
boss came around.
After a couple hours you had 4"-6" of cast iron chips all around you to walk on.
I was oiling some steel job one day when the crane operator goosed me with the hook.
If I had fallen in there I'd be mince meat.
Good thing he was up there in the cealing or I'd a knocked his block off.
Kapullen



[This message has been edited by kap pullen (edited 03-12-2002).]

[JIM DEWOLF]

Hay Cap, sure glad my machine only had 2 heads. I never would have got the 5 cents!
But I got to tell you another one. This was in another shop a d I was machining 36" T-1 rings. Real tough stuff. In those days carbides were silvered on to your shanks (by you, no tool room man in them small shops). Anyway I was pissed off because I could'nt make any time because if I pushed it the carbide would melt the silver solder. So, being a smart ass kid, I drill 2 holes in the shank and cross drill them neer the carbide and plug the bottom of the cross hole and sttached the air hose to the back end of the shank. This doubled my production, but also blew the fuses. Well, in those days the fuses had screwed end caps with replaceable fuse links. So I doubled the links thereby doubling the fuse capacity. So now I am realy making chips and happy as hell - until I smell ans see the smoke comming out behind the mill -but too late, that motor was fried! Man, I sure was a smart ass in those days.
Jim

[rmatel]

Mr. Shop Vac is like a cowboy's horse; it's better to have one than not but the task at hand is still a lot of dirty, monotonous, tedious work!!!

[spope14]

Love those cast iron stories. Worked night shift running a duplex mill 2- heads. Milling .300 off each end of a 12" x 12" casting, 10 on a load. Chips shoveled out the door each run, all over. Dust. The young bucks had to run this.

Would go home, shower, wash up, get real clean, hop into bed. The next day change the blackened sheets.

[Thrud]

If you have a Sears or a "ShopVac" brand vacumm you can obtain a Goretex replacement filter from Lee Valley Tools that will even allow you to suck up laser toner safely (HEPA grade). When it gets plugged you take it off, shake the layer of guck off and then spray the filter off with water and it looks just like new! Highly recommended.

[rmatel]

Dave,
Have that, done that, got the tee-shirt!!!
Still got to deal with the problem. Shop-vac does not run itself, oil soaked carbon does not "vacuum up" well, and someone still has to deal with the debris in the cracks & joints wherein hides the powder that the vac won't suck. For instance, finally took my 4-jaw outside , slobbered it with kerosine and blew it clean with an air hose.
The only thing worse than machining cast iron in your home is a benzene fire; little "snow flakes" of carbon floating around and getting into EVERYTHING.
Mom never forgave me for that boo-boo :-(

[Thrud]

RM
I use carbide inserts and machine everything dry now. I have to make a new splash pan & sump and don't have the energy or inclination to do it right now - too many irons in the fire - if you know what I mean...