Building The Steven's Favorite

[Rickabilly]

I hope that means you are home safe?
Rick

[SnailPowered]

Nah, the restrictions on the internet must have slipped or something. Not sure what happened but I can see youtube and photo hosting sites now I guess. It happened once before but I didn't think about opening the Steven's thread like a dummy. It's been several days. I don't imagine it will last much longer but I'm hoping!

[TomG]

I finally got around to finishing up the cat heads. The one for the spindle needed a relief cut in the taper and a locking pin which I made from a 10-32 button head cap screw. It also needed a hole for a spanner wrench.



The head for the outboard end of the spindle needed to be quite large to mount over the locking ring for the collet closer so it required 4" round instead of the 3" I used for the spindle end. Too bad I didn't realize that before I cut an extra piece of 3" Both heads also needed a bunch of 5/16-24 set screws to mount them and to hold the barrel.

Here are a couple of pics showing the cat heads in place holding the barrel.



The cat head on the spindle is probably only useful to the gunsmith, but the outboard head is useful to keep long pieces of stock from getting off center and vibrating the lathe.

[SnailPowered]

Ok, I get what they are used for. I thought that maybe that was the intention before but I wasn't sure. I wonder if I can make an outboard cathead for my Craftsman...

How long is your barrel? I can't wait to see this thing!

[EdK]

Tom,

Nice job, and you beat me to the finish line and you made two of them.

The set screws I ordered from McMaster will arrive today so I can finish up the project this weekend. I ordered brass tipped set screws, 1/4-20 to hold the cat head to the spindle and 5/16-24 for holding the stock.

Ed

[TomG]

SP: This barrel is only 24" long. The drill is 36" long but my lathe only has 20" of travel. This is going to get interesting.

Ed: If I knew we were racing I would have pushed harder!
I used 5/16-24 for both attaching the head to the lathe (outboard) and holding the barrel. There is an internal split collar that serves as a filler for the screws to bear against. The locking ring for the collet closer on my lathe made the whole design process a bit more challenging than for most lathes.

The brass screws were a good idea for yours.

Tom

[Highpower]

The only problem with the brass tipped screws is that the dog points are awfully small. I'm thinking of making some larger brass "buttons" that will slip over the ends of the screws to get more contact area.

Any thoughts guys?

[EdK]

(09-27-2012, 09:08 AM)Highpower Wrote: The only problem with the brass tipped screws is that the dog points are awfully small. I'm thinking of making some larger brass "buttons" that will slip over the ends of the screws to get more contact area.

Any thoughts guys?

Willie,

That was my thought also if the set screws did not work out as planned.

Ed

[TomG]

Willie,

Loose pads would be a pain to use and keep track of (kind of like galoshes on your four year old). You can get swivel point set screws that have the pads attached. These are from McMaster Carr.

Tom

[EdK]

(09-27-2012, 09:38 AM)TomG Wrote: Willie,

Loose pads would be a pain to use and keep track of (kind of like galoshes on your four year old). You can get swivel point set screws that have the pads attached. These are from McMaster Carr.

Tom

My thought was to super glue the pads on. As long as the length of the set screws + the pads are shorter than the ID of the bore then the screws could be removed if needed.

Ed