Todays Project - What did you do today?

[dallen]

my project for today besides all the other junk I piddled with.

       
       
       

[SnailPowered]

That's really cool dallen! Very simple and effective!

[EdK]

Yes, I have to admit that it looks like a good solution.

I still like my Spillmasters but I may just make a couple of your design since I could use a couple more containers.

Ed

[PixMan]

Today's project, took me about 40 minutes start to finish including vacuuming up all the chips from this and other jobs done in the past couple of weeks by both me and my dad.

The holders started out as the same size shanks, 20mm (.7874"), though they hold two different widths of inserts. I put the wider one in the photos for reference. The narrow (2mm) width one needed to be reduced to a 5/8" square shank to fit into my friend Jennifer's BXA QCTP on her old 13" South Bend lathe. I first milled it down on the bottom to .627" using my dad's Bridgeport and a 4-insert 45º Widia face mill. Next, I finish ground it on the surface grinder to final size of .625", exactly. Back to the mill for the back side rough milling, then finish grind. I finally got to use one of the nice little magnetic parallels I'd bought last year.

Sorry for the fuzzy picture. I was using a hand-held compact Canon camera and it seemed to be unable to focus on the fine grind finish.




Nothing much to brag about, but I really don't have much time these days to play in the shop. I'd rather be out riding my motorbike!

[Mayhem]

Nice work Ken - Jen will be very happy when she sees that. How well would one of those cope with being reduced down to .500 for a AXA QCTP?

[DaveH]

Ken,
Very nice

DaveH

[EdK]

I so want a surface grinder. And a shaper and a horizontal mill and a bigger vertical mill and a better drill press............

Ed

[PixMan]

She loved it when I brought to her today and spent some time talking with her about various things. She was there outside her shop tinkering with suspension settings on her new Motobecane mountain bike, I was out riding my "adventure bike" (motorcycle.)

The main reason for finishing with a surface grinder is that my dad's Bridgeport is in sad shape from years of neglect before he got it. Add to that a crappy made-in-China poor copy of a Kurt vise. Betweeen the two, I couldn't hold .002" parallel on the holder so his (now) $1200 surface grinder saves the day and gets it done! I say $1200 because while we got it for the cost of renting a lift gate truck ($271), I've added the $650 coolant/dust collector unit, a dozen more wheel adapters and wheels for them, magnetic parallels, radius dresser, diamond dressing nibs and other bits & bobs.

We love having it for more than just correcting out-of-square mlling operations. There's no more accurate and easy way to grind HSS and solid carbide lathe tools, and it's nice to know just how good your milling is or isn't.

[f350ca]

Started sawing those big Ash logs. This is the smallest of the four. They're a pain to handle, have to drive the point of the canthook in with a hammer to get it to grab, they're too big to hook.



Quarter sawing them, the first boards come out of the middle, took three 1 1 1/4 boards 18 inches wide out.



These will yield a pair of book matched boards. They'll make beautiful table tops, the bigger logs should give 23 inch wide boards,to make 46 inch wide table tops in a couple of years.

[EdK]

That's some gorgeous wood Greg! I'm glad you got it rather than it being chipped up for mulch.

Ed