Todays Project - What did you do today?

[Expat]

(12-30-2013, 08:07 PM)Mayhem Wrote: Expat - nice work on those parts. I only had to drill 6" on Ken's lathe, so I take my hat off to you for doubling that.

Errrr..... I have to give the hole drilling credit to Ken, I was away on business and he couldn't control the urge to drill!

[Expat]

(12-30-2013, 08:12 PM)PixMan Wrote: It seems my lathe is going to need some attention inside the headstock, as the noise it started making is coming from within it. In order to get in there I will have to remove the DRO bracket and that wood shelf a previous owner fitted to the rear of it. I pray it's "fixable" and parts are available. I think it's going to be a problem with the gear changing forks or something near them.

If you need any help with the repair, just give me a shout. I am home for a week or two!

[PixMan]

(01-02-2014, 04:21 PM)Expat Wrote:

(12-30-2013, 08:07 PM)Mayhem Wrote: Expat - nice work on those parts. I only had to drill 6" on Ken's lathe, so I take my hat off to you for doubling that.

Errrr..... I have to give the hole drilling credit to Ken, I was away on business and he couldn't control the urge to drill!

True, dat. I was overly anxious to put the drills I'd bought to use, and with the material and prints was sitting there I could no longer control my urges. ;)

Cut like butter!

(01-02-2014, 04:23 PM)Expat Wrote: If you need any help with the repair, just give me a shout. I am home for a week or two!

Thanks Neil, but I'm back to work except for the weekend. On Saturday I've got a luncheon with two friends. My Irish mate Mick L. had called the other day to see if I'd join him for lunch with a mutual motorcycling friend, Bob H. Mick revealed that Bob, who is about 62, has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer and has been given 6 months or so. Sad, as he's never been a smoker as far as I know.

[Shawn]

I used a small cutting board to make a collet rack. I might have to keep an eye out for cutting board sales. Great stuff to work with and makes great collet racks. I used a spade bit to cut the holes, no grabbing at all, chamfering the holes went pretty slick as well.



The handle that I cut off was used to raise one side of the rack.



Shawn

[TomG]

Nice job Shawn.

I thought most cutting boards were made of polyethylene, so I'm surprised you had such success in machining them.

Tom

[Shawn]

I bought the cheapest cutting board I could find which was most likely HDPE. I drilled it with a fairly slow spindle speed and high feed rate. I got curly chips wrapped around the bit but the hole was clean and no melting. Same when I ran a two flute endmill over the cut parts to square them up. Turning this stuff on a lathe might be a pain but for this application the material was easy enough to work with for sure. I plan to make a few more to hold my 5C collets. I just need to find a few larger cutting boards.

Edit: I did try to cut the holes initially with a 7/8th spiral drill bit after making a pilot hole but that just wasn't going to work, the 7/8th spade bit worked slick though. The holes were chamfered with a cheap de-burring bit like this one.



Shawn

[EdK]

(01-02-2014, 10:19 PM)Shawn Wrote: I used a small cutting board to make a collet rack. I might have to keep an eye out for cutting board sales. Great stuff to work with and makes great collet racks. I used a spade bit to cut the holes, no grabbing at all, chamfering the holes went pretty slick as well.

...

The handle that I cut off was used to raise one side of the rack.

...

Shawn

Good idea Shawn. I got this one from Maritool where I bought my ER40 collets from. It's just a piece of 2 x 10 pine with blind holes drilled in it. I like yours better.

Ed

   

[dallen]

Started working on my version of Tom's Carriage stop, not to change his but to work with what I already had.

Which was this hunk of cast iron that I had already made into a clamp for the 12" Lathe.


I had originally started to make this into an adajustable stop from the lay out lines that I had on it but never finished it for some reason but now it looks like this, I still have a couple operations left to finish things like the dowel pin and breaking all the corners which I don't have a Chamfer Cutter for so will probably round over all the top edges not sure yet.

[TomG]

Looking good David. The radii are just for looks so there's no reason why you couldn't just round them on the belt sander.

That's a nice looking knurl on the thimble.

Tom

[stevec]

David, is there any locking mechanism for that nicely done thimble?