Todays Project - What did you do today?

[PixMan]

Today was not a good day for productivity, despite my best efforts.

My goal was to make 5 stainless steel washers for Neil, and hopefully have enough time to start making the stainless steel nuts to go with the washers. There were three 25mm x 13mm x 1.5mm, one 23x15x2, and one 30x15x 2.6. The best laid plans of mice and men are laid to waste by...lack of screws.

I made the washers nearly complete, but wanted to take a very light finish pass on the back of them and deburr the cutoff side of the bores with a boring bar. Here's what they looked like, other than the second operation not being done:



Ok, so now I need to hold them to do the second operation. I have no step collets for my 5C collet closer (the tooling list for a machine shop is endless), but I recall getting a set of three unused "soft jaws" for my 10" Pratt-Burnered Super Precision scroll chuck. Where they cam from, I forget now. All I'd have to do is make a shallow counterbore in the soft jaws and the washers will be done.

No luck. In order to mount the soft jaws I would need six 1/2"-13 UNC x 1" long socket head cap screws. I headed off to my local "farm supply" dealer only to find they had only three of them in steel. I wasn't up for paying $4.94 each for stainless steel ones! I then drove to the closest Home Depot (homeowner supply) store, and they had exactly the same thing. I'll wait until tomorrow and get the steel ones from Fastenal. Back to the shop.

I decided I might as well alter the soft jaws a little to help them fit the job a bit better. They were "raw" in that they were just milled to mate with the master jaws on the chuck, but couldn't close down very much. First I stamped each one for position on the chuck so they will repeat perfect when I take them on and off and on again. I set up a 2-1/2" face mill, then used my Starrett No.359 bevel protractor to set the jaws in the vise at a 60º angle. I know, I should make a set of angle setting blocks, but I just haven't gotten a roundtuit yet. Here's the before and after:



After milling:




I'll get through this job eventually. ;) I'm expecting a package from KBC Tools tomorrow with hard jaws and a rebuild kit for my Kurt vise, plus a 22ER5ACME threading insert so I can get to work on Darren's parts.

Added: I went to a local Fastenal outlet today and got six 1/2"-13 x 1" UNC socket head cap screws for $3.75 total. If I'd bought the six screws in stainless steel at The Home Depot it would have cost me $31.24! Waiting a day was worth the savings.

[PixMan]

Finished up the backside of the washers today after facing off and boring the soft jaws, It worked great the parts come out perfect!

Also, I received my new hard jaws for the free Kurt vise I got a few weeks ago, so once I get the rebuild kit in a couple of days I'll tear it apart, rebuild and clean it and put it to use. In the package from KBC Tools was the 22ER5ACME threading insert I needed to make the elevation screw for Darren's Kondia milling machine, so I hope to get to making that this weekend.

[EdK]

(02-11-2014, 09:43 PM)PixMan Wrote: Finished up the backside of the washers today after facing off and boring the soft jaws, It worked great the parts come out perfect!

Also, I received my new hard jaws for the free Kurt vise I got a few weeks ago, so once I get the rebuild kit in a couple of days I'll tear it apart, rebuild and clean it and put it to use. In the package from KBC Tools was the 22ER5ACME threading insert I needed to make the elevation screw for Darren's Kondia milling machine, so I hope to get to making that this weekend.

Ken,

If you have the time, I think it would be good if you could take some pictures of the Kurt rebuild.

Ed

[Mayhem]

(02-11-2014, 09:43 PM)PixMan Wrote: ...In the package from KBC Tools was the 22ER5ACME threading insert I needed to make the elevation screw for Darren's Kondia milling machine, so I hope to get to making that this weekend.

[f350ca]

Was in the Lee Valley (wood working tool supply store) electronic flyer.
Kind of neat, wonder if they'd be strong and accurate enough for light metal work.
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.as...91&p=71613

[stevec]

I doubt if it would have the precision that some of us require. After all it is for woodworking.
Lee Valley has some good stuff , but they also have some crap.
The good thing is, if you're not happy, bring or send it back.
They stand by their products.

[PixMan]

Today's project went pear shaped on me, as my Irish friend Mick likes to say.

I started with intent to make (or at least attempt to make) a new elevation screw for Darren's Kondia mill. I first turned the diameters for the gear and the M12 thread, though metric threading would be the last operation because I'll have to change gears. The turning went as well as expected. I then turned the part around 180º in the 3-jaw chuck to start making the 18.62" long 1-1/4-5 Acme thread. I had a good live center in the tailstock end, but my lathe doesn't have a follower rest.

Here's a short video of the 3rd pass:




On the 4th pass, the cutting action didn't sound quite right so I pulled the tool out and stopped. It seems the cutting pressure with a .010" deep (per side) pass was a bit too much and it started slipping in the chuck. Because it was following the previous passes, the tool never left it's path so no damage there. The turned 20mm diameter I was clamped on didn't fare so well. It's scored and I'll probably have to start anew. No big deal, as I have PLENTY of stock.

BTW, it may appear in the video that there's runout of the major diameter. That's just an optical delusion, the fault of a little surface rust on one side of the stock.

[PixMan]

Off to home as it started snowing again and my snowblower wasn't tossing snow very far. I knew the impeller drive belt was slipping, and thought I knew why. There's a small steel bushing that had popped out, one that puts pressure on the drive clutch bar. I'd found it on the cellar floor near where I store the machine, and knew I'd have to replace it.

Of course the nearby supply store had no parts like that in stock, so I ordered them. I'll cancel the order tomorrow, and here's why:

The bushing is held on by a tiny, very thin C clip. The groove for that c clip is all mashed over, and being a weldment with a 3" long arm on the opposite end there's no way to recut the groove.

Back to my shop. I hatched an idea of making a new bushing that would not require any retaining clip at all! It took me all of 15 minutes to make.




Now here's the original bushing in place, and you can see how there's very little shaft extending beyond the end of the bushing.



My new bushing on a "test fit", I was able to turning it 180º and now the end of my new bushing (303 stainless steel) is flush with the end of the shaft.



I also added a "helper spring" to the clutch mechanism and WOW what a difference! The machine now throws further than ever before, probably better than it ever did when it was a new machine in 2005-2006.

[Mayhem]

Thanks Ken,

That thread looks good from what I can see in the video. I can live with some scoring. Probably more so than your neighbours can live with you tossing the snow from your house all over theirs Nice fix on the snow blower btw.

My shipment from Kondia cleared Australian customs and arrived at the local depot at 06:12:56 this morning.

[Mayhem]

Did a quick test with the oil burner that I have been building in between other projects and stuff.

Some of you may recall that the babbington burner was too temperamental and that I decided to build one using a commercial siphon oil burner and home made spin vane, as shown by Dallen.

This is a very quick video (don't blink) and there are adjustments to be made. The fact that it fired up first time is very encouraging





The first test was in the shop, with the burner pointing into a 20L steel drum but it burned the pain off and set it on fire in less than two minutes . Also the flames were shooting back at me (not so cool).

I didn't get close enough with the camera to show the vortex created by the spin vane but it did look good. I'm looking forward to when I can get to play with this some more and build my furnace.

I also need to put together a build thread...