Todays Project - What did you do today?

[DaveH]

Excellent work Ken, a really superb looking thread.
Exceptional skillful bit of turning

DaveH

[PixMan]

Thanks Dave.

What's strange to me is that the final 14º compound infeed depth to get the 22ER-5ACME threading insert to cut the crest of the thread (barely) was .132", when my Acme thread gage defined depth of a 5 pitch acme thread to be .100" + .010".

Using my limited trigonometry knowledge to calculate, I came up with infeed of .1291", not too far off.

[dallen]

fired up the furnace and casted these two plates for HOPEFULLY a small cnc router that I am putting together

DA

   

[stevec]

I love it! Using the ancient skills of casting to make parts for a CNC machine.
Just shows that we wouldn't be here if those before us were never there.

[dallen]

(03-20-2014, 07:17 PM)stevec Wrote: I love it! Using the ancient skills of casting to make parts for a CNC machine.
Just shows that we wouldn't be here if those before us were never there.

beats buying 40 dollars worth of aluminum plate too.

DA

[awemawson]

DA,

I reckon you're pulling our string - you cut those from plate :) Superb finish for cast. What sand are you using ?

[Mayhem]

Dave - was that an open mould or two-piece?

[dallen]

home mixed oil bonded sand, and a two part mold. Oil bonded sand is hard to work with when its cold so the first one that I poured was a little rough around the edges, the second was a lot better pour but I lost the bearing in the back of the vac motor I use for a burner blower so melt was really fun with a half a crucible full of half melted aluminum when the blower gave up the blue smoke.

[Hawkeye]

Not just today's work. I'm working toward making a threading dial for my Storebro lathe. 4tpi leadscrew. I messed up the only brass washer, so I decided to cut the gear out of 3/16" ABS plastic. If anyone wants to get into making gears, I recommend trying it first in plastic. It's really easy to cut and will prove or disprove your setup and the shape of your cutter.

The dividing head was tilted to 5* to allow for the helix of the leascrew. 16 teeth on the gear.
   

It fits the leadscrew well. There isn't much stress in turning the dial, so plastic should give good service.
   

Today's job was to finish a spindle nut I started yesterday. Most of the tooling I use in the spindle is MT3, but the spindle is MT4. When I go to drift out the tooling, the sleeve usually lets go first. Then I have to separate the MT3 tool from the sleeve. I figured a nut would hold the sleeve while the tool is being tapped out.
   

If I loosen the nut a turn or two, the sleeve should loosen first, then the tool can be released. After that, removing the nut will allow both to be removed.

[awemawson]

(03-21-2014, 08:06 AM)dallen Wrote: home mixed oil bonded sand, and a two part mold. Oil bonded sand is hard to work with when its cold so the first one that I poured was a little rough around the edges, the second was a lot better pour but I lost the bearing in the back of the vac motor I use for a burner blower so melt was really fun with a half a crucible full of half melted aluminum when the blower gave up the blue smoke.

Is it your own recipe and can you share it ?