Todays Project - What did you do today?

[EdK]

(11-22-2014, 01:41 PM)arvidj Wrote: It runs!!
...

I'm now off to hardware store to get new connectors. Assuming I can do a better job than they did I will declare that "it is now a lathe that runs" rather than "a collection of things that confirm the law of gravity is still in effect" and start a new thread over in the Lathe forum.

Thanks to everyone that is following this thread and offering help, suggestions and encouragement during this this adventure.

That's great news Arvid! I'm looking forward to the lathe thread. That sure does look like a nice lathe.

Ed

[Highpower]

  Arvid.

Looking forward to seeing some chips coming off of that machine.   

[PixMan]

Great news indeed, Arvid!

I spent a little over an hour in the shop today to make some sort of axle and bushing for a lawn tractor attachment of some sort for my friend Neil. I got a bar of Ø3/4" "uknownium" steel from a shop owner friend of mine for free (not Russ this time, unusual), and just had to bring it to the 31-1/8" overall length on the lathe. It cut like 12L14 but didn't break chips as easily, so I think it's AISI 1215. It measured with the tape measure to be perhaps 0.035-0.040" long.

On the mill, four holes, all in line with each other. Two Ø3/16" holes 1/4" from each end, two Ø1/4" holes 12-7/8" from each end. I was too lazy to drag out the second vise and mount it. So what I did was hang it out to the right side of the vise by about 10", pick up center and end of bar with an edgefinder. Got the first Ø3/16" and Ø1/4" holes in. After the second hole, I left the 1/4" drill in the spindle, moved the DRO to X-18.25. Now flip the part around, drop the drill into the hole is just made and snug it up in the vise.

Move the X axis back to 12.875", drill the second Ø1/4" hole. Move to X-.250", drill the second Ø3/16" hole. Measure from center of that last hole to end, determined that taking .038" off the end would bring it within a gnat's eyelash of the 31-1/8" required length. Looked right on the tape measure.

Now to make the mating bushing. Neil said both parts can be steel, very low speed operation. I throw a piece of Ø1" 1045 TGP (Turned, Ground & Polished) rod in the 5C collet chuck to drill & bore to a "slip fit" or "running fit" over the axle. First a Ø1/2" 90º spot, through with a 12mm (.4724") parabolic flute TiN coated drill, then through Ø47/64" drill. Mounted my 1/2" solid carbide boring bar to take it from Ø.734" to Ø.750. Too long even for solid carbide, I didn't care for the chatter. I got it to with .002" or .003" of final size, then decided to ream it to final. The only Ø3/4" reamer I currently own is an old hand reamer, so I got out my second biggest tap wrench and ran it through the 3-3/8" long piece. That took a lot more effort than I thought, despite the light cut. Done. It slips right on and slides, rotates just fine. Plently of clearance for a light coat of anti-seize compound, not sloppy at ALL.

[Mayhem]

Glad to hear that things worked out for you in the end Arvid. My concern was that you may void the warranty, which is why I changed my mind half way through my post.

I have the same crimpers that dallen posted and they are really good.

[PixMan]

My day was (as will be obvious) a case of proving out a series of steps to make a tricky little part for a rifle sight assembly. I learned what I can and can't do, so Version 2 will be fine.

I started by lopping off a short piece of some AISI 4142 annealed steel I have been holding onto for some time. I chose this because the part has a lot of material removed and a slot through a bore that could either spring open or collapse if I used the 1018 cold rolled steel I have.



The stock is 1-1/4" x 1-7/8", but I only need a piece big enough to finish at 1.020" x 0.875" x 0.500". I made short work of bringing it down, using a combination of my 3" 45º face mill, my 3/4" 3-insert end mill and a 3/8" solid carbide end mill. I left it a couple thousandths oversize and used my surface grinder to get it (very nearly) perfectly square.



Back onto the CNC Prototrak mill, I first ran the periphery oval shape, noting a slight deviation from full radii at one quadrant where a 120º angle comes off the tangent point to leave a small flat on one side of the oval 1.020" x 0.500" x 0.25" thick section.







After drilling the two holes (one 0.315", one 0.251"), I added the 0.030" radius notch at -21º as noted on the print. I couldn't help but notice how all the chips came off magnetized and stuck everywhere.



I spotted the holes with a 1/4" 90º spot drill and finished the holes as best I could without the benefit of exact size reamers (now on order), I thought I'd just touch the edges of the holes with a countersink. This is where I found a major problem! Either the holes landed out of position, or the countersink did. I think it's actually BOTH. I am worried that after nearly 5 hours of run time something in the DRO portion of the control skipped or mistracked somehow because my readout said I was at X-Y ZERO. The center of the 1/2" bosses served as my X-Y zero datum, so I don't know what went wrong.

I finished the second side and the slot anyhow, to prove out the rest of the process. Would you know it, hindsight is 20-20 because as soon as I finished the slot I realized that I could have and should have simply used a 1/2" collet in the lathe to finish turn the second side and make the Ø0.315 bore. Oh well. The Version 2 will be PERFECT. I should be able to get back into the shop on Friday, because I'm definitely NOT a "black Friday" shopper!

[Mayhem]

It certainly looks nice! How are you going to check if there is a problem with your mill?

[Expat]

(11-22-2014, 06:01 PM)PixMan Wrote: Great news indeed, Arvid!

I spent a little over an hour in the shop today to make some sort of axle and bushing for a lawn tractor attachment of some sort for my friend Neil. I got a bar of Ø3/4" "uknownium" steel from a shop owner friend of mine for free (not Russ this time, unusual), and just had to bring it to the 31-1/8" overall length on the lathe. It cut like 12L14 but didn't break chips as easily, so I think it's AISI 1215. It measured with the tape measure to be perhaps 0.035-0.040" long.

On the mill, four holes, all in line with each other. Two Ø3/16" holes 1/4" from each end, two Ø1/4" holes 12-7/8" from each end. I was too lazy to drag out the second vise and mount it. So what I did was hang it out to the right side of the vise by about 10", pick up center and end of bar with an edgefinder. Got the first Ø3/16" and Ø1/4" holes in. After the second hole, I left the 1/4" drill in the spindle, moved the DRO to X-18.25. Now flip the part around, drop the drill into the hole is just made and snug it up in the vise.

Move the X axis back to 12.875", drill the second Ø1/4" hole. Move to X-.250", drill the second Ø3/16" hole. Measure from center of that last hole to end, determined that taking .038" off the end would bring it within a gnat's eyelash of the 31-1/8" required length. Looked right on the tape measure.

Now to make the mating bushing. Neil said both parts can be steel, very low speed operation. I throw a piece of Ø1" 1045 TGP (Turned, Ground & Polished) rod in the 5C collet chuck to drill & bore to a "slip fit" or "running fit" over the axle. First a Ø1/2" 90º spot, through with a 12mm (.4724") parabolic flute TiN coated drill, then through Ø47/64" drill. Mounted my 1/2" solid carbide boring bar to take it from Ø.734" to Ø.750. Too long even for solid carbide, I didn't care for the chatter. I got it to with .002" or .003" of final size, then decided to ream it to final. The only Ø3/4" reamer I currently own is an old hand reamer, so I got out my second biggest tap wrench and ran it through the 3-3/8" long piece. That took a lot more effort than I thought, despite the light cut. Done. It slips right on and slides, rotates just fine. Plently of clearance for a light coat of anti-seize compound, not sloppy at ALL.

I picked up up the axle and bush from Ken today, superb work as usual, he really saved my life with this one! I have 3 acres of grass and numerous large trees so the leaf sucker is an essential piece of equipment!
it fits better than the OEM item and works perfectly!
here is a pic of the installed item!
   

[PixMan]

Not sure Darren, because it was repeating fine as I made multiple passes. By starting off with inputting the Ø 0.375" end mill as Ø 0.500" and incrementing down by 0.031 per pass, it cut great. After each pass I have to go in and edit the program for the smaller diameter, reset position manually to the "absolute zero" datum and go. Somehow after the last pass you see in the video (of the top, round section), I returned to the absolute zero, spotted the 2 holes and drilled them. I then plunged a 1/16" end mill for the notch on the opposite end, and it looks like it came into the correct location. As a last thought, I put a 90º countersink in a drill chuck and returned to the zero point, but as soon as I touched the countersink to the Ø 0.315 hole, I could tell something had gone awry.

I just wish I could afford to strip out that ancient control and servos (or stepping motors?) and control, and put something more modern, reliable and easier to program. I had to rewrite the program for the periphery shape probably 10 times to get it to run one continuous toolpath. Every time I made a change on a single line, it would them stop at each block, and worse, sometimes default to rapid traverse across certain blocks.

It's better than nothing, but just barely.

[Mayhem]

You could always turn it off and go back to counting dials

[dallen]

Ken the part looks great, the ends don't have to be countersunk thou, the screwknobs have shoulders that fit into the ends.