Todays Project - What did you do today?

[rleete]

Somebody has been watching Blondihacks!

[EdK]

(08-16-2023, 01:49 PM)rleete Wrote: Somebody has been watching Blondihacks!

Obviously so have you.  

Ed

[rleete]

A while back I bought a cheap pocket-knife kit, but never found the time to assemble and finish it.  It uses small brass pins to hold it all together, and I didn't have a ball peen to do the job.  What does any self-respecting hobby machinist do?  Make one, of course.

   

The goal was to make the head about 4 oz. as that seemed to be the most common size for this kind of work.  Hard to see, but it's 4.2 oz. on my cheap scale.

   

And all assembled, ready to me to ignore the knife project for another couple of years while I go on to other things:

   

The hardest part was getting a decent knurl in the brass.  Fine wheels tend to clog, and once I figured out what was happening, I used a toothbrush to clean them every pass, and that allowed them to form the knurl.

Took me about 10 hours total, including the time spent to grind the radius tool used to make the plunge cuts either side of the handle.  Ed, you think parting is scary, try plunge cutting a 5/16" radius straight into steel!  Suffice to say I'm getting better at determining speeds and feeds for this little lathe.

[EdK]

I see that you have acquired a shiny metal camera.

Ed

[rleete]

That deburring wheel I got is really nice. Wish I knew about them years ago.

[Highpower]

(08-19-2023, 01:07 PM)rleete Wrote: The goal was to make the head about 4 oz. as that seemed to be the most common size for this kind of work.  Hard to see, but it's 4.2 oz. on my cheap scale.

I tried but couldn't see it. So I resorted to cheating.  

   

[EdK]

I converted a spare drill press vise into a PCB vise. 3D printed the stepped jaws, may eventually make some out of aluminum with Delrin inserts. I had to turn down the handle end of the screw to accept a better handle. It came with one of those straight floppy handles.

Ed

Before

   

After

   

[Highpower]

That one isn't going to scoot away from you on the bench if you rest your hand(s) on it while you are working. I have one of those rotisserie spit models that I can never seem to get tight enough to keep it from rotating on me in the middle of soldering a bunch of pads.

[EdK]

(11-06-2023, 04:24 PM)Highpower Wrote: That one isn't going to scoot away from you on the bench if you rest your hand(s) on it while you are working.

That's exactly why I used this heavy cast iron drill press vise. It's not going to go anywhere.

Ed

[EdK]

I've been working on an enclosure for a MachTach for my lathe. After many iterations I'm almost done. Just waiting on some standoffs and a connector for the sensor input.

Ed