What's Happening in Chazz's Shop?

Glammed Up my Kant-Twist Clamps

Got tired of sore fingers from the skinny T-handles so finally I broke down and added grips:

4-1/2", 2-1/2", 2" & 1" clamps (some are Kant-Tiwst-ish); mostly Weaver-Grip™ courtesy of a Zoro 20% coupon, but a few copies improved versions from eBay (the Weaver's went on easier, even on the non-branded clamps). The baby 3/4" has a knurled knob. Still need another grip for a lonely 1" (Zoro had limited stock for the small ones).

I do have a problem: I found a bare spot that is begging for more clamps.

Metal & Plastic Stock (More Labels!!)

Didn't reorganize, just re-discovering, so I added labels:





I kind of knew what was in each bin/box, but this may make it easier.

More Hardware Storage

I found unused wall space in the "Dry Goods Storage Pantry:"


You know what they say, "Nature Abhors a vacuum."

2 Bolt Depot Racks, 9 Plano Boxes from Amazon (plus a leftover Bolt Depot box), 8 TapCons and I can finally put away the extra hardware I bought when I added DRO's to the Mini-Lathe last October.

Zoro & KBC Deliveries

Purchased 3/4" & 7/8" Hyde "Industrial Hand Knives" from Zoro with last week's 20% off email deal:




Plus some more Machinists Jacks (to get over $50 free shipping threshold):





And my backordered Expanding Transfer Punches & Thin/Mini Sine Bar arrived 2 months earlier than expected:




Heard about punch set here, and the baby sine bar here. After FOMOGO's post on H-M, KBC sold out ("some guy posted about them and we got about 150 orders") and they didn't expect to get my order filled until August. When I learned about the sine bar (at $12 I had to have one) I called KBC and they added it to the open order, so the exorbitant $16 shipping was spread out over a couple of items.

Another Sine Bar?

Somewhere in the last few weeks I saw a post showing a Kingmann White Mini-Sine bar(I've spent the last couple of days – not full time – searching for the post over the four Forums I belong to and can't find it). Anyway, I had to have one (I know, like many or all of us here I have an addiction), and thanks to eBay I now do:


The tool cleaned up nicely and I figured out that the captive SHCS in the body locks the pivoting bar in place. The bottom of the body is V's and has a magnetic sandwiched in it so that you can use it on round stock.


And a bonus: in addition to the inspection certificate dated 1965, under the foam padding in the bottom of the box I found this:

Updated Floor Plan

Some minor changes plus clarifications of what is where; also added new stack of Hardware Storage (Post #23, above):


Also attached a PDF for your detailed viewing pleasure.

Reorganized (or is it organized again?) Hardware Storage

And finally put away the extra/excess hardware from the Mini-Lathe DRO Project I completed Last September!

Stack-Up in the Shop:

Mostly Imperial


Stack-Up in the Pantry (see More Hardware Storage & Updated Floor Plan):

Mostly Metric

Very nice & clean operation ya have there , I bet it took a couple tries to find the right spot for everything . I learned 2 things from your video .
1 don't let my wife see just how clean your operation is .
2 I should have bought stock in Tupperware & Rubbermaid sometime ago .
3 don't let my wife see just how clean your operation is .
I need to look into that large LineLoc like ya have there
thanks for sharing
animal12

animal12 said:

Very nice & clean operation ya have there , I bet it took a couple tries to find the right spot for everything .

Click to expand...

Yes, on a couple of boxes I changed my approach to leave some empty space since I had extra boxes with the added Metric Stack.

animal12 said:

I learned 2 things from your video .
1 don't let my wife see just how clean your operation is .
2 I should have bought stock in Tupperware & Rubbermaid sometime ago .

Click to expand...

No Tupperware/Rubbermaid: the hardware boxes are Plano or from Bolt Depot and the boxes of stock & tooling are mostly Really Useful Boxes with some miscellaneous boxes from Michaels.

animal12 said:

3 don't let my wife see just how clean your operation is .

Click to expand...

Hmm, maybe I need to start a paid service to not share my shop organization with SO’s?

animal12 said:

I need to look into that large LineLoc like ya have there

Click to expand...

The Loc-Line vacuum setups are useful in keeping swarf under control, but they are a b___h to assemble.

animal12 said:

thanks for sharing
animal12

Click to expand...

You’re welcome! Always happy to show what works for me.

Finally Had a Project Where I Needed My 5" 3-Jaw!

Most of what I have been doing lately has used the ER32 collet chuck, but while taking photos for an upcoming post about my Sherline RT & tooling, I realized that the threaded adapter – 1"-8 male to 3/4"-16 female – (3/4"-16 is the Sherline standard, but I got a 4" self-catering 4-Jaw from TAIG 3 years ago ($20!!) that had a 1-8 back and wanted to use it on the RT) didn't fully engage on the Sherline mount due to the 3/4"-16 female threads being recessed about 1/4".

No problem, just chuck it up and face off 0.200". Not with the 4" 3-Jaw: center hole won't take the 1"-8 portion, and I wasn't going to hold the adapter by the threads. Yes, I do have a 25mm ER32 collet, but 25mm is its absolute max. Fortunately, the 5" 3-Jaw will pass 1.180", so I mounted the chuck on my 7x16 Mini-Lathe, inserted the adapter, using three 1/8" dowel pins to space it off the face of the chuck (remembering to remove the pins after the jaws were snug), checked that the face was square and proceeded to face:


Generic DCMT 21.51 Insert, 1,650 RPM, 0.015" DOC, hand feed = lots of blue chips; I used a HSS bit to chamfer the ID & OD. The vacuum helped, but I needed the auxiliary shield to keep from burning the backs of my hands as I was advancing the cross slide. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results:




I used my Scotch-Brite (-ish) deburring wheel to clean up the wrench flats on the end of the adapter:


Yes, a lot of stick out, and I wouldn't run it on a Sherline (or TAIG) lathe, but it will be fine on the RT. And if I get up the courage to single-point a 1"-8 thread on an MT3 arbor I could use it in the Mini-Lathe without the adapter.

Fix One Issue & Create a New One!

Was very pleased with how the adapter turned out, and it fits on the rotary table much more securely. However, I created another problem opportunity: in reducing the unthreaded portion of the 3/4"-16 hole, I also reduced the width of the wrench flats. I knew that was going to happen, but thought I had a thin open-end or adjustable wrench – wrong. I can get my thin-ish adjustable in just enough to break the adapter free, but it's not good.

I figured I'd have to buy a thin open-end wrench, but like everyone one on the Forum I dislike acquiring tools. I checked and found that I have a pin C-Wrench that would work, so over to the Mini-Mill, clamping the adapter by its flats and placing an adjustable parallel on the other side of the vise to balance the pressure. Then put a jack under the 1"-8 end to provide support during machining:




Centered the adapter using a 10mm edge finder:


This edge finder has a ceramic tip and is the only one I have that would reach; I could have centered using the jaws, but didn't trust that the slots were equal (and ended up just rotating the adapter to do the other hole without checking that it was still centered – sometimes I overthink things).


After moving back 15mm from the end of the adapter, I milled a flat using a 2-flute 3/16" end mill:




Then drilled 3/16" x 4mm deep to accept the pin wrench (I spot drilled the first hole, then realized that my 3/16" stubby drill bit was shorter than the 3/16" spotting bit, so just drilled the second hole – see, I said I overthink):




I rotated the adapter in the vise and repeated the milling & drilling. Deburred and cleaned the adapter up, and now it's done:

Odds & Ends: A Little Chore and Some Issues

First the chore: I'm getting things set up for a video and so that I don't need to worry about battery power I use a "Battery Replacement" with my Nikon D5100. However, I also have a power adapter for my little Panasonic HDC-TM41 video camera and don't want to plug the wrong coaxial plug into the battery adapter so I labelled (of course I did) the Ferrite Bead on the D5100 cord. Unfortunately, the surface of the bead is "low energy" so the label didn't stick very well; I put a short piece of clear heat shrink over it and problem solved:


Onto the issue. I'm "assembling" a small copy stand (photos to follow once it is complete) to make taking photos of small items easier and rather than using a large base I'm just going to clamp the base to the workbench or a table. I figured I'd use a 4-1/2" Kant-Twist clamp like I have on one of my NOGA Big-Boys:

[I'm still editing the video for this project which involved modifying the Kant-Twist clamp, saving about $50 over buying a special clamp]

I bought the clamp for the Big-Boy back in March from MSC on eBay:


But the price has gone up:


Shopping around, I found this version on ZORO, which is actually better suited for my purposes:

Price was $55.12 last week, so in oder to get free shipping after my 10% coupon I got some M6-1.0 Brass-Tipped set screws. BTW, Industrial Magnetics (the people who brought you Mag-Mate) now own Kant-Twist; I found this out from the FedEx Ground tracking info. I just checked to see what they want for this clamp, and I'm not buying direct from them:


Received my clamp from ZORO (from Industrial Magnetics with a Grainger packing list) Friday, but one of the jaws didn't swivel smoothly and I found this:

The flat plate is spot welded to the jaw (copper-plated steel) but there must have been something between the plate & jaw (the other plate weld is clean). You can see were they tried to fix this but they didn't get deep enough so the jaw/plate only swivels part way. ZORO has emailed me a label and will send a replacement. I offered to fix it myself for a partial refund, but it was either return for full refund or do the swap.

Replacement Kant-Twist Clamp

Zoro processed the replacement the morning after FedEx had the return and the new one arrived this afternoon (extended delivery item as it was coming from a 3rd party):



This one works properly and has decent welds on the plates/jaws, but they didn't spend much time cleaning the plates & jaws after welding. I'll do a better job before I put it into service (whenever I have full use of my left arm).

Out of the Shop Until Early Next Year

Managed to mangle my left shoulder last week (not in the Shop: had disagreement with the stairs leading down to the Office & Shop) and while feeling a lot better the news from the Orthopedic doctor is not good - given the choice of a plate & screws and a replacement I’m going with the replacement. Between additional scans, scheduling, surgery, recovery and PT, I probably will not be attending Cabin Fever and won’t have full use of both arms until mid-January at the earliest.

All is not bad as I plan to post updates at major milestone's (for example, they will use the CT Scan I will be getting to both plan the surgery and model the “replacement parts”).

Please don’t bother with well-wishes, I know everyone will be cheering me on (and I will continue to put my nose in where it’s not needed and to be a thorn in everyone’s butt.


Charlie