Arnold's tooling odds 'n ends

[arnoldb]

The Kimble engine took me a bit longer to finish than I thought, but it was a lot of fun to build.

Now on to some tooling. I'd mentioned earlier in this thread that I'd ordered some additional ER25 collets and a bearing based closer nut to make a new collet chuck for the mill quite a while ago. A couple of months ago I picked up two offcut pieces of 40mm EN8 steel from a local supplier for a very good price - the good price was mostly because they neglected to order some hex brass I'd ordered from them and wanted to pacify me ;D

So this afternoon I did a quick C-o-C of what I wanted; I took some measurements off my boring head MT4 shank, as I want this new chuck to share a draw-bar with it:

Off to the bandsaw to get a bit of appropriate length sawn off:

On to the lathe and chucked up. I used some emery to clean up the tailstock end of the workpiece - there were some dings and high spots on it that needed smoothing off. Then I mounted the fixed steady close to the chuck, and set it's fingers to just touch the workpiece:

Then I moved the steady over to the end onto the bit I cleaned up, and added a good dollop of oil:

Now, I may be completely wrong about the way I'm thinking here, but, by setting the steady to size close to the chuck with the steady fingers touching the workpiece, and then moving it to the end that I cleaned up with emery, that end is very slightly smaller, and adding some thickish oil there, it produces a nice running fit.

Next I faced off the end:

And center drilled for tailstock support:

Then I made some chips - after the delicate work on the Kimble, it was nice to just hog at things a bit:

I'm still struggling to get a good finish on lower-grade steel; I can turn aluminium and brass to a near-mirror surface, and the same for silver steel, but this stuff still needed some work with a file and emery where it was needed:

Some taper turning is required for MT4, and I set up for that. The last time I turned an MT4 taper I took great pains to set the taper turning attachment to a good degree of accuracy and it's still at the same setting, so this will be a doddle:

:hDe: oh: - No doddle today; it's the wrong way around Rof} - the last setting on the TTA was from the headstock out oh:

I left things there for today; there was a right big thunderstorm pouring down and there was a bit of a lull, so I dashed for the house from the shop. Hopefully more to follow next weekend

Kind regards, Arnold

 

[arnoldb]

After the "Homer Simpson" moment last weekend, I picked up where I left off this morning.

First I set the fixed steady to size on the thickest bit of the workpiece close to the chuck:

Then I mounted the 4-jaw chuck, moved the fixed steady toward the tailstock, flipped the workpiece end-over-end and carefully and accurately clocked it up in the 4-jaw - leaving a bit of run-out space for the taper next to the chuck:

The end of the workpiece had been cut with an abrasive cut-off wheel, and silly me; I'd forgotten this is higher carbon steel than the normal crud I work with. There was a HARD spot on the end which promptly took off the cutting edge of my favourite HSS cutting bit:

I could have tried brute force with one of my seldom-used carbide bits to take off the hard section, but I didn't want to get things out of kilter, and I didn't want to put too much of a load on the steady. So I attacked the hard bit by making an under-cut on the face - trying to get "behind" it:

The under-cut worked , and I got the hard section off, so was able to get it properly faced and center drilled for tailstock support. I also had to skim off the thicker section protruding between the steady and the tailstock, so that I could get the steady out without changing it's setting:

With the steady out of the way, and proper tailstock support, I could turn the taper:

It looks like a dog's breakfast in the previous photo, but a very light rub with some scotch-brite had it looking OK - far from perfect, but good enough for here:

Next I turned the end down to 32mm and put in a thread run-out groove with the parting tool:

A quick hone of a 60o threading tool, and set up using a thread gauge:

Next a couple of minutes setting up the change wheels for 1.5mm pitch and a very light test pass - checked with a tread pitch gauge:

One of my favourite pastimes on the lathe - screw cutting - over much too quickly - but on size and smooth. The gritty bits in the threads are just some swarf:

The closer nut spins on easily and smoothly, with virtually nil free play in the threads:

Next, the steady back on, and some drilling - about 90mm deep, and 16mm diameter; it should have been 18mm diameter, but I don't have an 18mm drill:

On previous ER chuck builds, I'd simply set my lathe's top slide to 8o with the cutting bit spot-on on center line, and have not had any problems, so that's exactly what I did next, and then bored out the taper:

The finish looks a bit rough, but it is in fact very smooth; the banding that's visible is streaks of cutting fluid.

A quick test with a bit of 16mm silver steel chucked up in the 16mm collet, and there's less than 0.005mm of run-out; plenty good enough for me ;D:

I still had to drill and tap the end for the M12 draw-bar - so I just chucked the new collet chuck end-to end on the lathe's collet chuck using that same bit of 16mm silver steel, then set the fixed steady to size to run on the short thin section I'd left at the end:

Then I had a thought; I'd obviously need a way to hold the chuck with a spanner/wrench! - So I took the lot off the lathe, set the dividing head with it's tailstock support up on the mill, and plonked the lot in there:

Then milled out six 2.6mm deep grooves for C-spanner use:

Back to the lathe and set up as shown in the third last photo, and drilled and tapped for the M12 draw bar:

A bit of deburring, and the chuck's done:

Compared to the "non-ER" Eastern chuck I've been using till now (on the left in the photo) - it gives me about 25mm more headroom, and as it's not using a MT reducer sleeve like the old chuck, a bit more rigidity and hopefully some more accuracy as well:

Installed in the mill spindle - the taper fits a treat:

A quick try-out in some aluminium; I'd used the flycutter to face the lot, and then ran the 16mm mill 4mm deep through there at a good clip; the finish is OK - definitely better than what I'd been able to get with the other chuck:

And the best part - no heavy-handed hanging on to spanners to tighten or loosen the closer nut; it works a HECK of a lot better ;D

Regards, Arnold

 

[Catminer]

Arnold;

Very nice job and a great step by step. Thm:

Peter

 

[vcutajar]

Arnold

Nice work and thanks for the photos and descriptions.

Vince

 

[bearcar1]

Splendid! Another well documented and thought out project. It does make life a whole lot simper when one does not have to dal with adapter city to get tools to bolt up. Bravo! Thm:

BC1
Jim

 

[Maryak]

Good one Arnold :bow:

Best Regards
Bob

 

[cfellows]

Wow, that's purty! Nice work, Arnold.

Chuck

 

[Ken I]

Well done Arnold.

Did anyone spot the hidden tip ?

When screw cutting take a light cut and CHECK that the pitch is what you thought you set it to.

Ken

 

[steamer]

Sweet Arnold! Nice job!

Dave

 

[lazylathe]

Great work as usual Arnold!!!

As for the tip on checking the thread pitch...
When checking the thread pitch does one rest the teeth of the pitch guide on the tops of the teeth
or in the valleys created after cutting the threads?
Not sure if that makes sense??

I have never been shown how to do this and i kind of put the thread gauges teeth into the threads of the
bolt to check what they are.
I take it that this is incorrect?

Andrew

 

[Catminer]

Correct Andrew

Peter

 

[arnoldb]

Many thanks for the responses Gents :bow:

Since the first thread I've turned I've always checked the thread pitch like Ken mentioned, so it's become sort of second nature; I snapped that photo as a matter of course...

Andrew, Like Peter said, that's correct - if the pointy ends on the teeth of the gauge matches up to the grooves, that's the correct pitch.

The thread pitch gauge is also great to easily determine "mystery" threads; the one I'm using in the photo is metric on one side and Whitworth on the other side - so it's easy to run through the different fingers on it to determine if an obscure thread is either of these types and the pitch it's using. The angular difference between metric (60o) and Whitworth (55o) is easily discernible when holding things up to the light and finding the best match. I don't have a gauge like that for UNC/UNF and other threads yet, as those are rare here in Namibia, though much to my surprise I've seen a recent rise in the use of UNC in devices such as treadmills and vehicle-installable computers that I've had to do a lot with lately.

Kind regards, Arnold

 

[lazylathe]

Thanks Peter and Arnold!!!

For a while there i thought i was losing it!!
I see a lot of pictures here that people have taken with he gauges teeth resting on the lines
of the first light cut.

Andrew

 

[krv3000]

well dun

 

[arnoldb]

Thanks Bob - Sorry for the late reply!

Today I interrupted my current engine build to make a bit of tooling that will take some pain out of the engine build.
It's something I've needed on a couple of occasions, and never bothered to get around to - even though it's simple to make... A mounting to hold a dial indicator to the lathe bed to accurately move the carriage. I need to make a batch of thin, but accurate washers and nuts, and once the current engine build is done I need to make up some gear hobs as well.
Up to now, I've simply indexed along the lathe's Z axis using the leadscrew hand wheel, but it's slightly inconvenient as it's difficult to keep track of exact movements (for me anyway) as it's graduated to 125 thou - slightly confusing my metric-oriented braincell.

A quick measurement of the lathe ways, and I just fell to work - without much of a plan. First some 25mm aluminium square bar onto the mill and the band saw marks cleaned up on the far end - just for looks:

After fussing with making 2mm bolts earlier in the day, it was nice to just hog out material - making chips nearly as big as those little bolts:

With the workpiece standing squarely upright, I used a 1mm slitting saw to make a kerf:

A 4.2mm hole followed - but only through the top bit and taking care to not drill into the "flap" left by slitting:

I'd eyeballed things on the lathe to find suitable spots where things would touch, so I drilled a 7.9mm hole in the appropriate approximate location:

That was reamed out to 8mm:

After cross-drilling another 4.2mm hole to match up into the reamed hole, both the 4.2mm holes were tapped M5.
On to the lathe, and some turning and threading - ready to just part off:

Another piece like in the last photo was turned and parted off, and then two dud gears I made quite a while ago soldered to the screwy bits with soft solder:

A quick face-off, and I had two OK-looking knobs:

I knew I'd find a use for those dud gears one day

Some scrub-down with a scouring pad, and the bit was done:

It fits very well to the lathe bed, and can be used on either the left or right side of the carriage:

Of course, it can be used as a depth stop as well with a bit of rod inserted; in the next photo I just used an 8mm drill bit as I couldn't find some rod:

: It's not a perfect solution though; if used on the right-hand side of the carriage, it prevents the tailstock from moving up close enough to work with small drills. At some future point, I'll make up a smaller one that can clamp onto the bed from the top. For most jobs, this one will do me just fine though.

Regards, Arnold

 

[krv3000]

hi and a nuther job well dun

 

[steamer]

I could never get along without my bed mounted dial indicator stop Arnold....you've built another "how could I ever get along without this" tool.....your going to love it.

Dave

 

[arnoldb]

Thanks Bob

Dave, Thank you You're right, as I've used it quite a bit more already than I thought I would... It beats the heck out of trying to get at the workpiece with the verniers and getting an accurate reading ;D

Kind regards, Arnold

 

[Blogwitch]

Only just caught up with the last two bits you have made Arnold, great work as usual. :bow: :bow:

How are you finding the ball raced ER nut? I can almost tighten mine up with my bad hand and get it to grip enough for cutting, they have revolutionised the way I use a collet chuck, before I would need three hands to tighten it up on the mill, now it is easy peasy.

I am lucky in that I have DRO's on my lathe, but I can definitely see where your DI holder can be of great use.

Nice ones. th_wav th_wav

Isn't it nice to make a bit of tooling that isn't on the market yet, or if it is, not as accurate as you can make yourself?

John

 

[arnoldb]

Thank you John

How are you finding the ball raced ER nut?

;D I love the closer nut to bits - that's part of the reason why I made the new chuck for the mill. After having used one on my lathe collet chuck for a couple of years, the "non-standard" Eastern one was just a pain to operate. And as you say, hand tightening milling bits is easy.

Isn't it nice to make a bit of tooling that isn't on the market yet, or if it is, not as accurate as you can make yourself?

That it is! And somehow it's "nicer" to work with my own-made tooling; the bits feel like old friends and constantly acts as a reminder of mistakes made, lessons learnt and skills acquired.

Kind regards, Arnold