DIY Tool Maker's Chest

[gus]

Happy new year Gus. Hope you dont mean it about no more wood working
Dont know how you managed without all the new storage.Bet you will find/make more. Regards Barry

Hi Barry,

You are right. Tooling for lathe and mill were badly organised in the past.

Your idea of having mill and drill press sitting on its own single drawer tool chest was great. Looking for/finding end mills and drills now like a breeze.
From here i had to go on to the Tool Cabinet for the lathe.

2015 will be a great year. No longer wasting time looking for turning/milling/drill tools and productivity raised. Ha ha ha.

 

[gus]

Sure wished balcony another couple of feet wider. Will have to compromise. A bit tight but will get used to this working space. While cleaning chips, found it OK space wise. Colour wise of the laminate, I have no choice but accept some cleaning up every time I work on the lathe. Labour wise, no painting/shellac/ lacquer done. As for the knobs, I may go for BassWood turning. Good Luck to Gus as he has no wood turning experience.

 

[goldstar31]

Gus
System working again. Turning knobs or anything wooden. Try to get a bit of lignum vitae from an old boatyard. Originally, it was used as material for stern and propellor tubes bearings.
It turns with ordinary lathe tools and comes off the lathe like thick grease. With a clean lathe tray to catch the stuff, you can use the turnings as polish because it contains natural oils.

I used to go down to the breakers yards on the River Tyne- and sweetheart the stuff out of the guys.

Cheers

Norman

 

[gus]

Hi Norman,

I am heading to Japan. Saw some very hard/dark/dense/fine grain wood at TokyuHands. Will for for this if it does't break a banks and if not fall back to aluminium. Keep you posted. Meanwhile I am in South Thailand having a great time with the Thai Food. Take Care.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Sure wished balcony another couple of feet wider. Will have to compromise. A bit tight but will get used to this working space.

the old paradox . we build or buy a nice storage unit or bench to better use the space and we end up with less floor space or bench space. I am blessed with a small attached heated cooled shop about 11 Ft x 14 feet. It is my shop my study my library man cave etc. I have been blessed with things to put in it. I have an OAK Mayline drafting table a 5' oak desk a floor lathe 2- 5 ft work benches a home made book shelf ,roll around tool chest, filing cabinets....... some days seems like just enough room to change my mind and barely enough room to change a tool bit. but its home and my shop so am grateful for it.
Tin

 

[goldstar31]

Hi Gus( And TF)

Hope that you are successful with your wood. Do get some dense hardwoods and enjoy a bit of turning.

Space? I have an 8x6 shed and am stealing room in my garage which has two lawnmowers, a big Audi A4 Avant and a Mercedes SLK, garden tools and sail board( son's) and well- if I can get in- Me? My other car lives in the open amongst the trees with incontinent pigeons and magpies.

Happily, I'm still long like a leather lace- but not quite as thick!

Cheers

Norman

 

[Cogsy]

and sail board( son's)

You're 84 you've said, so your son is what, in his 60's? Yet he still goes sailboarding and stores it in your garage??

My kids will be kicked out of home long before I'm an octogenarian.

 

[gus]

This thread is attraction lotsa attention and thats good with feedback plenty . I think I am about to run short of carpentry jobs.
Suppose to rest my brains but I am having a hard time zeroing on any one project. It will be 2 1/2'' Boring Head or the MiniMagneto.

 

[goldstar31]

Suppose to rest my brains but I am having a hard time zeroing on any one project. It will be 2 1/2'' Boring Head or the MiniMagneto.

Nah! George Thomas- Model Engineers Workshop Manual- his 2" one but get crafty and make the shank to accept Morse taper and parallel which carefully makes a boring tool and a ball turning tool for just a little more effort. And then you get craftier still and make the parallel bore to take 43mm collar to put a drill in and a spacer for the ball turning attachment.

Now Gus, will you let this old fella get on and download my library for you-----PLEASE?

Norman

 

[gus]

Didn't want to mess up the false front of the drawers with my grimy hands,switched to using Japanese BassWood bought from ''Daiso Dollar Shop''. Most of us metal machinists seems to have cold feet turning wood. Gus Included.Fear of the unknown put aside and wooden knobs done. Not to bad results for first time ''Wood Turner Gus''.
Tools were wood chisel,file and sandpaper. From today the expensive aluminium is out and replaced by wood.
However I have five knobs to DIY.

 

[goldstar31]

Gus
You CAN make a rest out of a bit of round steel that fits the actual lathe tool holder.

That is Mark ONE but if the round bar is shaped like a Letter L you can do face plate turning as well. That is Mark TWO.

Hint- holding a short chisel is not the way to go.It can be dangerous. You should have a Lo---------ong handle on a wood lathe tool.

Thinking of your safety

Norman

 

[gus]

Gus
You CAN make a rest out of a bit of round steel that fits the actual lathe tool holder.

That is Mark ONE but if the round bar is shaped like a Letter L you can do face plate turning as well. That is Mark TWO.

Hint- holding a short chisel is not the way to go.It can be dangerous. You should have a Lo---------ong handle on a wood lathe tool.

Thinking of your safety

Norman

Hi Norman,
Thanks for the safety concern. Have no desire dying with minus fingers or hand.
Am getting a fair idea how long the tool and handle should. Did use the very short length carving tools and they did not stand to the shock. Will DIY my own Wood Turning Tool with longer handle bar for safety.
Will buy same tools from TokyuHands Nagoya, Japan.

Been fun doing wood turning

 

[bazmak]

Hi Gus,for rough turning you can make your own using Rct clamped on a long handle,With the tool rest up close this type of tip has little tendancy to dig in
I very rarely use REAL turning tools on chess sets.The RCT and abrasive paper
gets good results.Try it before you buy a proper set

 

[bazmak]

Just looking at your photo,the tool rest seems to be well away from the work
Should be as close as possible just like a bench grinder.My first knobs were 100mm dia for a wrdrobe i made.Made on the old orange box(see thread on chess sets)Now you have started it gets addictive.Next for you maybe a chess set.Whats the top speed on the lathe

 

[gus]

Gus
You CAN make a rest out of a bit of round steel that fits the actual lathe tool holder.

That is Mark ONE but if the round bar is shaped like a Letter L you can do face plate turning as well. That is Mark TWO.

Hint- holding a short chisel is not the way to go.It can be dangerous. You should have a Lo---------ong handle on a wood lathe tool.

Thinking of your safety

Norman

Hi Norman,

Just bought Wood Turning Tools from Axminster. Will have proper tools with sufficient length for personal safety.

 

[gus]

e Barry,Norman and others,

Thanks for the tips. You are right wood turning is addictive fun. Those two wood turng tools will the first and last and from here on will turn the handle bars and cutters will be made from Silver Steel.About to try out local hard wood. Handles for files,scrapers etc will all be DIYed .
Will have to stop somewhere to start working on the Howell V-2 Crank case next week.

 

[gus]

Hi Barry n Norman.

After some real hands-on practice and goofs. Made 5 good knobs with Tropical Hard Wood aka Red Meranti. It took six bad knobs made with Japanese BassWood which is very soft,easy to turn but hard to finish. The Red Meranti was easy to turn and finish. 1/2 '' and 1 '' flat chisels were used but a bit tricky.

Will make handle for DIY Roughing Tools. Flat Chisels are not best for roughing. Henceforth Aluminium Knobs are no longer the favorite and this because its so easy to turn hardwood. No pesky long aluminum swarfs to clear.

 

[Swifty]

I have turned wood before in the metal lathe, I clamped a round bar as a rest and ground the end of an old file to use as a hand turning tool, it was a long, very solid file with a good long handle fitted. Worked great.

Paul.

 

[goldstar31]

I have turned wood before in the metal lathe, I clamped a round bar as a rest and ground the end of an old file to use as a hand turning tool, it was a long, very solid file with a good long handle fitted. Worked great.

Paul.

See my comments on 191. Regarding files, there are two kinds. One type are case hardened and once they are ground,they are pretty useless. The older type are capable of being ground, once softened and retempered.


So Gus, if you live in a flat you might have problems with the heating etc.

Frankly, I'd settle for high speed steel but might I go back to early comments and repeat that you can use conventional lathe tools in the fixed tool holder.

So back to meranti, it isn't bad for handles. Probably the lazy way of getting handles is using wooden brush or broom handles.

Gus, I think that we could both be upsetting others by prattling endlessly on about wood. :hDe:

Cheers

Norman


And for 'Two Ronnie' fans- 4 candles:wall:

 

[gus]

I have turned wood before in the metal lathe, I clamped a round bar as a rest and ground the end of an old file to use as a hand turning tool, it was a long, very solid file with a good long handle fitted. Worked great.

Paul.

Hi Paul,
Good Idea. Looks like the U.K. Turning Tools will be left untouched when they arrive.Will keep for show piece.
I have some cheapy M.I.C. Files. Will grind and heat treat with the one/two/three barrel Mapp Gas Torch to Cherry Red at night and quench in water and temper between green and blue. Believe this will be 1 -2-3 seen with the local smithy hardening and tempering electric concrete chisels.Gus no expert but just reading and quoting Tubal Cain's Heat Treating Book.
W/o an electric furnace,it will be eye ball temperature gaging/guessing.Have done my fair share with Ingersoll-Rand,Singapore Plant hardening punches and roll forming tools for pressure vessels.


Quite happy with the 5 Red Merantic Hardwood Knobs. Was fun. All five fixed on to Tool Cabinets.