Stuart engineering Lathe

[steamer]

no worries.....just for the record....It's too cute to not try it ;D

Dave

 

[coopertje]

Hope you all had a good Christmas and that Santa was generous with supplying new tools for you. I think I misbehaved last year, didn't got a single tool this year.... :'(

A well, at least I could spend a little time on the lathe last week, not so much progress but better then nothing.

Could not resist and grinded a little tool, the tool holder looked so empty.

Last machining operation on the saddle was to tap M3, in there the handle to block the saddle will be mounted.

Next I made the cover plate for the cross slide. It is not a difficult part, a matter of drilling some holes and have it squared up.

Started with drilling a 4mm hole for the spindle

And made a 6mm counter sink

To drill the mounting holes in the cross slide I clamped the cover plate on the cross slide and drilled 2 holes 2.5mm diameter. In the cross slide there will be M3.

Tapped the M3

And made a test fit

I was happy so next step was to face all the sides of the cover plate to have a tight fit to the cross slide

Here the result is mounted on the lathe

Next I will make the 4 jaw chuck. I have holiday next week so I should be able to do some work in the shop in between painting the stairs and choosing a new car ;D

Have fun and thanks for watching!

Regards Jeroen

 

[mklotz]

Your lathe looks really, really great. However, I think the appearance of the tool post would be improved a lot (and be more realistic) if you replaced the SHCSs with the square-headed screws normally used.

As I learned early in my career, SHCS are ill-advised in this application because the socket hole in the cap fills up with swarf and must be cleaned each time one wants to adjust the tool. Square-headed screws don't suffer from this problem.

 

[coopertje]

Marv, you are soo right! I though about it some time ago but lost my attention somehow. Their will be no hexcaps visible when finished.

Thanks for your responce, always appreciate honest and open comments! :bow:

Regards Jeroen

 

[mklotz]

I'm glad you took it the way you did. It will be a superb model, no matter what you do on the toolholder. I built the PMR model lathe and it was one of the most satisfying builds I've ever had. The completed model still holds pride of place in one of my display cabinets.

 

[NickG]

It does look brilliant Jeroen, I wouldn't have thought of it but now Marv mentions it, I think it will look better - more period too.

Nick

 

[coopertje]

Thanks Marv and Nick! Thats why I like this site, no matter if I am just reading or posting build progress, I always learn and improve!

Regards Jeroen

 

[coopertje]

I know its been a while ago that i post some news about my progress, did not have time to work on the lathe lately. I travelled for work and now I am in Brazil with my wife for holidays. At least it gave me time to prepare the next parts on paper. This will give me a jump start when I am back home, can start to make some chips right away. Will start with the chuck body out of one piece and after the jaws. I am still doubting if I will make the handwheels cnc or conventional. Probably it will be a mix of both.

Hope to post some progress soon.

Have fun in the shop, regards Jeroen

 

[nfk]

HI,
I hope you`r having some nice vacations over there, where are you exactly?
Enjoy and relax, we can wait for some progress a few more days

Norberto

 

[coopertje]

Hi Noberto,

We are in limeira now, about 150 km north of sao paulo.
Today we made a brazilian bbq for friends and family. I love brazilian meat (argentina steak is very well too!). Fly back the 10th, maybe in the weekend i am able to go in my shop for some hours.

Thanks for the reply!

Regards Jeroen

 

[krv3000]

HI work well dun

 

[coopertje]

Thanks krv3000? appriciate your reply!

Regards Jeroen

 

[coopertje]

Finally arrived back home and found some time to go to the shop! I started making the blank for the chuck body:

Made 2 blanks, you never know. And maybe I will make a 3-jaw chuck too, lets see. I took the time and polished the body in the lathe with sandpaper. I use a newspaper to cover the machine bed, I would not like to have the sanding dust in my guides and loose accuracy in time...

I used my converted Wabeco mill to drill the 4 holes on a 90 degree angle. Since the machine has a separate drilling pinole I use Mach3 to set the coordinates and then drill manually the holes. For who does not know, you can easily interrupt a program by putting an M1 command in the G-code, the program "halts" on the M1 command and by pressing the start button the program continues. I use this a lot, very quick to drill a hole pattern in this way and no need to recalibrate the Z-axis when changing drills.

And run a tap M5 through

Time to part off the chuck body

and mount it reversed in the lathe. Center drill, drill and tap MF8

I made a counter bore using a 10mm end mill.

This week I will grind a 5mm mill into a T-shape cutter and make the guides for the jaws.

Thanks for checking in!

Regards Jeroen

 

[coopertje]

Small update on the chuck. I was able to make the groves that will hold the jaws. Luckily no mishaps last 2 days...

Started with the rotary table on the mill and determined the center of the table. I use a ring for this, go left, go right divide the measured distance by 2 and repeat this for up and down.

Then I needed to make sure that the already drilled holes are parallel to the machine bed. I put a long M5 bold and rotated the rotary table such that left and right side of the chuck measured 0.

Next was to make a T-cutter out of a 5mm end mill. Luckily I have a small tool grinder available, so that was not too much work.

Time to make little chips!

First I used a 3mm mill to cut a cross in the chuck body. The inner measure of the "jaw-guide" is 3mm, the jaw width will be 5mm

Then I installed the 5mm T-cutter I made and run it trough to create the bottom part of the guide

And one cut to create the top part

This is what I ended up with, needs some de-burring dough

I am happy with the result, looks like a chuck body to me. I hope the jaws will work out well too, hope to have them in hands this weekend.

Have fun, regards Jeroen

 

[user 4756]

Hi Jeroen,

Still watching with amazement! :bow:

Keep up the good work. I would also love to see the finished lathe in action!

Andy

 

[coopertje]

Thanks Andy, hope you are a patient guy, I am afraid it will take some time before I try to make some chips with the lathe. Quite a busy period coming up at work and probably many travels abroad.

Jeroen

 

[coopertje]

Got the jaws ready this weekend and coming a little closer to a test run...

Took a lot of pictures of the jaw making process, hope its not boring for you.

Started with a piece of 10x10mm bar and milled it down to a strip of 5x10mm

I wanted a tight fit so I measured and test fitted all the time:

From the 5x10mm I cutted 4 pieces of 13mm length

I made a jig by cutting a 4mm deep pocked in a piece of aluminum. To clamp the jaws in the jig I used "pliers" (do not know the correct name for these) With a 5mm mill I added a 2.5mm radius to the side of jaw that touches the setscrew to move the jaw in and out the chuck body.

The set screw I will use is M5x6. After adding the 2.5mm radius I took a cut of 1.8mm deep. In here the set screw will be located.

With a 1mm saw I made the slots on both side of the jaw. The slotheight is 1.5mm, took 2 cuts at each side

Time to fit and check the result so far

 

[coopertje]

Procedure repeated 3 more times and below shows the chuck with the 4 jaws mounted

The jaws need a 45 degree chamber on 4 sides. To set-up the jig on a 45 degree angle I used a square. Very easy and fast angle set-up.

Cutting the chamber

2 finished

all 4 finished

To make the inner radius of the jaws I centered the jaws and run a 2mm mill trough the middle

I tightened the jaws a good as possible and with light cuts I started to make the outer shape of the jaws. As you can see it went not completely ok, the jaws got a little loose during turning and the surface is not shiny. But with some sandpaper it will be ok again.

Heres the chuck with jaws mounted on the lathe

Up to the handwheels!

Have fun, regards Jeroen

 

[coopertje]

This week I did the handwheels. I was planning to use the CNC lathe (I am a lazy machinist) but my touchscreen broke down. Divided my time in the shop to make some parts for the little lathe and trying to repair the screen which luckily was successful after some digging and component replacing. The result is that I did the wheel by hand which is also fun for me. Doesn't matter how you get there as long as you get there!

Started with 25mm aluminum stock and turned a 8mm diameter, 8mm long. This will be the back of the handwheel, the 8mm serves as a spacer.

Next was the inner chamber, 1mm deep

Since I did not have / make a shape cutter for the radius of the wheel, I used a file and sandpaper instead. I used the parting tool to make a cut to about 50% of the diameter to create space for the file

After some filing and sanding I ended up with this

Next was to drill the center holes and tap M3

I swapped the wheel in the chuck and made the outher chamber, also 1mm deep

Then I moved the wheel to the mill and put it in the rotary table. There will be 4 holes on 90 degrees just for visual effect and one extra on 45 degrees to mount the handwheel handle

Below the 3 handwheels finished

I also made the handles for the toolpost, carriage blockage and the pinole. I made it from 4mm drill rod and shaped it with a file and sandpaper

As you can see below its starting to become a real lathe, there is light at the end of the tunnel!

I need to make the oilers, base plate, chuck key, toolpost key and of course the bolds (with square head) to mount the tools. After these parts are ready the machining is over and the sanding, polishing and painting will start. Its nice, it has been long enough this project and I am eager to start other work!

Have a good weekend, Jeroen

 

[NickG]

Very very nice Jeroen :bow: