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Glammed Up my Kant-Twist Clamps

Got tired of sore fingers from the skinny T-handles so finally I broke down and added grips:
20240407 Kant-Twist Handles.jpeg

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.
 
More Hardware Storage

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

20240612 More Hardware Storage rfs.jpg

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:

Zoro Hyde Industrial Knife.jpeg



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

Machinists Jacks.jpeg




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

20240617 KBC.jpeg



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:

Kingmann White Mini-Sine rfs.jpg

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:

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

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 .
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.

3 don't let my wife see just how clean your operation is .
Hmm, maybe I need to start a paid service to not share my shop organization with SO’s?

I need to look into that large LineLoc like ya have there
The Loc-Line vacuum setups are useful in keeping swarf under control, but they are a b___h to assemble.
thanks for sharing
animal12
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:

Facing Back of TAIG Chuck Thread Adapter post.jpg

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:

Finished Part post.jpg



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

TAIG 4in 4-Jaw n Adapter post.jpg

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:

1-taig-chuck-adapter-in-mill-vise-jpeg.159054



Centered the adapter using a 10mm edge finder:

2 Centering Adapter for Drilling.jpeg

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:

3 Milling Flat on Adapter.jpeg



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):

5 Drilling Adapter.jpeg



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

6 Finished TAIG Chuck Adapter Mod.jpeg
 

Attachments

  • 1 TAIG Chuck Adapter in Mill Vise.jpeg
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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:
20240923 D5100 Power Cord.jpeg


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:
NOGA Big-Boy w Kant-Twist Mount.jpg

[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:
20240923 MSC K-T March 2nd.jpg


But the price has gone up:
20240923 MSC K-T Sept 13.jpg


Shopping around, I found this version on ZORO, which is actually better suited for my purposes:
20240923 ZORO K-T.png

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:
20240923 I-M K-T.png


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:
20240920 Kant-Twist Jaw.jpeg

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):

20240930 Replacement K-T Clamp.jpeg


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
 

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