2016 POTD Thread Archive

I finished the spider and got the tach running. I still need to modify the housing for the tach display and clean up the wiring but the tach is functional. Most of my time has been spent cleaning the shop and trying to get it organized.

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I am going to need to cut metric threads on my south bend lathe making the ER 40 collet, sooooo.....after a year of procrastinating..:rolleyes:... I finally got off my but and made up the transposing gears. It only took 20 minutes! I had previously made extra bolts and bushings for the change gears just for instances like this. I turnd the OD of a busing to .562" to fit the gears and drilled and tapped two holes for 10-32 SHCS.
transposing gear1.jpg These are the parts.
transposing gear2.jpg These are the parts assembled and ready to use. I put loctite on the bolts to make this a permanent assembly as I bought to spare gears a year ago just for this. (I been waiting until I needed them). This is a 44 tooth and a 56 tooth gears. you could just remove the bolts and use them normally again, but I wanted a permanent one. There is a chart showing which change gears to use to cut all the most common metric threads. The error in this setup is 2 parts per thousand or two threads over 40 inches , which is negligible and won't be noticeable.

The advantage to this is I don't need to make those special big gears for 127/100 teeth. this setup uses the standard change gears.
 
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Well, I always like to follow something impressive like that with my projects that always make them look even better.

Today I hung up my tap and drill chart, which meant that I had to move 1976 Rigid Tools pinup calendar over. Then I sanded down one of my wooden storage drawers that was sticking. I cut up some unknown homemade part to get two steel bars about 3/4" x 36" out of it. Stored some end mills in plastic test tubes that I got off ebay.

Then I cleaned up an 18" monkey wrench that I found at the dump:

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I didn't get around to sweeping the floor and cleaning the rubber mats before supper time.

I frequently have days like this. They have their own charm in that I know these little tasks are done.
 
Today I moved some stuff around to make room for a new machine being delivered tomorrow. I will post some pics when it arrives.
 
View attachment 126940 View attachment 126941 A friend of mine asked me if I could make one of these for him out of steel. Seems the cast aluminum end didn't hold up very well. Don't think that it was ever designed to be used on a skid steer For stump splitting. The next one will.

Jay
My dad bought one of those for splitting wood with his John Deere garden tractor. I think it was called a UNICORN. I recall a tubular steel frame that lifted the rear end of the tractor and a detail of square tubing that plunged (side of the tubing, not the end) into one of the tires to lock it in place. The screw mounted on the hub of the other tire. Put it in gear and keep your clothes away from the end of that screw! I recall his having a steel end piece that somehow mounted to the screw base so most of the work was done with the steel screw, not the base.

You might have trouble turning it on a "standard" hobbyist lathe. Most QCGB go down to just 4 threads per inch. I recall my dad's splitter screw being more like 1 tpi. I think that style splitter went by the wayside like Jarts. If you did go with 4 tpi, you'd need a taper attachment on your lathe to do the turning. Looks like you're at a 10-11 degree taper per side also. For reference, my Grizzly taper attachment on a 14 x 40 lathe only goes to 5 degrees per side.

Bruce
 
Here's a quickie ... might possibly have been better suited for "Tool Junkies," bit I didn't think it was worthy of a new thread all by itself.

Anyway, I got a set of Shars spacer blocks today. Freed them from the wax paper and cleaned off the working faces with an HF microfiber cloth. I thought the cloth was handy enough that I should keep one in the case, but it was too large to fit flat, and folded up it would have been too thick to let the lid close. So I cut out a piece just a bit smaller than the box, to keep in there and wipe the blocks before/after use. I generally like to keep a full set of accessories with every tool, so I don't have to go around hunting.

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I finished the spider and got the tach running. I still need to modify the housing for the tach display and clean up the wiring but the tach is functional.
Nicely done, the bracket is similar to Firestopper's, great idea not having to drill any new holes. Those inexpensive tachs work surprisingly well, and are accurate down to 6-8Hz. Glad it is all coming together, would be nice to get your thoughts on what you think of the PM1340GT with your new stand? Nice to see that they will be offering a cast iron base in the future, but your stand looks mighty nice. Great job!
 
I'm curios of the measurements of those China blocks... let us know how a few of them proof out to the tenth
 
Nicely done, the bracket is similar to Firestopper's, great idea not having to drill any new holes. Those inexpensive tachs work surprisingly well, and are accurate down to 6-8Hz. Glad it is all coming together, would be nice to get your thoughts on what you think of the PM1340GT with your new stand? Nice to see that they will be offering a cast iron base in the future, but your stand looks mighty nice. Great job!

Mark, the stand is working great. No shimmy or shake now due to the stiffer stand but there is still some vibration at certain hz settings. I am pretty sure it is related to the pulley or belt but it's minimal enough to ignore so I am. Sometime I would like to try a flat or ribbed belt, that would be a good project making the pulleys, but not on the "must do" list. I do need to talk to you about adding one of your electronic stop setups. I assume it would require me to add some components to the electrical box but it looks like it is a fantastic addition to the lathe. Another comment I have is how wonderful it is to have a DRO on the lathe. That was well worth the extra cost and I would highly recommend it to any user. I also would like to give credit to Matt at PM for working on adding the cast base option. It shows that he is committed to supporting and improving the equipment he sells.
 
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