2016 POTD Thread Archive

[hman]

POTD was for my wife. Last year she gave me the clearance to buy a Grizzly G0709 14” x 40” lathe. Well, she wanted a lathe of her own and bought one off eBay. She does a different Christmas ornament every year for family and friends, this year’s ornament will be a decorated egg. Her lathe will be used to draw evenly spaced circles on the egg for the various patterns. Probably double as a holder as she paints them to.

Go figure, her lathe didn’t work as well as she hoped straight out of the box. One base is adjustable (we’ll call it the tailstock), the other base is fixed. There isn’t enough friction on either the headstock or tailstock to rotate the egg without it moving laterally a little bit. She was hoping to hold a pencil in one hand and rotate the egg with the other. So, she asked if I’d make her a pencil holder so she could turn the headstock and tailstock at the same time which keeps the egg from shifting laterally. What, go in my shop and make something!

I used a 1” aluminum round drilled and reamed to a few thousandths over the pencil diameter. Made a base plate from 3/16” aluminum and tacked them together with my TIG welder. The 1” round had a ½” diameter shoulder turned to fit into a ½” hole drilled into the base for locating during the welding.

I didn’t show the operation, but milled a window on one side of the pencil holder for better visibility of where the pencil is hitting the egg. Should work out well for her.

Bruce

Nice lathe ... but where's the power feed? ;~)

 

[Subwayrocket]

I was wondering the same thing. I put distilled water in my cooler but with the winter months coming on I was thinking of adding an antifreeze instead of draining it. You see RV anti-freeze recommended boy a lot of folks. Does it have any anti-corrision properties and does anyone her have any experience with it.

Yes , I use distilled water. I had about 8 gallons of distilled water and two of RV antifreeze . The RV stuff is biodegradable and relatively safe ...i'm pretty sure this is what caused the growth. I also had a large socked pushed over the bottom of the intake hose , to hold it to the bottom of the tank. I should have known ...electrolysis ate away that tool steel like nothing ...this time i used a piece of stainless . My shop is heated , but I think if I had freezing concerns i'd use regular green auto antifreeze next time . Alot of folks have good luck with that . I'm sure it's toxicity and additives inhibit any growth .

 

[BGHansen]

Nice lathe ... but where's the power feed? ;~)

In the case of my wife's lathe, the "motor" is your thumb and index finger!

Bruce

 

[Sandia]

Yes , I use distilled water. I had about 8 gallons of distilled water and two of RV antifreeze . The RV stuff is biodegradable and relatively safe ...i'm pretty sure this is what caused the growth. I also had a large socked pushed over the bottom of the intake hose , to hold it to the bottom of the tank. I should have known ...electrolysis ate away that tool steel like nothing ...this time i used a piece of stainless . My shop is heated , but I think if I had freezing concerns i'd use regular green auto antifreeze next time . Alot of folks have good luck with that . I'm sure it's toxicity and additives inhibit any growth .

I didn't think you could use automotive antifreeze. Don't know where I read that, need to do some research.
Thanks

 

[Sandia]

Just checked the manual that came with my cooler and it says do not use automotive antifreeze. Who knows ?

 

[Subwayrocket]

I know a guy that is pressure, cryo certified ...he uses auto antifreeze in his home setup . Jody of weldingtipsandtricks has mentioned using RV antifreeze ...Of course neither I nor the manual will suggest using that ....but, ya know

 

[phrodo]

POTD was for my wife. Last year she gave me the clearance to buy a Grizzly G0709 14” x 40” lathe. Well, she wanted a lathe of her own and bought one off eBay. She does a different Christmas ornament every year for family and friends, this year’s ornament will be a decorated egg. Her lathe will be used to draw evenly spaced circles on the egg for the various patterns. Probably double as a holder as she paints them to.

Go figure, her lathe didn’t work as well as she hoped straight out of the box. One base is adjustable (we’ll call it the tailstock), the other base is fixed. There isn’t enough friction on either the headstock or tailstock to rotate the egg without it moving laterally a little bit. She was hoping to hold a pencil in one hand and rotate the egg with the other. So, she asked if I’d make her a pencil holder so she could turn the headstock and tailstock at the same time which keeps the egg from shifting laterally. What, go in my shop and make something!

I used a 1” aluminum round drilled and reamed to a few thousandths over the pencil diameter. Made a base plate from 3/16” aluminum and tacked them together with my TIG welder. The 1” round had a ½” diameter shoulder turned to fit into a ½” hole drilled into the base for locating during the welding.

I didn’t show the operation, but milled a window on one side of the pencil holder for better visibility of where the pencil is hitting the egg. Should work out well for her.

Bruce

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Hi,
If you find you like doing this you might check out a computerized version. Google EggBot pro. They sell these but it's all open source, so you can download all the documentation, prints. etc and build your own. I'm about 80% complete on the one I"m building. Will show results when done.
John

 

[Downunder Bob]

Billwood,
If you ever get a chance to add gas to that mig you will find it a lot easier and better welds. Just keep trying different feed rate til you hit the right one. It took me a few tries to hit the right feed rates depending on the amp setting. once I found the right rates I marked the dial area for the different settings. Also I think the gas makes a big difference.

Yea absolutely mig without gas is only halfway there, I only use gasless when its not possible to use gas.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Just checked the manual that came with my cooler and it says do not use automotive antifreeze. Who knows ?

i use 100% distilled water, it doesn't usually freeze in my garage
the welding coolant is a bit $$$

 

[Atlascycle]

The the bad thing about the welding coolant is you have to buy at 4 gallons at a time if you can buy a gallon it wouldn't be so bad

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