POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

[IHinIN]

Working on making a few tap guide blocks. One of mine at work went missing and I’ve been meaning to make a new one for a while. They’re made of 3” dia A-2 and will be heat treated. The one I have finished is for #6 through 5/8” taps.

 

[WestCoastEngineer]

Last weekend I picked up an Index model 40 and I am making some mounting feet so I can easily roll it around in my garage. I intend on bolting thru the tapped leveling holes at the base of the mill and I got some caster wheels to mount at the ends.

 

[woodchucker]

Well the Bison chuck finally arrived.
Had to make a chuck key first, since it's just shy of 3/8 square. .365
Once I did that I spun it up and found it was about 8 thou out.
So I took it apart and cleaned it. Found grease everywhere. Thought that was a mistake, until I looked up Bison's maint procedure, and it calls for either White Lith (some brand name) or Molybdenum. I was not going to have Moly flying everywhere. I opted for white lith.
We'll see. If I want I'll change it over. Had to get out my big air impact gun to break the screws for the jaws loose. I could not get them to budge. Easy peezy with the impact gun. Faced the backplate because it was out 2 thou on the face. Reassembled after the cleaning and greasing.
Out 6 thou. I could not knock her in.. So I took the backplate off and check it. The register was 2 thou out. I took 5 out. I gave myself room to knock her in. I am now 1.5 thou out. I'm calling it good for now. I may try for more.
One of the big things is how smooth the lathe is now. It's super smooth.. The pulsing vibration is gone. I had a feeling the old chuck was not balanced. I ran it at it's highest speed and felt nothing. Also the jaws are enormous compared to my old jaws.

 

[dkemppai]

Lucky you. Sounds like a nice chuck.

Picked up a bison 5C collet chuck a few years back. It's a beautiful thing. Would love to have more bison chucks for the lathe.

 

[dkemppai]

Last few days project was continued work on the drive shaft. Have one last end to slip into the square tube and weld in, but wanted to check how the first one turned out. Was concerned the tube might be bent, or other issues so put the bearings on mounts and spun it by hand. It's buttery smooth. Not sure how I didn't end up with some unforeseen problem with this!

View attachment ItSpins.mp4

Still have to weld the female square drive end into the second shorter shaft. A little worried that shaft coupling may have some runout or not be perfectly aligned. Being that it started life as a PTO shaft for a tractor decades ago. There was some wear, so who knows what I'll find. First step is to cut that shaft to length, which means setting everything up to mark it out. Only about 150 psi left in the TIG argon tank, hopefully that's enough.

 

[keeena]

Tackled a small project tonight to tighten up my daily driver bench vise (Simplex 41S). The dynamic jaw had some droop due to wear (mostly in the base casting). This droop also caused some wear in the bore near the handle end. The action felt a bit gummy too. Not a restoration, just seeing if I could fix up these issues.

Opened up the bore for an Oilite bushing and counterbore for a thrust bearing/washer stack-up. The bearing stack is about 0.015" proud of the dynamic jaw casting to take the load from the screw.


Pressed in


Epoxied 0.025" shims to the front bearing surface. The wear pattern in the base casting is a bit banana-shaped front to rear (low in the front and rear); worst being in the front. I just kept it simple.


The result is awesome; handle spins much more freely and the clamping/unclamping effort is significantly reduced in the sense that the handle and screw isn't getting hung up dragging on the casting. Jaws are at the same level. Seeing that this gets used on the daily: was well worth it.

 

[Firstram]

Tackled a small project tonight to tighten up my daily driver bench vise (Simplex 41S). The dynamic jaw had some droop due to wear (mostly in the base casting). This droop also caused some wear in the bore near the handle end. The action felt a bit gummy too. Not a restoration, just seeing if I could fix up these issues.

Opened up the bore for an Oilite bushing and counterbore for a thrust bearing/washer stack-up. The bearing stack is about 0.015" proud of the dynamic jaw casting to take the load from the screw.
View attachment 481536

Pressed in
View attachment 481537

Epoxied 0.025" shims to the front bearing surface. The wear pattern in the base casting is a bit banana-shaped front to rear (low in the front and rear); worst being in the front. I just kept it simple.
View attachment 481538

The result is awesome; handle spins much more freely and the clamping/unclamping effort is significantly reduced in the sense that the handle and screw isn't getting hung up dragging on the casting. Jaws are at the same level. Seeing that this gets used on the daily: was well worth it.

I have bored and bushed a few vises, it makes a huge difference, nice work.

 

[wachuko]

Build is done!!



Now to look for an electrician to wire it!
Need to install the tiles, insulation, plywood panels for the walls, ceiling, etc.

But the building is done!!!

I did move a few things from the house… anything that can move on its own power… so it is easy to move when I do the tiles and first 4’ of walls…

 

[DeadGuyAle]

If I ever get to the point of putting things back together will need to align the head and level the bed on the Clausing.so thought I would get some practice on the Sherline.

.978 X 4" 6061 test bar
Did not get overly complex with the setup, just turned the full length of the bar a .001 per pass and measured.
Started out with.003 of taper, chuck end being smaller. Going through the Sherline recommended process of head alignment got it down to a consistent .0024
My level showed a slight twist in the bed so


Added a .002 shim but it was too much, replaced with a .001 shim that did the trick.
Next pass on the test bar, chuck side measured .9644 far end .9646.
Will call this a success and get back to my much neglected painting on the Clausing parts.
Would like to say had it done in 15 minutes but truth is I banged away at it for more than a couple hours. Great learning experience

 

[pontiac428]

Build is done!!

Jaime, that is the first shop I ever did see with its own private beach right off the slab! It's one palm tree short of paradise island. I will toast your accomplishment later by sipping rum from a coconut through a turned stainless straw. Lose the shirt, lean back into your adirondack, kick your feet up on the tail of the lathe bed and look out over your sea of toys, admiring what you've achieved.