Show Us Your Shop Made Tooling!

[Buffalobull]

Over the years I have had the opportunity to use various styles of ball turners and never liked the jerky cutting they always seemed to create so here is my answer to eliminate that problem. The mechanical connection of the rotary table gives it a smooth cut and leaves a great surface finish and is simple to use and adjust for a consistent diameter over the coarse of various setups for the same part. My grandsons (ages 10and 12) are helping me make a set of chess pieces for our weekly chess game. I have them turning the balls for the pawn tops

 

[extropic]

Over the years I have had the opportunity to use various styles of ball turners and never liked the jerky cutting they always seemed to create so here is my answer to eliminate that problem. The mechanical connection of the rotary table gives it a smooth cut and leaves a great surface finish and is simple to use and adjust for a consistent diameter over the coarse of various setups for the same part. My grandsons (ages 10and 12) are helping me make a set of chess pieces for our weekly chess game. I have them turning the balls for the pawn tops

Both the threading tool and the ball turner look great. My favorite part is the project with the grandsons. Priceless!

Can you recommend that rotary table? If so do you know the brand/source?

 

[Buffalobull]

Both the threading tool and the ball turner look great. My favorite part is the project with the grandsons. Priceless!

Thank you. Both of them love to play chess so we came up with this project. Was considering making one side out of aluminum and the other out of brass but will most likely make both out of aluminum and send them out and get them color anodized. They are really proud of themselves when they get done with the balls. Had to "babysit" them on the first few but after that they pretty much knew how to cut to the numbers I marked on the dials. Next time I have them set up I'll take some pictures of them. Being so young we do express safety...eye protection, loose clothing ect. One nice thing is the mandrel being in the collet chuck there isn't a spinning 3jaw to be extra concerned about

 

[Buffalobull]

Both the threading tool and the ball turner look great. My favorite part is the project with the grandsons. Priceless!

Can you recommend that rotary table? If so do you know the brand/source?

The rotary table was purchased off of ebay for around $70. It a 4" model although it could be adjusted to a larger one for a bigger lathe

 

[Ulma Doctor]

 

[dfsmoto]

Over the years I have had the opportunity to use various styles of ball turners and never liked the jerky cutting they always seemed to create so here is my answer to eliminate that problem. The mechanical connection of the rotary table gives it a smooth cut and leaves a great surface finish and is simple to use and adjust for a consistent diameter over the coarse of various setups for the same part. My grandsons (ages 10and 12) are helping me make a set of chess pieces for our weekly chess game. I have them turning the balls for the pawn tops

Now that's thinking! I have been perplexed by the perfect ball turning design myself. I'm going to have to go this route.

 

[Elijah Durham]

Re: Shop made tooling

Here are a few items I have made over the last few years to help with projects both machine shop and automotive.
The first is a floating die holder once featured in Home Shop Machinist. It also shows the thread dial I made for the lathe.

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The next picture shows a set of tools I made for assembling a Studebaker six engine.
The 3 pieces on the left are for installing the camshaft timing gear, the slim tool in the centre for installing the wrist pin and connecting rod on the piston. I had no picture of the tool itself, just a photo in the service manual of it in a vice with pin, rod and piston mounted on it so I had to reverse engineer it from there. The set on the right are for installing the timing gear on the crankshaft. For the two timing gear installers we had drawings and specs for.

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The next picture shows a set of press tools for replacing the control arm bushings on a Studebaker front suspension. For these parts the manual had good photos.

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The next picture shows the dies I made for the bead roller to put the channels in the floor panels for the Studebaker I am working on.

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The next picture shows the arbor I made to hold the gear cutter in my little Homier mill/drill

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I guess that will do for now. Basically it boils down to if I need something and don't have one I make it with my limited bit of mainly self taught machine shop practice.
Nick

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Late in seeing these, but man you did a good job !! I love the Studebakers !

 

[Buffalobull]

Here is another of my shop projects....seems like my hobby is making tools for my hobby...lol. Anyway here is my adaptation of a lantern chuck. Instead of making from a solid piece of steel I used more of a modular system. The cross bar can be replaced in case of a mishap and made from different thicknesses for greater rigidity. It employs a half-nut for quick release and return and uses a bit adapter socket for the different screw heads

 

[JimDawson]

adaptation of a lantern chuck

Looks very cool, but what does it do? Never heard of a ''lantern chuck'' before. Can you show it in use?

 

[Buffalobull]

Looks very cool, but what does it do? Never heard of a ''lantern chuck'' before. Can you show it in use?

Thanks for the question Jim...it is used to make different styles of custom screws or to do end work on them. In the first picture you can see how the screw is held with the shoulder of the head being pressed against the cross bar. I use it for making small screws for gunsmithing that are obsolete and hard to find