Old Axle Shaft Material Makes Great T-slot Cutter!

cathead

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A week or so ago, I cut off a chunk of old truck axle shaft and annealed it in the wood furnace
over night. In the morning it was relatively cool and I found I could abrade it with a file.
This morning I machined the end of the axle to 0.5 inch for about an inch and a half and also a 3/8
inch wide band of 1 inch diameter before cutting it off. It machined beautifully. Then it went
into the mill using a spin index and teeth were cut every 30 degrees giving 12 equally spaced teeth.
After that, the part was heated to a nice cherry red and waved in a tin can full of used
compressor oil. The file would not touch it now. A trial cut gave excellent results to I can
see that making more tooling will be in the offing. The photo shows the raw material, a test cut
and also the cutter itself. The machining process took less than an hour. IMG_0575.JPG IMG_0577.JPG
 
A week or so ago, I cut off a chunk of old truck axle shaft and annealed it in the wood furnace
over night. In the morning it was relatively cool and I found I could abrade it with a file.
This morning I machined the end of the axle to 0.5 inch for about an inch and a half and also a 3/8
inch wide band of 1 inch diameter before cutting it off. It machined beautifully. Then it went
into the mill using a spin index and teeth were cut every 30 degrees giving 12 equally spaced teeth.
After that, the part was heated to a nice cherry red and waved in a tin can full of used
compressor oil. The file would not touch it now. A trial cut gave excellent results to I can
see that making more tooling will be in the offing. The photo shows the raw material, a test cut
and also the cutter itself. The machining process took less than an hour. View attachment 96504

Thanks for posting.
What a great use of materials and fine machine work.
Information like this helps us all keep a better eye out for usable materials.
 
Why did you make it LH?

Seems like it worked great, I wonder what material the axle was made from.
 
Why did you make it LH?

Seems like it worked great, I wonder what material the axle was made from.

No reason for it being left handed. I'm left handed so maybe that was why...
Axle shafts are 4000 series steel from what I could determine on the web.
 
I'm glad something was posted about an old truck axle, I have about 20 of them and didn't know what to use them for. Thanks cathead.
 
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