Becoming hobby machinist in the near future.

[Just for fun]

Cool, Congrats on your first thread.

 

[StevSmar]

That longer splined end of the spindle looks like a much better solution to me than what I have seen in other versions of the 833. That said, the interference of the drawbar hex corners with the spline wrench would drive me crazy. Instead of that spline wrench, you might find that a certain size 12-point box-end wrench will fit the splines and still give clearance past the hex-head.

If you plan on implementing a power drawbar, you might live with it until the PDB project pops to the top of the list. If you go for the Maxi Torque-Rite PDB, it comes with a custom new drawbar to fit your machine.

But instead of beavering off the corners of the hex cap, I would be inclined to bring the entire hex-head down in size by milling off all six sides in an ER40 Hex collet block. Kinda hard to do without a second drawbar, but you can buy replacement drawbars easy enough - or make your own. You have to be precise in picking a replacement drawbar on length, but the R8 end is threaded 7/16-20. Here are a few, or PM may have one specific to the 833.

This is another alternative - used in place of the spline wrench. I made a slightly more robust version of this for my RF-45. They are available on eBay here. It's basically a spring-loaded plunger that you push on to engage with one of the splines and it locks the spindle. When you let go, it springs back automatically. Less likely you'll forget and leave a spline wrench on the spindle with this kind of setup and it's easily installed and works with existing unmodified drawbar.

View attachment 360634

That looks really interesting.

 

[StevSmar]

I am pretty lucky that my slab was re-poured after a plane hit my home a few year back.

I want a new garage slab. I threw a wood plane at the front of the house and called the insurance company and left a detailed message. So far they haven’t called back…

(Sorry, couldn’t help myself)

That’s so unusual, sad that the pilot was killed and his nephew badly injured. It was a beautiful plane too.

 

[Rodneyk]

It has been a while since I posted. Both machines are set up and operating and I am now learning a few things. Currently I am working on a mod to my honey extractor to double the speed (it is a little too slow so I am making mods that move the motor and allow me to add pulleys or gears to increase the ratio. The motor is plenty strong enough).

Here are a couple of pics things I have been doing to learn to use the machines:

And I fixed the bathtub which has been missing the knob for a long time...

 

[Cletus]

....."And I fixed the bathtub which has been missing the knob for a long time..."
Very important to keep the "points-score" up with the boss, so we can continue to buy and play with our toys! ......Good job!

 

[Rodneyk]

....."And I fixed the bathtub which has been missing the knob for a long time..."
Very important to keep the "points-score" up with the boss, so we can continue to buy and play with our toys! ......Good job!

Yes the boss was very pissy about me not fixing this earlier, but it is a 20 year old tub and nothing fit and looked okay. My first attempt had the hole hidden in the part, but it was WAY too big and looked silly. When I reduced the size of the part I forgot how deep I cut the threads. Oops, well I am learning right...

 

[Jake P]

And I fixed the bathtub which has been missing the knob for a long time...

These are those multitudes of little jobs that we will find over the years that make us smile to have these machines.

It's like my little tractor. There are so many things that I use it for that in and of themselves could never justify the expense, but once you have it then so many options open up.

 

[Rodneyk]

Had my first truly exciting event happen last night while parting off a pulley that I made. It was going quite smoothly when all of the sudden the parting tool (a Shars insert tool with a gt2 insert) bit into the work and pulled it work out of the jaws (yes I did not have enough in the jaw but I had already cut several deep groove in the part to this point. Anyway is made a very loud noise as the lath had no intention of even slowing down. The tool holder was mangled and the part went boom. There was a ding in the part, but I was able to use my bandsaw to make short work of parting it, then used the mill to finish the parted side prettier.

No damage to the Lathe... Lessons learned:

1) Parting probably needs more lube than I was using.
2) The lathe has WAY more power than the tools. I was even using a fairly slow RPM under 150 and it did not even think of slowing down.
3) Grip parts better. I was trying to use the last scrap of a mild steel round.
4) I had been using Stainless for the other pulley and parted that just fine, actually even a deeper part so I thought I was getting the hang of it.
5) Parting tools are easy to destroy and not cheap.

Have a favorite Parting tool? Feel free to suggest.

 

[davidpbest]

Been there, done that. I'm not a fan of the GT type parting inserts. I much prefer a parting tool that has a screw-down clamp to hold the insert. One inexpensive version is called out toward the end of the attached. There are others by SECO, Kennametal, and Sandvik that I prefer, but we're talking "investment grade" with those. If you want specific suggestions, DM me.

 

[Cletus]

".....parting is such sweet sorrow!"
Sorry, I could not resist!