This morning I put the first coat of paint on the headstock. While it dries, I'll be working on other parts of the lathe.
These old Hendey lathes have a number of oil ports on every part of the machine. I haven't counted them, but there must be 40 or more. They have plugs in them that are 7/16 inch steel balls with threaded studs that screw into the ports.
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There were a few missing on this lathe, and they were all missing on my 12" Hendey, so I decided to figure out the easiest way to make 50 of them, give or take a few.
I ordered a bag of 100 7/16" steel balls from McMaster... they were advertised as being 'mild steel, easy to machine'... ummm... they are easily machined after you get under the case hardening.
I clamped them in a pair of vise grips and ground a flat on them to get through the hard layer.
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Then I stuck the flat to a magnet...
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And used the magnet to locate the ball in a 7/16 collet in the lathe...
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After tightening the collet, I removed the magnet, leaving the ball clamped in the collet with the flat facing the tailstock.
I then drilled most of the way through the ball with a .136 drill.
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I went ahead and did 6.
The stud on these is threaded 1/4-24 tpi... I needed 1/4-24 threaded rod, but could not find a source for it. However, M6 x 1.0 is extremely close to 1/4-24, so I bought a piece of M6 all thread.
I chucked the all thread in the collet chuck and turned both ends to .135...
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This allows the ball to slip on...
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I then cut both ends off to the correct length for the stud and turned the other end of the pieces to finish the stud.
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I have 6 almost finished...
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Now I just have to JB Weld the studs into the balls and let them cure.
This was a lot quicker and easier than trying to turn these out of a solid piece, IMO.
6 down, several dozen to go...
-Bear