Making a longer chuck key

After thinking about this a bit, I decided to just start doing something. So what if it's not perfect. I mean, it's just a tool to make things easier for me.

I turned the O1 body to size. Drilled the hole for the set screw. Then I got ready to drill the cross diameter hole for the handle. Ran into trouble. Seems to have melted my drills. Yes, I used cutting oil. And a smaller pilot drill. The pilot drill literally made sparks. I was surprised - never seen that before. Withdrew the drill and found it had rounded over the edge. I think the O1 got harder due to the set screw drilling. Now none of my HSS drills will finish the hole. The bits won't cut.

So what kind of drill bit should I get? Is cobalt good enough? Or do I need to get a couple of solid carbide drills? End size hole is to fit 0.3438" O1 rod.
 
I have both a plumber's acetylene air torch and an oxy-acetylene rig, so heat is not a problem. The acetylene air torch will probably be good enough. I have melted copper (1984F) with that torch before. I could heat the O1 inside of a makeshift oven made from firebrick. O1 steel needs to be annealed at 1150F. Supposedly, 1200F steel is a dull red. That shouldn't be too difficult. Might do this tomorrow. Have to drag in the small torch and a bunch of really cold firebrick. It's been pretty chilly lately.

Sort of surprised that the O1 hardened up like that. Can cobalt drills go through hardened O1? How about carbide?
 
Umm, a thread is useless without pictures so, this is what I have so far.
IMG_20200118_144708.jpg
I center drilled the large end and drilled for a 1/4-20 set screw. This put some heat into the part. Then when I side drilled the hole, nothing drilled well. Well, have to go outside to get the fire bricks before it starts to snow tonight. I will heat the large end and let it cool slowly. The center section is 0.500" should I decide to buy some collets. However, I think I'll just put the 4J in my vise and have at it with a file.
 
Waited too long, it's snowing! Went outside, found 10 fire bricks and the torch. I'll wait a bit for the bricks and the acetylene tank to warm a bit. The bricks were 16F (around -9C) when I brought them inside. I'll build a little brick oven to anneal this tool. Certainly not going to let a little bit of hard steel get in my way...
 
Deed is done. Baked the tool at 1200F, give or take. Picture prior to torching. Got the 0.625" diameter section up to a dull red. Closed up the brick oven and letting it cool down now. Kind of easy, save for kneeling down onto the concrete floor. Tomorrow we'll see how soft it is. Might have to do it again.
IMG_20200118_182445.jpg
 
Is it possible to anneal using a propane torch or is oxy-acetylene necessary?


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Might be ok, with propane, if you have a large enough tip and enough patience. Better if you use MAPP gas, or acetylene.

I used just a plumber's acetylene air torch, not my oxy/acetylene rig. The oxy/ace is too big for me to take to the basement! It's out in an unheated garage. No fun in that! The plumbers torch had a tip of about 1/4" ID. It uses atmospheric air and acetylene. It took about 4 minutes to get to dull red. That's because I was heating a good chunk of steel and some of the fire brick beneath it. Oxy/acetylene would have taken about half that time. At 4 minutes of heating, with oxy, I might have melted the steel.
 
Just to throw my 2 cents worth in, actually a quarter now. Inflation, you know~~~~~

I have a couple of chucks from Craftsman. I don't think they're C'man brand, just came with the lathes when I aqcquired them. They need 1/4 inch chuck keys, which didn't come with the machine. So I used a "T" handle from a 1/4 socket set with a 3 inch extension.

Now, for the larger sized one, if I had to deal with the situation, I would use a piece of key stock. Perhaps ground down a tad for a metric chuck. Worst case, bent like an Allen wrench. Best case, let into a bored piece and brazed, perhaps with a sliding "T" handle if I'm feeling ambitious.

It isn't always a matter of throwing money at the problem. If I need to spend money, it gets spent. For me and the way I think, it's more a matter of doing something with almost nothing. As to throwing money, well, I have a couple of lathes, a vertical mill, a horizontal mill, a shaper, ad infinitum ad nauseum. Granted, they are small machines. With a wood framed structure there's only so much weight it will hold. And too, I do small work. But, the tooling is located in three different structures, there's a lot more weight in tooling than in the machines.

Oxy, acet, and the HHO torch are NOT stored in the wooden structures. Nobody but a fool would put an Oxy/Acet rig in the basement, even with a concrete floor above. The HHO torch is used inside, but well ventilated. I do have a plumber's torch but it isn't used and isn't connected to anything. Nor is the plumber's lead pot. They run on propane, which is also stored outside.

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DavidR8 said:
Is it possible to anneal using a propane torch or is oxy-acetylene necessary?
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Click to expand...
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In the first place, different metals have different annealing temperature. On some, heating in the kitchen stove oven and soaking for a while will do. It all depends on mass, interpreted as size, as to the amount of heat needed. For a large piece, like an entire lathe bed, I think an Acet rig would do the job faster.

You would want to get the heat in faster than it would air cool. On smaller stuff like tooling, the kitchen oven would suffice. In between, a propane torch or an HHO torch can harden. If they get hot enough to harden, they surely get hot enough to anneal. To harden, you want it a medium red. To anneal, you want it a light "straw" color.
 
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