My first machine shop project! (Lots of pics)

Nice work Wildo and great job with the pictures. Impressive first project!

Keep sharing!
 
Great job on the top Wildo. I remember following your shop thread, the place has really come together nicely. Don't know if you saw the pattern making device that mounted to the compound in a recent thread, but I could see it working quite well for what you are doing. Cheers, Mike
 
Great job on the top Wildo. I remember following your shop thread, the place has really come together nicely. Don't know if you saw the pattern making device that mounted to the compound in a recent thread, but I could see it working quite well for what you are doing. Cheers, Mike

I mean... I'm not telling you guys anything you don't already know, but let me just say- yesterday making that top, I felt like the real deal. The day started off with me deciding that I really wanted to turn some brass, and I really wanted to fix the small amount of play in my tailstock. Turning a little washer seemed like an easy enough thing to do. I was happy with the results. It made me feel really awesome to be able to create a part to fix my tools! During the lathe restoration, I had to buy all the parts needed to fix/replace broken stuff. So that was a huge step in the right direction. Then, while turning the top- I was really nervous about running the carriage into the chuck since some of the operations were very close. I'm still learning the controls and sometimes turn the dials the wrong way; I'm a newbie, you know. So I recalled that when I bought the lathe I also got a micrometer carriage stop. However, the way clamp didn't close quite tight enough for the 9a. I grabbed the thing, walked over to my mill, and in five mins had it milled flat and fitting onto my lathe. What an awesome feeling!! Like I said, I'm not telling you guys anything you don't already know, but it's so freakin' awesome to have the tools to accomplish the projects that I need/want to do. This is what it's all about!
 
hey @mikey, that sounds like it's worth it's own thread. Maybe you could answer some questions; are you referring to brass projects only? if not, what materials do you work free-hand? are they HSS tools? what shapes are the business ends? how long of handles?

Thanks!
-brino

Brino, this is something we should discuss in a separate thread so as not to detract from Wildo's thread. I'll start a thread and we can discuss it there if you like.
 
Brino, this is something we should discuss in a separate thread so as not to detract from Wildo's thread. I'll start a thread and we can discuss it there if you like.

Totally appreciate the thread curtesy! That's an absolute pet peeve of mine, though to be honest in this case I'm super curious as well. LOL! Please do start one if you happen to have the time. I'd love to learn more about this topic!
 
Totally appreciate the thread curtesy! That's an absolute pet peeve of mine, though to be honest in this case I'm super curious as well. LOL! Please do start one if you happen to have the time. I'd love to learn more about this topic!

Respect is something I take seriously, Wildo.
 
Nice work on the top. I looked at that Fakebook group. Crazy expensive tops there. It looks like some of the bearings are bezel set like jewelry? Is that possible? It's an easy technique and can be adapted to the lathe or mill. I bezel set a sapphire with my mill, a stylus and a rotary table. How did you attach the bearing on this one?
Robert

Edit: Press fit I assume?
 
rwm- I don't yet have a boring bar (although see THIS thread as it relates directly to your question for a .1875" ruby bearing) so on this particular top, I drilled to the same size and super glued it in place. While today I got a 10 min 15 sec spin on my top, those super pricey ones are spinning 18, 19, 20 mins. To get these kind of ridiculous spin times, you really need the utmost in precision. The bearing hole must be bored exact. So yes, in the future the ball bearing hole (no matter the material choice- stainless, ceramic, ruby, sapphire, etc) will be bored out, assuming I can learn the skill needed. We'll see on the next top- that's the plan.
 
A few weeks ago wasn't someone here asking what they could do with a "barrel" full of ceramic bearing balls?
I should try to find that thread and point them to this thread.
-brino
 
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