Radius Turning Tool...

This "mickey mouse unit" did manage to produce this part.

IMG_0487.JPG


Altho I did read the instructions on how to set it up ............
 
Just goes to show ya, sometimes instructions are good to read. Not that I use them...
 
Unfortunately for me, the instructions were the size of a match-box. :) So that's my excuse.

I did some more trials today. And just now I realized if I mount the tool at a 90 deg to the way I normally cut with tools, I can get enough space in to rotate my material in the normal position. At least in theory. Only figured that out after I also had a clever idea for something else I want to try tomorrow...

I will do more trials then.

I also thought of some more mods for this, I may end up doing later down the road. For now I tried to takle the shimming issue, but the feeler gauages I ordered from China just for this type of occasion (last year) still never arrived yet!

what is it?.JPG
 
Great thread Apprentice, I'm very interested in all the upgrades and improvements you're making for this jig, please keep us up to date.
 
So! Today was a partial success...

I mounted the tongue parallel to the workpiece. This now gives me room to round the nose and have the material rotating in the standard direction. Now why didn't I think of this before? Oh wait, because I have yet to drill or bore on this lathe, so I got too tunnel visioned on how tools are to be mounted.

That said, I then tried my experiment to get some wide grooves going along the shaft. This worked, as can be seen on the right side of the pic. I basically reversed the tool-bit, and then swung the yoke out in a verse direction than normally used for radius cutting. Well.. it works!

Now the problems... I wanted to cut a really narrow groove. I was able to do this, after re-reversing the toolbit and cutting into the side of the material. You can see this in the left-most cut operation. It's a success, but I can not continue to cut narrow grooves like this down the length of bar because the side of the yoke-frame will collide against the workpiece the way it's mounted...

If I try to change the frame 90 degrees, I run into the same problem as before... not enough clearance to work with... I need at least a cm or more...

I have another idea for something I will try tomorrow to see if I can get around this...

Still not sure what I'm making here, but if worse comes to worse and I forget to buy my GF something for valentines again, I can at least tell her I've been working on a shiny new aluminum dildo? Maybe I won't get yelled at again :)

first_grooves.jpg
 
So today was a success! With a few minor issues...

I adjusted the 4WTP to be at a 45 Deg angle... and this gave me just enough room to get the tool in along the length of the bar, and get my narrow grooves into it. In the pic you can see I put two of these narrow grooves right beside each other as a test... ouch, SHARP!

I am happy with that.. what I am not happy though, was with my live-center I imported from China. First thing today I did was some testing with a center-drill bit on the end, (my arbour was almost too long, I had to unwind the tailstock sooooo far out to just hold the taper in. LOL). But looking at the Live Center I purchased Brand New from China was a disaster. This piece is damaged, banged up, and has rust on it. What the hell, this is what you call something NEW? And the bearings are rather harsh.. this is definitely not using Swiss or German bearings. And to finally slap me in the face... the damn thing of course did NOT turn when I was working with it today. I instead ended up using some oil and used the live center as a dead center. Ughhhhh.

Trump, you better damn well make America great again, because this Chinese import **** sucks! LOL. If I can't settle for the old functional Made in USA anymore, I'm going to have to switch to the over-engineered European machinery, and German stuff is way too out of budget for what I was hoping for hobby wise.

Ohh, and in case you haven't noticed, I'm using one of my rulers as a shim, (ahah) and even then it's far too off center. I'll see about going to a CHINESE dollarstore tomorrow and finding something else to shim with, these places are taking over the country over here....

I also want to experiment with some polishing plans... I will try a few methods maybe starting tomorrow.

IMG_7520.jpg
 
I adjusted the 4WTP to be at a 45 Deg angle... and this gave me just enough room to get the tool in along the length of the bar
It sounds like you're in dire need of LMS extended cross slide travel kit. or maybe there's another reason for having the tool post at 45°,anyhow, the test pieces look good.
Did you try to fix the live center? mine has a shield that is screwed on and can be removed to get access to the bearing(s).


https://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=4450&category=
 
Did you try to fix the live center?

It is just cheap-junk from the China boat, so not sure if there is anything to fix. I may try to take an examination of it and SEE if I can even get it apart... not sure if that is possible. I guess I will have to head off into another adventure of live-centers next :p

Either way, I should check out who I bought this from and really give them some thoughts on my Amazon review!

The nice advantage of having a milling machine to go along with your lathe, is you can use them to also make more parts for your lathe or milling machine... sort of like a perpetual paradox!

I will do more research later on today.
 
So, for today I turned the piece and removed quite a bit of the diameter... I also did a lot more little groove test cutting... and also finally brought my radius tool a lot loser to center. I had to use a bunch of pieces I cut from a door-frame brush to shim, and mixed with a metal ruler, and it's still not quite on spot, but I can fine-tune that with a regular tool later on.

My live-center worked (sometimes)... I did forget a few times to lock the tailstock, but even when I did sometimes the live center had a mind of its own when to turn or not. Haw!

I didn't get anywhere near doing my polish testing I wanted to do, and it probably wont be for another week at this rate. Tonight I started to hear a weird rumbling squeek noise every few seconds. It's getting worse so work will have to stop. I'll open up the gear box to see whats going on tomorrow and investigate, but with my luck it's probably from somewhere else in the head not so easy to find. I may have to take the damn thing apart all over again.

Other than that, I sort of had some fun tonight. Used the apron wheel at first for my turning, but the cuts/finishes with that did not look good at all. Tried to engage the half-nuts and it did a much nicer looking cut, so I just stuck with that for a while.

Ohh yes, I was getting a huge collection of swarf, so decided to just keep scooping it all into a paper bag for now.

bizarre.jpg
 
Back
Top