So I'm a machinist now?

[SamI]

I am not a professional machinist so the chuck holding a smaller chuck made me "chuck"le a bit. Looks like it works. Good luck on your new adventure.

It works a treat for simple jobs like this. I was toying between doing it in the mini lathe (would have taken forever) or turning a custom mandrel which would have cost more than the job was worth. Then it hit me to take the chuck off of the mini lathe and do it in the big lathe!

Hey be careful up there! A fall could end your new career before it “gets of the ground”.

I wish you the very best. I wish I had the guts to try it myself.

I'm dreading one of the lights going for that exact reason. Only way to change them safely would be with a cherry picker. If I every go up there I'll probably stick up LED lighting and be done with it! At the time when I was up there I still had benefits like sick pay! Think I'll be taking out some kind of personal injury insurance for sure!

 

[Cadillac]

Best of luck with you venture. Alittle curious as to all the washer and stuff on top the qctp just below the flanged nut? Think it would allow toolpost to spin or not be as secure as the use of the flange on the nut, more surface area.

 

[SamI]

Best of luck with you venture. Alittle curious as to all the washer and stuff on top the qctp just below the flanged nut? Think it would allow toolpost to spin or not be as secure as the use of the flange on the nut, more surface area.

It’s a thrust bearing which means it takes less force to secure it in place. But yes it does rotate slightly if I get greedy with the cut! I think I either need to crank it down more or get a bigger lathe

 

[Cadillac]

I thought it looked like a thrust washer configuration. That is a huge NO NO!! You want the tool post fastened down solid to the compound. The only thing between the toolpost and the nut is maybe a washer but you have a flanged nut which is preferred.

 

[SamI]

That’s interesting to know. The company who sells the tool posts sells them as an add on specifically for this application. They claim it increases the downward pressure for a given torque to improve friction! I’ll maybe put a bit of square bar stock in a holder and try to move it with and without the thrust bearing to see which is best.

 

[T Bredehoft]

Using the thrust bearing, crank down on the handle as much as you would without the thrust bearing. It will then be seated more securely than without.

Its there so you can increase the clamping pressure, not to reduce the effort needed.

 

[SamI]

I finished my first full day in the shop today! That felt so good! Didn’t actually get any machining done - the DRO on the lathe gave up a few days ago so was just prepping that for a new scale. I’ve had a few problems with the glass scales on my machine so I’ve gone for magnetic now. I did that to the cross slide a while back and have been impressed so far. I think it’s coolant that eventually works it’s way onto the glass scale itself. Cleaning it does work as a temporary fix but it’s happened a number of times now which means I don’t fully trust it.

The DRO failure led to a couple of scrapped parts before I noticed the error. No biggie, I ordered a heap of extra material in anticipation of the next 3 batches that I have been promised but still it’s a bit of a pain to have to re make parts! I had a lot of trouble with chip evacuation boring them to size. 28 mm bore 120 mm deep boring from both sides. The finish pass was good with no chatter but the roughing passes were a nightmare with chips getting caught on the back of the boring bar. I’ll maybe need to invest in a 16 mm boring bar next time I’m putting in a tool order. There just isn’t enough clearance for that many chips with a 20 mm bar! Using the through coolant did help a bit but the chips still don’t break up as much as I’d like. Maybe try a higher feed for the roughing pass. Would help or even a second coolant nozzle aimed in the bore. As if one wasn’t messy enough!

Almost bought a CNC lathe too but bailed at the last minute! It was going very cheap so had to fight hard not to buy it but I read online that the controllers have a nasty habit of destroying hard drives and the support for them over here in the U.K. is practically non existent. Sounds like I dodged a bullet there! The search continues! To be fair, I don’t need one yet and I’ve never programmed a machine in my life but I want to learn! The dream is semi automate manufacturing so I can press a button and go home for the night! I know that’s a very simplified view but I have a product I wish to develop which would lend itself very well to this process.

Thinking about it turning a hobby into a business is probably a silly idea. Instead of having a business need for equipment I have a personal desire to own all sorts of machines regardless of whether they will actually bring in any paying work. Still, it beats sitting in an office!

And just to give you guys something more than what should probably kept inside my head, here’s some M32 x 1.5 brass bar I was threading last night. This is actually to make 40 threaded brass heat sinks but I figured it would be easier to thread the entire length then cut in the band saw to size before facing and drilling holes for wiring to pass through.

 

[jbobb1]

Best of luck on your venture. I did it 6 years ago and couldn't be happier.

 

[SamI]

Today’s marked a bit of a milestone for me. I’ve just completed my first job from an actual engineering company! Most of my previous customers have been hobbyists wanting small bits and bobs or small runs of non critical parts.

Tolerances weren’t too tight but they proved a bit of a PITA. Because of their thin size I had a bit of trouble holding them for second op work. I had ordered a 5C collet chuck but a shipping error has it sitting in a warehouse somewhere and this is a job I can’t afford a delay on. Oh well, I improvised! I used a 5c hex collet in the 3 jaw and machined an emergency collet. Worked a treat! Much more repeatable than I thought it would be.

Only 6 of each size just now but from chatting with the guy it doesn’t sound like he’s happy with his current supplier. These are just to replace the ones the current supplier is 2 months late on. Could be a good opportunity.

In other news I’m very close to buying a Bridgeport! There’s two I’ve got my eye on. One a 1963 J head. Don’t know much more about it than that and it’s not local unfortunately. It’s a fair price and the seller seems pretty honest. The other one is local but I get the feeling that the guy doesn’t really want to sell it! Get so far in negotiations and when it comes to price he goes quiet. His looks to be in better condition and has been re-wired, painted and a new one shot lube system installed. In the pictures you can see that it still has what appears to be the original scraping on the x axis. Or he’s had a go at scraping himself. It’s hard to tell without seeing the machine in person.

Anyway, that’s the band saw just finished cutting off some stock to make a replacement for one of the rings I messed up. Not sure how I managed that but somehow made one 0.2 mm too thin. It’s borderline in tolerance but I want these to be bang on the dimension! Last thing I want is to have them rejected! Besides, I’m hoping to impress!

 

[SamI]

Today has been a long but very good day! No machining done today but some machine acquiring! Picked up a 1963 Bridgeport! So stoked on it. I must admit, being an older machine and not seeing it before hand I thought it would be pretty worn. But everything feels silky smooth and tight!

Getting it home proved to be quite the feat though! I hired a Luton van for the day. Not sure if you guys over the pond but is basically a van disguised as a small lorry. It has a tail lift but it’s only rated to 500kg. I’ve used one before and it lifted 600 so I had hoped if we split the machine it would lift it ok.




Luckily the guy I bought it off was a farmer and he had a tractor that could load it. The ram was fine on the tail lift but the van was hanging none of the main casting and knee!

Getting it off the other end was the challenge. It was me all by my lonesome. With only a worn out pallet truck (the weight of the Bridgeport destroyed one of the wheels) and an abused engine hoist!



Here’s the van loaded. The box on the left is full of various end mills and collets, a vice, a hold down kit and a few scraps of practice stock. The compressor was going too. He only wanted £100 for it so I couldn’t refuse!