What have you done in your shop lately?

Yesterday, I was making an adapter ring, about 5" inner diameter, 1/16" thick and 1" width for getting a wheel balancer to handle a larger wheel.

The cutting was a bit nerve wrecking since I clamp it inside out with a 3 jaw chuck and cutting so close to the chuck jaws making me nervous.

I can definitely shim it to give some space, but I was in the "wheel balancing urge, not lathing urge". However, I was really worry while doing that, and as a result, twice I saved myself cutting to the jaws, which would make me not forgive myself for doing so.

At the end, I left about 1/16 not cut, and filed down with a file. But that's not very good, and may contribute to my problem later on with the wheel balancer. So now, I am thinking of doing it the right way.

I know some glue it up to a larger piece when doing thin cutting, then use heat to release the glue.

I am thinking of shimming between the jaws and the ring on the inner circle, and also between the back of the piece and the jaws, if I can find a good even size shim.

How do you deal with things like this?
 
I normally use about a 1/16 shim between the part and the chuck.
 
Today, I just wanted to use the lathe. So I took a piece of rusted steel about 1.25" round rod and cut it down to to remove rust, bent, dents. Basically making it shiny and smooth for whatever purpose I need. That works pretty well for a 10" piece. So I took another one. This is much longer. Similar to the 10", I also use a live center to keep it rigid. It worked very well for more than half of it, since the other part is clamped inside the chuck. I then flipped it over and cut it more. The cut was super ugly. So I looked at the carbide insert, it looks bad. I rotated it and it cuts a bit better, but still pretty bad. I think with carbide, I have to cut at least 10 thous to have decent surface. If I cut 5 thous, it just wanders too much. I wonder if that is correct or something else here. The triangle carbide insert was ground down by previous owner. That cut very well. When I rotated it, I didn't grind it down, just kept it regular. The ground down was mostly to increase the relief angle.

I think I probably need a steady rest also.
 
We just about have the plant up and running once again after our electrical episode last week . The generator was un-hooked 1 o'clock this afternoon and we are almost finished re-installing all the dies and bringing the furnaces and heaters online . Non stop night tonight .
 
Last week I finished some T nuts and an alignment test bar. The T nuts are for my rotary table, and I need about 4 more plus a way to hold a chuck on it. Still chasing a 0.0003' difference in the ends of the 10" test bar. I didn't tighten the gibs on the compound slide on the final 0.001 cut. Maybe will try another cut tomorrow.
Have a good day
Ray
 
Yesterday I finally finished a vise stand. The vise on my bench was too high for good filing technique, but perfect for just about everything else. I bought a second vise (nice big one with rotating jaws) to use just for filing.

Since I am not a welder and also metal is expensive, I used some of the scrap wood I have lying around. I did a po' boy laminate of two 4x4s: wood glue and 3/8 allthread to cinch them together. Found some not-quite butcher block from an old counter I had hung onto, and used that for the top. Plywood and 2x4s for the base and the braces. The 4x4s are directly under the vise base so it is plenty sturdy. I nailed some 1/2" plywood under the top and made it a couple inches wider than the top, drilled holes in it to hold tons of files. Came out pretty good.

Anyways, yesterday I was pouring concrete for the posts of a woodshed, and mixed up an extra bag to pour into the base of the vise stand. Should be a nice improvement.
 
Don't have pics right now but I am making a new aluminum quick change gear box lever for my 12" Craftsman lathe. Both of the originals were broken. I have replacement's bought on flea bay but I want to finish what I started. It is all roughed out at this point. Will post pics when I get back from my nieces wedding.
 
DiscoDan said:
Don't have pics right now but I am making a new aluminum quick change gear box lever for my 12" Craftsman lathe. Both of the originals were broken. I have replacement's bought on flea bay but I want to finish what I started. It is all roughed out at this point. Will post pics when I get back from my nieces wedding.
Click to expand...
Making a lever or fix my current on is in my list also.
 
ThinWoodsman said:
Yesterday I finally finished a vise stand. The vise on my bench was too high for good filing technique, but perfect for just about everything else. I bought a second vise (nice big one with rotating jaws) to use just for filing.
Click to expand...
I recently learned the fascinating info about files, here is the link for newbies like me:

Nicholson file guide
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top