Why Would I Need A Quick Change Lathe Gear Box?

By the way, that threading tool looks pretty easy to make.

Apparently all you need to do is make the following parts:

289572

My tapping dies are hexagon anyway, so I wouldn't want round die holders.

I think I'd design the knurled sleeve differently. I'd make it quite a bit larger in diameter.

In fact, you could probably just put the tapping dies right inside the the end of the knurled sleeve instead of having separate die holders.

I can start with just three pieces.

  1. The tailstock arbor
  2. The Knurled Sleeve with built-in die holder.
  3. And a stop handle.

I could even start with just a round piece of stock for the tailstock arbor and hold that in a tailstock chuck

It's getting simpler by the moment. :grin:
 
To make this design truly professional you'd need to design in some type of slip-clutch between the stop handled and the knurled sleeve. That way you could tap right into a shoulder and instead of crashing the knurled sleeve would simply turn with the workpiece and break free from the stop handle.
 
Not having to be a weight lifter for the cast iron gear guard on my Clausing 100 MKIII is my best reason
Have a good day
Ray
 
By the way, that threading tool looks pretty easy to make.

Apparently all you need to do is make the following parts:

View attachment 289572

My tapping dies are hexagon anyway, so I wouldn't want round die holders.

I think I'd design the knurled sleeve differently. I'd make it quite a bit larger in diameter.

In fact, you could probably just put the tapping dies right inside the the end of the knurled sleeve instead of having separate die holders.

I can start with just three pieces.

  1. The tailstock arbor
  2. The Knurled Sleeve with built-in die holder.
  3. And a stop handle.
I could even start with just a round piece of stock for the tailstock arbor and hold that in a tailstock chuck

It's getting simpler by the moment. :grin:
When I visited Neil in Arizona (the machinist selling this lathe tapping/die holder tool) he surprised me when he told me he doesn't make the tools. He designed it and pays someone else online to make it to his specs in bulk. I learned a lot from him from my 1 visit....
 
When I visited Neil in Arizona (the machinist selling this lathe tapping/die holder tool) he surprised me when he told me he doesn't make the tools. He designed it and pays someone else online to make it to his specs in bulk. I learned a lot from him from my 1 visit....

Don't tell anyone, but I am desperately in need of additional income. :grin:

So I'm trying to come up with a product to sell. My criteria is that it needs to be easy to make so that I can make it myself. And small enough so that it's also easy to ship. I have several ideas on the burner.

One is to make wooden garden train bridges. These are the large G-scale or Garden Train scale bridges.
Here is my design. I'm thinking of making them in 2 foot sections and the customer can just order how many sections they want for a bridge the size they need.

The 2 foot basic section:

289638

A 4 foot bridge - two sections:

289639

6-foot

289640

8 foot, etc.

289641

Front view

289642

Perspective view

289643

I really should be out there in the shop building these right now. :grin:

I have done some work toward building them. I've been making up jigs and fixtures to make all the individual trusses mass production. So this is a project under construction.

The above drawings were done in Google Sketchup.

I really need to get some finished and put them up on Etsy or eBay, etc. I won't be making any money until I get off my butt and actually build them. :grin:
 
Don't tell anyone, but I am desperately in need of additional income. :grin:

So I'm trying to come up with a product to sell. My criteria is that it needs to be easy to make so that I can make it myself. And small enough so that it's also easy to ship. I have several ideas on the burner.

One is to make wooden garden train bridges. These are the large G-scale or Garden Train scale bridges.
Here is my design. I'm thinking of making them in 2 foot sections and the customer can just order how many sections they want for a bridge the size they need.

The 2 foot basic section:

View attachment 289638

A 4 foot bridge - two sections:

View attachment 289639

6-foot

View attachment 289640

8 foot, etc.

View attachment 289641

Front view

View attachment 289642

Perspective view

View attachment 289643

I really should be out there in the shop building these right now. :grin:

I have done some work toward building them. I've been making up jigs and fixtures to make all the individual trusses mass production. So this is a project under construction.

The above drawings were done in Google Sketchup.

I really need to get some finished and put them up on Etsy or eBay, etc. I won't be making any money until I get off my butt and actually build them. :grin:
Call me slow, but your bridges don't look easy to make, lol.
If you have a photo of a similar item made by someone else, i'd love to see it.
Btw, wouldn't this be more of a woodworking project?
Good luck, Robo_Pi. At least you have made some sketches of it.
As for me, easy to make and ship would be an item fitting in a small flat rate USPS box.
Susan
 
When I visited Neil in Arizona ...
Well, durn, Susan! I live in the Phoenix area myself, and know Neil from the Valley Metal club. Fantastically nice guy, isn't he? I would have really enjoyed meeting you. Give a shout next time you plan a trip out here.
 
About the Bridgeport / VFD / motor thing. Here with I share some opinions. You are power constrained - 20A @ 120V. Nominally 2400 watts. The VFD will not achieve the voltage change (120 -> 240). You have a 3000W transformer (single phase - I assume). Confirm the VFD is rated at a 240V input (which it probably is). So you connect the 120V side of the transformer to your supply (via a single pole disconnect) and the high voltage side to your VFD inputs.

Run your existing BP motor (mainly because it has the smaller current draw, it works fine for the machine - and it is ready to go). Keep leads as short as you reasonably can - that will reduce the harmonics (voltage spikes). The duty cycle on a manual mill is generally extremely low (few hours and generally lightly loaded) - in practical terms it is going to last a very long time. It will be up to you to operate the motor such that you keep a reasonable RPM so the cooling fan moves a bit of air (i.e. keep the motor speed up above 45 Hz if you are loading the motor).

I have a drill press with a 3/4 HP, 1200 rpm, 3 phase motor. It has class B insulation. I acquired a nice little VFD (vintage mid '90s) - it probably does not have the features of the newer VFDs - the drive and the motor are quite noisy. The VFD is close to the motor, the leads are short and I'm running the start/stop buttons into the VFD controls. The drill press performs very well.

Of course a higher rated motor would be nice, but the likelihood that the motor with class B insulation will fail because it is on a VFD is extremely small (if the motor insulation is that weak, it was probably close to failure anyway).

Let us know how you make out. David
 
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