A word on progress

OK folks, so I decided to make a hand wheel for my 9J Gorton as I figured there was little hope in
locating one. I started with the center part making it out of mild steel. After I got the center part done with
the square hole, I started to machine the wheel part. That is where the progress part begins. It turns
out that the big cylinder part I used for the wheel must be cast iron! Well, progress, although usually thought of in a forward sense can also progress in reverse. I tried arc welding the center to the outer part with not much success.
OK then, I got out the torch and brazed the wheel onto the hub. Had I known, I would have made the
whole thing out of cast iron but I had several hours invested in making the square hole. Actually I'm not sure
what material the wheel really is. It is magnetic and has some cast iron properties but all the chips that
came off it are brown! Anyway, the project is progressing and WILL be a hand wheel eventually.
I did a test fit of the new wheel on the mill and it fits and has great concentricity so it WILL be a
hand wheel shortly. I need to finish the handle part and polish and paint and it will work out
OK. Ya just gotta love progress sometimes!



Any ideas on what kind of material I am working with? I can only guess...






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Guess it could be cast steel or semi-steel. I would have thought iron as well.

[QUOTE="Tony Wells,

Thanks for the post, Tony. I guess I will refer to the wheel part as "ferrous material". I did study up on semi-steel and found
it quite interesting but still unsure as to what I used. I finished up the project this morning and with a little JB-Weld filler and
some paint, It turned out better than expected. As an added note, just above the hand wheel is one
of the keyed stops I made for the mill as it had none. Ahhhh, forward progress.


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Prit-near perfect (as my grammy used to say)
How'd you make the square hole?
Mark S.

markba633csi said:

Prit-near perfect (as my grammy used to say)
How'd you make the square hole?
Mark S.

Click to expand...

It's a half inch square hole so I drilled a half inch hole first. Then I centered the hole with a wiggler and moved out to .185 inch with a 1/8 inch end mill
and cut a square hole about 1/2 inch deep. The digital readout helped to determine where to cut.
Then I pressed in a piece of square HSS lathe tool in all four positions to remove as much
material as I could that way. I pressed it in a vise. From then on it was fit and file. I used a little Dykem on the square shaft as I worked to know where
to file. The depth of the square is 3/4 inch. I used a square file about 5/16 inch square...

The wheel came out really nice. The price is right, and probably a thing or two learned in the process. Cheers, Mike

Nice work Cathead!!
Sorry to offer you these after the you put in the hours.

If you want one or both of these, let me know.
I didn't know they were from a Gorton.
Anything else you need. I may have additional unidentified stuff....

Daryl
MN

Daryl,


I could use one possibly but I'm not desperate. The only other thing I may need is the X axis acme feed rod. Mine is bent
and is somewhat problematic. I straightened it from a 45 degree bend using heat and it looks pretty straight but
still has a catch in it. I guess I will have to buy some 1x5 acme rod and make one up. That would be a lot of work as
it has a key way all along, some threads, tapered holes, and 1/2 inch square ends. Thanks for the post and for offering
the hand wheels. It's a beautiful day here. I hope you are having the same.

Burt

What length of 1x5 acme do you need?
Tomorrow I'll look for one with a keyway.
I've got several "good" used and some still in cosmoline.
I'll need to check size these came from a rebuilder. Thus, my guess is that these are all precision quality.

Daryl
MN

Uglydog said:

What length of 1x5 acme do you need?
Tomorrow I'll look for one with a keyway.
I've got several "good" used and some still in cosmoline.
I'll need to check size these came from a rebuilder. Thus, my guess is that these are all precision quality.

Daryl
MN

Click to expand...

It looks to be 58 inches long, made of M7.
It is not threaded to the end(about 7 inches from the end on the left and maybe 10 inches on the right.)
There is a key way all the length of the threaded part. The ends terminate in 1/2 inch square. I can mill all the features if needed.
A couple weeks ago I milled a six foot keyway to make the shaft for the feed on my Monarch. It took a while though as
it took 3 set ups and I used a 1/4 inch end mill to do the cutting. It's working fine now.


Burt