2014 POTD Thread Archive

First time needing taper attachment. Doing a sample pc for a guy - 1 deg per side 7-1/2" long. 304 ss.
Wow that was some nasty stringy chips coming off then wrapping around thrashing [emoji50]. The angle i ran the tool at to clear the live center made the chip miss the chip breaker on the insert. Im going to make the guy his sample pc but he needs 200 pcs. Afraid me gonna have to call my friend w cnc's to do that many or Ill be turning cranks for a year of sundays and wear out my little lathe!!

Welcome to the club. I've taken on a job or two that I wished I hadn't.:lmao:
 
Thats when a collet chuck with a collet stop makes life a little easier. Then a carriage stop. That way everything is repeatable . Just sling every part against the collet stop and run the carriage to it's stop.

Do you have to hand crank when using a taper?
First time needing taper attachment. Doing a sample pc for a guy - 1 deg per side 7-1/2" long. 304 ss.
Wow that was some nasty stringy chips coming off then wrapping around thrashing [emoji50]. The angle i ran the tool at to clear the live center made the chip miss the chip breaker on the insert. Im going to make the guy his sample pc but he needs 200 pcs. Afraid me gonna have to call my friend w cnc's to do that many or Ill be turning cranks for a year of sundays and wear out my little lathe!!
 
Back making sawdust. A friends neighbour had a tree service take down a big white pine that had spit and grown as two two trunks. I ended up with the logs, hauled 8, 8 and 12 foot logs home yesterday that came from above the crotch. My poor little tractor wouldn't lift the butt log on the forks so it got slung on the loader arms, still had to push it on as the geometry of the loader would'd lift it at the end to clear the trailer.

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The split ran into this log so I sawed through the fault.

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Cut two 1 1/2 inch boards here, the end would make an interesting book matched table. Being as it grew in a yard limbs were tried as it grew and the ends grew over, neat effect.

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The rest of the log is yielding some beautiful clear lumber. Two of these halves to saw up.

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Greg

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Looks like a beautiful place were you live Greg! Is that a lake or a river in the background?

Wish I had the toys you have!!
 
These are projects I completed over several days.
The first was to sort my washer collection. Over 30 years I had sorted the extraneous washers I picked up along the way by eyeball. The final straw came when I couldn't get the one washer drawer to close. It was time to sort them so I made a gage with progressively larger diameters corresponding to the inch sizes of washers. Here's the washer sorter. I need to sort the small washer drawer for the stuff of size 10 and smaller. I'll need to make another washer gage for that.
01 Washer sorter (Large).JPG 02 Washer sorter in action (Large).JPG
The next project was to repair one of two Superior Electric variacs / variable transformers I picked up at a yard sale. The smaller one had been dropped. Its wiring was also old and becoming stiff. It required some sheet metal work to straighten out the dents. While I was at it, I rewired the internals giving it slightly longer internal wires to make it easier to take off and put on the junction box. I also updated the receptacle to 3 prongs. The receptacle is held in place by a snap ring. I'd never seen one like that before. When I was at the local electronics shop to pick up a top to the fuse holder and an 8A fuse I mentioned the receptacle. The owner looked at it and said - that's a standard Amptrol receptacle, I think I have some. He indeed did have them, although the groove for the snap ring was in the wrong place, so I had to change the groove width with my lathe. The variac's top was lightly spot welded to the ventilated sides and those welds were broken for the repair. I'll epoxy the top back on when I'm satisfied I can't think of any more sheet metal improvements I want to make. The larger of the two variacs was mostly just dirty. It had a 3 prong plug and a 2 prong outlet receptacle. I updated the output with a grounded 3 prong receptacle on that too. It will handle both 115 and 240 volts. In playing with both of them, I never realized that variacs will also boost voltage. The larger of the two can take 110 volt input and output from 0 to around 300 volts. While I was rewiring the variac, I got disgusted by the disorganized box of wire I have and labeled many of the various wires with their AWG.
04 Two variacs (Large).JPG
I picked up at a Weller soldering station at a flea market this summer for $5. It came with two handles but one didn't heat. The variac project stimulated me to mess with that. I thought it was the heating element, but it turned out that there was a broken wire in the cord. I first shopped for a new cord - the cheapest price was around $36 plus shipping. That gave me incentive to find the break in the wire. I knew which of the five wires wasn't conducting. I put my ohmmeter at the two ends of the affected wire and started wiggling it over short distances until I found the area that would make it temporarily conduct. The break occurred at the strain relief as the cord entered the handle. I opened the outer sheath of the cord, and dissected out the offending 22 AWG wire with the break. I soldered that back together again using the other handle. Now I have two working handles.
05 Weller cord repair (Large).JPG 06 Weller cord repair (Large).JPG
Oh. and at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago I picked up a drill index / case with a few bits in it. I needed to populate the holes, so it was time to sort all the old small drill bits I'd accumulated over the years. Although I must have had 75 to 100 extraneous drill bits, I still have some open holes in the index. When it's fully populated, I'll sharpen all of them. I'd be interested in swapping my extras for bits I need. Anybody want to swap some of your extras for mine?
07 Sorted drill bits (Large).JPG

Pix to follow if / when the attach image function works. Update - I managed to add the photos using the add photos icon on the toolbar, but the manage attachments function still isn't working. When I click on the manage attachments box, the popup window opens, but there's nothing in the box. I checked my security settings and added this site to specifically allow popups, but still no go.

01 Washer sorter (Large).JPG 02 Washer sorter in action (Large).JPG 04 Two variacs (Large).JPG 05 Weller cord repair (Large).JPG 06 Weller cord repair (Large).JPG 07 Sorted drill bits (Large).JPG
 
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Looks like a beautiful place were you live Greg! Is that a lake or a river in the background?

Wish I had the toys you have!!


Thanks Brian, it is pretty country here, grew up here then was away for 30 years, moved back about 9 years ago. Thats the

Madawaska river in the background, still runs clean, some people still drink the water.

Greg
 
Another Day and some more progress on the Spindle Light for the PM45M-CNC.
I completed the wiring of the LEDs on the perf-board.
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Then I drilled the holes and mounted the power connector and On-Off switch. I also put Electrical tape in the bottom of pockets to prevent the LED assemblies from shorting out to the case.
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Then mounted the LED panels and wired in the power connector and On-Off switch. It was pretty tight but with lots of magnification and patience I got it done.
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Originally I had planned to have a HIGH and LOW setting with 50% of the LEDs off on the Low setting. After testing it did not seem "Too" bright with all of them on so I just wired them to be all on or all off. Overall very happy with the light output and how it is turning out. The final test before potting with the Clear Resin.
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I recently got a miller thunderbolt 225 AC/DC welder. I have been practicing on scrap pieces running beads and practicing techniques. I decided to practice on something useful. I am building an angle plate to be used on the mill. It is going to be made of 1" 1018 cold roll about 9" x 9" x 6". I squared the ends and beveled the joints to be welded. I got things tacked together today and ran a few root passes with a .125 6011 electrode at about 135 amps DC+ . I am going to do all the fillet build up with .125 7018 electrodes.

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I made an extended center drill holder

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A center drill holder is a common enough project, usually using a scrapped taper drill bit or drill chuck adapter. The trouble with these is that my SB 10K only has 2" of quill travel and the typical holder just isn't long enough. So I read somewhere about an extended version and thought it would be a fun afternoon project.

The project started with a $5 JT33 to Morse Taper 2 Drill Chuck Arbor. The JT33 taper was cut-off at the bandsaw and then a MT3-MT2 sleeve was used to hold the work in the spindle. A hole was drilled and reamed for the shaft. That was removed and then the shaft was drilled and reamed 1/4" for a #3 center drill. The shaft was then turned down to fit inside the other part. The shaft was then removed from the lathe and a setscrew hole was drilled and tapped.

There was a beautiful sliding machinist fit between the shaft and MT2 taper part. Unfortunately, I wanted a press fit! :angry:

Red Loctite to the rescue! The silver-lining of this was that the taper was remounted in the headstock sleeve and using a dial gauge I was able to remove almost all the run-out by pressing on the shaft while the Loctite was setting-up.

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You have to put a flat-spot on the center drill (I used a Dremel) so the setscrew will hold. Looks like it's gonna work pretty well.

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