Machining cast iron - do you cover your ways?

I do not cover the ways as it would be impractcal as cast iron chips get everywhere when turned fast enough.

Began a job today, 6 parts in class 40 cast rounds, the stock is 12" diameter X 5" long roughly 125 Lbs. each. When finished they will weigh around 50 Lbs. each or 400 Lbs. of chips created. The estimated lathe time is 29 hours.

So it begins, choose the tools wisely, in this case a 2 1/2" HSS drill and a Manchester face groove tool, by the way Manchester makes excellent tools for this sort of work.


Not a terribly sharp drill but good enough for CI roughing and also the largest one that I found that still had the tang unbroken.
 
Oou! That's a rough looking finger nail!

That G-2 DuraBar loves big hunky drill bits.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Oou! That's a rough looking finger nail!

That G-2 DuraBar loves big hunky drill bits.

Thanks for sharing.
30 + years in the machine shop will do that to you.

One side of the first part done, 7 hours including set up, chuck change and setting tools and planning the order of operations.
One thing happened that I do not recall ever experiencing in the past, had to use a left handed face groove tool upside down with the spindle in reverse, the vibrations loosened the QCTP clamping mechanism and the entire tool holder lifted in the slot and exploded a Manchester face groove tool. Fortunately this did not damage the part only the tool, I will now be wary when running the spindle in reverse with such a tool holder.

If you are curious, 1/4" wide inserted face tool, the feature is .688" deep X 1.688" wide with a 29 Deg. taper ending at 10.625" diameter.
Roughly 400 FPM at .005" IPR when grooving.

 
Nice work. The local Amish called me about 3 yesrday afertoon to see if I was home. Now keep in mind the local Amish are hard core no phones, no buggy lights, ect. Theirs been 6 alto buggy crashes on the last year.
now to machining. A buggy showed up. A shaft 78 in long by 3 1/2 diam. And 2 9 by 9 cast iron bearing holders donT know what to call them because their wasn’t ever a bearing.
Shaft looked like a rapid grinder had chewed on it on both ends. In about 4 inches from the ends. Long story short spent about 6 hrs welding the shaft up and boring and bushing the plates.
These parts were from a early 1900’s thresher that the use every year
Thanks scruffy ron
 
Sorry about rambling , between the cats iron the weld I turned brown and the bronze bushing,s I made their were proabbly 50 lbs of chips. When I was done brushed everything off and gave it a coat of oil. The lathe will put last all of us.
Thanks scruffy ron
 
The last lathe operation on these 6 parts is the bore, 3.435"/3.436" X 4.688" thru for a shrink fit on the shaft.

The large lathe that I did the OD turning, facing, face grooving and rough boring on will not hold the bore numbers as it was turning a .0015 taper, so off they go to a CNC lathe where I can program any taper out, will have to hold the 6 1/2" diameter in an 8" chuck, the large diameter is 11 1/8".

Likely to be an interesting morning, if successful the next step is a 7/8" keyway thu which will be a piece of cake in a keyseater.

 
I don't do a lot of cast iron, mainly because I hate the stuff. It's dusty and nasty. However when I am forced into it I use a vacuum attachment like this one to minimize the mess:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...ing-shop-vac-nozzle-close-drill-press-249070/

I copied this one from another site, and made an attachment block for both the mill and the lathe. I acquired another "new" lathe earlier this year, but haven't made an attachment for it yet. So the limited amount of cast iron work I do is still on my 1916 Seneca Falls #20 Star lathe. The machine is now over 100 years old and doesn't have excessive wear.

I do clean things thoroughly after each operation, but I don't use compressed air. In the shop where I worked using air to "clean" the machines was prohibited. All cleaning was done with a vacuum, a paint brush, and/or a rag. I use the same philosophy in my shop. To me blowing swarf or dust with air just repositions it. It's still on the machines, on the floor, or somewhere else other than the trash container.
 
Back
Top