# So I'm a machinist now?



## SamI (May 7, 2019)

So it looks as though I am making an unscheduled departure from 9-5 work and in an effort not to have to go and get another I've been having a long hard think.  I already run a small business in my spare time jewellery making (yes, I'm one of those Damascus steel guys you see popping up on YouTube - although I don't actually post on YouTube).  I started that 3 years ago and before then the closest I had come to being a machinist was picking up a cordless drill.  Not deterred by this I bought myself a mini lathe and quickly became hooked on machining.  

Inspired by the thread B & A precision on Practical Machinist (a very long read!) I thought I'd document where I came from and where I'm going and hopefully provide some entertainment along the way.  There is a good chance I'll get bored of doing this and / or forget in the coming months but I'll try to keep the thread updated. 
***MODS: If you feel that this is inappropriate then please feel free to delete.  I am not doing this to promote myself or my services and as such will post no links to my websites or mention my company name unless asked to do so via PM.  My intention is to post general machine shop related stuff - I'll try and keep any commercial / financial stuff to a minimum***

I started out on my coffee table in the living room.  We had a 6 month old daughter at the time.  Once she learnt to crawl under the coffee table I was promptly banished to the cold and dark shed (she came out covered in swarf one day and the wife was now impressed!  A couple of days later a hot carbide insert cracked and landed on her whilst she was watching TV - that was the final straw!).  The shed was small and full of junk.  Power was from an extension lead running through the cat flap (cat wasn't too happy).  About 18 months later and with our second daughter on the way we moved to a new house - with a single garage!  I had to run power out there but a few weeks later and some very blistered hands I had run a 10 mm armoured cable 3' deep through our very rocky terrain and had power to my workshop! 



(This picture was actually taken a while later.  I have these hard lumps on my palm which are very prone to blistering!)

I'm annoyed I don't have any pictures of any of the above to share with you (apart from my manky palms).  But fast forward another 18 months and I am beginning to outgrow the single garage.  I invested in a new lathe - a Warco GH 1330 , 13" x 40" (I believe of Taiwanese origin) and I wanted a milling machine.  This was simply not going to fit in my garage (yes, I checked, measured, re-measured etc.).

So I moved the workshop away from the house.  Yes, the "commute" is a pain but it's 25 minutes along dual carriageway with no traffic.  I can live with that.

Welcome to my new workshop!




Had to climb quite high up to take that!




Those pictures were taken a couple of months ago but apart from a bit of tidying and moving the racking around a little it remains much the same.  Except that is for the work bench.  I built that myself from scratch but I am now finding out that, as a flat surface it is a magnet for clutter.  I'm going to have to have a long hard think about storage.  I'm thinking a trolley, cart or even a new roller tool box cab would be good for storing in process parts on.  I put some drawers into the work bench but I'm frightened they'll become full of crap so, for the most part they are empty!  I'll have to sort something out here.  At least I should have the time going forwards!







Anyway, back to my situation as of today.  I find myself in need of income.  Now I'll admit right here - I am NOT a great machinist!   I can make good parts but out of tolerance is a phrase not unknown to me!  I'm learning though and I'm enjoying myself.  A while ago I started taking in paying machining work - not because I needed it.  Far from it - I have been so busy, working 9-5 Mon-Fri, studying for a Master of Engineering degree and my jewellery making business that I barely have time to think.  But I love the challenge.  I love working out how to make complex (to me at least) parts and trying to machine them as fast as possible within the constraints of my machinery (sometimes pushing it's limits - I've had a few bits rip out of the chuck before and I'll often stall the machine trying to push the DOC before I find the maximum the machine can handle ).  I am getting more conservative with my workholding now though!  It is NOT fun trying to dodge 3-1/2" steel bar stock flying from the machine! 

I now have a handful of good customers.  Repeat customers even with ongoing work - I've actually been turning them away recently.  Previous work has been predominantly prototype runs and now they're coming back wanting me to machine small to medium sized production runs!  

So when I found out that I was to be loosing my day job I saw an opportunity.  To do something I love full time.  Hey, it might not work out but I figure I've got a few months to try to make it work.  I'll be so much happier working for myself that I've got to give it a chance.  

So I've got to learn to become a "professional" machinist and quickly!  I need to expand my workshop to allow me to take on more work (I'm screaming for a milling machine and I'm desperate for a CNC lathe!).  I also need to develop a product!  Something that I can work on when I'm quiet that can sell throughout the year.  I've got a few ideas but haven't had the time to develop them - until now!  The next few months will be a huge struggle for me but it is an adventure that I'm thrilled to be on!

As I said earlier, mods, if you feel that this thread is not in keeping with this forum then please feel free to delete - I will understand!

Anyway, enough of my rambling!  Here's just a few of the parts that I've worked on recently.  Enjoy:

A linkage bolt for a mountain bike.  Broken one behind it for reference:




A funnel for a local laboratory.  Theses are sold commercially but require a number of adaptors to fit the bottles they use which have a habit of leaking.  These fit perfectly! 







An axle adaptor:




Some rollers for a bending jig in the making.  Heat treated to 52 HRC (tested) after machining.




Modification of an alternator pulley:




And some axle adaptors:


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## Tozguy (May 7, 2019)

SamI said:


> I'll be so much happier working for myself that I've got to give it a chance.



Good luck, you are off to a good start.


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## SamI (May 7, 2019)

Thanks!  I'm nervous but pretty excited by the whole thing.  I doubt I'll ever grow into a full production shop or anything like that but if I can get by for a while doing something that I love then I'll be happy!


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## mikey (May 7, 2019)

Really and truly wish you all the best in your new venture, Saml!


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## Tozguy (May 7, 2019)

SamI said:


> doing something that I love then I'll be happy!



That's what it is all about here at HM. So if you need or want our support we are here.


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## higgite (May 7, 2019)

All the best to you, Saml. I like your attitude. I think it will take you a long way.

As for:


SamI said:


> It is NOT fun trying to dodge 3-1/2" steel bar stock flying from the machine!


Au contraire! It IS fun dodging such a projectile. It's NOT fun when you don't dodge it. 

Tom


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## SamI (May 7, 2019)

higgite said:


> Au contraire! It IS fun dodging such a projectile. It's NOT fun when you don't dodge it.
> 
> Tom



I think that you and i have a different definition of fun!   But yes, i can see how that, on a scale of fun, not dodging it would be far lower down! It's all relative I suppose.   

I was actually surprised it flew out.  I was using the external jaws on a 6" 3 jaw with only about 1.5 x diameter stick out although I guess the jaws themselves don't really have much contact area.  I moved it into the 8" 4 jaw after that incident and finished the job on the same set of underwear I started with (after the initial change!).


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## DiscoDan (May 7, 2019)

I am not a professional machinist so the chuck holding a smaller chuck made me "chuck"le a bit. Looks like it works. Good luck on your new adventure.


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## T Bredehoft (May 7, 2019)

You've found out our secret, figuring out how to turn a lump of steel into something useful, the figuring out is the reward.  So many non-machinists just don't get it.


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## jwmay (May 7, 2019)

Hey be careful up there! A fall could end your new career before it “gets of the ground”.

I wish you the very best. I wish I had the guts to try it myself.


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## SamI (May 7, 2019)

DiscoDan said:


> I am not a professional machinist so the chuck holding a smaller chuck made me "chuck"le a bit. Looks like it works. Good luck on your new adventure.


It works a treat for simple jobs like this.  I was toying between doing it in the mini lathe (would have taken forever) or turning a custom mandrel which would have cost more than the job was worth.  Then it hit me to take the chuck off of the mini lathe and do it in the big lathe! 



jwmay said:


> Hey be careful up there! A fall could end your new career before it “gets of the ground”.
> 
> I wish you the very best. I wish I had the guts to try it myself.



I'm dreading one of the lights going for that exact reason.  Only way to change them safely would be with a cherry picker.  If I every go up there I'll probably stick up LED lighting and be done with it!  At the time when I was up there I still had benefits like sick pay! Think I'll be taking out some kind of personal injury insurance for sure!


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## Cadillac (May 7, 2019)

Best of luck with you venture. Alittle curious as to all the washer and stuff on top the qctp just below the flanged nut? Think it would allow toolpost to spin or not be as secure as the use of the flange on the nut, more surface area.


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## SamI (May 7, 2019)

Cadillac said:


> Best of luck with you venture. Alittle curious as to all the washer and stuff on top the qctp just below the flanged nut? Think it would allow toolpost to spin or not be as secure as the use of the flange on the nut, more surface area.


It’s a thrust bearing which means it takes less force to secure it in place. But yes it does rotate slightly if I get greedy with the cut! I think I either need to crank it down more or get a bigger lathe


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## Cadillac (May 7, 2019)

I thought it looked like a thrust washer configuration. That is a huge NO NO!! You want the tool post fastened down solid to the compound. The only thing between the toolpost and the nut is maybe a washer but you have a flanged nut which is preferred.


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## SamI (May 8, 2019)

That’s interesting to know. The company who sells the tool posts sells them as an add on specifically for this application. They claim it increases the downward pressure for a given torque to improve friction! I’ll maybe put a bit of square bar stock in a holder and try to move it with and without the thrust bearing to see which is best.


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## T Bredehoft (May 8, 2019)

Using the thrust bearing, crank down on the handle as much as you would without the thrust bearing. It will then be seated more securely than without.

Its there so you can increase the clamping pressure,  not to reduce the effort needed.


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## SamI (May 8, 2019)

I finished my first full day in the shop today! That felt so good! Didn’t actually get any machining done - the DRO on the lathe gave up a few days ago so was just prepping that for a new scale. I’ve had a few problems with the glass scales on my machine so I’ve gone for magnetic now. I did that to the cross slide a while back and have been impressed so far. I think it’s coolant that eventually works it’s way onto the glass scale itself. Cleaning it does work as a temporary fix but it’s happened a number of times now which means I don’t fully trust it.  

The DRO failure led to a couple of scrapped parts before I noticed the error. No biggie, I ordered a heap of extra material in anticipation of the next 3 batches that I have been promised but still it’s a bit of a pain to have to re make parts! I had a lot of trouble with chip evacuation boring them to size. 28 mm bore 120 mm deep boring from both sides. The finish pass was good with no chatter but the roughing passes were a nightmare with chips getting caught on the back of the boring bar. I’ll maybe need to invest in a 16 mm boring bar next time I’m putting in a tool order. There just isn’t enough clearance for that many chips with a 20 mm bar! Using the through coolant did help a bit but the chips still don’t break up as much as I’d like. Maybe try a higher feed for the roughing pass. Would help or even a second coolant nozzle aimed in the bore. As if one wasn’t messy enough!

Almost bought a CNC lathe too but bailed at the last minute! It was going very cheap so had to fight hard not to buy it but I read online that the controllers have a nasty habit of destroying hard drives and the support for them over here in the U.K. is practically non existent. Sounds like I dodged a bullet there! The search continues! To be fair, I don’t need one yet and I’ve never programmed a machine in my life but I want to learn! The dream is semi automate manufacturing so I can press a button and go home for the night! I know that’s a very simplified view but I have a product I wish to develop which would lend itself very well to this process. 

Thinking about it turning a hobby into a business is probably a silly idea. Instead of having a business need for equipment I have a personal desire to own all sorts of machines regardless of whether they will actually bring in any paying work. Still, it beats sitting in an office! 

And just to give you guys something more than what should probably kept inside my head, here’s some M32 x 1.5 brass bar I was threading last night. This is actually to make 40 threaded brass heat sinks but I figured it would be easier to thread the entire length then cut in the band saw to size before facing and drilling holes for wiring to pass through.


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## jbobb1 (May 11, 2019)

Best of luck on your venture. I did it 6 years ago and couldn't be happier.


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## SamI (May 13, 2019)

Today’s marked a bit of a milestone for me. I’ve just completed my first job from an actual engineering company! Most of my previous customers have been hobbyists wanting small bits and bobs or small runs of non critical parts. 

Tolerances weren’t too tight but they proved a bit of a PITA. Because of their thin size I had a bit of trouble holding them for second op work. I had ordered a 5C collet chuck but a shipping error has it sitting in a warehouse somewhere and this is a job I can’t afford a delay on. Oh well, I improvised! I used a 5c hex collet in the 3 jaw and machined an emergency collet. Worked a treat! Much more repeatable than I thought it would be. 

Only 6 of each size just now but from chatting with the guy it doesn’t sound like he’s happy with his current supplier. These are just to replace the ones the current supplier is 2 months late on. Could be a good opportunity. 

In other news I’m very close to buying a Bridgeport! There’s two I’ve got my eye on. One a 1963 J head. Don’t know much more about it than that and it’s not local unfortunately. It’s a fair price and the seller seems pretty honest. The other one is local but I get the feeling that the guy doesn’t really want to sell it! Get so far in negotiations and when it comes to price he goes quiet. His looks to be in better condition and has been re-wired, painted and a new one shot lube system installed. In the pictures you can see that it still has what appears to be the original scraping on the x axis. Or he’s had a go at scraping himself. It’s hard to tell without seeing the machine in person. 

Anyway, that’s the band saw just finished cutting off some stock to make a replacement for one of the rings I messed up. Not sure how I managed that but somehow made one 0.2 mm too thin. It’s borderline in tolerance but I want these to be bang on the dimension! Last thing I want is to have them rejected! Besides, I’m hoping to impress!


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## SamI (May 17, 2019)

Today has been a long but very good day! No machining done today but some machine acquiring! Picked up a 1963 Bridgeport! So stoked on it. I must admit, being an older machine and not seeing it before hand I thought it would be pretty worn. But everything feels silky smooth and tight! 

Getting it home proved to be quite the feat though! I hired a Luton van for the day. Not sure if you guys over the pond but is basically a van disguised as a small lorry. It has a tail lift but it’s only rated to 500kg. I’ve used one before and it lifted 600 so I had hoped if we split the machine it would lift it ok. 






Luckily the guy I bought it off was a farmer and he had a tractor that could load it. The ram was fine on the tail lift but the van was hanging none of the main casting and knee!

Getting it off the other end was the challenge. It was me all by my lonesome. With only a worn out pallet truck (the weight of the Bridgeport destroyed one of the wheels) and an abused engine hoist!




Here’s the van loaded. The box on the left is full of various end mills and collets, a vice, a hold down kit and a few scraps of practice stock. The compressor was going too. He only wanted £100 for it so I couldn’t refuse!


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## SamI (May 17, 2019)

For some reason now the insert image icon is greyed out. I’ll stick the rest of the pictures in order down below. 

Also out of sight is an 8” rotary table. 

As I said, the real challenge was getting it off on my own the other end. I unloaded the van until only the main casting was left. Having already tried to lift it and failing I was pretty nervous. 

I rigged up a strap around the tail lift and used the engine hoist to take some of the load. 

Very nervously (seriously, I was sweating with nerves here!) I carefully rolled the pallet truck with the mill aboard onto the tail lift 

It actually went ok. I sat the pallet down then jumped over the corner (was too scared to stand on the tail lift  ) and gently lowered the tail lift a few inches. Then the engine hoist. I repeated this until the tail lift was sat on top of the legs of the engine lift. At this point I somehow managed to carry the pallet truck over the mill (I’ll feel that in the morning!) so I could use it to lift the tail lift clear of the engine hoist. I then lowered the tail lift to a couple of inches from the ground and slid the pallet truck out as carefully as I could before lowering it the whole way!

Success. Although it’s now raining hard and my machine is getting soaked which makes me a bit sad!

Anyway, using the pallet truck I managed to get it into place but had to do some head scratching to work out how to get it off the pallet. I settled on cutting as much of the pallet away as I could before lifting the mill vertically up and sliding the pallet out. Only I had put the pallet too close to the wall to do this so I had to move the whole thing back. The engine lift does not move easily when loaded! I’ll feel that too in the morning!

I finally managed to get the machine on the ground where I want it. I would try the ram but I really think that is a two man job so I’ll try and recruit some help for that next week!

And the final shot is the state of my workshop just now! It’s getting late and I’m shattered so I’m going to go home and deal with this tomorrow! 

No doubt I’ll be back very shortly after with a million questions about Bridgeport’s and milling! 

Thanks for reading!


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## SamI (May 17, 2019)

And just because I’m so pleased with my buy here’s a couple of pictures of some of the tooling! It also came with a VFD which I was quite pleased with although some of the wiring seems questionable!


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## markba633csi (May 17, 2019)

Good score! Did you ask why the knee was painted yellow?
Mark


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## SamI (May 17, 2019)

Yes! I didn’t get a straight answer. The mill began life in the MOD where one of the machinists acquired it when he left.  He had it up until a few years ago when it was sold the the chap I bought it from. I’m not 100% sure but I suspect that two machines were stripped and parts mixed and matched for some reason.


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## hman (May 18, 2019)

Congratulations on having successfully unloaded it!!!!  I don't know if I would have been so brave (foolhardy???)

Great score, by the way.


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## SamI (May 28, 2019)

It’s funny how now I’m not confined to an office desk I somehow have less time to read through this site! I’ve been lurking a little bit not made any real posts. 

I’ve finally got the Bridgeport in its final location and a DRO installed. Only thing left is to install the control pendant which I’ll do when my better half returns my drill! 




Still need to do something with the cables. I snapped my M3 tap but have since got a new set. 







And I’ve tidied the workshop so I can now actually get to everything! That compressor has been epically in my way since I got it. Its now nicely tucked away behind the Bridgeport. 











Since then I’ve also been pretty busy! Nothing on the mill yet but I’ve got another job from that engineering company that needs a series of holes drilling. Feedback from the last job with them was good. Finish was better than the big boy machine shop they currently use so I’m hoping that I get some more work off the back of that. I think it’s their fault for not specifying a surface finish on the drawing but hey, I’m not complaining if it gets me the work! A quick chat with the guy there and I knew it was a part that needed to be aesthetically pleasing. 

Other jobs include some light sabres for a chap that makes film replica items. I think these are actually to his own design. I’ve not seen the finished product in person but the pictures look really cool! But for me all I do is make the handles. Still, it’s pretty good work. Been single point threading all day! 30 internal and 30 external M32 x 1.5 threads. I’m getting pretty quick at it now! Managed to get two done every 5 minutes when I timed it. 




Once I’ve threaded them they get assembled and I’ll finish turn the OD and drill a couple of holes for grub screws and buttons. I’ll hopefully get that done tomorrow.


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## ThinWoodsman (May 28, 2019)

So... you painted your other tools to match the Bridgeport?


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## T Bredehoft (May 28, 2019)

_Bottom Picture_, is the picture reversed, or are you threading left to right, or is it a left hand thread?


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## markba633csi (May 28, 2019)

Nice and tidy shop- I can only dream about having that much room (and a decent level concrete floor!)


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## Linghunt (May 28, 2019)

A nice table on wheels in middle would be sweet.  That much open space is dreamy.


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## SamI (May 29, 2019)

ThinWoodsman said:


> So... you painted your other tools to match the Bridgeport?



Ha! It worked out quite well really! Shame about the knee. It actually looks like the knee might be original to the mill as the green is on top of a cream coat. Why they didn’t paint the whole thing though is another matter. 



T Bredehoft said:


> _Bottom Picture_, is the picture reversed, or are you threading left to right, or is it a left hand thread?



I’m threading in reverse with a LH tool. It means you thread with the lathe in reverse towards the tail stock. It means you can go right up to a shoulder with no undercut and not crash. Plus you can thread at high speed. I was threading at 300 rpm. I would have liked to have gone faster but I was using flood coolant and I was already wet enough! 



Linghunt said:


> A nice table on wheels in middle would be sweet.  That much open space is dreamy.



Yes that’s my plan! I was thinking maybe some toolboxes on wheels which I could store in process parts on top of. Maybe even a surface plate in there too.


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## Linghunt (May 29, 2019)

SamI said:


> Yes that’s my plan! I was thinking maybe some toolboxes on wheels which I could store in process parts on top of. Maybe even a surface plate in there too.



I got 2 smaller tables with wheels,  got them from salvage run.  One has a larger arbor press, a rod Shear, ring roller, small arbor, a hole punch, anvil and a vice.  tough to fit all on and have space to use.  some stuff has to be higher and at times you have to unbolt tools.   Never enough space.  I should take a picture or 2.


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## T Bredehoft (May 29, 2019)

SamI said:


> I’m threading in reverse with a LH tool.



This belies your thread title, I'd estimate that you've been a machinist for quite some time.


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## SamI (May 29, 2019)

T Bredehoft said:


> This belies your thread title, I'd estimate that you've been a machinist for quite some time.




As much as I’d love to take some credit for the idea I stumbled on a YouTube video describing it some time ago. 





I’ve actually only been machining for a couple of years but I learn pretty quickly! It helped that my last job was as an engineer in a manufacturing facility and there were a few great guys there who I could run ideas by. The one downside to leaving!


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## SamI (Jun 5, 2019)

I’ve spent the last week finishing off a few things. I’ve brought the good camera in to the workshop to try and showcase some of the products I am making. I’ve not got a social media presence yet but I figure it’s the way to go these days.  I’ve got all the accounts created and a logo but no posts as yet.  Once I’ve got a load of pictures I’ll kick things off. My thinking is that I can get enough material for a post every couple of days to try and get a few followers. But in the mean time I thought I’d  try and give you a sneak peak!




Some brass heatsinks, threaded M33 x 1.5. These are my own design to fit into the light sabre project I mentioned earlier in the thread. 




And in the making. Getting the Bridgeport to pay for itself! 




And the finished sabres! The chap is wanting 4 different models in his range so hopefully I’ll be seeing more of these soon! In the mean time I’m going to have to have a think about deep hole boring. I had a real hard time with chip evacuation in the bores. It’s not a huge problem for these parts but I’d still like to get this dialled.  I tried a through coolant Boring bar but I don’t have sufficient coolant pressure to blast this chips out so I found aiming the flood was the most effective.

I’ve been working on a few other things as well including more parts for my first “real” customer. I’m not sure on the etiquette of posting pictures of his stuff yet so I’ll  hold fire for now and ask him when doing the next batch which will hopefully be in the next couple of weeks. 

My next job is to think about fixturing in the mill. The last job I ran involved 20 parts with various drilling, threading etc. Nothing too hard but it was very time consuming. I’m thinking of an aluminium plate bolted to the table that I can load a dozen or so parts into at a time. This would hugely reduce the time taken for tool and part changes which added up quite quickly! I actually made a mini version that allowed me to clamp a single piece so that I didn’t need to re find centre on the DRO each time. 




Here I could place the parts I was making in the recess and up against the edges to locate them. The 16 mm square bar was then bolted down securing the parts in place. I’m thinking a slightly more refined version in a plate capable of taking a reasonable number. It’s just whether the cost of the fixture is worth it in the long run. Something for me to ponder!


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## BenW (Jun 6, 2019)

SamI said:


> I’ve spent the last week finishing off a few things. I’ve brought the good camera in to the workshop to try and showcase some of the products I am making. I’ve not got a social media presence yet but I figure it’s the way to go these days. I’ve got all the accounts created and a logo but no posts as yet. Once I’ve got a load of pictures I’ll kick things off. My thinking is that I can get enough material for a post every couple of days to try and get a few followers. But in the mean time I thought I’d try and give you a sneak peak!
> 
> View attachment 296055
> 
> ...


Maybe try compressed air with a throughcoolant bar when boring deep? 

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk


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## SamI (Jun 6, 2019)

That could be worth a shot. On some pieces I tried blasting air through the spindle which had limited success.  I found after a while the spindle packed with long stringy chips which rendered this method ineffective. Getting the compressed air through the boring bar might help with this. The other thing I might try is two coolant streams. One through the boring bar and the other flooding the bore. 

It’s a tough one, if I increase the feed to break the chip then after a certain depth they stop clearing and cause problems. I actually found the best results by going for a slow feed and letting the chip push ahead of the cut with the resulting stringy chip being pushed all the way through the headstock. That was fine but would occasionally break and cause problems. Or they’d pack up in the spindle. 

At some point I think I’m going to put a coolant pump in the Bridgeport so I might take the one from the lathe for that and put a more powerful pump with a much larger sump in the lathe. The current one if far too small which means constantly having to top it up. On the plus side it’ll never go rancid as it never lasts long enough! But then coolant on the manual lathe is already messy enough!


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## SamI (Oct 28, 2019)

Well it's been a very busy few months!  Not all of it in the shop - a lot more time than I'd anticipated gets spent in front of the PC.  As such I've been lurking a little but haven't really had the time to post much on this forum.  That being said, I'm now getting evenings back which is a novelty - while I was working "the day job" as soon as I was home it was dinner, kids in bed, back to work!  It's nice and I definitely haven't looked back since leaving the day job!

I've still been doing the jewellery although it's something I'm wanting to do less of so I can focus on engineering work as that's what interests me the most.

Pretty much every job I've taken on has been a first for me but it's been a lot of fun learning the best ways to tackle a problem!  The tooling budget is getting a bit out of hand though!  I guess as I'm just starting out pretty much every job involves a new tool or inspection instrument. I've now got micrometers from 0-275 mm - way bigger than I thought I'd need!  I've invested in the Insize range and I'm pretty happy with them.  Sure they're not quite as silky smooth as my Mitutoyo micrometer but the accuracy is there and they're nice enough.  I'll probably get Mitutoyo's in the 50-150 range when I can afford to.  I'm looking forwards to using the big one on an aluminium bronze ring I'm making this week!  Genuinely not sure if I can swing that without removing the gap in the lathe! It should fit but I didn't consider the additional room required for the chuck jaws (plus the only material I could find to spec was 1" oversized - I'll have fun roughing that down!).  My biggest tooling purchase to date though was a Quick cut knurling tool. I've not tried it out yet but I've been itching to!  I know some folk have had success making them but to be honest I've just not had the time and I doubt I'd get it spot on first go so this tool promises to be very adjustable so I can dial it in to any diameter under 250 mm which should suit all my knurling needs.

Materials wise it's mostly been steel and a lot of 4145 HT.  It machines nicely but it's hard to push the machine hard enough to break a chip without it stalling.  I'm screaming out for a bigger lathe so I think I'll be looking to invest in the new year.  I'll probably keep the current one for second op work and general use.  One can never have too many...right?  In the mean time I've had some success by slowing it down and taking a bigger depth of cut or faster feed but a lot of the parts have surface finish requirements which mean I have to live with the stringy chips for the finishing passes.

That's enough of my rambling for now though - here's a few pics of various projects I've been working on:




I enjoyed this one - first real milling job for me.  This one was just EN3B steel so nice and easy to work although not always the best finish.  This part was the drive shaft for a plastic shredding machine.




A little project for the neighbour - I made an adapter for our kitchen sink that this threads onto as I was getting fed up of soaking the floor every time we did a water change on the fish tank.  The wife mentioned this to a couple a few doors down so I made  couple of them for friends and family.  I used 316 stainless as it's suitable for use in drinking water systems.




I underestimated this job a little.  The job itself wasn't too bad other than, being Inconel 718 and my lathe being under powered it took a long long time to get that bore done!  I've had to sign confidentiality agreements with most of my clients so no pictures of the finished parts although they were simple enough apart from a groove on the OD.  Did I mention I need a bigger lathe?  Ha!  Rigidity, or lack thereof was the name of the game on this one!  Still, got it done and managed to meet the surface finish requirements without having to resort to emery cloth which was a bonus.




A nice little run of parts for an afternoon.  Not much to these and with the exception of the smaller diameter the tolerances weren't fussy which is always nice!  I had a job in recently where the engineer had gone mad with the -+ 0.001" tolerances!  I managed to get a concession granted on one as it would have been impossible to measure (in my shop anyway).  




It took a lot of time to get from round stock to the blank on the left!  Milled it all in the Bridgeport with an 80 mm face mill.  As it turns out the Bridgeport doesn't have the power to take decent cuts so it was a slow process but got there in the end.  Managed to cut it closer to finish size in the band saw after putting in some bolt holes.  The material specified just wasn't available in a more economical form. 




That cut probably saved me 90 minutes if not more!  Plus the inevitable broken inserts!  I think I spent about £150 just on inserts roughing this job down!




Another interesting little one.  Some odd ball dimensions on the reamed holes in these and I actually struggled to find a reamer to suit!  Got there in the end though!




Some big boy threading going on here!  A 3-1/2" 6TPI modified STUB ACME thread - this part was actually just a trial for a job I was quoting.  I genuinely wasn't sure if the lathe would handle it without chattering itself apart!  Turned out pretty nicely though.  I ended up getting the job but it's in 4145 HT so I'll no doubt have fun when the time comes!  I've currently got the material cut and sat on a pallet next to the machine - just need thread gauges before I can proceed with the job!




A job I've got coming up requires etching the part numbers on.  I could vibro etch (and I know a lot of the other local shops do this) but I want my parts to stand out so I decided to build a DIY electrochemical etching unit.  You can buy them commercially but they're expensive and, as I mentioned earlier - my tooling budget has already been decimated!  Still, with  bit of research and repurposing  bench top power supply I already had I've been able to get pretty good results.  The top was the first attempt which didn't go as well as I'd hoped.  A quick play about and I ended up with the second one and I was pretty pleased with it.  The text is crisp and clear and the etching doesn't rub off.  I reversed the polarity for a bit which removes metal before switching back to redeposit and darken.  The proper systems use AC power to do this but my power supply only does DC but still, the results were good.  




And finally (for now at least - this post is already quite long!) I've had a few jobs machining rubber lately. I've been finding rubber all over the shop for weeks now!  The picture above was taken after one part - I had 20 to do!  I did not enjoy the clean up!  It got tangled around the feed screw causing it to bind up - luckily I managed to pull enough out without having to resort to removing the feed screw!  All the handwheels had to come off though.  If I'm honest it was an utter pain of a job - they managed to get me own quite substantially on price.  I still made reasonable money on the job but I think in future rubber jobs are going to incur a hefty clean-up surcharge!

I hope you've all enjoyed the read!


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## Bob Korves (Oct 28, 2019)

Saml, I have that same lathe, though mine is badged Kent KLS-1340A.  On the front it says KENT USA.  On the back, on a small and partially hidden tag it says "Made in China."  Gray instead of green.  Still, pretty nice lathe for what I use it for.  Yours does look like it might be narrower (shorter bed) so maybe it is a 13x30 (?)  Mine measures 55" from the right side of the headstock to the end of the ways.


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## Latinrascalrg1 (Oct 29, 2019)

Whats the purpose for clamping your part into a small 3 jaw chuck that is then clamped into a larger 3 jaw chuck? Looking at the picture the part looks like it would have fit into the larger 3 jaw without needing the smaller chuck and neither of those 2 chucks appear to be adjustable like a Buck Adjust-Tru type of chuck to help with the run out which adds to the confusion.


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## SamI (Oct 29, 2019)

Bob Korves said:


> Saml, I have that same lathe, though mine is badged Kent KLS-1340A.  On the front it says KENT USA.  On the back, on a small and partially hidden tag it says "Made in China."  Gray instead of green.  Still, pretty nice lathe for what I use it for.  Yours does look like it might be narrower (shorter bed) so maybe it is a 13x30 (?)  Mine measures 55" from the right side of the headstock to the end of the ways.



I was under the impression when I bought it that it was a Taiwanese machine but, as far as I can see, there is no country if manufacture on the machine anywhere so it could well be. It’s 1 meter between centres so just shy of 40” although you can’t get a 1 meter part in there! Here is is maxed out!


A couple mm extra and I would have been in trouble! 



Latinrascalrg1 said:


> Whats the purpose for clamping your part into a small 3 jaw chuck that is then clamped into a larger 3 jaw chuck? Looking at the picture the part looks like it would have fit into the larger 3 jaw without needing the smaller chuck and neither of those 2 chucks appear to be adjustable like a Buck Adjust-Tru type of chuck to help with the run out which adds to the confusion.


Neither chuck is an adjust true type but the real reason was for clamping purposes anyway. I couldn’t grip on the OD as there was a small lip and the big chuck was too large to grip the ID. This method was quick and dirty but I was only facing a few mm off so it was plenty good enough.


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## Linghunt (Oct 30, 2019)

SamI said:


> As much as I’d love to take some credit for the idea I stumbled on a YouTube video describing it some time ago.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Agree,  not having the co-workers to ideas byt was great for me too.   Joe Pie on Youtube is a common view for me, teaches me so much.  He loves Applied Geometry, as I do.   A teacher needs to show a video of his to junior high class as to why you need to learn this stuff.


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