2015 POTD Thread Archive

[ARM]

Hello there Guys
Seeing that the Guys are now concentrating on becoming a-la-Carte Chefs, we might as well post some real MACHINE WORK to whet the appetite, pardon the pun !!!
This TAILSTOCK TAP GUIDE was patterned from an article in The Home Shop Machinist; except that we had to do away with all the heavy Fractions and convert them to workable Metric, whilst at the same time simplify the whole project with material we had on hand. Gave me a good opportunity to try for the first time, EXTRA FINE Internal Threading. The barrel was made from Tool steel and yet again we tried our EAGLE ROCK Straddle Knurling Tool with a couple of patient passes to achieve a most pleasing finish, both to the eye and the hand.
Thanks for looking Guys.
aRM

 

[ogberi]

I machined up some bread...View attachment 96658

*NICE!* That'd go good for sopping up gumbo or sauerbraten juice.

Being that it's too cold for some of us to work out in the shop (as I sit here typing this in shorts and a T shirt... nice day here in Florida), the itch to create must be scratched. Cooking is a darn good skill to have. Besides, there's still acquiring the raw stock, measuring, cutting... There's always little bits and pieces of the 'workpieces' that end up on the floor, and if you're unlucky, you may still cut yourself. And, given my tendency to have to add holes to my belt, it seems to be a project that'll stick with me.

Unfortunate thing is that my shop is in shambles (again). Getting some big 'ole crates out of there next weekend, so I can get the bench for my SB lathe put together and in place, and proper electric run in a few weeks. ) Right now, it's driving me insane. Stuff piled everywhere, things not in their places, trying to figure out where the new places for things will be. Floor is swept, though... Soon....

Then I'll be right back to machining, although there will still be some cooking. I try to be useful.

 

[icore3user]

Finally got around to getting a start on my VFD cabinet for in Index 55, too many house project kept me from even starting this, but I had my components lying around and I am somewhat anxious to get it up and running to see what issues I might have on install.

 

[G MORSCH]

Well, last weekend it was too cold to work outside, so I built a small 1" milling cutter for one of my son's machines. I had some obsolete porting tools for hydraulic components and cut one off and I had 30 small milling cutter inserts that I purchased at double scrap price. Broke one tap and was able to end mill it out with a 1/16" carbide 4 flute end mill. Just lucky!

 

[Halligan142]

His and her custom wedding rings. Hers is just a band to roughly match her engagement ring band and mine has a copper inlay. Both rings were turned from solid Titanium. The copper is from a piece of type L tubing that was cut into a strip, heated and hammered into a dovetail groove. The loose ends were joined by silver solder and you can barely see the joint. I needed a magnifying glass to find it.

 

[MarkStephen]

@ icore3user Nice job on the wiring. I used to do that for a living. I'v see so many "rats nests" done by people that were payed to make a commercial product. Good to see someone taking a little pride in their work.

 

[tazza]

Nice job on the rings, how was it machining the titanium?

My competition gun has a compensator made of titanium, sadly it slipped out of my holster once and hit concrete, didn't even mark it (just my pride). Seems like it's pretty tough stuff that may have needed more work to machine.

 

[Cactus Farmer]

Finally got around to getting a start on my VFD cabinet for in Index 55, too many house project kept me from even starting this, but I had my components lying around and I am somewhat anxious to get it up and running to see what issues I might have on install.
View attachment 96722 View attachment 96723 View attachment 96725 View attachment 96726 View attachment 96727

Much too neat, will it still work? I do gorilla wiring, ugly but functional, like some of my welding.........ugly but strong.

 

[zmotorsports]

One more small item I wanted to complete over the weekend on our motorcoach before the start of the new RVing season. I decided to finally replace that poorly designed door mechanism that Monaco uses. I don't know why they didn't get with the times like most every other manufacturer but they insisted on sticking with a poor out of date scissor type mechanism to hold the door open as well as act as a stop.

There have been a lot of write-ups over the years and I finally decided last fall that I had tightened up the scissor assembly for the last time and ordered the parts to convert it to the gas strut style.

Here is the only part where I really had to deviate from some of the other write-ups, my Dynasty had the small molded drip rail over the entrance door so it needed a small amount of trimming to clear the swing of the gas strut.


I then started measuring where I wanted to the bracket to mount on the coach. I ended up 4" back from the front of the door molding to the center of the first hole in the bracket. I also drilled a third hole in both brackets to give a little extra support.


I then opened the door to 90-degrees and marked where the bracket needed to be on the door itself. Then drilled and installed it.


This is what it looks like with the door closed.


Next I wanted to machine a couple of covers to cover the openings of the two OEM mounting brackets.

I used a pieced of .125" aluminum, measured, machined, drilled and countersunk the screw holes for the coach mounted piece.


I then used a piece of .188" thick aluminum that I flycut to flatten out, measured the bolt holes, drilled and countersunk for the rivets using a .375" end mill.


I made the part slightly oversize to completely cover the square recessed hole in the door itself. The part measures 1.5" x 3.0" overall dimensions.


I then flipped it over in the mill vise and machined the border to the exact size of the OEM bracket. This will allow the cover to orientate itself down into the recess of the door.


Cover installed on the coach inside the doorjamb.


Cover installed up on top of the door into the recess of the OEM bracket. Sadly this cover will never be seen up on top of the door. But I will know it is there and what it looks like.


All in all the complete job was quite easy and I highly recommend it to anyone who owns a Monaco coach with the scissor style door support mechanism.

Also not shown in the above pictures is after I completed the installation I touched up the heads of the six screws with some black paint to blend into the mounting brackets. It actually looks like something that should have come out of the factory this way.

Mike.

 

[Halligan142]

Nice job on the rings, how was it machining the titanium?

My competition gun has a compensator made of titanium, sadly it slipped out of my holster once and hit concrete, didn't even mark it (just my pride). Seems like it's pretty tough stuff that may have needed more work to machine.

It actually wasn't too bad. Acted a lot like stainless. Didn't like my larger drills, but it could be the drill itself. They removed the material just a lot of groaning from it. The finish liked to smear if you didn't get the DOC and feed right. HSS form tools chattered, but the carbide did fine. A lot of cutting oil also helped.