2015 POTD Thread Archive

[chevydyl]

Thanks, the most satisfying part of that knob was hearing the distinctive pop I heard when I installed the unit in the tube, knowing the o-ring was a perfect fit.
You gotta think outside the box, I referenced a purchase of v blocks to someone, and he thought they were just for holding round work, no,get creative, need to put a 45 on something? I for one don't want to exercise the tramming routine to do a simple 45, many ways to skin that cat

 

[timbertoes]

Am working on a CNC Hot Wire Foam cutter.

Cncfoam3

• timbertoes
• Apr 25, 2015

 

[mecompco]

Here is my first lathe project ever--has some flaws, but the old Atlas did a pretty good job (now if the operator can improve...). The wood is Cocobolo with a CA finish.

 

[chevydyl]

Neat pen, so what do you actually turn in that project, explain a little

 

[mecompco]

Neat pen, so what do you actually turn in that project, explain a little

Thank you, I think it came out pretty good for a first attempt. There are many videos on YouTube about pen turning, but in a nutshell, this is what I did:

• Buy a pen kit (this is all the metal parts), under $2.oo.
• Get some wood--I got some Cocobolo pen blanks, they are 3/4" square and about 5" long.
• Cut wood to fit brass inserts (leaving slightly long).
• Drill 7mm hole in wood (not as easy as one would think to get a more-or-less straight hole; I used my POS HF drill press but plan to try it on the lathe). I made a crude holder from pieces of pine to hold the wood square.
• Scuff up brass tubes and glue into wood using CA gel.
• Square off wood even with brass tubes (very important to get them perfectly flush--this is where my flaws occurred--I used a Forstner bit in my crappy drill press; plan to obtain a dedicated barrel trimmer for future projects). This is where the majority of my flaws are--I just could not seem to get it totally square with my sub-par equipment so there are a couple of minute gaps where the wood meets the cap and center band.
• Mount wood blanks on mandrel in the lathe with properly sized bushings (one turns the wood down even with the bushings). Since it was all I had, I mounted the mandrel in my four-jaw self-indexing chuck with the live center holding the other end.
• Turn wood down to match bushings. This looks much easier using actual wood-turning chisels, but not having a wood-working tool rest and chisels, I used the only bit I have which is a sharp-pointed metal bit mounted in the tool post. It took a while due to the small cut. I took the wood down close to the bushings using the cutter, feeding slowly when I got down near the end to leave a half-way decent finish. I then used 100 grit sand paper to get down closer to the bushings (could have taken off another few 1000ths as the wood is very slightly proud where it meets the nib.
• Sand down to 500 grit, clean off dust w/denatured alcohol.
• Apply several layers of thin CA glue.
• Sand again with 500 grit to even out the glue.
• Wet sand with MicroMesh pads down to 15,000 grit.
• Polish with plastic polish.
• Assemble pen--I used my bench vise with improvised padding to protect the metal.

That's it!

 

[great white]

Not much today, just turned a shoulder off a swingarm bolt to install a CBR600RR swingarm on my old 1985 VF750F.

As seen here on an OEM bolt:



The shoulder just before the threads had to come down to the reduced dimension of the rest of the shank in order to fit the new bearings.

Probably not worth mentioning for some, but a small machining victory for me as a raw noob.

 

[xman_charl]

made tooling fixture for my enco square column mill

4x14 aluminum 3/4 thick, tapping head made work go
fast

 

[ARM]

Made this "poor-Man's Tool Post Grinder" with my existing Dremel Foot-Pedal Rotary Tool.
This Chuck takes 6mm shank sized Toolings of which we have built a fair collection over the Years
Works nicely.
Will be quite handy as one can mount various types of Cutters, Carbide Burrs, Diamond Wheels/Saws etc., giving one a really vast array of limitless possibilities on the Lathe.
Saw one on "You" where the Guy made it in wood !!!
Worked for him, like they say "each unto his own" !!!
aRM

 

[hman]

Probably not worth mentioning for some, but a small machining victory for me as a raw noob.

Enjoy your victory! You got something done for yourself, which otherwise would have meant another trip to the parts store and/or trying to get somebody else to modify the part for you.

 

[great white]

Enjoy your victory! You got something done for yourself, which otherwise would have meant another trip to the parts store and/or trying to get somebody else to modify the part for you.

True.

One of the reasons I got this old atlas was so I could stop asking the guys at work in the machine shop to make stuff for me or begging for some time on their machines.

Heck, it was a victory just getting it centered in the 4 jaw!