2017 POTD Thread Archive

[dave_r_1]

Yay, the plow worked well. The winch control worked nicely, the extensions go on and off with a minimum of fuss, and it did a nice job of clearing a sidewalk that snow that people walked on for sometime. It would occasionally catch on the grass beside the sidewalk, and that would stop the plow (or not, it sheared off the grass sometimes), but the snow was pushed to the side nicely and it did a decent job of scraping to the concrete. It's unlikely to be able to peel up harder-packed snow, like when cars pack it down, as that tends to be bonded better to the concrete and this machine doesn't have the weight/traction to be able to break it free.


As for "machining" content, I made another exhaust pipe for this machine, as the one I previously made doesn't clear one of the braces for the plow mount. Here's the new one, installed:

It's pointed up just to minimize noise. I may make a snow/rain cap for it to prevent the muffler from rusting out sooner.

As well, I noticed that I miscalculated the height that the front caster wheels are mounted at, as now it is noticeably tilted forward. It's not enough to cause a problem with the engine, so I'll fix this next spring when the plow comes off and the mower gets reinstalled (as getting the plow installed involves a lot of swearing while lying on the ground trying to get various holes lined up so a bolt or pin can get shoved through).

 

[HBilly1022]

Finished filling the wood shed today, thank god that only happens once a year. 27 face cord or 36,000 pounds.
View attachment 246656

Greg

That's a lot of firewood. Are you heating the whole neighborhood? lol.

 

[HBilly1022]

Finished making a hex ER40 collet block. Had a heck of a time milling the flats but with help from the members I got it done.

I made one a few days ago and had a heck of a time trying to get the collet taper right. I used a digital protractor set at 8* with one edge on the chuck and the other on the top slide but that wasn't close enough. So I tried putting some round stock in one of the ER collets and mounting the round in the tailstock and indicating the side of the collet but that didn't work well either. Finally ended up putting my RT chuck in the TS of the lathe and mounting the ER collet holder in it and indicating the inside of the taper and that worked awesome. Got the block all finished up but the collet nut wouldn't go all the way onto the threads I cut. Took a while to figure it out but the threading chart on my lathe was confusing and the threads were out slightly. Trying to fix them I wrecked the part and had to start over. But here is the new one complete with the right threads.

Before I took it out of the 3 jaw I stamped the jaw numbers on each of the corresponding flats on the hex so I could mount it in the same orientation when I want to use it. Hopefully that will reduce the amount of runout.

 

[BGHansen]

POTD was making a rack for mounting ER32 collets, a pair of drill chucks, spanner wrench for an ER collet chuck and ¾” wrench on my Bridgeport. Material of choice was 1/8” aluminum plate.

I considered using a piece of ¾” plywood and knocking in holes at the OD of the collets for a holder. But instead went with a more complex design, usual case of my over-engineering . . . Plan was to hold the collets in place with Delrin pins turned to the ID of the back side of the collets.

Came up with a paper pattern, evenly spaced out the collets. Did the layout on graph paper easy determination of the hole and corner coordinates. My Bridgeport has a 35+ year old Anilam 2-axis CNC control on it. Sure, could have band sawed the pattern in about 2 minutes, but how could I pass up the chance to do some more CNC’ing!

I wrote three routines for the mounting rack. One for the location of all of the drilled holes. One for milling the “T” slot for the ¾” wrench hole. Last one would trim the pattern to size.

Mounted the 1/8” aluminum on top of a sacrificial ¾” piece of plywood and let the Anilam do the locating. As mentioned before, my CNC is only 2-axis, so I have to stand there and manually drill the holes and change bits. Can definitely see adding the Z-axis in my future.

Did some edge clean up with a belt sander after milling, then folded up the aprons of the rack on my DiAcro brake.

Next was the Delrin pins. Drilled and tapped screw holes for mounting to the rack and turned to diameter. I’m starting with an arrangement of ¼”, 3/8”, ½”, 5/8” and ¾” collets across the top row since those are the ones I use most. Nice to get heavily used stuff close at hand! Think there's space enough to add a 1/2" drill chuck next to the 3/4" wrench.

Bruce

 

[zmotorsports]

I finally got around to working on one other little detail that I haven't had time to complete, the cupboard doors for my two workbenches.

Frame welded together and set into the opening to place the hinges. This one is for the 6' workbench between my toolbox and my lathe.

Opens and closes smoothly.

Fairly nice consistent gap around the perimeter.

Second workbench cupboard door. This is in the corner of my L-shaped workbench on the 12' side.

Tonight I think I am going to add a piece of .125" x 2" flat strap vertically on the hinge side for a little extra strength/rigidity prior to painting and placing the aluminum skin on them.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

Another quick project from a few days ago.

I purchased a quick release quill handle for my mill several months ago but finally found time to modify it to work on my PM935TV.

This was a Bridgeport knockoff but was made in the good ole U.S. of A.


Unfortunately, it was not a direct bolt on deal. I had to disassemble it and bore the ID out .020" so it would fit. No big deal though.


Installed and works great. AND I was able to use my lathe.


While I had a slight mess in the fabrication area of the shop I thought I would knock another quick job off my white board "to do" list. I cut the pieces for a handle for my Stihl shop vac. I love this shop vac but it is awkward to move around the shop because the handle is at a weird angle as well as being quite low and having to bend way over while rolling the vacuum across the shop.


Part way done.




Handle complete and ready to paint.


Painted with Hammertone paint which actually matches the hose very well.


Lastly, my son made me a plastic handle for the shop vac with his 3D printer.


Mike

 

[f350ca]

Doing repairs on the thumb of an excavator. The bushings came loose in the caps, maybe stretched? Bored the caps oversized to remove the taper in the bore then made new aluminum bronze bushings. Need to warm the caps up with a propane weed burner to about 600F for a 3 thou shrink fit.


Greg

 

[Tony Wells]

Probably will shrink the bushing ID a bit once in place, so unless you are line boring them in situ, make sure your pin fits properly.

 

[f350ca]

Been there before Tony and got bit. Have the bore 2 thou over. Its going on the old shaft that has some wear, if it was a new shaft I'd bore them after shrinking them in.

Greg

 

[rdean]

Finished up a project for the wife. She wanted to try her hand at making wooden pens and one of the first steps is to drill a hole through the wood blank for the bushing. I saw a two jaw chuck made for just this process but didn't want to spend the money they wanted so I decided to try and make one.
This is the finished chuck with an extra long piece of wood blank installed and mounted on a face plate.


What it looks like from this end.


The thumb screws adjust the wood sideways to find the center.

The slots I milled for the jaws turned out very nice and tight..


And a shot of all the parts made.


It is not nearly as accurate as a 4 jaw but it doesn't have to be. There is quite a bit of extra wood that needs to be removed so if the hole is not exactly in the center it doesn't matter.
Ease of use was a primary goal for the wife.
Very easy to adjust and use.

Thanks
Ray