2017 POTD Thread Archive

me too. had to do the 'reply' trick (hit the reply button in the post) to see his nicely made barrel.
 
I doubt such a tap exists, or at least isn't readily available. The threads are about 45mm diameter, maybe 1mm pitch or so.

What I meant is use a tap as a thread gauge. In this case any tap with a 1 mm pitch. I believe thread form and depth should be the same, no matter the diameter. It could be used to verify your measurements with the play-doh.

As for everything on the lathe being metric: so am I [emoji12]
But seriously: if you don't have access to a metric tap with the desired pitch the idea to use it as a thread gauge obviously isn't going to be helpful either.

Peter
 
I can't figure the red X thing. Some days pictures come through right away, sometimes after a while. Im using a Mac desktop with Safari.
Thanks for the patience and comments.

Greg
 
My first actual machining project, a radius turner.

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I've owned the mill/lathe for a month but only get to spend a few hrs in the evenings and on most weekends to play with them. So far it's addicting.
 
Finished v1.0 of a powered grass catcher for my 52" Snapper Pro walk-behind mower (the same one that on another thread, I made a snow plow attachment for it).

I did buy the main parts of the catcher, mainly so it would look semi-professional. The front part where the grass bags are is from an Ariens zero-turn bagging setup, the blower motor/fan is from a DR Power power vacuum setup, and a Trac Vac chute on the output of the mower deck.

Here's the main bracket for securing the grass bag setup:
IMG_0833.jpg
IMG_0834.jpg
It comes off by pulling 4 pins, for when I mow and I don't need the grass catcher setup. In an extremely rare (for me) showing of skill, I welded it all together and the holes for the 4 pins exactly lined up, so the pins could easily slide in/out (without the weight of the bagger setup). Naturally, once I had this completely as you see here, I realized that, when it's bolted to the drive unit, the two brackets are pulled slightly together, and 2 of the bracket holes no longer lined up...doh. Drilled them out and it works fine again.

The motor assembly slides in from the side, with a single pin holding it in, and the chute also comes off with a single pin.

And here's the whole thing, all assembled:
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I also bought slightly wider rear wheels, as overall, I've added about 150 pounds to the mower, and grass can be pretty sensitive to too much pressure (if the grass is really dry, you can leave strips of brown grass from the wheels, shows up after a couple of days, or if the ground is wet, wheels dig in too much).

It was raining out today, but I took it out for a short spin on a local park and it did a decent job of vacuuming up leaves and debris from it, even when everything was pretty wet.

However, after getting everything together, I think the hose between the chute and the blower motor is kinked a little too much, so I'm going to remake the bracket for the blower motor so the motor itself mounts directly to my bracket instead of having DR Powers "mount" in between (I kept it on to make it easy to remount on the original power vacuum if I ever wanted to use it again, which is actually unlikely). As a bonus, it will shed maybe 10 pounds or so.
 
Spent some time working on v2 of the mount for my blower motor for my bagger system.

v1:
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v2:
IMG_0839.jpg

Lowered the engine about 5", making for a noticeably better offset between the chute and the deck (so the hose connecting them is a little straighter and a little shorter).

And I think I'm turning into a CNC machine. Measured and drilled the 4 5/16" holes for bolting the engine down, and all 4 bolts went in without needing to enlarge any of the holes.
 
Grizzly "heavy duty bench drill press"

Sure, heavy duty, whatever…

On sale for $299

AC motor worked okay, but sort of oscillated, so
Put this stiffing plate, over tension rods. Sandwiched motor mounting plate with that stiffing plate.

Green motor mounting plate came with drill press, sort of cheap…

Tested everything out, worked okay.

Next.... DC motor swap.

Both motors are 3/4 HP.

Slots on both motor mounting plates aligned
with both motors, mounting holes….except

Bottom holes of DC motor extended below motor
mounting plate.

Gray adjustable motor mounting plate, about $25, from surplus center. Some of those
adjustable motor mounting plates cost $50 or more, from other suppliers.

drill press build_1.JPG drill press build_2.JPG drill press build_3.JPG

4 round spacers to clear, tension rod motor mounting plate, nuts

Ran it, with my test DC motor power box,
works good.

Cannot stand to be without a drill press. Could
use my square column bench mill, but
it’s a beast. Older drill press works okay, but
needs new bearings. Will eventually replace them.

Run out on new drill press, arbor, (chuck not installed) less than .001

Charl
 
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