2017 POTD Thread Archive

[Cheeseking]

Ya I bought one standard shelf bracket and then reverse engineered the hook profile. Designed the side profiles to match the standard lumber widths. Brackets are 16 ga 430 SS cut on laser. I went thru several iterations before finding the down angle that worked best.
As far as wood causing rust I have heard that potential issue but in all the years Ive used it for my Bp collets, drills etc never once had a spec of rust on my tools. Could be I keep them cleaned and oiled?? Also my basement shop is relatively dry and constant humidity so maybe that is part of it. I do have some 3/4" hdpe I can use but the pine is cheap and easy to cut to length, machine and test various hole patterns. I could easily have just fabricated the whole shelf/side bracket as one integral pc of ss but Was trying to keep things simple (minimal press brake work) and not be locked in to a fixed width.
Heres the profile.

 

[Boswell]

Awesome tool rack !

 

[rwm]

Great idea!
Robert

 

[HBilly1022]

Started making Harold Hall's end mill sharpener and had some mishaps. They say you learn more from your mistakes so I should be learning fast. I couldn't figure out a good way to drill and tap the hole in the bottom of the collets. I didn't think I could machine the whole collet then flip it around to hold the tapered end in the 3 jaw, so I figured I'd just drill the hole in the bottom while I still had the collet chucked on the parent piece. That turned out to be a bad decision. I made all 4 collets, then chucked them in the 3 jaw to tap and discovered 2 things, 1) it was easy to chuck in the 3 jaw .... I just had to indicate the part to get it centered and 2) the drill holes were not centered . I decided to tap them anyways and see how bad the fit would be but then mistake number 2 ..... I broke a tap in one of the collets. Looks like I may have to make a new set of collets and drill / tap the back ends after flipping them end for end. At least I'm gaining more experience.

The spindle is the tall piece and the collet in the front is the one with the broken tap in it.


Here's a pic with a collet in the 3 jaw all ready to be tapped. But I need to get more taps first and maybe make another set of collets.


Since I couldn't finish the collet tapping I decided to make a jig for sharpening my slitting saw. This is also from Harold Hall's book. I couldn't finish it either because I don't have any small enough cap screws for the side mounted indexing spring. Calls for M3 but I will use a UNC equivalent. Just have to wait till I go into the big city again.


I didn't get a pic of it, but I finished my larger outboard spider and used it to hold the long piece of 1 1/2" stock used for the spindle and collets. I mounted the long stock piece and indicated the outboard end before tightening the 3 jaw. After roughing one of the pieces down I checked and found that there was a taper in it. How could that be. I checked the lathe set up before hand to make sure it was running true to the ways. Took a bit of tail chasing but I came to the conclusion that the long stock (not being straight) was causing this. At least I think that was the issue. In any case it went away after I reversed the setup and tightened down the chuck first then the outboard end. I figured that by tightening down the outboard end first, I was forcing the bend to be carried through the jaws and not allowing the chuck jaws from grabbing the stock along the entire length of the jaw.

Here's a pic of the smaller spider that screws into the lathe spindle.


Heading into the city today and hope to get the supplies I need to carry on.

 

[chips&more]

Picked up an as-is Levin double tool cross slide that needed a shaft with gear part. So I made one. Luckily the sample part had a few teeth left. So I was able to hand grind a HSS tool bit to match the spacing between the teeth and did the gear with the fly cutter method. I made the shaft with gear out of 1144. I think I’m going to leave it alone and not heat treat it…time will tell. The original part was harder, but then most of the teeth broke off to. So, maybe it was too hard.

 

[Sleddog]

I made a SA Oscillating Steam Engine. Courtesy of Mr. Pete's videos.

The components

Video of it running.

 

[rwm]

First attempt at O1 tool steel:

It's hard. In a good way.

Robert

 

[dave_r_1]

Finished up making/attaching a new bracket for the taillights on my truck. The original one was just 18 gauge bent sheet metal, with a single weld to the crossmember (it's a cab&chassis with a flatbed), and the OEM lights were significantly lighter than the new LED setup I made last year.



Just 1/8" angle iron, just under 1/8" sheet metal, and 2 braces to prevent it from readily bending.

Also carried on with making a plow attachment for my walk-behind lawn mower, but more on that in the thread I made for it here: http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/modifying-a-snow-plow.56971/

 

[HBilly1022]

Got my slitting saw sharpening fixture done but not before breaking another tap. Then I had to try it out. I haven't made the Harold Hall grinding rest yet so I just hacked something temporary together to give it try. Clamped some scrap to the grinding table and adjusted with a small hammer to get the wheel setback just right. I must say it worked great and the blade periphery is much sharper than when I got it.






Then I mounted it on the homemade arbor.



I chucked it in the 3 jaw and used the DI to check the runout and it was 0.002" close to the chuck jaws. I think that will be good enough but I have reservations about how well this will work since the flat (side) edges of the teeth are worn. You can see the wear in the above pic. Just need to get it set up and give it a go.

Also finished a die holder with a spring loaded feed, for the TS.

 

[rwm]

Made some gravers:

Mostly wood work. I just used the metal lathe to shape the walnut as if it were brass.
R

Played with the gravers. They are nice for making curves in brass and aluminum.
R