2018 POTD Thread Archive

[jwmay]

This is actually a potw. Pretty much all of mine are. I like square head bolts, and I like simplicity. No more searching for the right metric hex wrench every time I cut threads, and no more hex wrench parked on the carriage lock. One wrench to rule them all.

 

[jmarkwolf]

Today I made a lathe chuck lifting ring device for my Grizzly G4003G, inspired by others I'd seen on the web. I found the 1/2in diameter bent rod at a local industrial scrap "emporium". I think it was originally a hook for some dipping tanks. Paid a buck. I simply sawed off the unwanted part, drilled a couple holes for cotter pins and slid a shackle on. I left it a little long for CG "adjust" if needed.

I've never used my new 4-jaw chuck so now I have an easy way to swap my lathe chucks, with my Sky Hook.

 

[jdedmon91]

Started on a project for the madam. This will nest her hair dryer on the wall
In the bathroom. Started boring the bore that the dryer will rest in. I’m planning to mill a flat across the back and mill the sides down so I can mount it to the wall


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[brino]

Today I made a lathe chuck lifting ring device for my Grizzly G4003G

Just don't hit the "start" button with that thing in the chuck!!!!
I do realize that the photo was "mid job" and I do see the utility of it, but I cannot stand to see even a key left in a chuck.....bad mojo.....

-brino

 

[brino]

Started on a project for the madam. This will nest her hair dryer on the wall

Please keep posting. I am attempting to fight Fusion-360 to design a "holster" for my foredom hand piece. We will see who wins....
-brino

 

[Redmech]

Worked on checkInfo out some tooling I purchased off eBay the last couple months and built a riser/garage for my tool box and storage for some of my taller tools.

 

[jdedmon91]

Started on a project for the madam. This will nest her hair dryer on the wall

Please keep posting. I am attempting to fight Fusion-360 to design a "holster" for my foredom hand piece. We will see who wins....
-brino

Hopefully by the first of the week I’ll be finished


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[francist]

I brought this home from work last week. It's a butt hinge, or simply "butt" to use the old vernacular, from the front door. Fairly old, 1889 to be exact, and it sees a huge volume of people every year. So much so that the wear between the bronze leaves has removed close to an eighth of an inch. That in itself isn't the reason I'm working on it though, it's because the pin sheared off inside one of the barrels rendering the pair useless. The joint is also quite deformed, not just evenly eroded, so before putting in a new pin I wanted to bring the joint back into line with a bit of cleanup milling.





Pretty simple setup on the Atlas MF using an angle block and a couple of clamps. What I didn't expect was a steel sleeve inside the cast bronze leaf. I've worked on many of our door hinges and that detail is not typical. Could have something to do with being part of an entry set (exterior), I'm not sure. This was the top of the line hardware in its day though -- very, very nicely made.



Anyway, back to the job. Both leaves cleaned up fine and the gap was now measurable. I turned an acetal shim washer, plus two extras of slightly different thicknesses, which keep the leaves at proper alignment and also provide good wear qualities. That left the pin to come up with, but instead of a straight 1/4" piece of rod the thing turned out to need 17/64". Dang! So, I turned 17/64" from my closest size drill rod which was 3/8". Worked well though, my little 618 is ideally sized for this type of thing.





So back into service it will go next week, maybe for another hundred years, who knows. And as usual, thanks for looking.

-frank

 

[silverhawk]

I broke out the new Horror Fright milling machine to finally try a real one (I'd only used a home-made milling attachment on the lathe so far). It was a nice addition to the shop. I had a request from someone to rebuild a broken radio-controlled car controller return spring cam that had snapped. I had to mill off 0.0875" from a 3/16 slab of brass to get a 0.1" thick piece, then traced the broken pieces on it. I cut it close with a Dremel, then hand-filed it the rest of the way.





It turned out okay. We'll see how well it fits and runs.

 

[RJSakowski]

Going Around in Circles.



Some time ago, I mounted a laser pointer in my boring head to make an adjustable diameter circle generator for locating the center of holes or bosses. It worked well but the overall length was not convenient. With an improvement in mind, I purchased a red laser module and began designing.

The laser consists of the laser module, a battery housing, and a 1/2" arbor to fit my boring head. The final design used two CR2032 lithium cells for the 6 volt supply. The laser module was modified by connecting the negative lead to a contact button with the positive connection through the module housing. the batteries were stacked with the negative face of the bottom battery in contact with the button and a grounded spring loaded button in contact with the positive face of the top battery. To turn the laser off, the arbor is unscrewed a half turn.

The machining was done on my G0602 lathe, using my 5c collet chuck. The housing was made in three pieces, a base, the housing tube and a cap. In order to be able to replace thwe batteries, the cap was threaded. The tubing wall was only .050"" so a fine thread had to be used. I elected to use a 40 tpi thread with a major diameter of .925". I made the cap first so I could use it as a gage to check the internal thread. This was my first internal thread in more than twenty years and I had never single pointed a thread that fine before. The result was better than expected with no noticeable play in the thread but smooth movement.

Two insulators were turned from Delrin to prevent the batteries from shorting to the case. A third insulator made from Teflon tape was used on the cap. The spring loaded contact has adjustable pressure due to a brass adjustment screw. As a final touch, the rim of the cap was knurled to improve grip.

The laser was mounted in my boring head and used to locate a hole in a bushing. The diameter of the laser sweep was set at just slightly larger the hole in the bushing. I found that I was able to center the laser to within a thousandth of the true center.

While my location tool of choice is my trusty edge finder, I can think of instances where the laser will be a useful tool.