2018 POTD Thread Archive

[stioc]

CNC'd this address plate out of 1/4" alum 6061 - thinking of scrotch-brite'ng it to get the brushed-alum look?

Here's a quick 20sec video of it in action:
https://streamable.com/bbab2

Now this will be fun cleaning up! :scared:

 

[Hawkeye]

I have a 1 gallon Shop-Vac that has plenty of suction. Easy to pick up and it does a good job on fine chips like that - even when they're a bit wet. Gets a bit choked up on long stringy ones, like drillings.

 

[Boswell]

Shop-Vac

+1 on the shopvac. I got on bigger one to it would not clog. one of better tool investments.

 

[zmotorsports]

I've been trying out some accessories I bought for the rotary table this winter.

View attachment 263165

It's a Vertex HV-8 8" rotary table. It fits pretty well on the 8x30 table of my mill.

Mounted a MT3 -> ER32 adapter into the rotary table. Had to make a thick washer and dig-out a metric bolt for a mini drawbar. It was cheap enough although the .002 runout isn't anything to write home about. It should do for many applications but for fussy stuff I will have to use a center + dog.

View attachment 263173

Also got the DP-2 dividing plate kit made for this rotary table. Had to do a bit of fitting (the crank wouldn't fit on the shaft) but it's working well now. I did briefly consider obtaining the popular BS-1 dividing head, but I have enough trouble keeping the rust off this thing without having another rarely used piece of tooling. Compared to the BS-1, the table doesn't pivot but those big plates support all divisions 100 and below, whereas most of the smaller heads start having trouble with divisions over 50. It's not a problem for this setup, but notice the plate's considerable overhang at the edge of the table.

Also picked-up a tailstock. It's not from Vertex, but this one was a bit cheaper and seems nicer. The height is adjustable with a knob and it has enough range for the rotary table at the top end and extends down to support collet blocks (on parallels) in the vise which should come in quite handy. I was also surprised the supplied mounting bolts fit in the smaller slots of this mill table.

Have a small job for the table tomorrow and then it's back onto the shelf. I'm so glad I didn't buy a bigger table as this thing is heavy enough to lug around.

Would you mind sharing a part # and where you ended up purchasing your tailstock for your Vertex 8" RT? I have the same RT and would like to invest in a nice quality tailstock for it.

Thank you.

Mike

 

[DoogieB]

Would you mind sharing a part # and where you ended up purchasing your tailstock for your Vertex 8" RT? I have the same RT and would like to invest in a nice quality tailstock for it.

Thank you.

Mike

No problem.

If you search for "Adjustable tailstock for 6" and 8" rotary tables" on Ebay you will find it. Here's the link:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Adjustable...9:g:V6kAAMXQVs1Rj~8N:sc:UPSGround!17065!US!-1

Amusingly, it's now marked at $575. I'm pretty sure that's a keyboard error on their part, because I bought it for $75 +$17.79 postage and none of their other tailstocks changed in price. You can also find it on their website (utoole.com) for $72. I believe there are a few other importers selling this tooling.

It was quickly shipped in a small wooden crate (which I kept for storage) inside a cardboard box. Somehow the small plastic knob at the end of the quill lock lever got broken, which is no biggy as I'll just make a new one out of AL.

Got to play with it this weekend and it seemed to work pretty well.

 

[zmotorsports]

No problem.

If you search for "Adjustable tailstock for 6" and 8" rotary tables" on Ebay you will find it. Here's the link:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Adjustable...9:g:V6kAAMXQVs1Rj~8N:sc:UPSGround!17065!US!-1

Amusingly, it's now marked at $575. I'm pretty sure that's a keyboard error on their part, because I bought it for $75 +$17.79 postage and none of their other tailstocks changed in price. You can also find it on their website (utoole.com) for $72. I believe there are a few other importers selling this tooling.

It was quickly shipped in a small wooden crate (which I kept for storage) inside a cardboard box. Somehow the small plastic knob at the end of the quill lock lever got broken, which is no biggy as I'll just make a new one out of AL.

Got to play with it this weekend and it seemed to work pretty well.

Thanks for the quick reply. I appreciate the information.

Mike

 

[francist]

Ok, this may be a little over the top for a lot of folks but I couldn't help it. The OCD streak in me took over and just had to be scratched.

We've been shifting facilities at my work recently, and I ended up with rafts of surplus Ethafoam to dispose of. It's a museum-quality closed cell polyethylene foam that comes in sheets, in this case 3/8" thick. It's nice because it's super light, clean and non-absorbent, and cuts like the proverbial hot knife through butter. Bonus points for being free. Hmmm, how to repurpose at least some of it.

Enter my small collection of horizontal milling cutters, and a lack of really great place to store them. Flat they take up a lot of space in a drawer, but stacked they rattle together and that doesn't please me either. Maybe some buffer material would help...



Long story short: two simple templates, an empty card file cabinet, and a garbage bag of ethafoam scraps and it's done.





Simple to deploy, flexible in use, and dead easy to make bigger or smaller compartments depending on the need. Total labour: one hour, including scratching time.

Thanks for looking!

-frank

 

[Brento]

nice set up. cool idea for the cutters

 

[cascao]

Wheels for a soap box drift car.

 

[extropic]

Wheels for a soap box drift car.

Please add a link or pics of the type of car you're talking about. A Google search showed only gravity powered vehicles with MUCH larger diameter tire/wheel size.