Winner A Dividing Head By Wayne

[wayne.inspain]

Haven't had much time the last couple of days but managed to make the division plate boss. Not much to
tell about this part trued up the brass bored for the worm spindle then milled the shoulder to miss the end plates.

And that where it will fit.

the shoulder on the right hand side will be drilled to mount the division plate, which will be about 5mm thick that will leave
10mm left to mount the fingers then a boss for the handle. I think I will make a new right hand worm support with a shoulder
on it's left side then hollow out some of the brass bar I have to make a cover for the worm and tie the supports together, The
worm spindle is only 8mm dia and it might be a bit whippy otherwise. I have some countersunk hex screws for the end clamping plates
so they will still miss the division plate mounting.

 

[wayne.inspain]

I was grubbing about looking for something to make a temporary division plate to help make not only a worm wheel, I only need one
hole for that, but to help make some final plates. And I found this.

A cutting disc for a 4" grinder, never used because the hole in the center in 20mm and doesn't
fit a standard spindle. Fits on my spindle perfect. It has 9 holes of 6mm dia. If I can drill it, not sure I can but it
was cheap so might be soft enough, I can put another 9 holes in it. If my thinking is correct then every 3rd hole gives me 1 degree.
I will try tomorrow.

 

[LucknowKen]

Using a diamond blade for a division plate. Genius.

 

[wayne.inspain]

hi Lucknowken, Thanks for your comment, considering the roll of the eyes the Wife gave me when I showed her, genius is very close to insanity!!!!

 

[wayne.inspain]

I tried drilling the plate, no problem but the hole position is not very accurate but will be ok for one hole. I have to round off the end plates,
I can get them to possibly 1mm with the grinder, or I can write a program to mill through them to within maybe 2mm, but I want them closer and with a nice finish, so I was thinking of making a boss for them to pivot on, fixing this to the mill putting the end plate on this pivot and with some added leverage rotating this against the cutter bit at a time to bring them to size, does this sound feasible or will me the work and the cutter be flung across the shop and stuck in the wall .lol. What do you think?

 

[wayne.inspain]

The man that saved every off cut he's ever produced has never used any brass flat bar, so I will have to make some. I want it for the sector
arms and the division handle. I have managed to get hold of a 0.8mm slitting saw, I ordered it weeks ago with some number stamps. I made an
arbor from some 25mm steel bar, reduced one end to fit in a 20mm collet the other end shouldered to the 16mm hole in the saw then reduced down to 10
mm for a thread, I was going to try cutting the thread on the lathe but I chickened out and used a die.

I made a shouldered washer to clamp the saw up nice and flat

I clamped a piece of 40mm dia brass bar on the bed of the mill and started cutting it in to slices, one off 8mm thick and 2 off 5mm thick.
I was a bit of a chore I couldn't cut all the way through the saw wasn't big enough so I had to attack from both sides and moving the clamp from
end to end packing the cut end with my trusty feeler gauges then cutting the other end.

The above pic I am changing the clamp from one end to the other. Even cutting from both sides the cutter was too small so after a completed cut
I took the bar to the bench vice and hack sawed the center bit by hand, the hack saw blade was a little too wide so I hammered the set of the teeth out to make it flat, it just fitted in the slitting saw cut, you can see the hack saw marks in the surface of the pieces but I have left plenty of thickness for cleaning up.

Three pieces of flat brass to show for a day in the shop, It's a good job I enjoy this. I will machine the one for the handle tomorrow.

 

[wayne.inspain]

I was going to mess with those brass pieces to day but I changed my mind, I wanted to do something else. I got the trusty grinder out and rough cut the radius
on one of the end plates, sanded it up a bit, I have left about 1mm shy of the line for tidying up, I have a fairly large belt sander for wood but I have never
had any sanding belts for it, I have found a supplier that can get belt for steel that will just about fit, I will use that to square the ends down to the line.
Now the head will rotate, I haven't done the other end I will do that when the belts arrive.

I have been frustrated with the quality of the pictures I have been taking, they all look too dark and grainy, they seem ok on the camera's screen but when I up load them
they look terrible. I uploaded some on the wife's laptop this morning to find the quality much better , then realized that it was a problem with my monitor and they don't look
so bad after all.
Now for some work, I cut the biggest bar that has been in my saw!

5" dia. I had to weld some 2x2" box section on the back so I could hold it in the jaws of the saw! I had prepared for this cut by buying a new cobalt steel blade and read
Mark's very informative article on saw blade tension and teeth size. I could only get a 8x14 combi tooth size I would have liked bigger but I took what I could get, this is Spain
after all. I tensioned the hand wheel as tight as I could get it, I was convinced this would end in tears, and my new blade would be broken, on the bright side if it did break
I cut the pieces to make blades for my hack saw. But it cut lovely!

No new hack saw blades.! On to the mill and drilled the holes to attach it to the lathe, none of my chucks can take this dia. so I took the chuck off and attached it directly
to the spindle.

The white stuff is an off cut of a chopping board to protect the ways. So drilled and tapped and bolted straight on the the spindle. Trued up the outside
and then faced it.

I was on that face at least an hour different speeds,size of cut,tool angle, cups of tea, blue chip burn marks, but finally after at least 30 cuts and a lot of swarf I got reasonable results The best facing I have done to date. Next job is the boss on the spindle.

 

[Mark_f]

I still find this work absolutely amazing .

 

[wayne.inspain]

Mark considering the work you produce I find it amazing that you find my work amazing, but it is really nice to hear it
It seems I didn't properly learn the lesson about sequence of operations! I turned the plate in the last photo because I wanted to but I then had to take it off the lathe to turn the main spindle to size, I turned this so that it fitted my 3 jaw chuck,I had the spindle in the 4 jaw, it fits nice and snug. When I fitted the plate back on the lathe it was all over the place and I had to face it again, I then cut the register for the spindle using the spindle as guide, all was back on track, but what I didn't realize is the facing, cutting the recess had warmed up the plate, the recess was dead size,I took the plate off the lathe it fitted the register on the lathe, and went for a cup of tea, came back the plate was cold and it didn't fit, I could not get it back on the spindle or the lathe register.!!! BOO. What was a snug fit could not be pulled on to the lathe register with the 3 bolts that hold the chuck on. I managed to get the plate in the 4 jaw
but there was only 2 threads on each jaw and they were not very far into their slots and were skewing forward on the chuck, it took me nearly 2 hours to get the bl***y thing clocked in the chuck, if one axis was correct the other was not the jaws were skewing, tighten one jaw and it would pull forward, I went round and round, taped it with the nylon hammer, untapped it bashed it cursed it, in the end all was true. I re-skimmed every thing and kept it COLD.

What I should have done was the spindle first then the plate, let it cool down then the final cut, this lesson is firmly learnt! I remember reading in Mark's
build he turned a part nearly to size then let it cool and did the final cut, I should have paid better attention.

 

[Mark_f]

[/QUOTE]I remember reading in Mark's
build he turned a part nearly to size then let it cool and did the final cut, I should have paid better attention.[/QUOTE]

Lesson learned....... The hard way. Sometimes that is the best way because you will always remember now.