Winner A Dividing Head By Wayne

[wayne.inspain]

WoW Hi Mark thank for you encouragement it is always welcome, I am trying to do your design justice.
Hi Bill thank you for your comments, I have seen the amazing work you do so I take it as praise indeed
I never thought me grubbing about in my workshop would be of interest to anyone, particularly to such skillful people.
I don't mind being a newbie last week I was a 2 horned saddle from the Shetlands!
Hi Tim Nice comment thank you, never looked upon it as being creative just trying to get the job done with what I have got.

 

[wayne.inspain]

I didn't get a lot of time in the shop today but managed to get the end plate clamps partially made.

Cut with the grinder from 10mm thick flat bar, then sanded them round they still need truing up but I was going to do that later but now
had a thought that if I bolt them together I can hold the in the chuck on the lathe, then I can face them off.
I decided on 3 clamping bolts I don't know why, I clocked the barrel in the mill the let my DROs work out the hole position on a 25mm pcd,
It did the job well both plates are interchangeable and the holes are dead size. I have clocked the top face parallel with the base clamped it up tight
ready for boring in the morning. I was thinking of 40mm for the spindle but we will see what I end up with. I will let you know tomorrow how I get on,
I all goes well I carry on if not it will make an unusual door stop!

 

[Mark_f]

This is looking great. Are the corners of the end plates going to interfere with a chuck or whatever is mounted on the spindle when going from vertical to horizontal spindle position?

 

[wayne.inspain]

Hi Mark, When the majority of the machining is done and I am sure that I don't need them for setting up I am some how going to machine them
to the same radius as the barrel to ensure that any face plate etc will hit the mill, or what ever the head is standing on, first. That will give me enough
room to mount a 6 1/2 " face plate

 

[wayne.inspain]

Next step was to bore the hole for the main spindle, I clocked and clamped the assembly to the mill. I have just enough depth to bore straight through.
Zero-ed the tool over the pilot hole clamped the cutter to just scratch the bore and turned on

No horrible noises so all the way through. Before I brought the tool back up I moves the x axis 0.1mm made sure the cutter was facing in the x direction I had
moved the table then brought the cutter to within a few mil for the top moved the cutter out of the boring bar to the side of the hole and tightened the clamp
bolt back up then raised out of the hole put the table back and cut again. I tried 0.2mm 0.3 and 0.4mm cuts 0.4 was too much so I stayed with 0.2 depth of cut at 500 rpm

the hole got bigger

At 45mm dia I decided that was big enough took a last cut of 0.05mm at 100rpm and the finish was surprisingly good, I was please with the result
of 4 hours of boring. I then attached the spindle lock plate and packed it up from the main barrel I had to strip down my feeler gauges to make some
parallel shims, I have 1.6mm between the 2 parts, not much but will have to do. I will need to make a longer cutter for the boring bar but I will do that tomorrow.

 

[wayne.inspain]

Hi Correction to the above took the last cut at 1000 rpm not at 100.

 

[wayne.inspain]

It rained today, it doesn't happen very often but it means I can't work so into the shop I went. I ground up a new longer cutter
from an old end mill even with care not to draw the temper it didn't last one cut, the broken drill I use for the short one only needed
sharpening 3 times to bore the main hole but that was a quality cobalt I have had for years and the piece left was not long enough.
I had to use my other head but I didn't think it would fit, I had to make a longer cutter from some tool steel but the head fit in the main bore
with only 2mm to spare but it was enough and with care I managed to bore out the spindle clamp, it's about 59 mm dia I can't measure it exact but that is not a problem, I will cut the spindle to suit.

Sorry the pic is terrible but it is the beast the other are worse.

I have turned the end clamping plates, I bolted the 2 plates together then held one in the lathe chuck cut the other then swapped the over, next either
the bushes or the spindle I will have to think about it.

 

[wayne.inspain]

After much thought I decided that I didn't want to cut my change wheel for the lathe because if all goes wrong and I am unable to make a new
I won't have one, I know that I could probably repair the old one but I would sooner keep it original. So because I would like to have an mt3
taper through the spindle and the hole in the change wheel is only 15mm I decided to make a temporary spindle. I would rather not waste a lot of material
I will make the spindle from several pieces. Starting with 80mm dia bar 20mm long I bored a hole through the middle to 25mm, my biggerst drill bit is 16mm
and I don't have a boring bar so I ground up a piece of 6mm tool steel and continued boring to a tight fit on 25mm bar.

Cut a chamfer on the disc and welded the 2 together. Then 2 pieces of 40 bar one bore to 25mm and the other to 15mm this also took ages, I had to grind
more off the tool steel because for the 15mm hole my nearest drill bit is 13mm but with small cut I git there.

Then chucked the spindle and cut the shoulder for the spindle lock.

The assembly would have to stay in the chuck now till it was complete. 28mm from the spindle lock collar I reduced the 25mm shaft to 15mm to the end.
then slid the components on the spindle.

I threaded the end of the spindle so a clamping nut would hold everything together. The first piece of 40mm I loctited to the shaft, I put the assembly
back together with a spacer instead of the change wheel so I could clean up the 40mm bars to the same diameter.

By the time they were cleaned up they ended up at 38mm both the same dia and in line true to the spindle, I think!

Next the bushes. I was expecting to use brass for the bushes but on my travel during the day I nipped into an engineering shop I had not been in before
and ask if he had any bronze he said where would I get an Olympic medal from? I though he must be kidding but he just walked off, so I guess he wasn't.
I went to another shop and on the shelves he must have every off cut he has produce since he started, hundreds of bits, some only an inch long, but he did have some bronze. A nice piece of tube 47mm dia, with 33mm bore just right.

I know I shouldn't have held it like that and I regretted it because as I tried the barrel on for final sizing I dislodged and it ran off true, but when I measured my 4 jaw I didn't think it would fit but it did. I did take some pics of the bushes being made but they were terrible. so here are them finished

Boring the bushes was difficult I will make a boring bar, I may have to buy something for measuring bore diameters cus a vernier is not up to the job.
The bushes pushed in nicely I must have tried the a dozen time to get the size.

All assembled, and it turns, a bit of tidying up and ready for the next stage.

 

[Randall Marx]

Hi Wayne
I've been following this build from afar and must say that the work you are producing seems to be first class! Thank you for taking the time to share it with us!!

 

[wayne.inspain]

Hi RM
It has been a pleasure to do the work, a pleasure to share it and a pleasure to read your comments, thanks.