- Joined
- Jun 10, 2019
- Messages
- 537
@Alcap - living with both styles, I'd go with a non-threaded bore and set screw. I feel tools are a bit easier to make. But as long as all your tooling is designed to bear weight on the ram and not the threads: you should be good to go.
I just made a 3/8" socket adapter for my new arbor press last night. Here's some #'s in case it helps:
My last tool looked a bit sloppy with the punch marks to retain the ball, so this time around I wanted to properly swage. I found that a 5/16"-18 set screw works as a swaging tool in a pinch. You'll want to use the allen head side to do the swaging and put a pin the allen head as a pusher to depress the ball. This little bit of metal should stick up out of the allen head by just a little bit to ensure the ball is depressed enough before the tool contacts the surface.
I made a quick press tool to hold the set screw in my press so it wouldn't launch sideways across the garage. The metal pin i used was a cutoff from a finishing nail. I did end up making it quite a bit shorter than what you see here, but should give you an idea.
Final result. The 2 rings are because I didn't properly center the tool the first time. It was easy to set the ball using a 3T arbor press. Seeing that there's only 1-thou of clearance, it doesn't need much to deform and retain the ball.
I just made a 3/8" socket adapter for my new arbor press last night. Here's some #'s in case it helps:
- Ball bearing diameter: 0.1855"
- Bore: center of bore was 0.205" away from the tool face which the socket will butt up against. Drill with #15 to 0.300" deep, then ream to 0.1865"
- Spring: 0.160" in diameter, wire size is 0.023". I cut a length 0.250".
My last tool looked a bit sloppy with the punch marks to retain the ball, so this time around I wanted to properly swage. I found that a 5/16"-18 set screw works as a swaging tool in a pinch. You'll want to use the allen head side to do the swaging and put a pin the allen head as a pusher to depress the ball. This little bit of metal should stick up out of the allen head by just a little bit to ensure the ball is depressed enough before the tool contacts the surface.
I made a quick press tool to hold the set screw in my press so it wouldn't launch sideways across the garage. The metal pin i used was a cutoff from a finishing nail. I did end up making it quite a bit shorter than what you see here, but should give you an idea.
Final result. The 2 rings are because I didn't properly center the tool the first time. It was easy to set the ball using a 3T arbor press. Seeing that there's only 1-thou of clearance, it doesn't need much to deform and retain the ball.
Last edited:
. I used 1.25" to match up closely with the press ram. The hole is 0.5" and the holding bolt is about 0.25" up, but the bore is only about 0.75" deep, so I went with 0.5" long to make sure the puck sits against the ram, the screw just keeps it from falling out. Broached a little gear keyway with it, worked great.
