Crazy idea or not? End mill holder for WT 15in drill press

[mattthemuppet2]

good tip on the belt traction spray, I never even thought of that. There's a TS down the road so I'll go check it out at the weekend.

The carbide bits were a Christmas present before I got a bench grinder and stones to make my own bits, but I don't use them much any more. They're handy for alu sometimes as they break the chips nicely, but that's about it.

As for the lathe, it's not much but it's better than nothing! Thread cutting = taps'n'dies I have seen a trick that Taig and Sherline users use which is to drill and tap a hole with the thread pitch you want in the piece you want to thread, then chuck that bolt in the tail stock and thread it into the piece. Then, you leave the compound just shy of snug, so that it'll move and push the tailstock up against the compound. Turning the piece screws the rod in, which pulls the tail stock and therefore the compound towards the chuck. Never tried it as I've had no need yet, but it's an interesting option.

Yes, that large pulley does run on that old crack crappy rubber wheel on the motor shaft. Yes, it's not a good idea and I'd love to put a pulley and belt on there at some point, but I haven't yet figured out a simple way of tensioning the belt if I do. Reversing the motor = swapping the wires around on the motor with some knowledgeable advice I presume? I'd also really like to replace the countershaft (if that's the word) with a new shaft and ball bearings, as it's worn where the shaft runs on the outer bronze bearing and makes a fair bit of noise. Lots of projects, very little time! No idea on the shaft size (1/2in?) but I can measure it tonight. Making a pulley would be theoretically simple

 

[mattthemuppet2]

finished the first collet "blank"



I'm not even going to tell you how long just that took, it's too embarrassing. Needless to say, my lathe wasn't very happy with me! I'm going to turn down the next one, then face, drill and bore them. One 3/8in and one 3/16. I'm not sure my boring bar will be able to do the 3/16 one, so hopefully I'll be able to drill it accurately. Then slit the collets with my Dremel and they're done. I know most people would have done the drilling/ boring before parting off, but there's enough run out on my lathe that I didn't trust it that far out from the chuck.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

What is the diameter of the motor's shaft?

1/2 dead on with a screw flat on one side. Couldn't make it to TS this weekend, but the wife is going to check it out this week as she needs some other things from there. Going to high speed for the last OD cut down to 1/2in made quite a big difference - I could do the same depth of cut (0.1mm) but at a faster feed with no stalling, which helped a lot.

Finished the 2nd collet blank last night, so hopefully tonight I'll start the next set of operations on them. By the time I finish that I should have my mojo back to finish the work on the vise.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

DONE!

finished the last collet, a 1/8in, today in the workshop at work which took a fraction of the time the other ones took No pictures of the 1/8 collet, but here are the 3/16 and 3/8 collets next to the 1/4 one George sent me



here's a little fixture Bob made me on the mill while I was teaching a class



holding real live end mills




and in George's collet chuck



woohoo! The collets are a very slight wiggle slip fit (3/8 less than the others) and the end mills are a tight slip fit. The test cut I did with a 1/4in end mill went very well

 

[george wilson]

Looks good!! You are making progress.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

Thanks! Slowly getting there