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Making a gingery style shaper
- Thread starter Ebel440
- Start date
Well it's been a rainy day today for some reason I sat around all morning doing nothing with my kids just reading about machining instead of actually doing it. I finally got moving and decided I'd thread the screw before I spend more time turning the rest of it down. So I need my pitch gauge to check the thread and spend 30 minutes looking for one I knew I had even though I knew where 2 others were. Then time to change the gears and guess who forgot to print out a gear chart? So spend some more time finding one a member had sent me in a email. So I have the chart time to change the gears right? Nope the gears stuck on the screw and another 20 minutes to get it off without damaging the zamack gear. So of course the gear I'm putting on is brand new never been used or had the casting flash removed from the bore. Break out the needle files and get to work fixing that and here I am almost two hours later almost ready to thread. Just one of those days. Now I've got to find that threading tool hopefully I'll have a threaded shaft next time I post.
i didnt get the screw done yet my kids decided it was art time in the garage while I was working on it so I had to stop I don't use the lathe with them around too many ways to get hurt. And I don't trust the threading dial on my lathe so I leave the half nut engaged and turn it back by hand as it has no reverse switch and I wasn't about to try that with two kids playing around me. I did get to make a few passes and everything's good so far. I really need to get my real lathe moved into my garage I bought the 109 as a temporary lathe to be able to use something rather then nothing but it's starting to cost too much time. I could move my lathe in a day and I'm going to try and get it done soon.
I did a little more work done on the screw I made a few passes on the thread today then I wanted to check the size to see how much more I needed to cut off. I usually will just check threads I make with a nut or the mating part but both ends of the shaft are still oversized so that won't work. I need to measure the threads with wires. I checked a chart and a screw with 20 tpi needs .029 wires. I don't have a set of wires and I don't like to borrow stuff like that from my work so I needed to find some wire that was .029 diameter. I thought I had a bunch of piano wire of assorted sizes but couldn't find it so I searched through a few boxes of junk looking for a spring or any wire I could straighten but nothing was the right size. The best I found was .032 brass rod but it wouldn't work at that size. My plan was to try and stretch the wire until it was right. The best way would have been drawing it through a die which I have never done before and don't have one of the plates to do it. I looked for a drill to make one but I don't have anything that size, I thought I could use a slightly larger drill as long as I only used the tip but I would have nothing to check the hole size with as I drilled it. So I decided to try stretching the wire by putting one end in my vise and pulling with a pair of vise grips. I gave it a few tries but only either pulled it from the vise or broke the wire right where the vise grips held it and there was no change in diameter. I decided to try annealing the wire so I got the torch out and heated it till it glowed and let it cool. I think copper is quenched after heating to leave it soft but I have Heated it and just let it air cool in the past and it worked. I don't know what the recommended method is for brass but guess it's similar. Anyway after it cooled I tried again and it worked, I felt it stretch right away. I measured it and it had reduced the diameter to .03-.0305 so I gave it another pull and it went to .029-.0295 so I stopped the stretching. I cut off a few inches from each end as there was more taper there and wound up with a piece from the center about 7 inches long. I cut it into three wires which should be good enough for what I'm making. Then I had to quit for the day but at least I should be ready to go next time.
I got the screw finished in the lathe today. I measured the threads with the wires i made last time and got a measurement about .003 over nominal. It was a good thing i stopped cutting to measure when i did as I planned on finishing the threads with a die once the lathe work was done. So i went to work on the other side of the shaft, the plans say to cut it down to .375 dia but i decided it would be better to enlarge it to .500. I also left the shoulder in the center wider then planned and made both ends of the shaft about an inch longer then called out. I dont know if i will be building the downfeed as designed or if ill make any changes so i figured its better to cut it down if i need to. I then hacksawed the excess material off and started to die cut the threads. I padded the shaft with aluminum blocks to hold it in my vise but then the shaft was spinning in the vise as i tried to turn the die. I ended up twisting my little vises handle into a ring trying to hold it but it was still spinning. Thats where i ended for the day you can see a few threads are finished on the end I need to try thinner pieces to pad the shaft or get a bigger vise which I had already planned on.
I didn't have a 7/16-20 nut last night to try my threads but I got one and tried it on the thread I had finished and its a nice smooth fit with no wiggle. I'm using a die from Harbor Freight which has some bad burrs but seems to make a good thread at least but it takes a lot of force to turn it even on the single pointed thread. I would not want to try cutting threads with it if they hadn't been done on the lathe first. Also I looked over the pictures from last night and realized the piece of plastic I used as my stop was visible. So if you were wondering that's what it's for. Once the carriage touched it I would shut the power off and back out the tool at the same time. I had been making an automatic stop for threading but never hooked it up. I was taking some heavy cuts to rough the shaft down just to see what the 109 could do. The deepest cut I took was about .025 which was about as much as I think the lathe can handle. I was actually surprised I could cut as deep as I did, I think I'll stick to lighter cuts just to minimize the possibility of damaging something. No idea what I'll make next I need to check the plans.
I finished the screw for the down feed. Had to buy a bigger vise first and found a nice used one. The price for a new vise was ridiculous even at harbor freight, I couldn't imagine what they would cost from a real store. I paid 15$ for a Usa made vise that looks unused besides the paint. I try to buy used tools when I can the price is cheaper then new Chinese stuff and the quality is as good as what the good companies sell. I still have not decided what part ill make next, hopefully ill have a chance during the holiday to work on it.
The finished shaft. It got a little damaged on the end when I was taking it out of the vise I had oil on my hands and I had polished the unthreaded end so it went flying a little and landed on concrete. I think it'll end up being shortened so ill be ok.