POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

Nice knobs! :)
One thing I discovered after making a few is that if the depth the indents is a little less than half the diameter of your end mill they finish up a little faster and are also a bit easier on the hands during use. It’s an extra step in the layout but I like the result. Yours still look good, though :encourage:

-frank
 
Can you share a link to the one you purchased? Thanks
There's multiple vendors. Most are listed a bit higher in price than what I paid. Even this seller raised his price after I purchased...
 
So were you able to turn the lathe with your machine skates? It looks like you have modified them.
I ground down some metric shoulder bolts to work as center/locating pins, because turning isn't the problem, keeping the skates in place on wavy concrete is. It's a hell of an assumption to make that a slab is flat when moving machines around, it's a real game-changer.
 
Close to a year ago I installed a DRO on my Grizzly 8x30 knee mill. I chose to put the X axis scale on the operators side of the table to avoid losing any Y axis travel. That has been fine, however it made access to the table locks really awkward as they were under the scale. So today's project was to make a couple of extended table locks...

View attachment 435458

I think a ball end mill would be the right way to cut the gripper indentations, but I only have a 7/8" one, so I cut these by plunging and end mill. This left a pretty poor surface finish. I'll probably do some more hand work to clean them up. I'm gathering materials to get set up for anodizing, and I expect these to be the first parts I'll try to anodize.

-Pete
file them clean. A round file will clear most of it, rotate slightly while pushing through. Then take a piece of 320 or 400 wrap it around a slightly undersized round file or dowel and start polishing it, go up in grits if you are looking for perfection.

Nice deburring job though, those are nice soft edges.
 
There's multiple vendors. Most are listed a bit higher in price than what I paid. Even this seller raised his price after I purchased...
Thanks, I've been looking at significantly lower cost ones since I'm not going to be using it on a grinder and I expect I'll have more prep work to do on it than you have with yours:

eBay Item 284944311957
 
file them clean. A round file will clear most of it, rotate slightly while pushing through. Then take a piece of 320 or 400 wrap it around a slightly undersized round file or dowel and start polishing it, go up in grits if you are looking for perfection.

Nice deburring job though, those are nice soft edges.
That is exactly the plan. Well, that and buy some ball end mills.....:)
 
Thanks, I've been looking at significantly lower cost ones since I'm not going to be using it on a grinder and I expect I'll have more prep work to do on it than you have with yours:

eBay Item 284944311957
This is part of the 'new batch' I was seeing. If you buy one of these lower priced units and can check it out, please report back. It's possible it may be just as good as the higher priced ones. What concerned me was the fit and finish of these looked worse, even in the images. Paid only about $70 more that this one, so for that it was worth the gamble.
 
@mattthemuppet2 gifted me three quality CXA tool holders which had some pitting.

Today I carefully face milled & chamfered most of the sides. Part of this involved face milling off “Yuasa” and “Japan” markings.

I did not mess with the dovetails, & the top of the tool holders were not pitted (and thus did not require face milling).

I still need to chamfer a few edges, & then gun blue these tool holders.

View attachment 435428

View attachment 435429

View attachment 435426

Question:

How do I prep the sides that are already factory gun blued (or “factory oxide finished”) when I go to gun blue the workpiece?
Clean with Scotch brite then acetone, wear Nitrel gloves so you don't get skin oils on the part. Then use your favorite bluing . It probably won't match the factory oxide finish. If you want a total match you'll have to take the factory oxide off down to bare metal, and then apply the bluing.
 
Phosphate black is a perfectly suitable prep for Oxpho bluing. You can blue over it if you are okay with the existing finish quality- bluing doesn't hide much. But no interference to be expected from the factory parkerized finish. The first step with Oxpho is iron oxide to iron phosphate, then the selenous acid and copper II+ kicker ions make the new black. It is plenty durable.

Below is a phosphoric/chromic acid soak, followed by wire brush/schotchbrite (low effort, just remove the salts and bumps), then Oxpho Blue- One coat does plenty! Just be sure to burnish with steel wool before wiping off the Oxpho and oiling, that is an important step.
PXL_20220918_214921318.jpg
 
Phosphate black is a perfectly suitable prep for Oxpho bluing. You can blue over it if you are okay with the existing finish quality- bluing doesn't hide much. But no interference to be expected from the factory parkerized finish. The first step with Oxpho is iron oxide to iron phosphate, then the selenous acid and copper II+ kicker ions make the new black. It is plenty durable.

Below is a phosphoric/chromic acid soak, followed by wire brush/schotchbrite (low effort, just remove the salts and bumps), then Oxpho Blue- One coat does plenty! Just be sure to burnish with steel wool before wiping off the Oxpho and oiling, that is an important step.
View attachment 435511
Very nice! Where do you source the acid ?
 
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