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

GrifterGuru said:
Ok, well, I posted up about part of this previously and mentioned I needed to make a bushing spacer. Check POST #7,563 (<<< LINK)

Finally found time to do that today, so other than trimming the end of the feed screw down and threading it for a nut to retain the handwheel, it is almost done....

Ok, so here we have the bushing, micrometer dial and handwheel. The handwheel and micrometer dial have been machined to take the bushing, but the handwheel also has an o-ring recess for the dial to ride on.

View attachment 503758

Next up, the bushing has been fitted to the upper bearing race washer and fixed to it. then we have the retainer cap, dial and lastly, the handwheel.

View attachment 503759

Here we see the "basic" layout of the cross-slide feed screw with bearing race washers ("A") in place (minus bearings), retainer cap ("B"), Dial ("C") and handwheel ("D")

View attachment 503761


Here we see the end of the bushing spacer that is affixed to the Outer (upper) bearing race washer as it passes through the retainer cap. Note how it protrudes a little?

View attachment 503762

The Micrometer dial seats over that bushing spacer....

View attachment 503763

Then the handwheel fits onto the outer end (it will be retained by a nut) of the feedscrew shaft.

View attachment 503764

So, how does that all work then?

Well, the bearings are kept in place courtesy of a shoulder, the bearings being fitted either side. This arrangement is then enclosed within the outer end of the carrier boss which the leadscrew passes through and closed using the retainer cap (item "C" in the above photo).

With that all in place, the micrometer dial is seated over the spacer bushing, followed by the handwheel and here is the interesting part.... The handwheel locks against the outer-end of the bushing spacer but NOT clamping onto the dial, courtesy of, give or take, 5 though of clearance.

Sounds complex, but it is relatively simple. In short, everything is captured.

Once I finish the leadscrew, I will put a full set of photos up with the carrier boss included as that carries a drawn cup needle roller bearing.


I have intentionally been taking my time with this and thinking through each and every stage of the design and build process, often changing things to make them less complicated to turn, make the assembly easier, or to simplify or improve the design. Whilst it is almost complete, there are still a couple of things left to finish, such as shortening the handwheel end of the feedscrew shaft, as well as run a thread onto it for the retaining nut amongst other odd jobs.
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EDIT: Oh, that's for the cross slide, thought it was for the lead screw. Eh, I'll leave the below as is anyway.

Having a handwheel on the lead screw is something that is part of my "Tranche 3" (and supposedly final) set of planned upgrades to my 7x (along with fitting a DRO, probably an ELS, possibly a motor upgrade to 1.5 HP, and a better control box with the hi/low gear lever moved to the front; I rather like the look of the shape of the Colchester Bantam headstock, so I may make something out of aluminium plate that takes design cues from that).

Currently doing "Tranche 2", which is mostly about rigidity improvements based on Steve Jordan's upgrades, plus a cast iron toolpost plinth as an alternative to the top slide.

There's a "Tranche 2.1" (need some phospor bronze square bar stock for that, and to get the mill trammed) and a "Tranche 2.5" too (getting some bearings in to the carriage, cross slide and top slide handwheels) but I need to get back to making some actual chips on this thing so they can wait until I've done a few more 'apprentice' projects.:grin:

There are quite a few of your posts that I will be referring back to as I carry on, so keep 'em coming ;)
 
SouthernChap said:
EDIT: Oh, that's for the cross slide, thought it was for the lead screw. Eh, I'll leave the below as is anyway.

Having a handwheel on the lead screw is something that is part of my "Tranche 3" (and supposedly final) set of planned upgrades to my 7x (along with fitting a DRO, probably an ELS, possibly a motor upgrade to 1.5 HP, and a better control box with the hi/low gear lever moved to the front; I rather like the look of the shape of the Colchester Bantam headstock, so I may make something out of aluminium plate that takes design cues from that).

Currently doing "Tranche 2", which is mostly about rigidity improvements based on Steve Jordan's upgrades, plus a cast iron toolpost plinth as an alternative to the top slide.

There's a "Tranche 2.1" (need some phospor bronze square bar stock for that, and to get the mill trammed) and a "Tranche 2.5" too (getting some bearings in to the carriage, cross slide and top slide handwheels) but I need to get back to making some actual chips on this thing so they can wait until I've done a few more 'apprentice' projects.:grin:

There are quite a few of your posts that I will be referring back to as I carry on, so keep 'em coming ;)
Click to expand...

@SouthernChap

Please don't mention lead screws! I have enough of a headache planning out the mods to the one for the lathe I am rebuilding, which will be a two piece for easier switching between metric and imperial, as well as have bearings in every pillow block, plus a handhwheel with an appropriate micrometer dial.

As for the Apron of a 7x, you can buy apron castings that have a bearing for the handwheel gear and a proper integral dovetail for the half nut gib. (AliExpress of all places)

Either that, or lay the apron in the mill vice and use a boring head to open out the through hole on the inside to take a bearing and just put up with the non-dovetail flat-backed-gib half nut setup.

I have looked at actually looked at building up some braize on the original SC3 casting where the flat-backed half nut gib is, then having the dovetail machined into that. Makes more sense than the flat-back gib held in by two screws with washers under the head, but I swore I was not going to upgrade that............ Oh well!

Will have to grab some photos of the apron for the lathe I am rebuilding. Full half-nut gib dovetail and a bearing on the handwheel gear. Also looking at adding bearings to the apron rack gear if I can.

The compound slide is easy to add bearings to once you get your head around it and once this cross slide mod is finished, the compound slide bearing mod is next on the list.

Re this cross-slide mod... The whole thing, from the beginning, has been to get a full set of bearings onto the feedscrew whilst also getting an additional 40mm rearwards travel.
 
@wachuko
I've never seen that variety of avocado. Do you know the name of it?
Hass is the predominant variety on the west coast.
If I ever get back to Florida, I'll be interested to compare the taste/texture.
 
extropic said:
@wachuko
I've never seen that variety of avocado. Do you know the name of it?
Hass is the predominant variety on the west coast.
If I ever get back to Florida, I'll be interested to compare the taste/texture.
Click to expand...
That avocado is native of Puerto Rico (and Dominican Republic for that matter)... it is the Butler variety... and it is huge!
 
A few weeks ago, I picked up a wood cigar box at a junk store...

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I thought it was an interesting box.

I decided that it was time to do something with this interesting box...

I have a set of parallels that don't fit in the plastic box they came in...

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The box must have shrunk for some reason?

Anyway, today I set up a piece of Delrin in the mill and squared it up, then cut two sacrificial pieces of MDF the same size and clamped it all in the mill vise and began machining slots...

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After finishing all ten slots, I used a countersink to chamfer the edges...

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Then I moved the Delrin over to the horizontal mill and used a 90 degree cutter to cut a groove down the middle...

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Next, I used the vertical bandsaw to split the Delrin in half- down the bottom of the groove... this left a large chamfer on the edge of both halves.

I clamped the two parts back on the vertical mill and cleaned up the cut side.

After deburring, I test fit the two pieces in the box...

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With the parallels...

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Now I need to put some hinges on the lid.

-Bear
 
I’ve been cleaning the mill for the last few days after work. Tonight I hit the table with a scotch bright pad and a stone to clean it up. Then for fun put the new Kurt vise on there. Still have to tram everything so it’s only for the obligatory photo, lol

IMG_5419.jpeg
 
20+ years ago, I had purchased an old surplus metal workbench from my employer... on the bottom level of the bench, there was a shop-made turntable rack made to hold 50 taper tooling.

I had removed the rack and used it as a base for a rotating rifle stand... it would hold maybe 12 long guns.

I haven't used it in a few years, so this afternoon I removed the gun rack and set it up on the end of my workbench to hold my horizontal mill tooling...

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The carousel is mounted on a 12" diameter roller bearing underneath... the upper plate is cut from some type of 1" thick fiber board. It's built pretty stout...

-Bear
 
wnchstrtnfldvlle said:
Still have to tram everything so it’s only for the obligatory photo, lol
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I recently purchased a Homge "Ultra High Precision" :rolleyes: Milling Vise from Precision Mathews. After rolling my eyes at the advertising, I was very pleasantly surprised that when I pulled the vise back on the tee bolt studs, it was less than .0005" out of tram. So with that Kurt you may get better results than expected.
 
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