Today i spend some time welding on the base for the drill press, i'm using thick solid pieces for strength, and plan to use that i beam at the back, i welded until i run out of shielding gas, i'll exchange the gas bottle tonight so i'll have it ready for whenever i have free time to continue.
Today i continued with welding and murphy's law struct, my welder run out or welding wire but i did managed to finish one side and make some progress on the other, also cut and clean up the I beam for the back of the base, i'm considering filling up the pipe with concrete because is the tiniest part of this construction at 4 mm wall thickness, tomorrow i'll buy new roll of wire and continue welding, more to come.
Today started with a thought i'll do little machining and little welding but the machining took me lately half a day, first i switched my chuck jaws and install my study rest it had an small center hole but was off center, i drill a big one and removed the study rest, then i mounted the 40kg piece by hand then i began making cuts and quickly found that is hard as hell probably is AR500 and being double interrupted cut mean i have to slow it down to 63 RPM and increase the feed it totally destroyed two cutting edges on the old insert then i changed it for a new sandvik and by the time i was done i used 3 cutting edges on it, on the last pictures you can see on the left i started to cut on step for the belt pulley, i need to have the pulleys ready to continue with mounting the head motor and other pieces.
Today i continued with machining on the pulleys, first i finish the left side then i used the newly acquired cutter to finish the right side, then i needed to part off the excess, i don't know exactly what this material is, i'm assuming is AR500 but the HSS cutting tool won't even scratch it, so i had to use my carbide insert tool and in the start it chartered excessively but was able to go deep enough where i could drill the end and get the end part off, then i faced this side so i can chuck it flat later, than i measured and marked where to part it off next, and parted it i'll leave the other side for parting off later because i may need to leave more material for one more belt grove, then i removed the study rest and the part from the chuck i need to clean the the lathe my chip pan is getting full, more to come.
Today i continued with machining the first pulley first i face it off and started drilling it, this material is incredibly hard i've destroyed 3-4 drill bits but i managed to drill it out to 29mm and will finish with a boring bar tomorrow, i had to slow the lathe down to 12,5 rpm for the 29mm drill the AR500 is some hard staff.
Today i took a full day to work in the big garage to catch up on some of my projects, most of the time i spent welding the base of the drill press, i did managed to weld it fully and close the pipe, and installed a cable sleeve now is ready to be filled with concrete, i'm considering filling the base pipes as well, other thing i finished is drilled and cut the cams for the work table, i still need to check them for final size and grind accordingly, more to come.
Had an hour to spare so i did some more machining on the pulley, try boring it with a smaller brazed bar with no success the bar isn't regret enfant, then i switched to my insert tool boring bar, after one pass the AR500 material absolutely destroyed the insert, so i changed it for an sandvik one and finish the bore, then i changed the jaws and chucked it and cut and relief to register the fly wheel i plan to use for the slowest speed, i made it so perfect that hold the fly wheel to the pulley on the 1 mm lip by itself, more to come.
I've been spending less and less time on my projects, basically because i've got a third job after hours trying to make money when i'm young has left me with no free time, but today i had to prime couple of metal pieces so i quickly premered the drill press base, it's only premer gray but i rely like the way it looks, so i like some advice do i paint it green like my lathe or black or just clear it in the gray.
Coming together , something to be proud of for sure . The big chunk of steel is that Jack hammer bit from a back hoe. I have one that broken out in the shop looks like it. Good hunk of steel isn't it .
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