My 3/8 round bar showed up last week, so this weekend's project was a tap follower. Starting stock was 3/4 and 3/8 1144 Stressproof bar.
First, I turned the #2 Morse taper. It took a couple tries, but I eventually got a fit that I was happy with. Fortunately, tweaking the taper doesn't mean scrapping the part, it just pushes a little further up the bar. After that, it was drilled to .406 and tapped 7/16-20.
At this point, the full 3' bar is through the headstock. Move it out, part it off, and then into the headstock goes the part. It was pretty trippy to fixture a part by just sticking it in the headstock. In this setup, I faced the part, chamfered it, and drilled the .250 thru hole. Unfortunately, I don't have a .250 reamer, but it came out well anyway.
Up next was the pin. First operation was to point the stock to 60 degrees. Next it needed to be turned to .250 OD, but I don't have an inverted center. Conveniently, I have a bunch of endmills that do though! Ta-da, improvised dead center! I was pretty proud of myself for thinking of that, and I hope it helps someone in the future.
I didn't take any photos of the retaining screw, but it's nothing special. Here are some photos of the finished product:
All in all, it was a fun, successful project and I learned a lot along the way. If there's interest, I can post the files or prints of the design.
Thanks for reading!
-Kyle
First, I turned the #2 Morse taper. It took a couple tries, but I eventually got a fit that I was happy with. Fortunately, tweaking the taper doesn't mean scrapping the part, it just pushes a little further up the bar. After that, it was drilled to .406 and tapped 7/16-20.
At this point, the full 3' bar is through the headstock. Move it out, part it off, and then into the headstock goes the part. It was pretty trippy to fixture a part by just sticking it in the headstock. In this setup, I faced the part, chamfered it, and drilled the .250 thru hole. Unfortunately, I don't have a .250 reamer, but it came out well anyway.
Up next was the pin. First operation was to point the stock to 60 degrees. Next it needed to be turned to .250 OD, but I don't have an inverted center. Conveniently, I have a bunch of endmills that do though! Ta-da, improvised dead center! I was pretty proud of myself for thinking of that, and I hope it helps someone in the future.
I didn't take any photos of the retaining screw, but it's nothing special. Here are some photos of the finished product:
All in all, it was a fun, successful project and I learned a lot along the way. If there's interest, I can post the files or prints of the design.
Thanks for reading!
-Kyle
