Tube Polisher....

[JimDawson]

"My little 13x40"
Hysterical to many of us!

I understand. If I were a hobbyist, I might look at that as a reasonably large lathe. But I essentially do commercial machining so my view on machines is a bit different. Quite honestly I really don't like to make chips, but sometimes in order to accomplish the end goal I'm forced to do so.

Having owned several lathes over the years, this one is actually one of the smallest I have owned. The smallest one was a 12x36 Craftsman, and I pretty much wore that one out in a year turning mostly Inconel. Just not built for that kind of use. As I recall, my largest was a 20x80.

There is a huge difference between what is essentially a 1200 lb. 13x40 bench lathe on a sheet metal base, and say a 3500 lb. 14x40 on a heavy cast base. If I had my druthers, I would have a 16x60, old American iron, or maybe a Mori-Seiki. But I bought the light weight lathe to use on my houseboat.

The ideal combination would be a Hardinge HLV-H 11x18 for small work, and a 16x60 metal hog for the heavy work. I can't justify either at this stage, nor do I have the room for them.

 

[Just for fun]

Very impressive work Jim, thanks for sharing.

 

[Papa Charlie]

While I love the Monarch, if I had the opportunity I would buy a Japanese Wasino or Okuma precision lathe. Truly amazing units for precision. Not that Monarch's are not precision, just that they are for the most part very old and to bring to the same level as a newer Wasino or Okuma, it would be cost prohibitive in my opinion compared to newer, still old Japanese precision lathe, depending on condition of course. I just don't care for the Taiwanese lathes like the PM's which are not even close to the weight of what I think of as a precision lathe should be. Just my humble opinion.

@JimDawson "Welcome to the world of CNC. When my son introduced me to the world of CNC it changed my whole perspective on machining, and the real up side is that it makes even me look like a machinist."

I am just learning. Only machined a couple of parts to far and my buddy was hovering to protect his baby. Not that I blame him, beautiful unit. Something with a little more HP would be nice. It seemed to be at about its limit with a 2.5" face mill. But could also be that he is also new to CNC and does not run his machine very hard at all. I learned design back in the 90's in SolidEdge. Trying to figure out Fusion 360 is a whole new trial. For some reason the terminology they use just doesn't seem to make sense to me compared to SE. Wish I had my shop and a CNC unit set up so that I could play more.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

Looking good Jim, but man, that would be been nice to make from thickwalled pipe!

 

[JimDawson]

Very impressive work Jim, thanks for sharing.

Thank you for the kind words. It's my pleasure.

 

[JimDawson]

While I love the Monarch, if I had the opportunity I would buy a Japanese Wasino or Okuma precision lathe.

Those lathes would be nice to have. I have run both, very nice machines.

I am just learning. Only machined a couple of parts to far and my buddy was hovering to protect his baby. Not that I blame him, beautiful unit. Something with a little more HP would be nice. It seemed to be at about its limit with a 2.5" face mill. But could also be that he is also new to CNC and does not run his machine very hard at all. I learned design back in the 90's in SolidEdge. Trying to figure out Fusion 360 is a whole new trial. For some reason the terminology they use just doesn't seem to make sense to me compared to SE. Wish I had my shop and a CNC unit set up so that I could play more.

A 2.5'' face mill is well past the limit for a Tormach 1100 IMHO, maybe for a very light facing cut. I occasionally use one on my machine for very light facing when I want a decorative pattern or something like that, but normally don't use cutters larger than 1/2'', and my machine is considerably larger than the Tormach. The old saying, ''Just because you can, doesn't mean you should'', applies here.

It took me a long time to get my head around Fusion, and you are correct, the nomenclature that they use is sometimes a bit weird. Coming from AutoCAD, I really had to rearrange my thinking to be able to use Fusion. Fortunately they finally started using more or less AutoCAD conventions in the sketch functions, so that helped me a lot. You'll get there, just takes a little practice, and eventually your muscle memory takes over.

Sounds like it's time for a shop. Remember, we're here to help you spend your money.

Looking good Jim, but man, that would be been nice to make from thickwalled pipe!

Thank you Matt. I looked but was unable to locate 6 inches of it. Making it from the solid is not terrible, just takes some time. In the boring process now, it's going pretty fast.

 

[JimDawson]

OK the axle tube is done.

I needed to dial it in again on the threaded end. I used a 0.002'' feeler gauge as a ''wide'' tip for my indicator, since I don't have a flat stylus. The 0.002'' feeler gauge is stiff enough to not deform, but floppy enough that it doesn't affect the reading.



First I drilled with a 1/2'' drill, then went back in with a 1 3/16'' drill to get boring bar clearance. Final dimension 4.300'' deep x 2.45'' dia. I was able to take 0.050 off of the diameter per pass, 115 RPM, 0.004''/rev feed. Yeah, it was like watching paint dry. About 3 boring hours.


The new boring bar worked well, stiff and minimum deflection. The inserts supplied leave something to be desired. But what do you expect at $1.40/insert. I'll buy some good inserts.

Then over to the saw to cut off the excess


And face to length and add the chamfers. I screwed up and turned the bearing surface a bit undersize, but no problem, I have a knurling tool so brought it back up to size.


And another part done.


And for the next part, 12'' of 3'' dia. 6061. I'll get to this tomorrow.



Stay tuned.........

 

[JimDawson]

I need to turn that chunk of 3'' dia. 6061 into a couple of these. The drive wheel shaft bearing retainer.

3'' diameter x 2.425'' long.


It goes here


I have decided to do most of the boring on the mill. So first make some soft jaws to fit the OD of the part.

I was going to make a new set but I found these on the shelf. I made these a long time ago for some project, they've been sitting around getting covered with chips.


So clean them up a bit, install them, and space the jaws apart 2'' with some 123 blocks and chew out a 3'' dia pocket. You'll see why I chose 2'' spacing later

And done. The pocket doesn't look centered, but it is, the old pocket was not centered. Making custom fit soft jaws makes it really easy to locate and hang onto odd shaped parts. Took me about 10 minutes to modify these jaws. Took a few minutes longer than that to generate the tool path to do it.


And the blank in the vice. I faced it to length and bored the starter hole in the lathe. Tomorrow I have to drill & tap the four 1/4-20 mounting holes, and pocket & bore the bearing surfaces. All I have to do is locate the center bore with the Blake, and it will be set up. For the second part, I can skip that step because I will already know where the center is.

Now I just need to find a 1/2'' end mill with a 2'' flute length, I must have one around here somewhere. A quick look in the normal places didn't turn one up, I'll check with my son tomorrow and see what he has in his stash.


More later.......

 

[Papa Charlie]

I see you added what appear to be an integral guard to cover the gear, at least when compared to the original layout. Also maybe providing a support via a bearing on the outboard end of the shaft. Just guessing here.

Love watching the evolution of this project.

 

[JimDawson]

I see you added what appear to be an integral guard to cover the gear, at least when compared to the original layout. Also maybe providing a support via a bearing on the outboard end of the shaft. Just guessing here.

Love watching the evolution of this project.

Yes, that is exactly what I did at the suggestion of @extropic. There was a lot of cantilever on the drive shafts so the outboard bearing made a lot of sense. In that process the gears grew an integral guard also.

Thank you.