Turning down a socket?

+7 on buying an inexpensive Impact socket from HF ,Craftsman, Husky, etc.

inexpensive impact sockets are often made from Chrome Vanadium Steel, very durable but relatively soft- HSS will cut it very nicely
 
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Groundhog said:
I have a drawer full of those "special" tools.
Most I don't know anymore what I made them for, but I don't dare toss them 'cause they will come in handy some day! :dunno:
Click to expand...

Since I started finding "special tools" with no idea what I'd used them for, I've started engraving the application on any new ones I make and storing them in a Special Tools Drawer, I was prompted to organise when I made a Special then found an identical one later ;-)
 
I have turned down a few sockets in my lathe just using both cheap carbide and HSS. Just get under the chrome and you will be ok.
 
thx for the input. I guess I should have been more specific.
Its used to tighten a housing bolt on a large hydraulic motor to about 450 ft. lbs. That's why I can't use cheap sockets. The Snap-on ones don't break.
We've been using 1/2" drive sockets in the past because they fit in the holes but we have to adapt them to a torque multiplier that's 3/4" drive. The dang adapters keep breaking when we tear down the motors!
The sockets are the black ones, so there's no chrome but I just assumed they would be real hard.
I'm fixin to go try it out in a few minutes so I'll let you know how it went.

I think I need to keep them cool so as not to disturb the metal temper?
I was thinking that instead of using oil during cutting I should use some sort of coolant. I don't have anything that's marketed for machining so, would antifreeze work? WD40?
 
Amazon is your friend!

We needed a 1.5 inch deep socket for our lawnmower project that needed to fit the nut on a shaft protruding from a tube.

Harbor freight does not carry that large and common sources local was $40 and up each and not in stock.

We found a nut and bolt distribution place local later that had them in stock but even more money.

On amazon there are many choices for many price points.

Our socket was in the $12 to $20 range and found a 5 piece set for $43 that included another one that we needed for another project.

The socket was 0.050 too large to fit the tube do we tossed it in the lathe (SB 14.5) and a brazed carbide made short work of it.

We only needed to go about 5/16 into the tube so just the end was "modified"

The nut was left handed so that was fun...

Buy from amazon and use carbide.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk
 
I've turn down couple of sockets not as good as snap on, i'm using carbide insert cutter with 1 mm depth of cut and very slow feed, don't use coolant or oil makes things worse.
 
Turned the shank on a 5/8-11 pulley tap today, the customer drawing specified tap thru and the part is 3" long, go figure.

Used a Kyocera ceramic hard turning insert. sorry about the poor picture.

It turned well without a good deal of sparks.

If I can turn a HSS tap you can turn a socket wrench.

hardturninsert.jpg

turntap.jpg
 
Mission accomplished!
Not as pretty as I had hoped for but it'll do.
I experimented with cutting dry, using oil and finally just plain water.
The water kept things cool and cutting went ok. I chipped one carbide tip at the beginning, then half way through the second tip was leaving a rough cut. Put in a second insert and finished out the job with that.
IMG_0916.JPGIMG_0918.JPGIMG_0919.JPGIMG_0921.JPG
 
Looks really good. What is the finish on it?
 
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