Turning evenly spaced grooves

SmokeWalker

SmokeWalker

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Hello everyone,

I'm interested in turning a series of [decorative circumferential] grooves on a part with a lathe in a production-style setting. (100s)

  • I want to use a lever cross slide I have, and I'd like to do them one groove at a time to be able to keep control of the sharpness of the tool.
  • I don't want the trouble of making a form tool if I can avoid it.
  • .375 O.D.
  • Spacing: .038
Any thoughts?
 
Best way, Digital readout on the ways.
Next best way, make a piece of steel, 1/16 by 3/8 by length of work, notch it every .038 and rig a drop-in stop to locate each cut.

In any case, sounds like fun until you put in the (100s).
 
A common way to make evenly spaced grooves is to reference off the previous groove. This assures even spacing. However, if the actual distances important, be aware that tolerances will stack up.

If I were making a lot of these, I would be inclined to cut a screw and nut with a .038 pitch (my 602 can cut a 26.2957 tpi thread). Set it up as a carriage stop. One complete turn of the screw would advance the carriage .03802.

On the 602, the a gear would be 56 teeth, the b gear would be 46 teeth, and the gear box would be in position II A. The gears would be different on other lathes.
 
Make a carriage stop from a block, a length of all thread (any tpi) and a lock nut.
Make a shim the spacing thickness you desire.
Position lathe carriage for first cut and bring stop up to carriage.
Take first cut.
Back off stop thread, insert shim and run the stop screw up to the shim.
Remove shim and move carriage to stop.
Repeat ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
 
Graduated dial on lead screw, half nuts, I’ve wanted to do this on my Sb 10l , or a Dro
you didn’t say what kind of lathe you have ?
 
T Bredehoft said:
Best way, Digital readout on the ways.
Next best way, make a piece of steel, 1/16 by 3/8 by length of work, notch it every .038 and rig a drop-in stop to locate each cut.

In any case, sounds like fun until you put in the (100s).
Click to expand...
RJSakowski said:
A common way to make evenly spaced grooves is to reference off the previous groove. This assures even spacing. However, if the actual distances important, be aware that tolerances will stack up.

If I were making a lot of these, I would be inclined to cut a screw and nut with a .038 pitch (my 602 can cut a 26.2957 tpi thread). Set it up as a carriage stop. One complete turn of the screw would advance the carriage .03802.

On the 602, the a gear would be 56 teeth, the b gear would be 46 teeth, and the gear box would be in position II A. The gears would be different on other lathes.
Click to expand...
Asm109 said:
Make a carriage stop from a block, a length of all thread (any tpi) and a lock nut.
Make a shim the spacing thickness you desire.
Position lathe carriage for first cut and bring stop up to carriage.
Take first cut.
Back off stop thread, insert shim and run the stop screw up to the shim.
Remove shim and move carriage to stop.
Repeat ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Click to expand...
markba633csi said:
I second RJ's approach- could you make it .0394? 1mm = .0394 you could use a 1mm pitch screw
Mark
Click to expand...
dlane said:
Graduated dial on lead screw, half nuts, I’ve wanted to do this on my Sb 10l , or a Dro
you didn’t say what kind of lathe you have ?
Click to expand...


These are some good ideas if the lathe had a carriage or a leadscrew. This is a split bed turret lathe, and the lever cross slide I mentioned is bolted to the bed with only (lever-actuated) movement in X. It's great for a quick movement operation, but if there's Z movement...it's a whole other game.
 
Diferant lathe with a carriage and lead screw, turret lathes are great for there intended purpose, thats not one of them.
Unless you want to do major modifications to it.
 
How long are parts? How many grooves? Do you have a collet system? Can you put a tool in front and back on cross slide? I have put grooves in shafts where the loading time was seconds if you have a lever collet system and don"t have to stop spindle.
If you can not move carriage you have to move tool or a stop or reload parts. I think for a few hundred parts I would reload parts
 
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