Weekend welding project Third hand

Syncrowave said:
Jeff-

I want to make one of these jigs, but I don't have a milling machine or a lathe.

To cut the sockets for the balls, could I chuck one of these ball end mill things in a drill press and cut the sockets that way, do you know?

If so, what speed in RPMs might I need to use for a cutter like that in mild steel? I'm only a wannabe "machinist" and I'm wondering whether my drill press has the proper speed...

Thanks in advance for any help.
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I am not sure that a drill press would be ridged enough to work with a ball end mill. I used a 1" one in my small mill and it shook some. I have seen these built with just a hole drilled where the balls go and they seem to work well. I think rounding the cup for the balls is over kill. Mine lock to the point you could bend the steel before the balls slip with just a snug of the bolts. So if you don't have a mill try just building it with holes not cups to hold the balls. I think a slight chamfer to the holes would help as well. All of the small ones I have for electronics are just holes at the joints.

Jeff
 
Jeff-

Thank you for your reply. That makes sense about the drill press chattering or "fighting back" against the work...1" is a big hole! (And now that I think about it, I'm not even sure the 3/4" diameter shaft on that ball end mill would even fit into my drill press chuck!)

So instead I will probably drill some holes of maybe 1/2" and chamfer them with a countersink...and maybe "roughen up" the balls (which would give them more traction in the clamps) by annealing them in a wood stove.

On another front...did you anneal/normalize the balls before welding on them? Or possibly do a preheat and postheat and slow cool-down in wood ashes or something? I'm concerned that the balls will be so hard in their unwelded state that they might crack after Tigging.

(I'm probably making this more complex than it needs to be...)

Thank you again and Happy Thanksgiving.
 
Some others could chime in that know more than me. But I didn't have any problems with the balls cracking from the TIGing. I did let them air cool and didn't quench them, so I guess that probably softened them a bit. Before I went to a lot of trouble I would try one first and see if you had problems. I would not rough the surface up. With the counter sink you will get a good amount of surface area and just the friction should be enough. I would try it and see before I roughed them up. If you do need to rough them I would try sandblasting first. On mine a friend suggested lapping the sockets to improve the friction by increasing the surface and fit. But it turned out not to be needed.

Jeff
 
Jeff - That's good info to know. Thank you again. If I run into any problems, I will post up here for the sake of others in the future.
 
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