Spindex Rework

[GlennW]

Ground the mag chuck tonight. I've been wanting to do that since I bought the grinder, but not being my favorite task, I just kept putting it off.

It wasn't bad at all as I made three passes and only took a total of .0002" off of it for total clean it up with the exception of some scratches. It had a film of rust on it when I got it and I had just scrubbed it off using very fine steel wool and WD-40. I was always surprised at how true it seemed to grind.

The thing about it is that the chuck is wider than the travel of the table so I had to use a 3/4" wide wheel and start with the wheel over the surface on the back side and finish with the wheel still over the chuck on the front side. A 1/2" wheel wouldn't cover it. This chuck is 6 1/2" x 12" and my other one is 5 1/2" wide. Wide wheels, large surfaces, and no coolant don't always seem to get along.

That's about all of the exercise my left arm needs, so it's off to the house to exercise my right arm a bit with a cold Brew.

Thanks for looking!

[Harold_V]

Hard to tell from the photo, but it appears the grinder yields a pretty good surface. Not all do.

Well done, Glenn.

Harold

[GlennW]

The grinder is awesome!

I have found that any dimensional error or irregularities in the surface finish can be traced directly back to the operator.

Thanks!

[GlennW]

The good news is that the new surface plate showed up today. Against my better judgement, I ordered a stand to go with it. Looks like making the stand useful will be the next project.

I need the surface plate and stand to fit under one of my counters when not in use, so...

I unpacked it and the wheels I purchased for it and surveyed the situation.

I figured that if I cut it up a bit and drill all new holes in it to relocate both "shelves" there may be a chance.

Moved the lower shelf down and flipped it over so wheels could be attached to it. It has jack up feet on it so the jack up feet will still be functional as they are now just above the floor when on the wheels.

I had some nice Maple plywood that already had some clear polyurethane on it left over from when I built my counters, so the stand got a shelf so that related items can live with the surface plate. Next will be to address the top platform where the surface plate will reside, since apparently "Airy Points" is another term that isn't in the Chinese vocabulary along with "Flame Hardened" and "Precision Ground".

This isn't a science project, just a "get it done" project.

More when I get time.

[GlennW]

I wanted to wrap this project up tonight, but our friend Steve Graham made a post that made me totally loose my mojo.

This weekend, I had friends from church over. I smoked two Boston butts with my own dry rub. I made BBQ beans with smoked sausage. I made cole slaw. I made mango cheesecake (from mangoes I grew) and coconut flan. Plus homemade bread.

I pulled the pork, flambeed it in Jack Daniels, and fried it with onions and BBQ sauce. We had sandwiches made with toasted homemade bread.

Not a bad day.

It made me hungry, so I had to leave early to go eat...

[GlennW]

Made a pair of cross members from old rusy 2 x 2 tubing and incorporated a couple of height adjusters as Airy Points. There is a Federal Spec., GGG-P-463c, for supporting surface plates that I am adhering to. It calls for three points (Airy Points) at a specific location on the surface plate.

I cheated and threaded the adjusters using a die in a chuck mounted die holder in the lathe. Stainless steel and flood cutting oil rendered nice clean threads with no tearing. Nice curly chips. Flooding with cutting oil makes the difference.

The tubing bored and the adjuster sockets in place for welding.

The tubing welded in place with the adjusters installed, one fixed, and two adjustable for easy leveling and located in accordance with the spec.

Hard felt seemed to be the thing to use, and I had some "donut holes" ready to go that were left from some felt seals that we make. A bit of adhesive, and they are ready to go.

A bit of rigging and the surface plate is set on the stand and ready to go.

The adjusters.

A decent size surface plate with room to work that is easily moved around, easily leveled, and rolls under one of my counters so it is out of the way when not needed.

Perfect!

[stevec]

Sweet!

[Patio]

Hi Glenn
I sure like the jacks you make, and have a couple of questions about them.
What are they made of?
Is the finish, how they came off the lathe, or are they ground?
The ball bearing in the tops, how are they held in, and do they roll?

The work you have done on the angle plate makes me want a grinder, but that will have to wait for another day.

You sure do nice work!

[GlennW]

Hello Pat,

I'm pretty sure that they are made from ETD-150 steel. I purchased some bars from an old machine shop owner when he was cleaning out his building. He had racks of bar stock and was asking $.05 a pound for the bars. They had been sitting there for years and had a light coat of rust on everything. I asked if he knew what the bars were and he said that there were a few different alloys in there, but most were "sulphurized steel". It had been on my rack for a while, and when I looked at it to use it, it had "150" marked on the end with a paint stick. Naturally, I only bought a half dozen different sizes, but now wish I had bought more!

The finish is as machined and right from the lathe.

The ball is just sitting in there right now, but I may bed them in epoxy eventually. The idea of the ball was to make them low friction and the small contact area would make the adjustment more linear as they would not tend to want to "walk" when rotated.

Thanks!

[GlennW]

Now there are two square step angle blocks.

This is the original one I had that was made by a friend in his fathers machine shop during WWII. It was a bit old and worn.

It was clamped to the one I just finished grinding and then it was re-ground. It in turn is perfectly square, as once you have one step angle block that is square, it's easy to make as many square things as you like! That's why I took the time to get the first one as square as possible.

It's much happier now, and a lot more functional. It's made from A2 tool steel for sure. I tried a few different wheels for finishing, but just kept circling back to the one I originally started with. I started to convert the grinder to flood coolant about a year ago and never got it done. It's back near the top of the list again after refreshing my memory on dry grinding A2.

I just need to touch up the bevel edges and it's done.

Next I have a herd of 1-2-3 blocks that need matching up and squaring as well as a few other items...

[GlennW]

I saw a thread recently regarding scraping.

I checked my old height gauge base and found it to have a slight rock to it so I did a Google search for "Scraping Tool" and ordered a Breyer and a Scraping Tool, which arrived today.

I had hi-spot blue as I use it quite often for other exercises, so I rolled out a near inviable coat on my surface plate and started bluing and scraping and about 45 minutes later I was down to this.

I ordered a HSS blade as well as a carbide blade for the scraping tool as I'm not really sure what I'm doing. I ground and tried the HSS blade first and it was not very controllable as it would not cut until considerable pressure was applied, then it wanted to dig in. I ground the carbide blade and tried that, and it seemed perfect. Light pressure would just scratch the surface and heavier pressure resulted in a heavier but very controllable cut. Lesson one learned I guess!

Lesson two is that some sort of motorized lapping disc to tune up the carbide blade will be necessary...

Next will be a bit of research to see how you are actually supposed to do this, as I'd like to eventually scrape my lathe cross slide ways, along with just about everything else in the building.

[JackF]

Glen.

"The Home Shop Machinist" Is running a series on scraping (6 parts so far). It started with the July/August 2011 I believe and the series gives some very good instructions on how to scrape. I have a brazed on carbide scraper that I got in a pile of junk at an estate sale. First time I tried it to see if is really scrapes and it did nothing. I then took one of those H/F 4 way diamond hones to it and with just a few swipes of the hone it scrapes fine. Now I need to scrape my 6" Kurt clone vice to get it square to the milling table.

Jack.