Freight Car Wheels

[UnkaJesse]

TEL, I never thought about just grinding up an Allen wrench for use as a tool bit and as you say, there is good steel in the quality ones, but some of this China stuff like in the el cheapo sets are apparently made from wrought iron. But no worry for me, I have about 2 pounds of those carbide saw blade tips of all sizes, so I am set for life for TC tooling. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif"%20alt="[/img]

Unka Jesse

[UnkaJesse]

By the way Mate, I like that "Digger" flag. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif"%20alt="[/img]

Unka Jesse

[Tel]

good ain't it - that's the Oz equivalent of your Rebel flag

[willjordan]

Tel,

I really don't know if I have the rigidity to handle TC tooling although I've found a bunch of it with the tooling that came with the lathe. In some ways, I just don't want to work the lathe too hard, after all, a Maximat isn't as rigid as a Hardinge or Monarch.

I've been sticking with HS steel because the lathe came with a lot of it, and until the other night, I didn't have to even sharpen a tool bit and because I guess that I'm just not in that much of a hurry. And I'm listening to my lathe and trying to avoid damaging it by pushing too hard.

On the other hand, there was some carbide tooling that came with the lathe, and I might try it, but based on what I've done so far, I'm looking at interrupted cuts and I have read that carbide is not good for intterupted cuts.

But then, I have learned most of what I know from reading; I have some time in watching folks suing HS tooling. And I'm too shy to ask anyone to come over to my place to show me how to use carbide. And the local community college doesn't have an evening machining class.

But I work with what I have and am making progress, so thanks for the help. I'll get around to trying TC one of these days.

[willjordan]

ccvstmr,

I've been looking for a good excuse to build a new forge, and this may be it. I should have thought about annealing the castings, but I didn't think about cast iron having enough carbon to make annealing useful. But then there must be some to get a hard spot.

Now the question is whether I'll have a day of volunteer blacksmithing before I get around to needing those wheels. If not, I'll get a few firebrick and build something that I can hook my forge blower to, fill it with charcoal and wheels castings and see what happens.

[willjordan]

UnkaJesse,

I may try the carbide, but there seemed to be absolutely no need for it with the castings I got from Bob Pederson. A sharp HS tool and the stuff peeled off the most beautiful 6's and 9's and I was able to really get things rounded and faced quickly.

As for my lathe, it's pretty small, so I'm leary of carbide. I'll probably try some of what I have, but it means I'll have to llok up speeds and feeds and such, just when I got used to the feel of working with HS steel.

[Tel]

I like your approach Will, pretty much how I like to do things myself, however there are times when you just can't get around needing the TC.

[UnkaJesse]

Will, that little lathe looks pretty solid to me for light cuts with TC tools. I wouldn't worry about interrupted cuts though with the feeds and depth of cut you will be using. HSS is still the best choice except in extreme circumstances where hardness or impurities such as sand is involved.

Now, take a look at the chips in the attachment I have enclosed and see if you can get some like those!!

Unka Jesse

[Mikado14]

Unca Jesse,

What for kinda a tool did ya use to get that on cast iron? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/confused.gif"%20alt="[/img]

Ron

[RossB]

As a matter of course I thoroughly recommend having them annealed before you touch them. You can have it done at a foundry or heat treatment joint or even do it yourself in a forge. Be careful, it's posible to melt them especially thin sections like spokes. thats why I let the professionals do it for me in an oven. They generally charge by the kilo and its not expensive. The idea is to keep them hot for a few hours and leave them to cool slowly. Makes a heck of a difference!

[willjordan]

Those are some chips, UnkaJesse.

[Bruce_Mowbray]

Jesse,
That chip looks like the ones I was making when I was using the Gray planer at Steamtown to make a new rear mudring section for the full size Pennsy K-4 they are restoring there. I was taking 3/4 of a cubic inch of steel off per pass of the tool. Sounded like automobile coil springs when the chips hit the floor. The pic is of the squared up piece of material. That 5" x 8" piece of steel in the vises is 6 feet long. The next operation I did was to plane the sides down to the shape of a full length tab that gets bolted to a waste sheet at the rear of the firebox. Lots of fun and BIG chips.