The Home Machinist!

Good onya Pat, That is a very good deal. Have fun boring.

Jack.

A little boring and threading for the weekend.

I am making a plate to hold the flywheels for a HD Sportster. I am using a weight for an exercise machine. Here it is, with me locating center. The boring went well, after consulting with Harold a bit.


So for the new guys like me, the questions were:
a) how do I get the boring bar set up for the hole?
Answer: Once the mill spindle is located over the center of the hole, with the bar, in the hole, turn the adjusting dial on the head until the tip of the bit is close to the edge of the hole, raise the bit above the edge of the hole, adjust the bit out so as to be able to take a small cut. Take the cut. Measure the hole to determine how much further you need to get to the final dimension. Then just like on a lathe, take the roughing cuts, leave .010 or so for a few of finish cuts. On the finish cuts, try to keep them all about the same. Cut, measure, cut, measure and hopefully a final cut will leave you on dimension. The problem I am having is my measuring equipment is not worthy of the work.

b) Once the bar had gone through the hole, how do I get it back on top with out messing with the bore?
Answer: There are a couple of methods, depending on how critical the finish of the bore is. For what I am doing (press fit of a rod in the hole) finish was not critical. So I just stopped the machine and raised the bit up through the hole. It will leave a mark. If the finish is critical then one must move the bar or table, to allow the raising of the tool without marring the bore. This method has the problem of getting back on center of the hole, once moved off. It can be done, but one must take care to get it right.
I hope I explained that well enough. There may be other methods, this worked for me.

You can see the two holes, just left and right of the center hole, in the picture above. Those were the first holes I had bored. The problem with those holes is that neither are in the right place, they are to close to each other, and one is to large for a press fit, of the 1/2" shafts. My greatest problem has been measuring the holes accurately. The telescoping gauges I have are VERY cheap and do not move smoothly. The smallest of the set won't expand enough to measure the hole and the next largest size it to large to fit in the hole without interference. I ended up using my digital calipers, not the best of methods for sure.

So it was on to making a second set of holes, because practice makes perfect, and who am I do deprive myself of some practice.
The problem was that I needed the center hole for the shaft of the flywheels to go through. I could setup the swivel plate for the vise, but I did not want to go through all that. My DRO has a bolt hole feature and it occurred to me I could use that with an offset of the starting hole, with out moving the vise. So a little reading later, and everything is set up with a 20 degree offset and with the proper dimensions of the hole spacing.
Not a very good picture, but you can see the locations of the new holes.

I spent some extra time using my caliper, measuring the rods and the hole, as best I could. I did end up removing the bar from the vise, and test fitting the rods. They were to tight, so back in the mill it went, relocate center, using bolt hole circle function of DRO to relocate the holes and a bit more boring to get to a finished size.
It all worked out well in the end.
The finished product.


My nephew came by to day, needing to replace some wheel lugs in the hubs of a 4 wheeler. I got out my old vise and set the hub on the jaws with enough room for the lug to fall out the bottom. Then using a hammer I pounded them out and the new ones in. On the final lug, one of the jaws fell off my vice. Looking at it I notice the screws where badly worn and needed replacing. I thought they looked like a finer thread than a 1/4X20, which would make them a 1/4X28. Off to the hardware store for some 1/4X28 stove bolt head screws. Hmmm, no one carried them, oh well, I will make some. Back home, fire up the lathe, use some SS, make a screw, it don't fit. After some measuing and test fitting of other screws, I learned they are 1/4X20! Oh well, make some 1/4X20 screws. Turn the screw on the lathe till a nut will fit on it, part it off and test. It did not fit! I am back to the point of I do not have the proper tools for measuring, that which I am making. I need some thread measuring wires! A thin slitting saw for cutting the slot would be nice too. The one in the picture was done on the mill with a 1/8" end mill.
To some this would all seem like a waste of time. Not me, I learned a bunch this weekend.
One of the things I am trying to get better at, is cutting threads to a shoulder. I started by learing to cut them to a gap. Then I learned to do it with no gap and no shoulder.
The threads I cut this weekend, were, SS, to a tapered shoulder, and no gap. Next time I will try to a vertical shoulder, no gap. That should get the heart rate up a bit.



Time to go pawn shop hunting for a 1 5/16" socket, to take the flywheels apart to align them.

I keep thinking I need to write something, of my observations, for the really new guys, from a new guys point of view. Like my answer to "How close is close enough when machining?". The answer everyone gave me when I asked was, "That depends on what tolerances you need to machine to".The answer from my point of view is: As close as you can measure! You will figure out what the important dimensions are, as you go along, but practicing to get as close as you can, all the time, will allow you to do so, when necessary.
What tools should I buy? The ones that you need for the work you are doing! One can spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on tooling, and some will be used all the time, others very seldom.
I would also recommend a belt drive lathe for totally new guys. You may grow out of it in time, but it will save you a lot of machine parts and tooling when you crash, while leaning, and you will crash.

This is some of the wisdom I have gained from all of you guys, here on this board. You may never fully understand how much that means to me. I do know that I could have not gained the knowledge I have in the short amount of time I have been at this, with out all of you guys taking the time to answer all the questions asked.

So thanks to all of you. As I learn, I will try to contribute to the board by trying to answer some of the easy questions, that many of you have answer MANY times, as each new guy comes to the board.
I hope you find all this interesting.
More to come later.

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Pat P in the Great NW.

Well done, Patio. You can be justly proud of the screws you made. The ¼"-20 looks like it was done by a seasoned pro.

Harold

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Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.

I figure pretty soon you'll be able to just MAKE a new motorcycle!

Great stuff, Pat.

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Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!

Thanks Harold and Glenn, for the nice words. I means a lot to me coming from you two.

Glenn I am more of a repair guy, than a build guy, but who knows what the future will bring. I have a lot more to figure out first.

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Pat P in the Great NW.

My latest little project.
Not the greatest of pictures.

These are made out of 12L14, with a 12-24 thread and were made for my brother.
They are for connecting a manometer to his, twin carb Honda, so he can tune the two carburetors. Also know as syncing the carbs.
He will drill and tap a hole in the intake flanges of the heads, screw these in, connect the hoses to them. Once done, bolts will replace them, to seal the system for riding.

Sure is nice to be able to make that, which can't be bought.

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Pat P in the Great NW.

I am still here, but with all the Unimat stuff to deal with, I have not gotten little shop time in.
Here is what I have been doing.
The Frankenpress.
I was given a bench model hydraulic press. It has a ram with a hand pump connected to it via a hose. It also has a pressure gauge on it. I also have a cheap floor model hydraulic press that uses a jack for pressure. The jack that came with the floor model did not work, so a slid a LARGE jack I had around here in its place. It worked ok, but would not retract very well and was not very secure in its mounting in the press. So to get the best of both worlds, a mated the two together.

Here is the results.

The top unit where the jack went. The PO bent the heck out of it.

The bottom part with the top removed.

The donor unit, with the pump disconnected.

Finished unit with accessories on the bed.

Mounting details.

There is also a piece of emt conduit, used as a spacer, to keep the orange channel from collapsing on itself.

More to come.

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Pat P in the Great NW.

Another project I finished, was getting my wood burning stove set up on my patio for a New Years eve party, we had at the house. It is set up so I can take it down come summer time, but will provide a warm place outside, out of the rain.

Here is it in place.

Not a very good picture, but you get the idea. The rebuilding of the stove is in another thread, on the board.

More to come!

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Pat P in the Great NW.

My friend that I do little jobs for, and that gives me different materials, from his work, came by with a part he needed made. It is a bearing for Harley transmission. He says it is for third gear, and I believe him, as I don't have a clue.

To make the part I needed to do some boring on the lathe. I have boring bars, but the holder needed a busing made to hold the 1/2" bars I have. To make the bushing, I need to use a slitting saw, but I don't have a arbor for it either. I also have been talking about grinding a cut off blade that is thinner than the 1/4" one I usually use. This job required a slot that is .062" wide. So off to making all the tooling, so I could make the part, and it took more time for the tooling, than the part.

Here are the pictures of the tooling, he got away with the part, before I thought of taking a picture, so the drawing of it is in the picture. I think this is the second part I have made to print now. I passed inspection!



More to come as I get to it!

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Pat P in the Great NW.

Life has kept me pretty busy lately, so I have not had much time in the shop. Here are some pictures of a couple of things I have made lately.
These started out as a project to make a tube to hold the registration for one of my bikes, some of my friends like them as pill bottles, so I made a couple. The next one will be long enough to hold a registration. Either way it is good practice of threading and turning.
The body is an al. tube, the top is made from al. round stock. The bottom of the tube it bored out a little bit and a plug is made to fit, then the bottom is faced.



Initials in the bottom.




Top


Bottom


More to come!

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Pat P in the Great NW.

Here is another project that has been waiting to get completed.
It is a tool holder for my AXA QC tool post. This one is going to have an over sized tool slot to hold some large HSS blanks that I am going to grind, for the lathe. Another one like it will be made for a tall cut off blade I acquired. I need to drill and tap all the holes yet.
Because of my lack of knowledge in using a dovetail cutter, I no longer have one! I broke every tooth off of it. I did get one side of the dovetail cut, before the destruction started. To finish it I used my shaper, as tooling is cheap for it.
Here are the pictures of where it is at the moment.



I will post more pictures when I get it finished, and some pictures of the tooling it is being made for. I have enough of it to last me a long time.

More to come!

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Pat P in the Great NW.

I finished the tool holder, from the previous post. It came out OK, but I thought I could do better, cutting the dovetails. So while every thing was set up, I reground my dovetail cutter for the Shaper and cut another dovetail. It actually came out worst, because it was to large and would not fit, although the cutter was doing a much better job. I just took one to many passes! The next one worked out well enough, with much cleaner passes. I was using the two pin method of measuring, using one of the store bought holders to get the measurement. It did not work for me and I ended up test fitting it to get it right. After a conversation with Harold, I understand that my angler are not likely to be right, as I used the scale on the tool holder, to set the angle. I am now in search of a vernier protractor, with a fine adjustment.

The first of the holders were made, just close, to the original ones for dimensions. The last two were made from a print I got off the net. It seems easier to make somethings, with all the dimensions layout, sometimes, than it is winging it.

I could not find grub screws that were long enough, or bolts with a long enough run of thread on them, to make a post from, locally, so I used some 3/8" 24tpi bolts that were long enough, and extended the threads up towards the head of the bolt. I cut the head off the long bolt, then put it in a collet with the threaded end sticking out, pick up the thread and go till the nut fits nicely. I then made a square jig and cut a square head on it, for holding with a wrench. The height adjusters are made from al. One I had, one I made.

The second tool holder's slot is set lower than the first, to help get the 3/4" tooling down to center line of the lathe.

Here are the pictures! There is more than one page of them.

Picking up the threads.


The jig to cut the end square.


In the mill.


Finished stud.


Facing the adjuster nut in soft jaws. The soft jaws are turned with a shoulder for the nut to stop on.


More to come, next page!

Edited for spelling:

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Pat P in the Great NW.