Thread: Your latest project

Originally Posted by Ueee

I finally got around to making a locking lever for my BXA toolpost. Bar is 50mm dia, handle is 16 and the knob is one i made from casting resin and black oxide some time back. Although i have an M16 tap i had to rough out the internal thread on the lathe as my biggest tap handle is not long enough to drive such a big tap, i think its rated to 1/2".
Cheers,
Ew

Now there's something that has been on my list almost since I got the lathe! I'm constantly rotating the toolpost for various reasons, and every time I do I put the shifter precision adjustment tool down in a different spot Nice job!

Originally Posted by Abratool

Ewan
Nice work on the machining of the Locking nut.
My question is... How did you hold the workpiece to drill tap & counterbore the angled hole for the handle?
Also what did you use for a counterbore tool ?
regards
Bruce

Hi Bruce,
The drilling was done on the turret mill with the head tilted over to 15deg to match the angle of the nut. The counterbore was done with a 16mm bottom cutting endmill first, then the drilling and tapping was completed.

Originally Posted by Jekyll and Hyde

Now there's something that has been on my list almost since I got the lathe! I'm constantly rotating the toolpost for various reasons, and every time I do I put the shifter precision adjustment tool down in a different spot Nice job!

Hi J&H,
My worst habit is also always using a shifter. After a while the corners of the nuts start to disappear and before you know it the nut is wallaby ted. I just need to make some sort of indexing pin now for a quick return to straight alignment. I don't bother moving the compound now for threading so i'd like to know that the post is going back in the same spot as when i set the threading tool up.

One other thing that i noticed today was the appalling quality of the old nut. I was using it as a gauge for some M16 T bolts and the first time i used it i thought my thread was up excrement creek! The face of the nut is so badly out of square, as you can see in the pic it lines up with the helix angle of the M16 x 2mm thread. No wonder the toolpost always wanted to move when i tightened the nut.

Sorry BT, back to phone photo's, i left the camera inside

Here's the vid

I see in the video that you were working reasonably close to your fixed steady,have you ever considered guarding the fingers from the chance of swarf by using a piece of cardboard or similar.

You talk of making a positive stop for threading or setting square to chuck/spindle face,how do you do it at present.

Originally Posted by pipeclay

I see in the video that you were working reasonably close to your fixed steady,have you ever considered guarding the fingers from the chance of swarf by using a piece of cardboard or similar.
.

A good idea Peter.

A bit of origami with a Corn Flakes box and some masking tape could make a serviceable and possibly reuseable shroud. I should start stockpiling cereal cartons.

BT

3 litre bottles work well and don't deteriorate when they get wet.

Solid fingers in my experience don't have the same risk quite as much as when using bearings but it doesn't hurt to prevent it.

I can imagine with bearings it being a real problem. I have never noticed a problem but i will put something there in the future, its a great preventative idea. A few bulldog clips should work a treat for holding the shield in place. Not that its a big problem with 50mm bar but of course the closer to the cut the steady is the more rigid the setup.

Nice job Ewan, really enjoyed the video

Regards
Ray

Nice piece of cinematic excellence Ewan. Of course you have made my shaper repair vid look like the silent movie from hell
I loved the drilling sequence, I was going to call it Hitchcockesque but I don't now if there is many people left who remember him
Great work on the nut and thanks for giving me another job for the list

Phil

Originally Posted by Steamwhisperer

Nice piece of cinematic excellence Ewan. Of course you have made my shaper repair vid look like the silent movie from hell
I loved the drilling sequence, I was going to call it Hitchcockesque but I don't now if there is many people left who remember him
Great work on the nut and thanks for giving me another job for the list

Phil

An early rap singer wasn't he. Did a song about a shower or something.

When you complained about the chatter Ewan, "Damn Chatter" I think it was, which chatter were you talking about? Foreground or background?

Dean

Originally Posted by Ueee

I finally got around to making a locking lever for my BXA toolpost. Bar is 50mm dia, handle is 16 and the knob is one i made from casting resin and black oxide some time back. Although i have an M16 tap i had to rough out the internal thread on the lathe as my biggest tap handle is not long enough to drive such a big tap, i think its rated to 1/2".
Cheers,
Ew

Nice work, puts my 10 minute quickie with a $12 Super Cheap spanner to shame



I had already drilled the through hole when i made the hollow bolt so i just had to make a washer and thread the hole for M10. When I finally get around to making Jayson's ball turner I will have to revisit this. (I even bought an extra straight shank for my milling head for this!)

Originally Posted by RayG

Nice job Ewan, really enjoyed the video

Regards
Ray

Nice job Ewan you got that Mars going really nicely Incentive just had the wick turned up on mine. Sweet old girl. J

Good one Ewan. Less blah = more better. (I've tried to persuade the females in my life of that but it's a fool's errand.)
Interesting to see someone else work and what they do differently.

Thanks guys.

Peter, at the moment i either use a square off the compound or just butt the post against the chuck to align it.

Dean, yes that damn chatter......hence the tightening of the steady a couple of times. In the end i raised the speed a touch and whatever was resonating stopped. The joys of a VFD! Most of my work is mid looking after the boys, a bit here, then away to break up a fight, another bit and then telling one off for taking something off the other......They are dead keen though, the eldest loves putting the welding mask on and watching me weld, hopefully i can get them both interested in doing something with their hands.

Rod, i like your simple approach, but as you can see buy the earlier picture the nut was rubbish and only contacted the post on one side.

John, yes since the scraping of the slides and shimming the bearings she is running really sweet, but she still needs the front bearing re-bushed, but that will have to wait till the leblond is running. I'm also getting to grips with how to make the carbide really work, big DOC's and high feed rates = good finish. There are times when i have the 2hp moaning, something i did not think would be possible on this lathe.

Bryan, if you watch the video's where i speak its all um's and ar's, so better to keep my mouth shut. I was going to use an offcut and bore and tap first, then mount on a mandrel, but i didn't have an off cut i could use. I like watching vids of complete projects, it annoys me to see 1min vids of a single cut, it doesn't really give you an opportunity to learn anything.

Talking of good vids i found this one yesterday

Easy centering 4 jaw chuck - YouTube

Cheers,
Ew