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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
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    Revesby - Sydney Australia
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    Default Strange ways to hold things before machining them?

    1) A restaurant needs some meat clamps. I bought some stainless u-bolts, and wing nuts, but to make it easier to push through the meat, the ends need to be pointier than this:
    IMG_3584.jpg

    Now, a sensible person would just grind a point on them and move on.
    I'm not sensible. I want to use a lathe.
    Have a chat with the toolmaker. We throw ideas around...
    V block on a rotary table? Rod chamfering cutter? Tiny chuck in larger chuck on the lathe?

    Then I spy a little collet chuck:
    IMG_3585.jpg
    which I can just mount in Adam's old Taylor chuck:
    IMG_3586.jpg
    (oops, that cutter will foul on the other side of the u-bolt)
    IMG_3587.jpg
    (and that one won't work on my Hercus because the spindle only goes forward)
    IMG_3588.jpg
    Yep, that worked:
    IMG_3589.jpg


    2. Reducing the size of a spade terminal. A 5x20 fuse holder melted. I bought a 3AG holder to replace it, but it has 6.3mm wide spades. Wiring has 4.8mm wide terminals. Spades are copper. I don't want to grind it.

    A sensible person would cut it narrower with some sharp cutters. I try to mill it. The spade rotates around, in the holder. Time for a tricky spacer behind the terminal:
    IMG_3597.jpg
    (hard to see, but that is a C shaped car engine bearing between the back of the space and the jaw)
    IMG_3598.jpg
    The second cut was a bit trickier to position a spacer.

    End result was acceptable. Not perfectly straight, but the smaller terminal locked on well enough:
    IMG_3599.jpgIMG_3600.jpgIMG_3601.jpg

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,434

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by nigelpearson View Post
    1)
    2. Reducing the size of a spade terminal. A 5x20 fuse holder melted. I bought a 3AG holder to replace it, but it has 6.3mm wide spades. Wiring has 4.8mm wide terminals. Spades are copper. I don't want to grind it.

    A sensible person would cut it narrower with some sharp cutters. I try to mill it. The spade rotates around, in the holder. Time for a tricky spacer behind the terminal:

    IMG_3597.jpg
    (hard to see, but that is a C shaped car engine bearing between the back of the space and the jaw)
    IMG_3598.jpg
    The second cut was a bit trickier to position a spacer.

    End result was acceptable. Not perfectly straight, but the smaller terminal locked on well enough:
    IMG_3599.jpgIMG_3600.jpgIMG_3601.jpg
    Hi Nigel,

    What's wrong with using a file ?
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Southern Flinders Ranges
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    1,536

    Default

    Glad the chuck is getting used, although I’m currently rueing my decision to sell it.
    The forward placed jaws and scalloped body on the Taylor certainly help make that setup possible

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    129

    Default Strange ways to hold things before machining them?

    Glad all went well, but to my way of thinking, that U-bolt looked like it was just waiting to take off a finger

  5. #5
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    Aug 2019
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    Revesby - Sydney Australia
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by BaronJ View Post
    What's wrong with using a file ?
    Nothing

    That is usually the first tool I grab to use, but this copper was fairly thin, and then there is the difficulty of grabbing it:
    IMG_3608.jpg

    A smaller vice might have been able to grab it. Like maybe a pin vice:
    IMG_3609.jpg

    Anyway, a sharp milling cutter did each cut in 20 seconds. A file might have taken a minute or two

  6. #6
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    Aug 2019
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    Quote Originally Posted by Salv View Post
    Glad all went well, but to my way of thinking, that U-bolt looked like it was just waiting to take off a finger
    Maybe. The u-bolt was 65mm wide (inside), so 77mm total, or 154mm swing.
    Hercus 9 can do 235mm around bed+saddle. Can nearly fit a fist in between there!


    The outer u-bolt end just fitted in a sweet spot under the left compound lock screw.
    I could have gone a few mm closer?

    Probably about as unsafe as any oddly shaped thing bolted to a lathe faceplate.

  7. #7
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    Aug 2019
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    Default

    3. Turning down a large rod, without steadies.

    14mm diameter stainless, over a metre long. Needs to become 12mm diameter.
    The big lathe is too close to the wall, and the rod has a handle and gear on one end,
    so I have to use the Hercus:
    IMG_3828.jpg
    Now, I have no steady for the Hercus, so I machine about 60mm at a time.

    Which means the rod hanging way out of the spindle:IMG_3829.jpg
    and whipping around a little. Hence the cardboard tube and rag.
    Lathe spindle was on its lowest non-back geared speed,
    next fastest would whip excessively.



    For the next few sections, I tried to reduce this whipping so I could turn/machine it faster.

    I happen to have a strange 14mm collet (thanks Peter), so:
    IMG_3830.jpg IMG_3831.jpg
    Cable tie didn't hold it for very long


    As the rod got further through the spindle, I put a bearing on the end, to hold onto it:
    IMG_3832.jpg
    That would be a human vibration damping system?


    I also worked out that the other end of the collet fitted in the end of the spindle well enough to stay in place:
    IMG_3833.jpg




    Getting there:
    IMG_3834.jpg IMG_3835.jpg IMG_3836.jpg


    I will eventually have to clamp that bearing - effectively making a stready.
    Nigel, from a cave FULL of unfinished projects and lost tools.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Location
    Adelaide, SA
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    1,197

    Default

    1m without steadies is way beyond my comfort level and I would never dare to do it

    Glad your improvised attempt worked.

  9. #9
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    Default comfort level???

    Kafie, it was a bit beyond my comfort level, too!


    Eventually I mounted the bearing in the tailstock. It just fitted in an ER32 collet holder:
    IMG_3839.jpg


    With the tailstock all the way along my (short bed) Hercus, the slight bends in the rod became problematic. I had to grip the middle with a suede palmed glove:
    IMG_3837.jpg IMG_3838.jpg

    Today I borrowed a pair of Myford steadies (fixed and travelling),
    so I don't have to do the next rod 60mm at a time.
    Nigel, from a cave FULL of unfinished projects and lost tools.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
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    Adelaide, SA
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    I never knew that the Myford steadies fit Hercus 9” beds. Are they a snug fit?

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Riddells Creek, Vic.
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    831

    Default

    So your Hercus is working again, what was the problem with it?

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Techo1 View Post
    So your Hercus is working again, what was the problem with it?
    No, the motor is still operating at a third of its 3phase capacity. I'm just spinning it up by hand each time!
    Nigel, from a cave FULL of unfinished projects and lost tools.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by kafie1980 View Post
    Myford steadies ... Are they a snug fit?
    Oops. Come to think of it, it might be a Boxford.
    Always get those two confused - similar names!


    e.g. Boxford mk3 Boxford AUD Lathe Photo Essay




    So far, have only tried the fixed steady. The V and the flat fitted OK.
    The locking plate (that clamps underneath the steady) was a little tight.
    The gap in the casting, between the V and the flat,
    which is usually underneath the tailstock,
    might be a fraction larger on the lathe I borrowed the steadies from.
    Nigel, from a cave FULL of unfinished projects and lost tools.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
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    Hi Guys,

    The Myford "Travelling" steady is secured to the saddle with a single screw, 1/4" whit I think. Mine is sat in a box somewhere along with other bits and pieces that I haven't seen for years.

    02-03-2017-002.jpg
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    May 2011
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    Murray Bridge S Aust.
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    What's the bet, that the box is right on the bottom, of the last row you look through.
    It's usually the case for me anyway.
    Kryn
    To grow old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

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