Thread: Keeping up with the Jones

I have some taperlock bushes floating around...not sure what size at this very moment..i will to see if I have a 20mm ....if its anygood to you


edit...closest tl bush i have is 25mm

Originally Posted by Michael G

Using a collet as a taper bush was my cheap alternative to a commercial taper lock hub. I like the idea (of the commercial unit) but don't want to fork out lots rebuilding a machine that in reality will only be used occasionally. I also thought the ER collet would be more compact.

More to think about.
Michael

I'd use taperlocks. I think the bushings are about $15 each from my supplier and that's in the 35mm size.

Yes you can make a bastard system with parts that are totally unobtanium in the future, requiring custom machining for all time if something is changed. Or you can use cheap standard industrial fittings off the shelf and spend your time doing other stuff. Your choice.

PDW

What size do you plan on making the counter shaft ?
I have a 2 in taperlock pulley with a 3/4 bore I can send you.

A month or so back I bought some 32mm Al slabs to make up the two largest flat belt pulleys - that was actually plan B. Plan A was to scrounge some stuff from a former workplace but the maintenance shop had 5S forced on them so they are now not allowed to have reclaimed material sitting there just in case...
Today I got around to turning them into pulley blanks. I did the rough cuts on my table saw with a carbide wood blade. Worked well enough. The smaller one was straight forward and could be cleaned up on the lathe with the 8" four jaw. The larger one needs to be 250mm diameter and so the 4 jaw would not reach. I could have mounted it on a shaft to clean up the OD but to do that I still needed to bore a hole in the middle, so I headed to the mill.
The centre bore was easy - I packed the blank up on parallels and secured it with toe clamps
P1020996 (Medium).JPG

I then had the idea that while it was there and I had a centre hole...
So once the bore was done I put a clamp there too and started on the outside. I have a Kaiser boring head for small holes and it is a delight to use. Prior to that the primary boring head was a really old Wohlhaupter. Some times I think of getting rid of it* but every so often it is the only tool for the job. Here it is chugging away at 40rpm, doing first the top half and then the bottom half of the blank. The box of parts that I have has all sorts of bars so theoretically I could do holes or discs twice that size I suppose (not sure why I'd want to do that but I could!).

P1020997 (Medium).JPG P1030004 (Medium).JPG

Next step will be to re-bore the centre for a hub so I can mount it on a dummy shaft, recess and then crown the pulley. That one could be tricky too - the lathe has a 12" swing and this is a 10" disc but I haven't worked out whether there is enough room to hold the tools yet. I may end up back on the mill with the blank on a rotary table and a milling cutter yet. If I'm not careful this could be the biggest pulley I've ever made and yet not turned on a lathe. There's something weird about that.

Michael
*Today clean up and shed were mentioned in the same sentence by MBW. Oh dear.

Nice work Michael.

I like the outrigger cutter on the Wohl. I think the Kaiser is only good for 180mm and that's an internal bore. The svelte Swiss and the robust German certainly make a capable couple. It wouldn't make sense to separate them.

BT

Hi Michael
nice job (as usual).
How did you realign after you flipped the disc? The bore or the OD.

Phil

Bore (OD was beyond the mill travel front to back). From the rough measurements I did I think it is concentric to within a thou or 2. This was really just to clean up from the straight cuts. Once bored and on the shaft that mis-match will be machined away.

Michael

Hi Michael,

Nice work. You even did a good just on the rough cutting, barely a few mm were wasted! That boring head has certainly come in handy. Who gets rid of tools anyway, even if they never get used? I think you need to give yourself an uppercut!

Simon

Originally Posted by Michael G

Bore (OD was beyond the mill travel front to back). From the rough measurements I did I think it is concentric to within a thou or 2. This was really just to clean up from the straight cuts. Once bored and on the shaft that mis-match will be machined away. Michael

Oops.
I thought the OD was the finish cut.
Could a dial indicator fit on the cutter arm and do a sweep of the OD?
Sorry for the dumb questions, I'm just thinking of something I have coming up.

Phil

Very ingenious way of doing it. almost like a vertical lathe. As usual, good work from a hammer chewer machinist, not that I would expect anything less.
Kryn

Great work Michael. That style of boring head is very versatile, I wouldn't get rid if it. We have a large narex boring and facing head at work and it's got me out of trouble more times than can count. How do you plan to do the crown? If you have trouble I can do it in the Cnc lathe at work if it helps?

Originally Posted by Michael G

What was that Simon? I didn't hear you properly - probably from the noise of a folder in the background furiously bending up drip trays for a surface grinder...

Michael

Oh come on Michael, That's just like shooting fish in a barrel. Hardly fair.

You may be pleased that now I have finished the sg and my ball maker, I resumed work on that folder today. There have been so many times when a folder would have come in handy, it seems like it's happening on a monthly basis.

Simon

Originally Posted by Steamwhisperer

Oops.
I thought the OD was the finish cut.

I have a personal philosophy (when time permits) to always try and get as close to size as I can and get the best finish I can. I view it all as practice, and if I only tried to be accurate or get a decent finish for those things that really mattered, I'd never get good enough to be able to do it when I wanted to. Here I'm close to finish size but still have a mm up my sleeve for a final cut.

Originally Posted by Steamwhisperer

Could a dial indicator fit on the cutter arm and do a sweep of the OD?

It could - didn't think of that one.

Originally Posted by snapatap

How do you plan to do the crown?

The plan was to machine to the crown diameter and plunge in at the sides to diameter they need to be with a thin parting tool (with appropriate corrections for tool width). Then use a file to round things off a bit.
If I was feeling bold I could even set the boring head to facing and machine the recess out like that...

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

The svelte Swiss and the robust German certainly make a capable couple. It wouldn't make sense to separate them.

Just got to work out how to use the Tree in there. To chamfer the bore?

Originally Posted by simonl

You even did a good just on the rough cutting, barely a few mm were wasted! That boring head has certainly come in handy.

I also have the offcuts from the corners too. Might get used one day.
As for getting rid of tools, there is a difference between voluntarily doing so and having someone "suggesting" things that can go...

Originally Posted by simonl

Oh come on Michael, That's just like shooting fish in a barrel. Hardly fair.

Good grief Simon - that dig is three months old and you only just saw it? No wonder you are behind with your projects

Michael

The next stage in making the large pulleys was to bore the blanks and fit the steel centres.
The boring was relatively easy (Nearly - I was aiming for 1-1/4" bore. On one I was almost spot on, the other with the same setting on the head was 0.06mm over. Sometimes I can't make head nor tail of how things occur)
The steel hubs were slid in and then 3 SHCS used to secure.
P1030041 (Medium).JPG
The general rule for crowning pulleys according to Machinery's handbook is 1/8" per foot of belt width. As my belts were 1" and 3/4" wide that was 10 thou and 8 thou - not much. The plan was to put the pulleys on a stub shaft, put on the crowned diameter and then with a file just droop the edges a little. I blued the surface and then filed with a rounding motion so that the middle was preserved. I got the depth by plunging with a parting tool on both sides to a little less than the right depth so that when the groove was filed out I was at depth. First photo is turning the pulley to size, second is after crowning and the third is the finished pulley complete with crown.
P1030043 (Medium).JPG P1030044 (Medium).JPG P1030045 (Medium).JPG
The small pulley was first up and worked out well although I was worried about the large pulley.
The method was the same but with an extra 2" of diameter I was not sure it would fit. It did (just). I had to move the tool post right, right back on the compound as well as move the tools back 10 to 15mm and out a little to cope with the width.
P1030052 (Medium).JPG
Originally the plan was to leave the pulleys as flat discs but I looked at a picture of the originals and noticed that they were cast with some form to them. What could I do but relieve the sides? Very time consuming but the results are much better. Here is the 10" one just getting the finishing cut on one side.
P1030054 (Medium).JPG
The end result was not bad. I found because of the material and the size chatter was an issue so to do the final clean up cuts the lathe was down at 29rpm. Took for ever but I got there. Not sure whether to paint them or polish them up a bit and leave as is.
P1030055 (Medium).JPG
The shed was even messier than it normally is when I'd finished. It turned out I'd removed a lot of aluminium - the small bucket of swarf is 20 litres...
P1030056 (Medium).JPG

Michael

They look the part! Nice work Michael.

Couple of questions. What type of insert are you using? And that tailstock centre looks mighty like a Piper. If it is does it have a considerable amount of preload on the bearings?

BT