Thread: Line boring job to do...looking for inspiration.

I have an old tractor front-end loader that I'm going to be doing a major overhaul on in the next couple of months and it will require at least two line-boring tasks across the width of the loader frame; i.e. two bores about 1200mm apart and each about 100mm deep, that have to be in perfect alignment. I'm at the stage of daydreaming about how I am going to set up the line boring. I would be very interested in seeing what setups people have done, in particular how you have applied feed to the tool. I have an old drill press that I can use for both power and feed to a boring shaft but I think it will be difficult to get a fine enough feed that way. Keen to see how others have done it.

I remember RC putting up a thread many years ago about doing the exact same thing, all homemade

Yep here is the link.
https://metalworkforums.com/f65/t198...ighlight=Dingo

Do not have time to do much yet, so here is one I did earlier.

line borer 003.jpg

Originally Posted by .RC.

Do not have time to do much yet, so here is one I did earlier.

line borer 003.jpg

far out thats impressive

PeteO
A few years ago I rebuilt a Jones & Shipman drill press that required some line boring work.Here is the link, you may get a few ideas from. https://metalworkforums.com/f65/t184...+drill+rebuild Post #30 shows the set up I rigged up using my mill for the power and feed control. The set up Richards used looks like it would suit your job. A power feed sure makes the job easier and you will get a better finish.
Bob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl_kXgxS6Fk

Thanks for the replies thus far. RC that's a great video, most of the videos of line-boring setups just show the cutting tool spinning around but no detail at all on stuff like how the feed has been achieved. It's also interesting that you have the setup sitting on the floor in two separate parts, I would have thought there was a risk of movement between the workpiece end and the drive end. I have a few possibilities in mind, one possibility is to remove the J-head off my mill and use it for the drive and the feed, I'm nervous about lubrication of the power feed with it lying on it's back though, I spent a lot of time and money rebuilding it. I have a steel-topped bench that I use for welding, it's about 3 meters long so I could do the whole setup on it with the j-head lying on it's back at one end and the workpiece tacked in place on the bench top. Another possibility is to move the steel bench over to behind the lathe and drive off the back end of the spindle, I have a couple of tractor PTO drive shafts that could provide drive through a slip-joint plenty long enough for the bores, but that would mean having to find a way to provide feed.
Using cones to locate the boring bar is a neat touch but I'm not going to be able to do that as it has to be referenced in relation to the line of the bores at the other end of the loader frame.
It promises to be an interesting project.

As long as you have your bearings located like RC, any drive will do, as the bearings do the work locating the boring bar central.
A universal joint from a tractor would work fine as it's only supplying drive.

Don't know if it's too late but here's a link to a set of 3 videos I made the first time I did line boring.

Had no experience at all, just read what I could find on Google and watched a bunch of Youtube videos. Plus applied my own thoughts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHSxLmJBD4Y

Excavator has had a lot of use since and have hardly got any wear/play in that joint, so overall a great success.

Thanks for the link Beefy, not too late my any means, still a little bit to do on the loader frame before I can do the line boring. Thanks for showing your feed mechanism. A big frustration with a lot of the homebrew line-boring videos on youtube is that they just show the cutter going around and around and never show how they've set up the feed. I'll be doing similarly to you in so far as the whole setup will be welded down to my steel-topped bench which is plenty long enough for the job. Lots of ideas for drive and feed still swimming around in my head, will see what transpires when I get to it.

Originally Posted by beefy

Don't know if it's too late but here's a link to a set of 3 videos I made the first time I did line boring.

Had no experience at all, just read what I could find on Google and watched a bunch of Youtube videos. Plus applied my own thoughts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHSxLmJBD4Y

Excavator has had a lot of use since and have hardly got any wear/play in that joint, so overall a great success.

I have never done line boring to that extent, but I just watched all 3 videos of yours and wow. Very nice job and greatly explained videos, along with some nice drill holder brackets etc. Best home shop detailed setup I've ever seen on YouTube and I've watched a few over the years after seeing RC's many years ago.

Thanks for taking the time to document it and share your experience and be honest about tolerances, setup etc. Will be put into my memory bank as I'm now living rural and doing a few jobs here and there.

Pete,

I get exactly the same frustration all the time with many Youtube videos. I built my own cnc plasma cutting table so was always looking at other tables on Youtube. Went nuts looking at just the torch cutting LOL.

As mentioned in my video, watch out for any cast iron in the parts you are boring or welding to. You get cast steel, then you get "Ductile Iron" which is a stronger form of cast iron. That seemed to be what my part was made of and up until after doing the job, I never knew load bearing machinery parts could be made of this Ductile Iron. If you have to build up the bores with weld, the welding can go really hard because it's mixed with high carbon content cast material. Good job I sleeved instead of bore welding and re-machining. Then there's the welding of the bearing plates onto the main body. My welds held during the cutting but when it came to disassembly the welds fell apart.


Dave,

thanks for the compliments, don't get many of them on Youtube. Seems to be really pathetic childish crap that get zillions of likes on Youtube nowadays.

Us workshop guys are a dying breed, only to be replaced with people that can't change a tire, and bury their heads in a smart phone .