Thread: Your latest project

Hey Michael,

can you please outline the setup you have that allows you to travel your table in co-ordination with your indexing head? Is you X travel achieved with a stepper motor and tied into the indexing head?

Cheers,

Simon

This is a photo from another thread (when I made up those historic reinactment leadscrews for Geoff), but shows the basic set up. A gear comes off the leadscrew on the table and then is geared up or down to drive the spindle of the dividing head. The DH input shaft is the small gear you can see on the front of the unit. It changes direction with a skew gear and then drives through the DH worm. Indexing is done using the dividing plates and sector as per normal. - It's all mechanical.

P1020669 (Medium).JPG

I'll try and do a step by step this weekend if I can find time as it is an interesting and (probably in this day and age) a not very common thing to see.

Michael

Originally Posted by Michael G

I'll try and do a step by step this weekend if I can find time as it is an interesting and (probably in this day and age) a not very common thing to see.
Michael

Yes please, like (almost) everyone else around here, I would find that very interesting, in particular, how you calculate the ratios and set up the dividing head.

Ray

Originally Posted by RayG

Yes please, like (almost) everyone else around here, I would find that very interesting, in particular, how you calculate the ratios and set up the dividing head.

Ray

Yep. What he said. Thanks Michael for the brief description and pics. Now I'm even more intrigued!

Simon

I acquired 2 Myford faceplates

Wanted to see if I could use them on my Hercus 9" so tried doing some tests.

Was able to cut a 12 TPI 1.125" thread on some mild steel - I was quite pleased with this, I sneaked up on it and got a tight fit, my first serious thread cutting job. Was quite amazed that it all really worked. I did get a bizzaare optical illusion whilst staring at the bit cutting the thread - looked like the tailstock was somehow getting screwed backwards along the ways. Weird.

I've got 2 options for going forward.

make an 8tpi 60 degree thread female socket to fit the with a 12 tpi male nose and run the faceplate off that ? Am a bit daunted by the internal thread.

Cut a 12 tpi thread on a 3MT blank and run faceplate off that - am attracted to this as I'd never get the faceplate jammed on the 8tpi threaded mandrel nose. I'd hold the 3MT in with a drawbar. Anything silly about doing that ?


Bill

Cut the internal thread. Theres more rigidity to be had joining straight to the spindle, rather than having an intermediate middle man. The thread isnt a tough one, if youve done a few male ones, its just the same, except the feed on the compound slide goes the other way. Because its a faceplate, you can thread it clear through, so youre not working up against a face inside the bore. I just put a texta mark on the boring bar to mark where I should clear the part, though usually you can just hear when it has stopped cutting clearly enough anyway. Its not hard, its just a little different because you cant really see whats going on.

edit: One other tip I thought of after reading Michael's post was that I usually do things like this with the face plate facing the headstock. That way, immediately after Ive cut the thread, I can face off the register face, which will ensure the register face and the thread axis are perpendicular to each other.

Agreed. An internal can be a bit daunting to think about but it is not much harder than an external. (I use masking tape rather than texta as I find it shows up better). The face plate thread does not have to be perfect as it is the register that does the location. Get that right and you are away...

Michael

OK thanks gents.

Looks like my latest project has become cutting an internal thread.

Bill

Not sure if I have missed something in your post re face plate but I thought you wanted to mount the myford face plate to your hercus.

You wont be able to make your adaptor with a through hole as mentioned as the hercus thread will be .375" larger.

If you need to make an adaptor spigot then you will need to thread to a shoulder.

Do you have a 4 jaw chuck?

Looking at the face plates there appears to be enough material to re thread to 1 1/2 x 8,if this is the case then a straight thru bore will be fine with no shoulder.

Pipeclay,

Thanks for response.

Have got a 4 jaw chuck.

Have played with it to learn how to centre things, but never done a serious real job.

...... and yes was wondering about making a female socket 8tpi 60 degree thread with a male spigot 1.125 12tpi 55 degree thread or using a 3MT in the headstock with a drawbar and with a 12tpi thread on the end

but am open to any suggestions, previous posts seemed to be suggesting cutting a new internal thread on the faceplate but I need to check if that leaves enough meat in the middle of the plate. Will have a look tomorrow.

Bill

Originally Posted by Michael G

This is a photo from another thread ..............................................

P1020669 (Medium).JPG



Michael

Michael,

Did you weld all those little bits together and then cut the teeth in the outside ?

Was it a difficult thing to do ? Is there a thread about it somewhere ?

Bill

Certainly a couple of days work there, I'd say. Probably take me longer to work it out, than to do it.
Nice work by the way.
Kryn

I'm too cheap to pay for a large slab of steel, so that's why/ how I do it.
Strangely enough there is a thread on it - http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=157520 as when I was making it Bryan popped in and wondered what the hell I was trying to do.
That particular gear started out intended for a cluster but then I realised that I'd need it hubbed occasionally, hence the 3 pieces of strip to mount the hub. If I'm making gear blanks with this method I will typically use a piece of 5mm plate and mount a hub in it.

Michael

Made up this backing plate with spigot for a small 100mm chuck... The spigot is 27mm to fit in an ER40 collet that goes in a square or hex simple indexing block..

It is not super rigid but adequate for some jobs and easier then lifting the 70kg dividing head onto a mill table...

There is a photo so it did happen but the forum will not let me upload it... It is being a bit recalcitrant at the moment..

wow I got the picture to upload...