Picked up some new accessories today

I popped over to Mike's shop to at Fook Hai Building to pick up the independent 4-jaw chuck and the centre turning accessories ordered through him. As usual, I had some fun chatting with him and picked up some idea on the workholding.
I looked at the chuck and was a little disappointed with what I saw. From an untrained eyes' prospective, it doesn't look as well built as the 3-jaw Rohm chuck supplied with the lathe. The little piece of instruction manual in the box is all in German. That had me wonder, are they interested at all to sell their products outside Germany?
Here's a pic:

The centre turning accessories looks as expected except some little chip or dent mark. No big deal there.

Mike is a funny guy. When I text him asking if the order is ready for collection, he forwarded me this pic:

But when I reached there, in less than an hour's time, only the carcass of the box remains.
After playing with the lathe for about a month, I'm wondering if there is a mill in the same size category... Better stop thinking, bad for the wallet.

By the way, anyone can help translate this? It should be the technical data of the chuck.


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Testing BlogPress

The BlogPress developer replied to my mail this morning asking me to either to repost or reinstall the app. I've been trying to repost many times yesterday and do chose to remove the app and reinstall it.
Let's hope this test post appears... and with this pic...

The plan was to have the OD of the mount at a diameter of 40mm but the only available piece of stock was 40mm. 1mm was turned away to remove the scale on the surface and to make a round number, hence the 39mm diameter on the final workpiece.

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Adding Bearings to Y Axis Part 3 - Bearing Mounted Thrust Collar

This is going to be a long post, combining what I did for the last 2 sessions. Blame BlogPress, if you want to; for whatever reasons, the 2 posts done on BlogPress, one for each session, cannot be uploaded. I've sent a mail to its developer earlier today.  Hope that they sort out the problem soon.

Ok, with the longer leadscrew adaptor completed, I went on to make the other component that made up the whole assembly.  Not knowing what to call it, it should just be known as bearing mount as its role is to hold the 2 flange bearings to the base of the mill where the handwheel is to be mounted on.

The stock I started with was a piece of 40mm diameter aluminium round stock.  It was cut to about 40mm in length on the bandsaw, catering for the the height of the 3-jaw chuck in its reverse position.  The part is supposed to be 12mm thick and so I thought I can make 2 pieces at one go. If I'm successful, I'll have 1 extra to use on the X-axis.

Here goes:

Cutting off a section of 40mm in length. The straightedge clamp to guide the cut.

The end was faced off to "flatten" the sawn surface.

Turning as close to the jaws as I was comfortable with.

The largest center drill in my toolbox was employed.

Drilling through using the largest drill the tailstock drill chuck can take - 10mm diameter, to prepare for boring.

I was trying to use the set of boring tool from Proxxon but they apparently require a bigger bore to start. So the little boring tool was used instead.  I really love this little beast! Very nice finishes can be achieved. The only regret is its short length though - max at 15mm.

After opening the bore to about 12mm in diameter, I tried using the Proxxon boring tool to see how it performs.

Bad Bad Bad... Just look at it! I must have done something wrong... the mini boring tool was mounted back to clean up the mess created and work continued.

Testing how well the bearing fit.  Not tight enough though no wobble felt. One more chance to get it tight when the recess is done to cater for the flange.

I did it again... the recess is a little too deep for my liking, but it is really tight when I press the bearing down with my finger.  So tight that I can remove it with the L-shaped allen key...

I'm now ready to part off the mount to clean up the other side.  I was so confident of the experience I acquired parting off brass and steel that I didn't expect to encounter problem with this piece of aluminium stock - the lathe motor was stalled twice and I've a bad case of chatter.  The part was so hot to touch that I burn my fingers touching it... ouch!

This was where I left the workpiece to cool off while I think through how I should do.

I was standing at the lathe looking at where I stopped the next morning.  The tool was advanced to almost touching the last place where jam occurred the night before.  I turned the chuck by hand to rid of the chips and chatter marks that caused the jam.  For some reasons unknown to me, I opened up the gear box to look at the belt position and realized that it was set to 1400 rpm!  This is too fast from the experience I gathered.  No wonder the feel wasn't right when I feed the tool into the workpiece.  I changed the belt to 330/660 position and selected the slower speed (330 rpm).  The feel is now back!

All the way through!!!  Well done, Wongster!

You can see from this pic that I didn't bore deep enough.

In fact, I was off by quite some bit!

The workpiece was put back into the chuck and faced off to the targeted thickness of 12mm.  There just wasn't enough "meat" after parting to make 2 pieces of the same so I gave up the idea.

Bearings fitted on both sides.

Testing the mount on the mill with the handwheel installed. Please note that the original thrust collar wasn't removed when the modified thrust collar (now I know its name...) was tested.

There is still the 2 mounting holes for the #8-32 capscrews to be added before I can call the job completed.  I'll be making another one as I'm not satisfied with the bearing bore.  With this experience, I hope to do a better job when starting over.

I welcome any suggestion on how I should approach this.

Have a blessed night.

BlogPress is giving problem again...

I just realized that the 2 posts written over the pass 2 days weren't updated onto blogger. They're about the bearings holder I'm making for the Y axis of the manual 5410 mill.

Of late, I'm getting very reliance on the iPhone app to update my blog.  It frustrates me whenever it went out of action.  I'm too lazy to rewrite the 2 posts again using my notebook and so will have to wait till it is up and running again.

Sigh...

You've got mail...

The book "The Model Engineers Workshop Manual" by George H Thomas and the Set-Over Centre finally reached me this afternoon.


The book came recommended by the good folks from MadModder forum for beginning hobby machinists. The Set-Over Centre is a lathe setup tool for use on the tailstock to allow the stock to be offset for taper turning. It came as a kit with construction notes and raw materials to make one.

Both were purchased from Hemingway Kits in UK on Jan 8 night, which was a Sunday. I believe the delay was due to the lunar new year holiday.

I bought the Knurling Tool in kit form from Hemingway some time back. It is still sitting in the yet to be built project box. I'll get to that when I'm ready.

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Adding Bearings to Y Axis Part 2

I was having allergic reaction today and came back early from work. Was knocked out till late afternoon feeling better after the rest. Don't know if the reaction was caused by the food I ate during the lunar new year holiday. Can't pinpoint it's cause though.

Anyway, I was itching for some action in the shop to complete the leadscrew adaptor, but first, the mini boring tool holder has to be completed.

2 diagonal lines were scribed to mark the centre point at the end of the aluminium piece as accurate as I can using the 6" scale. The interaction was punched out to use as reference for the centre drill.


Being to lazy to setup the Sherline lathe, I removed the uncompleted leadscrew adaptor from the PD400 to work on the tool holder. The aluminium piece was clamped onto the compound using the QC tool holder and the centre drill held in the 3-jaw chuck.

To align the aluminum piece to the bed of the lathe, I put the Sherline drawbar in the Jacob chuck on the tailstock and line up the aluminum piece with the shank of the drawbar as close as I could.


The punch marked end of the job was then centered using the centre drill in the 3-jaw chuck.


The 4mm hole was drilled to about 20mm deep.


The mini boring tool is tested in its new home. It was rather tight at first but after some deburring, it slides in freely with no visible wobble.


It's time to drill & tap the 2 holes for the setscrews to hold the tool in place. The Proxxon edge finder was employed to locate the 2 edges.


The first hole was drilled.


And tapped


And tested with a #10-32 setscrew.


The 2nd hole was done next. If you observed from my past posts on drilling & tapping, I tend to complete the entire process for 1 hole before moving on to the next. The right way may be to finish all the operations on 1 tool before going on the next, but I don't have the confident in getting back to the first hole after moving the dial. I may give that another shot to see if I can get the repeatability I need.

Anyway, the completed tool holder:


The tip of the boring tool was then adjusted to the lathe centre height in the QC holder using the tailstock centre.


Now I'm ready to go back to complete the leadscrew adaptor.

The compound was set to 15-degree for the 30-degree include angle. I find it rather cumbersome to have to crank the compound almost all the way out each time to set the angle. But I've no confident to implement the modification done by others on their 7x14 lathe at this moment.


The adaptor is put back into the 3-jaw and the boring tool in position to start the taper cut.


The cut completed. The tool was advanced onto the hole using the dial on the compound. The cross slide was adjusted after each pass on the compound to widen the taper hole.


Comparing the stock adapter from Sherline with the piece from Wongster's Production (Lolz...).


The hole looks wider that the stock. This is the cone tip on the leadscrew which I'm using to test fit.


Testing the new adaptor.


Perfect! At least at this stage.

I tested it next on the manual lathe with the 2 flange bearings loaded.


With the handwheel installed.


The next piece to complete the assembly will be the bearings holder that replaces the black one on the above pic. The 3 bearings will be mounted into the bearing holder from each side. The bearing holder was drawn up as a 3D model and will be the job for the next session.

I'm rather please with what I achieved in the last 2 sessions, especially with the tool holder for the mini boring tool. I did a lousy job in my attempt previously when making one for the A2Z QCTP.

Someone asked me sometimes ago why I am always making either tools or modifications to my machines but not some "end products". I thought about that and concluded that I do not have the required skill or knowledge at this point in time to start on what I want to make - clocks. All the little things I did and planned to do (or failed trying) are providing me with the needed experience and practice. In time to come, I believe I will.

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5410 Mill: adding bearings to Y axis

I've been wanting to add bearings to the handwheels of the manual mill but the ones A2Z is selling are a little too pricey for me. They look like something I can make and, at the same time, practice the basic of machining.

Today is the 2nd day of the lunar new year holiday. Visitations start a little later today and we have only a few friends coming over at around 10.30am before we leave to visit a relative at around 1.30pm. Some time in between for me to play!

Though a little deprived of sleep, due to my own doing, I got up early to get some work done. Measuring and putting what I plan to do in CAD was done the night before. Of the 2 components to be manufactured, the leadscrew adaptor looked easier and was attempted first.


This is how the original from Sherline looks like. The object of this session is to make a longer version of this to mount 2 flange bearings.


A piece of 10mm diameter aluminium rod was used. I like the phase used by mrpete222 on his YouTube videos (he also calls himself "tubalcain" in his videos), "the part is hidden inside the stock...". A section of 33mm was turned down to 6.35mm and sand down to about 6.33mm. I overdid the sanding on a portion of the rod to 6.31mm. Did done fitting, no trouble expected in use.


Testing a flange bearing on the shaft to ensure that I didn't go undersize.


Using the fix steady, the end was faced and centre drilled. That was the first time I use the Proxxon fixed steady.


Drilling through with a 1/8" drill to allow the #5-40 screw to go through.


Testing fit with a #5-40 capscrew.


Opening up a short section to allow the capscrew cap to sit flushed with the end of the adapter. A 5mm endmill in use here, follow by a 13/64" drill.


Using the part-off tool to turn the recess for the handwheel setscrew to bite on.


Comparing with the actual adapter. The cap will be next.


The excess material was cut off on the bandsaw and faced to lathe. After cleaning up and deburring the edges, it's time for the last operation - boring the 30-degree internal taper to fit the end of the leadscrew.

I've this small little boring tool which Hamilton from Ireland bought on my behalf. The shank of the tool measures 3.99mm and the business end needs only a starter hole of about 4 to 5mm. Just nice for the job. The problem is, I've not holder for the tool. At my wife's relative's place, I thought of whipping up a simple tool holder with a slit in the middle to allow the bolt from the QCTP to compress the holder to hold the tool in place. I've no confident that it will work as the tool is rather short. The other way is to make a tool holder fashioned after Luiz, the very skillful Brazilian machinist. This is more elaborate and likely take more time. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to make the simple one first. If it didn't work, I'll get a piece of steel to make Luiz' version.


The boring tool - it is the smallest I have.


I've one side of a small piece of aluminium flycut as reference.


The one side that was too tall was cut to approximately 10mm on the bandsaw, using the reference side along the straightedge clamp.


The rest of the other sides were flycut next with the 2 ends milled.

I'm not going to make this piece exactly 10mm square. In fact, one side is about 10.68mm tall and the other, 10.03mm. The dimensions are not critical, but the hole which holds the shank of the tool is. Let's hope my 4mm drill is accurate enough.

Ok, got to stop here. Need to go for my showflat duty from 5.30pm to 9.30pm. I'll finish up with the tool holder and continue to finish up with the leadscrew adaptor in my next session. The Sherline lathe will be use for the drilling of the 4mm hole so that I don't disturb the work on the Proxxon lathe.

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