home made proforme shaft

[hughie]

Ern,

Thought I might start another thread.:C this answer is toooo long

I bought the cutter head separately and fitted it to a 3/4'' [19mm] shaft. The cutter is held in by two grub m6 screws at 90' and to date no twisting movement at all.

This extra diameter will give you all the length you require with great stability. I have made them with 1/2'' but I am not so confident on the full extension, hence the heavier size.

I thought of adding to the stiffness of the 1/2'' by deep case hardening. With case hardening its possible to gain anywhere from .5mm to 1.0mm in depth. This provides a glass hard skin to the surface which really stiffens the whole shaft up greatly. The only down side is that you can build up internally at the core allot of stress and it would be wise to anneal the finished hardening. Whoever does the hardening would be in a position to advise and and anneal the shaft.

[rsser]

Many thanks Huhgie.

Those are handsomely done shafts. I take it that the swan neck has the flat on the bottom in the middle picture.

I'll try with 5/8" first as that fits the Munro handle and the modded ProMaster (the current Proforme handle btw is 5/8" too I think).

Would an LPG torch be up to bending 5/8 rod do you reckon?

[hughie]

I take it that the swan neck has the flat on the bottom in the middle picture.


Have yet to machine the flat on the goose neck... on the gunna list :U



Would an LPG torch be up to bending 5/8 rod do you reckon?
[/quote]

No worries, I think from memory LPG at the tip of the blue flame cone is around 3000'C. I used heat on mine and being stainless it was particularly difficult to bend. Use anything but and it will be a breeze.

[graemet]

Hughie,
I must have missed the original thread - what is the hollower head you have on this tool? It looks like it has the advantages of my Munro without the disadvantage of the thing clogging up.
Cheers
Graeme

[rsser]

... if I can step in: it's the Woodcut. See http://www.shop.woodcut-tools.com/

Jim Carroll has some woodcut stuff if you're interested.

btw, not wanting to teach grandmas and all that but to eliminate clogging on the munro look at making sure the cutter is sharp, slowing down the lathe, clearing out the shavings from the form regularly, and (sometimes) just keeping on cutting will clear the gap.