Thread: Your latest project

Hi Joe,

Yep I remember reading about your RT. From memory it was made from a gearbox, oil filled? I like how you managed to squeeze your power supply inside the case. I really wanted to do the same but the size of my case would have been ridiculous and quite pricey in diecast. Good work! Your stepper motor mounting turned out quite compact and tucked inside. That's my only complaint with the indexer project, the stepper motor hangs out a long way because of the RT design.

Here's a funny story for you Joe: You know how you had a small amount of trouble with the pin outs of your membrane keypad, as in 4 of the wires in the matrix were reversed? You then made a modification to the PCB made by Lucas that would allow for that keypad. Well I grabbed it and promptly made one of those PCB since I too had one of those keypads. Well wouldn't you know it, sure 4 of my pins were reversed but it was the other 4! So the modification was useless to me! Ahhhhh! Anyway I got there in the end and with much less trouble than many had (judging by some of the posts in the thread)

Now i need to make a chuck adapter plate (similar to what Stuart made)...... It never freakin ends!

Simon

Originally Posted by simonl

...... It never freakin ends!

Simon

You mean there is actually an end to all this?

Michael

Originally Posted by Michael G

You mean there is actually an end to all this?

Michael

No. That is the point, I thought. We like making an messing with machinery - at least I do. When we are able to use the machinery for something useful, that's just an additional benefit.

Simon,
can't you find a way to fix the chuck directly to the RT? I ended up just drilling and tapping four holes in it for one of my 4-jaw chucks. I could add two more for a 3-jaw I have, but expect that I won't use the 3-jaw on the RT.

Hi Joe & Michael,

I'm just kidding. I know and even my wife now realises that there will no end to the projects or the purchasing/acquiring of machines! I'm also at a point where I'm really enjoying the quality of the projects I am starting to turn out. I feel I have learnt a lot in the last couple years. The more skills i acquire, the more projects open up to me. It's exciting!

WRT the RT and chuck, I must admitt I have not even had a look at how they may mate together. My chuck is the D14 variety, perhaps the 3 pins can locate in the T slots and I just clamp it down? I may have a play later today.

Simon

I've been surprising myself lately as I've managed to knock of a few of the things hanging around on "the list".
Apart from the ball turner (in another thread), I got around to finishing my D1-3 adapter for fitting on the dividing head. It has a M55x8tpi thread (Whitworth profile) on it (that threw me for a while I can tell you), so half the job was cutting that and half was making the camlock part.
As well as wanting to take stuff from the lathe to the mill easily, the existing chuck on the D/H is an 8" three jaw, heavy as all get out. I would set up by bolting the D/H down and then screwing on the chuck. Apart from a few "unscrewing while cutting" episodes, while attaching or removing the chuck I would invariably drop it on my hand or something at least once in the exercise.
The new adapter has grub screws to lock it onto the thread and should not move (as per the 'screw loose' thread, with brass slugs to cushion the thread).
P1010575 (Medium).JPGP1010574 (Medium).JPG

In hindsight I could have made it out of one piece but that would have presented a few different challenges. As a handy tip to anyone needing to cut an internal thread like this, I cut a male stub first from a scrap of Al so that I could check for size when getting near the end. I was using a boring bar 7/16 diameter to cut the internal thread but the deflection of the cutter was such that I was over half a mm over the theoretical size before the threads would engage. Even so the 'nut' spins on smoothly on the D/H spindle without any slop

Michael

Note for Simon - One for the R/T is also on the list, but further down

That's very nice Michael. I went out to the shed (only briefly today) and had a play with my 4 jaw on the RT. The 3 D1-4 pins cannot sit inside the T slots of the RT for two reasons. (1), the pins are too close together (ie the T slots do not continue close enough to the centre) and (2) the pins are slightly larger that the T slots. So I was never going to get away with sitting the pins inside the T slots and just "clamp" the whole thing on.

In any case, there would have been very average indexing of concentricity with such a setup. I'm afraid I'm going to have to have a closer look at Stuarts project. Without looking at it closely, I can see this will be a major challenge for me but well worth the effort. Only the other day I had to clamp the stepper motor bracket to the RT and dial it in concentric and the whole "tap" tap" here, "tap tap" there opps too far! Was enough to drive me to drink. To be able to leave it on the chuck and put it straight on the RT would be worth it's weight in gold.

Cheers,

Simon

Hi Michael,
Nicely done.
Did you make your own cams or find somewhere selling them? The detent is backwards to mine.

Stuart

You've got me worried now Stuart - I'm not sure how the detent can be backwards as the cams all have to be oriented the right way to mate with the pins.


The cams I bought from a US company called Mac-it (MacIt - Home). When I bought their web shop did not cope with non US customers but their sales department did things manually for the same end result. At one stage I was looking at making cams but it was getting too complicated so when I found these guys I thought for the money buying was a good plan (I got several sets as some of the pins on my existing chucks and the cams in the lathe were also worn)

Michael

(A quick check shows the detent orientation is the same way as my lathe).

Hi Michael,

I just had a look at that web site. All the spindle parts show the same picture. I'm confused! To make a D1-4 adapter for the RT (same as Stuart) what do I need, cam, camscrew or camstud?


Cheers,


Simon

Originally Posted by simonl

Hi Michael,

I just had a look at that web site. All the spindle parts show the same picture. I'm confused! To make a D1-4 adapter for the RT (same as Stuart) what do I need, cam, camscrew or camstud?


Cheers,


Simon

Hi Simon, not sure on how set you are on making your own D1-4 adapter but CDCO sell them in 5, 6 and 8" for $42 to $58 plus postage.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Hi Simon, not sure on how set you are on making your own D1-4 adapter but CDCO sell them in 5, 6 and 8" for $42 to $58 plus postage.

Hi Fred,

For that price i would probably be happy to purchase however, the only adapters i can see are to fit onto a lathe spindle, not to fit a chuck onto.

Am I looking in the wrong place or can the pins be removed to allow the insertion of the chuck and it's pins?

Cheers,

Simon

Originally Posted by simonl

Hi Fred,

For that price i would probably be happy to purchase however, the only adapters i can see are to fit onto a lathe spindle, not to fit a chuck onto.

Am I looking in the wrong place or can the pins be removed to allow the insertion of the chuck and it's pins?

Cheers,

Simon

Simon, maybe I am on the wrong track. I haven't worked with a D1-x chuck, when I looked at those adapters I "assumed" that the 3 bolt holes could be used to attach the adapter to the RT and the 3 pins would accept the D1-x chuck.

By the sound of it I got the wrong end of the stick (chuck?) (not the first time, won't be the last either)

Originally Posted by Michael G

You've got me worried now Stuart - I'm not sure how the detent can be backwards as the cams all have to be oriented the right way to mate with the pins.

Hi Michael

Nothing to worry about, some are one way some the other.(on larger spindles they go in from the front). As long as you made the adaptor to suit where the detent is on your cams you're set.
Buying the cams is cheating . Not sure how hard I looked but I coundnt find any online when I needed them(except grizzly and they had a $200 min order).
I'd say they were the most painful part as I had to move the cams from my lathe back and forth to the rotary table on the mill.


Your cams appear to have a larger Dia which can only be a good thing.

Stuart

I have off and on been trying to make a small rectangular block on the surface grinder..

Amazing how hard it is to do this stuff by normal machine once you start getting into the really precision work..

It is not the getting parallel that is hard, but the getting square when you have nothing to clamp it to on the grinder small enough to be able to grind the top.

I tried clamping a home made cylindrical square but I always got an error of about 7 microns out of square... The block of steel is only 40mm X 70mm X100mm long or so.

So while browsing PM forum I found the answer it said grind as square as you can, then on your small side, relieve the centre leaving only a small strip either side...

Then measure it up and lap the corresponding side until you get it square... Then back to the grinder and with your lapped end on the bottom, make the top parallel to that, and it should also be square to the other sides....

For how I measured squareness, As the large sides are ground parallel, you use a surface gauge with a curved bit of plate stuck out the front down the bottom and you roll that over the surface on both sides and the squareness error is half the difference...

I used my cheap import $30 1 micron indicator to do the measuring....

I also reground the grinder chuck as I think it was giving me funny results.... The grinder is good, I get extremely good flatness from it especially for an amateur like myself, they are not just as simple as slapping a part on and away you go I have found..

The indicator says the block is square within 1.5 microns, but in the real world I doubt it is that good as those sorts of measurements are really only achievable in temperature controlled rooms..

I would like to use this block now as a master to make a set for hardening.... a set of 2,4,6 blocks would be nice and then just use them to square up but postage on them is a fair bit..