A minor bit of toolmaking - modified ball bearing for holding rough stock.

[shred]

Whilst otherwise laid up with the Evil Honduran Chicken Flu (my name for whatever illness I caught traipsing around Central America last week ), I had a little time to re-read Harvey's Machine Shop Trade Secrets and try a few minimal things before needing another lie-down. Anyway.. one thing that interested me was the modified ball-bearing he uses for squaring rough-sawn blocks. Takes five minutes to make one.. six if you take pictures.

Start by setting the jaws of a bench vise to slightly smaller than the diameter of the ball bearing (this one is 3/4", Harvey recommends a 3/4" to 1" size) and sitting the ball on the jaws so it's just a little less than halfway down.

Then take a handy collet block with a collet sized to the diameter of the ball and grab the ball:

Tote that over to a grinder or sander and have at it.

About a 1/2" flat is recommended

Use it to hold blocks to be squared until you can get parallel sides put on 'em. This will likely leave a divot in the piece (the flat is so you don't divot the vise jaws), so it's best for rough stock.

 

[itowbig]

all right more neet info to store in brain thank you

 

[mklotz]

Another approach to holding rough stock in the vise is to buy a few lead fishing sinkers and cast up a rectangular lead bar about the size of the chuck jaws and about 1/4 to 1/2" thick. The lead will deform to grip just about anything. When it gets totally bunged, simply recast it.

Speaking of fishing sinkers... In this area the tackle shops have something called a "cod weight". Picture a one inch cube with a hemisphere on one end. Drill a hole through it and attach a handle and voila!, a nice compact lead hammer for tapping stuff down into the vise jaws.

 

[shred]

Hmm.. that reminds me I did run across an old box of scrap lead the other day. IIRC we had some threads on things-to-make with lead (hammers, blocks, etc) back in the early days of HMEM. Since I went looking, here's a few for those that might have missed them. Unfortunately some photos have been lost, but y'all should be able to get the gist of it.

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=558.0
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=556.0
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=685.0

 

[Hexbasher]

why make one when you could just steal one from the broken Kurt vise at work ;D

 

[steamer]

I like the ball bearing....Great ideas are simple, and I wont need to spend vast resources and time on that tool! ;D


Another way to deal with rough stock and castings with draft is a bit of lead roof flashing if you happen to find some at a demolition site...grab a foot of it ...works great! If you grab a rough part in a vice with this it will stay put.

 

[Mike N]

I use a small cube of Aluminum.