Cedge
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2007
- Messages
- 1,730
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Last time George Seal visited, we went to visit his newly acquired manual grinder and I lucked into a small tool bonanza. I managed to score a set of 5 boring bars for HSS cutters, a speed handle for my vise, a slitting saw arbor and a 1/2 inch keyless chuck (jacobs taper).. all for $30.00. The same guy also gave me a MT2 tailstock turret for bringing George and Kvom by his place. Needless to say, I thanked him and scurried home with my treasure find.
I've been struggling with boring ever since I first attempted the operation. All I had to use were the Chinese brazed carbide tipped boring bars we've all owned at one point or another. Since they tend to spring quite a bit, getting a nice straight bore was a matter of "getting close" and then lapping the very devil out of the hole until it submitted.
Yesterday I took the time to make a QCTP holder for the 1/2 boring bar, sharpened up a piece of HSS to what seemed like a workable angle and gave the thing a try. Sweet sainted mother of Molly Brown!!. What a difference a quality tool can make. With a minor adjustment to my cutter geometry, I was quickly cutting nice straight, very smooth bore cuts.
I began a project this weekend that will eventually become a pair of manually machined curved spoke flywheels. The outer rim of these will be aluminum, while the spokes will be brass. The outer rims were cut from an old 5 inch hydraulic piston which was some of the toughest aluminum I've ever tried to cut. The new boring bar made the job one heck of a lot more fun than ever before. When done, the bore was dead nuts on 3.3750 inches from end to end. I had a lot less fun trying to do the cut off operations way out at 5.0000 diameter through the 9/16 wall. Like I said... this stuff is some tough metal.
Bottom line.... proving once again that having good tools makes a huge difference in the experience.
And yes.... the flywheel project will become a thread in the near future.
Steve
I've been struggling with boring ever since I first attempted the operation. All I had to use were the Chinese brazed carbide tipped boring bars we've all owned at one point or another. Since they tend to spring quite a bit, getting a nice straight bore was a matter of "getting close" and then lapping the very devil out of the hole until it submitted.
Yesterday I took the time to make a QCTP holder for the 1/2 boring bar, sharpened up a piece of HSS to what seemed like a workable angle and gave the thing a try. Sweet sainted mother of Molly Brown!!. What a difference a quality tool can make. With a minor adjustment to my cutter geometry, I was quickly cutting nice straight, very smooth bore cuts.
I began a project this weekend that will eventually become a pair of manually machined curved spoke flywheels. The outer rim of these will be aluminum, while the spokes will be brass. The outer rims were cut from an old 5 inch hydraulic piston which was some of the toughest aluminum I've ever tried to cut. The new boring bar made the job one heck of a lot more fun than ever before. When done, the bore was dead nuts on 3.3750 inches from end to end. I had a lot less fun trying to do the cut off operations way out at 5.0000 diameter through the 9/16 wall. Like I said... this stuff is some tough metal.
Bottom line.... proving once again that having good tools makes a huge difference in the experience.
And yes.... the flywheel project will become a thread in the near future.
Steve
