Finished a couple of tools today!

[DICKEYBIRD]

I've been fighting plumbing problems and other issues for quite a while but decided today was a shop day.

1st, I finished up the 2" D.I. mount/carriage stop that I started over a month ago. It came out great so now I don't have any excuse to keep me from starting a flame licker cylinder with accurately spaced cooling fins.

I like to draw out all projects in CAD before I start making chips but this thing defied all attempts to do so. I finally just chucked up a block of aluminum and whittled away, trying different angles until it fit the ways very close. It clears the tailstock and slides on from the end without any problems.

Since it came out so nice, I decided to make an arbor for the little saw blade I bought on impulse from Home Depot a while back. It's a 3 3/8" x 24 tooth carbide tipped blade that's only .055" thick. I made the arbor from a Jaguar suspension bolt I picked up at work. I turned the hex end down to 1.14" dia. and the shaft down to 3/4" to fit my biggest R-8 collet. It has a stub that's 15mm to fit the hole in the blade and a countersunk allen screw to hold the cap on.

While making it, I came up with a trick that I'm sure you fellers already knew about but was a "Eureka" moment for me. I turned the shaft and the hub using one setup and a live center but when I parted it off and had to re-chuck the shaft, it ran out .003" in my 3 jaw chuck. I could have installed the 4-jaw and dialed it in...or accepted the runout since all slitting saws seem to runout anyway but I said to myself: " Self, why not see where the high spot is and shim it the opposite direction." I did exactly that using a strip of thin paper between 1 jaw and the shaft and VOILA! It then ran almost dead true!

I just had to try it so i chucked up a chunk of 1" thick aluminum in the mill and made 1 pass at about .060" deep, then all the way to .5" deep and finally the full 1". Amazingly, it never grabbed, chattered, howled or protested in any way. Me likee this puppy!

 

[rake60]

Very nice work on both projects.

Rick

 

[1Kenny]

Just made an arbor for a blade just like yours. It cut through metal just fine but when I was cuting plastic with a deep cut the blade dug in off the line and bent. Both your tools look nice.

 

[Cedge]

Dickey
Nice work on both pieces. I've got the blade sitting on my bench.... just got to make the arbor. It definitely looks like a needed tool here.

Kenny....
Plastics behave funny sometimes. I sold and installed a custom fitted baling press at a Kimberly Clark plant once, where the make disposable diapers. The manufacturer of the equipment insisted on sending down an expert to help spec the machine, which would be packaging scrap non-woven plastic materials. The long story, short, he specified a tool steel shear bar with very tight tolerances. When installed, it caused the material to reach its melt point as it went under the 2 inch x 36 inch bar. The system was rated at 3000 psi and was pushing just under 100 tons of total face pressure, but that 2 inches of "glue" stopped the whole show.

The manufacturer of the equipment tried to dump the blame on me after their expert had written the specs. KC not only put a stop to that idea, they forced payment of my commission, even though they canceled the order.

I'm not too surprised the plastic caused a failure.

Steve

 

[1Kenny]

Yep, the smoke gave me the warning, but I couldn't back the blade out fast enough. The mill didn't even slow down.

Kenny

 

[macona]

Just to let you know, 2" dial travel indicators are not guaranteed to be accurate when used horizontal. They are intended to be used vertically with gravity helping the plunger.