How Did You Save a Missed Size Part?

[rake60]

The thread "To plan, or just to fit?" got me to thinking.

Here's an example that really ticked me off at the time I did it.
I'm a big Elmer fan and have built most of the designs from the
Elmer's Engines book. The cylinders are the same in many of the
models. They start from 1" square brass stock chucked up is a 4 jaw
with a .030" offset on the flats in one axis. Do it right and the finished
rough assemble ends up looking something like this.

On my 3ed Elmer build I was turning the flange end on the second side
and realized something just didn't look right. D@^N! I forgot to offset
the stock when I did the first side!

The partially machined cylinder
was tossed into the recycle box and I started over.

A couple months later I was working on another Elmer engine and went to
the brass stock box to find a piece of 1" square to make the cylinder.
There I see that cylinder that I screwed up two months prior.
It was half way done and would take a day or two off the build time of
this project, could salvage it. The valve plate on Elmer's engines is 1/16
thick. If I made a valve plate 3/32 thick, I'd make up the .030" lost to my
error in failing to offset the stock. It worked out just fine.

We've all done it at some point.
How did you save yourself from having to make a whole new part?

(Those close up pictures are showing just how sloppy of a home machinist I am!

)

Rick

 

[Philjoe5]

I was drilling ½” access holes in a crosshead guide I was making. I drilled one side, and rotated the workpiece in the fixture used to hold it. Then I found the edge, move the drill over and forgot to add ½ the diameter of the edgefinder tip. I drilled the second side and ended up with access holes that were misaligned. Here’s a dowel inserted into one of the access holes on one side and extending through the other side:

Now I could have used the workpiece because, in truth, the access holes do not need to be aligned. I just couldn’t accept it so I thought about how to save it. Since there was plenty of material I decided to make the holes oval shaped by extending each hole in the appropriate direction by 0.100”, which is ½ the diameter of the edgefinder tip. Here’s the finished product. Only I knew at the time it wasn’t made “according to plans”. Course, now you all know!

The more work I have invested in a “screw up”, the more creative I become at saving it.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[rleete]

The thread "To plan, or just to fit?" got me to thinking.

Ha! I can always serve as a bad example!

 

[rake60]

Ha! I can always serve as a bad example!

Not at all rleete!
It just created an idea for a new thread.

Rick

 

[BobWarfield]

I have been known to knurl a shaft that I made too small in diameter to get it to fit a larger hole again.

Cheers,

BW

 

[stevehuckss396]

Made this cam an noticed all the lobes go around the shaft the wrong way. It is 100% backward. Anybody have a fix for that Haahahahaha!!!!

 

[cfellows]

Stick an extra gear in the train and run it backwards?

Chuck

 

[stevehuckss396]

Stick an extra gear in the train and run it backwards?

Chuck

Wish I could but it's a V4 not an inline.