Stuff you have made today

[Pete.]

Not today, but Sunday just gone I made a tool for cutting a 4tpi Whitworth thread. I wanted to use it in my home made boring/grooving/broaching bar but couldn't find any 5/16" or 8mm HSS, so I trashed a nice 8mm drill bit (after checking it was hardened it's whole length).

This was to make a backplate for Spencer's Empire lathe, so that he could mount one working chuck and make some more himself. Spencer did a lot of the turning but I cut the thread because he didn't want to be responsible for crashing my 10ee, though I did coax him into taking the spring passes to finish it off

As you can see, it cut a very nice thread indeed.

 

[123hotchef]

Wow I can only dream of turning out work like that.

I finished off my adjuster kit

 

[Turbo]

Not today, but Sunday just gone I made a tool for cutting a 4tpi Whitworth thread. I wanted to use it in my home made boring/grooving/broaching bar but couldn't find any 5/16" or 8mm HSS, so I trashed a nice 8mm drill bit (after checking it was hardened it's whole length).

View attachment 185114

View attachment 185115

This was to make a backplate for Spencer's Empire lathe, so that he could mount one working chuck and make some more himself. Spencer did a lot of the turning but I cut the thread because he didn't want to be responsible for crashing my 10ee, though I did coax him into taking the spring passes to finish it off

As you can see, it cut a very nice thread indeed.

View attachment 185113

I have a small boring bar that uses an 1/8" round cutting tool, I save any small broken drill bits to use in it.

 

[Tupers]

I made a replacement cooling fin for a 1922 Triumph that someone had previously repaired with body filler.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Found them! also found a set out of an R6, they are tiny though. Want them too? Send your address over.

Excellent!! Thanks very much. I'll PM later as I'm about to head out for a hospital appointment.

 

[selectedgrub]

I finally could afford a little pottle of stud lock so I got back into it

 

[outofthefire]

Forged a tiny repousse hammer from a quarter inch ball peín pin hammer

 

[Cuthy246]

Today I made a 2 stage high vacuum pump work again. Had spent the last 7 or 8 years unused at work and then we got a request to do a test that used the pump and a vacuum chamber. Plugged in and motor hummed but no movement. Oil that came out was full of water emulsion, full strip and clean (plus a little bit of fingers crossed that it wasn't past repair, Lovely machine on the inside some great machining, precision grinding on many surfaces. Cast iron pump body and SS fingers and shaft, no bearings or gaskets in sight as the tolerances are that close that the oil itself provides the sealing and and oil film bearing.

 

[gordon stephenson]

Nice little job. I used to overhaul similar vac pumps on a titanium plant but ours were 12" dia rotor with two metal vanes, I did a design mod and replaced the vanes with 1/2" thick tufnol which worked much quieter and lasted longer between strip downs, They had to pull a vac of virtually 29.2" mercury in the titanium reactor pots to make product.

 

[Hood]

Started on adaptations to the lathes turret. It has, for a while, been playing up and occasionally misclamping but things have rapidly gone downhill in the last few weeks and it turns out that backlash has developed in the gearbox. It is not a huge amount but due to the reduction and the accuracy requirements it is no use.
Options were to try and find another gearbox and replace but at £5-600 new I decided a redesign was in order. I will be doing away with the gearbox and fitting a bigger motor and possibly have some reduction via the pulleys. While I was at it I decided a better setup for the proximity switches could be done as although the ones I recently fitted worked well they were awkward to access and adjust if I ever needed to replace them. With me doing away with the gearbox it meant I could extend the shaft and have the prox switches in a single row.

A pic of the old setup (Gearbox in blue) and the new design which is almost finalised.

Today I removed the splined bush and removed the prox sensor trigger and short coupling shaft, I then turned down the end of some 40mm OD EN8 to locate into the end of the bush and welded it in place.

Whilst that was cooling I bored out the soft jaws and inserted a short piece of splined shaft so that I could accurately grip the bush and shaft in the lathe.

Started turning the shaft down.

This is it completed, turned down to 36mm for a short section as a bearing seat and the rest down to 20mm.

Had to go and do some work so hopefully I will get a chance to do some more over the weekend.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Found them! also found a set out of an R6, they are tiny though. Want them too? Send your address over.

You have PM

 

[Maker]

Started on adaptations to the lathes turret. It has, for a while, been playing up and occasionally misclamping but things have rapidly gone downhill in the last few weeks and it turns out that backlash has developed in the gearbox. It is not a huge amount but due to the reduction and the accuracy requirements it is no use.
Options were to try and find another gearbox and replace but at £5-600 new I decided a redesign was in order. I will be doing away with the gearbox and fitting a bigger motor and possibly have some reduction via the pulleys. While I was at it I decided a better setup for the proximity switches could be done as although the ones I recently fitted worked well they were awkward to access and adjust if I ever needed to replace them. With me doing away with the gearbox it meant I could extend the shaft and have the prox switches in a single row.

A pic of the old setup (Gearbox in blue) and the new design which is almost finalised.

View attachment 185189

View attachment 185188

Today I removed the splined bush and removed the prox sensor trigger and short coupling shaft, I then turned down the end of some 40mm OD EN8 to locate into the end of the bush and welded it in place.

View attachment 185193
Whilst that was cooling I bored out the soft jaws and inserted a short piece of splined shaft so that I could accurately grip the bush and shaft in the lathe.

View attachment 185195

Started turning the shaft down.

View attachment 185196

This is it completed, turned down to 36mm for a short section as a bearing seat and the rest down to 20mm.

View attachment 185197

Had to go and do some work so hopefully I will get a chance to do some more over the weekend.

Does the cyan shaft in the second picture have any support at the pulley end not shown there? I suppose there's not a huge amount of torque on it (Just overcoming the inertia of the turret?) but it looks like the shaft could potentially flex and allow the belt to skip a tooth.

 

[Hood]

Does the cyan shaft in the second picture have any support at the pulley end not shown there? I suppose there's not a huge amount of torque on it (Just overcoming the inertia of the turret?) but it looks like the shaft could potentially flex and allow the belt to skip a tooth.

Yes, both ends of the housing will have 6204 bearings fitted, see pics below.

 

[Craig-SM]

Wow I can only dream of turning out work like that.

I finished off my adjuster kit

Are these for a Shogun? I think I’d seen this picture on a Shogun Facebook page

 

[Moose McAlpine]

Today i repaired some rusted-out hinges in my Sprinter's dropside body.

Ground out the old welds and remnant of broken hinge. (I plasma cut out the rest after remembering how slow the grinding is.)



Did some questionable welding to attach the new hinge and fill the horrendous gap left by grinding:



Then removed the evidence of my excessive weld build-up:



Then i made some brackets from box section. Just out of boredom and playing with the plasma cutter. After deburring them i sat at my workbench staring at them wondering what to do with my life.

 

[Moose McAlpine]

Had to go and do some work so hopefully I will get a chance to do some more over the weekend.

Typical work getting in the way of having fun!

 

[Yamhon]

No photos because I wasn't expecting to post, but seen as I had a thread notice popup for this thread, I may as well add my addition.

Some time ago I purchased a platform truck for my rather heavy welder to sit on - initiated because one of the machines casters broke. It as largely worked well for what I bought it for, but the power cable for the welder, which is fixed into the machine just drapes on top of the machine when not in use; I've been concerned it is liable to get knocked off and run over by a bike, car or pulled by the dog or just run over by the platform trolley when I'm moving it.

So today's project was to cut up a piece of angle which I had planned to weld onto the top of the platform trucks handle and upon which I will bolt hooks to hold the power cable for my welding machine, maybe a MIG hose and other bits I expect to move around with the welder. Looking at the platform truck I felt the handle sat a little low for any welding cables to hang neatly off, so my solution was to cut up 2 20" pieces of angle, welding one at each side of the vertical portion of the platform trucks frame in such a fashion so a portion of each piece was sticking a number of inches above the level of the existing handle and forward of it. These pieces were then joined at the top with another piece of angle with the flat face on top and facing towards the front of the trolley where my welding machine sits.

Once painted - picked paint up on way home today, as didn't expect to get this far in the process today, I will be fabricating some hooks, probably out of flat bar stock which I plan to bolt onto the top piece of the frame I have welded today. In this manner the hooks which protrude above the load bearing surface of the platform trolley can be removed and will therefore not impede the platform trolley from folding up again should I need to transport it by car.

If I think on next time I'm working on this I'll get a few pictures. I'm still having problems always identifying what I'm doing through the welding lens and have had to rely on feel and a bit of guess work really, but I expect that to improve when I pick up a gas cylinder and stop using flux core wire; although on the whole, for the first time sticking metal together, I was very happy with what I got done.

 

[Hood]

Typical work getting in the way of having fun!

Aye, it wasn't a great job either as I was replacing a donkey engine that is stuffed into a tiny compartment at the side of a wheelhouse, took me 2 hours to get one of the nuts, holding it down, undone.

 

[Moose McAlpine]

Some time ago I purchased a platform truck for my rather heavy welder to sit on - initiated because one of the machines casters broke.

I keep meaning to buy one of those platform trucks. Very useful things.

So today's project was to cut up a piece of angle which I had planned to weld onto the top of the platform trucks handle and upon which I will bolt hooks to hold the power cable for my welding machine, maybe a MIG hose and other bits I expect to move around with the welder.

You know the problem with more storage hooks? You'll find more stuff to hang on them! I did this with my cylinder trolleys, and still have stuff hung off the damn handles! It never ends..

Aye, it wasn't a great job either as I was replacing a donkey engine that is stuffed into a tiny compartment at the side of a wheelhouse, took me 2 hours to get one of the nuts, holding it down, undone.

Familiar with that kind of thing, a friend and i used to have a workshop where 90% of our work was reject jobs from other garages. Lots of swearing trying to reach impossible bolts!

 

[8ob]

No photos because I wasn't expecting to post, but seen as I had a thread notice popup for this thread, I may as well add my addition.

Some time ago I purchased a platform truck for my rather heavy welder to sit on - initiated because one of the machines casters broke. It as largely worked well for what I bought it for, but the power cable for the welder, which is fixed into the machine just drapes on top of the machine when not in use; I've been concerned it is liable to get knocked off and run over by a bike, car or pulled by the dog or just run over by the platform trolley when I'm moving it.

So today's project was to cut up a piece of angle which I had planned to weld onto the top of the platform trucks handle and upon which I will bolt hooks to hold the power cable for my welding machine, maybe a MIG hose and other bits I expect to move around with the welder. Looking at the platform truck I felt the handle sat a little low for any welding cables to hang neatly off, so my solution was to cut up 2 20" pieces of angle, welding one at each side of the vertical portion of the platform trucks frame in such a fashion so a portion of each piece was sticking a number of inches above the level of the existing handle and forward of it. These pieces were then joined at the top with another piece of angle with the flat face on top and facing towards the front of the trolley where my welding machine sits.

Once painted - picked paint up on way home today, as didn't expect to get this far in the process today, I will be fabricating some hooks, probably out of flat bar stock which I plan to bolt onto the top piece of the frame I have welded today. In this manner the hooks which protrude above the load bearing surface of the platform trolley can be removed and will therefore not impede the platform trolley from folding up again should I need to transport it by car.

If I think on next time I'm working on this I'll get a few pictures. I'm still having problems always identifying what I'm doing through the welding lens and have had to rely on feel and a bit of guess work really, but I expect that to improve when I pick up a gas cylinder and stop using flux core wire; although on the whole, for the first time sticking metal together, I was very happy with what I got done.

Proof a picture is worth a thousand words

Bob