The Shop > Wood & Stuff
Banjo Build
S. Heslop:
I could've sworn I made a post last night about this. I must've forgotten to actually post it after previewing.
Decided to just use the die I have after remembering the prime directive; keep it simple. Doesn't cut as undersized as I remembered.
The die is pushed forwards with the face of the chuck. There's a steel slug held in it that stops the tailstock when it hits the bar, and the die starts moving away from the chuck. The lathe is reversed when this happens. My reactions aren't great but it kept the threads within about a millimeter's difference.
All marked for the bend.
And bent.
I thought i'd get away with bending them all at once with the shallower bend than last time, but this one broke. It was a rod that span in the lathe chuck when the die got clogged with chips (forgot to blow them out) so perhaps that work hardened it.
Annealing them part way through solves the problem.
Today I started cutting the front of them.
Started keeping them in these drawers too since they were starting to get lost.
Tomorrow i'm going to buy some brass for the L shoe brackets, and also a new length of stainless for the tension hoop since the steel I bought previously was 3mm thick when I really want 5mm.
S. Heslop:
Finished up the hooks for now. Gotta polish them but I think I might go all out with a buffing wheel. I'm wondering what are the chances of the sharp edges of the hooks getting snagged on a mop? I was thinking I could make a handle to screw the hooks into to get more of a hold on them, but then I also think that it's just more mass to get thrown if or when they do snag.
You can see how inconsistent they are. I thought of a way to make the hooks more consistent but I think the way I did them is pretty fast. It took me a while because i've spent the last few days helping look after a baby. Babies are hard work!
The inconsistency might bother me enough to make me trim the obviously long ones but I'll wait till it's assembled before worrying about that.
Also made a carriage stop to help with making the nuts. I've wanted to make one for years but was saving it for when I eventually get a milling machine. I think in the past for the same job I just set the compound to 90 degrees and moved that back and forth, but it's fairly slow and I don't fancy taking chances with my ability to count the turns.
It's ugly as hell but it should work.
vtsteam:
You're coming along quickly Simon, particularly with a baby to look after! I didn't entirely understand how the threading die operation in the lathe is set up and works, but it clearly did work well. :thumbup: :thumbup: :clap: :beer:
S. Heslop:
The tailstock isn't... whats the word... clamped to the ways. Locked to the ways?
Anyways i'm just pushing it along with my hand to put pressure on the die, which starts threading the bar under power, and I keep some pressure on to keep the die fairly flat as it continues threading.
The tailstock chuck is holding a bit of steel bar, which I set to a specific depth within the chuck so that when the threads are completed the end of the brass rod contacts that bit of steel bar inside the chuck and prevents the tailstock, that im pushing, from continuing to move forwards. Meanwhile the die can continue moving forwards, and as soon as I notice this I set the lathe into reverse so it backs the die off.
The die holder contacts and slides along the lathe ways to 'drive' it. I remember when I first did this I thought i'd try and be all safe and proper, and turn the lathe chuck by hand using the chuck key, but quickly found out that it was incredibly slow and hard work.
The threading was fairly accurate. Not exact but more than close enough. The inaccurate step was putting the bend in. I did think for a while about putting some sort of stop to butt the bars against for putting the bend in, but then realised that I didn't know where to position the chisel. I think it would work alot better with a press. Perhaps I could've made some sort of arrangement to use the vise for pressing.
S. Heslop:
Oh also it's my brother's baby so it's not a full time job, and i'm mostly just helping our mom out. She's just learned how to crawl very fast and it's quite frightening! Still alot of work only as part time.
Got set up to cut the nuts.
Using the turret tool post with the indexing feature, 2 profile tools, and the parting tool. The procedure this time is to screw the tailstock to the end of its travel and pull the bar out till it touches, then screw the tailstock back so it doesn't get in the way. Move the lathe to the right carriage stop then start with the profile tool to cut the 'chamfer' part in the middle, then turn to the profile tool to cut the round part. The round profile tool is kind of pushing it with what this lathe is capable of. Then a tickle with emery before moving the carriage to the left stop and parting it off.
There's some of those drawers under the lathe to catch the parts so it doesn't get lost into that mess I really aught to clean up. Not a fan of cleaning this tiny lathe since it more or less requires scooping the greasy crap with my hand out of the small space, then it gets all over the bench in front which has to be cleared off of the clutter so it doesn't get buried under the swarf.
Right hand carriage stop is just the carriage lock. I figure it won't have any problems with swarf getting in the way of it and the carriage like it would on the left.
Cutting the rest tomorrow. They're about 16.4mm long within about .1mm. I made an error on the lower left one, forgetting to index the turret and trying to part with the form tool since I was distracted with filming. And I kinda like the way it looks. I'm considering making the rest in a similar way.
When I made them the first time I drilled the holes in them during this step too, also did part of the profiling with a file and they all came out wildly different. I guess it has that 'hand made' quality but I think they look a mess. Anyways the drilled hole tended to drift after a few were made and needed to be started again, so i'm planning to just drill the holes and tap them as a separate process.
Also the rounded bottom isn't entirely decorative, and is more to stop them from digging into my thighs as much when playing the banjo.
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