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PekkaNF:

--- Quote from: vtsteam on February 23, 2022, 05:55:26 PM ---Today I welded up a base for a clamping fixture for the new lathe out of some rusty steel cutoffs that happened to be lying near the bandsaw in the far shed.

It will bolt down to the carriage boring table and is sized to accommodate the cylinders and pistons I've been casting. Looks like it will actually handle round stock up to 5" dia. I have yet to make the top clamping bar(s) which will bolt into the threaded holes.

I think it will be useful around the drill press and mill, as well.

--- End quote ---

I like that approach. Often these are milled from solid or casting, I prefer fabrication. Lot faster and less waste. I have even made some out of wood, specially when thin walled funny shape object needs and hole or slot at unusual angle. Using two vices to get angles right would be awkward and vice would easily crush pipe/profile. Wood clamps pieces well when the pressure portion is shaped well to conform the piece. Wood is easy to cut.

That would also work for cross drilling. I doubt any pips or holes on the middle would be any of consequence. Looks like you made a jig that has future use. And painting it will make stand out. Maybe I should copy that habit of painting reusable tools and jigs!

Good job!

vtsteam:
Thanks Pekka! :beer:

I agree about the usefulness of wood in metal working, once common, now largely forgotten. One use I put it to on my Gingery lathe was under the pillow blocks for the motor reduction jackshaft. Hardwood, once it gets a fair amount of oil on it, lasts well, is reasonable stable in varying humidity and even has been used for bearings, -- in boats, Lignum Vitae has in the past has been used for propellor shaft bearings. I've heard of hand turning type lathe's bearings made of wood, too.

But in my case it was used under pillow blocks to allow a small amount of adjustment for aligning the sleeve bearings. Wood can be compressed a little by the fastening bolts, and also acts like a spring washer to retain the bolt and nut. It's worked well on that lathe for 20 years.

Another use in the past by hobbyists was in making large bore drills for boring model cylinders on a lathe. Steel sheet metal, pointed and sharpened at the cutting end, did the actual cutting, but sandwiched around it was wood shaped like a cylinder, making up the body of the drill, and keeping the bore straight. Even today it would be hard to find a drill 2" in diameter to drill a cylinder from a cast rough bore, and extremely costly if you did. But one of those wood drills could be made up pretty easily. I'd like to try that some day.

Another use for wood in the metal shop is in cutting thin wall material like tubing on the bandsaw. Putting a block of wood in the vise next to piece to be cut reduces the descent rate of the saw, and supports the blade as it cuts, reducing the likelihood of tearing out teeth.

My boring table fixture needs one more operation -- I need to put a vee-notch in the bottom of the cross bars where they contact the cylinder, to give it a better grip. Well I also want to put a center drill hole down into the middle of the base Vee. This will allow aligning the jig with a center drill in the chuck of the drill press. If I clamp the jig down to the table while the bit is in the hole, the Vee will be centered, and any stock I put in the jig can then be drilled on-center, without center-finding.

I think I will get a lot of use out of this fixture.

Oh yes, I've decided to paint things other than on bearing surfaces. Thatt's the best rust preventative possible in my shop. Cleanly milled parts look great, but the reality in my shop (there's water on the floor at present because of the spring thaw) is that it will quickly rust, and I'm just tired of trying to battle it.

Blue was just a color I happened to have handy -- but probably black would have been better to match the lathe. Plus I shouldn't steal Bob's thunder -- I know he likes blue!

awemawson:
PAR timber (Planed All Round) is remarkably uniform in terms of parallel sides. Even more so MDF, Plywood, and OSB.

The floor under my Bridgeport splash try always has off cuts lying about as unless something is super critical I use it as 'parallels' and it can be quickly cut to a width less than the part to enable the jaws of the vice to grip. Especially useful when drilling or milling all the way through, as the wood is sacrificial.

Not suggesting you use it for ultra precision work but that's rarely needed in my experience and if it is I'll surface grind the finish size anyway.

vtsteam:
I had removed the faceplate in order to machine a backing plate for a new 6" 4-jaw chuck. Now to convert back to boring a cylinder with the new boring table setup, I needed to turn the boring bar between centers for cleaning up a cylinder. Between centers is the most accurate way, and also it allows the longest travel for the work table -- important when doing larger work on a relatively short lathe, like a benchtop model.

That means removing the chuck and backing plate and re-mounting the faceplate to accommodate a Morse taper center and driving dog. Well I don't particularly like the faceplate I have, the slots are too short for convenience, it's hard to bolt through the hub flange since it is so large, etc.

So I thought, why not just remove the 6" 4-jaw chuck and use the backing plate to drive the lathe dog. It's much easier to remove or mount the chuck because the bolts are regular hex head, and near the edge of the backing plate. All I needed to drive a lathe dog was a slot in the plate. So, off to the mill, mount a 3/8" slot drill, and simply done.

I like this new driver capability a lot. In fact I'm also considering putting a second register on the same backing plate to allow mounting the 5" 3-jaw chuck. Then I'll have a true multipurpose backing plate, and it will be a lot easier mounting chucks than turning bolts in the restricted area of the spindle flange in front of the headstock. This is a common problem with most of the small Sieg-tyle mini lathes.

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