... I bought a lathe, I made a little engine (The Artful Bodgers' Incredible Nutating Engine
) and now I believe it is de regeur for me to make a ball turner...
(I regret the camera was not always close at hand.
)
First up, Sally Shaper roughing out a bit of 20 mm plate which has already been sawn roughly to shape.
Here she is knocking the rust off first..
.... and putting a slopey end on..
...now putting a nice finish on..
...notice the slicer tool tip turning off a nice twisted sliver?
...first shaper job finished..
Next shaper job, cutting a groove in this piece of cast iron, the little block piece will fit in here..
....the iron was some sort of damping weight in a Triumph Vitesse (or maybe a GT6).
Moving on now, making the base. The iron is a turned down exercise weight and I do not want to turn any more of it to dust than I need to so I am chaining drilling for the desired diameter. This is easy with cast iron and once drilled I only have to go around with the cold chisel giving each little bit a sharp tap and the ring will fall right off!
It is back in the lathe now (yes, I did take it out before using the cold chisel on it!) and I have just turned off the rough bits and trimmed to the diameter....
...I also turned a spigot on each side, one to fit the hole in the lathe cross slide and the other to take a piece of water pipe which will form the body of the device.
Here is the body being pressed onto the base. This is the second of these press fits I have managed and they are both nice and tight! If it comes loose I will pin or Loctite it.
The body is much bigger than I need but I did it like this so that I will be able to part it off to size and know it is true with respect to the base.
I need a tool post and this will be it, I am about to drill a cross hole to hold a piece of tool steel.
I am making two of these, this one with the HSS tool bit and another which will take a round cutting insert (more about that later if I remember)
Here is the tool post complete, notice I did a bit more shaping with Sally Shaper when the camera was not looking.
Just a little bit of milling to make a flat area for drilling the clamp screw which will hold the tool post in place.
I should have used Sally, the work moved a little and I chipped the milling cutter.
We are getting closer now, this is the head piece which I have fixed (Loctite) a short shaft into.
The pieces go together, this bit just drops in but I was careful to make sure there was a smooth slide fit at the bottom of the shaft and at the top as I do not want any chatter causing slop.
Almost complete! Sorry about that bolt sticking out there but there were no suitable grub screws in the drawer, maybe later in the week.
Testing! That definitely has a bit of a round shape to it!
.. I have to take very slight cuts as the work is very poorly supported and I cannot get closer to the chuck with this tool post hence the intention to make a different style which will allow closer work.
First knob finished!
... not really 'round' though is it?
Inside radius? No problem!!
...maybe I should make salt and pepper shakers?
