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| DIY fixed steady for a lathe: CQ9325 10 x 18" (250x450mm) |
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| PekkaNF:
It all started out of spotting drill...that is a slow progress. So, I need a fixed steady to make the spotting drill. MEW #173 has an Harold Hall article about fixed and traveling steady. I'll borow there few tricks. Now when I'm confident I have a correct procedure, I'll make one of probably many fixed steadies. Doodled a sketch on the paper, mainly based on the lathe dimenssions and materials I had in hand. But first I need keys for a rotary table. This is probably a third time I use it and now I need it stay put. The original keys are closer to 16 mm wide and slots on my mill are 14 mm. I used pop-rivet drills (I like short drills) and one day I found a new type of el-cheapo drill "Piraha" or something from a shop. That looks like a counterbore to me, I'll try it here. First I made a little a under size hole for a "counter bore pilot", then I used this ugly drill to make a counterbore and then I opened the pilot hole final size. Pekka Looks like this: |
| PekkaNF:
Back to the fixed steady. I have a double v bed on the lathe. I figured I should make the front v-guide locating one and put plenty of play on the rear v-guide. I slit bottom of the V-grove. Makes milling of the Vs easier. Then I set the piece on 45 decree angle on the milling vice and made v:s with normal D20mm end mill. One flank at the time. Nothing special about it. Few tries and some measurement. Somehow lost the pictures when I milled Vs. Bummer. I'm sure someone more proficient would have deviced better way: This what came to my mind first, when I looked my mills. |
| PekkaNF:
Riser or whatever that stativ is should have been made of least 12 mm thick iron metal. I only had some 30*100mm ali. I even went to skip diving and to a local recycle station, but no such a luck. Aluminium has to do, although I don't like it. :doh: Little milling with 24 mm slot drill, tidying up and aligned the parts with one bolt. Then I drilled/counterbore/thread parts for allen bolts. Then thin chuck is one special: MT3 B18 or B16 arbor modified to accept Bosch wood router 6 mm and 8 mm collet/nut. Rigid enough and the nut is small - goes close enough most of the time. Here I used it to hold a slot drill. I need a flat on the bottom of v-guide. I placed a bolt here hoping it won't interfere with anything. Counterbore here at "clearance" cutout does not hinder indexing. It would have been hard to start the hole accurately without this flat. Pekka |
| PekkaNF:
Today I marked the centre of the fixed steady on the lathe. This idea is from the Harold hall. I think it is really clever: You mount drill to a three jaw chuck and advance the fixed steady blank towards the drill with tail stock. Should make the hole close enough the rotational axis, I cranked traverse to keep the fixed steady upright and square. Next step is to center it to the rotab. As luck would have it, I had a 6 mm hole on the blank and therefore I could use 6 mm drill rod on the MT2 collet mounted on the rotab. Needs over 6 mm rise to clear the collet nose. I had some 8 mm key stock at hand. Anyway, it would have been slightly embarasing to mill groove trough the blank and on the rotab. |
| PekkaNF:
Circular "deep" hole milling manually :wack: I had to mill central hole manually just to see if it is a PITA claimed to be. I can conform it is - least with this piece. Does anybody knows how to make it less painful experience. This is 30mm deep, 60mm dia, I could not see using a boring head or anything else I had on my inventory. Is this rotabroach territory? I used 10 mm long end mill and it was not a very sweet experience. I probably should have resorted to a slot drill, but I didn't have any appropriate size. My milling machine really does not have any good high speeds. I used IPA (Iso propyl alcohol, ethanol, detergent water mix as a coolant - original use of this cocktail it is to keep wind shield clear of ice in the winter). Should have used compressed air and shopvack. Had to use hook to dig the moss out of the groove. How on earth aluminium swarf can pack so tight? Also on the last two round I had to undo one of the clamps at a time to clear the collet chuck. More reasons to get few 16 mm endmills/slot drills. Last round was nerve wrecking I hang on the coupling lever for my dear life for the last few degrees and disconnected the drive at the first hint. I was halfway expecting it to snatch and turn it to big mangled piece of aluminium. But it went rather nice. Core just moved something like 5 decrees and there was a shalow mark on the periphery of the steady, but nothing to warrant a clean up run. Finally got it done. Took an hour and some 10 mins to clean the milling machine after the excercise. :hammer: This is for today. Tommorow I'll fight the arms and their groves. I don't have eactly the right material. Pekka |
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