
Cheers Dave & John

John, no comment IS a comment
08 May 2010Time was spent on something I particularly like - single point threading.
First thing, I decided to make the pre-load nut. I removed the 4-jaw chuck (with table in making et al) from the lathe and put back the 3-jaw with outside jaws. Some 50mm aluminium rod was then turned down to just under 40mm for just long enough to make an 8mm wide nut and allow parting off. Then I drilled it out to 19mm for the same depth (19 mm, as it is my biggest drill):
And parted off:
The white liquid is synthetic water soluble oil mixed with water. Normally I would have used methylated spirits on the aluminium, but I ran out. Sometime in the past, I did try this soluble oil on aluminium, but had less-than-satisfactory results on a 20:1 water / oil mixture as recommended for this oil. This is a "new" batch I made up just the other day, and through a fumble, this mix is more like 10:1 - and it worked a treat on the aluminium!
Then I changed back to inside jaws on the chuck, and chucked up the parted off bit of aluminium. It needed to be bored to inside diameter thread size next. I originally intended to thread the nut and shaft M24x1. The change wheels for turning a 40 tpi thread was still mounted from making the Dremel chuck adapter for the mill.
My thoughts went as follows: "I'm lazy to change the gear train. Would this much finer thread work ?... It would actually work well for the pre-tentioner nut - finer adjustment control and more than adequate grip. PLUS - I can use the thread dial indicator instead of reversing the lathe after each cut." Choice made
For running a 40 tpi thread with a 60 degree angle, the thread depth would be 12.5 thou - roughly 0.32mm So the Inner diameter of the nut needed to be bored to 24 - (2 * 0.32) = 23.36mm. I bored it to that, and started setting up for threading.
I have a little multi-purpose boring bar I made out of an old carbide tipped tool shank that takes 4mm HSS inserts. I had a 60 degree threading "insert" already, so I put that in. Here I'm setting it to center height using a gauge I made as one of my first lathe tooling projects:

Note that the tip is upside-down. When I do internal threading, I do it with the tip upside down and cutting against the back of the workpiece. This allows me to do normal infeeding, and I can see what's happening in the cut. It's just easier for me
Next I set the toolbit square using a fishtail gauge; the piece of paper is not to hide the swarf below for the camera shot, but to make it easier to see the tool tip relative to the "V" in the gauge. To set the angle like this would be tricky on the workpiece itself, so I used a length of silver steel chucked in the tailstock drill chuck to do it:
The toolbit approaching for a cut:

This looks like I'm running at high speed, but actually I was running at the lathes second lowest back-gear speed. I didn't try to take a photo while in the cut; had to mind the leadscrew disengagement lever then.
The finished threads after taking 2 thou cuts per pass, and about 2 passes on the same cross slide setting for the last two to work out the "spring" in the boring bar:
I then put the 4-jaw with contents back on the lathe, and turned the threads on the shaft. I was lazy, and just turned the insert bit in the boring bar upright again - that eliminated the need to set up a new toolbit - and turned the external thread on the shaft with it. The only thing I did before turning the thread, was to use the edge of a half-round file to make a thread run-out groove. When approaching final dimensions, I just tested with the nut for final fit. Here the thread is finished and the nut screwed on:

It looks a bit rough in the photo, but actually the nut spins about 1/3 of the length of the thread with a flick of the finger before it stops
Next I did some more work on the nut in the mill. I want to be able to lock that nut in position when fitting the table together, so it needed some method of achieving this. I slit and counterbored it on one side with a 6mm center cutting slot mill to clear the head of an M3 cap screw, then center drilled the bottom of the counter bore, and ran a 2.5mm drill (that's for M3 tapping) right through, and then just drilled 3mm down to the slit for thread clearance. Then the 2.5mm section remaining below the slit was tapped M3 for as deep as my taps would go. I also milled two opposing flats on it for use when tightening it up. I didn't take photos of every step mentioned here; but here are two I did take:
And finally - where I stopped for for the day, and how the nut will be used:
09 May 2010
First thing, I wanted to get the top plate of the base bolted to the frame; I'd marked it out already for the bolt holes, so I just needed a way to make the whole lot stay together for drilling and so on. I sawed two longish strips of 20x5mm flat bar off a length I keep handy for incidental needs such as this. Both strips were drilled for clearance holes for some 6mm cap screws, and then the top plate and frame were bolted together like this:

The bottom strip of plate is through the mounting slots of the base.
Then I clamped the whole lot down square on the mill table; there is a clamp on the hidden side in the other groove of the mill table:

I forgot to put a piece of paper below it....
Then I started drilling all the holes. Even though I had laid out the hole locations, I decided to go for X and Y coordinates using the handwheel calibrations - as each hole had to be center drilled, then tap size, for clearance trough the top plate and finally counterbored for recessing the M5 cap screws I would be using. So I located the edges of the right front corner the primitive way; with a bit of 6mm silver steel chucked and a piece of paper. Then I started counting turns and reading handwheels while center drilling each hole, and jotting down the figures on a bit of paper. Here all the holes are drilled to tap size (4.2mm):
That lot was followed by a 5mm drill just deep enough to provide clearance through the top plate. The heads of the cap screws measured out at 8.4mm in diameter and just below 5mm high, so I used a 9mm mill to counterbore the clearance holes 5mm deep. My advanced lubrication delivery system is the orangey bottle in the right of the photo

:
With all the holes I needed to tap full of swarf from the counter boring, I used a drill chuck with a 4mm drill to manually clean out the holes. Just plonked the lot on its side, and by hand turned the drill in each hole to get the swarf out. Photo without the hand that should be turning:
Then I sat down on the bar stool I keep handy (my "working table" is a bit high), and tapped each hole. The 5 mm clearance holes in the top plate are excellent tap guides to keep things square when starting with the first tap, so nothing fancy required as guide. Just manual work

. I'm due for a new set of M5 taps though; I could feel these starting to struggle, but they have tapped many tens of holes in the last two years...
(Two years later, and I actually still use that same set of taps after many more holes!) All bolted together:

Things went well didn't it

- Well NO - If you look carefully at the left hand hole in the top row in the picture, you'll just see the mark where the end mill wandered when the lot came loose on the mill table. Remember I said I didn't add the piece of paper below when clamping ?

Fortunately I could recover; and another mark on the table to serve as a reminder... I think I can still hear some bad words echoing around the shop; fortunately Shrek was out of earshot!
With the base finally together, I started on the gear. A slightly oversize chunk of the phosphor bronze getting sawn off:
Then faced and bored in the 3-jaw:
Next a section of the left-overs from that old big bolt was turned down for a press fit in the bore in the PB ring:
Then I sawed off the turned section of steel, and dumped it in my freezer on top of some ice for 10 minutes - it was nice and cold then
It pressed into the ring in the bench vise without too much effort, enough to give a good press fit, but not so much that the PB ring would crack:
Some more turning, and I have the makings of a gear:

, Arnold