Elmers VR75 build log

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spuddevans:

--- Quote from: dsquire on August 04, 2013, 03:07:36 PM ---Why not try milling the V groove in a piece of scrap and bending it.
--- End quote ---

:doh: :doh: :doh:

I never thought of trying it out 1st on some scrap

Thank goodness for the collective :borg:

I will definitely try that when I'm next in the workshop.

Tim

Stilldrillin:
Hi Tim.

It's really nice to see you're back in production mode, after all the distractions...... :)

Hope your lovely workshop's working well for you.

I'm settled in. Watching......... Good luck! :thumbup:

David D

spuddevans:
So, following some great suggestions I entered the workshop brimmed full of confidence and dug out a bit of scrap which (and this reflects just how confident I felt) was big enough to actually make the Standard.

1st up was to mark out the spacing of the bends.

I decided to 1st of all try just bending it, so I stuck it in the vice and squared it up.

And for the 1st bend I clamped a length of 10mm steel bar to it

That got it bent most of the way before I had to remove the clamp and finish it off with a lump hammer.

Then the 2nd bend followed pretty easily, this time I just used the lump hammer with a steel spacer.

And the 3rd bend also went ok

The 4th bend is where it got more difficult. I managed to bend it but got the bend about 4mm in the wrong place, thus giving me a really wonky standard. With nothing to lose I straightened the 4th bend out and tried again, this time I blasted it with the blowtorch to soften it a bit.

It worked ok, and though it looks a little beat up, I had a plan to make it look better.

I popped it upside down in the mill,

And took very shallow cuts (as it wasn't fully secured) until both legs were milled equally (the rest of the legs would get cut off)

Then I cut off the excess and then using a 8degree angled parallel I clamped it at the edge of the vice, and put a 6mm ball-end endmill in the chuck.

And made several passes until the wall was cleaned up.

I did this on the other side as well, then mounted the Standard right-way-up on some parallels and cleaned up the top surfaces.

Then on to cleaning up the inside faces. I mounted it upside-down on the same 8degree angle, but this time with a couple of scrap ali' pieces

And milled the inside faces, being careful to reduce both sides equally.

Then it was only the under-face of the top. I used a 14mm endmill to do most of it, then had to change back to the Ball-endmill as one side was not quite right.

Now all I have to do is clean up the outside round-overs, thin it down to 20mm wide, trim the ends, drill for the mounting screws, then mount it on the base, bung both on the lathe faceplate and cut out the big hole on the top.

Thanks for watching,
Tim

spuddevans:
I got a little bit more done today. I started to trim the legs to length. To make sure I got it central I used an edge finder and touched off both angled sides of the standard to find the centre, then moved over to mill off the excess.

I then realised that because of the profiling I did with the ball-end mill, there isn't now enough room for the head of a M2.5 bolt (or dare I tempt Jo with the possibility of some studs and maybe acorn nuts)

So I chucked up a 5mm endmill (and deftly caught it) and milled a couple of recesses.

Then flipped it over and repeated

A couple more shots

I left it in the vice so that I can drill the mounting holes the next time.

Onwards and, umm, sideways

Tim

spuddevans:
Today's update...

I started off by centre drilling for the 4 mounting holes, as you can see there wasn't much clearance!!

Then that was followed up with a 2.7mm drill.

Then I needed some M2.5 bolts. I had to cut them down to size.

Little aside...

With these small screws, I just cut them off with my electricians wire cutters. But that leaves the threads a little mashed up

So I just chuck them in my cordless drill and introduce them to a grinding wheel while spinning at top speed

Gives me this, much better.

With 4 screws shortened, I made an assembly. (ok only 2 parts, but that still counts as an assembly doesn't it?)

The plans now call for mounting this assembly onto the faceplate on the lathe to bore out a recess and true the top up. Not having used the faceplate before I was finding it quite hard to get it centred up. So my next mistake was to give up on the faceplate and have the "Bright Idea" of using the 4jaw independent chuck instead, figuring that it is so much easier to centre.

It was much easier to centre it, but as it turned out, it is also quite easy while centring to disturb the seating of the workpiece on the jaws, thereby throwing off the alignment. I didn't notice this until later.

Anyway, I bored the hole and then faced the top

But it was only when I removed it and checked it with a couple of squares and it is off slightly.

It isn't noticeable at the moment, but I'm toying with the idea of what I should've done at the start, namely kept it on the mill and bored it and faced it there.

Thanks for watching,

Tim

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