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6-32 isn't bad with a threadmill. Depends on the depth though. And sometimes in harder materials you have to run the threadmill through twice to compensate for tool deflection on the first pass.
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Nov 28, 2020 06:20
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My favourite was the mine site that used to get their 24" gate valves in an ASME CL150 flange pattern (normally tapped 1" UNC iirc) retapped to M30. It took 3 days to redrill to 27mm and retap the 24mm thick cast steel flange plates
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Nov 30, 2020 22:24
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McSpergin posted:My favourite was the mine site that used to get their 24" gate valves in an ASME CL150 flange pattern (normally tapped 1" UNC iirc) retapped to M30. ...for how many? That’s roughly a 1 hour setup of a pinned plate, bolt the flanges to it and bore then thread mill the holes. Sounds like a super easy, fast job if the castings flanges are parallel
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Dec 1, 2020 07:57
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Not sure if this is the right thread, but here's a question... I want to get a benchtop lathe that can do metal work. Specifically, I want to get something I can turn aluminum pipe on, so I can make lightsaber handles out of them. What's my best sub-$1k option? In searching for a mini lathe I've found lots of ones apparently designed for wood working, but I don't think those are set up as rigidly as I'd need for metal, right?
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Dec 1, 2020 17:48
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You probably want a 7x12 mini lathe. There's a large community around them and they're sized appropriately for your job. There are a million versions of them that are all essentially the same but rebranded for different resellers. Harbor Freight sells one for $750 https://www.harborfreight.com/7-inch-x-12-inch-precision-mini-lathe-93799.html The numbers are the maximum size of part they can handle; 7x12 means a part up to 7 inches in diameter and 12 inches long. You can work on longer stock by extending it past the tail with a steady rest or feeding it through the chuck if it's narrow, but you can only move the tool 12 inches back and forth. e: here's the central repository of information for these little machines http://www.mini-lathe.com/ Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Dec 1, 2020 |
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Dec 1, 2020 17:56
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I don't own one, but came thisclose to getting a Sherline based on a semi-pro machinist friend's recommendation. Pretty sure they're a lot more expensive than the usual mini lathes mentioned above though.
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Dec 1, 2020 18:34
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Trabant posted:I don't own one, but came thisclose to getting a Sherline based on a semi-pro machinist friend's recommendation. https://www.sherline.com/product-category/lathes/manually-controlled-lathes/ You can get a basic Sherline 8" for $600, Sherline 17" for $700. Package B ($1,000) comes with what you'll need for a basic start. I've never used one but I've also heard them spoken well off. As a general rule I always assume I'll need 50% of the purchase price for tooling, in this case Package B is pretty close.
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Dec 2, 2020 00:35
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I think the difference is in the swing, making it technically "more expensive" for what you get -- the Sherline is 3.5" vs. 7" for the generic mini-lathe. Then again, Sherline does sell headstock risers which bump up the diameter to 6". That, plus from what I understand, trying to actually machine a 7" piece on one of those would be  Anyway, it shouldn't make a difference for making lightsaber handles. Adam Savage published a video just the other day about machining a Luke Skywalker lightsaber replica, and he started with 2" stock. And this guy has a 25+ video series on setting up and using the Sherline 4400, in case that helps.
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Dec 2, 2020 01:12
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Thread favorite Clickspring also has a Sherline that he breaks out on occasion, he doesn't really get into the nitty-gritty of using one. But you can get an idea of the kinds of things you can use it for beyond handles.
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Dec 2, 2020 01:30
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immoral_ posted:Thread favorite Clickspring also has a Sherline that he breaks out on occasion, he doesn't really get into the nitty-gritty of using one. But you can get an idea of the kinds of things you can use it for beyond handles. What clickspring is able to make with it doesn’t have much in common with what I would be able to make with it if we’re honest.
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Dec 2, 2020 09:56
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Tried looking on craigslist? Even a worn out old lathe should do what you want.
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Dec 2, 2020 10:20
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This might do better in AI or maybe the tools thread, but y'all are the machine geniuses. I need to replace some bearings on a machine, and want to double check that I know what I more or less know what I'm doing. I'm not exactly a gearhead, but trying to learn. I got the new bearings (40mm ID, 80mm OD, they are Timken which is I think a good brand?) already, and want to dig into this tomorrow. This is the thing -it's the 2 bearings (#3 on the dwg)on the cutterhead of a big woodworking planer:  That would probably be simple enough but there's also like 7 other shafts going into the same blocks:  Anyway, from talking to the tech support people, it seems like I strip all the stuff off all those shafts on the pulley/right side, dismount the block on the right from the machine, and then should be able to get the cutterhead assembly out to work on it. I have pulled pulleys before with a normal puller like this:https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-4-Ton-2-Jaw-Puller-HGP424/205738372. Will that work on a ball bearing too or is it going to pull the bearing apart? I also need some retaining ring pliers: is something like this okay for very occasional use? https://www.homedepot.com/p/Channellock-8-in-Retaining-Ring-Pliers-927/100348008 I asked the tech guy if I would need a press to get the new bearings on and he said no, and thought I could heat them up a little. Does that mean with a torch? Aren't they packed with grease and sealed with plastic? That seems like...not a great idea. This video had a cool setup that seemed a little safer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXZ-agyDsXY Is that the better way? Is there a harbor freight version of that for the every 3 years I need to replace a bearing? Once I get the bearings on, do everything in reverse, including effortlessly fitting all 6 shafts into the block simultaneously. Piece of cake, right? I'm planning on putting shims/supports under all the shafts I'm not removing to try and make putting it back together easer. I am watching a million youtubes rn, but any advice would be appreciated.
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Dec 3, 2020 01:25
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:
I prefer the three jaw, but that should work. If it pulls the bearing apart, oh well, it's junk anyway right? The issue I find is if it's locked onto the shaft you need to get something behind it to wedge it out a bit. Otherwise the "teeth" on the puller may not be able to grip behind the bearing depending on the diameter of the shoulder. I've ground the jaws to fit into tight spots before but it's always lovely. That ring plier should work, the tips are what you need and they all kind of suck. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:I asked the tech guy if I would need a press to get the new bearings on and he said no, and thought I could heat them up a little. Does that mean with a torch? Aren't they packed with grease and sealed with plastic? That seems like...not a great idea. This video had a cool setup that seemed a little safer: There are bearing heaters, and yes, sometimes people absolutely use a torch to warm the inner race. You are correct, this is not the best idea. Ave has microwaved bearings, I have not tried this myself : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVODJm05plw Instead of a fancy bearing hammer on tool, find a piece of pipe that matches the bearing race ID. As long as you are only driving on the inner race and not the shields or outer race you'll be OK. I prefer to press mine on in a hydraulic press, I find it more controllable. Getting it started is the tricky part, once you have it only a bit they tend to go on pretty well unless you have the hammering skill of a blind man. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Once I get the bearings on, do everything in reverse, including effortlessly fitting all 6 shafts into the block simultaneously. Piece of cake, right? I'm planning on putting shims/supports under all the shafts I'm not removing to try and make putting it back together easer. I am watching a million youtubes rn, but any advice would be appreciated. That's always the trick! With any luck everything is rigid enough it should go back together decently. Color coding can work well, same with a billion phone pics. There's a bearing expert goon who will probably give you some wicked sweet advice.
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Dec 3, 2020 02:24
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CarForumPoster posted:...for how many? That’s roughly a 1 hour setup of a pinned plate, bolt the flanges to it and bore then thread mill the holes. Sounds like a super easy, fast job if the castings flanges are parallel One off, we weren't equipped to make the modifications at all lol. Our main business as usual was assembly of valves and pumps, we were far from equipped to do the work and only had a single phase floor drill to do it with (the drilling, the tapping was done with a 1/2" pneumatic driver and a 1/2" drive tap) Good times
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Dec 4, 2020 05:08
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Ah, right, it's one of those "fucker that accepted the job" kinda things. Yeah, those suck.
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Dec 4, 2020 06:28
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My bearing heater was a 60W incandescent bulb. Worked a treat.
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Dec 4, 2020 08:08
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immoral_ posted:Ah, right, it's one of those "fucker that accepted the job" kinda things. Yeah, those suck. That's exactly what it was. The sales manager, who had no hands on experience as an engineering tradesperson during his time at University or doing his job, who had done my job as production manager for a few years, decided to be that guy
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Dec 5, 2020 03:05
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McSpergin posted:One off, we weren't equipped to make the modifications at all lol. Our main business as usual was assembly of valves and pumps, we were far from equipped to do the work and only had a single phase floor drill to do it with (the drilling, the tapping was done with a 1/2" pneumatic driver and a 1/2" drive tap) Oh yea, no, don’t... https://youtu.be/t3OPMQw3vsU CarForumPoster fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Dec 5, 2020 |
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Dec 5, 2020 03:41
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Yooper posted:I prefer the three jaw, but that should work. If it pulls the bearing apart, oh well, it's junk anyway right? The issue I find is if it's locked onto the shaft you need to get something behind it to wedge it out a bit. Otherwise the "teeth" on the puller may not be able to grip behind the bearing depending on the diameter of the shoulder. I've ground the jaws to fit into tight spots before but it's always lovely. That ring plier should work, the tips are what you need and they all kind of suck. Thanks this went fairly smoothly (well, lots of of beating on the shaft on side to drive the bearing out of the casting) but once I got everything cleaned up the new bearings went on easy and slid into the casting fine. For future reference, is there anything to look for in a visual inspection as far as 'this bearing is nearing the end of its life.' However, in pulling the old bearings, the bearing puller damaged an internal thread on the end of the shaft. What's the best way to repair this? Google says get a tap and carefully retap the hole? It's metric-10mm I think (17mm wrench?)? It might be time to get a tap and die set anyway as I can see many uses-mostly in aluminum for jigs etc. Is there a recommended basic set for very occasional use? is whatever the HF special is good enough or not at all? If I can get this all put back on the machine and all the belts and sprockets and stuff hooked back up and adjusted correctly I'll be amazed, but it's been neat exploring some machinery guts. I couldn't find anyone locally that works on this kind of stuff-as my old boss rightly said, 'woodworkers can't afford real machinists' and instead learn to DIY it so I guess that's why they don't exist! Machinery guts pics:  (is there a name for those pneumatic things and the tubes/connectors?)  Learned that this things has 3 separate motors in it-one for cutterhead, one for the feed rollers, and one to move the table.   Some temporary plywood bearings to keep things approximately aligned-worked well.
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Dec 9, 2020 02:24
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Thanks this went fairly smoothly (well, lots of of beating on the shaft on side to drive the bearing out of the casting) but once I got everything cleaned up the new bearings went on easy and slid into the casting fine. For future reference, is there anything to look for in a visual inspection as far as 'this bearing is nearing the end of its life.' There's a bunch of fancy ways to determine bearing life ranging from acoustic analysis, ultrasonic frequencies, temperature rise, etc. 99% of the time we wait until the bearing is audible and then replace. In the 1% of the time we don't wait for an audible alarm we measure the shaft end play, and if it is beyond normal we replace it. Taps are one of those things I'd spend a few extra bucks on. The HF may cut as well as the MSC tap, but the HF tap is more likely to break. Now you have a piece of hardened steel stuck inside of a shaft that is now infinitely more difficult to remove. Now that I have a special tap set in my work toolbox it's hard to go back to cheapies, or even dull good taps. The fitting is a push to connect fitting, it looks to be a swivel fitting as well. https://www.mcmaster.com/push-to-connect-fittings/connection-style~push-to-connect/shape~90-elbow/ Some brands will take both a 6mm and 1/4" tube, while others will take one and not the other. I don't recall which is which off hand, but it's bitten me before.
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Dec 9, 2020 02:47
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Yooper posted:
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Dec 9, 2020 03:30
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I’ve wanted to get into metalworking for a really long time. What’s a good starter setup for someone that wants to do the milling, machining, and fabrication thing, and is it possible to put together such a setup on a budget? I really want to be able to build stuff.
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Dec 9, 2020 09:06
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I. M. Gei posted:I’ve wanted to get into metalworking for a really long time. What’s a good starter setup for someone that wants to do the milling, machining, and fabrication thing, and is it possible to put together such a setup on a budget? I really want to be able to build stuff. Best way to do it on a budget for a total beginner is to see if there’s a tech shop or similar shared fabrication equipment place.
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Dec 9, 2020 10:55
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I. M. Gei posted:I’ve wanted to get into metalworking for a really long time. What’s a good starter setup for someone that wants to do the milling, machining, and fabrication thing, and is it possible to put together such a setup on a budget? I really want to be able to build stuff. What sort of stuff are you looking to make? A jack of all trades shop that has a functional mill, lathe, and fab equipment is significantly more of an undertaking than a generic fab-welding setup. Good starting point is the fab side, MIG setup, clamps, portaband, grinders, torch. After that you can expand into other areas depending on your needs.
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Dec 9, 2020 14:24
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Yeah that's the way I went as well. My recommendation is to be patient, do a lot of research on a tool before buying it, scour the 2nd hand sites.
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Dec 9, 2020 14:37
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I'm going to be working with some brass, I have some 1/4" bar stock on the way. For part of my project, though, I need a thicker section. Ideally I'd use some 1" rod, but that may not be available in the time frame I need. Is it possible to take my 1/4" bar stock and stack up some coins to make a bar, without it really looking like a stack? This isn't structural or anything, purely a decorative piece. Like, should I try to solder these things, or should I just put a drop of thin super glue in there, or do I just need to accept that a solid rod is the only real solution? Like if soldering were an option, I could totally stack up some coins in my vice and blast em with a torch and get some solder on there, although I don't know if it'd successfully suck the solder all the way through between the layers. The other issue is that if I order a 1" rod on amazon, I don't really know what I'm getting, but if I go to some place like McMaster-Carr, they don't have architectural brass in a large enough diameter. And in either case if I order it online, I won't be getting it in time for making the thing for Christmas, I guess that stock is atypical enough that it's not blessed by fast shipping. tldr: how make big brass out of small brass Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Dec 11, 2020 |
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Dec 11, 2020 16:24
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Thanks this went fairly smoothly (well, lots of of beating on the shaft on side to drive the bearing out of the casting) but once I got everything cleaned up the new bearings went on easy and slid into the casting fine. For future reference, is there anything to look for in a visual inspection as far as 'this bearing is nearing the end of its life.' Don't buy taps in a set, they'll be dogshit. Go on msc or mcmaster and get the 3-pc taper/plug/bottom set for the thread sizes you need as the need arises they'll be much better quality. I've seen poo poo on store shelves that had casting voids in the threads, and one particularly awful set that was completely cast instead of machined, complete with misaligned parting lines and mold flash. Also do yourself a favor and pick up a set of calipers and a thread pitch gage
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Dec 11, 2020 16:44
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Bad Munki posted:I'm going to be working with some brass, I have some 1/4" bar stock on the way. For part of my project, though, I need a thicker section. Ideally I'd use some 1" rod, but that may not be available in the time frame I need. Is it possible to take my 1/4" bar stock and stack up some coins to make a bar, without it really looking like a stack? This isn't structural or anything, purely a decorative piece. Like, should I try to solder these things, or should I just put a drop of thin super glue in there, or do I just need to accept that a solid rod is the only real solution? Are you planning to turn it down? I’d think that the solder would show up between the layers where the stamping on the coin is - which could look nice, if that’s what you want! I assume you’re in the US from you saying McMaster-Carr so I don’t know if it holds true for you, but in the UK I order most of the metal I use on eBay as there are lots of small industrial metal suppliers who realised they could sell to individuals too. They often will do fast shipping or pickup etc if you message them.
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Dec 11, 2020 16:44
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shame on an IGA posted:Don't buy taps in a set, they'll be dogshit. Go on msc or mcmaster and get the 3-pc taper/plug/bottom set for the thread sizes you need as the need arises they'll be much better quality. I've seen poo poo on store shelves that had casting voids in the threads, and one particularly awful set that was completely cast instead of machined, complete with misaligned parting lines and mold flash. Tap sets can be OK as starter sets, just make sure you get something that's not bottom-of-the-barrel, and then replace the ones you actually use with nicer stuff. Spiral flute taps are a great upgrade, they're so much nicer than hand taps.
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Dec 11, 2020 16:51
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shame on an IGA posted:Don't buy taps in a set, they'll be dogshit. Go on msc or mcmaster and get the 3-pc taper/plug/bottom set for the thread sizes you need as the need arises they'll be much better quality. I've seen poo poo on store shelves that had casting voids in the threads, and one particularly awful set that was completely cast instead of machined, complete with misaligned parting lines and mold flash.  I've got this set for my mobile tool box and it's OK. Not fantastic, but it's handy. Anything that requires a nice tap, or if I'll go through more than one, I order from MSC.
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Dec 11, 2020 16:58
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Vindolanda posted:Are you planning to turn it down? I’d think that the solder would show up between the layers where the stamping on the coin is - which could look nice, if that’s what you want! Yeah, turning it down is the goal. I'll have the bar stock tomorrow, so I may just experiment with soldering to see how apparent it is while I continue searching. I did end up ordering some stock as a last resort, but it may get here pretty late, so I have plenty of time to keep searching locally or trying out solutions with what I have.
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Dec 11, 2020 17:06
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Oh, tap chat reminds me, what's the best bet for threading a shallow, blind hole?
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Dec 11, 2020 17:07
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Bad Munki posted:Oh, tap chat reminds me, what's the best bet for threading a shallow, blind hole? Oversize and use a pressed in or keylocking insert if you can't get 3 full threads with a taper>plug>bottom tap progression.
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Dec 11, 2020 17:19
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Oh good call, thanks.
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Dec 11, 2020 17:21
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Alloy question. I need to cast a lead alloy that has 0.5% silver. How do I melt the silver (1763F melt point) into the lead (620F melt point)? Do I disperse it as a powder? Super heat the lead and melt the silver?
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Dec 11, 2020 18:57
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Don't cheap out on your werewolf bullets, dude. trust me. Pure silver is the way to go
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Dec 11, 2020 19:04
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Bad Munki posted:Yeah, turning it down is the goal. I'll have the bar stock tomorrow, so I may just experiment with soldering to see how apparent it is while I continue searching. I did end up ordering some stock as a last resort, but it may get here pretty late, so I have plenty of time to keep searching locally or trying out solutions with what I have. If you're going to turn it down, what about something bigger? like 1 1/2" brass or something? Also, Don't know where you are, but if you have a Metal Supermarket store near you they'll probably have what you need. https://www.metalsupermarkets.com/store-finder/
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Dec 11, 2020 19:54
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Yooper posted:Alloy question. I need to cast a lead alloy that has 0.5% silver. How do I melt the silver (1763F melt point) into the lead (620F melt point)? Do I disperse it as a powder? Super heat the lead and melt the silver? Are you some kind of reverse Roman? Usually it’s the other direction you want to go.
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Dec 11, 2020 20:08
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Vindolanda posted:Are you some kind of reverse Roman? Usually it’s the other direction you want to go. Hah, not exactly. It's for a chemical plating operation.
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Dec 11, 2020 20:17
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wesleywillis posted:If you're going to turn it down, what about something bigger? like 1 1/2" brass or something? Oh cool, thanks. This looks like an awesome store and if I drive 2-4 hours in just about any direction I’ll be at one.  Des Moines, IA: everything is available 2 hours away But for real, I’m taking note of that for next time. I go down to KC or up to MSP every once in a while.
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Dec 11, 2020 21:02
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