Recent content by thestelster

I was thinking this as well. In fact an ER16 would go from #0- 1/2" tap. You can get the short versions (4" overall length), cut a 60° center in the end, and you could manually tap with a spring loaded center or power tap.

Well, on UN threads which are pretty shallow and fine, a soft material might work fine. But with 10tpi acme, we're looking at least 0.050" deep and 0.050" between threads, so a soft material, I would think, will get squashed and possibly jam up the works. I think that a brass or bronze piece...

So, tell me about them. On the site it doesn't show too much. Do the drivers have the appropriate hole for a slip fit to the designated tap. So for example, a #8 tap has a shank diameter of 0.168", and is there a square recess that the tap engages the square section of the tap?

Well, she's done, except for those 2 set screws. I might as well just order them. Everthing moves well, so all is good.

Hey, @Susquatch you might have to blunt the tip of your tap follower if you use that carbide cutter to cut your center, otherise the tip will bottom out. (hence the use of center cutters, which you can get in carbide).

I made the stop collar as per the parts schematic. It uses 2- 1/4-20 set screws with brass pads. But of course I don't have set screws that short. The parts list calls for the set screw to be 1/4" length. I might cut down the 3/8" long ones I have. Or order brass tipped ones. Never the...

Why the sad face? He's still alive and kicking. Well, maybe not kicking, but alive! He turns 89 in August.

I got it, and a bunch of other dibs and drabs from my dad years ago. And he had it for years before that.

If you have a set of angle blocks, just attach the appropriate angle block to the side of your compound, then move the cross-slide forward and back while nudging the compound until the indicator reads zero. In this particular case I had to make a 14.5° angle plate to do an internal acme thread...

Why wait? Make your own TTA. I did.

Wow!! Thank you @Mcgyver for saying that. Where's the blushing emoticon?!! I would never have thought about making a submission to a magazine. (Is there money in it? :oops:)

1 step closer to completion. Drilled and tapped 2 #8-32 button head cap screws, one on each end, to act as a dutch key. Looking at the schematic, there seems to be a stop collar missing, so I'll hopefully do that tomorrow.

Thank you. Haven't tried yet. I'll let you know later this morning. Hopefully, when that time comes I'll be turning parts on Swiss lathes in the big machine shop in the sky. (Or maybe cleaning out putrid coolant sumps in a really hot place down under, and I don't mean Australia!!) Seriously...

Yeah, I cleaned it off real well in the varsol tank. There were some machine odors but it was masked by the smell of burning pizza drippings at the bottom of the oven!!

The bore of the housing for the feed nut is 1.375". I turned the feed nut to 1.376". So only 0.001" shrink fit. I set my kitchen oven to 475°F Convection. Put the cast iron housing in and waited about an hour total time. With an IR thermometer, the housing was showing 462°F. Took the...