BaitMaster’s (Work) Bench

[thestelster]

Here is an outboard spider I made.

Made out of some alloy steel rod, some fine thread grade 8 hex head bolts, 5/16 for the spider and 1/4 for the retaining bolt.

The brass tips are pressed into the bolts. I drilled a 3/16 hole in the tip of the bolts using the lathe, brass tips made to size and pressed in with the shop press.

Looking forward to working on some well aligned long cylindrical objects with this thing.

Well done.

 

[Susquatch]

Here is an outboard spider I made.

Well done!

When I was shopping for a lathe 15 years ago, I had planned to make something like that. But the lathe I ended up buying came with a backside spider built in.

I did the same thing that you did with brass tips on my screws. I've pretty much abandoned that now though. Instead, I cut sleeves out of copper pipe and I slit them. Select one that fits the long cylindrical thingy tight enough to stay on place and then tighten the spider screws onto the copper sleeve to align the thingy.

 

[historicalarms]

first job I did with my lathe was build a outboard spider. I didnt install brass buttons or ever use sleeves in use, I didnt think it ever needed as the set bolts never have to drive anything, just steady long bars

 

[BaitMaster]

@Susquatch good to know about the copper pipe method as well. What were the drawbacks of the brass tip method?

@historicalarms i must admit I just did what I saw people had done/recommended in various books / articles / YouTube videos.

Even the lathes that come with outboard spiders from the manufacturer have brass tips… so that’s what I did.

Perhaps down the line I will select a different method once I use said outboard spider and have issues or get bright ideas from experience.

Right now, there is a stark lack of any experience and I just decided to copycat what I saw most people do.

It’s not the first job I did…. But i do plan on getting some use out of it.

 

[Susquatch]

good to know about the copper pipe method as well. What were the drawbacks of the brass tip method?

I think the biggest problem was making the damn screws. I seemed to lose the brass inserts and then accidentally marred the long thingy.

The other problem was and still is the loose fit of the screws in the factory configuration.

Unlike the majority of folks doing it, I wanted to be able to align the bore axially. The best way to do that is to center the bore at the front spider and then move the long thingy in the rear spider until the long thingy is axially aligned. It's not really that simple, but that's the principle. To make sure it doesn't move does take some pressure. If I remember correctly, I accidentally marred a glass peened thingy once and then switched to a copper sleeve to stop that from happening. The sleeve worked so well that I never went back.

Same applies at the front. Some guys use aluminium L-shims to allow the thingy to bend axially. I found heavy gauge copper wire worked better. And a thin sleeve of copper pipe worked better yet.

I still have an assortment of brass tipped screws and I still use them, but my assortment of copper sleeves gets used much more often.

 

[140mower]

I think the biggest problem was making the damn screws. I seemed to lose the brass inserts and then accidentally marred the long thingy.

The other problem was and still is the loose fit of the screws in the factory configuration.

Unlike the majority of folks doing it, I wanted to be able to align the bore axially. The best way to do that is to center the bore at the front spider and then move the long thingy in the rear spider until the long thingy is axially aligned. It's not really that simple, but that's the principle. To make sure it doesn't move does take some pressure. If I remember correctly, I accidentally marred a glass peened thingy once and then switched to a copper sleeve to stop that from happening. The sleeve worked so well that I never went back.

Same applies at the front. Some guys use aluminium L-shims to allow the thingy to bend axially. I found heavy gauge copper wire worked better. And a thin sleeve of copper pipe worked better yet.

I still have an assortment of brass tipped screws and I still use them, but my assortment of copper sleeves gets used much more often.

View attachment 45052

Some of those sleeves are pretty big, whatcha turning? Howitzer tube thingies?

 

[Susquatch]

Some of those sleeves are pretty big, whatcha turning? Howitzer tube thingies?

Nothing huge like that. Some tubes are just bigger than others.

 

[BaitMaster]

Here’s another one of those hydraulic punch pieces I made an adaptor for.

The alloy shafting seems strong enough, made it a lot faster, with a better fit and less mistakes. Getting the hang of (simple) internal and external threading. No acme or anything yet, but hey, gotta start somewhere.

 

[BaitMaster]

Another little project. Carrying 250lbs of bait plus gear and me has a negative effect on quad racks…. Broke the tab off the frame. Made a replacement tab from some 1/2” plate, drilled, tapped, radius’d the bottom side with a Holesaw so it fit the tube. Welded, painted, done.

I don’t even know what a shop would have charged me but it would have been alot.