Darren's active projects

[RobinHood]

That seems really nice material to work with once annealed.

 

[Darren]

It is nice actually. I have tons of regular 1018 kicking around, but its garbage for making a tool. This is a lot harder, but still very machinable. I'm kicking myself for all the axles that i've tossed over the years.

 

[RobinHood]

I'm kicking myself for all the axles that i've tossed over the years.

I hear you on that one.

 

[garageguy]

@Darren what temp and for how long should axle shafts be heated to be able to machine them? I've tossed lots as well and it's a shame to not use them.

 

[Darren]

Ive always just tossed em in the woodstove for a few burns. It doesn't seem to take much.

 

[Susquatch]

Drilled and tapped for a couple set screws and its ready to go to work tomorrow.

Beautiful Darren! Nice work!

I assume you meant bored out to 0.75 not 0.075. Either that or I missed the whole concept.

I have pitched way too many shafts too. And I even have the wood fired annealing machine to do the job with. Good on you for figuring out how to use them! Prolly would have reduced the number of rusty old bolts I've consumed over the years!

I'm wundren how you are gunna stop that cutter from dancin when held in a regular drill? I'm definitely interested. I have this excited feeling that I'm about to learn something really really cool!

Or is that stay tuned for tomorrow's edition of Darren's Active Projects?

 

[Darren]

the service body tabs are already drilled, but the new trucks frame is not. So jam em in the tabs hole and that centers it till the frame stars drilling. You can do the same with a holesaw and a scrap block of wood if you don't want to use the pilot bit.

0.750" is correct. The cutter's shank is a half thou smaller on all of my annular cutters. I considered making it a heat shrink fit, out of laziness. But i already had the setscrews sitting on the mill.

 

[Susquatch]

Ahhh. Yes, the body tabs will hold it.

You can do the same with a holesaw and a scrap block of wood if you don't want to use the pilot bit.

See, I knew I would learn something! A piece of wood clamped to the work to hold the hole saw...... So simple, but I never thought of it!

 

[Hruul]

I have used the wood clamped with a hole saw trick to cut a larger hole for an old door that needed a new knob that required a larger hole. Worked great once you get the wood clamped properly. Just cut the scrap wood first with the hole saw and then align the larger hole with the smaller hole and the wood guides the hole saw, no pilot required.

 

[Darren]

Spent some time this weekend rearranging my machine shop area in the shop. The big Stanley Vidmar cabinets were in the way of the attic opening and ladder. The 24"x8' workbench was under the 19" deep cabinets and wasn't very usable anymore. The cabinets could only go in at the height they are due to my window heights. Window bottoms are 8' from the floor. The wall cabinets are 36" tall, and the bottom edge is 60.01" off the floor. Thankfully the Vidmars are 59.99" tall. Here's some pics.

old pic but it shows the layout a bit better.

Moved the bench and mill. There is probably 1000 lbs of stock in that cabinet. It all had to come out first. I stuck the beer fridge in the corner. This would prove to be a mistake.

Moving the Vidmar cabinets was no easy task. They weight about 1000lbs each empty. So all the drawers and slides had to come out. Most drawers were too heavy so I had to empty them. Shop looked like a bomb went off.

Cabinets moved, reloading the drawers in.

My beer is now trapped forever. Going to have to rethink this.

But now I have better access to the attic ladder area, a bit safer to work once its all cleaned up. Thats where the elevator is going. After that I need to figure out a better layout.

 

[Doggggboy]

My beer is now trapped forever. Going to have to rethink this.

Hip flasks are pretty small.

 

[Darren]

good thinking!

 

[Susquatch]

But now I have better access to the attic ladder area, a bit safer to work once its all cleaned up. Thats where the elevator is going. After that I need to figure out a better layout.

I love it Darren!

It looks an awful lot like my shop - but a lot tidier.

My place could use a really good clean up. But it's not happening any time soon. I have a Jun15 tax deadline and planting on my plate first.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Looks great, love the vidmars. Gotta rethink that beer fridge situation though.

 

[Susquatch]

Now i need to work on cable management and guarding. The compound scale presents some challenges for cable management, but i have a plan. Guards will be aluminum and leather.

Just reviewing your earlier posts Darren. Nice job on the Lathe DRO. As you prolly know, I'm going to try putting my scales inside the cross-slide and compound. The cross-slide will be the easier one.

What caught my eye was the fact that you put one on the compound at all! Since I will be getting a D80 too, I'm wondering how successful you were at using the DRO to determine the compound angle and if you were able to determine the two components of that angle on the main two axis? Or do you still do that manually?

 

[Darren]

The beer fridge will be getting moved, probably today. Until i slid the second cabinet in place it looked like access would be tight, but acceptable. Hydration is extremely important, especially after the work is done, so I can't leave it like this.

@Susquatch I haven't really used the compound for much lately. The DRO on the compound is nice though, because you can keep that axis zeroed and see if it moved when sneaking up on a diameter. If you've ever bumped the compound handle you'll know what I mean. That said, I have a solid riser block from my V10p that looks like it'll fit with a small spacer and I may try that out. I can probably keep the compound on a small shelf on the backsplash so I won't have to mess with the DRO when removing it.

Having the DRO scales where I installed them has been fine. The tailstock bump stop only needs to be extended maybe 1/4", so that scale really isn't in the way. The compound scale guard is easy enough to deal with as it is, but i'll be redoing it at some point.

 

[YotaBota]

Where I bought my SM lathe, they must have six or more vidmars that were sold still loaded with whatever was stored in them. Nuts, bolts, terminal blocks, threaded inserts, you name it. Had to be gov auctions probably from the 80's.

Blocking in the beer fridge sounds like a Homer move, "DOH". lol

 

[Darren]

A buddy of mine works for a place that was throwing these out, so I got a pretty sweet deal on them. They hadn't been used in years and were full of dead mice. Needed a good cleaning and the bearings needed to be lubed.

Next time that I have to move them I will build a mobile base on casters. Its way too much work to be unloading them and reloading after.

I don't know what I was thinking with the beer fridge. Definite brain fart there.

 

[Dabbler]

Nice score on the Vidmars. They go for waaay too much at auctions here. I've been looking, but if I never find any it won't be too bad...

 

[Doggggboy]

I don't know what I was thinking with the beer fridge. Definite brain fart there.

Sure you didn't "empty it" before moving it?