Saturday, June 10, 2017

Rings and "Rings"

My wife was gone for the weekend.  So, as a matter of distraction (and after someone said "make a ring on the lathe out of a nut), I decided to try it.  I grabbed a 3/4" nut from some place that rhymes with "Dome Hepot", and chucked it up.  I didn't really care about the finish - it was a $0.50 part and a little bit of time "just because".

Turned out not too badly, even with the lack of caring about the finish :

So next, I turned my attention to my mortising attachment.  I bought one on eBay because it was pretty close to my drill press (though my drill press is not a Delta branded press, I thought it would fit).  The reality is it wouldn't lock onto the quill.  My quill was 2.5" in diameter, and the mortising attachment would fit a 2.6" diameter quill.  Yes, that 0.100" would prevent it from binding down on the quill.  I had a piece of 3" diameter C86300 Manganese Bronze I thought I could make an "adapter" out of.  To make it, I did the following :

  1. Put it into the chuck
  2. Faced it off
  3. Drill a small hole 3/4" deep into the center
  4. Step drill that hole until I got to 1/2" in diameter, still at 3/4" deep
  5. Grabbed the boring bar, and bored that 1/2" hole out to 2.5" diameter, 3/4" deep
  6. Turned the outside down to 2.6"
  7. Beveled the inside and outside edges
  8. Cut off the "ring" (I actually had to go to the bandsaw for this because it just didn't want to cut)
  9. Sanded the back side
  10. Cut the ring into halves
  11. Sanded the ends of each half on the inside and the outside so it wouldn't rip up the quill or the attachment

After finishing the last sanding, I had to test it to make sure it fit.  It was like a glove, but not the one tossed from a fleeing white bronco.  That manganese bronze is nice stuff :

Saturday, June 3, 2017

DIY Trammel and Lathe Test Rod

I needed to adjust my drill press - I knew it was out of alignment, but I did not know how far it was out.  I made a trammel about a month ago.  I had to make some adjustments on it today, because the dial gauges would not stay on the drill press table.  That +/- 0.2" on each side of the drill press was bad, but it was still a guess.

I drilled two more holes for the dial gauges, cut some slits with the bandsaw, and re-installed the gauges.  Then, I threw it into the drill chuck and re-measured the drill press table. and that guess was pretty accurate.  So, I put the table at the high point, loosened the underside bolt holding the tilt just a little, grabbed the 3 pound shop hammer, and just gave a couple of light whacks at the table.  I got the drill press table to within 0.0005" (seemed like 0.0002", but I always err on the side of caution) :

So, my drill press is now calibrated and pretty much level.  I'm stoked about that one!  Next, since I had the drill rod left over from doing the trammel tool, I cut a length of 12" off, and faced and center drilled each end.  Then I stuffed it between centers, and used the law of averages to center my tailstock with the headstock.

I was about 0.020" out of alignment, but now I am only about 0.002" off.  Not sure I can get that much better, but I may try as I feel the need to distract myself.