Tools

Let me tell you about my evening.

I was busy making some wheel spacers for a well-known bunch of endurance
racers when I noticed that the carriage lock on my trusty lathe wasn't.
Locking, that is. Bugger. I've obviously been a tad ham-fisted and
stripped the thread. Ho hum.

Lathe manual out, exploded diagram studied, and the realisation dawns
that I'm going to need a "special tool(tm)[1]" to get to the offending
part.

Fire up PC, draw tool, run G-code processor, bung lump of steel in CNC
mill, drink beer. Shortly thereafter, a "special tool(tm)" is awaiting
my inspection.

Remove lathe carriage. Find stripped thread. Consider helicoil. Realise
that a nut strategically welded will do nicely.

Break out bumper fun box of odd sized nuts. Find suitable nut.
Temporarily wire it in place, ready for welding.

Realise that (a) it's 11:30 and (b) the MIG's buried under "stuff" and
decide it can wait until tomorrow.

God, I *LOVE* having tools. :^)

[1] Actually just a funny-sized spanner-wivva-hook-onnit.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Klaatu

No. But I *do* have a CNC mill at home. :^)

Like a "C" spanner, but a bit of an awkward shape to get into a
restricted space behind a shaft. My chucks change with a standard chuck
key (D1-3 fitting, y'see).

 

Are you saying: you have a CNC capable lathe at home ?

Or is this a work related incident ?

"C" spanner ?, what most latheistsi need to change chucks ?

 

Klaatu wrote:
[snip]

For Cnuts.

 

<snip>

What`s wrong with a hacksaw and file? ;-)


--
Petel .
02 M2 Buell.
C90-ZZR.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peteh1/website/index.html

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Champ

And your point would be? My high point here was making a tool to make a
tool to make a "thing".

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Petel

Oh nothing at all. I've got lots of those too. :^)

 

That's what he said.

 

Bridgeport ?

(I'm sure we've done milling machines before)

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Klaatu

No, my Bridgeport's a manual one. The CNC is a little Taig mill (cue
darsy).

I think we have.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Klaatu

That's the feller.

Dunno! :^)

Mine can hit a thou-or-so without any particular effort. Half a thou is
probably do-able with care. It doesn't use ballscrews, so some farting
about setting the backlash, or careful planning of toolpaths would
probably be needed...

 

One of these buggers: http://www.taigtools.com/cmill.html ?

I notice in the tech spec "Step resolution of 0.000125 inches" and
a "mechanical ¬resolution o: 0.0005 inches"

Does that mean that machining to a tolerence of half a thou' is possible ?