Learning to lathe [things]

[ICUDoc]

Sounds terrific.
I just got access to a lathe in the last few weeks. Lathing is a lot of fun- so precise, socontrolled.
It's better than sex.

 

[kenster]

Ken, that's great of you to offer to polish the light for me! Of course I have your address, I'll send it along promptly.

Now Fred, where are your manners?

What kind of a fellow would give a fine young gentleman like "The Kenster" (That`s me!

) a present and make him work on his gift himself?

Shame on you for a whole week!

Seriously, I wouldn`t do much in the way of sanding or polishing on this light or it will loose the edges of the taperd grooves. It really is a great looking design!

Ken

 

[gadget_lover]

Sounds terrific.
I just got access to a lathe in the last few weeks. Lathing is a lot of fun- so precise, socontrolled.
It's better than sex.

Either your machining techniques are MUCH better than mine or.....



Yes, it's fun to make things on a lathe.

 

[PEU]

Lathing is a lot of fun- so precise, socontrolled. It's better than sex.

err... Nah!


Pablo

 

[will]

err... Nah!


Pablo

got to agree with Pablo..!!!

 

[kenster]

got to agree with Pablo..!!!

I will third that! :naughty:

But back to the great info in this thread. ER16 collets were metioned. What is the difference in ER16 and the others I have seen like ER32?

I`m learning a lot from this thread!!! :rock:

Thank you
Ken

 

[gadget_lover]

Oh Boy! A question I can answer!


The 16 refers to the size of the collet. An ER 16 is 17 mm diameter at the widest. ER32 is 33mm across. Listed in the Machinery's handbook are ER8 (holds .05 - 5 mm stock) though ER50 (5 - 34 mm).

Other ER sizes; 8 11 16 20 25 32 40 50

The ER40 has a "short" collet that allows slightly larger stock.

The collet has to match the collet chuck. There is a thread on the subject.

Daniel

 

[kenster]

Daniel, thank you for the info.

Looking at places online that sell these collets I didn`t find any information or explanation at all. Basically, here is a collet and here is the price.

Knowing nothing about them that didn`t do much for me.

I will search for the thread you mentioned.

Thanks again

Ken

 

[gadget_lover]

I had problems finding the collet thread... It's http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=54551
"brass or emergency collets.for minilathe."

 

[PhotonFanatic]

I really like the head. Looks very good. Now the body needs some rings or something at the far end. Things look a little bare where the tapering just tapers off.

David,

Per your suggestion, I decided to stay with the milled components theme. Needless to say, it would have been better to have put these dots in place the first time.

 

[PhotonFanatic]

Pretty quiet around here, so time for some more photos. As some might recall, I've been working on a Ti AA light for ManBearPig and I have posted the trials and tribulation in another thread.

Many, myself included, like the linear dots pattern on that light, so I wanted to make a larger light, one that worked on CR123s, has a Seoul P4, most likely a NG750 driver, Khatod 20mm reflector, and a McClicky switch.

But I didn't want the clean lines of the battery tube to be interupted with any seams, so the McClicky will be screwed in from the top of the light, thus eliminating one seam. Yeah, it will be a bit of a job to just replace the battery, but that's life.

This time, there were no screw-ups with any extra dots added, quite an accomplishment (well for me anyway :lolsign since there were a total of 156 dots milled into the body:

Geez, she seems to like the bigger guy, too.

Showing the groove at the far left where the body will eventually be parted:

Eventually I want to make this in Ti or SS, but it looks as though I need to find some smoother ball end mills. These grooves aren't that visible normally, but up close they certainly show up:

And just for size comparison:

And now the fun part begins; still needs to be drilled out--three different bores will then be done, and two sets of internal threads to be cut, and finally, a bezel needs to be made also. Hmm, may be a while before this is done.

 

[PEU]

very nice!

 

[PhotonFanatic]

Thanks, Pablo.

In keeping with the theme of 'learning' to lathe, I thought I'd share some feedback from the folks at Practical Machinist, where I posted a question about the grooves showing in the plunge cut dots.

I had asked if it were the poor quality of the tool that was creating the grooves and if there might be better quality tools available.

While many reputable manufacturers were presented, i.e., Garr, SGS, OGS, Niagara Cutter, Data Flute CNC, Emuge and Hanita, there were a variety of sound techniques presented also:

1) Use compressed air to blow the chips away--it could have been the chips causing the grooving.

2) Don't use a four-flute mill--use a two-flute mill, with a short flute length. Some even suggested grinding away one of the flutes and going with just one flute--to cut down even more on the possibility of the chips getting between the tool and the piece.

3) Ramp up the speed--unfortunately my machine's max is 3000 RPM. An interesting suggestion was to get a spindle speeder, which can increase the effective spindle speed 7X. That sounds expensive, but I'll investigate it.

4) Peck and then dwell, rather than plunging right to the final dimension--that gives the chips a chance to break and clear out.

5) Instead of air, use a light coolant, like WD40, to help clear the chips.

For now, I will get some two-flute mills and use the light coolant suggestion. If those don't work, then I will try the peck and dwell technique, too.

Never too old to learn.

 

[will]

Scoring occurs when the chips are not cleared away from the cutting edge, the chip will actually start to do the cutting, or rubbing. I would think cutting fluid is going to be much better than just air. Part of what may be happening is that the chip is welding itself to the cutters edge. We used to have a system that mixed compressed air and a water based cutting fluid, just aim the nozzel at the cutter. This made for a very nice finish in stainless steel. Aluminum does fine with drips of cutting oil or kerosene.

Also - the smaller the tool, the faster it should be run.

 

[ICUDoc]

Always good to see more of your cool work!

 

[Anglepoise]

Fred,
I really like the 'Dimples'. I think it is harder to come up with a exterior design that is new, than to bore out the inside.

 

[will]

I have my little shop in the basement of my house. This has a cement floor. Maybe it is just me, but every now and then I drop something on the floor, usually damaging it in some way. I picked some of those interlocking rubber mats from Costco. These are 2x2. I laid them in front of my bench where I stand a lot. This makes working there easier on the feet, knees, and back. A side benefit to these mats - if something falls or I drop it - no damage, it now takes a bounce or two, but no harm done...

 

[PhotonFanatic]

will,

Yup, not only do I drop things on the floor, I've also managed to drop completed pieces in the stainless steel sink while cleaning them. Oops! Something more to sand down.

So I need both floor and sink mats.

 

[Jefff]

Great work man .. I am amazed with machining Thanks for sharing

 

[PhotonFanatic]

It's been a while and this isn't the most exciting of developments, but it does show how one can get sidetracked for an hour or so.

The body design shown in post 171 just called for a very clean exterior, with the minimum of seams, so it isn't a twistie, it is a clickie. And I decided to go with the McClicky since it is way more reliable than a Kroll--thanks, Don!

Kenster gave me the inspiration to load the switch from the front of the light, rather than the rear, like this:

The light body is long, like 90mm long, so getting that switch screwed into place, as well as the retaining ring needed for the negative return path, would require either some very long, thin needle nose pliers, or, voila!, a tool! Hey, why not, I got the lathe.

Business end of the tool, designed to fit into the McClicky:

Add a little knurling at the other end for grip:

Put the McClicky on the tool:

And inserted into the body:

Interior shot of the switch in place:

And the outer end in place, too:

Interestingly, the threading for the switch is very deep in the body and the start of the threads was quite close to the bottom of the tube, where the rubber boot sits.

So I decided to try something that I had not done before--do the threading away from the bottom of the tube (also away from the chuck), with the cutting tool upside down in the toolbar. Now, in my mind, I clearly envisioned that that would cut a right-hand thread and I expected to screw the switch in with a clockwise turn of the tool, or my hand. Boy, was I surprised! It goes in with a counter-clockwise turn. I look at the switch and I still don't see how it can possibly screw in with a counterclockwise motion. I'm dumb! Duh.

But, hey, it works. Now to see if I can made the retaining ring with the threads going that way, too.