Lathes and milling machines

[SciFiFisher]

Since I had no clamps I had to make them before I could use the mill. Of course you can buy all this stuff but what you are doing is trading money for time. Depending on which you have the most of, you balance it in some meaningful way that sounds right good at the time but usually in hindsight was the worst possible decision you could have possibly made.

This sums up my DIY experiences to the T. Except for the ones that ended in a disaster that required me to call the expert to come and fix it anyway.

[vendic]

The hindsight thing works for me about the same percentage as the foresight thing. So I guess you could say I'm neutral. lol

Today's adventure was making a milling plate. The lathe cross slide is too flexible and when milling you really need rigidity. So I made the plate by using the saw blade setup I did and cut it out. Then drilled and countersunk mounting holes to mount it to the cross slide. After that I raised it all 1/4 inch with tooling bits and drilled out a whole lot of holes. All one inch apart except the mounting holes as they are on a 1/5 inch pattern.
Then I had to tap every single hole except the mounting holes. On a 6x8 bed that's a lot of holes and tapping. If I was to tap using the hand tapper it would have taken hours just for that. So I made a small tap adapter to convert the square tap drive to a round that the cordless could accept. I put it on the lathe and then drilled the hole forced the tap in with the bench vise and put it back on the lathe to true it up.
After that I could tap holes quickly with the cordless.
I could have done it in the lathe but it would have been far slower.
Then I started on cutting the new stepped clamp mounts. About then the wife and mil came back from the now 3 weekly treatment schedule.
They wondered why I didn't mow the lawn like I was meant to.
Well, I tried. The battery was dead on the lawn mower and the charger was in the car because of all the car issues we had. So I tried to charge it but the stupid thing won't start. So now it's tomorrow's job as I'm out of light.

Here's some pics of the work today.

Cutting the stock. It now takes minutes instead of an hour and I don't get worn out. Plus the cut it very square. A close up of the clamps in action before I turned it and fitted a saw blade.

K7JP9854.JPG

The final job. The piece cut and the setup that did it.

K7JP9859.JPG

You can see the tooling plate the stock is clamped to. Most of the holes are covered by the stock plate.
It worked very well. Makes my life a lot easier.

[vendic]

So I've been doing a lot on the lathe and mill. Don't ask as the story is very convoluted.

Nothing else. Just wanted to say I have spent way longer machining and tool making than I ever thought I would.

[geonuc]

So I've been doing a lot on the lathe and mill. Don't ask as the story is very convoluted.

Nothing else. Just wanted to say I have spent way longer machining and tool making than I ever thought I would.

Maybe not a bad thing. There's something cathartic about making your own tools. I miss my woodshop.

[vendic]

It is a very fascinating subject. For example, it is actually routine to make parts that have higher tolerance than the machine that made them.
It sounds quite counter initiative but makes sense. If a tool can't make something more accurate than itself, the machine age and industrial revolution could not have happened.

What that means as a machinist (I certainly am not one, no where near the required skill level), is that making parts or tools is in many ways more like art mixed with science. A lot of stuff is done by feel or experience.
And patience. Omg one needs that. I spent most of the day making a rather complex part that required high tolerances. I made one mistake. Right at the end. Took off 1/1000th of an inch too much. It rendered the part useless.

Right now I have to redo a tool that I spent weeks on. I hoped it would work the way I did it as it was far easier than the correct way. Oh well. Time to do it right. Some of the stuff is reusable but its going to be a lot harder now.
Sometimes I can do short cuts, clearly I do not have the knowledge or experience to determine such things on the lathe and mill.
Turns out there is a vast difference between knowing how to use a lathe and milling machine vs knowing how to make something with them.

Off to the grind I go. I have started talking to the lathe and mill as I work. I'm not worried so far, if they talk back however I might need to seek help. lol