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Hello Everyone

S

ScottyM

Active Member
Hi Everybody,

New member from Calgary currently living in northern Alberta. I found this forum a few months back when looking for a new lathe and decided it was time to sign up. I am a mechanical engineer that has always enjoyed making anything and everything. My thought process has always been why pay someone to do something when you can usually buy the tools for the same price and pick up some new skills doing it yourself. That being said, machining my own parts has cost me far more in tools than if I would have had them made but I am addicted to it!

In my free time I build classic trucks and design machine tools. I am very interested in precision measurement and the science behind it. Most of my projects revolve around taking advantage of simple laws to build precision tools on a hobby budget.

Recently I picked up a little QC54 atlas lathe that I have been rebuilding and modifying to see how much I can get out of light duty lathe. I was always curious what the table top machines could do and have so far been very impressed.

That's all for now, I look forward to spending more time on here and getting to know you all!

-Scott
 
Thanks fellas, I am in Calgary quite often and will hopefully be able to make it to some of the events/meetups.

CalgaryPT, I definitely do more fabrication than machining too, really enjoy building in general. Is that a porty in your profile picture?
 
ScottyM said:
Recently I picked up a little QC54 atlas lathe that I have been rebuilding and modifying to see how much I can get out of light duty lathe. I was always curious what the table top machines could do and have so far been very impressed.
Click to expand...
No pics, so it didn't happen! ;)

Seriously, what kind of modifications are you talking about?

Craig
 
ScottyM said:
CalgaryPT, I definitely do more fabrication than machining too, really enjoy building in general. Is that a porty in your profile picture?
Click to expand...
Great eye @ScottyM . Yes, that is our portie - Barti Ddu. We lost our first one 4 years ago and this one is 3 now. They are great dogs--a little too smart and mischievous for their own good, but the center of the family for sure. @Dabbler on this forum had one until recently as well.

Do you have one?

portie.jpg
 
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To say it's been a while would be quite the understatement! The day after posting here I got a career opportunity that has kept me flat out. It's been great but I am beyond happy to have had more time lately to work on my machining stuff!

CalgaryPT said:
Great eye @ScottyM . Yes, that is our portie - Barti Ddu. We lost our first one 4 years ago and this one is 3 now. They are great dogs--a little too smart and mischievous for their own good, but the center of the family for sure. @Dabbler on this forum had one until recently as well.

Do you have one?
Click to expand...

They are amazing dogs, we had one for fifteen years! His name was Tego.

Screen Shot 2020-01-11 at 3.18.50 PM.png


trlvn said:
No pics, so it didn't happen! ;)

Seriously, what kind of modifications are you talking about?

Craig
Click to expand...

Unfortunately as far as I got with it was a complete teardown and rebuild, remaking all damaged/worn parts. Also the quick building of a very heavy duty stand. The modifications I had planned and had parts for:

- Dovetail support under tail end to allow expansion/contraction of bed
- Center bed supports, its pretty long and calculated some decent distortion at center under moderate cutting
- Tuned mass damper to tame some chatter on long parts

Even after the rebuild and no modifications however its been easy to stay under a though tolerance just being mindful on spring passes and taking a minute or two to check tailstock alignment regularly. Should note that it is only on castors right now to move for a new piece of equipment.

IMG_0505.JPG

IMG_0508.JPG
 
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PeterT said:
Tell me about the mass dampener,
Click to expand...

I noticed some high frequency ringing when cutting on longer parts that'd cause a poor surface finish. A mass damper tuned to the same frequency will absorb the energy and oscillate instead of your workpiece. It will just let you push your lathe further before having to add a steady rest or follower rest.

Youtube I'm sure would have some great examples of how effective these simple setups can be.
 
@ScottyM can you describe what you did to add your mass dampener. I'm familiar with the use in an architecture context, but couldn't find any youtube on rotary mass dampeners. I'd love to find out more about yours!
 
@Dabbler - Yes they are very widely used on structures! May not seem it at first but all the same design. They are all essentially a mass at a certain distance away from a pivot point, moving the mass closer to or further from it's pivot changes the natural frequency and that's how they are tuned. The pivot can be any number of styles from a pin joint, to a spring or even a hard mount just relying on the deflection of the damper rod itself.

For my setup just to test, I had a mag base that I attached a spring to, then a threaded rod to the spring and finally turned two small weights with a threaded center that I could move along the rod. Two weights just so I could lock them together at the right spot. I'd put the mag base on the side of my tool post and adjust the weights until the threaded rod had the largest oscillations when cutting. Produced excellent results.

This can be used to find and tame vibration in any part of the machine just by moving the mag base around and tuning. My plan was to make an automatic one that would measure peak frequencies and tune distance on the fly with some electronics.

Sandvik builds them right into the tool, which is their silent tool line.

A-Silent-Tools-boring-bar-cut-out-view-Sandvik-Coromant.ppm.png


 
Welcome Scott, you're going to need a bigger lathe though,,,,, that little Atlas will never twist that I-Beam;)
Very nice stand.
 
ScottyM said:
To say it's been a while would be quite the understatement! The day after posting here I got a career opportunity that has kept me flat out. It's been great but I am beyond happy to have had more time lately to work on my machining stuff!



They are amazing dogs, we had one for fifteen years! His name was Tego.

View attachment 7095



Unfortunately as far as I got with it was a complete teardown and rebuild, remaking all damaged/worn parts. Also the quick building of a very heavy duty stand. The modifications I had planned and had parts for:

- Dovetail support under tail end to allow expansion/contraction of bed
- Center bed supports, its pretty long and calculated some decent distortion at center under moderate cutting
- Tuned mass damper to tame some chatter on long parts

Even after the rebuild and no modifications however its been easy to stay under a though tolerance just being mindful on spring passes and taking a minute or two to check tailstock alignment regularly. Should note that it is only on castors right now to move for a new piece of equipment.

View attachment 7096
View attachment 7097
Click to expand...
That's some REALLY nice fabrication on the stand. I almost hope you don't paint it. Very nice.
 
ScottyM said:
@Dabbler - Yes they are very widely used on structures! May not seem it at first but all the same design. They are all essentially a mass at a certain distance away from a pivot point, moving the mass closer to or further from it's pivot changes the natural frequency and that's how they are tuned. The pivot can be any number of styles from a pin joint, to a spring or even a hard mount just relying on the deflection of the damper rod itself.

For my setup just to test, I had a mag base that I attached a spring to, then a threaded rod to the spring and finally turned two small weights with a threaded center that I could move along the rod. Two weights just so I could lock them together at the right spot. I'd put the mag base on the side of my tool post and adjust the weights until the threaded rod had the largest oscillations when cutting. Produced excellent results.

This can be used to find and tame vibration in any part of the machine just by moving the mag base around and tuning. My plan was to make an automatic one that would measure peak frequencies and tune distance on the fly with some electronics.

Sandvik builds them right into the tool, which is their silent tool line.

View attachment 7135

Click to expand...
Hi Scotty
Glad to have you on the forum. The mass dampener is interesting. Would you be able to post a few pictures? A video of it in use would be more trouble but very interesting for all is machining geeks. The sandvik vids are interesting but I imagine one of those tool holders costs as much as a lathe! Your approach sounds better. John
 
Thanks @CalgaryPT, I hadn't fabricated in a month or two and was having some fun and a few beers one night putting that together. Still need to fab a chip tray for the top and get a tool chest for the bottom as originally planned. I like the look too, it might stay unpainted. Right now it just has a coat of rust convertor on it which darkened it after the wire wheeling.

@Janger - I scavenged the parts used already for other projects as it was just a quick proof of concept but I'll put another one together and maybe get some videos of the difference!
 
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