-
Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.
Internal splines
- Thread starter Garyt
- Start date
Former Member
Guest
If you have a vertical mill and a rotarytable you can do it yourself it just takes a little time.
Patience :>
:> … I decided to add inches.
Last edited:
make your own ruler. Lay out a piece of heavy-ish plastic strip 15” long, with index marks at multiples of 1-1/4”. Wrap electrical tape around your lathe spindle (no overlap, cut each layer so it lays flat) until the 15” long plastic strip fits exactly on the taped-up spindle. Tape the plastic strip in place. Drill.
I can visualize an external spline on a mill or even a lathe with attachments, but I do not see how a internal spline would be possible.
Gary
It's no different than cutting a key way slot. It can be done manually on a mill or lathe but would be very time consuming.
How many splines and how long? I have an 8" shaper, but no means of indexing the work piece.
What is it that you're working on?
Last edited:
Quick description - square tool bit, held in top slide straddling center line, crank cross slide towards headstock, shallow depth of cut, lathe chuck not turning. Takes <forever>! but can be done. The video shows a lever-operated slide, but it can also be done just using the regular cross slide feed hand wheel.
What depth of cut can you expect? 0.001" 0.002" ? When I tried this I was getting 1 thou per stroke so 100 strokes for 0.1" deep keyway. It would not cut more than 0.001 in a pass - otherwise just jammed to a stop. Maybe my HSS bit was not sharp enough? So 12 splines 0.1" deep perhaps 1200 back and forth operations? Seemed to warrant CNC automation!
Last edited:
Craig I am in the process of getting exact (less approximate) measurements. If you are interested in the project just Pm me not sure I want to publicly discuss it at this point.
Gary
Tom Kitta
Ultra Member
I just cut two internal keyways on a shaper. Keyways are 5/16 (about .150 deep) and are in 3 in deep in 1.25 ID rod
1. Its not easy as it seems.
2. Even on a large shaper (I have 13") it is difficult to cut 5/16 in a single stroke, tool will bend and not take, then it will take but too much hitting your setup like a ton of bricks bending 1/2" setup screws...
3. Using smaller cutter is possible but its better to start from the center and expand left -- and right, when I started from left and moved only right I got it a bit off center.
4. Even with shaper it is time consuming.
Using a drill or lathe for manual shaping would be ... rather a good workout.
5. Setup for a single keyway is already a bit involved, setup with an indexer even more so.
6. Cutting internal spline with a shaper for average machinist like me for 3" ID and a 1/4 in wide and 125 deep would mean 9.42 / 0.25 / 2 so around 18 or 19 cuts? This would be a most of a weekend on a shaper.
7. Given how things are cut, with dragging of the HSS bit back your HSS bit will dull quickly -- need to re-sharpen and reset.
Overall shaper does the job but seems to be doing it slow - with 3/4" tool going over a 3" cut or more there is a LOT of deflection so one cannot take big cuts at all - at least you are not manually taking off 0.002 or 0.001. With 3" ID one would need to make a larger tool, say 2" to make it deflect far less.
1. Its not easy as it seems.
2. Even on a large shaper (I have 13") it is difficult to cut 5/16 in a single stroke, tool will bend and not take, then it will take but too much hitting your setup like a ton of bricks bending 1/2" setup screws...
3. Using smaller cutter is possible but its better to start from the center and expand left -- and right, when I started from left and moved only right I got it a bit off center.
4. Even with shaper it is time consuming.
Using a drill or lathe for manual shaping would be ... rather a good workout.
5. Setup for a single keyway is already a bit involved, setup with an indexer even more so.
6. Cutting internal spline with a shaper for average machinist like me for 3" ID and a 1/4 in wide and 125 deep would mean 9.42 / 0.25 / 2 so around 18 or 19 cuts? This would be a most of a weekend on a shaper.
7. Given how things are cut, with dragging of the HSS bit back your HSS bit will dull quickly -- need to re-sharpen and reset.
Overall shaper does the job but seems to be doing it slow - with 3/4" tool going over a 3" cut or more there is a LOT of deflection so one cannot take big cuts at all - at least you are not manually taking off 0.002 or 0.001. With 3" ID one would need to make a larger tool, say 2" to make it deflect far less.
Thanks for the shaper insight Tom from my very limited knowledge I thought it would be more an indexing problem. The project is for Calgary Mosquito Society not an insect.
Any more ideas always welcome.
Gary
It looks like @Garyt is helping restore a mosquito bomber., Cool stuff, Isn't time consuming is par for the course for that kinda stuff?
You guys could set it up in the vertical mill like suggested and take turns, each guy cuts one spline every day they are in, I would take a while, but it would get done, and when you break up monotonous work in such a way it just seems to get done magically, it's hard to remember how long it even took, 45 min at a time
You guys could set it up in the vertical mill like suggested and take turns, each guy cuts one spline every day they are in, I would take a while, but it would get done, and when you break up monotonous work in such a way it just seems to get done magically, it's hard to remember how long it even took, 45 min at a time
Apologies for the tangent. I was quite sure I Goggled CMS in the past. It looked like the newsletters stop ~2017 & help wanted wasn't really looking for people with restoration related skills. Obviously the group & project is still a going concern? Is there any more information of current activity? I meant to swing out that way for a visit this past summer & never made it.
May I ask, what specifically is the spline part for?
May I ask, what specifically is the spline part for?
Come and visit the project on a Saturday (10 until 4) and no time is not of the essence but we are making progress and new hands are always welcome.
Gary