Turning a plug for a cardboard tube and bed wear.

[jcdammeyer]

I have a cardboard shipping tube I use to hold the oil hardening round stock. Then end just had the plastic cap held in with staples. Probably 17 years old considering I was building my Gingery lathe in 2002.
Anyway I went to move it and the plastic cap came out in pieces. I grabbed a chunk of 1.875"" diameter dowel I turned on the wood lathe years ago and sliced off about 1.25" and chucked that into the Gingery Lathe.
Set up my ELS for 0.040" per pass, thread depth to 0.215 or so. Set the BEGIN and END positions and pressed START. A minute or so later I had the plug. Quick dab of glue and a couple of staples and once it's dry I don't think it will come out again.
Then I cleaned off the sawdust and started oiling things again.
That's when I noticed that the aluminum on CRS has actually created bed wear over the last 15 years or so. Of course since this was the development platform for the ELS it makes sense there's been a lot of back and forth motion. But even though I have the South Bend which only has the Z axis automated, the fully automated Gingery does get the occasional use. But bed wear from aluminum on CRS. Fascinating.

 

[GrayTech]

Aluminium has a tendency to embed hard particles turning it into an abrasive. Cant think of any other explanation.

 

[jcdammeyer]

It's also just Cold Rolled Steel for the bedway. And the aluminium castings are from scrap so who knows what's in them. And I did set up my ELS with a grindstone on the spindle to do some tool sharpening. Maybe I didn't protect the bed enough. Not that it matters a lot. Just interesting.

 

[PeterT]

That should last you another 20 years. I use shipping tubes too with the standard plastic ends. They just lay horizontal on a shelf but stacked on one another. That way see the ends of the stock & there is no real stress on the ends. KBC ships their rod stock in similar tubes, so they are pretty tough. You can get metal lids, telescoping tubes, extras heavy wall cardboard... They are pretty useful. I thought I might switch over to plastic plumbing with glued ends but I recall it worked out to way more money. So tree killing it is!

 

[jcdammeyer]

Yup. The plastic typeis the one that failed. Plastic was a bit brittle.