What's Paul up to?

[Dabbler]

Am I missing something here? I use a diamond embedded in the tip of a steel bar. I put a war hold on it and run it back and forth guided by a flat edge.

Instead of a rotary star dresser, adn a single diamond dresser, it has become popular to use nickle bonded CBN crystals in a little tab about .400" X 1" - on a metal rod. Sometimes there is a cheap wooden handle. I used one in a woodworkers shop, and would not recommend.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

I use one of these. A "norbide" stick. Not the exact one I have, but similar. They last a loooooong time.
https://www.tenaquip.com/product/no...MI2_HY-eHO_AIV3RTUAR0x0AmxEAQYBSABEgLHVfD_BwE

I also have smaller ones, and different styles to dress/relieve surface grinder wheels. Messy, but quick and handy when you need to dish the face to side wheel. Final dressing of course with a diamond nib in a holder. For touching up a bench grinder wheel they are, IMO, much better than a nib, cluster, or star dresser. Everyone has their preferences though. YMMV. For the price it's cheap to try out.

 

[PaulL]

Very little shop time this last week. I did manage to anchor my grinding wheel better, and made some changes to the base on the tool grinder. I'm happier with this finish:

I'm out of excuses now, I need to make a thing, instead of a tool for a tool.

 

[Susquatch]

I'm out of excuses now, I need to make a thing, instead of a tool for a tool.

Hey Paul. Making tools for your tools is a source of pride you know!

But ya, can't wait to see what you make next!

 

[Mcgyver]

Hey Paul. Making tools for your tools is a source of pride you know!

Is that what its called? I always thought it was "why I must live be 800 to get it all done" or "I can't no longer remember the starting point of the 8 layers i've dropped into of needing this to make this" or "why wasn't I intelligent enough to like just sitting on the couch and watching sports".

 

[PaulL]

Been at the cabin since the weekend. Finally have the solar array, batteries, and inverter all running. And *lights*! Now I get to sort this shop into tidiness. With lights I can do this in the evening, after work! Crazy!

 

[DPittman]

Been at the cabin since the weekend. Finally have the solar array, batteries, and inverter all running. And *lights*! Now I get to sort this shop into tidiness. With lights I can do this in the evening, after work! Crazy!

Looks and sounds like paradise to me.

 

[jcdammeyer]

Looks and sounds like paradise to me.

Hey we live on the wet coast. It is paradise.

 

[PaulL]

Looks and sounds like paradise to me.

It is. I got a bit of luck many years ago and used it to get this property.
I'm looking forward to plumbing in the chimney for the coke forge. Until then it will continue to be propane.

 

[Susquatch]

Hey we live on the wet coast. It is paradise.

Not for me! That weather sounds horrible! I like snow!

 

[jcdammeyer]

Not for me! That weather sounds horrible! I like snow!

We had that white stuff too. In fact Monday. Of course it's gone now.

 

[PaulL]

Today I discovered that flood coolant is transformative!
I got it running this morning, which really means figuring out that the pump doesn't pump unless the spindle is turning. The power comes from the VFD to a separate contactor, driving the 3-phase pump motor. So of course you can't test it by just "turning on the pump". So getting it running really only involved half a day of head scratching, and then dumping 4 gallons of coolant into the sump.
So of course I immediately went to town one something too big for my table ;-)

It's one of three heavy 4"x1.5" cast bar 4' long with these convenient recesses cast in:

So I use those to hold it to the table, rough one half out, slide it down the table and rough the other end. Turn it over onto parallels, do the same, then turn it a third time and take a finish pass. It won't be perfectly straight, but close enough?
The cuts the carbide inserts can take while being cooled are just astounding to me.

These are going to be the rails for a lathe a friend is building - I'm thinking "incredible overkill" while he's thinking "they were free!" But either way I'm impressed by what this mill can do.

 

[PaulL]

Today I discovered that flood coolant is transformative!

This is also my first time using coolant - any advice on post-use cleanup? I'm certainly going to be rigging up a curtain to catch the mess.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

https://canadianhobbymetalworkers.com/threads/bathroom-demo-reno-materials-salvage.6974/#post-103880

Go grab this 4 piece tub/shower surround and you're half way there lol

Flood coolant is a game changer. Messy, though. I've never ran it on an open manual machine, squirt bottle/total loss only. One shop I used to work at had a large open maho CNC mill, and used to lay down a barrier ring of absorball on the floor around it, and in the morning after an overnight finishing run, shopvac up what they could to reuse it. I wouldn't recommend that though.....

 

[PaulL]

Inspired by a @140mower's recent post, I got into the shop to make up a new spindle for my indexing jig, going direct to ER32 instead of stopping through MT3 on the way.
New spindle shows about 4 thou runout on the work and much higher rigidity. That's a huge improvement over the first spindle.

I used @140mower's collet-on-a-rod trick to set the angle and it just worked a beaut.

 

[PaulL]

Inspired by a @140mower's recent post, I got into the shop to make up a new spindle for my indexing jig, going direct to ER32 instead of stopping through MT3 on the way.
New spindle shows about 4 thou runout on the work and much higher rigidity. That's a huge improvement over the first spindle.

View attachment 32433
I used @140mower's collet-on-a-rod trick to set the angle and it just worked a beaut.

Incidentally, this was the first "real" threading I did since putting the electronic gearing on my lathe. Set it to metric, 1.5mm pitch, set the compound angle and engaged the lead screw. Motor in reverse to back out, and it all worked perfectly on the first try. I'm now *really* surprised not to see small lathes out of China with this hardware built-in. I guess the servo costs just enough more than the change gears to not yet make it worthwhile, but that's only if the buyer doesn't count their own time.
Another benefit: too heavy a cut slips the lead screw drive belt instead of crashing the carriage. If I was really clever I'd figure out how to size it properly for high torque and decent safety.

 

[YotaBota]

All is looking good, did you use LED lighting in the shop? I just changed out flourescents for LED and what a difference, the LEDs are so much brighter.

 

[PaulL]

did you use LED lighting in the shop?

Yes, it's all LED. What a difference! My woodshop still has old-school fluorescents, and they are on the list to change out the next time I see the LED ones on sale.

 

[PeterT]

I got into the shop to make up a new spindle for my indexing jig

Maybe I missed it but how do you index that unit to different angles?

 

[PaulL]

Maybe I missed it but how do you index that unit to different angles?

The change gears from my lathe fit on the back. Should have mounted one before taking that picture!