Q:

First mod done.

And, suprisingly, it was a success. I have o-ring modded my brass collar (tophat & stem seat). I made a cutting tool from an allen-key (about an hour of winging it on a grind-wheel in the lathe’s chuck), then went at the brass. Any one of you lot would have cringed so hard your faces would have imploded. Gonzo machining. 😆

Yes, ok, it took me approx two hours, you lot would have done it in 20 minutes (probably less). I had to keep taking the bit off, checking it, trying to stuff an o-ring in it, back and forth. And what the hell is the deal with the o-ring?! MURDERS getting one in there. I destroyed five before I got the sixth in relatively un-scathed. I suppose there’s a trick to it?

Now I have to re-fill the bottle. 😮

Mods/Machinists

All Replies

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 54 total)

1 2 3 4

Menehune, I got it off ebay. The thing that closed the deal for me was after I emailed them for a shipping quote. I was quoted around $230 for the mill to my doorstep in hawaii. I’m fairly sure that was a mistake on their part as other quotes have run near $700, which is why I’ve never ordered one before; so I grabbed that one real quick to get them to commit on the order and lock in that shipping price. Not bad at all for a shipped weight of around 450 lbs.

aloha,
walt

quote walt_in_hawaii:

Jeez,you guys are organized. this just got dropped on my doorstep today and I had nowhere to put it:

Trivial question, but where did you pick up your mill from walt? I was looking in furnishing my hobby room.

quote Langnasen:

quote baz:

i may be wrong but it looks like you have stuck your tool in the wrong side of the hole, good look with the regulator when you start making it.

Eh? What difference does it make which side I did it from? The tool cut the brass just fine and the piece works. 😕

Is your chuck threaded or D-xx connected?

If it is threaded reverse turning is a bit of a no-no.

I thought you said you took a course in machining?………
what exactly did you cover in that course?????

Make your boring bar with a hook with angles ground to suit the metal being worked.
Setup straight with tool movement for accurate depthing and positioning of cuts.
Get some books and read about techniques and tips that make life easier when learned correctly.
When you make tools make them as rigid as possible for reduced chatter and more accurate cuts.
Set your boring bar to depth, find zero, remove 95% of oring cross section remembering that cross-slide move is diameter so 2x above dimension.
ie: I use 0.070″ cross section orings and so for a zero in a 0.312″ bore I would cut/remove 2x 0.065″ so 0.130″ which means move cutter out that much.
Good luck with the regulator…….

Nice one Lang, lets hope its the first of many sucsessful projects…. 😛

It is an R8 but I have to wait a bit to build up some cash reserves first before ordering end mill set, collet holders, end mill holders, etc… the costs build quickly. Especially for the coaxial guage set and power drive.

I was gonna ask if your Mill have arrived yet, glad to see it has. Shrpshtter, its an X3 I believe.

quote walt_in_hawaii:

Jeez,you guys are organized. this just got dropped on my doorstep today and I had nowhere to put it:

While finding a place for it, see if you can get a collet type tool holder for it if available and if it doesn’t come with your machine (can’t tell from the pic the size of your machine but an r-8 setup would give you the most versatility in choosing tooling). Drill chucks can get a little wobbly when used in a “side load” scenario as in milling unless feed rates are kept low and cut depth small. much more stable and accurate.

Jeez,you guys are organized. this just got dropped on my doorstep today and I had nowhere to put it:

good job. If it worked and no-one/nothing got hurt in the process, consider it a success. Consider the comments which might sound otherwise as constructive criticism and take a little more knowledge into the next project.

I am preparing to join you in the ranks of ridicule possibly; as my initial tooling started arriving today and my new lathe/mill is scheduled to be here wednesday.

Things I have prepared:

–Large clean workspace
–storage/organizing area
–recycling bin (for the fuckups that I know will happen)
–MANY AMBITIOUS IDEAS of stuff to build/modify
–a thick skin to put up with the CONSTRUCTIVE RIDICULE I’m bound to hear from some of the guys here as I further my abilities in this terribly addictive hobby we call airguns. 🙄 🙄 😆

Shadoh, a semi circular groove would give no place for the O ring to go; it would fit the O ring too closely. A rectangular groove allows the O ring material to deform and squish down when the gland (the sealing surface of the other piece) comes into close contact with the top of the ring. You could do it with a semi circular groove, but the interaction would be a lot ‘stiffer’ and you’d have to machine your gland tolerance a lot more closely, which is possible but time consuming. Although, after thinking about it for a bit, you could do it that way for ultra high pressure use… since the O ring has nowhere to go, you’ve have a much tighter seal so presumably could use this in applications which greatly exceed the pressure specified in the square groove application. Just some random thoughts…

I usually do internal threading in reverse as Long Nose has done. It comforts me to see what’s going on directly since I use a mirror on more than half my work daily.

You are right though, A heavy cut can possibly unscrew the lathe. Bad JuJu.

Here’s a good link to read about o-rings and grooves:
http://phonon.phys.unm.edu/tiki/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=67

Martin

“Dentistry is like fine watchmaking, except in the dark while someone is spitting on your hands” The Aged Dentist

quote :

the O ring grooves are nearly square. The specs usually call for a very slight taper, or leaning out, of the walls

Good to know. Thats how Ive made them only because it was easier. I would have thought a half circle would be the ideal Oring groove?

Langnasen, the O ring grooves are nearly square. The specs usually call for a very slight taper, or leaning out, of the walls; but this is only a degree or two. Essentially, they are rectangular. Don’t use hard corners, though, you can gently round the corners off; both on top and bottom of the grooves.

walt

Yes, I had exactly that happen. I originally mounted the tool on the far side of the toolpost, got it set up real sweet too. Then when it came to start cutting I ran out of travel.

The most important reason to spin it counter clockwise is that most of the tooling you will see for sale is designed for that direction of cutting. I do know machinists who have drawers full of old stub bits and they covet high speed bits like gold, even broken or used bits, as these can always be reground and then soldered or welded onto bars to use for internal or external jobs. I can’t be bothered so usually end up buying my tooling in the form of replaceable carbide inserts with multiple cutting edges; when they dull, just rotate the bit and you have a brand new cutting edge. But, by and large, most tooling will be for the counter clockwise cutting. The tool doesn’t know the difference, of course, but as has been pointed out, the controls are on THIS side of the machine, not the other side, so mounting of tools and bits has to be done on THIS side. In fact, most cross slides have a limited amount of travel on THAT side so you can’t do a lot of jobs cutting on the far side. I know I frequently run out of cross slide travel when I”m using my milling attachment on my lathe, because the milling attachment for a lot of jobs likes to run near the center of the ways… and when I try to run it a little farther away; bump; it max’s out. Also, the dial gauges that I use for travel measurement are on THIS side; and the other things like thread dial (when you get into threading, which is a whole ‘nother topic) are on THIS side and require fast reflexes even in granny gear.

aloha,
walt

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 54 total)

1 2 3 4
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.