Hi Guys
Bob, thanks for stopping by and the nice comments, yes I plan to post some pictures of the engraving operation.
Next up is the machining of the nuts screws and thrust bearings.
The nut castings like all the others need little to no fettling. I went over these with a fine file and then bead blasted them.
The nuts were put in the mill vise upside down and clamped on the boss. As you can see they were set on some cardboard strips from the back of a tablet to be used as packing. The nuts were indicated along their length and adjusted to run true. This will insure the as cast features are in alignment with the machined surfaces.
The bottom surface was faced to thickness and then the sides were machined to the proper width. The sides were machined to be symmetric to the boss.
The nuts have been deburred and flipped over. The rebates are machined on each side, once again making sure to keep them symmetric to the cast boss.
In preparation for drilling a very light skim was taken across front face of the nut.
After drilling the 1/4"-28 left hand thread is tapped. The tap had to be ground back to the square drive to have enough clearance.
Using a small precision vise at the proper angle the large bevels were machined on the bottom of the nuts.
The last operation on the nuts was to carefully remove the cast radius on the angled surface of the boss. This is for clearance needed by the ball segment.
This should have been done before the large bevels were machined, then the nut could have simply been clamped on the sides and set at the proper angle. I didn’t realize at the time the this radius was going to need to be removed.
The screws are machined form 1144 stress proof steel. I had done the first operations on the CNC lathe at work, including the single pointed left and right hand threads. I must have been having fun, looks like I made a few extras.
The next operation was to mill the hex for the vise handle. I used a collet fixture and had the screw standing vertically, then the CNC was use to drive the cutter around the part.
The last operation for the screws was to machine away the excess material.
The stock is removed creating a relief behind the threads for the nut.
Early on Roland and I both searched for a proper thrust bearing for the vise and neither one of us were able to come up with anything small enough. So I decided to see if I could make on that would work. There wasn’t much real estate to work with in this area; the 1.5mm balls were chosen because they were readily available and would fit in the space.
Here the ball cage has been drilled in the mill, and now in the lathe it is turned, bored and parted off.
Here is a family shot of two bearing assemblies. The bearing races were machined form O1 tool steel, hardened and ground.
The thrust bearing is assembled on the screw and packed with grease on final assembly.
Here are a couple shots showing how the nuts fit into the vise bodies.
Thanks for checking in.
Dave