Author Topic: Workshop Log  (Read 42319 times)

Offline propforward

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #120 on: September 23, 2018, 12:47:21 PM »
Thanks Art, great to hear from you. You will find that bandsaw a very handy addition. Much easier than a hacksaw for cutting blanks of stock for one thing.

Mine is a cheapo one from Grizzly, and it took a lot of set up, but now it does a decent job.
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline crueby

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #121 on: September 23, 2018, 02:39:24 PM »
Thanks Art, great to hear from you. You will find that bandsaw a very handy addition. Much easier than a hacksaw for cutting blanks of stock for one thing.

Mine is a cheapo one from Grizzly, and it took a lot of set up, but now it does a decent job.
This year I added a bandsaw from SawBlade.com, current project has been giving it a huge workout, very happy with it. I find it makes a much squarer cut with much less waste and cleanup on the lathe, plus is much much faster and easier on me.

Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #122 on: September 24, 2018, 09:25:45 PM »
Thanks Art, great to hear from you. You will find that bandsaw a very handy addition. Much easier than a hacksaw for cutting blanks of stock for one thing.

Mine is a cheapo one from Grizzly, and it took a lot of set up, but now it does a decent job.
This year I added a bandsaw from SawBlade.com, current project has been giving it a huge workout, very happy with it. I find it makes a much squarer cut with much less waste and cleanup on the lathe, plus is much much faster and easier on me.

Which bandsaw model did you get Chris?

Jim
Sherline 4400 Lathe
Sherline 5400 Mill
"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Offline crueby

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #123 on: September 24, 2018, 11:13:32 PM »
Thanks Art, great to hear from you. You will find that bandsaw a very handy addition. Much easier than a hacksaw for cutting blanks of stock for one thing.

Mine is a cheapo one from Grizzly, and it took a lot of set up, but now it does a decent job.
This year I added a bandsaw from SawBlade.com, current project has been giving it a huge workout, very happy with it. I find it makes a much squarer cut with much less waste and cleanup on the lathe, plus is much much faster and easier on me.

Which bandsaw model did you get Chris?

Jim
Its the Trajan 125, working out very well for me. I have used it to cut all the stainless and brass stock for all the wheels, pulleys, gears, plus all the bar stock on the Marion build. The original blade that came with it lasted a fair while, had to replace it a couple weeks ago, but it had made a lot of cuts in 2 and 3" diameter steel bar stock - it had not gone dull, but the weld cracked where the blade was joined up. I had gotten a handful of spare blades at the same time, I think they are a little better quality than the first one. They have a large variety of blade styles, with a selector for what kind of stock you will be cutting to help you pick the right one. One thing I like with this saw is that it does not require oil or coolant (says not to use it), since the speed is adjustable for the type and size of bar stock. It cuts nice and square so I waste less metal, the vise will take up to 5" bar. It seems much better made than the big box store brands, but is priced higher too.

Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #124 on: September 25, 2018, 04:47:28 AM »
Its the Trajan 125, working out very well for me. I have used it to cut all the stainless and brass stock for all the wheels, pulleys, gears, plus all the bar stock on the Marion build. The original blade that came with it lasted a fair while, had to replace it a couple weeks ago, but it had made a lot of cuts in 2 and 3" diameter steel bar stock - it had not gone dull, but the weld cracked where the blade was joined up. I had gotten a handful of spare blades at the same time, I think they are a little better quality than the first one. They have a large variety of blade styles, with a selector for what kind of stock you will be cutting to help you pick the right one. One thing I like with this saw is that it does not require oil or coolant (says not to use it), since the speed is adjustable for the type and size of bar stock. It cuts nice and square so I waste less metal, the vise will take up to 5" bar. It seems much better made than the big box store brands, but is priced higher too.

That's a nice looking bandsaw Chris. Looks perfect for what we do.
Sherline 4400 Lathe
Sherline 5400 Mill
"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #125 on: September 30, 2018, 04:27:12 PM »
What kind of footprint does that Trajan 125 take?
I've been thinking of getting rid of my horizontal saw. It takes up quite a bit of space, is messy, and I very rarely use it in vertical mode.
(By getting 'rid of' I mean moving it into the garage.)
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
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Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

Offline crueby

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #126 on: September 30, 2018, 05:31:34 PM »
What kind of footprint does that Trajan 125 take?
I've been thinking of getting rid of my horizontal saw. It takes up quite a bit of space, is messy, and I very rarely use it in vertical mode.
(By getting 'rid of' I mean moving it into the garage.)
It takes up a 28"x12" space on the bench, the saw section has a lock to hold it down horizontal so you can pick it up by the back of the blade guide to carry it around. It does not go up fully vertical. I was able to get mine at their intruductory sale price, it is up to normal price now. I don't know if they do sales around christmas or not. (I am in no way connected to that company)

https://www.sawblade.com/order-bandsaw-machine-trajan125.cfm


Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #127 on: October 03, 2018, 02:59:48 AM »
What kind of footprint does that Trajan 125 take?
I've been thinking of getting rid of my horizontal saw. It takes up quite a bit of space, is messy, and I very rarely use it in vertical mode.
(By getting 'rid of' I mean moving it into the garage.)
It takes up a 28"x12" space on the bench, the saw section has a lock to hold it down horizontal so you can pick it up by the back of the blade guide to carry it around. It does not go up fully vertical. I was able to get mine at their intruductory sale price, it is up to normal price now. I don't know if they do sales around christmas or not. (I am in no way connected to that company)

https://www.sawblade.com/order-bandsaw-machine-trajan125.cfm

Looks like they're temporarily out of stock right now. I like the idea of a saw that can be stored out of the way when not needed. I've looked back at my past projects and thought about future projects and there's not anything that it couldn't of cut for me.
Sherline 4400 Lathe
Sherline 5400 Mill
"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Offline Steamer5

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #128 on: October 03, 2018, 04:03:04 AM »
Hi guys,
A bandsaw in the shop soon becomes one of the most used tools ....... well it does in mine!
Hay Zee have a hunt for the mods I did to my saw, putting it on wheels makes moving it around easy. Oh you need to make the wheels on one end are lockable. Making the quick change bigger table means putting it on & off you don’t  try to do something that you shouldn’t on the “little table” backstop

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline gary.a.ayres

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #129 on: December 08, 2019, 11:55:26 PM »
Great workshop, and an amazing tale of patience and dedication through adversity.

Well done!

Offline crueby

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #130 on: December 09, 2019, 01:55:45 AM »
Putting big tools like the bandsaw on wheels saves a ton of room in the shop, have had my Delta saw on them for years, very useful. The woodworking catalogs carry great ones, adjustable length sides, one fixed set one swivel, with a lever to lower it down to the floor and lock in place.

Offline propforward

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #131 on: December 27, 2019, 12:08:53 AM »
Not exactly earth shattering this.....................but anyway - today I finally sorted out two fundamental problems with my Grizzly G0755 mill.

It's a nice mill to be honest, and since I squared the column up to the table has been performing really well.

But, a niggling fault with it, is that the lock screw handles on the cross ways were too long, and would always interfere with the ways when traversing the table. They are the spring loaded lever type, so technically you can pull the handle back, and rotate it without undoing the lock screw to get the handle out of the way. Trouble is - I would always forget - or when having released the lock screw, the handle would flop down and then interfere with the slide ways when traversing the table.

So today, I cut them short.


Left - as supplied, right - modified.


Now they work really well. I can tighten the lock screws and they NEVER interfere with anything. It's beyond me why it took me this long to do this.  :noidea:


The other mod, of similar simplicity, was the lockscrew for the Y axis graduated collar.

It was so long, that it would interfere with the table when the table was moved towards its extreme travel position towards the operator. And this caused me to have to re adjust and re set my work several times.

So today, I cut the threaded part as short as I could and still lock the collar, and then turned off the top face of the lock screw so that when cranking the table to its extreme position, the collar lock screw passes under the table without interfering.





Again.................no idea why it took so long for the light bulb to go off in my head, but after making these two very minor modifications, the mill has become significantly more enjoyable to use.

 :Lol:

Bad design by Grizzly (or whoever makes machines for them), but otherwise I think this is a super mill, for a great price. So, not too fussed, but glad I did these slight changes.

I want to put a DRO on this mill, then the collar won't be so important. But until then, the collar is how I index to position.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2019, 12:28:29 AM by propforward »
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline propforward

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Re: Workshop adjustments
« Reply #132 on: January 04, 2020, 10:17:26 PM »
Welcome to another enthralling update on "stuff happening in my workshop".

First off, a couple of new tools found there way in. Always welcome.

A micrometer holder for my larger micrometers



And a magnetic block for my ever-so-slowly progressing grinding jig.



I have been selling off my various motorcycle projects that I acquired over the years, and using the funds to buy some new tooling. Hoping to get enough together for a DRO set up for my mill this year.

In other news, I have a little rotary table - it's a cheap Grizzly  4" model, with dividing plates - model number H5940. The time is approaching where I need to drill some bolt circles, so I thought I'd get the chuck put on it.

Finding center of the table was easy with the coaxial indicator.



Then I used a turned slug in the 3 jaw chuck to indicate on and line up the chuck.



That seemed to work out.

I'll be honest, I do not recommend this rotary table. It's cheap - and that's what you get. It does, however, seem to work.

To check it, I put this scrap aluminum disc in, and made a 6 hole pattern (just center marks).



Upon completion, the center drill came down in the same place as I started, so that was encouraging.



The pattern seemed to work out. I measured hole spacings, and everything seems even.



There were a number of problems on the rotary table - the eccentric collar that engages the worm drive gear in to the table kept slipping - it's locking mechanism didn't work. Backlash was awful, and after the 4th hole the table was binding up badly. After making the test piece, I stripped the whole thing apart, and found it was assembled incorrectly. I spent about an hour cleaning and lubing and reassembling it, and it now operates much better.

I'd advise anyone considering one not to buy one - BUT it looks like with some work it will be OK. I think I will save for a better quality one, but for the time being I'll go with this.

After that adventure, I spent a little time truing up my collet chuck on my lathe. I had noticed last weekend that there seemed to be a lack of concentricity when clamping rods in the collet, and they seemed off center relative to the lathe spindle. Turns out the chuck had not been trued on the backing plate. I managed to get TIR to under 0.0005", which I think is as good as I can get. The lack of rigidity on this machine means that I can push on the chuck while stationary and deflect it that amount. At least to my eye it now runs true, where it didn't before.



Having completed these tasks, I am ready to actually work on more engine parts tomorrow, so looking forward to that.

Not very exciting, but I quite enjoy keeping this log up, even with minor activities like these.

Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline propforward

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Re: Workshop Log
« Reply #133 on: January 18, 2020, 06:28:00 PM »
Been having a little trouble with my lathe lately. I surmised that something was up in the drive system in the apron, by the way the backlash had massively increased, and returning to zero on the feed dial for the carriage was no longer possible. I had thought a sheared pin or broken key or something.

Pulled the apron off



Started taking it apart, and got here



And could not tap that roll pin out. Suspicious, I peered down the middle of the roll pin



Sure enough, that's the broken pin, could not see through it.

Pulled the shaft out



At one time this was a whole roll pin.



Anyway, all back together now.





Glad to have this back up and running. I never crashed the lathe, so I'm not sure why that pin failed. I wonder if it will happen again - just have to wait and see. If it does, I'll consider making a modification to that drive.
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Online Kim

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Re: Workshop Log
« Reply #134 on: January 19, 2020, 05:19:05 AM »
That was pretty good repair work, I'd say!  A job well done  :ThumbsUp: :)
Kim

 

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