G. Thomas Versatile Dividing Head (Hemingway Kits)

[springcrocus]

Nice work, Sam. Still following along. 

Regards, Steve

[Chipswitheverything]

The VDH coming on well now, your photos take me back to similar work on it that I did yonks ago....   Looked back at the start of your blog, if you plan to do the whole works with the plates and micro attachment, then there is plenty of quite intricate but interesting machining to come. But with GHT's very well thought out notes on procedure as a guide, it all worked out very well, and was satisfying to work through.  It's always quite nice to get the big casting lump done to satisfaction and out of the way, the smaller bits are on the whole more fun...  Dave

[Don1966]

Very nicely done…


 
Don

[samc88]

Thanks all for the kind comments!
Little more progress tonight in that Ive managed to finish off some previous components, namely the clamping cotters and also used the slitting saw on the banjo arm. I will swap the slotted screw for a hex or allen bolt on final assembly for better ease of use

[Bruno Mueller]

You can see what it will eventually become.
Really great .

[Bruno Mueller]

Some time ago I bought the casting kit for a rotating vice from Hemingway-Kits and made the part. I found that the VDH also fits on this turntable. After a modification of the base plate of the VDH and a central fitting hole for the pivot I was able to mount the VDH on the turntable of the vice.

[samc88]

Its been a while! Started a new job so progress has been slow for a while but got a lot done lately. Ill start with finishing the banjo arm, this was slit with a slitting saw and then polished up with scotchbrite

[samc88]

Next up is the spindle. First I put it in the 4 jaw getting it to run concentricaply as possible before roughing it down leaving the diameter oversize and boring then reaming the hole ø0.75".

Once at that stage I then made a mandrel which held the spindle for final turning to diameter to be a nice fit in the bore of the body and then threaded the two sections which came out quite nicely

[samc88]

Finishing the spindle.

I put the nuts on the spindle and then back on the mandrel to clean up the OD. Then it was on to the mill to drill and tap 3 M5 grub screws in the spindle and one grub screw and 2 spanner holes in the nuts. This would be easy with a dividing head/ spindexer. To mark them out for drilling I used the 3 jaw chuck. Brought a jaw down on to a bit of wood between in and the bed, scribed a line with a lathe tool, rotated it by one jaw and repeat etc. It worked well.

The next task was the keyway and key. The keyway was done with a 1/8" slot drill and opened out to 4mm to be a good fit for the supplied keysteel. The key was simply cut and filed to be a good fit. I went away from the drawings for this. They have you file the ends of the key down to give a step to fit in the nut recess but I preferred the look of a full key. This however did mean I had to modify the nuts and open the recess out a bit.

With the keyway done it meant I could assemble the story so far. I did clean up the gear face with scotchbrite and chamfered the edges which looks better I think. Everything is a really nice close fit which I am really happy with. Looks a lot like progress now!

The ball handles I shall do later, I have a plan to do them differently to the book but I have to wait for some material to arrive (some unhardened iron balls from ebay) and the plunger will get finished off once the gear has been drilled so I can turn it to be a good fit in the holes

[samc88]

The next stage to tackle is the dividing attachment starting with the cast iron block. This was first cleaned up with files which didnt take long as the casting was very good. I then went to the mill and milled some reference surfaces. This then let me mark it out starting out with the hole locations so I could get everything visually centred. Next I marked the centre on the bottom and checked that the casting was sufficiently large enough to get the proper dimensions (it is). Next stage is to put this in the 4 jaw and machine the bottom (probably tomorrow or this week sometime). But now you are all caught up finally with my progress!

[Admiral_dk]

Congratulations with the new Job 

Nice progress and parts 

Per

[samc88]

Thanks Per!

Bit more done today, faced and turned the body after setting up in the 4 jaw. I drilled and reamed the 5/8" bore, I wasnt very happy with the finish so i bored it slightly oversize, it doesnt matter as I will turn the shaft to fit the bore. The next job to do is to mill the sides to final width

[Bruno Mueller]

Beautifully documented.
Congratulations from my side.

[samc88]

I have made some progress! Been off and on the last few months but kept forgetting to do updates.

First off I finished off the block by doing the holes.
Next I made a start on the gear assembly. Quite a simple part you just have to be careful of the fit between the gear and the boss. Thus was done first and the hole bored out before making mandrel to let me finish turning the other side. There are 4 holes to do on this but I will do that at the same time as the plates when the DRO is set up

[samc88]

The next thing to do was the worm shaft bearing sleeve which was a fun thing to machine. I did also do the worm shaft but I completely forgot to take any pictures.

With that done I next turned to the indexing plunger sleeve which was quite a simple part to make up turning wise. Ill deal with the milled features in the next update