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Downriver Tools Sherline Cross Slide Table Lever

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gerritv:
Thank you Steamer, Roger, so far a pleasure to use.

Travel is 2 inches. The operation is meant to use the Stop block to limit travel in each direction.

For making the nuts, I drill, then face the small rebate for the washer face (the tool only travels a few thou toward the centre), then part from rear but not to centre (since there is hole it is not necessary). That makes a nut blank.
Second set of operations is to face the nut and tap it.
Some file work in both operations makes it all tidier.

gerritv:
Not sure if this thread or the Lathe Backstop thread is best to demo the process:

I added a depth stop to the rear tool post to set the extension of raw stock relative to the parting blade.

Drill, add washer step and part off a series of nut blanks. I only drill about 2 nuts deep at a time to avoid wandering drill problems.This uses the rear parting blade as well as a sharp tool to make the washer face step.

Install the lathe back stop from my other posting, place nut fully against the holder/guide, retract into jaws, tighten jaws and power tap using a spiral flute tap at slow speed, wind out by hand. Chamfer, use a fine file to round the end of the hex.

It goes surprisingly quick. the photos are all of M3 nuts, 4.7mm across flats.

A great result from 5 afternoons of machining the tooling.
I'm wainting on the arrival of some nut taps, they stack the nuts onto its shank. saves a wee bit more time.

gerrit

Alex:
This is neat. I also have a Sherline, with stepper motor mounts, but put handles on "to get a feel of the lathe" and to be honest, the handles are still on it a long time later. It's a neat little lathe.

Do you end up using this Downriver slide often, and do you remove it and just use the normal screw driven slide?

I have done the opposite (mainly for boiler fittings) where I tap/drill/ream/etc brass fittings from stock big enough to mill a hex on the end, on my lathe, then on the CNC mill, I have a Sherline Rotary table with a simple g-code program to put 6 flats on something in the rotary.

When I was making lots of fittings, I'd make a fitting up to the point of "hexing" the end, put it in the mill, press play, and go and do the next fitting. Saved a bit of time when making something like 50 nuts at a time.

John.

gerritv:
I use hex stock for making nut blanks. Some from a friend, some from AliExpress(304 stainless, not the easiest to deal with). And more recently from EKP in the UK. I have plans in my head to make a rotary hollow mill to make hex, kind of the reverse of the ususal rotary broaching of a hole. Hex stock in small sizes is hard to come by in the colonies.

So far the lever cross slide has been in place for over a year, it is a bit like using a graver for machining.

What is more interesting, and I should really post here as well, is my build of DownRiver Tools' bed turret. Along with 14 tool holder so far this is looking to change how I make repetetive parts. For now I stopped on making the next 8 or so tool holders, they are getting more complex and I need a break from them :-)
My King 1022 lathe has cross slide and Z steppers for use with a Rocketronics ELS Pro, so no desire to CNC the Sherline.

Roger B:
That's a neat 'production' set up  :praise2:  :wine1:

Do you take orders  :stir:  :)

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