This Mornings Machining Project

Very nice work as usual Mike

 

I have 2 lathes, both South Bend 9" machines, one with a 3' bed the other with a 4' bed. I had a threading dial for the older 3' model but not for the 4' model.
These things are expensive to buy off of Ebay and are not made anymore. My son in law and I measured and modeled one. I had a friend 3D print it out of some tough material that would not work on my 3d printer. I finished machining all the holes today and assembled it and gave it a try, Success! I have since sanded it but need to prime and paint it tomorrow. The dial is steel with the numbers stamped, there is a 7/16" steel shaft with a gear attached at the other end to ride on the lead screw. This is used for timing when threading a piece of steel. Right now the shaft is riding in the plastic but I may add some bronze bushings later on.

 

Old world Art Deco meets new age machine technology. Gotta stay up with the times. I try to embrace all technologies when making things. The 3d printer is cool for making certain things, gonna try to use it to make casting patterns for aluminum and brass this winter.

 

Do you have a pre-load value for that set up?

 

Not really, I tightened them up till they were snug with no discernible deflection. If I checked them with a torque wrench it would be very low, probably less than 5-7lbft.

 

Thanks a lot! I also thought that as long as practically no play is observable is OK. The objective is to have a rigid pivotal point that does not transfer/increase any movement other than the axial rotation. One question (another): I don't know if is due to model differences, but in my case (62 CJ5) the holder for the shaft in the chassis is just a clamping grip. The diameter of the shaft and the clamping bolt do not interfere. I see you made a cut on the side and I thought it was to accommodate a bolt/key that would prevent any rotation of the shaft. In my case I guess I will have to rely on the gripping force of the clamp. Besides, I do not foresee a lot of friction induced rotation on the shaft. The bearings will take care of that. Thanks!

 

I got a new 3d printer for Christmas so I have been having fun playing with it.
I made this little case to hold center drills all together in one place when I carry my cordless drill around at work.
It fits together quite well, these printers are awesome to have. The print took a total of 4½-5 hours for both parts. Just set the printer and walk away, the printer is sitting on my desk just running away while I watch TV.



The threading dial I made several weeks back all finished and painted.

 

What are those shims for? Pardon the ignorance.

 

Caster Shims

 

Yep, caster shims for front axle correction. They correct the caster so the front end will return to center after taking a corner and aid in tracking while driving down the road.

 

Why are they not installed from the factory, if they improve steering? Or is it something developed later on and is a good adition to the front axle? How do I know how many degrees do I need? How does the coconut gets its water?

 

There installed to correct the effects of lift, longer shackles, swapped axles and the fact that the older jeeps from 75 on back were never intended to travel at modern hwy speeds. Jeeps came with manual Ross steering boxes which are hi effort boxes, more caster makes jeeps more stable but it increases steering effort .

 

I had several projects in the last 3 days. I will post pictures of the last project sunday when I get a chance to finish it. For now I made a couple of printed parts.

The first is a holder for my 3/8" hex drive bits, (made 3 of them), the 2nd is a small block to hold Dremel bits, I have hundreds of them from over the years and there in a drawer in a cabinet, I hate hunting thru them so I made a block to keep about 20 of them handy at all times and easy access.

 

OK, finally got around to finishing my last machining project. Since my lathe is 76 years old and a rather small lathe at that. When I have to knurl parts I hate doing it with the standard bump knurl that is so common and cheap. I could not find a straddle knurl that I liked so I designed one and built it. I made all the parts but the spring and the knurl wheels and the bolt. I even made the nuts for adjusting it. The thing turned out pretty well and works great. Only thing left to do is harden the small shafts that the knurl wheels ride on. For a size comparison the wheels are 3/4" diameter x 3/8" wide with a 1/4" hole in the middle. It will knurl diameters from 2" diameter down to around 3/16" diameter. I have coarse, medium and fine crosscut knurls along with straight knurl wheels.




The first piece I knurled on it, done about 5 minutes after I got it assembled.

 

Thanks!! I had a project in mind when I built this. I will get started on it in a few more days. This next one will involve machining, blueing and possibly plating.