Ian
Notorious member
Had a 96-tooth gear I wanted to add to my 7x14 lathe for a little finer finish feed rate, but the 7x14 standard keyway is 4mm wide and the gear is from the 8x series of chinamarket lathes that have two compound pairs of change gears and really oddball tooth counts use 3mm keys. As usual I had to make a tool to make a tool to make a tool so I could use a tool to make what I wanted to make in the first place.
5/8x18 all thread rod from an 18-wheeler brake chamber repurposed here. Normally the cutter shank would be put directly into the clapper box but for this little stuff the Armstrong holder worked fine.
Things I learned today:
No matter how hard you try, no more than 1.5 threads of an 8x32 grub screw will start in a 6x32 hole.
It is not possible for the human brain to think in Metric and Imperial at the same time. Pick one based on machine tool dials, convert the measurements if necessary. Needing to dial in .12mm on a thousandths dial and having to stop and do the calculation is very frustrating.
Cheap HSS drill shanks do not oil-harden but do water-harden.
It is more fun and accurate to do in an hour with machine tools what can be done in five minutes with a square file, but only if machine work is an enjoyable pastime for you.
5/8x18 all thread rod from an 18-wheeler brake chamber repurposed here. Normally the cutter shank would be put directly into the clapper box but for this little stuff the Armstrong holder worked fine.
Things I learned today:
No matter how hard you try, no more than 1.5 threads of an 8x32 grub screw will start in a 6x32 hole.
It is not possible for the human brain to think in Metric and Imperial at the same time. Pick one based on machine tool dials, convert the measurements if necessary. Needing to dial in .12mm on a thousandths dial and having to stop and do the calculation is very frustrating.
Cheap HSS drill shanks do not oil-harden but do water-harden.
It is more fun and accurate to do in an hour with machine tools what can be done in five minutes with a square file, but only if machine work is an enjoyable pastime for you.
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