KeithB
Resident Half Fast Machinist
Finished up a batch of parts, the first batch we ran back in 2017, before we moved to our current shop. It's a rivet-in-place bearing housing that is anchored to the wing structure of a light plane and provides a hinge point for various control surfaces. It's made from 2" diameter 2011 aluminum bar stock. The first two steps are to turn both sides on a CNC lathe and then drill the rivet holes on a CNC mill. The last step is to insert two small ball bearings in the housing and crimp the end over to retain them. I made a tool to do this on the manual lathe. It has a wheel with the proper size radius machined into it. It is made from A2 tool steel but I haven't hardened it yet. Probably don't need to and I wanted to work out any kinks anyway. It seems to work fine.
The part is held in a face collet (which is also used for the second lathe operation and the CNC drilling operation) and is turned at 350 rpm. The tool is manually fed in from the end along the Z axis, when the wheel makes contact it starts spinning and rolls the end of the part over, effectively crimping the bearings in place. A few seconds with some Scotch brite pads to clean off any tool marks and its done.
Bearing housing and bearings
.
Bearing housings with both bearings in place. Left hand is piece before crimping. Right hand is after crimping.
Part in custom made face collet and tool mounted in tool post.
Part in collet prior to crimping. The crimping wheel is made from A2 tool steel, I was able to machine the proper radius in it with High Speed Steel tooling since it is unhardened. I could harden it, A2 is easy, but I don't really think it's necessary.
I have a video of the operation but I'd have to make a Youtube vid of it.
The part is held in a face collet (which is also used for the second lathe operation and the CNC drilling operation) and is turned at 350 rpm. The tool is manually fed in from the end along the Z axis, when the wheel makes contact it starts spinning and rolls the end of the part over, effectively crimping the bearings in place. A few seconds with some Scotch brite pads to clean off any tool marks and its done.
Bearing housing and bearings
.
Bearing housings with both bearings in place. Left hand is piece before crimping. Right hand is after crimping.
Part in custom made face collet and tool mounted in tool post.
Part in collet prior to crimping. The crimping wheel is made from A2 tool steel, I was able to machine the proper radius in it with High Speed Steel tooling since it is unhardened. I could harden it, A2 is easy, but I don't really think it's necessary.
I have a video of the operation but I'd have to make a Youtube vid of it.
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