PROJECTS

Taig 4-Jaw Chuck  06/15/1999 Just got a 4 Jaw chuck ( #1030 ) from Nick Carter, for $53 and change. I Mou nted/centered it with a 2 inch long piece of 1 inch aluminum rod to the 3 Jaw. M achines a recess 2.170 inches in dia, about .1 inch deep on the back. Probably s hould have done it to 2.169 as there is the tinyiest amount of play. Finding whe re to drill the 3 or4 mounting holes ( your choice ) was the biggest problem I h ad. I made 4 little threaded rods with sharp points, inserted them into the hole s with the sharp point out. Then placed a nut so that I could n the rod position ed so that the nut pushed the rod against the headstock. This left me with 4 sh arp points just extending beyond the holes. I then put the 4 jaw on the spindle, and used a plastic hammer to tap the chuck so that the points left a scratch on the back, marking the center of each of the 4 holes. ( Remember one of the 4 ho le positions is off center slightly on my spindle! ) I now had the position of t he holes so I just center drilled them, then used the drill press to hold the 1/ 4-20 tap aligned & threaded the 4 holes. Then screwed in the 4 threaded rods in the 4 jaw mounted it & ta-da! I now had a 4 jaw to use with square or ec centric;y shaped items. The chuck came out to be about 1-1/2 thou off. Not bad s ince my 3 jaw is 2 thou off. Yes there are better ways of doing this job, but it was really a test for the bison 4 jaw chuck I plan to purchase soon. The 4 jaw has a nice finish to it. It is heavy, and comes packed in grease. The jaws are reversable and are adjusted with an allen wrench ( supplied ). The finish on the jaws is kind of rough ( looks sand blasted ) compared to the chuck which is smooth and shiny. The action on the screws is a little rough but I found the more I used them the smoother they got. I think that there may be better chucks out there but you will pay through the nose to get them. Adjusting the workpiece in the 4 jaw took a min. or so to get used to but if you use two allen wrenches it's a snap. I found it easy to get the piece ofsquare brass I tested within < .001 off. My dial indicator is accurate to .001 inch and the needle moved maybe 1/4-1/2 way between the marks.

DUMMY SPINDLE PROJECT

07/27/1999 I was digging around on Nick Carters web page when I found reference to the dummy spindle Jose Rodriguez made for his 7x10 Minilathe. This got me to thinking that I could make one of those & make mounting the new 3 & 4 inch 4-Jaw chucks I have on order. ( Why did I order another 3 inch 4-jaw? I bid on the WRONG item in an Ebay auction! After realizing this I wasn't really that upset as I am planning to make an indexing head & will need a 3-jaw & 4-jaw chuck for it. ) Here's how to build it ( See Drawing ). Take a piece of aluminum 1/2" thick by about 3 1/4" in diameter and chuck it up in your 4-Jaw . Face off both sides. Use a #1 center drill, and drill about 1/16" deep. this is the center most dimensions will be taken from. Using a pair of dividers, scribe the following circles: 0.475" Radius (Center Hole ) 1.086" Radius ( Registration Area ) 1.293" Radius ( Center for Mounting Holes ) 1.574" Radius ( Outer edge of Template ) These will guide you. Mark off the holes to be drilled. This can be done with a Rotary table ( if you have one. I don't ) or by using a machinists square & scribing a vertical line intersecting the center drill hole, and the hole radius you scribed earlier. using another machinists square mark the other holes at the horizontal plane. You should have 4 of the 6 holes marked. using the #1 center drill , drill a 1/16" deep hole in each of the 4 locations. DO NOT DRILL too deep. You want a small cone taken out of the surface no more. Now take the dividers or compass & set them to 1.293". place one point in a hole you just center drilled. Scribe an intersecting line on the drill radius scribed line. Do this for the other side as well. You now have the two other legs for a 3 jaw chuck made. before drilling them with the #0 center drill use the dividers/compass & verify the distance between segments A = B = C are the same. ( See Figure #1 ) If they are, Finish center drilling all 6 of the holes. Once this is complete drill all six holes with a 9/32" Drill ( anything >.250" will do ). Re-chuck the blank & turn down one side about 0.156" from the outer edge in to the 1.086" Radius you scribed. This will be the registration area to center the chuck. If you wish to be able to place the template on the spindle itself , turn over the Blank and re-chuck it. Use the #1 center drill and mark the center of the blank on this side. Scribe a 1.086 Radius circle to mark the registration area on this side. remove about 0.156" from the center out to the scribed circle. Stop just short of the circle. This is where it gets tedious. At this point I removed the chuck from the spindle & try to test fit the template. If it will not fit re-measure the recess you made & compare it to the diameter of the registration area on the spindle. Re-mount the chuck, and remove the excess metal until the template will just wiggle on the spindle. I tested my template by cutting 6 0.250"x1.500" pins & inserted the in the spindle holes. I then took the template & tried to insert it on the spindle using the pins as a guide. My template slid on with a perfect fit. To USE: Chuck up your new 4-jaw/whatever machine the recess on the back. Remove the chuck/whatever place the template on the whatever, and use transfer punches to mark the locations of whatever hole pattern you wish to use. Drill the holes with a center drill & tap drill for whatever thread you want. Tap the holes & insert studs for that thread. Mount your new whatever to the lathe & have fun!!!

MAKING A BACKPLATE FOR THAT NEW 4 INCH CHUCK

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TILTING ANGLE TABLE PROJECT

Still under design & construction
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08/02/1999 I plan to build an indexing head so that I can try to make some gears out of aluminum or brass to replace the plastic ones on the 7x10. I felt to do a proper index head I would also need a way of angling the index head if I decided to make some bevel gears ( no need for them just thinking ahead ). I have also needed to mill angles a couple of times and had the need but not the means without angling the Mill head, which while doable is a pain to re-align back to perfectly vertical. So I found a tilting table in The Home Shop Machinist by Rudy Kouhoupt. This table was designed for his mill which is far larger than mine so I just fired up Visio & came up with a similar (VERY) version that is scaled down to 4 inches on an edge, and just under 2 inches tall when horizontal. This solves most of my height problems when milling, as I often have to place the work on 1x2x3 blocks to lift it some.

Built Prototype Tilting table for Sherline Mill Here are some images of the table before cleaning off the DYKEM Blue, and sanding to give a nice matte finish.
Tilting Table TOP	Tilting Table RIGHT SIDE
Tilting Table BOTTOM VIEW	Tilting Table REAR VIEW
Tilting Table Open REAR VIEW	Tilting Table Open REAR VIEW #2
Tilting Table Open RIGHT SIDE	Tilting Table Open RIGHT SIDE #2
Tilting Table With Vise Mounted	Tilting Table With Vise Mounted #2
Tilting Table With Vise Mounted #3	Tilting Table With Vise Mounted #4

I am now in the process of making the toolholders to go with the toolpost, and should be done in a week or so.

 

5C COLLET CHUCK PROJECT

 

5C Collet Chuck Page

 

 

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Last updated 12/11/2000

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All above images Copyright (c)1999
Ty Hoeffer

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For more information email me at:

pth3k@virginia.edu