Herman 1961 – 2023

Last fall I was there to help him finish getting his 1988 Dodge Power Ram back together.  He took apart the truck to fix some leaking exhaust manifolds and to do the brakes.  He couldn’t get it back together.  That’s when I saw it for the first time.  It was the beginning of the end.  Never before did I see my Dad unable to finish a project.  Dad was always able to fix anything – I watched him fix things for 38 years.

Over the last year I had to step away from most of what I was doing to be there for Dad.  I was there for the scans, appointments, and the surgeries.  I was there to talk, laugh, cry, and to watch YouTube videos.  We talked about pain.  We talked about heaven.  We talked about Jesus.  We talked about the airplanes and the airplane he wanted to build in his retirement. We talked about the next VW project on his list.  As the year continued to progress Dad was more and more fatigued.  Near the end one look at Dad’s face communicated his situation.  No longer the look of determination, but one of tiredness.  Dad was sick of fighting.  His doctor told him after the drug he was on stopped working, there was little they could do.  A few weeks after that news Dad left this world.

The last 2 years have been very tough.  My wife’s mother also passed away from a sudden diagnosis of cancer at the age of 63.  It hasn’t been easy.  My wife and I had to juggle our responsibilities as parents with young children, working, caring for sick parents and now and providing help to widowed parents.  It has been stressful.  I’ve tried to deal with stress in a positive manner.  I stepped away from non-essential work (unfortunately this blog and associated content falls in the non-essential category).  Spiritually and mentally, I have leaned heavily on my Christian worldview to sort out all the dissonance witnessing such suffering causes.  Physically I’ve turned to cycling – a positive blessing in this dark valley.  I have been regularly on the bike – time alone outside to think, reflect, and focus.

It’s not that long ago that Dad passed away.  But as I reflect, my life was blessed by a loving father.  I am thankful for that.  I know all people don’t experience this blessing.  I regularly pray for fathers in this world.  I pray that Godly men will stand up, take ownership, be responsible, and love their children as they are called to do.  It made a huge impact on my life, and it continues to impact my children’s lives. 

Dad always looked forward to a new workshop project, a new blog post, or a new YouTube video.  He loved the story aspect of it all.  Dad’s finished projects, whether it was a VW Beetle, or a new handmade lunch pail told a story of a craftsman using his skill to make something.  And the creative ability and need for man to continue to make something is as old as the day humans stepped foot on this earth.  I think it’s fitting to continue and keep telling a story here on this blog.  And in the end ultimately, this is the Master Creator’s story.  We all are created Imago Dei, hence our ability to create, and why it brings us such joy.    

Just a few of things we talk about (in no particular order):

• Another way to waste more time on social: Instamachinist newly setup Discord http://discord.gg/Mv7HTHu
• Emma’s Tool competition is back! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrC39XPRdWo
• Stefan is making parts for a film developing machine: https://www.filmomat.eu/
• Applied Science EDM: https://benkrasnow.blogspot.com/2019/03/drill-through-anything-conductive-with.html which is based on the BaxEDM power supply: https://baxedm.com/
• Home Shop Machinists sinker EDM machine article series in book format: https://secure.villagepress.com/store/items/detail/item/797
• Ben Flemming’s (who is NOT a Canadian – Justin was incorrect!) website: https://www.homebuiltedmmachines.com/
• Max makes chips in the shop again and makes a(nother) tiny part.  He also cleans dog fur out of pocket watches (check out his Instagram)
• Justin is building a Curta mechanical calculator.  Maybe.  You can find the drawings for the Type 1 and 2 here: http://www.museummura.li/

All that and much more for another 2+ hour episode!

You can listen to the podcast here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/.  Also be sure to check out Max’s Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/joyofprecision

Stefan Gotteswinter website: http://www.gtwr.de/  and also his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl  Stefan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/.  Stefan is also on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/stefangtwr

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/.

This episode is mostly shop updates and us bantering Top Gear style about what we have been up to.

Stefan wanted us all to have a look at this thread on PM:

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/deckel-maho-aciera-abene-mills/iron-tour-2015-lots-pics-301415/

You can listen to the podcast here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/.  Also be sure to check out Max’s Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/joyofprecision

Stefan Gotteswinter website: http://www.gtwr.de/  and also his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl  Stefan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/.

Some of the things we talk about include:

• St. Paddy’s Day!
• Beer, cupcakes, sitting down and black coffee!
• Stan talks about his Hot Shot 360 heat treating oven sized for home shop work.  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23Hotshot360
• Stan is getting ready for the infamous annual Bar Z Summer Bash! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RUpTHj-_aY
• Max finished his latest Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtq0in5NThE
• Stefan bought a new lathe!  We are still debating who is going to hold the baby shower for him.
• Stefan is a Metalhead??!!!??
• Annular cutters
• Heat treating in general
• Justin is back to posting Youtube videos.

And much more!  You can listen to it here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Many thanks to Stan for joining us.  You can follow him on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/barzindustrial/  and also on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCircIu8sQ-e67gH4kcb0xdA.  Here is the Bar Z Industrial page: http://www.barzindustrial.com/

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/.  Also be sure to check out Max’s Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/joyofprecision

Stefan Gotteswinter website: http://www.gtwr.de/  and also his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl  Stefan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/.

The introduction music (Keeping Stuff Together by  Lee Rosevere) was used under a Creative Commons license.  Be sure to check out Lee Rosevere!

As Max Phillips would say I kinda went all watchmaker on it.  I didn’t intend to get this carried away but as I was working on this project I questioned myself as to why (as a society) we seem to always want to rush though things just to get them done.  Isn’t the journey where all the enjoyment comes from?  Isn’t it enjoyable and satisfying to create things that you are pleased with?

Deep within all of us is a need to be creative and make things (both tangible and not) to the best of our ability.  We are not robots.  This not a spiritual blog but I am a reformed Christian and I believe  that every single human being is created Imago Dei (in the image of God).  God creates and since we are made in His image we also create.

Back to our project.  I roughed out the lathe bed profile on the bandsaw:

and finished that portion up on the shaper:

The rest of the project was simple lathe and mill work.

This was made specifically for the Standard Modern 12″ Utilathe.  The drawings that I made up reflect that particular lathe.  But it should be very straight forward to adjust the drawings for your lathe if you wish.  If anyone wants the solid model send me an email and I will get the data to you somehow.

Also I’m considering a run of 5-10 or so of each of the tools I make for myself to sell for others.  If you want to purchase one of these stay tuned – I will update the store portion of the blog to reflect that.

Here is the drawing – Carriage Stop – Rev 01.

If you are interested here is the build video:

Most of the “low end” slitting saw arbors you can buy are terrible.  The spring loaded ones that can utilize multiple arbor sizes are particularly bad.  I wanted a simple design for a 1″ diameter arbor size so I machined up one in less than an evening.  I utilized a 3/4″ straight shank so I could use it in the milling machine or lathe.  If you were running very thick saws, or horizontal milling cutters (not the greatest idea in a cantilever R8 setup?) you probably would want a keyway in the design in which case I would probably make the shank taper integral to the design.

But this one is for thin slitting saws and as such no keyway is required and being held in collet is my preferred setup.

There is nothing complicated about this at all.  But to save you some time sketching or drawing here are the drawings I used: Body – Rev 01 and Cap – Rev 01.  I didn’t add a flat on the arbor for removing and replacing the saws at the bench – I might do that at a later time if I find I need it.  If so I’ll update the drawings.

If you are interested here is the build video:

The machine is branded as a Torcam (not Tormach!) ~ 24″ x ~ 24″ x ~ 3″  (X / Y / Z) Router table.  It is constructed out of aluminum extrusions and utilizes linear rails and ball screws.  This was the main reason I decided to purchase the machine.  Once I saw the linear rails and ball screws (and how little the machine had been used) I was sold. After loading the machine into the Sienna, (yes we did break down and buy a minivan for our family and it has been once of the best loathed decisions we ever made!) I snapped a quick picture of my purchase:

The machine did not come with a control which didn’t bother me one bit.  I had full intentions of fitting a more up to date modern control anyway.  The very very reasonable price I purchased the machine for left plenty of funds to put together a new motion controller.

But I was curious the whole time about this Torcam company.  I had never heard of Torcam before and I didn’t do any research regarding the company beforehand.  After some digging on the internet I found out that Torcam was a machine tool distributor company out of Ontario Canada who built and sold CNC machines for the educational market.  It seems they rebranded machines for sale and it is doubtful that they actually designed and built full machines but I could be completely wrong.  It appears the were a going concern in the 1990s to early 2000s and then they disappeared.  Given the timeframe of business operations (just before the internet exploded) and what appears to be a limited market for product, very little information is easily found about Torcam and their machines today.

This machine appeared to be very well designed and assembled with care. But who actually made the machine? As soon as I purchased the machine I posted a picture on Instagram and Stefan Gotteswinter immediately commented “ISEL?”.  ISEL is a German CNC machine builder who also sells various motion components.  ISEL has been in business for a very long time and according to Stefan builds good components and machines for the price.  I think most in the industry agree that ISEL stuff is built to a price point and does the job very well.

The machine does look suspiciously German and like something ISEL would manufacture so I decided to find out.  After taking a few covers off I noticed this:

It was confirmed.  This machine was made with ISEL components and I also now had an approximate date of manufacture.  All the components say made in West Germany.  That gives you a good idea when this machine was made: early 1990s.  I suspect Torcam started importing these machines and selling them.  I don’t know what control they shipped with it (did they make their own?) but the hardware was ISEL made.

I made a video and posted it on Youtube (see below).  Shortly after posting John commented on the video: “What you have is a Techno Isel router table. Originally released in the late 80’s and early 90’s I can with what was called a machine 100 MS cos controller. Back in the day a new on would be about $ 8000 or so. I have the same machine from the 80’s it ran model and prototype production 24-7 for about two years. I mothballed it for some while then had a new controller built and I still use it today. I made a mount for. 3 h.p. Ryobi router when I first got it in 1987 and it still works like a charm. I run V carve desktop and Mach 3 on it making sings and doing woodwork. My table is 52 by 52 . By the way the stepper can get warm but they seem to convey the heat well. Never any problems running it for 10 to 12 hour runs. Just stay inside the feeds and speeds. The ball screws are a big plus but keep them clean. Like yours mine had no goers on the x and y rails.”  Thanks John!!!!

The first step in getting the machine working was building a stand.  I took a Saturday morning and put together a quick wood stand.  I would have liked to have a welded or concrete stand for it but the weather didn’t permit me working outside so I settled for wood.  Maybe in the future I might make a more substantial stand.

I also took some time to make up some leveling feet that would screw onto the legs of the stand:

Once the stand was built it was time to decide upon the motion controller.  I looked at a few options like the Centroid Acorn and Mach 4 but I decided upon LinuxCNC.  Lot’s of folks are scare of Linux but let me tell you that this was a very straight forward process to get going.  I used the Mesa 5i25 and 7i76 LinuxCNC plug and go kit.  It was pricey but is a proper motion control interface that utilizes a FPGA in the 5i25.  If you purchase the plug and go kit it has the proper firmware flashed on it already that saves you from having to re-flash the Mesa board.  Even that though isn’t as hard as it sounds!

For motors and drives I used some stuff sitting around in the shop for a few years.  I purchased 3 motors and drives used a number of years back.  The motors were 60BYGH303-13 425 ounce inch dual shaft steppers that were almost a drop replacement for the small steppers that the machine came with.  The drives were knock offs of knock offs drives.  Very little information is available for the CW230 stepper driver but I did some comparing and it appears that they are copies of the Keling KL4030 drive which seems to be based on an older Leadshine or Gecko drive.  I set them up to run at 36 volts (using a linear power supply which will probably burn out) and used 1/8 micro stepping – the highest you probably should go.  I built up a panel and put all the bits inside.  Here you can see it in progress:

Setting up LinuxCNC was a simple as wiring up the Mesa interface board, installing LinuxCNC on an older computer and running the configuration wizard.  You need to be careful to enter the information into the wizard properly.  I entered everything carefully and once done I ran LinuxCNC and moved the table around.  I used stock drive timings for the KL4030 that were directly out of the wizard.

I wired up the homing switches and tried to tidy up the wiring as best I could with some cable chain and wire loom.  Now I need to mount a spindle and start cutting out parts!  I may spend some more time tuning the drives and getting the system dialed in but so far I’m very pleased.  I’m hoping to post some more information regarding setting up LinuxCNC soon so stay tuned!

I also made a video of the work.  Have a look:

The design is very straightforward.  Essentially it is 2 aluminum halves with a tool steel axle.  I chose to make the bearing / bushing out of some Teflon I had in the shop.   You could easily modify the design to use the very common rolling element bearings that so many yo-yos utilize these days.  The trickiest part of the design is sizing the o-ring that sits in each of the halves.  The size and cross sectional area of the o-ring used determines how easily (if at all) the yo-you will return to your hand.  If you remove the o-ring completely the yo-yo may never return to your hand and probably will require what is called a “binding” trick which causes the yo-yo to recoil its string.  Since I wanted these yo-yos to be easy to use for beginners I sized the o-ring so the yo-yo will return with a easy flick of the wrist.

The project made heavy use of the 5C collet chuck that I previously reviewed.  The chuck worked out very well and the soft 5C collets that I used made the job much easier and quicker than it would have taken using the old 4 jaw standby.

I chose to press in 12 pieces of brass on the outer rim for added mass where it is needed most.  Besides making up 48 pieces of brass for 2 yo-yos the process was very easy.  After the brass was pressed in I cut the outside radii with a custom form tool I made up in the shop.  I also made a video of making the form tool.  You can watch that video here:

Besides the custom form tool for the radii, there were a number of other tools I ground up to make this yo-yo.  The project once again highlights the basic home shop need of being able to grind high speed steel tools.  If I had to purchase all the cutting tools I needed for this project the cost would have been significant.

I also did a full build video of the process.  Many thanks to Megan for recording music for the introduction.

If you are interested in the drawings you can download them here:

Body – Rev 01, Bushing – Rev 01, Axle – Rev 01, Yo-Yo – Rev 01.

Some of the things we talk about include:

• A German drill press, the Alzmetall: https://www.alzmetall.de/alzmetall/index.php?id=7&L=1
• Lars Christensen Fusion 360 Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/cadcamstuff/
• Alibre Atom 3D: https://www.alibre.com/atom3d/
• Alibre Designer: https://www.alibre.com/alibre-design-overview/
• Get a personal use Solidworks seat through EAA: https://www.eaa.org/eaa/eaa-membership/eaa-member-benefits/solidworks-resource-center
• QCAD: https://www.qcad.org/en/
• FreeCADhttps://www.freecadweb.org/
• MattiJ’s cut knurl tool: http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/threads/73073-1-wheel-cut-knurling-tool
• The Zeiss style mirror grinding machine Justin wants to build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMDHA8IE014
• Max has released plans for his watchmaker’s toolpost on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/drawings-for-now-21190714
• And of course Autodesk Fusion: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview

And much more!  You can listen to it here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/.  Also be sure to check out Max’s Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/joyofprecision

Stefan Gotteswinter (our occasional host!) website: http://www.gtwr.de/  and also his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl  Stefan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

• CNC machine tools of all sorts!
• CNC tooling
• April Fools day jokes
• SMW Johnny 5
• Telsas, Makerspaces and the future.

And much more!  You can listen to it here:

or you can download it directly.

Many many thanks to John for taking time out of his very busy schedule and record a show with us.  John’s business is Saunders Machine Works.  He runs another page which reflects his beginnings in a New York apartment called NYCNC.  His Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/nyccnc.  You can follow John on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saundersmachineworks/.  John also is co-host of a podcast with John Grimsmo called the Business of Machining.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Stefan Gotteswinter (our occasional host!) website: http://www.gtwr.de/  and also his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl  Stefan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, so I sneaked out like a mouse.
The drill bits were placed in their index with care,
In hopes that new tooling soon would be there.

The machine tools were cleaned, and oiled in their place,
While visions of a Moore jig borer brought a smile to my face.
And while my family was inside and all snug in their beds,
I was working to finish some Christmas gifts for them instead.

When out in the shop there arose such a chatter,
I sprang from my band saw to see what was the matter.
Away to the lathe I flew like a flash,
Hitting the big red stop, it ended with a crash.

Some light on the now freshly wrecked homemade tool
Meant no new gifts would be delivered this yule.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a Fiat Panda, and a very tall Stefan Gotteswinter.

With a little old wrench used lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he would show me his sharpening trick.
More rapid than lightening I took out the workpiece,
And I sharpened the tool to finish the gift for my niece.

“Now Hardinge, now Wrong Fu, now Deckel, and Myford!
On Linley, on Schaublin, on Monarch and Boxford,
To the Deckel clone!, to the sharpening stone!
No need to dress the CBN cone!

And then, in a twinkling, I heard “this will not do”
Stefan was examining my grinder through and through.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Out of the Panda came Stefan with Biax scraper inbound.

He was soon covered in Canode from his head to his foot,
His clothes were all blue and yellow, including his boots.
The efficient German worked diligently through,
To turn my Deckel clone into something much more true.

A wink of his eye and a scrape by his hand,
Soon gave me to know I would have nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, except for Youtube,
And educated the masses so they were no longer noobs.

Soon the Deckel was done, everything adjusted up right,
Then Stefan Gotteswinter fled back into the night.
And as he started off in his Panda to journey back home,
He rolled down his window and gestured towards the Deckel clone.

I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight,
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Stefan Gotteswinter (our occasional host!) website: http://www.gtwr.de/  and also his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl  Stefan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

• Stefan is busy making telescope parts for the Hubble Space telescope a local company requiring telescope parts.
• Stefan is on the lookout for a new lathe.  He would like a Hardinge HLV (don’t we all!).
• Justin and Max suggest looking at the Taiwanese clones like Cyclematic or Feeler
• Stefan broke down and bought a face mill with carbide inserts:
• Lancaster Watch Tools: https://www.instagram.com/lancaster_watch_tools/
• Max is working on a license plate holder for his AMG.
• Justin’s diamond dressers for the bench grinder are now for sale.  You can find them on this site.
• Stefan is the reason why small shapers and grinders now cost an arm and a leg and everyone wants one.
• We talk about turning your home shop into a business.  Over the past few years Stefan has done more and more work for clients.
• Keep it a hobby – you don’t want to destroy the fun in your life!
• Stefan does some work for this guy: https://www.instagram.com/stories/watchmaker.kl/
• Justin is upset about all the Bang Good advertising on Youtube.

And much more!  You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Stefan Gotteswinter (our occasional host!) website: http://www.gtwr.de/  and also his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl  Stefan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

A few months ago I purchased one of the popular import 5C collet chucks for my home shop.  I’ve been investigating different ways to employ a proper collet setup in the home shop for awhile.  At first I was considering going the ER collet route and purchasing, or making, an ER collet backplate for my lathe due to the large grip range of ER collets and that they are very plentiful.  From a manufacturing engineering standpoint ER collets are not considered proper work holding collet, being designed specifically for tooling, but they actually do a good job in the home shop for work holding provided you are aware of the short comings:

1. ER collets are generally not available in square or hexagon.  This isn’t as big of deal as it may seem – many folks use ER collets and simply grip on the the edges of non round stock.
2. ER collets require more grip length than almost all work holding collets.  This is probably the biggest downfall to using ER collets in the home shop.  Holding onto a very short part in an ER collet in most cases is asking for trouble.  Even more sketchy would be holding onto just the edges of short square or hexagonal parts in an ER collet.
3. ER collets require relatively high tightening torques.  This isn’t a big deal with the smaller sizes, but once you get into the larger sizes (greater than ER20) it becomes a pain.  For example ER32 is recommended to be torqued at 100 foot pounds!
4. No emergency or soft collets available.  I suppose you could make up some soft ER collets fairly quickly though.
5. No ER pot chucks, clutch collets, step collets, oversize collets, or whatever you want to call them.

Most of the above reasons are relativity minor when comparing ER to standard work holding collets.  Many of the above downfalls of ER collets are offset, especially when you are starting out, by the fact that you can use ER collets and collet chucks for both work holding and tool holding.  ER collets also have a very large grip range – meaning you need fewer collets to cover a range of sizes.  This can save money on tooling, which can be a big deal in the home shop and was precisely why I was seriously considering using ER as I already had a some collets in the shop.  When you consider you can purchase the ER collet backplates for less than $100 or make them easily in your home shop it’s a logical choice.

But I decided to go with a standard work holding collet, mainly for reasons 2 and 5.    I chose 5C as it is by far the most popular work holding collet available.  There is a plentiful used market and new collets are inexpensive.  Soft and clutch collets are inexpensive and I can get them next day from a local tooling supplier.

There are a few options for the actual collet chuck.  Import ones are available from numerous suppliers for below $200 and this is the route I went.  I actually ordered it off Amazon Canada.    If you are looking for something of higher reputation (note generally most of the import one are actually decent) you can purchase a standard accuracy Bison ones for around $500 with a stated .0008″ TIR.  A super precision one is available for $900 with a stated .0004″ TIR.

My import 5C collet chuck has less than .0008″ TIR, which is less than the stated accuracy of the standard Bison one at less than half the cost.  It is very well finished and so far works exceptionally well.  I have ordered inexpensive $12 emergency collets for it, and also I have been using it with a custom bored 3″ pot chuck recently for a repetitive job.  With careful loading I was indicating less than .0005″ runout on this job.

A few weeks ago now I also made a video of the chuck, including some of the mounting of it on the 2 lathes in the shop.  I recommend people to get a standard backplate one and either make up your own backplate or buy one.  By mounting the chuck on a backplate it gives you an interface to adjust the TIR to zero – if the mounting system is directly manufactured into the chuck your options are probably limited to regrinding the taper in situ to improve accuracy of the chuck.

If you are a more of your make your own tools type Andy Lofquist over at Metal Lathe Accessories has an interesting 5C collet chuck kit that you can machine yourself.

After a one month hiatus due to a number of reasons (typical of home shop machining), Max and Justin are joined by the King of 16″ South Bend lathes: Tom Utley.  But nobody in the hobby calls him that.  He is King Tutley.  Tom, an engineer by day, is best know in this hobby for his time (over the last 3 years!) and dedication in taking a clapped out  second world war 16″ South Bend lathe and returning it to better than new condition.  Some of the interesting topics:

• Tom talks about the bench grinders he has been working on that will soon be up for sale.  If you are interested in getting a properly restored Baldor bench grinder be sure to get in touch with Tom!
• We talk about paint.  Is 2 part epoxies worth the trouble for machine tools?
•  Previously a woodworker Tom has moved into the metal side of things.  The people are generally more friendly, albeit slightly less normal.
• Why don’t we encourage more to work with their hands?  All three of us share our frustrations with a general society that no longer values craft work.  Shop work is good for the soul!
• A well documented page on Tom’s journey: http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/south-bend-lathes/1943-south-bend-16-x-60-lathe-resurrection-299300/
• Chemical Etching.  Tom has done a fantastic job with all the brass name and label plates on his South Bend:
• Photo resist etching.  More popular with watchmaking types, Max talks a bit about his journey into photo resist etching:
• Variable Frequency drives.  Tom has put a great deal of effort into the VFD controls, enclosure, and wiring has installed on his lathe.  It is one of the best executed projects of such nature on the web:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opxVLWTiW7E
• Huanyang VFDs: a fine German made product?
• The Guillocheur Video: https://youtu.be/uN-zN8OLh_w
• Of course would the show be a show without mentioning Stefan?

And much more!  You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Many many thanks to Tom for coming on the show and sharing some of his story.  Tom is very active on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kingtutley/  We also encouraged Tom to more actively tell his story on Youtube.  Everyone subscribe to his Youtube channel!  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfhJT5GO9B0QwUo007XMsGQ

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Stefan Gotteswinter (our occasional host!) website: http://www.gtwr.de/  and also his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl  Stefan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

The tool is made up of 4 parts.  The body is a piece of steel with an angled lip (one on each side) that is used as a guide against the tool rest on the grinder.  It has a threaded hole for the diamond.  The diamond is an industrial diamond held in a steel rod – commonly used in surface grinding dressers, modified with threads along most of its length.  There is a lock nut and o-ring (to provide some cushion when tightening the nut down) and a handle nut to adjust the distance from the lip to the edge of the diamond.

The tool is useful for most sizes of standard bench grinders as the body has 2 different lip offsets.  The threaded diamond is also allows for generous positioning.

After giving him the tool I explained a few of the benefits of such a tool versus a traditional spur style tool:

• The amount of grinding wheel material removed is easily controlled as the distance on the single point tool is adjustable.
• A single point diamond tool does a better job at getting the wheel round in the first place.  This is because the forces involved are significantly less than traditional spur type tools, or even the newer T style diamond tools.  Forcing traditional tools up against the wheel isn’t a very steady process and the entire tool floats on the surface of the wheel.  In addition your hand can move back and forth with the high and low points on the wheel.  As such I’ve found single point tools create a wheel that is rounder, which helps with balancing.  (Grinder balancing always happens after a wheel has been dressed).
• Unlike spur tools or the cheap T style dressers a properly used diamond tool lasts a long time on a bench grinder and also is very durable for various wheel materials.

After Christmas I finished up a tool for Max over at the Joy of Precision:

I made up a full set of drawings of the tool if you would like to make one yourself:

Body – (Rev 01) Diamond – (Rev 01) Handle Nut – (Rev 01) Lock Nut – (Rev 01) Dressing Tool – (Rev 01)

I’ve also had a fair bit of interest in people asking if they could buy one of these tools.  I’m making up a number of them for others so if you are interested send me an email: justin@thecogwheel.net.  I’ll be posting additional information shortly.

As usual I made up a video of making the tool and it also shows how I use it:

Let’s rewind to the summer when I purchased the Rong Fu milling machine for the shop.  The mill included an exceptionally well made French made Sagop milling machine vise that had a bit of wear but was very usable.  Up until this point I have never heard of Sagop before.

A quick search revealed a basic corporate webpage. It appears that Sagop is still in business and still manufactures a line of workholding products.  The vise that I purchased is the smallest of their precision CNC milling vises, a 100mm 800 series vise.  The construction of the Sagop is very similar to the Bison precision CNC milling vises.  I was also floored to learn the purchase price of this vise.  It is listed over 1000 euros with the swivel base – a number that is rather shocking when you consider that it is sitting on a Rong Fu milling machine!

The vise came with the swivel base – a very well made turntable base that allows for 360 degree rotation.  A very handy feature in some situations, but for most of the work that I do I usually just bolt the vise directly to the table.  This takes up less table space and is also more rigid.

Strangely the vise did not come with any way to mount it to the table.  Up until this point I had been using some of those standard import clamps that are sold everywhere.  This wasn’t the best solution as these clamps are quite bulky and don’t do the best job of holding in situations like this.  So set out and designed up some new clamps to be made.

But first I searched to see if I could find drawings of the vise and / or the swivel base, not only for this project but for future ones.  While not directly advertised on Sagop’s website, I managed to find the drawings for the vise and the swivel base:

Sagop 800 Series Vise Drawing  Sagop 800 Series Swivel Base

I modeled the clamp up in Fusion and made up a drawing of it based on the dimensions I found in the above pdfs.  Now some folks at this point say CAD is a waste of time for such simple projects, and it maybe for them.  But I’m actually quicker at modeling something up in CAD than I am drawing up a sketch on paper so for me I usually start with a 3D model.

The clamps are designed for 3/8 cap screws.  I then made up a shop drawing for the clamps:

Sago Vise Clamp – (Rev 01)

Making the clamps was a very straightforward process. The most interesting part was when I used the 4 jaw chuck in the lathe to counterbore for the cap screws – I haven’t invested in any counterbore tools yet for cap screws.  I need to quit being so cheap.

When they were finished I started to wonder about how I was going to prevent them from rusting.  Rust is a very real problem in home shops, and in particular my shop as I live in a climate that is somewhat humid and has significant temperature swings.  If you are willing to deal with plating shops you might be able to find a shop to do a zinc coating – but for small one off parts it is often impossible on a budget as most plating shops have a minimum charge that far exceeds what home shop machinists can afford.

I have considered cold bluing products in the past as a simple method to provide some rust protection on parts.  In Canada cold bluing is a bit harder to procure than south of the border, and is is also somewhat expensive.  So I started to read up on other processes.  Hot bluing looked interesting, but involves some nasty chemicals.  Rust bluing looked promising but it seemed like a long process – you had to wait around for the rust to happen.

I did some more reading and I recalled an experiment we did in high school chemistry involving a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and salt applied to steel wool. The hydrogen peroxide and salt rusted the steel wool so quickly that you could measure the temperature change. I then did some further searching and I found a fellow Canuck who beat me to the idea of quickly rusting parts using hydrogen peroxide and salt: https://mypeculiarnature.blogspot.ca/2014/08/quick-rust-bluing-back-in-black.html

The process is very simple:

1. Thoroughly Clean parts using a good degreaser.  This step is very important!
2. Etch parts in acetic acid (common household vinegar)
3. Rust parts using a warm hydrogen peroxide salt mixture.  You can either fully immerse the parts or brush the mixture on.  I mixed it up about 1/4 cup peroxide and 2 tablespoons of salt.
4. Fully submerse parts in boiling water and watch red rust turn to black oxide.
5. Lightly wipe or wire brush parts.
6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 until you are happy with the coating.
7. Dry parts and oil

The final result is a nice black oxide coating that helps protect against rust and looks great:

I made a video of the process, including the making of clamps:

I tried tightening up the nuts themselves tor reduce the amount of clearance – but then it bound and you couldn’t turn the feedscrew at all.  This wasn’t the best design from the get go.

The first thing I did was modeled the entire assembly up in Fusion to get a clear picture of what was going on – and to give a good starting point for the modification: The nuts aren’t shown on the end of the feedscrew but you can see where the assembly is constrained for axial movement – at the right side on a shoulder machined into the feedscrew itself and on the left side the inner bushing of the dial.  These are just 2 plain bearing surfaces – and they weren’t machined the best to begin with.  No wonder it wasn’t the best!

I thought about doing what Stefan Gotteswinter did.  If this was my main lathe I would copy what Stefan did as it is the best solution by far.  Angular contact bearings are the way to go in this situation.  Since I’m keeping this lathe around primarily for cutting metric threads (the Standard Modern now in the shop doesn’t have a metric transposition gear) I decided to scale back the project and see if I could just stuff a deep groove axial bearing and a roller thrust washer into the space without having to modify the leadscrew, or make up a new dial.

Below is what I came up with:

I incorporated a deep groove ball bearing (6900-2RS) and a 10mm needle style thrust washer on the opposite side.  This required a new housing and the old cast iron bearing support to be shortened up.  The new housing was doweled to the cast iron block for location.  2 counter bored cap screws hold the entire assembly together.  The cross slide screw required minimal rework – a shoulder had to be turned for the bearing to sit against.  I also turned down the shoulder on the screw that previously was a bearing support.

The ball bearing is preloaded using the existing nuts.  Care needs to be taken not to overload the ball bearing as deep groove ball bearings aren’t primarily designed for axial load.  In retrospect I should have flipped the positioning of the deep groove ball bearing and thrust washer around when thinking about cutting forces as the cutting tool pushes away from the work piece.  If I have problems I can always make a new bearing housing.

The cross slide now is super smooth with no backlash due to the support.  There is a bit of backlash in the screw, but I don’t get too bothered by that on a manual machine.  It is significant improvement with not too much effort or time required.

I made a video of the entire project as well:

I started out with a design in Fusion.  The design consists of 3 manufactured parts, a body, an arbor, and a handle for extra leverage.  The body is designed to hold 1″ dies – a size that I have standardized on in my shop due to primarily expensive.  As die sizes climb the prices move up exponentially and due to that I generally single point large threads.  If you have larger dies the design is very easy to modify to accommodate larger dies.

Traditionally most people don’t use a sliding die holder to hold taps.  I’ve always started taps in the lathe using the tailstock.  If the tap is small enough I am brave enough to power tap – being sure to leave the tap a little loose to make sure when it bottoms out it slips to avoid broken taps.  I had the thought to incorporate an inexpensive ER collet chuck into the design to facilitate holding taps.  In this design the ER16 collect chuck stub is held in the end opposite to the die holder with a couple of set screws.

Besides being a pleasure to use with dies, it also works exceptionally well for small taps.  I don’t use the handle when I power tap with it – the handle is really only used for dies.  Now when you are tapping blind holes you can simply let go of the body and the entire body spins.  You can also feel when the tap reaches the bottom of the hole as the amount of force required to hold the body quickly climbs – at this point you simply let go, allow the body to spin and shut the lathe off.

Standard ER collets do a very good job of holding taps in the home shop.  You can get ER collets with an internal square that engages the tap drive but I’ve found it unnecessary for home shop work.  They are also more expensive and harder to find online – most industrial tool supply places can get them.

If you would like to build one yourself I made up a full set of drawings for the shop, and I’ll also provide 3D CAD in the zip file (iges and step):

Handle – (Rev 01), Body – (Rev 01), Arbor – (Rev 01), CAD – (Rev 01)

I also made a video the project:

A month or so after the podcast Rod Shampine reached out to me to talk shop over the phone one night.  I had a very enlightening conversation with Rod, who is an exceptionally gifted mechanical engineer with over 50 patents.  Rod also has his PhD and has worked on some exceptionally interesting projects – both on the job and for hobby.  He is an active home shop machinist as well.  Over the last few years Rod has done a significant amount of work in the 3D printing world – he is very active on Thingverse and also has did a significant amount of work on 3D printers themselves.

In the conversation Rod told me he had acquired all the hardware to put together a laser bandsaw prototype.  At first I thought he was making a joke, but he went into specifics about safety, power supplies and the actual laser itself.  Rod certainly had a workable design flushed out – one that both had us very excited.

In December Rod sent me an email that he had finished his laser bandsaw.  It could only really cut paper and balsa wood but to my knowledge it is the first working prototype of such a device.  Obviously a laser bandsaw is exceptionally hazardous – particularly to your eyes.  Rod pointed this out numerous times.  But with proper eye protection and proper design a device could be made to work.

Shortly afterward Rod posted his working prototype on Youtube:

So thanks to Rod the future is now here.  I’m watching with interest to see where this all goes.

I went ahead and ordered the scales off a eBay seller. It was a typical Chinese eBay seller that sells everything from DROs for machine tools to various useless cell phone and house gadgets. The total for the order was around $200 USD plus about $30 for shipping. I then communicated the scale lengths I needed via email. In about 2 days I had a shipping confirmation including a tracking number.

I was excepting to wait about 3-4 weeks for the shipment to arrive, typical of most stuff ordered from China. I was shocked at the end of the week when I received an email from DHL that my shipment was to arrive on the following Monday – about a week for the entire process! Sure enough Monday afternoon a DHL driver dropped off the 2 boxes.
The one box contained the DRO – a JingCE JCS900-2AE 2 axis DRO unit. The other box contained the 2 glass scales both of proper length. Also included was a large amount of hardware, mounting brackets and associated items you would need to install the DRO.

I spent the next few days thinking about how to mount the scales. The X axis was easy – I decided to mount it to the front of the table using the T slot already present. I thought about mounting it to the back of the table but I didn’t want to loose any Y axis travel. The Glass scales are rather bulky – something to note if you are considering installing them on a smaller mill like the X2 mini mill. The Y axis was a bit of a different story – there really isn’t anything to fasten the scales to. I decided to make up a bracket to hold the Y axis scale. That took a fair bit of work to do.

After mounting the scales and trying out the DRO I also fitted a inexpensive import digital caliper to the quill to get a .001″ resolution readout for Z depth. This also took a few hours to do properly. 2 brackets were made out of aluminum to hold each end of the caliper. I modified the caliper using a Dremel tool. I drilled mounting holes using a standard off the shelf masonry drill bit – a poor man’s way of drilling hardened steel. High speed steel usually won’t touch hardened calipers.

After using the DRO for 6 months I can say that it is a very good unit. I haven’t had any issues. As far as accuracy and repeatability is considered, I really don’t have the proper measuring tools to qualify the DRO but I will say that I tested it using a dial indicator over the travel of the table. At each point where I tested the DRO it corresponded to the dial indicator – within at least .0005″ (as best as my judgment permits). I also ran the table up against a hard stop several times to test the repeatability and each reading was easily within .0005″. I probably should do a proper gauge R and R study on it, but just with the general testing I’ve done it’s easily within .001″. And to be honest doing work closer than .001″ on a Rong Fu mill drill is unreasonable.

I filmed and edited a number of videos showing the install and finally a video review of the DRO.  The first video shows the hard part: the installation of the Y axis scale.

The second video shows the installation of the X axis scale and also the mounting of a digital caliper on the quill.

The final video is me talking about the DRO itself and contains much of what is written here.

If you are interested in reading the manual, I scanned a copy of it and it is available here.

One thing to note is that you will get little to no support with the DRO. To me this isn’t a big deal at all when you consider the price. The next closest DRO in price in the North American market is approaching 4 times the cost. And the unit looks suspicious like this unit. If something breaks I am willing to try and fix the unit myself or simply replace it.
If I had a high end knee mill I would probably buy a Mitutoyo DRO and be done with it. But putting a Mitutoyo DRO on inexpensive import mills is a bit like putting lipstick on a pig.

It was a $200 well spent. Having a DRO on a milling machine is exceptionally handy. I won’t say it is a necessity, but it greatly improves your efficiency – especially on larger mills or making larger parts. Time will tell how durable the unit is but I think it is an excellent addition to a home metal shop.

If you are just starting out in your home shop or need a few ideas for your next project you will certainly find it in this episode.  After getting through the craft beer podcast and shop updates, which involve Max getting a tow, Max and Justin talk about useful simple shop tools as well as Tchotchkes and probably everything in between (don’t tell us you’re surprised!).  In the process both Max and Justin have extended their shop project lists.  You could even make a really nice homemade brake line flaring tool (we won’t talk about liability):

Some of the interesting links:

• Jere Mihalov’s site, “Adventures in Watchmaking”: https://watchmaking.weebly.com/
• Jere’s miniature finger clamping plate: https://watchmaking.weebly.com/fingerplate.html
• My first lathe project, a watchmaker’s screw head polisher (in 3 posts): http://joyofprecision.com/tagged/screwhead%20polisher
• “Yoyo Design 101” video series by ZachTheSloth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RmFeVW3wSk&list=PL3AHXYpH1So6XXPa5BL8qs16Rx5dGvUZ4
• Tool steel Valentine’s locket: http://joyofprecision.com/post/44676455259/tool-steel-valentines-locket
• Hand-held lantern chuck: http://joyofprecision.com/post/52516755196/making-a-lantern-chuck
• Magic! http://joyofprecision.com/tagged/magic

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

When one Phillips isn’t enough.  Recorded in between years as Stefan would say, Max invites his brother Thayer and his father Fred on to join in an end of year discussion with our new semi regular co-host Stefan Gotteswinter!  In this episode we talk about:

• Fred’s shop that Thayer works out of.  Fred has a really nice Rockwell mill (one of our all time home shop favourites) and a Southbend Heavy 13.
• We talk about gunsmithing in the United States, Germany and Canada
• Live free or die!
• CAD and Stefan’s embrace of Autodesk Fusion.
• Stefan machined some really nice Torx screws using his Deckel pantograph.
• Justin is busy making Christmas presents.
• Stefan wants to get a CNC lathe in 2018.
• Max is hoping to finish his Trent pinion mill.
• Both Max and Justin are hoping to get back to semi regular posting on Youtube.
• And finally cars.  Max is hoping to get some German iron.

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Many thanks to Fred and Thayer for joining in!

Many many thanks also to Stefan for coming back on and agreeing to become our third co-host!  We hope to get Stefan on much more frequently in 2018.  You can find his website here: http://gtwr.de/  Stefan also has one of the best machining Youtube channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl.On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

A final note regarding the live stream with Robin Renzetti and Stefan Gotteswinter.  We are still hoping to do this in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned for more announcements!

Some of the things we talk about include:

• Max has had limited time in the shop.  What does work always get in the way of what we want to do?
• Justin purchased a sub $200 USD digital read out from eBay.  He calls it the Shenzhen DRO.  And so far it has been pretty good.
• Justin’s new lathe – a Standard Modern 12×30 Utilathe.  It was terribly dirty.
• Which leads us into maintenance.  Why do so many people neglect equipment?
• Max goes into the wonderfully simple cone style plain bearings.  Keep it clean and adjusted!
• Bearing preload
• How do you keep track of all those oil points?
• The importance of way oil
• Chuck lube.  Let the debate begin.  Max and Justin like getting sprayed with oil apparently.
• A live stream episode with Stefan Gotteswinter and Robin Renzetti?  Let us know your thoughts!

All that and a few tangents (would it be a show without a few?)

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

I could tell he was disappointed, so I tried valiantly to support my response with reason so I didn’t appear too callous. I reminded him that in the past 10 months, he’d purchased a Schaublin lathe, a Craftex mill, and a surface grinder, not to mention the various tooling additions needed to operate them. He’d also been generously gifted a tool and cutter grinder, and while that hadn’t cost any money, the time to drag these machines home and set them up for use was more than a small investment of precious hours. I also suggested that the point of owning these machines was not offer them a humble home in our garage, but rather to make something with them.

As Justin conceded that I might have a small point to support my argument, I opened my eyes. Surprised to see him getting dressed, I asked where he was going. “To make some chips,” he replied, as though it should be obvious. “These machines had better start earning their keep.”

Some of the things we talk about include:

• Adam’s amazing work ethic
• Behind the scenes of a successful Youtuber: hard work and dedication
• Adam’s love and respect for his followers and fans
• Pride and Ownership:  Adam tells everyone to do their job, whatever it may be, to the best of his or her ability
• Working for someone and working for yourself
• The giant shaper and its new home
• Adam’s future plans for his shop and equipment
• Beer.  Don’t tell us you’re surprised!
• Why this show is so long

All that and much more!

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

A very grateful thanks goes out to Adam for agreeing to take some time out of his very busy schedule and join us on the show.  You can find Adam on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Abom79 and on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abom79

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

For those unfamiliar, the Rong Fu Mill Drill looks to be a heavily modified drill press.  There are several size variations, but most utilize a R8 tapered spindle with provisions for a draw bar.  The dovetail table has a relatively large travel of about 450 mm (over 17″) and 200 mm (just under 8″).

While there is much debate on the origins of the Taiwanese mill drills that started showing up in the 1970s, the most probable explanation is they are simply rather crude copies of the Fehlmann mill drill machines.  Fehlmann is a Swiss machine tool manufacturer and they still build a number of mill drill machines, although I suspect you if have to ask the price you cannot afford them.  Besides the very similar appearance, the main reason I think the Rong Fu mill drills are copies of the Fehlmann is primarily because of the tapered gibs on the Rong Fu table.  Fehlmann being a Swiss machine tool company in and of itself is another telling reason why they were copied.

Round column mills are not just limited to two companies.  Emco also  manufactured several round column mills around the same time as Rong Fu started.  A German company  also manufactured a nice home shop mill drill branded as Ixion around the same time or slightly before the Rong Fus started flooding the home shop market.

The Rong Fu mill drill I purchased came with the typical flimsy tuna can stand that is oh so common on import machine tools.  I did not purchase the machine new and the previous owner was selling the stand with it, otherwise I would have passed on the stand and just built one.  Initially I was going to weld up a new stand out of 2×2 steel tubing, but then I thought could I just dump a bunch of concrete in the bottom and kill 2 birds with one stone; adding weight and rigidity?  That and I find concrete a very useful engineering material in the home shop from previous antics.

And that’s exactly what I did.  For less than $75 and one day’s home shop work, which is less than what the material alone would have cost for a tubing stand, I now have a rigid machine tool stand.

I’ll be posting further on the mill drill as I use it, but so far it has been a great addition to the shop.

• Max’s sea foam green stamping fixture
• Max is working on a new TV stand for the house
• Justin finished his tailstock tap and die holder
• A new mill drill for Justin’s shop.  Did he make the Rong choice?
• The Dodge Omni and Shelby GLHS
• Do all VW owners hate Honda owners?
• Max’s hatred for all things Digifant
• Laser bandsaws
• Motivated millennials: will they keep CNC machines going?
• Are we living in an golden era for home shop machining?
• Will the cheap tooling end?

All that and much much more!

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

In this episode Max and Justin talk with the great Robin Renzetti, Practitioner of the Mechanical Arts (Robin – we hope you have that on your business card!).  We talk about:

• Robin’s gifted ability of machining and all things mechanical
• Robin’s resume.  A model of a helicopter rotor head.  And yes, he made very piece in his spare time!
• A little bit about Robin’s shop
• Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy
• Turcite and gluing it with Loctite Black Max 380
• Other Loctite products
• Moore pattern scraping
• Scraper sharpening
• Spindle design & bearings
• Import collet tricks
• ER vs 5C style collets on work holding – make sure when using ER collets as work holding collets the stock sticks through the entire collet!
• Pot collet runout and Robin’s pot collet setup:
• Jaw chuck repeatability
• Jacobs taper size
• # screw size formula
• Mapp gas turbo torch and silver soldering
• Lathe file body oil
• HSS belt sander backer

All that and much more for over 2 hours of listening!

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Many thanks goes out to Robin for taking the time to be on the show.  Be sure to give him a follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinrenzetti/ and also subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ROBRENZ

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

• Justin finishes his toolpost for the Schaublin 102 and now is onto making proprietary arbors for the tailstock.  Why do watchmaking lathes seem to always use proprietary tooling? (Max’s Rivett is no exception)
• Max made a quick and dirty ER11 collet holder for the Hagar mill.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHO_IefxoA8
• Stefan Gotteswinter is mentioned numerous times.
• We talk about the cool planetary backgear setup on the tiny Craftsmen 109 lathe, its only redeeming feature.
• Max’s hand wheel for his Rivett:
  http://joyofprecision.com/post/124430721351/replacement-cross-feed-handle-for-the-rivett-8
  http://joyofprecision.com/post/124431412156/replacement-cross-feed-handle-for-the-rivett-8
  http://joyofprecision.com/post/124431554281/replacement-cross-feed-handle-for-the-rivett-8
• The escapement matching tool was also in 3 parts:
  http://joyofprecision.com/post/61980632919/my-latest-tool-making-project-is-an-escapement
  http://joyofprecision.com/post/63220596732/here-is-the-latest-update-on-my-home-made
  http://joyofprecision.com/post/63755099441/made-a-custom-storage-box-for-my-home-made
• As usual after about an hour into it we finally get to the topic du jour: finishing.  We look at all sorts of angles but find ourselves looking forward to the next podcast guest!
• Lathe files: https://www.amazon.com/Nicholson-Hand-American-Pattern-Rectangular/dp/B006P2XGDU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502337709&sr=8-1&keywords=lathe+file and https://www.amazon.com/Bahco-104-12-3-Smooth-Lathe-12-Inch/dp/B007YR9J2W/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1502337709&sr=8-5&keywords=lathe+file
• The Beetles conspiracy theory.  You need your tin foil hat for this part.

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

The design is based on Andy Lofquist’s MLA-23 toolpost.  Andy is the man behind the wonderful Metal Lathe Accessories kits (http://www.statecollegecentral.com/metallathe/).  While I’ve never ordered any kits from Andy, I’m told that they are very high quality and are exceptionally thought out.

After quickly considering a Tripan toolpost and changing my mind after I saw the prices on those I ordered a set of drawings for the MLA-23 toolpost.  The original design is for 9″-12″ swing lathes.  The Schaublin is an 8″ swing lathe.  After drawing up the original toolpost in Fusion and drawing up the Schaublin cross slide it was evident that it was too big.  I decided to design a scaled down version, making some changes along the way.

The largest change is in the dovetail size and the shape of the body itself.  I wanted something that would match the Schaublin’s size, but also look, so I manufactured the body out of round material instead of square.  The toolpost is optimized for 1/4″ HSS tools, but 5/16″ will fit.

The internal workings are that of the MLA-23 toolpost.  The design is exceptionally rigid and works very well.  It is also a wonderfully simple in design.  Part of the reason I really like this design is for its simplicity.  I believe the best design is one that doesn’t allow you to take anything away.  This design, in my opinion, is one of those designs.

Some people don’t like that the toolpost doesn’t repeat in angle position – that is once you loosen the locking handle you completely loose the rotational position of the toolpost.  This is a downfall of the design if you truly need rotational position repeatability.  When I work in the shop I’m constantly moving the toolpost around to allow for tool clearance.  So much so that I made a handle for my Aloris clone on my 10×18 lathe a number of months ago.  I do have provisions in the design to allow for graduations on the base to allow for visual rotational positioning.  We’ll see if I add it.

The build was interesting and fun.  I learned a number of things along the way including how to cut dovetails on the shaper.  It took a bit of time, but it reaffirmed the very useful nature of having a shaper in the shop.  Instead of waiting for a dovetail cutter I could grind up a simple tool and cut nice dovetails, at any angle, and get a super finish.  I’m told you can build the entire toolpost with a lathe, but there is a fair bit of milling work so even a mini mill would be a huge help.

Since the design borrows heavily from Andy’s design I don’t want to release drawings.  What I’m planning on doing is forwarding a set of drawings to Andy to include with his prints if he is interested.  So if you want to build the smaller version, which is a perfect size for the mini lathe, send me an email and I’ll try to get you a set of drawings.

I made a build video of the entire toolpost in montage style format as well.

In this episode Max and Justin take a trip down under, and back to the future, and  talk with John Creasey, an avid home shop machinist from Australia.  As usual the discussion topics vary considerably, but we do talk a bit of machining.  In this episode you’ll find:

• John and Justin get a little teary eyed over the Queen.  Don’t worry – we don’t break out in God Save the Queen
• Australian politics: the laws of mathematics are no match for the Australian government!
• John lets us know he has 2 Myfords.  His first was purchased by his father when he was 16.  Let’s here it for great Dads!
• Electric cars, VW Vanagons, and taking things apart when we were kids
• We talk about scouting, ripping out hard drives, and rip apart day
• Stefan is mentioned numerous times
• Did Max forget to empty his shop dehumidifier?
• Arduinos in the home shop: Edu Puertas (stop motion) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdEtDnvVeoqlKzpquM7IsNA and the Arduino lead screw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaBK9teKUaA

All that and much much more.

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Many many thanks goes to John for getting up early to join us.  John’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creaseyjohn/.  Be sure to subscribe to John’s Youtube channel (check you his amazing chess set build): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwfr0K9NJKIgxOqYr5TTeJg.  John also put together the Youtube Machinists Facebook group.

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

This week I finally managed to get the 102 making chips.  It took some work mostly in the drive area.  I didn’t have access to the proper voltage to drive the existing motor so I decided to replace the original Schaublin motor with new 3/4 HP Baldor that I picked up a year ago for $50.  I also wanted to keep the mechanical variable speed drive working.  I could have got the old motor rewound, and I might do that some day, but the $800 that I was quoted was a bit rich.

After modelling up the existing motor in Fusion I designed up a pulley to fit the Baldor, spacers to place the new motor in the same location as the old one and a motor mounting plate.  I used old school methods to make up a plate to mount the VFD and associated electrical components.

I made a montage type video of all the work:

I was pretty happy with how it turned out.  Here is an animated gif showing a test cut that I did with the lathe:

Aside from making up the required parts, I spent a fair bit of time cleaning out the bed, cross slide, tailstock and the interesting air – oil lubricating unit for the spindle bearings.  I also have several hours fishing the air – oil lubrication lines back into place in the headstock.

I’ve never used a plain turning lathe before, and quite frankly until I did I thought they were a bit of a joke.  In the past no carriage or leadscrew caused me to immediately write off plain turning lathes as useless machines.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, as I used my import lathe more (which has a carriage and leadscrew) I realized that I do 80% of my work without such features.  If you have the chance to pickup a plain turning lathe in good condition, jump at it!   Many people devalue such machines and as such you can sometimes get a very good deal on a lathe that is exceptionally capable – and a joy to use.

Next up is a proper toolpost for the lathe, a backing plate for a Buck 6 jaw chuck I picked up, and probably a faceplate.  That is unless I manage to pick this stuff up used somewhere.  I really don’t count on that happening though.  Parts and associated tooling for Schaublins usually demand high prices.

• • Max gets his turret finished just in time for Emma’s tool making competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe3ACUzET7Y Check out the pile of chips on the watchmaker’s lathe:
  • Justin is inching (what is the metric equivalent?) towards getting the Schaublin 102 up and running.
  • Someone opens a beverage.  Identify the time and send Justin an email: justin@thecogwheel.net  to claim your prize!
  • Justin is recording in the middle of a terrible thunderstorm.
  • 2 Jaw independent chuck?  We talk about one:
  • Justin and Max are big fans of ER collets.  Maritool is a great source for production quality stuff at reasonable prices.
  • Stefan Gotteswinter gets his mention.
  • Use your 3D printer, or a 3D printing service to make soft jaws for your vise!  Or a fixture setup for your face plate.
  • Clamping nuts – we don’t know what they are called but Max made up a set of them.  Identify them, send Justin and email justin@thecogwheel.net and claim your prize!
  • Max thinks Justin should build some die holders with driving squares in them like these ones:

All that and much much more.

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

Happy Birthday Canada! (and Happy Independence Day to our American friends to the south on Tuesday!)

Despite our terrible bantering in episode 2, Stefan Gotteswinter decides to come back on.  Max and I think perhaps he might be suffering from poor judgement.  In the longest episode to date we talk about:

• Stefan’s 1200 km drive to take Richard King’s scraping class and he lets us know some of what he has learned https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO9GW0tAOIQ
• Push or pull scraping?
• Justin still can’t get over Stefan having Japanese power tools.  Isn’t there a law in Germany against this?
• We talk about Bosch
• We talk about machining titanium
• Max is busy working on his turret for Emma’s tool making competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_VHt6j_xtw
• We talk about bearings
• And there might be some beer talk.  Wrong podcast.  Again.
• Moore books: http://mooretool.com/publications.html
• Mechanical and Metal Trades Handbook: http://www.europa-lehrmittel.de/t-1/mechanical_and_metal_trades_handbook-1271/ https://www.amazon.com/Mechanical-Trades-Handbook-Ulrich-Fischer/dp/3808519134/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495916760&sr=8-1&keywords=3808519134

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Many many thanks to Stefan for coming back on.  You can find his website here: http://gtwr.de/  Stefan also has one of the best machining Youtube channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl.On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel  Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

To start off my titanium mechanical pencil build, called wrTie, I decided to teardown a number of different mechanical pencils for inspiration and design ideas.  I find the mechanisms in mechanical pencils very interesting.  I also find the manufacturing processes that are used exceptionally interesting.

Here is a teardown video of my favourite mass produced mechanical pencil: the Pentel P209 (0.9 mm version).  The Pentel P20x series (there are 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9 mm models)  has been around for a long time.  It is exceptionally well made given the price point it is hitting and the parts involved.  There are 12 parts in total, including 5 fully machined parts.  A number of the parts require plating.  There are 2 parts that are molded out of plastic.  And then it has to be assembled!  You can buy a Pentel P209 for less than $5 in the United States and less than $7 in Canada.  That’s actually pretty crazy considering this pencil contains machined parts and even more so once you consider that Pentel is probably selling it to it’s retailers for less than half of what they are retailed for.

https://youtu.be/tM4h61_BLKQ

The heart of the Pentel 200 series is a removable fully contained feeding cartridge.  The cartridge features a number of machined components in the feeding mechanism.  The components are probably massed produced on swiss style screw machines (a lathe but instead of the carriage moving the spindle moves in the Z direction – often called sliding headstock machines).   These machines could be cam actuated screw machines or they could be CNC controlled units.  CNC swiss style machines, like the ones produced by Star or Citizen, are really interesting machines.  Here is a video of a Citizen L20, one of the more popular CNC swiss machine that you will find today:

The Pentel P209 cartridge has been used in a number of titanium mechanical pencil builds on Kickstarter.  I can’t confirm it directly as I haven’t purchased one, but check out this project (you have to scroll about half way down and you’ll see a picture of what looks to be the Pentel cartridge: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cogent/titanium-mechanical-pencil-and-titanium-pen.  Given the Pentel’s design, you could easily make a new mechanical pencil by machining a new outside body for the Pentel.  I won’t be doing that because I think it is too easy!

• Max’s work on his Trent Pinion mill
• Change gears on the lathe – you don’t need that 127 tooth to cut metric threads all the time.  Max finds a really well done gear calculator on the internet: http://geargenerator.com
• Justin gets a Delta Rockwell surface grinder for the home shop and tells the story about dragging it home in his father in law’s truck
• Max can’t be outdone: 7 Hjorths, an overloaded van, pouring rain and a flat tire
• Any other Hjorth owners out there?  Send us some info!
• High speed grinding attachments
• Decorating cakes perhaps using This Old Tony’s nice rotary table (Max’s wife probably isn’t interested though) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny5Xxwwpkxs
• We go through the now not so latest March / April 2017 Home Shop Machinist Magazine (our favorite magazine by far!)  http://www.homeshopmachinist.net/marchapril17/
• Hazard Fraught Tools: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Hazard+Fraught+tools
• Brian Rupnow’s flathead engine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np2N5ZxtKu
• Motores Patelo Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/yesuswilder10/videos
• You don’t need to have great equipment to make great stuff
• Durabar
• Would it be an episode without mentioning Stefan?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsYMC0vcaBQ

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel

• Welding and machining, is it a left brain right brain sort of thing?
• Justin gets a Schaublin 102 for the home shop!
• Max trams his mini mill with epoxy.  Would this be an episode without mentioning Stefan?  Tramming a mill with epoxy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Qs-J2swIc
• Max’s pinion mill is coming along:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPUKtlsjPRA
• Dan is building camera mounts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RtZOJ7f2LE
• We all wonder what normal people do with all their time since they don’t fix anything and don’t spend all their free time in the shop.  We are really starting to sound like old farts.
• Bench grinder balancing with a cellphone?  Dan is interested and Justin has a shameless plug to his blog: https://thecogwheel.net/2016/07/06/bench-grinder-balancing-with-a-smart-phone/
• The Davenport screw machine.  Yes, you can still buy one! http://davenportmachine.com/
• Check out the documentary Moon Machines on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTu8nanTJo7GvulBxz9JT9JcXeXimM1Vr) and When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085E40F4/
• We also talk reel mowers, grass cutting, steel, surfers helping with the space program, the SR71 Blackbird, Koenigsegg and probably some stuff in between.

You can listen to the episode directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Special thanks to Dan for joining us.  Dan’s website: https://www.dans-hobbies.com/ Be sure to subscribe to Dan’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrnAb5KKg47gsiyfDxo-JJg

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel

• As usual Justin forgets to edit something out that Max says
• Max tells us more about his Trent Pinion Mill that arrived from the UK via some sort of beaming machine
• Gearotic and Max’s Orrery build (say that without sounding intoxicated!)
• Why the Brits put the carriage wheel on the right side of the carriage
• Maintenance on cars, 3D printers, and terrible instructions
• Max tells a joke
• Fecal material on cell phone screens
• The 10 tools in the shop that we find useful … which turned out to be 8
• Plus a whole lot more punishment.

Some pictures of what we talked about:

Max’s Tiny Albrecht Drill Chuck:

The Brown and Sharp Cut Knurl Tool:

Links in this episode:

• The Trent Pinion Mill Kit: http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalog/Trent_Pinion_Mill.html
• Gearotic: http://www.gear2motion.com/
• Ken Toonz’s Orrery Build: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWktMyQDMMIbU5ZfDh2zmejOL8bs-MulN
• Stefan’s amazing turn your surface grinder into a cylindrical grinder tool: http://gtwr.de/projects/pro_cylindricalgrind/index.html
• Dan Gelbart’s Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/dgelbart/videos

You can listen to the episode directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel

Stay tuned for the next episode – it shouldn’t be too far away!

The design is very simple.  The pail itself was  from someone with a pool – it was used to hold bromine (I love re-purposing stuff!).  I’ve been saving the pail for this for awhile because it has a nice tight fitting lid.  I cut 2 holes in the top for some 1 1/2″ threaded ABS couplings and a 1 1/2″ to 1 1/4″ bushing found at a local hardware store.  One coupling was male threaded and the other was female threaded.  The 1 7/8 Ridgid vacuum hose fit well onto these couplings after I turned them to fit.  A long 1 1/2″ ABS elbow was used to direct the dirty suction flow along the side of the container.  The ‘clean’ air comes out the centre and into the vacuum.

I immediately tried it by cleaning up the lathe.  It worked very well for metal chips.  I’m not sure how well this design would work with saw dust – something I’m bound to try out at some point.  I don’t do that much work with wood, and when I do it generally is general construction – which usually happens outdoors.

I was considering purchasing a Dust Deputy – a purchased cyclone attachment for standard vacuums.  They are $60 for just the cyclone (still requires a pail with a lid) or $135 for a cyclone, pail, lid and hose.  Lee Valley also has their Veritas cyclone lids for larger containers for about $50, but I prefer the 5 gallon pail size.

I have about $30 into the project including the hose (the most expensive part of the project), which isn’t too bad at all.  Now I won’t fill expensive vacuum bags up with metal chips anymore, and I can keep the vacuum bag for filtration of fine particulate like grinding dust.

I didn’t make drawings for this project because I thought it was very simple.  If you really would like something, send me an email and I’ll try to do something up.

Here is a video of the project:

The threaded drawbar itself was made out of some mystery metal in the shop.  It was interesting stuff with a really hard outer layer that through hot chips all over my arm when I was turning it.  It almost made me want a lathe with a carriage wheel on the right side of the lathe.  The drawbar was turned between centres to within .001″ over 10″ – something I was happy with.  It highlighted my need for a travel steady – I’ll have to add that to the project this.

The MT4 – MT3 bushing / adapter was made out of an inexpensive MT4 – MT3 adapter that would be commonly used in a drill press.  I cut the tang off with an angle grinder and cleaned it up on the belt sander.  I was thinking about making it up entirely, but I wanted a hardened bushing.

Here is the drawing for the project:

Lathe Drawbar Rev 01

The video marks my tenth video that I’ve done, and it also incorporates some significant changes in how I put them together.  Going forward I hope to continue to improve the quality as I learn.

The titanium pencil project is also still very much a going concern – I hope start some tear downs over the next few weeks to start the project off.  Many of the projects I’ve been working on in the shop are laying groundwork for the build.  So in short – stay tuned!

Most height gauges come with a tool for measuring flat surfaces, and for scribing.  To get the most out of the gauge you need a depth arm – basically a pin in an arm, for measuring depths.  I needed one to measure up a motor face so I can get a 3 phase motor mounted on my lathe – one of those projects to complete a project sort of deals.  I decided to make one up instead of buying it:

I made most of the arm on the shaper and used a gift from Max over at the Joy of Precision to bore the hole for the pin.  The boring head Max made is the star of this show.  It is the perfect size for the mini mill.  It is one of the best designs for a small boring head I’ve seen, and used.  The adjusting dial is a tad small but once you get a feel for it adjusting it is easy.  It’s also great because you can bore small holes – saving you from buying a lot of reamers.

The pin was turned between centers and was within .0004″ over the length – something I was very happy with.  The deviation was in the centre of the pin.  The pin sprung between centres a bit when I was cutting – aside from using a traveling steady there isn’t much you can do here about that.  The beginning diameter and end diameter were essentially the same within .0001.  I probably didn’t need  that much precision but I wanted to dial in my tailstock anyway.  At the end of the pin you can screw in standard dial indicator ends using a #4-48 thread.

I made the screw out of brass because it looks nice, and doesn’t mar the pin.  I usually don’t turn that much brass so I was reminded how easy it is to work with.

Here is the drawing for the height gauge arm.  I will be sharing all the projects in Fusion at some point and I’ll post a link.

Height Gauge Arm (Revision 01)

If you are looking to get a height gauge, do yourself a favor and go a dial one instead of a digital one.  Even though the dial on mine is graduated to .001″, you can actually measure much closer in the home shop with it.  Notice I didn’t say in the shop – in a professional environment I get that you need hard numbers and ‘guessing’ at the measurement is very poor practice.  Verniers are also good but I find them slow – probably because I don’t have enough practice.

• Stefan is looking at Onshape.
• Max geeks out over Wine for Linux (sorry) and thinks you can easily run Autodesk’s Fusion in Linux.
• Max gets a Hemingway kit, the Trent Pinion Mill, and now he has to machine it!
• Chinese machine tools really are not that good, but are great for home shop machinists!
• Stefan suggests to think of most imported machine tools as casting kits.
• How to get banned in less than 5 minutes on Practical Machinist.
• Germans have a lot of home shop machinists, who mostly use CNC.  Germans and their tech!
• Stefan uses carbide in the shop.  We’ll make him listen to our first episode again before we invite him back on.
• Stefan would be happy on a desert island with a Deckel FP1… and all the accessories.  Who wouldn’t?
• Max happens to think German is an eloquent language.
• How could you interview a German and not ask about beer?

Plus a whole lot more.  We managed to trim 10 minutes off this time to get our 1 hour podcast down in 1 hour and 20 minutes!

You can listen to the episode directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Stefan’s website: http://gtwr.de/index.html.  and his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl

Onshape: https://www.onshape.com/

Max’s Hemingway kit: http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalog/Trent_Pinion_Mill.html

Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4qMguQuG7N4CFwOP1jyo4A

From this point on I’m going to try to make drawings for all the projects that I do in Autodesk Fusion.  I’ll also share the CAD data in Fusion once I get that setup.  Below are the drawings for each of the parts:

1. Tool Post Nut Arm
2. Tool Post Nut

In the video I talk a little about the taps I primarily purchase and use in the shop.  YG’s spiral flute bottoming machine tap is my go to tap.  The quality on these taps is exceptional, and work well in many materials that you find in the home shop.  They are designed for tapping blind holes, but work equally well in through holes so to keep costs down I try to just purchase these.  Avoid the cheap import sets for thread cutting.  Usually these sets are made from high carbon steel (not high speed steel), and they generally do a poor job in the shop.

If anyone says you can’t tap properly by hand using machine taps, they probably aren’t using good machine taps, or need more practice I guess.  I find that the YG machine taps are easier to use and start than standard hand taps and do a much better job on the thread.  Let them pick out the broken hand tap.

Max and I are working on the next podcast, I’ve been working on few improvements for my lathe and I have a VFD (variable frequency drive) project for the lathe that will be coming up next before I begin wrTie full time.

• What’s happening in our shops (it’s getting cold!)
• High Speed Steel – the Scottish man’s cutting tool of choice, and also most dutchmen
• Quit spreading rumors about HSS bluing!
• Don’t feed the monsters: quit buying those end mills in the wood box
• Max’s tip: Do yourself a huge favor and buy a 3/8 HSS roughing end mill for your mini mill (a good quality one will last a long time!)
• They are not Titanium drill bits!
• Max untwists a drill
• We talk for 1/2 hour longer than we planned.  Consider it punishment.

Youtube links:

• Mr. Pete’s tool grinding video, part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrDr4rYLiAk
• That really old one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7g8yu2iYhY

Recommended Books:

L.H. Sparey’s Amateur’s Machinist.  On Amazon here.

Here is a picture of the TIN drill Max managed to untwist:

We’ll get better at this, we hope.  Please leave us feedback.

For now we are hosting it on my blog.  You can listen to the episode directly here:

or download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Be sure to check out and follow Max on his blog, The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw

My Youtube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4qMguQuG7N4CFwOP1jyo4A

This project symbolizes my desire to do things different.  WrTIe will be a product designed to last a lifetime and pass onto your kids (like that pocket watch you received from your grandfather), a project that challenges design and manufacturing skills, and my desire to be an inspiration for everyone working in their garage.  And that’s where great ideas start.

The real question is can a small shop with manual machines and one man design, prototype, and manufacturer something so simple … yet so complicated?  This is a product made with a material that is difficult to manufacturer with even the best equipment.  And I’ve never machined titanium.  Not even once.

What will follow over the year is a series showing my progress on designing, prototyping and manufacturing a mechanical pencil made from titanium.  There will be product tear downs, unique designs, tiny o-rings, CAD software, research, guesswork, calculated risks, material investigation, tool design and selection, deep hole drilling, tiny machining, the help of friends, many failures, frustrations, lessons from craft beer, and I hope in the end success.

I haven’t written or designed anything.  This is not scripted.  This isn’t a Kickstarter campaign.  Through the power of video you will be coming along for the journey, every step of the way, watching ever failure, and every success.  I want to learn and do something productive, and I hope you do as well.

And in the end if it all works, I hope to have something special that I can use every day.  The drawings, the lessons learned, the tricks discovered, will all be here.

To show your support, I ask you to subscribe.  I will start in early 2017.

Now I need to get this VFD put on my lathe.

I hate tamper proof screws.  The only point to them is to either sell more tools, or force people to throw stuff out.  They don’t keep people out.  People who want to get in will get in, and people who don’t want to will not.  And keeping people out of products so they can’t change batteries doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.  Then there is the problem of end of life.  How many people would just chuck this item into the garbage?

End users or consumers should always be able to remove and replace batteries without the need for specialty tools so they can remove the batteries before they dispose of the device, or prolong the life of the device.  Why is this such a big deal?  Devices with non removable batteries cannot be automatically processed by waste recycling facilities (because these facilities grind up the entire device – which would cause major issues with batteries).  This forces these types of devices to be shipped overseas where low cost labour disassembles them.  Often kids are doing this work, and the waste is not disposed of properly.

Apple is one major manufacturer that insists on fully enclosed non removable batteries.  This is terrible, but it helps their agenda: sell more devices or sell more over priced service.  Numerous reasons are given for built in batteries in small electronic devices, but in reality they don’t have any merit.  I have a inexpensive ($100) Android phone with a removable battery and it works great.  And if the battery needs to be replaced, I don’t even need any tools to replace it.   And when the device fails I can remove the battery and send them to appropriate recycling facilities, instead of across the globe.

We really have to stop designing for the dump and quickest assembly, and start designing for service and longevity.

I made a video showing how I made them up:

I used a die to cut the threads.  A lathe purist perhaps would have single pointed them, but I didn’t have time and it was getting late.  I delivered them early Saturday morning, and I was told they did the job well.  I did lose a bit of sleep that night, but it was fun to do and I was glad to help out someone else get another job done that couldn’t wait for another solution.

I also made a video of a quick analysis I did of the stiffness and damping properties of concrete and found concrete to be a great material to make a lathe bench out of:

It turned out well.  I originally was going to build a steel bench out of 2×2 tubing to move the lathe to as the wood bench gave significant grief when trying to get the twist out of the bed.  I then started thinking outside of the traditional box, and thought, hey what about concrete.

Now my lathe is pretty short – if you had a longer lathe you might want to support the granite countertop more with perhaps some steel bolted between the 2 supports.

I plan on making some shelves for below the lathe yet in between the 2 blocks.  It was a fun project, and I learned a fair bit about cement and concrete in my reading.  If you want to improve the damping even more, there are many studies on adding rubber pieces to the cement.  You can also add steel wool to significantly improve the strength.  Simple standard concrete alone though has the damping properties of cast iron.

Yes I can’t really move it, and I thought a lot about this, but I really don’t move my machines that often anyway.

The performance of the lathe is significantly improved, it is like day and night really.  I didn’t think it would make that much of a difference.  Some slight shimming maybe required yet to get the last small amount of taper out (or it could be another issue – I haven’t investigated any further yet as the taper at this point is way better than the .003″ over 3 inches I was getting before).

Here is a picture of the bench itself:

And with the lathe (I previously made a drip pan the lathe is sitting on):

It didn’t take that long to do – not significantly longer than any other bench construction method.  Plus I didn’t’ have to deal with steel distortion and residual stresses due to welding – something that can be a significant issue.

When I first started the program at McMaster to complete my degree, I was convinced that I wanted to be an engineer, and the Bachelor of Technology program was the quickest way to get my degree and pursue the required Professional Engineering challenge exams to get my designation.

Now that I’m almost finished the engineering technology program at McMaster University and preparing to take my Masters of Engineering, I’ve realized what being an engineering technologist is and the significant value an engineering technologist brings to the table.

Most traditional engineering programs have a significant focus on mathematics, and emphasizes the derivation of mathematical models to describe engineering phenomenon.  They focus on creating mathematical models.  The engineering technologist focuses on making known mathematical models work to solve a problem.  Engineering technologists sacrifice some of the higher mathematics to practical lab time.  This is to observe mathematical models in action.  Engineering technologists also have a greater emphasis placed on work experience as part of their academic training.  Nearly all engineering technologists are required (in Canada anyway) to complete some form of work placement as a graduating requirement.  Engineering technologists with a Bachelor’s degree (Bachelor in Technology) also are accepted into higher level academic programs, including masters programs and doctorate programs.

(Source McMaster University http://mybtechdegree.ca/home/pathways.html)

Mark French, an associate professor at Purdue (http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rmfrench/) gives an interesting look into engineering technology in The Engineering Commons Podcast episode 59.  It is well worth listening to.

(You can also download it here, and be sure to subscribe to a very interesting podcast!: http://theengineeringcommons.com/episode-59-engineering-technology/)

In the working world, the lines are very blended between the 2 professions.  It has been my experience that the broader approach to learning in a technology program leads many engineering technologists into management roles, especially interdisciplinary management such as Operations Management.  This is the reason McMaster’s Bachelor of Technology program puts a heavy emphasis on traditional business type courses.  Business courses make up almost 30% of their degree completion program.

Here is a graph that depicts the similarities, and some of the differences in the working world:

(Chart above from the American Society for Mechanical Engineers.)

An area where engineering and engineering technology differs significantly is the area of public liability.  Generally engineering technologists are not permitted to take public liability for their work, although this has slowly been changing.  If there is government legislation requiring public liability to be accounted for (use of the stamp), engineering technologists are required to have their work reviewed by a professional engineer.

I seriously enjoy engineering technology and I have been significantly blessed in my career – both in school and at work.  Engineering technology is a great mix of hands on and theoretical.   It is a field where you take something off the whiteboard and live it out on the shop floor.  As an engineering technologist I can design a part (sometimes I may have to ask an engineer to verify some of my work – but that’s a good practice anyway), apply the appropriate manufacturing process, actually do the process, and observe the end result.  It is a full understanding of an entire concept to completion process – a big picture approach.

So when somebody asks me what I do, I say I am an engineering technologist.  What is an engineering technologist?  Let’s go for a walk, and I’ll show you what I do.  It’s easier than trying to explain it.  I find the hands on approach emphasizing the end result easier for everyone to relate to.

This is what happens when you don’t compartmentalize your life!  It’s my first attempt at a movie and I’ve hitched onto the Youtube bandwagon.  I’m nowhere near the caliber of This Old Tony.  I have some more technical videos coming – stay tuned.

Lately there has been much talk of augmented and virtual reality regarding how it is going to change the way we live.  But I have some news for you: it is already here and it is frequently used in our cars.  For example,  since 2012 the Volkswagen GTI utilizes something called the Soundaktor (no – I’m not making that up! – http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5687958-Soundaktor-be-Gone-!).  The Soundaktor produces artificial engine noises to ‘enhance’ the driving experience.  Volkswagen isn’t only company using electronics to create artificial sound; numerous other car manufactures use the car’s entertainment unit.

Nearly all new cars today (in North America) utilize throttle by wire: a sensor in the throttle pedal communicates with a computer which turns the throttle plate.  This allows manufactures to program how they want the accelerator to respond, and it’s the reason you’ll find some cars you drive are very sensitive on the throttle response and others more relaxed.   Electronic stability control is required by law (http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/crash-avoidance-technologies/qanda#electronic-stability-control) since 2012.  In these systems microprocessors change the response of the throttle and braking system (or our human inputs) to try to maintain control of the vehicle if it senses wheel slippage or other out of control movements.  There are numerous other examples of computers used to alter or influence the actual response of a system – regardless of human input.

If your Soundaktor is always pumping in simulated sound into your car, how do you know what your car really should sound like?  What happens if you end up in a situation where the programmed routine isn’t sufficient for the situation you find yourself in?  This constant surge forward to digitize our analog world unfortunately warps our sense of who we are, what we are capable of, and warps the physical world that we live in.

Technology that augments reality and helps us do things better is not always a bad thing and allows us to do things we couldn’t do on our own; however operating in a true analog world is also a skill that is very important to develop, maintain, and is a fundamental part of who we are.  This is why it is so important for kids to have play time outside.

It’s why I have a manual lathe, manual mill, and 1940s shaper in the garage, and why I really like driving my Volkswagen Beetle.  I guess it is my play time outside.

Even though the publishing of this book is seriously showing its age (the drawings, typing and photographs could be updated in quality), the content is very very good.  Sparey approaches the information within the constraint of doing work on one piece of equipment: a small workshop lathe.  So many teach that the lathe is only for turning work, such as turning small shafts or bushings.

The reason I like the book so much is because it encourages you to think outside of the box.  It helps develop the skill of trying to complete a project using the tools at your disposal.  It teaches one of my favorite words: ingenuity.  “Ingenuity is the quality of being clever, original, and inventive, often in the process of applying ideas to solve problems or meet challenges. Ingenuity (Ingenium) is the root Latin word for engineering.”  Ingenuity is solving a problem within the constraints you are placed in.  And remember constraints produce good design.

Ingenuity is the skill we desperately need in engineering.  Engineers today are really good at math, but math is only one tool to solve a problem.  At some point we have to move from the theoretical to the practical.  I remember  one of my professors (a mathematician / engineer) jokingly told me that solving the problem is the important part – you can find any idiot to do the math.  He was joking, and wasn’t downplaying the importance of mathematics, but rather highlighting the importance of solving the problem.

So if you are a mechanical or manufacturing engineer – read the book to get an interesting insight to what a small bench lathe can really do – while actually learning how to use a lathe.  If you are someone working in your shop the book has excellent insight and information to get those machining projects done you think you don’t have enough tools to do.

It’s on Amazon here.  Don’t let the bad reviews fool you – you have to read the book and think not just look at the pictures.

The brackets are made out of 1018 cold rolled steel.  What I really liked about this project is everyone of my powered machine tools (bandsaw, shaper, lathe, mill, belt sander, bench grinder!) was used.  The method went something like this:

• Cut to size on the bandsaw
• Face and machine to thickness on the shaper
• Square up on the mill
• Drill the holes and start tapping on the mill (finish up by hand)
• Cut the large radius in the lathe using a face plate setup (I used a hacksaw first to remove most of the material!)
• Cut the outside profile on the bandsaw
• Add the profile radii on the belt sander
• And of course, sharpening all the tools on the bench grinder and / or belt sander

It was the first job I really put my newly acquired 7″ Ammco Shaper to work.

The shaper worked great, and it was really nice to just let the little machine work away while I was drilling on the mill.  Would I trade my mill for a shaper?  No, probably not, but the little shaper is a pretty useful tool.  It did a very good job on finishing the 1018, which can be really gummy at times with poor chip control.  I used a 1/4 HSS turning tool with a small stepper over for roughing and finishing.  Roughing used a depth of cut of about .020″, which I though was fairly respectable given the 1/3 hp motor powering the little shaper.  I’ll be posting some more details on the HSS tool geometry I used soon.

Here is my favorite hammer that I use in the shop while machining:

Its a zinc cast hammer made by Forest City Castings in Canada.  I use this hammer pretty much exclusively while doing setups, and I love it.  It’s also the first hammer that I’ve ever used that has instructions on the handle.

All kidding aside, the reason I like this hammer so much is because it is made in Canada at a price that you can afford, and is a quality product.  Disclaimer: I have ‘off shore’ tools in my shop and I don’t want to come across as being a hypocrite.  The ‘off shore’ tools in my shop are there because I couldn’t find tools made here that were reasonably affordable (new) or in reasonable used condition (used).  I would have gladly paid more money for my mini mill if I could get a made in North America one.  The reality is if you want a mini mill you don’t have much choice.

Some people say we just can’t compete with countries like China.  Companies like Apple routinely tell us that they couldn’t function without countries like China (read we need shareholder value on the back of inexpensive labour and lax environmental laws).  I beg to differ because every time I’m setting up in my mill or shaper I’m using my affordable, Canadian made, zinc cast hammer – which is arguably a commodity product.  It is made by a great company that is helping its community by providing good, honest jobs.  I’m reminded that yes we can effectively manufacturing  things here, and yes we can compete with countries like China while treating the worker and environment  with the respect and dignity they deserve.

So this hammer is inspiration for me to try and make a difference in the manufacturing world I work and live in.  It reminds me everyday that a good product at a reasonable price is possible to be sustainably made right where I live.

If you want one of these hammers, (I think they make them in aluminum and zinc) send me an email and I’ll try to get you one as I don’t think you can purchase them online.

justin@thecogwheel.net

There with that out of the way, I found another use for my smart phone in the shop: dynamically balancing my bench grinder.

Here is my bench grinder.  It is a 8″ Ryobi from Home Depot.  It spins at 3600 rpm which is a little fast for HSS tool bits but it works and has plenty of power for what I do.  Of course I removed the wheels it originally came with and purchased 2 new  CGW Abrasives wheels from a reputable tool supply house in my area.

Before we move on to balancing, let me say that I re-machined the wheel mounting hardware that came with my bench grinder so it was flat.  I made new grinding wheel bushings for the wheels so they were mounted as true as I could get them.  I also trued up the wheels with a diamond tipped dressing tool similar to this one: http://www.mcmaster.com/#grinding-wheel-truing-tools/=132y8pr

My bench grinder still vibrated.  It wasn’t serious, and didn’t affect the grinding of high speed steel tools, but it bothered me.  It was an inexpensive bench grinder, and I could go out and by a more expensive one, but most of the new ones all come from China anyway, and I was getting sick and tired of searching for sale posts for a good used Baldor for a reasonable price.  So I decided to see if I could at least make things a bit better.  I also know that surface grinding wheels are balanced when they are mounted.

First you need to know the mass of the entire grinder.  I used a baby scale that we have around the home.  Of course I had to remove the grinder from my grinding table.

I then determined the resonant frequency of my grinder.  To do this you need to mount your smart phone to the bench grinder.  I used zip ties, again.  You can see some of my other ‘cell phone’ engineering on my other page where I analyzed my mini mill using my smart phone:  https://thecogwheel.net/2016/06/27/x2-mini-mill-vibrations-and-chatter/

Next step was to determine the  natural frequency of the system. With the grinder off, turn on your accelerometer app and tap the grinder with a dead blow hammer.  I exported the results and took a look at the response in Excel.  Here is what the chart:

Now you can see the wave is a little choppy.  This is due to my smart phone’s accelerometer limitations.  You could do much better with a higher quality accelerometer programmed using a micro controller (a Arduino works well!) but that wasn’t the point of what I was trying to do.  I wanted to see if my smart phone would provide useful information because it is easy to use!

From the graph I found the period of the vibration to be 0.032891 seconds.  The inverse of the period is the frequency, which is 30.403 Hz.  Note this is the damped frequency, denoted Wd.  From this point on some math is involved, you can view it in the spreadsheet posted below.  If you want me to detail the math used, send me an email.  Using the data the following was calculated:

As we can see, my bench grinder’s natural frequency is around 2000 rpm.  This means that it must accelerate through the natural frequency when it starts up.  I plotted the a startup of my bench grinder using my cell phone to confirm my results.  The very right of the chart shows the grinder running in steady state, or 3600 rpm.  You can see the response is stable and repetitive at the right hand of the graph.

Not so good!  Now this is a rotational imbalance problem.  Essentially a unbalanced mass is causing the entire system to oscillate.  This oscillate is the worst at the resonant frequency, but the unbalanced mass also contributes to the oscillation during steady state operation, in our case 3600 rpm.  Can we calculate what this unbalanced mass is?  Of course we can!

First we need to calculate what the response displacement is.  To do this you need to find the maximum, vibration amplitude during steady state.  My grinder had a maximum acceleration amplitude of 10.42 m/s^2 during steady state operation.  To calculate what the displacement is you need to divide this number (subtracting gravity first!) by the rotational speed squared (converted to radians per second).  You do all this and  found my displacement to be 0.004292 mm.  Once we have this, we have all the information we need to calculate what the unbalanced mass times radius factor (mR)  that is causing this vibration.

We need to solve the following equation where X is the displacement, mR is the mass x radius due to the unbalanced mass, M is the mass of the entire system, r is the frequency ratio and zeta is the damping factor:

Again some math is involved, you can view it in the spreadsheet posted below.  If you want me to detail the math used, send me an email.  Using the data the following was calculated:

So there, we now know how much mass we need.  Since I didn’t have any way to use my cell phone to figure out where the unbalanced mass was occurring  (this would require a some sort of method to determine phase of the wave from, such as a proximity sensor trigger), I decided to stick on trial weights and move them methodically around the wheels and watch the response on my smart phone.  After several tries I found a spot that was close to where it should be and proceeded to stick on the weights.  I used little washers, and I placed them on each wheel.

I used the following mounting tape:

I mounted the weights on each wheel, covered them with high strength tape, and let it sit overnight (according to the tape’s instructions) to harden up.

I put the covers all back on and started it up.  It ran much smoother, and my cell phone’s accelerometer showed significantly less vibration.  I couldn’t get the weights placed perfectly to get rid of all vibration, so some is still present.  But it is a lot better than it was.

I plotted the results of my grinder starting up and overlaid them over the results before I added the mass:

That looks a lot better!

In the future I am going to try to come up with a simple way to measure phase.  This might involve a computer instead of a cell phone, but for now I’m much happier with my bench grinder.   When it accelerates and decelerates it is much quieter and during operation you cannot tell it is running.  Hey, its not a Baldor, but it works like one now!

You can view the spreadsheet I used to do the calculations: BenchGrinderAnalysis.

The Sieg X2 Mini Mill is know for the wet noodle characteristics of the column.  In particular the tilting column variation of the X2 (the most common variation) has extreme chatter and vibration issues when trying to take anything more than very small depths of cut in steel.  The reputation is such that Little Machine Shop has removed the Sieg’s tilting option on its mills in order to improve rigidity.

The other day I was single point fly cutting some tall plates with the Sieg X2 (no, I didn’t strip the plastic gears … yet) and noticed the column vibration was very significant.

I decided I should investigate what was going on.  Information on additional column support on the X2 is very plentiful around the web and I could have simply manufactured some form of column brace based on the modifications others have done.  But I wanted to learn more about the vibration issue before I went directly to a solution.  I though, hey that mill column looks a lot like a simple spring – mass – damper system.  The spring, well that’s the column, the mass – that’s the spindle housing and motor, and the damping – well there shouldn’t be much.

Firstly, I wanted to figure out what the natural frequency the column vibration.  How do you do this?  Most times an accelerometer would be mounted to the column.  I didn’t have an  accelerometer handy.  Or did I?  I started to think about the smart phone I owned.  Most smart phones have accelerometers built in.  I downloaded some software that retrieved data from the accelerometer, attached my phone to the column (zip ties work – electrical tape works well but leaves sticky glue on your screen!) and proceeded to strike the column with a dead blow hammer on the spindle housing in the Y direction and plot the response.

I plotted the response in Excel.  The output from the accelerometer was in m/s².  I used the phone’s Z axis output only.

Now is probably a good time to comment a little about the sample rate from the accelerometer.  My cell phone is an inexpensive Alcatel Pixi.  The maximum sample rate from the accelerometer I could achieve is 100 Hz.  This is why the above chart looks choppy.  I would have preferred something higher – say 500 Hz, but the data is good enough to make some general observations.

From the graph I found the period of the vibration to be 0.03941 seconds.  The inverse of the period is the frequency, which is 25.374 Hz.  25.374 Hz is 1522 rpm.  From this point on some math is involved, you can view it in the spreadsheet posted below.  If you want me to detail the math used, send me an email.  The mass was approximated using the mass of the spindle head and 0.23 x the mass of the column.  Using the data the following are calculated:

The low amount of damping is expected.  The low K value had me scratching my head a bit so I decided to calculate what the K value should be based on a fixed cantilever beam.  I estimated the moment of inertia using a square tube.  Again, I’ll spare the detailed math.

Whoa!   That’s a lot higher than what we measured!  What does this mean?  Something must be adding to the ‘springiness’ of the system.  I concur with most around the web that the large titling interface isn’t very good.

Now before we go into improving the stiffness of the system, we should ask ourselves why we are doing it.  When I was single point flycutting, I was fly cutting at an RPM of around 500 – 600 rpm.  This is about 10 Hz.  Our measured natural frequency of the system is 25 Hz.  This condition where we are applying a load and taking it off is type of rotating unbalance problem.  The frequency ratio, simply the operating frequency divided by the natural frequency, gives an indication how close you are to resonance, and helps you figure out what the machine response will be.  In this case the frequency ratio, or r, is 0.4.  What does this mean?  Well avoiding all the math, a quick chart for rotational unbalance, (from Dr. Yuen’s spreadsheets – thank you!) gives a more clear picture:

At 10 Hz or r = 0.4 and zeta = 0.1 we are approaching the sharp peak where r = 1.  That’s really bad!  And the force chart shows the same story:

Since I really can’t do anything about the damping in the system I want to try to increase the stiffness of the system and thus operate at a lower frequency ratio, r.  Since the calculated stiffness should be closer to 50 Hz, I decided to fabricate a plate and mount it on the column, as well as add additional support for the base.  If you want additional pictures or drawings of the bracket send me an email and I’ll try to get them to you.

The bracket allows the mill to be trammed in the X direction, but removes the titling ability.  I never really used it anyway.  When I made the bracket I scraped it as flat as I could.  After installing I trammed the mill in the X and Y axis to within .0005″ (hence the shims).  I remounted my cell phone to the mill and determined the new natural frequency.

As you can see the data is becoming more choppy.  This is due to the increased frequency and the 100 Hz limitation by my phone.  From the graph I found the period of the vibration to be 0.022 seconds with the inverse or frequency to be 45 Hz.  That’s better!  The rest of the math shakes down below.

The damping factor stays about the same (small change is due to experimental error!).

What type of improvement will you see with this?  Take my fly cutting scenario.  The new frequency ratio is 10 Hz / 45 Hz = 0.2.  From the rotating unbalance chart above if you move from r = 0.4 (where we were) to r = 0.2 the displacement decreases by a factor of over 5!  That is a pretty large reduction in displacement.

In conclusion, as many know already, the standard titling arrangement with 36 mm nut is not the best setup.  Adding a bracket or additional support is required.  At least now I have a quantifiable reason why.

You can download the spreadsheet if you want to: X2VibrationAnalysis.