Member postings for Steve Crow

Finished this at last apart from the drive belt.

Very pleased with the paint finish. I used Paragon Old English White and clear laquer. Started with etch primer and 4 coats of Paragon high build undercoat. And a lot of rubbing down.

Steve

Edited By Steve Crow on 24/09/2023 16:03:42

Thank you Will, That's a nice piece of kit. I like the vernier plate on the table.

It looks to me like you have a Champion No.1 headstock, a George Thomas table and a nicely home made table bracket (forgive the nomenclature).

Here are some equivalent photos of mine-

And a drawing-

Looking forward to seeing pictures once it has been painted etc.

Cheers, Steve

Edited By Steve Crow on 05/09/2023 17:23:38

I've a few alumium parts to paint in the near future.

I'm wondering the best way to give them a thorough cleaning before the etch priming.

Would pure isopropyl alcohol do the trick? Maybe diluted with distilled water?

If not, any alternative suggestions would be welcome, preferably household or easily/cheaply obtainable.

Cheers, Steve

Hello Will, I have a Champion No.1 which I'm about to refurbish (with a similar bump stop).

I have never seen one with an indexing depth dial like yours.

Is there any chance you could post a few more photos?

I feel another project coming on!

Cheers, Steve

With LED ring light. You can just swing it out of the way for changing tools etc. as it sits on a friction collar.

I also want to use this for spot drilling small parts after marking out for depthing, for example and I need all the light possible.

This is meant to be very much an "analogue" machine. No measurements as such but everything done by feel and sight.

Dovetail motor mount for quick tensioning adjustment. I need to make a locking lever for the central gib screw.

The motor plate is detachable because I intend to use the whole assembly on another machine as well.

The bottom of the motor plate will be lined with a 1/16" rubber sheet to cut down on the vibes.

The fine adjustment on the table should make an effective depth stop.

I'm hoping to use this for consistent depth countersinking and screw counterboring (horological size stuff)

The counter pulleys are mounted on a sliding knuckle joint so I can adjust the height and distance. The spring damper is intended to help with belt tension.

I got the idea from a Luger pistol breech mechanism.

A few weeks back, I asked for help identifying some small drill presses.

The provenence of the smaller one remains a mystery, but I decided to refurbish it and put it to use.

It's not finished yet, this is just the first time I've assembled the major parts.

I still have to make an ER8 spindle and a few other bits.

There will be a small box on the base plate with on/off and light switches and sockets for power and foot pedal speed control.

Eventually I'm going to paint the castings and base plate in a cream enamel.

Steve

Edited By Steve Crow on 25/08/2023 18:37:17

I've ordered the bearings and will start on the spindle as soon as I've got a current project out of the way. I need to buy/make a couple of tools for this anyway.

When I start the build, I'll open another thread as this one is getting bloated.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this, it really is a committee design.

If anyone spots a major flaw in my plans, speak up quick!

Cheers

Steve

I don't know. The silly prices some watchmakers lathes reach nowadays might have given the vendor ideas.

Irrespective of the price, there is a huge amount of kit there.

Missed that one!

More than a bit ambitious with the pricing but what a lovely piece of kit.

Look at the range of accessories - an embarrasment of chucks!

Very nice but how much?

Steve

Thanks for that, In that case, I've seen O-rings that will fit.

I'd rather cut the groove when boring rather than go through the whole faff of setting up again though.

Edited By Steve Crow on 29/07/2023 23:29:37

I do want to make a longer quill version of this. That will have to have the housing trued on a mandrel as mentioned by Kiwi Bloke. However, I'm going to concentrate on the short version first to prove the concept, so to speak.

The housing will be steel, probably EN1A. Much as I would like to bore everything from the front, I have zero confidence in getting the rear bearing diameter right. And as for cutting the O-ring groove? Forget about it.

I'm going to cut and face to size then centre in a 4-jaw. A few minutes with a little nylon hammer on the tail end and careful tightening and in my experience you can get both ends near true. The whole housing is less than 48mm long and a third of that is in the chuck jaws so I'm not sure a steady is needed.

Drill and bore to suit rear bearing all the way through. Cut O-ring groove.

Reverse in chuck and clock both ends but this time on the chuck end and the bore. Bore for clearance, nose bearings and nose inner nut. Have said nose inner nut ready (that you made earlier) for testing the fit and cut internal threads.

I don't know the first thing about O-rings by the way. If anyone can enlighten me to what I need for this application?

Steve

I've only just read the latest postings as I've been in the workshop all day. Those boring bar holders don't make themselves! And I've got a feeling I might need them.

A word about collets and workholding regarding the spindle machining.

A couple of comments mentioned concentricity of collets. I've recently made an ER16 chuck for my headstock. Machined in place, it has no measurable run out. I bought a set of ultra-high precision collets (5 micron) and they are excellent, on an other level to any I've had before. Checking them with a test bar of nominal diameter (so there is hardly any compression) I get a run out of 2 to 3 um and I can half that by careful tightening (final 2 nips at 180 to each other) so I have confidence in my collets.

Saying that, Duncan Webster was right, that 9.5mm diameter is far too short (4mm) to be gripped accurately. ER collets should grip on their full length for best accuracy. That's 27mm for a ER16.

I could hold on the 8mm journal length instead which is 16mm long. As its being held in a 8mm collet, all should be good. After all, I'll be checking and skimming the taper in the final stage, when held true by the front bearings.

When I do the final stage, I'll hold the tail end in a watchmakers collet which grips on a shorter length.

The only time I'll be using a 4-jaw is the first stage, supported by a centre. As all diameters are turned in the same set up, everything should be concentric. I could even do it in the 3-jaw with oversize stock and turn down to 10mm for the collet when I reverse it.

I will get round to describing how I plan the make the housing eventually but it's beer o'clock.

Steve

Hi Clive, I do realise that this is probably grossly over-engineered for my purposes, but I wanted a design that could be replicated and scaled easily. Also I'm quite fond of a bit of over-engineering!

My very first thought when on embarking on this was to use a bought ER8 spindle as you said. They are available in 8mm shank at just the right length (65mm) but I wasn't sure about turning down and thread cutting as the shanks are hardened. Not to mention the satisfacion of making it myself.

My current project is upgrading a tiny sensitive drill. It runs in a 1/4" spindle which I'm remaking with an ER8 chuck. I would have used a bought spindle for this but they are not availble in imperial sizes.

This did run in steel bushes which I've replaced with Oilite.

Steve

How I plan to make the spindle-

Cut a piece of 10mm EN8 to slightly over total length. Face and centre drill one end.

Hold the last 10mm of the unfaced end in centred 4-jaw with live centre at the other end.

Turn the plain shank at tail end of the spindle. I will make it a bit longer than the drawing as it has to be held in a collet later.

Turn the 7mm pulley section to 6.98 then the bearing journal to 7.01. Continue along the spindle, one diameter at a time (leaving the journals 0.01 oversize), until the 9.5mm section is done.

The idea is to leave as much meat and stiffness in the spindle as possible while turning. A fixed steady might help but I think I'll get away with it.

When the turning is done, single point the thread and do any chamfering. Then lap journals to suit bearings.

Remove from chuck, reverse and hold 9.5mm diameter in a collet. Then drill, bore, taper bore, thread etc. Basically complete the ER8 chuck.

Before the next stage, you will have needed to make the spacers and rear lock nut assembly.

Assemble spindle, bearings, spacers nuts etc. and nip everything up.

Hold the tail end plain shank in a good collet or well centred 4-jaw. Support front bearings in a fixed steady and adjust so the 9.5mm diameter is as true as you can get.

Move clock to the collet taper bore and check run-out. Its only going to be as good as your 9.5mm collet during the last process.

If its good enough, your done! If not, take a light skim along the taper until it is.

This last idea was adapted from the Swindles Spindles book that started the thread.

I'll describe the housing machining later.

Steve

Here is version 8.

I've gone for a single nut at the rear. I know I could make the whole assembly in one piece but I lke the idea of a "pulley carrier" so I can swap for different sizes.

Not immediately apparent but I've put flats on the nose just behind the nut for collet tightening. This increase the front overhang but only by 2.5mm.

I want to go for different size bearing as I think I'll stand a better chance of getting the diameters optimal on two separate shorter journals rather than one long one.

When it comes to the spacer, I'm going to retain the stepped ends. Again, I stand a better chance of getting a nice snug fit if I've only got the ends to worry about. It will only take a few minutes extra work to bore out so It's hardly complicating things.

Same with the tail end of the spacer. I'l stick with the 8mm step as that is the SKF recommended abutment. Again, a few minutes extra work. I don't want to over simplify for the sake of it!

I'll describe how I plan to machine the parts later.

Steve

Hi Iain, do you mean the actual spindle itself or the nuts,housing etc.?