Bennys Tools

Making an angle plate from some hot rolled angle iron, not the best material as it seems to have a high resonance.

Making center plugs for the faceplate, the idea is to be useful in locating and also to be able to attach mandrels and such.

This is the current state of affairs, what is left is completing the centerplugs

Another view of the same

Thats all for now.

Edited By Benny Avelin on 26/03/2017 10:51:20

I have begun working on my steady rest, this is the first machining operation, getting a flat disc with a hole in the centre.

These are the "sleeves" that the rods for the steady rest will go inside.

I wanted to make this steady rest by drilling the three holes for the sleeves and this was the reason for making the faceplate and angleplate that I showed earlier.

This is how the holes came out with this setup, worked just fine.

To improve concentricity I drilled and reamed the sleeves in the same setup.

These are the finished sleeves and the arbor to hold them while milling the flats for a spanner. Behind is the 12mm material for the rods.

When all operations where done in that setup I drilled out the centre, so much swarf...

I also finished the bottom plate with the vee grove, fits just fine.

Measuring the center height.

The nerve wrecking experience of sawing the ring off.

It turned out very acceptable, and a cleanup on the mill finished it off.

Setup for drilling the holes to screw the thing together.

My fat chuck could not reach down far enough to drill through with a 5mm drill, so I made this B12-15mm arbor for this small chuck.

Annoyingly the chuck did not perform well. I purchased it on a flea market last year but it does not chuck drills in a straight fashion. I have to take some time in the future to disassemble and inspect.

Some more progress. I have ordered some material for the rest of this build, for instance some JM1 bronze for the fingers.

To proceed I decided to stop and make the following die holder.

Had some trouble with this particular steel I chose for the screw C45E. I did two attempts to harden it but it cracked both times. I usually dont have problems with silver-steel when quenching in water, and the info about C45E says you can quench in water. For the last attempt I quenched in motor oil and this was a success.

Btw, the design is based on Dave Fenners tailstock die holder from MEW 157.

These are all parts made for the steady rest

The steady rest is now completed, I am very pleased with the outcome.

I have had the chance to test it some, first I chucked up a 60mm dia s355j2 bar, faced and parted off a small disc. Went fairly uneventful except quite underpowered for the parting process, however no chatter.

I also faced the ends of a surface hardened hydraulic rod (given to me by someone at some point in time). Worked like a charm.

I am thoroughly pleased with this project, although it took quite some time to complete with my small machines and limited shop-time.

Now, on to the next project...

Well done that man, nice job & well finished...

​George.

Thanks George! Your S50 looks great!

Next project is unknown at the moment, maybe a traveling steady?

Nice workmanship,,,i like