Fixture

[bbinns]

Hi Ben.
Good ingenuity from your dad. I plan to make the same holding fixture for my 4" grinder, fitted with a slitting blade. I need to grind a specialised shape on the end of a HSS turning tool.The slitting blade will give me the sharp corners in the profile I need.
I first heard of Hard Chrome Engineering in about 1994, so I know they've been around for a while. They quoted $350 for chroming and grinding each of these shafts.
I got them to do the chrome only, because I wanted to have a go with my external hone.
There was a Big X for sale at the Bendigo swap a couple of years ago?
It was on the back of a flatbed truck with another bike. Positive memory of the other bike escapes me, but it may have been an XA Harley. Did you buy the Big X?
Regards Steve

My Big X's have come from all over the place, but none from Bendigo swap. I must have missed that one!

Thanks for the lead on Hard Chrome Engineering, I will check them out.

[Steve Little]

Thanks for all the "Well wishes". Hope all the members, and casual readers have a merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year.

[BigLakeBob]

Merry Christmas Steve, hope your recovery goes well. I look forward to more of your commentary next year.

[Steve Little]

Yep. I'm back at this again. Yell out if you've had enough of it.



Centered the grinder spindle to the lathe. Then tightened up the gib on the grinder so that it was a little tight to move. Found a rag and wet it with water, and placed it over the ways.
Turned on the fan and both machines and touched the grinder wheel to the job.
Did a tentative cut at slowest feed rate to find out where the highs and low spots were.
Found out that there was only a low spot near the shoulder and added 005” thou (aggressive..I know!!) and did my first roughing cut at “Fast” feed.



At this point I found out why Bob was recommending to grind both ways. I cut up to the shoulder and turned off the carriage feed. Grabbed the hand crank and wound back the carriage to the start again but the result was sparks and a light, spiraling cut up the shaft.
All following cuts were done, Feed in, Feed out.





Roughed a few more cuts until I got to 0.755 and then crept up with a 004” at slowest feed and finished off with a 001'' finish cut. I probably should have left it for a couple of minutes before measuring the warm shaft but my last pass netted a tenth 0;0001” under 0.750”.
I was pretty proud so when my wife brought in a drink I called her over to show off my work.
She leans over and has a quick look and says (Yeah, that's good) Then she says,What are you doing to my tea towel. Ooops!

For a backyard machinist I'm pretty happy with that.

[painterdale]

I love this stuff! Keep it comin', Steve!
Dale

[exeric]

Beautiful work, Steve. I loved your comment about getting caught with your wife's tea towel. It reminded me of a welder I worked with; he soaked a cloth in water and was cooling down some dirty nasty thing he had finished welding. Suddenly a very angry fellow worker appeared and yelled, "That's my shirt, you ass****!" The welder replied, "Sorry, I thought it was a rag."

[Steve Little]

Thanks guys.
The tea towel came in covering a meal some time back. The “Return To Kitchen” policy may have slipped my mind.
There was some muttering and grumbling as she left the workshop yesterday.
I hazarded a glimps up from the job, she was busy picking up 5 cups on the way out.

[Steve Little]

Now that I have accumulated all this grinding knowledge (1 shaft), I did the second shaft in half the time.
I was only taking 005” cuts (010” overall diam) the shafts don't seem to get very warm. I can easily lay my hand on it.
But once bitten, twice shy... So I let the shaft cool down to air temp before measuring for the last pass.
Made the adjustment, set the feed to Slowest and flicked the feed on. I was shooting for 000' but ended up 0005” oversize....Damn it!!!
This Waldown C-2 grinder is excellent Australian quality, and I am guessing that the model designation “type 2-C” means there may be smaller and larger models available.

The advantage of a smaller model would be, no overhang obscuring the cross slide readout.



During the final cut I stopped 1/4” inch to check the measurement. It was perfect but I had another idea.... Try finishing off with the Sunnen hand reamer.

[Steve Little]

It worked a treat!!! Dead on 0.750”



The top shaft is the reamed shaft and the bottom shaft is grind only. The finish of the grinding is very nice but the reamer leaves a very nice feel.

The lip on the end of these ground shafts is razor sharp. If I left it like this, the sharp lip would ruin a seal when the shaft was pushed through it. I checked the OEM shafts, and Harley have a nice safety edge so that it wont cut the quad seal.



Tried a file first but the hard chrome just laughed at it.
Different story with the emery. We now have a nice safety edge.



¾ hour cleaning and oiling up the lathe.
All Finished.

[BigLakeBob]

Steve, Looks like you are getting some really nice results, great job. Attaching a dial indicator with a .0001 readout to a mag base may help not seeing the dial plus also help with accurate in feed, but then again you are getting along just fine.

[Steve Little]

Hi Bob. Thanks for contributing ideas. I will have to buy a 0001" indicator to fit to my mag bases. I have 3 that measure 001" but the only 0001" gauge is for checking new loose rollers before fitting them to engines, transmissions, star hubs etc.

The number of incorrect rollers in a pack of 100 is alarming.
I buy rollers in packs of 100 and used to trust what was written on the envelope, but now I check every roller. I regularly find rollers 0001" to 0002" out of spec.
Anybody else check the rollers?

[larry]

Always. Sometimes the whole package is close to the next oversize or often undersize.

[Steve Little]

Here's my measuring gizmo.
Beautiful English quality Mercer gauge and Mitutoyo base.
Accurate, repeatable quality.



Someone once told me that "you will know when you have all the tools you need" I am still waiting for that realization.

[Shaky Jake]

Great thread Steve. Thanks for sharing.




Kevin

.

[Peter Cooke]

Steve,

Tried to send you a PM but your inbox is full.