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"the workshop"
many people who start this hobby, think that a large space is required for a workshop, well thats not the case, i know a person who has only the use of their kitchen area
because they live in a high rise flat, all of his machinery is of the "mini" type, lathe, milling machine, ect, and he produces some fantastic work!, my workshop measures 11'x9'and as you can see from the photos, its all industrial machinery, but the workshop was carefully layed out to accommodate everything i need.
some home made workshop tools.
here's some tools that is required for measuring ect that i have made in the workshop, a lot of these tools can be made from scrap material, none of these tools are expensive items if bought, but with the ammount of tooling that is required, its a lot cheaper in the long run to have a go and make your own, i have made them to gain the experience of making some tooling.
lathe centre height guage,(bottom left)for setting tool height.
ceramic tip tool (bottom right) i have a number of these ceramic tips but i had no tip holder.
dial test indicator(dti) toolpost holder(centre).
dti magnetic holder(top right)the magnets are the strong flat ones from out of a computer's hard drive.
graduating tool(top left).
adjustable scribing block(bottom right).
when i first started this hobby, i never had a machine vice, i used this setup for ALL my drilling operations,
a piece of 30x10mm flat bar m/steel, it has a bend 100mm from the end and drilled to accept a nut and longish bolt,
PLEASE PLEASE ""NEVER EVER"" use your hands to hold the job down when drilling, the machine is a lot stronger than you are! and the drll may grab the work especially when the drill bit is breaking through the bottom of the hole, i used this setup for a while with good results, to make this litterally costs nothing more than a few pounds.
this method is also ideal for drilling thin material where a vice is not so good, a piece of wood should be used to cushion the work piece, the wood also protects your drill table.
i cannot sress enough to any beginner never to use your hands to hold down a work piece while drilling, if you use this safe
method to hold down your work then your fingers will be safe,
horrific injuries are caused by drilling every year in industry and in small workshops from the practice of using ones hands as a clamping device,,,,DONT DO IT!
""no screw ups!""
keep your fingers nice and safe
4 1/2" rotary table,
ive made this basic rotary table from two 7" cast steel round blanks that i picked up from the local iron foundry, the base is approx 6" dia with the table at 4 1/2" dia x 7/8", its still got to have the tee slots milled into the top yet, thats another project in its self for another day, also theres a clamping device got to be thought of and fitted to stop the table from turning/moving whilst in use, so this rotary table is far from finished.
heres one of the cast steel blanks for the table and base, before been put into the lathes 4 jaw chuck for trueing up, the blank was first faced than drilled at centre then bored to 1.000" to accept the mandrel for turning down to size, the lathe has a 1 deg 26min taper, i machined a fitting taper to mt3 centre and this accepts the tom senior(milling machine) cutter mandrel(MT3) which i used in the lathe between centres to accommodate the blank.
the centre bearing is made from stainless steel, turned to 1.000" to the bore of the table and then counter sunk to accept the M8 bolt, the tongue and groove(dont know what the technical name is?) was done on the lathe, this was done by firstly cutting the tongue then chalked to get the impression exacly in the right place, it worked fine but caution here, little amounts taken off for an exact fit, the base holding lugs were milled in the vertical position, it would have been a lot quicker if the machine was set up in the horizontal position for this sort of milling task as each side could have been done in one pass, the graduating tool will mark the degree scale on the circumference of the table, i knew id made that graduating tool for a reason! nah! just luck,
the rotary table will be a fantastic tool to compliment the tool and cutter grinder(on the main page) mounted on the compound table it will give an accurate scale reading for sharpening the cutting faces of endmills, drills, ect
all the tee slots milled in and the scale has now been put on, all ready to mount on the t&c grinder.
the centres for my harrison are turned at 1 degree 26 min on radius, the taper is somewere on the lines of a jarno taper fit,
"graduating tool"
its main use is to score markings for a "degree scale",
its toolpost mounted at the lathes centre height, note the "U" "F" "T" marks on the top, these relate to
Units, Five's, Ten's, the idea is to push forward the cutting tool and this will score a measured line on the workpiece.
"BSO dividing head tailstock"
my BSO dividing head came without the tailstock, this is made from mild steel construction, the screwed centre is made from EN8 steel threaded with an M20 die and hardened at the point. a very usefull attachment esspecialy when milling between centres, i.e when gear cutting.
"tailstock die holder"
the most common sized die i use is an M8, so i made this one first, this size holder fits 3 of my dies in the set ranging from M3 to M20, a set will be made, the die holder is made from m/s and the chuck end is turned down to fit the tailstock's keyless chuck.
"knurling tool"
this was made from a kit supplied by hemingway kits
although it could have been made quite easily from odd bits of material, i chose to buy the kit because i have built 3 or 4 of their kits with fantastic results, the myford fixed and travelling steadies i highly recommend from hemingway kits as they have easily layed out plans and fantastic castings to machine. an AAA+++ FOR Hemingway kits from me!.
the knurls are factory made and came with the kit at extra cost, these been of "diamond, medium cut".
knurling should be done at slow spindle speeds, this photo gives the illusion that the chuck is spinning at high speed when it is only at around 30 rpm, the coolant is turned on full blast to carry the chippings away and prevents the knurls from getting clogged up.
"precision stamp holder"
i cant seem to line up any numbers/letters while stamping, i needed an accurate way of keeping all the numbers in-line and equal, after a little thought i have fabricated a holder, the idea is to mount this onto the milling table and by using the dividing head place the evenly spaced numbers on the leadscrew dial for the t&c grinder and on the skirt for the rotary table. only a slight tap of the hammer is needed so there is no need to worry about abuse of the dividing head and its bearings, also a work support was used but was removed for the photo.
"ball or spherical turning tool"
this is a brilliant tool for turning balls for handles ect, any material can be turned to create neat balls from 1/16" to 2" diameter, the cutting tool i used is made from 5mm drill rod so as any sort of steels can be turned from hard stainless to ptfe. there is a kit for this tool available from from around £40, also needed to make this tool is a 60 degree dovetail cutter costs around £40 for a quality one.(not included in the kit). look below for a homemade dovetail cutter.
finished ball turning tool, although i have used this particular tool a few times it really is a nice tool to use with a little practice, i practiced on some scrap brass/bronze and steel first, a few accidents with "dig ins" (my fault) trying to cut too deep and too fast, only light cuts and pretty slow speed for steel is best, brass/bronze can be turned at the lathes full speed, but a little caution is to be used here as the chips tend to spray in all directions due to the cutting tool geometry but saying that the tool is a pleasure to use, i like to knurl a raised centre on my balls and it makes them look good too,
the head part is been machined and finished on all sides, note the use of coolant for high surface finish, i make these heads either from bright mild round or ground 1"x 1" sq section, depending what i have on my stock shelf at the time, the head is centre drilled then bored and screwcut at 30 tpi to accept the axle. the axle is then screwcut between centres at both ends at 30 tpi the rear of the axle has to accommodate 2 bronze adjusting/locking collars and a handle,
the shaft has been finished with an ultra smooth finish this ensures an accurate fit and also extends the life of the tool and most important that there is no play when the tool is in use.
heres the finished tool, it has not been made from any plans, it will cut balls or acorn shapes depending on what height the tool has been set, at exact centre height the tool will cut near perfect ball shapes and with the tool set slightly below centre it will cut acorn shapes,
this is a finished ball with a knurl around the circumference for added grip, made from phos bronze, sorry for the hazy photo but the camera isnt upto these close up shots,
60 degree dovetail cutter
on a morse taper 2 to fit the tom senior vertical head, made from silver steel.
it took a good part of 6 hours to make this cutter, the tap broke in the mt2 arbour which is for the drawbar, luckily enough i managed to get the broken bit out, i have to find a way of getting enough heat to the full tool to harden it,
i had a propane torch that had only a small flame, now with this design of burner i can get steel at the right temprature for hardening, i got this design from this website for building your own furnace at:-
heres the tool after been hardened and a final sharpen on the tool & cutter grinder, the dovetail ways were milled into the head(for the spherical turning tool) unit by this tool,
"face mill cutter"
heres a face mill cutter i whipped up in an hour or so, made from mild steel and a new tipped cutter i had knocking about, the torx screw is tapped at m5, i milled the tipped cutter at 1 degree positive rake angle and it seems to work fine, it runs better at high speed with a medium feed, the diam for the head is 40mm with a 10mm streight shaft fitted into a spare blank mt2 arbour.
general welding gear
complimenting my workshop is a mig welder(metal inert gas) and a gas welding/brazing set.
the mig is a S.I.P migmate 150 AMP turbo with a built in trolley for the gas bottle platform.
Current Range 25 - 150 amps 6 Power Settings Wire Size 0.6 - 0.8 mm Takes upto 5Kgs rolls of wire, 2 Meter Professional Torch, Approx Weld thickness range 0.7 - 6mm. a fantastic little welder that performs well giving real neat weld patterns
a mig welder is a very usefull tool to have, it quickly joins metal and if used for tacking doesnt produce much heat to the work piece, saving distortion, it produces strong neat welds if used correctly with the correct gases for the metal/alloy, i would not be without the mig, and has earned its keep time again.
the gas welding plant is also an asset to have in the home shop although not used as much as the mig, this is mainly used for welding thin stock and brazing/silver soldering, also used for getting the lathe turning tools upto heat temp for hardening,bending,ect
oxy/acet welding is a more difficult welding method, and in my opinion a lot more hazardous and is "out of date" in many ways, ie fire risk, naked flames, highly explosive acetylene gasses, high torch temperatures, long flame patterns(so be carefull where you point the torch), high temeratures of the welded job/work area,(always write "HOT" on newly welded work)and the safety list/aspects are pretty damn endless, if you have never gas welded before then my advice is to stay clear of this welding method, the costs are high for the bottle rentals, and even higher for the gas bottle refills, if you do require a set up of this nature i would recomend you get a propane/oxy set up.
<---note the "vegetable oil" can on the floor(lime green), this is used for heat treating/blackening steel, and for dunking the silver steel lathe tools after been heated to a cherry red for hardening.
above in the photo is shown the oxygen(black bottle) and acetylene(maroon red bottle) it is very important that these bottles are NOT left free standing, either a portable trolley or as i have, a fixed unit containing the bottles, these bottles are a very danger if left free standing, if the bottles are accidently knocked over the consiquences are unthinkable!! so the first thing i had to do on receipt of the bottles was to knock up a frame to contain the oxy/acet bottles,a chain enclosing the bottles is also a must.
after using the gas equipment it is important to store the gear, i roll up the gas pipe on a hangar and have made a storage ring for the mixer torch, so as the hot torch does'nt touch the oxy/acet pipe.
"toolpost drill"
i had the need to cross drill while the work was still accurately held in the chuck, like when i made a piston head and needed to drill through the body for the "little end" bearing hole.
i looked around the internet and hoped i would pick one up soon, a year later im still looking, so i had to take action and make my own. heres my end result,
these little bench drills are fantastic value for money, they cost only £35 new from,
ive had this drill for a while and was not used much, i was in need of a toolpost drill and i thought about transforming the unused drill into a toolpost drilling unit, and it worked out a very useful tool.
to start, i stripped down the drill head unit from the column, a piece of 8mm x 5mm x90mm angle iron was measured up and holes were drilled for the bracket, a total of 6 x 8.5mm holes were drilled, 4 on the underside or as mounted on the front of the drill case, then another 2 holes were drilled for the upper part as seen in the photo, the part that goes into the toolpost is 16mm sq m/s and placed at the chuck centre height then is bolted and countersunk by 3 x m8 bolts. i had to mount the drill head unit well back into the bracket otherwise there would have been a lack of distance between the end of the chuck and the workpiece.
the only modification i had to do was to chop off the 3 bar handle, a 5mm flange on the wider part of the handle was left to act as a stopper. the drill spindle has a keyway cut along its length with a lug and a locking nut, this was tightened right up so to lock in the spindle.
i have taken the top pulley cover off, it should have been left on but i dropped the drill head unit onto the cover by accident, the drill head survived but the cover didnt!
the drill had to be mounted at roughly centre height, the dixon toolpost can be set up centre height accurately, but the drill had to be mounted dead level to the lathe bed as there is no adjustment for this axis.
the drill column and base was left over, i dont have a lot of room in my little shop so i have used it to mount the two bench grinders. note the two heavy bolts holding the base down.
