Well, of course me being the tightwad I am, I started looking at/for alternatives.
Funny how when you do things like that, over time, the search gets easier and easier. To date, I have made a chuck for my milling bits that is held into the quill with a 3/8-16 rod and guide that I turned on the lathe. The bits hold in via a 1/4-20 set screw and the whole setup works perfectly.(I am limited to 3/8" shanks but that can change with a new chuck when I get around to purchasing the 1/2" shanks.)
But back to the cutting tools: What to do when a carbide cutter overheats and shatters or is just worn to the point my diamond sharpener is not going to get the job done?
Answer: old worn out Carbide saw blades. The carbide tips are held on by brazing as are most of my carbide cutters for the lathe. A little ingenuity and quite a bit of heat and you can reclaim most of the tips and make new cutters. In my case, I actually made a rather small boring bar for my future .22 short rifle I am going to be working on. This should be able to do a deeper 1/4" hole that I can control better than using a twist drill. They work but boring bars do it better.
In this picture is the Quick Change tool post that I made.
The main body of it is aluminum. The casting for that was a 16oz soup can and I did a lot of metal removal to get it to that shape.(the soup can so I could douse it in water to limit the amount of crystal formation. This is nearly billet in content) It worked out quite well though was rather time consuming. The tool holder (I need to make about 5 more for the various tools) is 1" barstock that has been milled and tapped. The dovetail cutters just flat rock for making working surfaces in tools like this (those are also 3/8" shank to work in the chuck I made.)
As for the frugality of it all: Should I count my time and expense or just the expense? Personally, I am enjoying the hell out of finding ways to make things with little to no cost other than personal time(and a couple burns and cuts but who really keeps track of that? ) Facts are, if you don't count man hours, I have saved a small fortune making my own tools and in the process, expanded the capabilities of the main machine. Being able to manufacture my own cutting tools is HUGE to me. Well worth any time spent. Soon, there will be functional items coming from that machine that won't have ANYTHING to do with machining other than that they are machined. Things that go bang will be nice. LOL
4 comments:
Consider this: your time could be spent doing other things. What those other things are - who knows. Walmart Greeter? The point is, your time has value. Use an hourly rate, even if it's only nominal. Recognize that your time has value and factor that time (value) into any calculations related to these types of projects.
Ya gotta pass the time somehow, right? Why not pass it doing something you enjoy. I'm with you, one of those "twisted" individuals who likes to piddle with stuff and make things myself. I'd love to have a machine shop, a mini refinery, wood shop, paint booth, industrial sewing machine, welding machines, cutting torches, plasma cutter... Basically any tool I could get my hands on. And a big freakin' warehouse/shop to put it all in! I love doing things myself. To me, that's real independence...
I did that calculation with the building of the bow press for my cousin. On that one, the prototype of a sort, I broke even. BUT I have the blanks, the casting sand, and buaecoup aluminum ingots, plus excess barstock for the next one. IF his buddy wants one, I can produce it in a couple of days, clear $400 on it with only 10-15 hours worth of work. Not too shabby for 'the little shop'.
I agree Mayberry, My shop is going to be twice the size of my house and it will still not be large enough for the 'toys'.
Stone knives and axes created everything we have today. If you have the skills of manufactoring and fabrication. You've got anything and everything.
SPUD
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