OldMiniBikes Shop Notes

KustomKartKid

KustomKartKid

Administrator
#21
#21
Glad you find these little nuggets of info helpful Jon....sometimes the little time savers are the ones that help the job move along easier. Hell it's good to know I'm not just talking to myself here hahaha...

I say to my son all the time "You can read how to do it, and I can tell you how to do it, but the only way to get good is to get on there and start making chips."

After a while you just get a feel for spindle speeds and feed rates whether it be on the bandsaw or drill press or milling machine or lathe. Listen to the machine and feel the handles...in most cases it will tell you if your doing something wrong.

Im no expert...just a journeyman. But once you get the feel you will have it forever...:thumbsup:



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Inventorpardue

Inventorpardue

Member
#22
#22
I relate to what you mean by "feel" for example with the bandsaw. Bought the lathe/mill in 1995 and it was immediately useful for adapters and bushings. Making precise parts on the lathe has been a long learning curve.

All good: grinding lathe tools from HSS after you mentioned Tubalcain... wow! You are not talking to the wall. I read the Atlas and other books, and got close, but never nailed the details.

The staightedge tip you shared allowed me to toss aside the carbide cutter and running a HSS tool I ground from stock, suddenly its making chips and nice parts! After years of farming out most steel parts, but with a small lathe sitting right here, I finally got it cutting correctly. Just used the boring bar precisely for the first time, setting tool height on the outside of the stock using the straightedge.

Mere fractions of an inch between success and mediocre. One simple concept about tool height shared and learned, probably something so simple to a machinist... but elusive to me armed with books, tools, and 44,000 opinions from the internet.

Thank you very much for sharing, its a joy to behold better parts, an honor to be a member here.

Jon
 
Stangrcr1

Stangrcr1

New Member
#23
#23
I see too many of my coworkers just jam the bandsaw and feed too fast, then ramp up the speed thinking that is the issue. Then they end up with jagged cuts and curse the machine... Some have even tried cutting round stock on the bandsaw... Kinda funny watching them try to hold the spinning stock... Especially when we have a horizontal bandsaw with self feed and hydraulic clamps...

Only two people in the shop are allowed to touch the lathe, and that is because the last guy that tried it ran the toolpost into the chuck.

Then there was the guy that thought he could use the drill press as a mill...
 
TANKSAREUS

TANKSAREUS

#24
#24
Can't remember where I saw this. My lathe post can can only turn not adjust up and down. To make life easy I bought a cheap feeler gauge to shim the cutter.

 
KustomKartKid

KustomKartKid

Administrator
#25
#25
Stangrcr1 said:
I see too many of my coworkers just jam the bandsaw and feed too fast, then ramp up the speed thinking that is the issue. Then they end up with jagged cuts and curse the machine... Some have even tried cutting round stock on the bandsaw... Kinda funny watching them try to hold the spinning stock... Especially when we have a horizontal bandsaw with self feed and hydraulic clamps...

Only two people in the shop are allowed to touch the lathe, and that is because the last guy that tried it ran the toolpost into the chuck.

Then there was the guy that thought he could use the drill press as a mill...
Click to expand...


You see a lot of those things in a shop where you just have to shake your head. It's tempting to go over and offer advice, but a lot of those guys are know-it-alls and would get offended.

In EXXON there was a yellow line painted down the center of the shop floor....the CM's (Contruction Mechanics), carpenters, electricians, pipefitters, tin knockers, etc. were forbidden from using any of the equipment on the machine shop side of the line.. machinsts and toolmakers only.

The mechanics cried and cried until the boss decided it was ok for them to have a milling machine, provided they were properly "trained". They moved one of the Bridgeports across the shop to their side and one day the instructor came.. guy from the local VoTech. All the mechanics stood around in a circle while this guy talked for half a day...showed them where the on/off switch was...how to turn the feed handles and shift speeds. Then he gave them each a ceritificate with their name on it proclaiming they had completed the training course. The old machinists just looked on in disbelief. This was the "New EXXON" with a new breed of forward thinking geeks in supervisor roles. They were going to streamline how everything worked.

Well it wasn't more than a week later one of the machinists walked past the Bridgeport and noticed a piece of plywood covering the table. He slid it aside and there underneath, were three rows of neatly drilled 1/4" pilot holes...10 in each row...evenly spaced...in the TABLE! They were drilling through a piece of plexi to make a test tube rack and drilled right throught it. This was a Bridgeport that had stood in that shop since just after WWII and was still in perfect condition...now there were 30 holes in the table! It was covered with the plywood because they knew how embarrasing it was going to be to explain it.

We used to all gather right in that area for our Monday morning safety meetings. Before the next meeting started one of the old machinists placed 30 candles in the holes and lit them like it was a giant birthday cake..... for all to see.
The look on the supervisor's face was priceless.

Then one of the (mechanics) snuck in early morning like 5 am and chucked something up in one of the big lathes to polish it and got their sleeve caught in the lathe ....it wrapped his forearm around the chuck... compound fracture, blood pouring out and he's there all alone. We had our own private ambulance squad, fire dept, medical center etc....but nobody was there yet at 5am

He got into his own car and managed to drive himslelf to the local emergency room before he passed out. That was essentially the end of the machine shop as we knew it...the "safety committee" decided the liability was just too high and they started contracting out most of the work..The once mighty EXXON machine shop which had stood since WWII closed up within a year...due in large part to the actions of a few irresponsible idiots.



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Clayon

Clayon

#26
#26
Don, that is kinda funny to me that at your shop they only let trained folks on the lathes because the last guy crashed into the chuck. It is a shame, but at the tech school where I am getting my machinist training, somebody usually crashes the tool post into either the chuck or the work piece at least 3 times a day when we are on the lathes. :doah: usually the same handful of guys too. :eek:ut: And the mills are another story. I was ahead and had to swap mills with one of the other students. I chucked my work in and was about to start spotting some holes on a piece of tubing, and when I went to bring the quill down the entire head moved :blink: I stopped the mill and sure enough the head wasn't tightened down where it can swivel side to side. :doah: The guy who just used it had no idea and his drilled holes were all out. :laugh: Another thing that almost sent me rolling on the floor laughing was seeing one fella try to hang his wrench up on the peg board by the open end. :doah: and when it hit the floor he tried it once more before realizing and hanging it by the box end. :laugh:

Sorry for getting off topic, just use this rambling as what NOT to do in a shop. And Gerry that story about putting 30 candles in the holes in the mill table is hilarious. :thumbsup:
 
Stangrcr1

Stangrcr1

New Member
#27
#27
All our equipment is WWII era. The best stuff was made then.

The drill press had a large table with probably 100+ holes in it. Some all the way through.

It has a vice which is held down with clamps, but it also has holes all the way through.

The bandsaw is now off kilter. Again. It seems like I have to reset it every day. And what is stuck in the blade teeth? Plastic. Looks like ABS. Probably the plumber again. :laugh:

At least they now leave the lathe alone....

Let me see if I can get some pics.....
 
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Stangrcr1

Stangrcr1

New Member
#40
#40
I was getting frustrated trying to debead some tires so I made this:



One easy push and...



Just debeaded all 4 tires for the Simplicity rider in a few minutes. The 4" fronts took a little longer because the foot is too big and kept sliding off. Just took finding the right angle to get a good grip. I have used this on everything from 4" to 18" truck rims and it has always worked. I am very happy with it.
 
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