Inside Doc's Machine Shop

[Drcemento]

oh yes yes yes! I have been waiting and hoping for a new batch of L stocks! my carter will thank you!

[DocsMachine]

Something else came in today!



There are unfortunately minor cosmetic issues with a few of them- note the scratch at the bore of the second one from the right. That's where they mounted it on a rack to dip in the solutions. I'll be selecting out the worst ones have having them redone, but generally I'm happy with the results.

Doc.

[JeeperCreeper]

Same

[Chuck E Ducky]

Yup

[Jordan]

Also yes.

[Cal440]

My birthday and Christmas is coming early this year!

[DocsMachine]

Well, less happy now that I've had a better look. Serves me right for jumping right out and telling everyone.

That white scratchmark? A significant number of them have that- it's from the rack they're stuck on to dip in the various baths. Usually a titanium frame with some pointy tabs- parts like this are stuck on those tabs, so there's electrical continuity to the part, but minimal contact that might block the dye itself.

I expected a little marking, here and there, but this kind of mechanical damage is unacceptable.




Worse, a significant number of them- well more than half, if not three quarters, have large and obvious voids in in the dye, that same opening, where clearly an air-bubble collected, preventing either the anodic or dyeing process:



I haven't yet unwrapped the entire box- over two hundred parts- but so far, out of the more than two dozen I have unwrapped, just two are properly acceptable.

Two.

I've sent a polite message and pics to the anodizer, and am waiting to hear back. Chances are I'll have to sort out whatever percentage of usable ones are in there, and send the rest back for reworking.

[Edit] They've already responded and given me an RMA number, and will rework them immediately. I must say I find that impressive.

Doc.

[JeeperCreeper]

I used to work at an anodizing plant. They definitely could have used a better rack to mount those with minimal damage.

That's awesome that they will redo the order for you.

[DocsMachine]

Sorted out 20+ good ones so far, and still unwrapping/rewrapping. With luck, I should have 30 or so, once I get the other part back and have a chance to finish the threaded collar, so regardless of how quickly they rework these, I should have a fair handful on hand as soon as everything's done.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Oh, this just gets better and better.

I unwrapped everything in the box, checking each one, and setting aside a total of 31 that I deemed acceptable. I then rewrapped the remaining ones, and boxed them up for shipment back. A total of 24 bundles of six each, and one last one of four. By my math that totals 148.

I kept 31, which comes to a total of 179. Except I shipped out 203.

It would appear a rack of 24 of them has... disappeared somewhere.

Well, at least I have about 30 on hand. Hopefully the other piece will be here next week some time, and hopefully I'll have time to run the collar before too long.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Looks like I gotta stop procrastinating. The second part just got back from the anodizers, so I need to put down the rum drinks, climb out of this comfy beachside hammock (fanned, of course, by the dusky native girl who is wearing little more than a lei and less grass than Snoop goes through in a day) and go blow the dust off the turning center, again, so I can make the third.

Stand by!

Doc.

[Cal440]

Standing by ,and hoping it all comes together for you Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Oh, one other thing I had to kick out of the way- finally- before moving on to anything major: Finished a one-off Spyder thread Automag barrel adapter.



I've made a couple of these over the years- this is probably the second or third Spyder, I know I made one in LED Angel waaaay back when, I did one in CCI Phantom, and I think there was one other I can't recall at the moment.

For anyone interested, I'd be happy to make another one, but it's a custom one-off, not out of the CNCs, so it'll cost a little more.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Sorry about the radio silence, gents, but it's been a freakin' madhouse here. I had about five heavy deadlines come crashing down, a couple of them unexpectedly, and I've been barely keeping my head above the proverbial water.

Unfortunately, not much of it has been photo-worthy yet, and even more unfortunately, I've had a bit of a setback or two on a couple of things.

So, generally business as usual.

I was able to spend a couple hours playing with the collar piece of the CO2 plugs, though that's been one of the minor setbacks. (Quick summary- I can't get the right material locally, and will have to order some in.) I'll have some pics on that one before too long, I hope- material should be here by the end of the week.

One of the other small crises that came down was I got in a decent order for some of my flattop front-block bolts. Unfortunately, roughly twice what I had in stock, since I was already getting low on those anyway. I already had the machine almost entirely tooled up anyway, so all I needed to do was tweak one cutter and add some drills. I was able to crank out a small batch, plus some spares, in relatively short order.

I will say, though, I like doing this sort of thing more, when I don't have a customer metaphorically standing behind me, tapping his foot, and checking his watch twice a minute.

You demonstrate the ability to walk on water just once, and all of a sudden everybody wants you to trot across the lake to grab their take-out.

Anyway, that, too, I'll have more pics of shortly (the bolts, not a water-walking ) but for the moment, here's a couple teasers: Cutting a test part in aluminum, since it's cheaper and more error-tolerant than stainless steel:





And the finished blank:



Which of course still needed to be drilled, faced, broached and polished.

Still have a fair handful in stock, and over the course of the week, other jobs allowing, I'll be running a couple more sticks while I have the tools still set up, and while I'm waiting on the collar material.

More on the way, of course, but I've got a few proverbial fires to put out, first.

Doc.

[superman]

Nice! When you setup up for broaching can you snap a pic? i always find that interesting.

[DocsMachine]

Here's something for those of you planning to attend Supergame in Oregon. I really do wish I could have been there, and I deeply appreciate those of you that donated to try and make it happen, but unfortunately I just couldn't make it work- in large part for reasons outside my control. In my stead, I'm sending down a care package- or two -of some goodies and giveaways. One of which is a big pack of stickers- a buddy helped me get my vinyl plotter up and running, and we've been cranking out as many as we have time for.

The past couple days I've been sneaking off every now and then to "weed" another sheet or two, and hope to get it all heading down by this weekend.









I don't have time or material to make enough for everyone that will be there, so if you want one, find the MCB contingent, offer the supplication "All Hail Painthappy!" (Praise be to Painthappy" or even just "Anybody got some mayo?" will also be acceptable ) and they shall bestow one upon you.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Well, after long and careful thought, and consulting with a number of specialists and experts in this field, I have decided NOT to cover everything in the shop with concrete, mail a manifesto to the local news, shave my head and move back to Tibet.

Not yet, anyway.

At least as far as this Fast-Changer kit goes, there have been both successes and setbacks. The last setback- the issue with the anno- should be resolved later today, I think, when I get the parts returned from the anno shop. They re-did them at no charge, and with no argument, which I appreciated, but I had to pay shipping both ways, which I appreciated somewhat less.

The other setback was all on me. I'd picked up some heavywall steel tubing from my local supplier, that was perfectly sized for the bore, and was a mere 0.012" under what should be the finished OD size. That should have stopped the whole thing short right there, but apparently useful advice bounces off my skull like a tennis ball off of a particularly thick brick wall.

I wound up buying some anyway, and made a couple of valiant attempts to machine it. All of which were a complete and utter waste of time.

The issue is twofold. First, for those of you who have ever tried turning mild steel, you know it's kind of a pain to gt a clean cut. It's neither "hard" nor "tough", it's gummy, it 'smears' and 'tears' rather than cuts (in a minor and only-important-to-a-machinist way.) It took heroic efforts to get anything close to a decent surface finish- out of about a dozen or more attempts, I got one that I considered acceptable.

The other half of that issue was simply that the stock was already undersized before I even started. And, users of these kind of quick-change knobs know, that the adapter collar that screws into the gun, is awful dang thin to start with. That missing material made the walls just that much thinner, and I didn't like that, nor did I think the customers would either.

So I finally did what I should have done in the first place (acting, yet again, in my role as the bad example you should try to learn from, kids ) I ordered the "right" material.

For those that don't know, there are things called "free machining" steels- typically by adding a little sulfur or even lead, in the case of 12L14, one of the more common free-machining steels- made specifically for use in turning centers and the like. (Want some 12L14 to play with? Break down an old printer- chances are excellent the steel rods inside for the various rollers, is that or one of the similar styles of free machining steel.)

Better yet, there's one called "Stressproof"- 1144- which besides the improved machining aspect, is also nearly twice as strong as mild steel. (54K PSI yield versus 100K PSI yield.)

I finally got my partial order in on Thursday- not cheap as I had to order it and pay to have it shipped up (the local supplier tacks the cost on to truckload shipments, I pay a few bucks rather than USPS by-weight prices) but it gets me rolling while the rest of the order gets here by somewhat cheaper Slow Boat.

I got four 3-foot sticks (yes, I know there's only three shown)...



And cut them in half in order to make them fit the lathe. (3 feet would have stuck out much to far, and could vibrate at the least, or whip and bend at worst.) And, to make the next step easier, I faced and lightly chamfered each end.



Now, I'd set the machine up originally to handle the tubing- which was the big benefit of using that material, in that I didn't have to drill the bulk of it out. Well, 1144 isn't commonly available in tubing, and I wasn't looking forward to having the Omni- which isn't that stout a machine- having to drill and bore out a 3/4" hole. So I chucked the blanks up in the turret lathe- which IS a nice stout machine- and using the fancy indexible drill I mentioned a few posts ago, I was able to hog out the solid bar to close to finished dimension, in less than two minutes per end.







That's solid bar, to a slightly-bigger-than-5/8" bore, with no centerdrill, no pilot hole, and in one pass.

Those, then, are run through the Omni, in turn:





Bored to size, internally threaded, faced to length, OD turned- with an excellent surface finish- and parted off, all in the same operation.



And we're almost there! Just one last step to go!



Before I get too carried away- and burn up my rather expensive stock- I'll cut a few more (a total of less than a dozen) then swap collets and cut the fine threads in the other end of these. Make sure everything's going to fit and work before I chop up the rest of the stuff.

But, with a little luck- I make no promises!- I may be able to have the first of these available on Monday. Keep it under your hat!

Doc.

[Cal440]

Your progress looks real good Doc, glad you are making it toward the finish line,knew you would. Mum's the word, till you are ready.

[DocsMachine]

Proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Although why you'd want to cover it in pudding, and not, like, just write it on a blackboard or something, I'll never know.

Anyway, I wanted to see for myself just how good this material was, so I took one of the mild-steel parts (on the left) and one of the 'close, but not quite' 1144 parts (on the right) and tried to break them with a pair of Vise-Grips.



The steel piece broke after a little resistance, just by hand. (One VG on either end, try to bend.) The 1144 piece I couldn't even budge by hand- I had to put one VG in the big bench vise, and then lean hard on the other with both hands.

And, as you can see, interestingly enough, it broke at the unthreaded portion- it actually cracked a piece out.

I can easily believe it's nominally 50% stronger than the mild- it took quite a bit of additional effort to damage it- so I'm definitely satisfied with this material.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Just for a quick pic; this is all that's left of the first of those 3-foot bars.



I haven't done the math, but I'd bet about two-thirds, if not three-quarters of that bar, by weight, was turned into chips.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

And done! (Or close to it. ) And it only took three friggin' months!

I cleared my schedule as best I could this afternoon, cut another soft collet to hold the freshly-machined collars, and finally threaded the other end.



That is officially the last machining step for these parts!





Now, I'm still cutting my way through the rest of the 1144, so I'm not done-done with the whole works yet- and I still have another week before the rest of the bar stock gets in... BUT, I actually have a handful complete and done, for those of you champing at the proverbial bit.

The last step was I cleaned and black-oxided the collars, and sealed and oiled them...



Et Voilá! (Which is French for "Check this s**t out!" )



For those of you that may be just tuning in, these are direct copies of the old TASO 'Fasst-Changer' knobs, for most Sheridan brass- PGPs, PMI-1s, P68-SC, and so on. My knobs fit the old collar, and the old knobs fit my collars, in case you have some of the old parts laying around you'd like to use. I'm told the Palmers knobs are not cross-compatible with the TASO, but I don't have one to check.

I'll have more info shortly, as I get more of this batch done, assembled and bagged. But, if you're just aching for one, feel free to drop me a line, I'll be happy to get'cha set up.

Doc.

[Cal440]

Those look great Doc, I do plan on purchasing one and some of your other items. But since you will be producing many more,I will let others get theirs first. Thanks again for taking on this needed project!

[DocsMachine]

I have a good handful on hand, and by the end of the week, should have plenty. I figure I'll get you ladies and gents taken care of first, and then get 'em up on eBay by then.

Doc.

[JeeperCreeper]

Correct, Palmers knobs have taller threads, and won't fit Taso changers, but Taso knobs will fit in Palmer collars.

[Alexndl]

PM sent for some

what is the pricing for those?

[DocsMachine]

Oh, right, you might want to know that... I'm asking $55, and can do either Ground Advantage (First Class) for $4 or Priority for $9.50

Doc.

[jdgreen76]

PM sent as well...

[DocsMachine]

Wednesday was nice and calm, and all the way up into the low fifties for the first time this year, so I opened the garage door, and enjoyed a little sun while I burned up the last of this steel bar.



(From where I'm standing when I took that, there's usually a door in the way. )

Anyway, I was able to finish up what I had on hand for the 1144, getting an even eighty parts done.



Keeping in mind that included a three-plus minute cycle time, plus having to drill each bar on a turret every two parts which also required going into the other room and filing off the parting burr on the Sheldon. And with a fully-populated tool slide, it meant having to load each bar from the far left end, which also meant having to use a 'ramrod' to get them into place, once they got too short.

Yeah, not exactly high speed and professional- who ever accused me of being professional? - but without either a bar feeder or even a bar puller, it was kind of the only choice I had.

But still, having started with twelve feet of bar stock, in four three-foot lengths, this is all I had left at the end:



The longer pieces just a hair too short to safely grip in the collet to cut- the shortest one only had a little over a quarter inch.

And today, I switched collets again, and cut the fine thread end on each one, and later this evening, if time permits, I should be able to get them black-oxided.

AND... just a few minutes before I started to post this, I got a call from my metal supplier- my bar of the remainder of the material is in, almost a week earlier than expected. That should be delivered in the morning, so over the weekend I should be able to run the rest of the pieces I need to complete the whole works.

After almost three and a half months.

Hopefully the next part, whatever it is, will be a little quicker.


Doc.