Inside Doc's Machine Shop

[DocsMachine]

Got word back from the owner that he was in fact going to reanodize, and wanted the plugs as smooth as possible.

So, into the stripper she went...



And after cleanup, here's a close-up showing how close they were.



The rest just took a little patient care with a couple fine needle files, taking care not to scratch or gouge anything, and working both down to the matching slight curves.



Finally, a couple light passes with some 800-grit, blends them together nicely.



And that's pretty much as 'invisible' as an eye repair gets.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Couple random pics as I empty off my camera cards:

The setup in my Nichols horizontal mill (that I rebuilt from a rusty junker) used to cut the slots in my Flashpoint tips:



I have a digital indexer, which makes this kind of thing a touch quicker, but that was set up on another machine at the time.

And here's an interesting shot from the beginning of an MCB'ers project:



Hope to have that one finished and out the door this week!

Doc.

[Frmrspec]

What digital indexer? I found a couple models I really liked on eBay, then hit refresh and never found them again..

[DocsMachine]

It's an early Haas indexer, built off a Hardinge manual indexer. Haas' first product, as I understand it. Mine's old enough it still has a big stepper motor rather than the later servo motors, but it works perfectly, and is as tight and accurate as I can hope. My CNC mill can't operate a true 4th axis, but it's plug-and-play with an indexer like this.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Doc's Christmas Vacation, Day 2:

One minor project I've been meaning to do for way too long now, is set up my Haas digital indexer on the Arboga drill press. I have a number of parts runs, both already on the floor and in the works, that need radial drilling- air vents, "muzzle brake" type holes, etc. One of these days I'll get this thing set up in the CNC mill proper and do this kind of thing automatically, but for the time being, I still have product I need to get out the door.

I usually set this indexer up on one of the manual mills, but it's really just drill press work- and I have this really nice gear-head drill press with an X/Y positioning table that doesn't get anywhere near enough use.

So I've wanted to set it up on there, where I can leave it set up for a while. The problem with this is the table has no center T-slot:



Because of the channel where the leadscrew goes, what would usually be a center T-slot on a milling machine, is just a groove. In this case I could mount the indexer and it's tailstock to either the fore or aft slot, but that uses up quite a bit of the table's limited travel- and besides, my OCD says they need to be centered.



The fix, however, is pretty easy, just a chunk of aluminum plate as an adapter. I've had a chunk laying around for this exact use, for... longer then I care to think. So I got that slab out, and bandsawed it in half. That got set up in the mill and both long edges milled straight.



I started drilling some holes- this was all designed on the fly, by the way - and realized I was going to need a bunch of threaded holes, to be able to adjust the spacing between the indexer and the tailstock, to accommodate different length parts. That led to the realization- hey, I'm slow -that the two parts didn't necessarily need to be bolted to the same adapter plate.

And, I remembered one of the other adapters I wanted to make- one to mount a 4" Kurt-style vise to the table.

So, I shifted my plans a bit, drilled a few holes in other locations...



And bandsawed that in half.



That meant I only needed to drill and tap two pairs of holes in the indexer's baseplate- one more or less centered, the other shifted to an extreme side to allow maximum length.



Et voila!



I need more bolts the right length, and some washers, but just for a mock-up, we're doin' good so far.

I then cut a fresh piece from the other half of that plate, milled it square, and drilled six holes and tapped two.



That will set the tailstock up like this:



I'll have to pick up the rest of the bolts and washers I need when I make my next town run, but this should work just fine. I'll need to set up a small shelf or table for the indexer controller, but I can use a stool just to get through the current projects.

Oh, and the other sawed-off bit?



Mounts a little 4" Kurt-style vise in the same way, which will make the drill a little more convenient to use on a typical day-to-day basis. I'll have to take that spider handle off, though, as it interferes with the table's crank, but that's no big.

Not a bad way to spend the evening. [checks one item off of 387-entry list]

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Doc's Christmas Vacation, Day 3: Ah, the sweet sting of abject failure.

Most of today was spent running the typical Monday errands- picking up and dropping off of mail, a little grocery shopping (I needed more salsa) and of course stopping off at the hardware store to get the bolts I needed.

I'd hoped to finish up the indexer setup this evening, and start punching out some of the parts, but life, as they say, had other plans.

First thing I did was... well I had to do something bout the rusty handle of the indexer collet closer:



That's how I got it, and I've been meaning to do something about it, so no better time. (I'd probably have to turn in my Procrastinator's Club membership card... but they never got around to sending me one. )

The usual bit of green Scotchbrite, a little WD-40, and a measure of elbow grease...



Then, once I realized that the quill spider was going to hit the indexer body- I put it on that side so the handle faces the operator- I reversed the setup, and using the new bolts and washers, well, bolted it all down.



Now, this particular job takes a small, stiff center drill, but from previous experience on the mill setups, I knew the regular drill chuck can't get close enough to the collet face to reach. But fortunately, I had bought, a [ahem] number of years ago, an MT3 holder that takes ER-16 collets. This was the first such need for that particular tool, so I set it up and...

It won't fit either.



The hole needs to be drilled in that narrowed band, and you can see that neither one can reach. That knurled collar is just a thread protector for the spindle, but even removing that won't let the drill reach. Only way I can do it is with the collar off and the centerdrill sticking further out from the collet than I'd like. (ER's don't like having less than 2/3rds or so of the collet body clamping on the shank- much less than that and the inner portion can close, reducing contact to the outer end.)

What did I use on the mills? An R8 holder that takes the much-smaller ER-11 collets. A little fact that I totally spaced when ordering the MT unit.

So, I'm dinked before I can even start. The time, of course, hasn't been wasted, I just need to order the proper tooling- although at this time of year, it's likely to be the middle of January before I actually get it.

But, as I'm running dangerously low on finished product, I need to drill at least a small handful of these- I have a bin of about 200 to do. Which means I'll have to set the indexer up on one of the mills tomorrow, and punch those out, and at some point after Xmas, I'll order the tooling I need.

One other troublesome bit is the quill depth stop:



Which, in all the time I've had this drill (well over a decade) I've never needed the depth stop. I was trying to use that to set up the... er, setup, and found out it works as a solid stop only slightly better than warm Silly Putty. Using just the little T-handle (and no tools) I can't tighten it enough to hold. I can easily cause it to slide on the rod.

I could throw a wrench on there, but I'm thinking I might need a more reliable clamp. A nut on a threaded rod would be ideal, but I'd have to partially dismantle of the spindle to get the mount off. I may try just making a longer clamp, with two bolts rather than just the one and maybe a heavier wall so it doesn't 'stretch' as much....

Which of course means that even if I'd had the right ER holder, I probably wouldn't have been able to do the job tonight anyway.

Ah, the joys of trying to run a small machine shop... deep in the back woods of Left Armpit, Alaska, and on a shoestring so knotted and frayed it makes dental floss look like bridge cable.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Doc's Christmas Vacation, Day 4, Xmas Eve!

As planned, I cleaned off the table of the big Exacto mill, and set up the indexer and tailstock on it.



... I really need to paint that tailstock.

And, found out I was once again mistaken- which makes what, a total of three times in my entire life? Four at the outside? The holder I used previously in the mills was, in fact, an ER-16, but this one uses a "low profile" nut:



That, just barely, gave me the clearance, but unfortunately the nuts are not interchangeable between the two holders. I'll have to see if I can find an MT3/ER-16 with a low-profile nut... If such a thing is even made.

Another option I thought of was to get one of the extended nose "emergency" collets, and machine it to hold the part further away from the spindle face. Less than half an inch would be plenty, in order to use the existing holder ER in the drill press.

Anyway, for the moment, I need to get some parts cut. Recent sales have depleted my inventory of this bolt down to about half a dozen, and I ran these things on the Omniturn more than three months ago! So, with the indexer and tailstock set up, the ER holder given a freshly-sharpened centerdrill, said drill centered over the part, and the indexer control properly programmed, it was time to poke some holes.

Part in place, tailstock snugged- the aluminum bit 'adapts' the tip of the tailstock to the larger bolt hole- and the spindle started.



With the depth-stop (much more rigid on this machine) set, it's a simple matter of simply pulling down on the quill feed 'til it stops, and then let up. The centerdrill is both stubby enough to not wander as it drills, and also lightly countersinks the hole.



Press the button on the indexer, which rotates the part 90 degrees...



And drill again.



Lather, rise, repeat.



A few minutes with that setup gets me a handful of completed parts- this was the last operation for this particular piece- to give me a bit more buffer in inventory, and the rest I'll run as time permits, between now and the end of the year.

Yeah, shop time isn't exactly the height of Christmas festivity, but hey, it's my thing. And certainly not the first time I've ever worked on a holiday...

Doc.