According to :
[ ... ]
O.K. Note that a spin indexer does not have the worm gear drive
which either a rotary table or an index/dividing head have, so trying to
rotate the workpiece while you are machining may get rather exciting --
it may get away from you and rap your knuckles with the hand crank.
Actually it never crossed my mind to rotate the work piece while
machining.(I'd sooner put to the workpiece in the spidle).
If you need to make a groove or a slot which forms only part of
a circle, you'll need to rotate the workpiece in something like an index
head or a rotary table.
I was
thinking that if there isn't a say to lock it,
There is a way -- but it might not be very strong, other than
the pin for setting specific angles.
Note that turning the workpiece in the spin indexer while
cutting can make sense, if you are working with a surface grinder.
Working with a milling cutter, however, risks losing control of the
workpiece.
perhaps I can develop
one.(The entire indexer would have to move up and down on a platform).
I definitely won't be using the collets for tool holding and plan to
bid on a set of endmill holders: 7552009436
O.K. I see a problem with those. They have tanged ends, rather
than ends drilled and tapped for a drawbar. You will have a risk of
things coming loose still.
The tangs are the reason I hadn't bid yet. I wasn't sure what that was
about. @#$%! And I thought I might have been onto a deal.
It would have been a deal -- if you only intended plunge milling
and no side motion. However, with the side motion, you really need a
way to use a drawbar.
[ ... ]
7582356634 5/8" DRILL CHUCK W/ STRAIGHT / MT / R8 SHANK ARBOR NEW! 1
US $18.95
What are you going to use this (above) on? It seems too big
for a tailstock chuck for your lathe, and way too big for a chuck for a
drill press which you could carry up the stairs. It *might* work in the
headstock, I guess.
Why too big? The auction ad states, "Buyers can choose 1" Straight
Shank or MT2 J3 or MT3 J3 or MT4 J3 or R8 J3 shank arbor. ".
Just because you can *fit* it in the tailstock does not mean
that the tailstock is strong enough to take the cutting forces of a 5/8"
drill bit. You *might* get away with it, if the tailstock has the
groove to hold the tang to prevent spinning the tool in the tailstock
ram. But it can lead to unwanted excitement.
And -- a 5/8" chuck takes up more of the limited distance
between the tailstock and the spindle nose. For a 2MT tailstock ram, I
would typically use a 3/8" chuck, or *maybe* a 1/2" one -- carefully.
My 5/8" chuck is on a MT-3 arbor, not MT-2.
Most of my drill will have to be from the head stock because I'll need
to be able to keep re-positioning the work to make a variety of holes
and slots.
O.K. Though a drill press is probably better for this most of
the time.
I don't have a mill or drill yet but this looks interestiung:
7537997365
Be aware that it *must* be used in a rotating spindle. You
can't use it in the non-rotating spindle of your lathe tailstock.
I definitely wasn't considering it's use with my lathe. :-)
O.K. Just being sure, because you have come up with other ideas
which I fell very uncomfortable with.
[ ... ]
And even the really tiny index head for the Unimat SL-1000
(long out of production) had available four index hubs with those four
hole counts. But they typically came with only the 36 hole one, and you
had to buy the others as accessories.
Though 36 and 40 would quadruple the position opptions, there is not
enough room for that many holes inthe space I set aside.
I was talking about things which are available pre-made which
are close to what you are thinking of making -- but with provisions for
the things which you have not yet thought of.
Ok. The only problem is that I don't think there are ready made plates
that would have the exact dimensions and hole positions I'd need.
The Emco-Maier one has a single plate built in, with four
circles of holes. 40 and 36 are two of them. I think that 30 may be
another. I forget what the forth is.
Not as flexible as a dividing head with interchangeable plates
(each with 6-8 rows of holes) and a worm gear between the plate giving a
ratio of 40:1, 20:1 or 90:1.
The one for the Unimat SL-1000 actually has interchangeable
hubs, with a triangular gear tooth cut on the outside, into which a
spring loaded plunger fits, and then the assembly is locked with a
separate clamp bolt.
I'll still keep my eyes open, but I guess my priority should be getting
a compatible 5" 4-jaw chuck for those sqaure pieces.
Yes -- which *could* include a separate back plate and a
plain-back chuck, so you can adapt it to your machine.
Funny why I din't think of something before. I can actually forego the
5" chuck for now. Remember when I mentioned that I wanted to put 1/4"
square holes in each corner of the 4-1/2" square plate? I can just make
a face plate to bolt it to. :-) (Perhaps putting some wood in between).
That makes sense. I would suggest that you drill the plate and
tap it for studs, and use nuts which you spin onto the studs after
placing the plate on them. I would also suggest that you use washers
between the workpiece and the nuts so you don't mar the surface of the
workpiece with the nut's friction.
[ ... ]
BTW -- you can divide parts to any integer number of degrees.
There are 36 holes in the plate, and ten holes for the locking
pin so you can between them get any of 360 positions. Look that
over and learn how to use it before you buy an index head. (Of
course it won't do for things which don't divide evenly into 360
degrees.)
I had actually had that idea for 36 and 10 before I noticed those
numbers on existing indexers. So it was wasy to deduce the basic of how
they work, because I had basically re-invented the wheel. :-)
Not quite the way the spin indexer works. The 36 hole plate is
a part of the spindle. The 10 holes are part of the base casting. They
are located in an arc, with the ten holes taking up the span of 11 holes
in the plate, so moving the pin from one hole to the next, and rotating
the spindle and plate the minimum to allow it to engage the nearest hole
will move the plate 1/10th of the distance between adjacent holes. This
is quite similar to a vernier.
[ ... ]
What about 4" long cuts through 1/16" thick stainless steel?
The same rules apply. It is the blade speed which is the major
problem. (Actually, you *might* be able to get away with the
horizontal/vertical bandsaw in vertical mode -- if you don't need to cut
too far from the edge of the workpiece, as the clearance for the other
side is rather limited.
Well the idea was to cut 4" squares out of the 4" wide, 4'(or is it 6')
long pieces. But if it is easier(though not cheaper) to just get it
completsly precut, then I'll have no choice.
It will be cheaper up until a certain number of pieces, and you
really have no place to put something capable of handling the stainless
steel.
Or -- you can perhaps find a sheet metal shop locally with a
shear capable of cutting the 1/16" SS. This is the same as 16 gauge,
and most reasonable shears are good up to 16 gauge in *mild* steel, but
only to something like 20 gauge (or even thinner) in Stainless Steels.
Take a look at these: 7598678434 & 7598678968
I just did. My first thought is that these things are going to
be *noisy*, and not the thing to use in an apartment with neighbors.
The first of them has to be guided by hand, so you would have to
make some form of fixture to hold it and guide it properly.
The second of them is obviously designed for cutting channel,
small I beams, square or round tubing and similar things. While the
vise will open as wide as 4-3/4", it is expecting something deeper than
1/16" plate, and will quite likely distort the plate as you try to clamp
it by the edges. And, that design would have the saw break through in
the middle first, and then work out towards the edges, at which point it
might grab and pull the stainless out of the vise -- and perhaps hurt
someone with the flailing metal.
I'm told by the seller that the Steel Max saws only come with a mild
steel blade. So I'd need to purchase a separate stainless steel blade
to cut through 1/4" S.S.(Whatever that means).
I would first worry about the noise issue. While the lathe and
the mill will be reasonably quiet, *this* thing will not. For the larger
one, 1450 RPM, combined with the 80 tooth blade for SS, will make for
about a 1.93 KHZ scream. Something which I might live with in my
stand-alone dwelling, with the shop having replaced the two-car garage,
but I don't think that using it in an apartment building would work out.
Good luck,
DoN.
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