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Jon Elson

wrote:

Was shown how to use a boring head at school - (always wondered what
they were for) nice big Bridgeport mill, good quality tooling, so
cannot blame anything in that department.

OK. Having got it right, did two more practice holes in the scrap, all
went well. Been fooled before by blind luck, so wanted to check it was
consistent - it had taken EONS to size and square the two end bearing
retainer blocks, so didnt want to stuff them up.

Put the job pieces in the mill vice, locked the tables, drilled a
14.5mm hole and then, without changing anything in the X-Y dimensions,
used the boring head, Result - holes were undersize...stuffed 2 more
bearings.....(thats ok, had heaps of them from discarded VCR's)
So, you crept up on the diameter with many fine passes of the
boring head, then tried to bore the real part in one pass,
without changing the setting on the boring head?

Well, you have just met Mr. tool deflection! The boring bar
(and maybe the head, too) has bent away from the workpiece due
to the thicker cut, and you didn't cut as much as you expected.
No surprise. Possibly the alloy was different, too.

I also use those awful telescoping bore gages, and they give
erratic readings, but I know why. By feel, I can tell when I am
getting an accurate reading. The trick is to tighten the
locking knob while the measuring points are at an angle in the
bore, then straighten them out so the bore pushes them inward.
When you have them straight across the bore, wiggle the handle
to see if the points are truly on the diameter or have gotten
stuck across a chord. If not on the diameter, you can make the
points move at right angles to the diameter they are supposed to
be reading. I've always wondered if a Starret set of gauges
would work better than these Chinese klunkers.

Jon