Honing Aluminum Tube
"Bob La Londe" fired this volley in
:
Ok shiny was probably not the best term. Smooth is more important.
It will have a low pressure pneumatic seal with am o-ring and piston.
The raw tube works ok, but I was thinking with a better than mill
finish the o-rings might last longer.
So far I have not worn out an o-ring with the existing units, but I
would like to make future ones "better."
How long are these tubes, Bob?
It takes darned near forever with a long boring bar, but with the right
speeds and the right rake on an HSS boring bit, you can get a pretty nice
finish.
Get it turned to "round" (sans weld), then use a small flap hone if you
want to clean it up.
Remember, I went through this recently with a customer's project, and
finally ended up buying an aluminum air cylinder long enough to cut what
I needed. But mine was 18" long and 6" i.d. That made it kind of hard
to bore with a conventional setup, and I didn't have the time to jig the
lathe to mount the work on the cross-slide, and the bit in the spindle,
supported by the tailstock.
LLoyd
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