Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job. The grinder cost me
only NZ$8.50 (3.50 GBP).

I needed to copy this steel black-painted clamp. The original was
probably cast about 100 years ago and I don't happen to have a
foundry. So I had to carve it out of a solid block of steel.
The finished clamp, except that it still needs an extension welded to
the handle:
http://i26.tinypic.com/t4tk3q.jpg

Here's how I made it.
The original old clamp and a block of steel:
http://i28.tinypic.com/b9ce48.jpg

Start with the hardest part. Drill a hole and cut down to it:
http://i31.tinypic.com/2h3n5tj.jpg

Six more easy straight cuts:
http://i28.tinypic.com/3uhdt.jpg

I had to drill a couple more holes and cut down to them. Used a
grinder to round around the hole. It still may not be possible to do
this!
http://i25.tinypic.com/27yuxz6.jpg

A few more cuts, then out with the angle grinder with a flapper disk!
It pays to leave something to hold, opposite the difficult end:
http://i31.tinypic.com/hsnda8.jpg

Cheaper and quicker than taking it to a foundry!

Matty F wrote:
Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job.

I think you can take a little bit of the credit too Matty! Great work.

Tim

On Aug 23, 8:10 pm, "Tim Downie"
wrote:
Matty F wrote:
Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job.

I think you can take a little bit of the credit too Matty! Great work.

Thanks. It's a bit like wood carving, only harder!
Actually I use a Skilsaw for carving wood.

On Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:34:05 -0700, Matty F wrote:

On Aug 23, 8:10 pm, "Tim Downie"
wrote:
Matty F wrote:
Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job.

I think you can take a little bit of the credit too Matty! Great work.

Thanks. It's a bit like wood carving, only harder!

Nah, you can remove fingers just as easily with either

Nice work. Got me wondering how practical a home foundry is :-)

On 23 Aug, 16:24, Jules
wrote:
On Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:34:05 -0700, Matty F wrote:
On Aug 23, 8:10 pm, "Tim Downie"
wrote:
Matty F wrote:
Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job.

I think you can take a little bit of the credit too Matty! *Great work.

Thanks. It's a bit like wood carving, only harder!

Nah, you can remove fingers just as easily with either

Nice work. Got me wondering how practical a home foundry is :-)

Try http://www.mibot.com/foundry/intro.php at your own risk.

On Aug 24, 3:24 am, Jules
wrote:
On Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:34:05 -0700, Matty F wrote:
On Aug 23, 8:10 pm, "Tim Downie"
wrote:
Matty F wrote:
Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job.

I think you can take a little bit of the credit too Matty! Great work.

Thanks. It's a bit like wood carving, only harder!

Nah, you can remove fingers just as easily with either

Nice work. Got me wondering how practical a home foundry is :-)

Now I need to make that bolt with the flat head with a hole through
it.
Tomorrow I will try heating up a bolt head red hot and hitting it with
a hammer.

For those curious what it's for, the restoration project looks rather
like this one:
http://i26.tinypic.com/1g3fno.jpg
It looks damn dangerous to me! Are there any safety laws about
that?

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Matty F
saying something like:

For those curious what it's for, the restoration project looks rather
like this one:
http://i26.tinypic.com/1g3fno.jpg

Wonderful!

It looks damn dangerous to me! Are there any safety laws about
that?

People had common sense, then.

"Matty F" wrote in message
...
Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job. The grinder cost me
only NZ$8.50 (3.50 GBP).

I needed to copy this steel black-painted clamp. The original was
probably cast about 100 years ago and I don't happen to have a
foundry. So I had to carve it out of a solid block of steel.
The finished clamp, except that it still needs an extension welded to
the handle:
http://i26.tinypic.com/t4tk3q.jpg

Here's how I made it.
The original old clamp and a block of steel:
http://i28.tinypic.com/b9ce48.jpg

Start with the hardest part. Drill a hole and cut down to it:
http://i31.tinypic.com/2h3n5tj.jpg

Six more easy straight cuts:
http://i28.tinypic.com/3uhdt.jpg

I had to drill a couple more holes and cut down to them. Used a
grinder to round around the hole. It still may not be possible to do
this!
http://i25.tinypic.com/27yuxz6.jpg

A few more cuts, then out with the angle grinder with a flapper disk!
It pays to leave something to hold, opposite the difficult end:
http://i31.tinypic.com/hsnda8.jpg

Cheaper and quicker than taking it to a foundry!

Wow - words fail me for your ambition!

Peter

Matty F wrote:
Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job. The grinder cost me
only NZ$8.50 (3.50 GBP).

I think we can safely say its paid for itself :-)

Amazing - how long did it take you?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Aug 23, 8:35 pm, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:
Matty F wrote:
Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job. The grinder cost me
only NZ$8.50 (3.50 GBP).

I think we can safely say its paid for itself :-)

Amazing - how long did it take you?

About six hours! I did have the advantage of this bandsaw (a cutoff
saw not really designed for this job):
http://i31.tinypic.com/xdecsm.jpg
Otherwise I think I would have given up with just a hacksaw.

"Matty F" wrote in message
...
On Aug 23, 8:35 pm, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:
Matty F wrote:
Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job. The grinder cost me
only NZ$8.50 (3.50 GBP).

I think we can safely say its paid for itself :-)

Amazing - how long did it take you?

About six hours! I did have the advantage of this bandsaw (a cutoff
saw not really designed for this job):
http://i31.tinypic.com/xdecsm.jpg
Otherwise I think I would have given up with just a hacksaw.

I was going to say the cuts were too neat for an angle grinder.

Matty F wrote:
Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job. The grinder cost me
only NZ$8.50 (3.50 GBP).


*Impressed*

Well done, that angle-grinderist!

Si

Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job.

It takes more than an angle grinder to accomplish that - get yourself
a beer, you've earned it !

Colin Wilson o.uk
writes:

Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job.

It takes more than an angle grinder to accomplish that - get yourself
a beer, you've earned it !

Yes, it's the sort of thing I would have expected to do with (inter
alia) a milling machine. So, what's the cheap alternative for the jobs I
would expect to use a lathe for?

--
Jón Fairbairn
http://www.chaos.org.uk/~jf/Stuff-I-dont-want.html (updated 2009-01-31)

On Aug 24, 7:00 pm, Jon Fairbairn wrote:
Colin Wilson o.uk
writes:

Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job.

It takes more than an angle grinder to accomplish that - get yourself
a beer, you've earned it !

Yes, it's the sort of thing I would have expected to do with (inter
alia) a milling machine. So, what's the cheap alternative for the jobs I
would expect to use a lathe for?

I'm not sure how I could use a milling machine for all those curves.
It would require many changes of position of the work and changes of
the tool, which in my limited experience takes a long time.
I can use the bandsaw to chop out large pieces of steel without having
to cut through all of it, and a fixed grinder and angle grinder can be
moved around the work quickly.

I used the same angle grinder to finish off this steel part that I
chopped out with the bandsaw and a lathe:
http://i41.tinypic.com/2mf1ana.jpg

That was a better candidate for a milling machine, which I have now
learned how to use.

Matty F writes:

On Aug 24, 7:00 pm, Jon Fairbairn wrote:
Yes, it's the sort of thing I would have expected to do with (inter
alia) a milling machine. So, what's the cheap alternative for the jobs I
would expect to use a lathe for?

I'm not sure how I could use a milling machine for all those curves.

It's a /long/ time since I used one, so it's entirely possible that
vices that permit rotation of the work while machining are a figment of
my imagination, but for cutting an arc or rounding the end of something
to a half-cylindrical profile, that's what you'd need. (I can find
swivel vices on the net, but can't see if they can be turned while
milling). I would finish the web(?) curves off with a grinder, though.

Still, you didn't answer my question: what do you use when you need a
lathe;-)?

--
Jón Fairbairn
http://www.chaos.org.uk/~jf/Stuff-I-dont-want.html (updated 2009-01-31)

On 26 Aug, 10:02, Jon Fairbairn wrote:

vices that permit rotation of the work while machining

It's usual to use either a rotary table for this, with a simple vice
bolted on top, or else to use a dividing head with a lathe chuck on
it.

Some might argue that it's abuse of a dividing head to do this, but
most people who have dividing heads at all are using vast industrial
surplus ones that dwarf their mills, so they won't suffer too badly.

If you're a "Model Engineer" the traditional approach for doing the
ends of coupling rods seems to be a fixed pin and free-swinging it
handheld. Even at that scale it's a f*ck*ng heathen practice that will
cost you fingers, smashed work and smashed tooling.

On 23 Aug, 08:36, Matty F wrote:
Once again my angle grinder has done a superb job. The grinder cost me
only NZ$8.50 (3.50 GBP).

I needed to copy this steel black-painted clamp. The original was
probably cast about 100 years ago and I don't happen to have a
foundry. So I had to carve it out of a solid block of steel.
The finished clamp, except that it still needs an extension welded to
the handle:http://i26.tinypic.com/t4tk3q.jpg

Here's how I made it.
The original old clamp and a block of steel:http://i28.tinypic.com/b9ce48.jpg

Start with the hardest part. Drill a hole and cut down to it:http://i31.tinypic.com/2h3n5tj.jpg

Six more easy straight cuts:http://i28.tinypic.com/3uhdt.jpg

I had to drill a couple more holes and cut down to them. Used a
grinder to round around the hole. It still may not be possible to do
this!http://i25.tinypic.com/27yuxz6.jpg

A few more cuts, then out with the angle grinder with a flapper disk!
It pays to leave something to hold, opposite the difficult end:http://i31.tinypic.com/hsnda8.jpg

Cheaper and quicker than taking it to a foundry!

That's amazing.