There is a lot more that comes into play, but yes I agree! High speed steel and tool geometry can be done in almost anybody shop. The tool can be so sharp, magic just happens. I personally do not like stol horsepower as it is a real burden on machines. But knowing how to sharpen, and re-sharpen, and when to re-sharpen makes you a machinist. 400 divided by diameter for mild steel (1018) it is a good rpm. Feed rate of 0.005-0.009" is also a good feed rate with a 1/32 nose radius. Coolant flooding also adds to longevity of the cutting tool. It is good to have the feed rate 1/4 of the nose radius for a good finish. The picture below, top is just a blank, the middle one is just my mild steel sample for my students, and the bottom one is one of my students. Well done, this thing is a razor blade. If I'm getting too technical just tell me to shut up. Edit; Here is the step shaft project that I put my students through the ringer on. They get +-0.001" on diameters and 0.0155"(1/64") on each step length. They make it using their own shaped lathe tool bit.
I checked the runout, it was about 5 thou when I pushed in the front of the apron and 3 in the back, so 8 total? The ways are about 24 to 25 out along the length in total. But it seems to be in a U shape.
That indicates typical lathe wear, the saddle casting gets dirt past the way wipers that causes it to develop a curve where only the middle section is in contact with the ways. It can cause the saddle to rock under heavy cuts and move down affecting accuracy. The U shape of the bed is also typical with the worst wear when the toolpost is closest to the chuck. If you're machining some bar you can try extending it a few inches away from the chuck and towards the tails stock, even though the material is extended it moves the saddle to a less worn area of the ways. Also bringing the tool post back on the compound slide so the cutting tool is as close to the center of the saddle ways (over the middle where contact is best) will minimize rocking. The only iron scraping I did to my 1967 Colchester lathe was to disassemble the saddle and use engineer's Prussian blue to blue the casting to the unworn section of the ways at the tail stock end (removing the tail stock to get access). My saddle casting only had the middle third of it's ways in contact with the lathe bed ways. After a week or so of very light scraping with a home made carbide scraper I had the blue showing contact over 90+ of the saddle casting. The base of the compound slide needed remachining too due to dirt causing wear, once these two things were fixed the lathe runs much better than it did before, maybe not like new but very usable. You can buy Prussian blue powder from the art supply stores and mix in enough chainsaw bar oil to get a thick paste and using a small amount, work out any lumps with your fingertip on a hard surface before smearing it on the saddle casting with your fingers and then placing the saddle casting on the ways to check contact. Only a thin translucent coat of blue is needed, not a thick smear like jam on toast.
Worked on a shop chair! Look at it. Its perfect for my needs. I will paint it soon. I have to decide what color I want tho. I also bought a sander and a 20 ton press. The press is super useful and I'll likely use it for many projects to come.
I've got the same HF press. Just like the rest of their stuff, after a few mods, it will be okay. I'm glad to see you got the 20ton. I had the smaller one first and took it back. It was a piece of junk.
Yeah I figured I'd need the 20T for future projects. What mods did you do to it? I'm guessing wheels? What do you have for dies/shapes to press into? Would be nice to hook up an actuator to it so it auto pumps the thing but I guess it wouldn't give you decent control over bending things with that. I watched some metal forming vids on YouTube and now I want an English wheel, and an edge roller and other forming tools. Not even sure what I'd make with them but I'd love to have them. They are officially on my list.
Get yourself some mild steel 1,2 and 3inch round stock. I make stuff for my press as I need it. Then I paint tooling like that with a splat of red spray paint. This way I dont turn it into something else. Stroll yt for ideas how to make the top half ride smoother and more even. That's probably the biggest thing you should do. I'm not a fan of powered presses. I dont do monstrous shit, so I appreciate the "feel" of pulling on the handle and I tend to F less stuff up this way. The first time you shoot something out and have to clean your shorts, you'll feel the same way too. Presses can be very dangerous despite looking harmless. Always proceed slowly and cautiously. Face shield is probably a good idea too. I wont put wheels on mine, It lives against the wall as it's not something you use everyday, but when you need it, it's a life saver.
I used a thick walled pipe to put the bend into the backrest. But I could easily lathe up some stock I have. Maybe I'll tap a hole into the side of the press rod so I can screw in different shapes onto the end of them and not have to hold them there by hand. Maybe with a slide rail so they have some give to them. I'll have to get a mill at some point so I can make dies properly. Ill dave up over the next 3 or 4 months and see what I can rustle up. Now hat I've got the space, time and money my hobbies are about to get interesting!
I'm telling ya man, once you have a bridgeport, you'll wonder how the hell you lived without it! I suggest finding a series one like the 2hp machine I got. My VFD is set to 60hz and I NEVER touch it. It has no belts to screw with, just a low/high selector and ya crank the knob to go faster or slower. The design is very similar to modern car constant velocity transmissions... (WHICH I DESPISE!) But on the bridgeport, it's magic. It has an infinite number of rpm options. When cutting something, if it doesn't sound quite right, I give it a small turn on the knob. No stopping and have to dick around with stupid belts! and if you forget any of this, remember Lake Shore Carbide! https://www.lakeshorecarbide.com/ You'll buy an end mill from these guys and you'll still be abusing it MONTHS later! I still don't bother with coolant as I don't want the mess, but there really IS a difference between cheap chinese carbide and these guys.
Whats the amperage on your 220v line to the vfd? Would 50 amps do it or do you need more for a 2 hp 3 phase? Also is a 2 hp three phase equivalent to a 2 hp single phase motor in power or is there some secret benefit to 3 phase? Thanks for the heads up on carbide tooling. The stuff is great but brittle as hell.
Yeah, you dont want to drop a 50dollar end mill. You will chip it that's for sure. I'm using my 30amp breaker for my machines. I've put in some hours and never triped it. People want to start swapping off 3ph motors because they dislike the vfd idea. That's way more work and can get really expensive. Sure the vfd can control speed, but if your equipment is not from the friggen stone age, you'll have plenty of speed options. Like my lathe or bridgeport.... Both vfds I set to 60hz and never touch them. Matt would be better to give you a more exact answer. A vfd is a remarkable device and it's just me running them. If I switch machines, I throw the breaker and swap the plug. The rotary phase converter (I believe) is better when you have a bunch of 3ph stuff and say a couple of guys running stuff. I might be all wet here, but when I can get a vfd for 90bucks, it's a no brainer. And they are way quieter than every rpc I've ever heard! Leave the original 3ph stuff alone, screw converting to single phase.
One thing I want to clear up is there is no such thing as 110 or 220 voltage. In residential we have 120 V and 240 V split phase. The reason why I mention this is the higher the voltage the less amperage is required to perform the same work (and the smaller the transmission lines can be). I have four machines in my shop all fed off one branch circuit 14–4 wire (1.5 hp +3 hp +1 hp +1.5 hp +3 hp). That whole branch circuit is fused with six amp fuses. I can start every single machine (not at the same time) and have them all running. But they are all 600 V. The feeder line could handle 15 A per leg. But I've never blown any of the six amp fuses yet. I've talk to electrical engineers at work who say what I'm doing is impossible. But I'm doing it. Three phase motor design is the cheapest all around for industrial. They in a way have 6 power strokes per revolution. So, they do not need capacitors, a starting circuit, a shaded pole to start. A Single phase motor somewhat only has 4 power strokes per revolution. A single phase motor and a three phase motor use the same amount of wattage for the same horsepower. But one is delivered through a single line and the other is delivered through three lines. A lot of industrial machines are making their way out to the Home hobbyist market for $.10-$.50 on the pound. Quite often you can find a 2500 pound milling machine for around $1000 or less. In the states hobbyists are a little more fortunate as most industrial motors are 230 V/460 V dual voltage. There's two types of industrial electricity in the states there's the high-voltage industrial and the low-voltage industrial. The high-voltage is 460 V. The low-voltage can be 208 V three phase 220 V three phase and 230 V three phase depending on where you're located. A brand new Bridgeport milling machine with no vise, DRO for three phase disconnect required for the back of the machine, will run you almost $20,000. Sometimes these motors are special and cannot be replaced with a single phase equivalent. With a little bit of electrical work and a VFD (for $90-$200) these industrial machines make their way into small single phase shops. Now, there's many ways to do single phase to three phase conversion. Here is a list from cheapest to the most expensive. -Static phase converter-they are super cheap, it uses a capacitor to transmit power to the third line during start up. Once the motor is up to speed, the motor has only 66% of it's total horsepower with two flat spots in its power stroke rotation. -VFD (variable frequency drive) they are somewhat cheap, easy to replace, adjustable ramp up/down speed. The output voltage can be set to any motors requirement so long as it is lower than the input voltage. Can vary the speeds. But a little bit of extra electrical work needs to be done. Also, you need about one VFD per motor, this is not always true. A VFD technician can walk you through running multiple motors in the same machine on the same VFD. VFD's use pulse wave modulation on all three legs. This is OK for motors, but for other sensitive electronics within a machine it might not be OK. Motors are stupid. But sensitive electronics in machines are sometimes designed to have a clean sine wave. -RPC (Rotary phase converter) they can run one machine or dozens of machines. You can change the voltage using step up or step down transformers. On a Single phase 240 V, 200 amp service you can have almost 35 hp running at one time drawing full load amps. But a lot of thought needs to go into the design of the system. The idler motor generator needs to be 1.5 to 2 times bigger than the accumulated machines horsepower that might be running at one time. At minimum, it needs to be 1.5 times bigger than the largest motor on the system. -Phase perfect(Digital phase converter) well, if you have the money this is the best out there. They usually start around $3000 USD and up. You also have to create a system just like the RPC. You need to do load calculations. Both the RPC and the Phsae Perfect benefit is, when the system is finalized, you just bring the machine in and plug it in and fire it up. They both have capacitor banks and need sometimes yearly maintenance. The RPC is a little easier for those who have some electrical experience and have time to play a little bit and educate them selfs. It is more robust, but it does have a wild leg. The wild leg voltage changes depending on load circumstances. The Phase Perfect create a almost perfect pulse wave modulation for the third leg. The other two legs have almost a perfect sine wave. This particular unit is for somebody who has little to no electrical experience and wants high-quality three phase electricity. Edit; the last thing I forgot to mention are some of the magic numbers. You need 1.73 more amperage from single phase to drive a three phase motor efficiently. Under the North American electrical code you also need a 25% buffer. So usually if the motor nameplate states for a 3 hp motor, three phase, 8 Amps... You will need 16 A 240 V branch circuit or bigger to feed this 3 hp, three phase motor or bigger. One last thing is any plug or outlet are only rated for 3 hp for motors or less. Anything bigger than 3 hp is supposed to be hardwired. Even 5 hp air compressor's that are single phase are required under the electrical code to be hardwired! I'm only stating the rules. Honestly some of them I bend. When purchasing a Vfd, you really need to know if it is set up for three phase input or single phase input. Questioning the manufacture is OK. A three phase input VFD can except single phase power if you upsize it by two times. Know what you're purchasing before you purchase it!
Upgraded the dial on the hydraulic press. There's a sale going on for the 20 ton air hydraulic pistons until the end of this month. They are close to half normal price. I think I'll upgrade to one of them. Also going to start making a bending press like the "swag off road" version. I have basically all the materials ready. I'll make it tomorrow.
Also picked this up from the junk yard. Not sure what on earth it was originally from but I think its going to make a pretty good lathe steady. I think it looks sand cast on the outside so I'm guessing its made from Iron instead of steel which means I won't be able to weld it with regular steel rods. I'll probably drill it and bolt it down. Any idea what it was from? Got 2 new cats. Turns out this one is full of love...
Painted the chair. Will drill holes and set the seat cushion at some point. I think it came out rather nice. I also started work on a 90 degree press. The V metal is about 1/2" thick and I've got a 5/8" thick piece for the top piece that holds the bending blade. I'm hoping this will be thick enough to avoid warping with use. What do you think?
Good job man! Nice knurl job. I still haven't tried to knurl anything yet. I've got the tool but what size it's good for is beyond me.
It will knurl anything that you can put between the 2 wheels. Even things with bigger radius than the tool. Its my first knurling experiment. Seemed pretty easy as long as both wheels touched the surface and had good traction.
I tell ya what I really want is a good ball turning tool. I can make some ben wah balls that david can stick up his.... nevermind. I actually have some aircraft jack pad tooling I need to make and they require a sphere on one side and a dish on the other. Nothing is ever easy in my world.
The ideal knurler is a "Cut Knurler" tool, very expensive but gives a good sharp knurl even on difficult materials like brass. It also needs a lot less force and works fast too, you can find them secondhand on Ebay and there are plans to make them too.
