Making a micrometer stop for a Clausing lathe

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I don't think that would work for a 70 degree *internal* angle. The lathe has a projecting inverted V. The body for the micrometer stop

-- or other devices -- is a *female* V.

I guess that you could use your approach with a dovetail mill to cut the female V.

A lot easier here -- since the angle is narrower than the end of an end mill, and a HSS lathe bit is cheap enough to grind to a proper point for the task.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols
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Yes. You need a small relief groove at the apex of the vee, but the ways don't come to a point either, so you're not losing any bearing surface.

Seventy degrees does seem rather steep. The ways on my Monarch are 90 degrees.

Reply to
Ned Simmons

While you need a relatively small dia end mill to finish the sides of the vee, almost all the material can be hogged out with a larger tool. I'd probably bandsaw it out.

If the block is squared up carefully first, setup should be pretty quick.

Reply to
Ned Simmons

How?

Vertically, freehand on the table isn't too accurate and horizontally it isn't easy to securely clamp a block in the vise at the angle the blade must stop at in a blind cut. I've marked the line on the outside and shimmed up the work to match the line to the blade. The work had to be held down in the vise with extra C clamps. Those were a straight cuts parallel to the block sides.

The 90 degree vee groove in my South Bend micrometer stop is 2" long, a lot of thickness to saw with hand pressure. I'd cut the slot with a slitting saw in the mill.

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the casting is a close enough copy of a South Bend original there should be enough metal to deepen the groove from 90 to 70 degrees. It's not an exact match. Mine has 0.5" of iron above the point of the vee groove. 0.4" remains above a traced 70 degree angle.

I think it could be clamped in a vise with the end plates and spindle removed. The SB one has only a machined flat on the bottom for a reference surface that you could level, or temporarily attach to an overhanging plate that rests on the vise jaw tops. If the 70 degree end mill is correct you'll be good with one pass but it would be difficult to put back in the vise to make adjustments without some fixturing.

You might even get away with adhesive-backed felt or rubber in the vee groove since the mic stop doesn't have to slide accurately on the ways.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Freehand on vertical saw. How close I'd dare cut to the final dimension depends on the saw and my eyesight. On my saw (a 65 year old DoAll ML) I'd be comfortable with leaving .030 to .050, but that's more a function my patience and eyesight than the saw's capability. This saw does have a weight assisted cable feed, but I wouldn't bother setting it up in this case. I *would* make sure the saw had a coarse blade installed, but the blade change would take longer than the cut.

DoAll did make a lighted magnifier accessory for more accurate sawing.

This is an example of the time you can save with a well-tuned vertical bandsaw.

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Reply to
Ned Simmons

I'll take your word for it. The only good industrial vertical bandsaws I've used were available for all employees, including managers with no clue of the hardness of the rebar and lawnmower blades they were cutting. New blades dulled in a day and were left on as subtle punishment.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

If you have any interest in what can be done with a good saw, DoAll used to print a couple of small books with lots of examples of jobs and pictures of 40's era factories. Many of the parts would be made nowadays by CNC milling, laser cutting, or EDM.

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Reply to
Ned Simmons

I assume that the people who need to ask aren't that well-equipped, so I focus on problems I've solved with hobby-sized equipment.

I can run the bigger ones but I don't have the experience of others here. For a while I was the designated blade-weldor for a Do-All.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

I read a bandsaw book that described how to use the half-circle plate with the serrated notch, perhaps it was one of them. I thought I had a Lindsay reprint but can't find it.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

The 16" DoAlls like the Metalmaster, ML, etc. are not awfully big. The ML is a 3/4 HP saw with a footprint about 36" square. They are pretty heavy; probably 800+ pounds. The 20" saws with hydraulic table feed are much bigger overall than the 4" deeper throat might suggest.

Reply to
Ned Simmons

I would however, suggest make up a turret style micrometer stop instead.

--excellent where you have a number of parts to make and you're using of the several aloris type holders on each one.

Reply to
PrecisionmachinisT

Also a good idea. There was such a device for sale on fleabay for ~ $500, but I don't know if it sold.

But first, I'll make a simple stop, for the experience.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

You might want to consider installing a Trav-a-dial on your carriage. It measures infinite travel, is always available, and is quick to re-zero. It's one of the most-used accessories on my Clausing 5914.

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Reply to
Mike Henry

I like the 2" indicator for threading, the micrometer stop for boring a flat-bottomed recess. It's difficult to stop within 0.001" without overshooting using the carriage handwheel.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

I agree with both of you. I have used the dial indicator, and always overshoot, so the plan is to use the indicator to set the stop.

As for the Trav-a-dial, it is the original CRO (Clockface Read Out), and is a real possibility. I think they are still made, but are not cheap.

Mounting a real DRO is likely to be pretty awkward, given that the lathe was not designed for a DRO. I had been toying with mounting a short unit on a bedway fixture that in clamped into place when needed.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

I'm reading through your thread. 70 degrees seems to be be what my 69xx is. I think you have a 59xx, iirc. I'm planning to make my own stop in the near future. A engine lathe w/o the stop is a bit crippled.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

Reply to
Wes

I have a 5914. The 70 degrees comes from Clausing, and measurements on the lathe bear this figure out. If you wish to verify this, I would ask Clausing for the drawing giving the bedway dimensions and relationship to the spindle axis for the 6900 series lathes.

Agree.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

I think you

O.K. I just went down and checked. My 5418 checks out at pretty close to 80 degrees with a Starrett bevel protractor.

I would probably either use my 7" shaper to cut it (for a bed stop), or a dovetail cutter in a tilted milling head, depending on how difficult it was to mount on either machine.

And for this -- it is not *really* critical. As long as it has enough gripping surface so the carriage won't bump it along, it should be fine. I've got a couple of turret stops, and a micrometer stop, and each sees its own series of uses. In particular, the turret stops tend to be used when I have a bed turret in place of the tailstock, so I can do grooving or facing and parting at different carriage positions while the turret handles things like turning down (box tool), knurling (T-knurler), drilling and tapping, and external threading with a Geometric die head.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

I can usually stop within 5 thou with the Trav-a-dial, often 2 thou but that's not consistent enough to count on it. Not having to reposition an indicator holder is a real bonus for me. It just takes a few seconds to re-zero the two dials on the TAD.

Reply to
Anonymous

Joe - you can find working TADs on Ebay for $150 or so with a bit of patience, though seem to be bringing $200+ recently.

The spherical washers needed for the mount are often missing and are available from McMaster-Carr among other sources. Mine lacked the tensioning device so I cobbled one up in the shop. I can provide drawings for that and for the mount made for my 5914 if you are interested. The mount was made of aluminum plate and bolted together. Welding would be better but the bolted version has been working fine for my needs for 5 or 6 years now.

Mike

Reply to
Anonymous

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