1. Home
  2. ⏣ General Metalworking
  3. Today's metalworking

Today's metalworking

It was all wood-related because I was working on rebuilding an old fence to mount on my table saw . I needed a pair of soft bushings for the slide lock mechanism on the fence , made those on the lathe out of a piece of HDPE I had laying around . Then I realized that it wasn't locking when I pushed the lock handle down . Turns out it was worn , and needed to be bult up a bit , so out comes the TIG welder . That part of the setup is now ready , and tomorrow I'll be drilling and tapping the angle I want to use as a mount bar . I'll also be using my homemade boring head to create a curved surface on the blocks that will space the fence guide (it's round) from the mount . If all goes well , I'll be cutting parts for beehives by tomorrow afternoon . I also spent a little time out in the newly-expanded foundry annex - I closed the space in with clear plastic sheeting yesterday so I can work out there in cold weather . Discovered that a very cold morning coupled with a metal roof and a foundry/forge burner can create a rainstorm . I think I'll address that problem by stapling a sheet of plastic to the underside of the rafters . That should keep the condensation down , as well as add some "insulation" to the space . Hmm , since I have a bunch of

3 1/2" insulation salvaged from an old house , I might just really insulate the roof . Might make it cooler in summer too .
Reply to
Terry Coombs
Loading thread data ...

I remember my cousin insulating his rabbit hutch corrugated iron roof to keep it cooler in the summmer. That's important in south Texas. I grew up working in Dad's quonset hut barn. We sweated a lot.

My metalworking yesterday was to make a spindle nose gage for a Hardinge dividing head (threaded version). I'm going to use it to make an adapter to L00. That way I can use the dividing head to set up face plate jobs with the face plate horizontal. It's a pain to try to center some feature on a heavy chunk of cast iron while the face plate is on the lathe.

Pete Keillor

Reply to
Pete Keillor

I have a 1.5X 8 adapter plate bolted to my rotary table that I use the same way . Also comes in very handy when I get set up for gear cutting , chuck is already centered .

Reply to
Terry Coombs

Keep an eye on the state of the plastic sheeting because a guy I know found that the corrugated plastic roofing sheeting in his outdoor workshop was softening and going flat due to the heat from his gas forge, he moved all forging outdoors after that.

Reply to
David Billington

Thanks for the heads-up . I do usually have a bit of flame coming out of the foundry furnace when I'm full-bore coming up to heat ... I've also been mentally cataloging potential items I have on hand to build a conical vent outlet above it . Start with that old triple-wall roof flashing , gotta come up with about 2-3 feet of tube about 10 or 11 inches in diameter . That should also help keep me from carbon monoxiding myself . That plastic on the ceiling has also blocked most of the "venting" I had . This started out as an 8 x 9 shed roof over a table and my furnace . I'll have enough enclosed space now to do a few things that I didn't want to do in the machine shop - like cut wood with a table saw . One step closer , just finished machining the standoff blocks for the fence guide tube . Now it's just a matter of measuring , drilling and tapping .

Reply to
Terry Coombs

I made several hatches in corrugated roofs by attaching the removeable panel to a rectangular wood frame resting on blocks attached to the rafters. The top end of the corrugated panel slides under the ridge cap, which may have to be bent up slightly. A hook and eye on either side holds it down in wind storms.

-jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

"Terry Coombs" fired this volley in news:noohen$llo$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

How'd you keep chips out of the cylinder while doing all that? Lloyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Coated the reamer/tap with a mixture of petroleum jelly/crisco that I have for greasing black powder patches so the area between flutes was packed full . Did a couple of turns , pulled it out and blew the chips and grease off with compressed air , recoated and did a couple more turns . As long as the grease at the tip has no chips it's a pretty good bet that none got into the cylinder . -- Snag

Reply to
Terry Coombs

"Terry Coombs" fired this volley in news:nooik3$4rt$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Sounds good! L

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

...

I've had to do similar in the past; I use clean gun grease quite often as a temporary "glue"...it works wonderfully sometimes to hold a nut on end of finger or somesuch where can barely reach and the like...

Reply to
dpb

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.