Is this a “Never Ending Battle”??????

[Runs With Scissors]

OK, so since I retired, I promised myself that I would “take my time, and do things right”...

No more of this “Good nuff” BS…..No more “Just Get’r done” Crap-ola……Gonna “do it right”…..


BUT, damn it…..This is getting ridiculous!!!

I am in the middle of this "SSQA project” and I need/needed/wanted a brass bushing/standoff.

So I go to the lathe, and to “knock one out”…….Easy enough, ….should take 10 minutes.(or less)



But then I part it off, and need to “trim it up” (i.e. take the burrs off and smooth the back of it)

It’s not “mission critical”…..Hell I probably could have used a file, or some sandpaper to smooth it out……….BUT

Those damn voices in my head are screaming “DO IT RIGHT DUMBASS…..NO TAKING SHORTCUTS!!!"

So I need to chuck it up, but cant figure out how to grab it squarely




My initial thought was to use a set of parallels to get it squared up, but they are too short.

So I YouTube’d it, and for some stupid reason, I decide that I now need to “modify my chuck” by making a set of “stand off’s”, just like Joe Pie has done, so that I can use my parallels….



The layout goes well enough,




and drilling the holes goes fine too.




HOWEVER, (and here is where I "go off the rails” )

I decide that I want to use my “new to me” Bridgeport to “power tap” the holes

Again, it’s off to YouTube University, to get some idea of how to do this.

I then find out I dont have “spiral pointed taps” (which is apparantly a “must have” for this type of operation?)

So her I sit, thumbs buried squarely up my a$$, waiting for the UPS guy to deliver my new tap set, as my project is put off for another day…….

The Battle wages on!!!!!!!

 

[GeoHorn]

It’s always the little things, heh?
The wages of battle increase as it rages on.

 

[Gus1957]

You could have either made a split arbor out of brass and held it that way with no cost.
Having a Bridgeport is a great machine.
What lathe do you have?

 

[Old Machinist]

MEH! Since I retired I have rushed through and made more dumbass mistakes than I did in my whole previous working life. My patience with jobs AND people is wearing thin as I age.

 

[Yooper]

Spiral pointed for through holes and spiral flute for blind holes. Spiral pointed takes a lot less torque than a standard tap does. I do use them in blind holes to get the party started and then clean out the chips using a drill bit by hand and compressed air. Finish it with a bottoming tap. Spiral flute send the chips outwards so they are used for blind holes but I do not like power tapping with them in my mill because they take a lot of torque and I don’t have the tap drivers to properly hold them.

Remember what I said about tooling? You are just starting the journey to what will be a section of your shop dedicated to milling machine tooling. Enjoy!

 

[jaxs]

Keep this up and you can change your handle to "Cutting Out Paper Dolls With Scissors"

 

[Yooper]

MEH! Since I retired I have rushed through and made more dumbass mistakes than I did in my whole previous working life. My patience with jobs AND people is wearing thin as I age.

Especially the people! Can’t handle the BS from the barstool experts anymore!

 

[Scm]

Especially the people! Can’t handle the BS from the barstool experts anymore!

We are in a reverse Flynn Effect. Instead of getting more intelligent with each generation, people are becoming dumber.

 

[jaxs]

Especially the people! Can’t handle the BS from the barstool experts anymore!

Some times an encounter with the right party can teach these experts to keep their trap closed.
Many years ago a box truck hit a power pole in the alley where I worked. There was sparks and smoke 50 yards in all directions from truck and 30 feet in air. Understandably the driver was freaking out. Just as a fire engine rolled up old electrical expert me told the driver to leap from cab being carful he isn't in contact with cab and ground at the same moment. The words were still in air between me and driver when the fire fighter hollered for man to" remain perfectly still and do not move one fonger". He turned to me and said" you plant your a$$ over there by that fence and don't speak nor move." Reason? High voltage can jump across an air gap, distance depending on voltage. Hold a spark plug wire as if testing for fire and move it away until spark stops jumping gap. Now bring an object off to side of air gap and spark will jump from wire to object then from object to ground in vee pattern. The driver would likely been fried if he did as I suggested.

 

[hagrid]

I'm not brave enough to power tap that grade of steel.

 

[Workerbee]

With a good porcunior he should be ok. With my old crap though Id set it up as if I was power tapping, then turn that spindle by hand

 

[Sidekick]

I have a bunch of different size 3 wing spacers that came with my old southbend lathe. Just stack them in the chuck and register against them. Probably 70 year old technology . They are loose in the chuck but work fine for me.

 

[PHPaul]

Man is the only critter that buys tools to make tools for his tools.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

With a good porcunior he should be ok. With my old crap though Id set it up as if I was power tapping, then turn that spindle by hand

Google says that's not a word. You messing with me?

 

[Lil Foot]

Slight mis-spelling

 

[PoTreeBoy]

Thanks, very enlightening.

 

[TheOldHokie]

Thanks, very enlightening.

The head is very pricey and takes up a lot of table to spindle space. Best suited to a floor standung drill press. The collets are only slightly better and will nickle and dime you to death. I have three heads and a bunch of collets here that I will sell cheap.

Dan

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Well fellas, The UPS guy came a wee bit earlier than normal, so I was able to try and power tap for the first time ever!!!!!

I ordered 2 small sets of taps, cause I was unsure which one would work better.

When I ordered them, I did not see that the one set was a called spiral pointed bottom taps. (left set)




That piqued my interest for some reason.

Now because I have drilled all the holes already, I had to use the “pointy” part of my edge finder to locate them, cause I could not figure out how to set up any sort of indicator for such a small hole.

So, I had to revert to a "Cro-Magnon methodology"…I put the pointy part in the hole, turned the mill on very low rpm, and used my finger nail to “feel” the edge finder "go smooth" on all sides…..



Crude???? YES.....but it worked I guess. (so that whole "no more shortcuts” thing lasted about 14 minutes )

Well let me tell you gentlemen, 'power taping’ is the BOMB !!!!!!!


Basically I just chucked the spiral pointed bottom tap in an R8 drill chuck, turned the VFD to “stupid slow” and she tapped out those holes in “no time flat”.




The very fact that the tap would “slip”, was sort of a “blessing in disguise”.

When I would get near the end of a hole, the slipping acted as sort of a “clutch mechanism”...

Just luck you say????? Why yes, it probably was, but it's a “Win”, so I’ll take it.


Now for today, I am going to make those “stand offs” to complete the “mini-project"

 

[Runs With Scissors]

I have a bunch of different size 3 wing spacers that came with my old southbend lathe. Just stack them in the chuck and register against them. Probably 70 year old technology . They are loose in the chuck but work fine for me.
View attachment 178439 View attachment 178440

I was literally thinking of making something identical!!!


But I was worried about it/them “banging around”

Thanks for posting that

 

[Runs With Scissors]

You could have either made a split arbor out of brass and held it that way with no cost.
Having a Bridgeport is a great machine.
What lathe do you have?

It’s just a little “Shop Fox” ….(But in our “crazy new world", it “identifies" as a Grizzly )