Tool gloat (sort of)

[AdeV]

Three new babies were delivered by UPS this morning



They are:

 - a 12"x15" surface plate
 - a 12.5"x10" adjustable angle plate, weight: 43kg approx. That's a 12" ruler stuck to the middle of it. It even came with a free T-nut!
 - a beast of a roughing cutter, similar to Darren's (when I saw it, I had to have it...), which weighs an impressive 6kg approx.

I only really needed the angle plate (and the cutter, natch) - but I figured the surface plate would come in useful one of these days. It probably wants checking for flatness, any ideas how I'd do that?

Also... I can't use the cutter yet, as it's on an INT40 taper (or something like that), and I'll need it on an R8 taper. No prob, I'll sort it out one day...


Of course, this isn't a proper tool gloat, because I didn't get them for some super-robbery price... £180 delivered - not too shabby I thought. Anyway, just thought I'd share. The angle plate will be very useful when milling out this sump I'm doing. So... all I need now, is a rotary table...


Watch this space

[kellswaterri]

Hi AdeV, some how I dont see that cutter fitting my ''Cowells'' mill...

[Trion]

Nice tooling you got there!

At school we once measured a surfaces flatness, I think we used some kind of ink which we had on the surface plate, then rubbed the part against it. If the part was perfectly flat, it would have ink on it's entire surface.

[AdeV]

some how I dont see that cutter fitting my ''Cowells'' mill...

I had to google for Cowells - love their statement "massive cast iron construction".... If yours has a 180mm table, this cutter will overhang by some 65mm!

I'll be honest, unpacking it was rather like the time I picked up my old Lister CS engine - yes, I'd seen the pictures & read the dimensions, but when you're confronted with it up close & personal, blimey it's big!

Nice tooling you got there!

At school we once measured a surfaces flatness, I think we used some kind of ink which we had on the surface plate, then rubbed the part against it. If the part was perfectly flat, it would have ink on it's entire surface.

Thanks I certainly hope to put it to good use.

You're right about checking a surface on the surface plate, using transfer dye (or whatever it's called) - I guess I will have to buy a 2nd surface plate if I want to make absolutely certain its dead flat. Although, TBH, it's almost certainly quite good enough as it is, for the sort of things I'll be doing.

[Bernd]

Nice tooling you got there!

At school we once measured a surfaces flatness, I think we used some kind of ink which we had on the surface plate, then rubbed the part against it. If the part was perfectly flat, it would have ink on it's entire surface.

In order to make sure a plate is flat you'd need 3 surface plates to get them flat in the first place and to check to see if they are flat. I don't remember the procedure of getting them all flat but it consisted of rubbing the first two plates together and scraping the high spots. It is then checked against the thrid plate by rubbing the two together. If you only use two plates chances are you could introduce a bow in both plates and not even know it since those two plates would match each other. That's why you'd use the third plate to check the first two.

I know sounds confusing. It would be easier to show than write about it.

Bernd

[Darren]

Nice 

I do love tooling with a bit of metal in it ... you'll love the cutter if it's anything like mine. "EATs" metal at a phenomenal rate. My mill has two motors for table transverse, rapid for quick movement of the table and it's rapid enough to make the whole mill bounce !! And the slower one for cutting transverse.

With that cutter of mine at 2,000rpm you can run it though a chunk of steel on the rapid speed for quick removal, it just spits chunks of swarf off like bullets that travel right across the workshop. You won't like doing it though and prob best not to, but it's quite capable.

For alloy just carry on and do it 

[AdeV]

Bernd - your explanation makes excellent sense. I'd have thought you could get away with 2 surface tables if you check them at different angles between each scraping, but 3 would make sure. If you were making from scratch, I guess making 3 would be the best option to guarantee flatness.

Darren - this thing certainly looks like it's a metal muncher. It takes (count 'em) 36 inserts! Several are showing signs of damage, so it's obviously been well used. Each insert has 4 usable edges, however, so I think I can make it fine again - just as soon as I find the appropriately sized torx driver.... what was wrong with a regular allen key, Sandvik!??!

Also, I have to get it off that arbour (a BT50, it transpires) and onto an R8. No idea how, yet.... I'm assuming that it basically pulls off the BT50, and I'd machine up an R8 blank to the same end profile, then push-fit. So, the BFO cutter gets put to the side for now...

Hmm, I wonder how many horsepower you'd need to do a full-depth full-width cut in steel...? Depth 75mm, width 80mm... And in case anyone's wondering, I have NO inclination to find out on my Bridgeport!

[Darren]

I wouldn't advise doing it at full depth  10thou surface cutting 1" wide steel seems ok though.

Did you see my post on making an arbor for mine?

[AdeV]

I wouldn't advise doing it at full depth  10thou surface cutting 1" wide steel seems ok though.

I presume is a euphemism for "kaboom - my mill just exploded"? ;)

Did you see my post on making an arbor for mine?

I did - and I'll be reading it again pretty soon; it was interesting the first time around - doubly so now

[John Hill]

- but I figured the surface plate would come in useful one of these days. It probably wants checking for flatness, any ideas how I'd do that?

A very nice pile of metal indeed! 

You could ink up that surface plate and try the angle plate on it, move it around a bit and see how good a contact you get between the two.   If there is a good fit all over you can assume they are both flat (except of course if someone has rubbed those two together in the past).

If they are not a match you could scrape, file, emery the angle plate until they are a good match.

When you have two surfaces that match they are either flat or a portion of a (maybe very big) sphere and the way to tell is to match that angle plate with another flat surface  working on that new surface until you get another match. 

Then test that third surface against the surface plate and if it matches you have three flats!

I do not think this is something you can do on just one mug of tea.

In my workshop I would assume that the surface plate is at least as accurate as I could make myself and therefore leave it alone.

[AdeV]

It's like Christmas around here at the moment, which is nice Gotta love payday....

So, this afternoon, this turned up:


Now.... I've heard it said that, for our level of machining, you simply don't need the accuracy of slip gauges. You can either go rummaging around the workshop looking for something that's the right size; or, just machine down a block of aluminium (or wax, even!) to the correct height, and use that. And that's all very true. But..... surely it's quicker just to have a set of slip gauges? Especially when they're only 50 quid for a complete set...

Once I'd taken the rather scary looking "Not calibrated - do not use!" sticker off the front, and checked them out, I'm suitably impressed. Mind you, they're supposed to be accurate at 20 degrees C. I don't think it's ever been that warm in my workshop! So I guess I'll just have to put up with undersized measurements  The gauges came complete with a laminated sheet indicating how worn they are, measured in 100/1000ths of an inch. So, for example, the 0.124" block is worn by 0.00005". I'm pretty sure you can put that sort of wear on something by just looking at it funny....

Just to show there's life in the old dogs yet, here's the 0.950" block stuck to the 1.000" block, with nothing more than the pressure of the air:


There's no trickery there, just rub them together gently until you feel them bind up, then they'll just stick like that. It's quite bizarre.

[AdeV]

Final tool gloat for the time being, this one mostly courtesy of John Stevenson:



From left-to-right:

Pratt 4-jaw chuck
Small faceplate
Backstop
Small faceplate-type thing
Enormous face plate for the lathe, I'll have to take the gap out for that one!
Quillmaster + right angle attachment for the milling machine
Stationary steady
Dead centre in a MT sleeve
Catch plate

The 1ft steel rule is in there for scale...

 

[CrewCab]

this one mostly courtesy of John Stevenson:

I've met John a time or two, mainly at the shows and we have shared a beer or two  ............... have to say he is always dam good company and I suspect if you end up in one of his many sheds you will be lucky to escape with an empty car boot ................ nice haul Ade 

CC

[Dean W]

Nice bit 'o merchandise there, Ade. 
I like seeing other folk's "new" stuff almost as much as getting it myself.

Thanks for the pics!

Dean

[jim]

nice set of slips, you'll be surprised how usefull they are!

i give mine a squirt of WD40 every now and then.