I just acquired an Elliot 10M shaper (Cheers Rob), so todays job was making a new bolt for the clapper box.
AND the reason for the new bolt, the old one was bent and swaged at the end, so it wasn't coming out in one piece. Hence in the photo it's been cut and then the good part!!! screwed out. Just to add some fun and amusement I ground up a tool to cut the thread on the new bolt only to find I made it out of key steel, once I'd fed it into the work piece and was thinking "I'm sure it was set up on zero?" Yep. it was so my key steel has a nice rounded profile on it's tip.... Oh well, at least my choice of junk box steel for the bolt is OK. Errrrr, better make a new thread cutting tool, so ended up grinding my HSS parting tool. I wasn't sure of this idea as I thought it might wander as I needed an inch overhand to clear the tailstock. As it happened it worked out fine. Right all I need now is to use the shaper to square my bolt ! Oh yeah, I just cut the old one out. So it ended up being milled very slowly as the steel turned out to be pretty hard.
It all worked out in the end, and you can see my rough and ready "work in progress" tool holder. The welding isn't pretty, but there's plenty of it.
So that was my day in the workshop.
