Nice lamp but be careful with it, they get hot!

Here is a tang sight I made for my muzzel loader.

Nice work, Gary!

This is not one of the halogen-bulbed office
lamps that were ultimately condemned as a fire
hazard. This one uses a standard incandescent
bulb.

Paula

Here's a few small tools I made for my muzzleloader, and a "Elbow" engine (a 6 cyl. engine w/5 moving parts).

Really nice tang sight Gary.

Does it have both windage and elevation
adjustments? Was it entirely home-brew
or did you find plans someplace?

I've put tang sights on a couple of guns,
one by Marbles and another less expensive
one which is not as nice. But yours seems
to be of very high craftsmanship.

Jim

DHalderman: Nice work! However I feel you need to give us a little more explantion on your elbow engine. Is your own design or did you have plans and how does it work?

Jim: It is my own very simple design. There was no need to make it adjustable for windage because the front blade is. I started out making it adjustable for elevation but I scraped that plan when I realize there was really no need. It is a .54cal that I shoot only round balls in. It will shoot about 3" at a 100 yards but beyond that the rainbow trijectroy takes over. So I just made the tang sight fixed (It can not get out of adjustment) It was easy to get the elevation right because I already had a partridge style on it, I just made the tang sight match the partridge style sight then I removed the other sight. The longer sight radius makes the peep sight much more accurate. Gary P. Hansen

Nice elbow engine.

I remember seeing this in the old Popular Mechanics do it yourself books. Those books had me lusting for metalworking equipment particularly a lathe.

This is a ramrod thimbel pipe I made out of CRS. I drilled and turned it on my lathe. Then it recieved some forging and some hand filing, polishing and fire bluing. In form, it is a direct copy of an original from a Hawken rifle my friend was rebuilding at the time. The original however was not turned but completely hand made by forging sheet steel around a mandrel and hand filing. The original was attached by a pin through the stock. I just drilled and tapped mine and attached it with a screw under the barrel inletting. Gary P. Hansen

I collect old DE razors. I like shaving with the old 3 piece razor but find the handle to be to short. The solution make my own. One good thing all the razors I've run accross even the German Merkurs use #10-32 threads. Here's a picture of 3 of the handle I made, the razor on the right is a Merkur HD it's there for scale. I made these before I got my scissor type knurling tool. Bob.

Bob: How do you like your scissor knurling tool? I think I would end up slitting my own neck if I tried to shave with one of those! Gary P. Hansen

I have been lurking here for a while. I have an old Hercus 9" which I understand is an Australian copy of the SB. There is an interesting story with it, but that is for another time. What is CRS?

Cheers

Donald (on the Rock)

CRS = cold-rolled steel (as opposed to hot-rolled)

This is a thread guage I made of my lathe's spindel. I made it to check the inside threads I cut for the face plate that is screwed on the guage. The guage has come in handy for more than making the face plate. I clamp the guage in a vise and use it to hold the face plate while I mount work on the face plate. Note the hole in the edge of the face plate. The hole is used for removing the face plate from the lathe. I stick a steel bar in the hole and use it to unscrew the face plate.

Don't be shy! Let's see some of your projects. Gary P. Hansen

Its newbie-grade work I know, but I did actually make it... y axis feed nut for my Nichols mill, single pointed 10tpi acme in C932/SAE660- I think I succeeded in something close to a centering fit. The nut screws into the flange with 44 tpi threads and was soldered in place. Its installed in the mill now and working entirely satisfactorily.


I messed up one of the countersink holes- so no pics of the front of the flange.. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Greg

Not anything Newbe about cutting inside Acme threads! Did you make a thread guage to check your inside thread? Who cares what one of the countersinks looks like as long as it works Gary P. Hansen

Thanks Gary- the newbie-ness comes from ordering the operations incorrectly- should've parted about .100 deep or so before the finishing pass to avoid a burr on the corner, better finish etc. I did hit the critical dimensions pretty well though, the nut assy has a pleasing feel as it fits into place.

I used the y axis screw as a go/no-go gauge, its 12" long and is easily removed from the mill. I put in the threads till the screw would go in snugly but without a lot of effort. I think I may be .004 or so oversize but not a lot more than that. The only backlash thats apparent comes from the thrust bearing in the screw's mounting block (going to work on that at some point) so the thread thickness is pretty good. We'll see how stable the fit is after the nut wears in a bit...

Tell you what though, nothing eases the trepidation over making acme threads better than doing it. It took me 2 practice tries w/ some bits of AL scrap before I was confident enough to do the real thing.

Greg

I made new bronze nuts for my hardinge milling
machine - I think I made three sets, and threw
the first one away. It's amazing how
steep the learning curve is. After you mess
up one, you're an expert at it, and the rest
just go like clockwork.

Nice stuff you did greg. I probably would have
used locktite 620 to lock the fine threads
between the steel and the bronze. Must have
been tough to get the solder to flow all the
way in there!

Jim

Thanks Jim,

The 44tpi threads were relatively loose (semi-intentionally), I fluxed both parts before screwing them together and the solder zipped right on in. After soldering the flange I faced it and turned for OD.

My screwup was not snugging the dividing head chuck down tight enough to the nut, so the endmill I countersunk with climb-milled and dragged the nut through 10 degrees or so- DOC was thankfully only about .030- ugly and embarrasing- it also cost me zero which shifted the 3rd hole slightly so I had to open that one up a bit. I should've rezeroed on the good first hole.. live and learn.

Greg

Warsdad: In case you have not seen it you might want to look down the list for the thread entitled Thread dial kits, any interest? Gary P. Hansen

My most recent project. I got tired of my string trimmer leaking gas around the fuel line that poked through the plastic tank, so I made some feedthroughs. Made the brass body on the lathe from hex stock and then soldered the tubing into the middle.







Yes... I spent well over a hundred dollars worth of labor on a sub-hundred dollar trimmer............

And I'll enjoy thinking about it every time I fire up that trimmer and the tank isn't wet with gas!!

Great Work Bruce! That is what is nice about having a lathe, being able to fix the little things that drive you up a wall. Have not needed a string trimmer around here yet. Our snow just finished melting today! Gary P. Hansen