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OT Hitting my numbers brag

pavt

Stainless
Joined
Jun 30, 2013
Location
20 miles north of Buffalo NY
This afternoon I started working on a ER32 collet chuck for my SB 9A. It is setup to thread directly onto the spindle. I've been hitting my numbers within .0004 all day, with a 75-yr-old. :eek: The thread fit on the spindle feels like a Class 3 -- no wobble or shake anywhere, but it still spins on and off by hand. :D

Thank you Tommy! I think I'm getting better at this.
Tomorrow I have to cut the 1.5mm thread and order a nut online.

Some days things go so good that it makes me paranoid.:skep:
Let's hear it for South Bend!!
 
This afternoon I started working on a ER32 collet chuck for my SB 9A. It is setup to thread directly onto the spindle. I've been hitting my numbers within .0004 all day, with a 75-yr-old. :eek: The thread fit on the spindle feels like a Class 3 -- no wobble or shake anywhere, but it still spins on and off by hand. :D

Thank you Tommy! I think I'm getting better at this.
Tomorrow I have to cut the 1.5mm thread and order a nut online.

Some days things go so good that it makes me paranoid.:skep:
Let's hear it for South Bend!!

It's always better to be lucky than good. Sez me about me!
 
GOOD is repeatable. LUCKY is a one time hit.
I would rather be good any day.
But whatever gets you through life.

--D
 
This afternoon I started working on a ER32 collet chuck for my SB 9A. It is setup to thread directly onto the spindle. I've been hitting my numbers within .0004 all day, with a 75-yr-old. :eek: The thread fit on the spindle feels like a Class 3 -- no wobble or shake anywhere, but it still spins on and off by hand. :D

With a 75 year old machine, it's not luck. It is the operators experience, skill, and knowledge!
Good on you, pavt!

PMc
 
With a 75 year old machine, it's not luck. It is the operators experience, skill, and knowledge!
Good on you, pavt!

PMc

Thanks, but.... I completely effed up and had to scrap the part later. Was going to cut the M40-1.5 threads on the nose, checked the chart and it said to use the 48-tooth stud gear with the levers in C-1. So I did all that and threaded it.... no bueno. Because I forgot to put the 127/100 gears..:angry:
Everything else on it was beautiful...

EDIT: I guess I *could* chop the end off it and call it a "spindle nose protector" :D and then tell everybody I did it on purpose :D
 
GOOD is repeatable. LUCKY is a one time hit.
I would rather be good any day.
But whatever gets you through life.

--D

Like anything else, I think practice has a lot to do with it. When I went to welding school at Airco (remember them?) there was 7 hrs of "arc time" for every hour of classroom time. 5 days a week, for a year.

The lathe is the same. In getting to know this particular lathe, I've found that going to positive-rake inserts made the biggest difference; I can hit my number within 2 thou without much trouble. Long as I do my math right, the dials read spot-on.

Sometimes I have a real brain fart and screw up anyway, like forgetting to put the 127/100 gears for threading M40. All the dims were beautiful, the finish was beautiful.... and the thread was effed.
 
Shit happens. All the time. Its better to do the bragging after the job is done. When you start getting too proud of your work halfway through, you tend to start overlooking details.
 
I have made a pretty fair living machining, However, I could have retired quite wealthy years back were there someone willing to pay for my screwups. So, I owe, I owe, its off to work I go.
 
yeah, that's called a design feature, I do it all the time :)

A tool and die maker once asked me what the difference between a machinist and an engineer was.

When a machinist makes a mistake its called an f'up.

When an engineer makes a mistake its called a design change.
 
Like anything else, I think practice has a lot to do with it. When I went to welding school at Airco (remember them?) there was 7 hrs of "arc time" for every hour of classroom time. 5 days a week, for a year.

The lathe is the same. In getting to know this particular lathe, I've found that going to positive-rake inserts made the biggest difference; I can hit my number within 2 thou without much trouble. Long as I do my math right, the dials read spot-on.

Sometimes I have a real brain fart and screw up anyway, like forgetting to put the 127/100 gears for threading M40. All the dims were beautiful, the finish was beautiful.... and the thread was effed.

Now you got to cut you a custom nut with your custom threads.
 
Now you got to cut you a custom nut with your custom threads.

I know you're joking :D
Nope, already ordered the nut and wrench from Mari Tool. Besides, given the way I screw up, how would I make the collet hole eccentric and get everything else right? My only other work holding is the 4-jaw and the faceplate. And quite frankly, I just didn't want to make that big of a project out of it....
 
I have made a pretty fair living machining, However, I could have retired quite wealthy years back were there someone willing to pay for my screwups. So, I owe, I owe, its off to work I go.

LOL! "Screwup" once got me a job ....and a "legend" as a mentor, too!

JR-HS shop project was a USELESS steel-handled hammer. With interchangeable heads. And a bore in the arse to hold a centre punch under a screw-on cap. Lovely to look at, knurled and selectively gun-blued or polished to anti-glare, but smoooooth.

But a person would be an idiot to strike anything with it - possible exception a Union Contract violation! Ring your ass like a bell!

:)

Herr Pelz is looking it over. Unscrews the cap. Keeps open and closing it, getting a more powerful eye-loupe to figure out how it is the seam is TOTALLY invisible and there is no movement at ALL.

Finally asks me what the thread was.

Now I figure I'm f**ked and go all red-faced. No job will be found for me!

"Uhh 32 TPI, Herr Pelz."

"What diameter?"

"Uhh.. it's tapered, Herr Pelz"

"What sort of taper?"

"Uh.. Herr Pelz? I have no ACCURATE way of knowing."

"Our school shop is still new. We have no micrometers yet. I used a scale, inside and outside spring calipers and just made both parts to fit each other."

NO job?

The Grand Old Master had been doing much the same for over 65 years, figured he had found another "natural" ... and we worked each other half to starvation conveying the knowledge as fast as he could impart it.

Must say my acute HUNGER for learning gave neither of us any mercy for FOOD, either!

Until his wife commanded he bring me home for dinner so she knew he hadn't been missing dinner 'til way late at night with some bimbo! At 75 or so years of age?

She was a grand cook. He had a damned fine shop in his basement too, and a "real" son around 45-something as was a seriously bright Graduate Engineer with Westinghouse.. so THAT worked!

Damned glad I hadn't made vee blocks!
They'd have actually been useful in the shop.

But not for running a factory. Or a Company. Let alone retirement at age 49. Screwups and all.

A person can risk nine f**k ups to ONE success.

So long as the f**k strokes are small. And instantly corrected.
And the "win" is a BIG one!

But THAT part wasn't learnt from a Master Metal Worker.

Nor a General. Blood and bullets wars aren't known for second chances, let alone nine lives, any more than failing to hit specs are.

Learnt from a Master MERCHANT, and a "Corporate Warrior", rather!

"Try it. If it doesn't work? FIX it. But fix it FAST!.

So it became a skillset to make mistakes. Really. It did. But seldom. And always cheaply. Ergo usually to ultimate advantage.

"R&D of Action" rather than "R&D of product"?

The goal is to get to the end.. any process along the way is not the goal. Fewer, simpler, and faster of them, the least waste on avoidable time and expense, the better.

Let the OTHER guy come late or never.

Not as if there was ever any shortage of volunteers for that, was there?

:D
 
Besides, given the way I screw up, how would I make the collet hole eccentric and get everything else right?

You want the fast, cheap, way, fixed offset, unbalanced? A higher RPM capable balanced version? Or can you spare the time for the ELEGANT way, adjustable offset AND balance?

CAVEAT: Cheaper, wider range, one tool, to offset a "plate mount" ER in a 4-J or a straight-shank ER in a boring head.

"This is not a drill." Do-able stuff, rather.

But if you need speed, spares, and tool-changer compatible? Yah makes an eccentric.. just as you've classed as undesireable. And mods to the clamping system must enter with that.

"It's PM, dammit!"

We gots answers to questions ain't yet even yet been thought of!

Because damned near ANYTHING has already been done by some other Pilgrim!

:D
 
You want the fast, cheap, way, fixed offset, unbalanced? A higher RPM capable balanced version? Or can you spare the time for the ELEGANT way, adjustable offset AND balance?

CAVEAT: Cheaper, wider range, one tool, to offset a "plate mount" ER in a 4-J or a straight-shank ER in a boring head.

Because damned near ANYTHING has already been done by some other Pilgrim!

:D

Yeah, I thought about going eccentric in the 4-jaw, just to make the ridge that the collet snaps into. Decided I better not push my luck and just ordered a nut from Mari Tool. Finally got 1 good holder out of 4 attempts.... but I think the important part is that I learned each time :D

Strange thing is, I have far more screwups at home, than I ever did in school or at work ??? But I always give myself a day to cool off and ask "what did I learn"
 
Yeah, I thought about going eccentric in the 4-jaw, just to make the ridge that the collet snaps into. Decided I better not push my luck and just ordered a nut from Mari Tool. Finally got 1 good holder out of 4 attempts.... but I think the important part is that I learned each time :D

Strange thing is, I have far more screwups at home, than I ever did in school or at work ??? But I always give myself a day to cool off and ask "what did I learn"

LOL! My standard self assessment number ONE?

"Whose fault was THAT?"

Knowing full well it is the same arrogant bastid who mistreats my toot brush but takes far TOO good a care of my wife, etc.
 








 
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