martin_05
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2009
- Location
- Valencia, CA, USA
I don't have a lathe but need to make a part like this.
It's a 1.5 to 2 in diameter cable drum for small diameter cable --less than 1/8 in:
I don't have any of the tooling I would need to cut the inside of this pulley.
T-slot cutters seem to be an option but you have to drop a kidney to get one large enough for this:
https://www.mscdirect.com/browse/tn...ters?navid=12106241#navid=12106241+4288178679
The other option is to hog out the inside with an appropriately large end mill and then surface what's left with a ball-end. Flip it over and do it again. Frankly, the finish of the inner OD isn't important, the cable will ride on it. It doesn't matter.
The other, similar option is to do the same while the stock is cubic (for easy clamping and indexing) and hog out the slot similarly to the above but now in four operations. I could then 45 degree the corners and turn the inside drum into an octagon. Frankly, an octagonal shape for the inside would likely be just fine too..or I could ball-end it into something resembling a cylinder.
After that I could round out the end-plates through conventional means.
Would that be a good approach? I don't want to buy an expensive tool if I don't need to.
The other alternative (which is stupid and dangerous...but I've done it before) is to mount the stock (after drilling and blind taping it) on the spindle of my Bridgeport using a partially threaded 1/2 shaft, stick a lathe grooving tool on one of the vices and carefully pretend the thing is a lathe. Please don't yell at me for having done this...I've only done it to grove shafts or otherwise cut simple features on them, never something this large. Probably a terrible idea.
Thanks.
It's a 1.5 to 2 in diameter cable drum for small diameter cable --less than 1/8 in:
I don't have any of the tooling I would need to cut the inside of this pulley.
T-slot cutters seem to be an option but you have to drop a kidney to get one large enough for this:
https://www.mscdirect.com/browse/tn...ters?navid=12106241#navid=12106241+4288178679
The other option is to hog out the inside with an appropriately large end mill and then surface what's left with a ball-end. Flip it over and do it again. Frankly, the finish of the inner OD isn't important, the cable will ride on it. It doesn't matter.
The other, similar option is to do the same while the stock is cubic (for easy clamping and indexing) and hog out the slot similarly to the above but now in four operations. I could then 45 degree the corners and turn the inside drum into an octagon. Frankly, an octagonal shape for the inside would likely be just fine too..or I could ball-end it into something resembling a cylinder.
After that I could round out the end-plates through conventional means.
Would that be a good approach? I don't want to buy an expensive tool if I don't need to.
The other alternative (which is stupid and dangerous...but I've done it before) is to mount the stock (after drilling and blind taping it) on the spindle of my Bridgeport using a partially threaded 1/2 shaft, stick a lathe grooving tool on one of the vices and carefully pretend the thing is a lathe. Please don't yell at me for having done this...I've only done it to grove shafts or otherwise cut simple features on them, never something this large. Probably a terrible idea.
Thanks.