Quick Change Tool Post

I machined the components needed to mount the Quick Change Tool Post a few months ago. I ended up using stainless steel for the base plate and 1144 steel for the post. I used a grade 8 bolt to hold it all together. It seems to work fairly well but I still need to heat treat the post. I am actually a bit surprised that it has the rigidity that it has without the heat treat and it will be interesting to see if the rigidity increases once I get the heat treat taken care of.

Here is the original cross slide all torn apart.

The above photo shows the stock mounting bolt. It was lightly pressed with a reference pin into the slide. The bolt hole in the slide needs to be modified to accept the new base.

Here is the slide, base, post and bolt ready for assembly. The smaller hole at the top of the slide was a pocket for a spring loaded pin that was used for indexing on the stock post. If I ever modify this quick change I think I will use that hole somehow. Maybe press a pin through the hole into the base to help tie the assembly together even more. I have noticed a big improvement in the tool post after the mod. I held off on the heat treat of the post until I tried it out, in the event I had to modify it a bit. I can think of a few changes that would be good but it works well enough for now.

New addition

I have been busy at work and things have been slow in the shop. I just picked up a much needed horizontal bandsaw. After some research I bought one of the 7 inch models from Harbor Freight. In setting the saw up and making an initial cut I can see that the reviews that I read were accurate. My impression so far is that these Chinese made saws are one of the best bargains available in machine tools. That's not to say they are the perfect machine but they are fantastic values.These saws are at least $500 cheaper than a similar U.S. made saw and they are well suited for a home shop. Plus there are a number of web sites where you can chat with other users and get helpful hints, tips on modifications etc. A great resource for just about any type of machining by the way can be found on yahoo groups. There is a group for just about anything from what I can tell.
Anyway here is the saw:

It has three speeds, gravity feed that can be varied through an adjustable spring and a set of wheels on the rear of the stand so that it can be moved around easily, which is handy when you have a shop as small as mine.
The stand was a pain to get started putting together. The end stands are hinged and wanted to move around as I tried to bolt the chip shelf onto the end pieces. Putting the stand together I could see what the reviews had said. The stand is the cheapest part of the saw and I will be putting thought into building a better stand soon.

It was easy to add the wheels, etc.

Removing the saw from the box I found that my modified engine hoist came in handy again as the saw is a bit heavy for one person to lift it onto the stand by themselves.

I added another strap to the end of the saw to level it after I got it out of the box. I never did have it laterally level but that was easy to deal with when I put it on the stand.

Then I added the pulleys, cover, etc. and it after changing the gearbox oil, was all ready to run the saw.

I really needed this saw. I have been waiting to get one and it has kept me from getting much serious work done in the shop. Now that I have it and it is up and running I can get to some projects. First up is to make the parts I need to mount my quick change tool post to the cross slide of the lathe. That will be fun. I am drawing up the plans in Delta CAD right now.

Still working on the shop

It's been a few months since I last posted, busy with work, daughters wedding etc.

The wedding wiped me (and my bank account) out. I haven't gotten as much done on the shop as I would like to but I have made a bit of progress. Since my last post I have picked up a Quick Change Tool post, a bit of 303 Stainless flat bar, a bit of 1 1/2 inch diameter 1144 steel, a 0-6 inch Micrometer set and a Vibratory Tumbler with some polishing media. i will need to get some additional media but the material I bought with the machine seems to work well for polishing. The metals I bought will be used to make the components that I need to mount the QCTP onto the cross slide. As soon as I get home from work after this tour I will get the components made up and get the tool post all mounted and set up. It will be a much needed upgrade from the standard Smithy tool post, which leave a lot to be desired.
I built a Collet Cabinet using Plasti-Dip as a protective coating on the shelves. I will be interested to see how it holds up under use. I also built a Chuck Block for the Lathe Chuck to help steady the chuck while installing or removing. I coated the contact surfaces of the block in Plasti-Dip as well. I also made some progress in building my Tool Room Cabinet and it is almost finished. Yet another project to complete when I get back home.
machining wise, I made up some additional T-Nuts and as soon as I pick up a horizontal band saw I will make up a clamp set. I REALLY need to purchase the band saw. I have a few projects that I can make some cash on but I have been putting them off because I don't have the saw yet. Knowing it wouldn't work, I tried to cut some material for one of the projects by hand. It didn't take very long before I proved myself right on that on.
A few months back I built up a prototype HHO converter as an initial test to see if I could make some HHO gas. It worked well enough to make a more serious attempt. It looks like it will make a great project. I am hoping to make a unit that will produce enough HHO gas to supplement or maybe even replace gasoline as a fuel for my pickup truck.
I will update soon.

First cuts

No pictures, but as soon as I finished the clean up, lubrication and break in procedures I grabbed a piece of 3/8 inch re-bar and chucked it up. The Smithy came with a 6 inch 3-jaw chuck. 3-jaw chucks are self centering with so-so accuracy but fine for most projects. I turned the a few diameters and made a 60 degree angle on the front. It turned well with a decent finish. For the milling machine, I put on the vise that came with the Smithy which is a 4 inch angle vise. Then I took an aluminum ingot from my casting project, put a 2 1/2 inch face mill on the machine and cut away. I was pleased to get an excellent finish on the ingot with the face mill and decided to try a 1/2 inch end mill. The end mill cut well and I set the vise on a 45 degree angle and cut some v-grooves into the side of the ingot. The only issue I found during this test was that I need to tram the milling head as the milling cutters are cutting on one side of the cutter more than the other. I will need to research the best method to tram the head. I'm not real sure that I have much control over the head itself but if I don't I should be able to tram the vise to the head. Not the ideal way to do it but it will work.     

Cleaning

After getting the machine on the stand I spent several hours cleaning as much surface area as I could get at. After cleaning off all of the goop from the external surfaces I pulled the tail stock off, cleaned the ways and deburred the gib to make sure that all of those surfaces were clean and smooth so that there was nothing to cause wear on these surfaces. I followed that process for the table and cross slide, then followed the manual instructions for lubrication. I am currently using a 30w Valvoline but am considering switching to an oil/additive combination for additional protection, although I'm not sure yet. I do run additives in my vehicles...............
After getting everything cleaned up and lubricated I followed the manual recommended break in procedure. To accomplish that I spent a few hours running the machine and I found that it was time well spent to get used to the controls on the machine.
The next step was to clean all of the various accessories that I either already had or the new ones that came with the machine.
Now it's time to try cutting some metal and making a few chips!

Smithy Granite 1324 Max

After I had decided to purchase one of the 1324 Granite 3-in-1 machines I called Smithy and they were very good to deal with. I wanted to pay cash for the machine but the purchase price was above the daily limit of my debit card. Smithy set it up to be paid over a 2 day period with no headaches. I was told that the machine would ship the day after the final payment was made which was no big deal. What I didn't think of was that the coming weekend was a holiday and so instead of shipping on Friday, the machine didn't ship until Tuesday and it went downhill from there. Instead of taking 5 days it took 2 weeks for the machine to arrive. Plus (and this is the only gripe I have to date about Smithy) the shipping company was to deliver the machine to a company shipping dock in the town that I live in and then I would pick it up from there. The problem was that the company didn't have a facility in my town. The closest company facility they had was over one hundred miles away and they didn't have a correct phone number to contact me about this. When they finally made contact with me I was out of town working and I made arrangements for the company to deliver it to the yard of another shipping company ,my wife then went to go pick the machine up. That cost extra and was a major pain. But everything arrived in good condition so I looked at it as better late than never.
The machine shipped in one crate, the stand shipped in another and there was a third box that had some extra stuff in it.

My plan was to use my engine hoist to lift the crates out of the bed of the truck. Which is what I did, I just had to modify the hoist to get some extra height out of the hoist. To get that height I welded a new jack mount above the original mount on the hoist.

The crate weighed 978 pounds and not trusting my welds 100% I left the C-Clamp on when I lifted the crate out of the truck bed.

Once off the truck I removed the crate and used the ratchet straps to get the machine ready to set on the stand. But first I had to put the stand together.

After getting the stand put together and positioning the stand I was ready to set the machine in place. The Granite has 5 lift handles around the base of the machine for lifting and it made it easy to use the ratchet straps to lift the machine in a level position. these handles slide out of the base so they aren't in the way once the machine is moved into position. I used 4 of the lifting handles.

After setting the machine on the stand the next task was to bolt it to the stand. I used 4 grade 8 bolts to take care of that and then broke out an old, very accurate machine level and spent an hour or so making sure I had it as level as I could get it.
After getting it leveled I needed to mount the power supply. I had seen pictures of some mounting locations away from the machine, which would be nice to help keep it clean but I placed the machine so that I have plenty of access all around the machine, so I had to mount it to the machine.

The standard mounting location is on the back side of the machine, to the right of the bed, below the head stock of the lathe. The supplied four screws take care of it.
After all of that I took some time going over the machine with the manual opened to make sure I knew where everything was located and then I made sure I lubricated the machine thoroughly, as the manual called for with a non-detergent 30w motor oil.
All machines are run in at Smithy, but the manual lays out a run in sequence that doesn't take too long to complete. After the required run in procedure was complete I got to thinking that it may be a good idea to make sure that the machine had been properly cleaned at assembly and I decided to remove the gibs on all of the ways and give them a good cleaning and make sure that the ways were burr free, as I had heard was the case with some people. I found them to be fairly clean and smooth but it was a good step to take. Kind of a cheap insurance and something that I should have done just to be sure before I had run the machine for the first time.

I'm back

I have been busy at work and have been moving slowly on my casting activities. Since I last posted I have switched gears a bit and purchased a Smithy 3-in-1 Lathe/Mill/Drill, the Granite 1324 Max. the reason for the purchase has nothing to do with my casting activities but I have come up with several projects that need the larger capabilities of the 1324. having the 1324 WILL make things much easier when I do get around to making the Gingery machines with the foundry, so I figured I was coming out ahead anyway. For those of you that don't know about Smithy, they make a number of 3-in1 machines as well as stand alone Milling Machines and Lathes, both manual and dedicated CNC. From the research I did prior to buying it seemed that all of the reviews I read pointed to the Smithy machines as being the best 3-in-1 on the market. The 1324 has a 13 inch swing on the Lathe with 24 inches between centers which should work for the vast majority of the work I may need to do.The machines are in the light industrial category which will work for me as well. I will add some pictures of the new equipment soon.
I will still be working on the casting projects, I just will be side tracked a bit.

Crucible

I am thinking about breaking down and purchasing a silicon/carbide or clay/carbide crucible. Budget Casting Supply sells them and it would be the best way to go. Making a crucible out of mild steel pipe or something similar can be done but they don't last as long, are often close to failure as even aluminum gets to pouring temperatures and as I have witnessed can burn through quickly. A potentially dangerous situation.
I figured while I am ordering my Petro Bond, maybe I pop for the better crucible and related tongs, etc.

Winter Activity

After doing some research on my own and getting feedback from some fellow Gingery builders on the "gingery machines" yahoo forum, folks who have quite a bit of experience casting. I have discovered that I can in fact cast and pour metal in the winter and not expect some sort of major disaster or meltdown. So, especially with the weather being so mild in Montana this winter, mid 20's and 30's instead of our average low teens, I will begin casting after getting back from my next work tour. That is so cool! I thought I was done until next spring!
My worry was two fold, one of which is still a concern, but not a dangerous situation. That concern is getting the pour completed without losing so much temperature in the melt that it does not flow well. I am willing to work around that as best as I can. My primary concern was that with the green sand being to cold I ran the risk of some sort of explosive event when the metal met the green sand. Everything I have heard indicates that this is not an issue. In fact one of the forum members is in Alaska and thinks that the frozen green sand may add strength during the casting process. Now, he is using a home made green sand and I will be using Petro Bond, which is uses an oil based binder, while his mixture used water as a binder.
Hopefully in a month or so I will be back with details of my first castings, which should be lathe parts!

Second session of melting

Well I didn't get any photos but I did get around to melting some more scrap aluminum. During my first melting session I noted that due to the size of the furnace I had made that it was evident that I needed more heat to get things moving along so I made that adjustment this time around. I started out with a good solid layer of charcoal on the bottom of the furnace four deep and got that burning. While that was getting started, I got some additional charcoal started in my fire pit and set the crucible into place in the furnace to start pre-heating the crucible. Once all of the charcoal was going good I added charcoal around the sides of the crucible about two-thirds of the way up. As soon as I accomplished that task I added scrap to the crucible, set the lid in place and got my air flowing into the furnace.

I checked on the progress after about 20 minutes and found a nice pool of molten aluminum in the bottom of the crucible! At that point I turned off the air, removed the furnace lid and spooned off the slag then added more scrap. Filling the crucible with a bunch of crushed cans the first thing I noticed was that the cans caught fire and melted within no more than 30 or 40 seconds.............NICE!

I repeated that cycle once more and found that I was losing heat and the melting process was slowing down so after yet another addition of scrap I put the furnace lid back on and got the air flowing again. Within a few minutes I had the temp back up and was melting scrap very easily again. I kept this cycle going until I had melted down an entire bag of crushed aluminum cans, which sounds like a lot of aluminum but there is also a lot of slag in the cans and my guess is that I got about a quart of aluminum melted from the one trash bag of cans, which I poured into a muffin tin to make ingots. It was only 12 degrees or so outside and by the time I poured the last of the crucible I was losing the heat in the metal. My hope is that I am cleaning up the scrap in making the ingots so that when I melt them again to pour a project I won't have so much slag to deal with.

After melting the bag of aluminum cans I decided to see how tin cans would melt, so I added charcoal to the furnace and got the heat up again. I loaded the crucible with tin cans and checked on them after 20 minutes or so in the furnace. They were glowing but no where near melting so I opened up the air and gave it a good blast, which in very short time only succeeded in blowing a hole in my crucible! In adding that much air I oxidized the mixture and killed my crucible. Kind of impressive for a charcoal powered furnace, but not what I was looking for!

So now I will have to wait for the weather to warm up and make another crucible before I can resume converting my scrap into ingots........................ I wonder what I would get if I added some tin cans to the melted aluminum.............Hmmmmmmmmm

until next spring then!

First Melt

The time has finally come to see if my furnace will melt anything. Gingery's book calls for a double layer of charcoal on the bottom to get started and add to it as needed to maintain heat. I will start with that but I am doubtful that I will get enough heat going to melt anything with just a double layer on the bottom. I built my furnace twice as large as the furnace described in Gingery's book so my guess is that it will take quite a bit more than that. Keeping that in mind I have also decided to try melting some aluminum scrap first beacause of the lower temperature requirements to melt aluminum.

Here is the furnace layout all ready to get started.

To get the furnace ready I added a triple layer of charcoal on the bottom of the furnace and let them burn until they had all turned white. Just as you would to get a grill ready to cook on. Once those were going I set the crucible on top of the coals and added some additional charcoal along the sides of the crucible. Then I added several crushed aluminum cans to the crucible, turned on my shop vac, adjusted the flow down low and put the lid on the furnace That is when the waiting game started. After 20 minutes I noticed that the bottom of the crucible was glowing a dull red but after poking around on top of the cans it didn't appear that they were beginning to melt.It also appeared that most of the charcoal on the bottom had been used up so I lifted the crucible out of the furnace and added more charcoal and put the crucible back in place. I put the lid back and placed a small brick made out of leftover refractory mix on top of the vent hole. I didn't completely cover the vent, maybe about 90%. After it appeared that the new coals were going I increased the air flow a little bit in an attempt to bump the temperature up inside the furnace. That seemed to work and I finally noticed the aluminum starting to melt in the crucible, which was surprisingly exciting to see. It may have taken about 30 minutes longer than I had expected but it was working! Once the melting got started it seemed to melt all of the cans that I had placed into the crucible quite quickly so I removed the lid, skimmed off the slag, added more cans and closed the furnace up again. Once again the cans melted quite quickly and I also discovered something new. Aluminum cans leave have a LOT of impurities to remove as they melt. I was unsure of how much slag to expect and what it would look like etc. but once I saw it, it was obvious. So after reloading the crucible three times and skimming the slag I stirred the aluminum up to try to get a feel for it's consistency.

Here is a little tool that I made to skim slag from the melt. I also used it to stir the melt. It worked but I do think that I will buy a carbon rod to use for stirring.

Ultimately I finished up the night getting three melts in. I had stolen on of my wife's muffin pans to make ingots which seemed to work quite well for aluminum and I think the ingots gave me a good head start on removing the impurities of the cans. I hope that the  various other non-can scrap that I have will not create so much slag.

Crucible Modification

Seeing a problem with my design I realized that I needed to rethink my method of pouring. As you can see from what I came up with the first time around, aside from wishing I had noticed the upcoming issue before I completed all of the work, I knew that I had to figure out how to come up with a method of poring that maintained stability of the crucible as it was set aside after removal from the furnace while I attached a handle to the bottom of the crucible. The original design gave good control of the crucible while being poured but had lousy stability for the crucible while setting. Plus it was not the best or safest stab ility while installing the handle.

Notice how the assembly sits. Not stable at all.

The first thing I did was to trim the posts that I had extending from the lower corners. Then I added the posts shown above. I really only need to have one of the posts but I figured, while I am at it, put two on, one on each opposite corner so that I might have quicker access to hooking up the pouring handle. As I only used re-bar for the posts and had just cut through the re-bar a little over 3/4 of the way through to bend the re-bar, I welded the posts at the bent corner to add some material and strengthen the posts.

My next step was to redesign the handle itself because the change in post position changed the angles I needed to have at the pouring handle. Here is what I came up with:

 

An easy fix! I just cut the re-bar at the base of the plate, bent it to the angle I needed and welded it up to add some strength.

Crucible

Finally getting back to work on my furnace project it is time to produce some sort of Crucible so that I can get started melting some metal! Winter will be setting in here in Montan and I am quickly running out of time. The items I need to finish up as quickly as I can are: a crucible, some lifting tongs, something to allow me to pour the metal from the crucible. I figure I will make a crucible first and then figure out the other items as I go along.
Here is my initial design for a crucible:

I found this 4.5 inch square tubing in the scrap pile at the local metal supply shop. It has 3/16 wall thickness so it should be reasonably durable for melting aluminum and pot metal. I also found a 3/16 thick piece of cold rolled flat that fit the width of the tube very nicely so I was able to get a nice bottom plate welded onto the tube. I cheated and strayed from my practice to date of trying to use only basic tools such as  power drill. I used a power hack saw to cut the tube and the bottom plate. There was no way I wanted to cut those pieces by hand using a hand hack saw! I have a buddy that has restored an old power hack saw. It is a piece of history. Over 100 years old and he has restored it to near showroom condition. He was kind enough to offer it's use up to me and saved me a ton of work.

 

Here is the bottom. My idea is to use the longer corners as a point to hook onto to help with pouring the metal from the crucible. I have since rethought this approach.

Next item I needed to come up with was something to lift the crucible. I wanted something that would give me a very positive grip on the crucible and since I am not going to be using a standard shaped crucible I had to rethink

This should give me a positive grip on the crucible. Just spread the lifting tong a bit and slip over the posts welded onto the crucible. These holes are 1/16 oversize so they should fit easily enough.

Nice fit!

The next item I need is something to help control the crucible while pouring. The crucible that I have made will hold well over 1 quart of aluminum. That could be a handful to try to rotate to pour being so heavy. My thought is that controlling each end and just having to lift instead of rotating would be easier as well as safer. The above handle would be used to grab onto the lower post welded to the crucible after the crucible has been removed from the furnace using the lifting tongs.

I saw a problem with my design right after I made this piece.

Air flow metering valve test parts

After getting caught up on some work around the house I finally got to getting some work done on the furnace. I made up test parts for my idea about varying the air flow my furnace is getting from a shop vac. I could just buy a cheap hair dryer and be done with it, but I already have the shop vac.
I took the pipe that fits into the tuyere and added a small stop so that it would slide in but not protrude all the way into the furnace. Then I cut an opening into the pipe, made a small sheet metal finger that would fit into the opening in the pipe, obstructing a lot of the airflow up and out before it gets to the furnace. It seems to work so far. So far I have only roughed this together. After testing during a firing of the furnace I will clean up the design and construction, if it works as I expect it to.
Here is what I have done so far:

 

Air flow

After spending my 14 days at work I arrived home to a small amount of snow on the ground, which was a bit of a drag since October had just arrived a few days ago. That's a month or so early. Plus it was cold (3 deg. F) which is an even bigger problem as I want to try to start making some ingots while I am home.
I have been thinking of a way to cut down on the airflow I get from using my Shop-Vac as an air supply to my furnace. Since I can't easily reduce the output at the Shop-Vac, the flow needs to be reduced at some point along the connection to the furnace. So what I have come up with is cutting an opening in the supply pipe that slips into the tuyere, as well as fabricating a deflection valve to divert a portion of the air flow up and out of the opening. Since I am trying to use only some basic tools, cutting the opening will take a bit of time. I will put a picture of the modification out when I get the opening cut and the deflection valve fit. Then it will be time to try melting some of my scar pile and making some ingots! If the weather cooperates.

Cope and Drag

Another part that I have been working on is the Cope and Drag, the upper and lower halves of the box in which the mold is made. Gingery's book calls for a few different sizes and so far, I have only gotten around to making the 12"x12". I used clear pine to construct this first one which should be keep it sturdy enough to get the job done. With the Cope making up one half and the Drag making up the other half, they are simply for sided boxes that have no top or bottom and have some way of matching the two halves together, a registration method of some sort to allow the mold to be split and put back together again so that the halves will still line up. For this size I made each half as des cribed in the book. Here is what I came up with:

Stacked on top of each other. You can see how they will fit together.

Sand Box

This is a bit out of order but as I was getting the furnace ready to go I started building some of the other items that I will need to have on order to cast metal. For the most part all of the support items needed are very simple to make there are just a lot of them and it can take some time. As with most of the items mentioned in Dave Gingery's book adapt them as you need according to what you have on hand.
The first two pieces that I made were very simple to make, the molding box for the green sand and a sliding saddle so that I would have a place on which to work. I made the box out of 2x8 pine with a plywood bottom and the saddle was made using 2x4 pine.

A word of caution!

I missed something that I consider very important earlier on that goes back to mixing the refractory.

**When handling SILICA SAND, make SURE that you take care to avoid breathing any of the dust!!!**
It is not the healthiest of materials to be around and can cause severe health problems. I used a respirator when I was mixing up the refractory.

Curing

After getting the refractory liner in the furnace I left the furnace covered for several days. From what I have read this is ok to do, even possibly advantageous to do, as long as the refractory is not allowed to dry out. I had no issues when I finally got around to curing the refractory liner. Now, this is where having the lid ready to go is necessary because it is required to complete the curing, in fact when I made the lid I also took some of the extra refractory and made up several small bricks with the left over material and cured them at the same time by simply placing them among the coal of the fire for the duration of the lid curing process.
Curing the furnace is straight forward enough. I started with a double layer of charcoal, soaked in lighter fluid and got them fired up. I used this lower temperature heat to drive moisture out of the liner slowly and it also burned the cardboard inner form out as well.

After getting the first double layer of charcoal going good and burning out the inner form I added another double layer of charcoal and got that going strong. I kept adding charcoal layers as the last layer of charcoal was burning good until I had about 2/3's of the furnace filled with lit charcoal. Then I put the lid in place and started adding air through the tuyrere.

I used my shop-vac as an air source, which was a bit too much air. To solve this I am working on a valve system to allow a variable, more controllable flow rate. But as you can see, it worked great for the curing process.

I kept this up all through the burning of the first load of charcoal and when that had burnt down to a few inches left I added to the charcoal again to a load of about half full and kept the air going.

 

Use caution! As you can see the furnace will send out some embers, especially with a fresh load of charcoal (note how I have backed the air supply away from the tuyere to limit airflow)

I was surprised at how hot things actually got inside the furnace!

The furnace

After getting all of the various components in place and the refractory mixed I began to fill the furnace using a small garden shovel. As I would shovel in an inch or so of refractory I would stop and take the time to tamp the mixture into place, trying to make sure that all voids were filled. After I had gotten about half-way up the inner liner I pulled the alignment spacers hoping that the weight of the refractory packed in place to that point would keep everything in place. That seemed to work fairly well and I didn't notice any shifting around.
After getting the furnace all filled, I troweled the top smooth, covered the furnace with plastic and set it aside with plans to cure the liner within a few days.