This week at work I was doing a job that mostly required me to simply "Be There" and watch for problems. This gave me lots of time to fill in with various means. I was doing some chicken scratching regarding the means to finish the 3 ball handle that was generously given to me by someone who has recently been in the spotlight for similar actions.
I was thinking about how to align the handle in the lathe in order to set the taper for the block to hold it in the mill for drill and tapping. An ER collet chuck would be handy crossed my mind. This is an issue that I have discussed before and I have given it a lot of thought over quite a long time. The problem is that a D 1-6 backing plate is hard to find and expensive. The only price I have seen was over $US1000. The other way was to make one with a taper to fit the spindle. An MT6 taper however is not something to be undertaken lightly, but was the method I had decided to eventually use.
Scottyd's collet chuck was in the back of my mind. The advantages of a small lathe.
I had a sudden thought. I have no idea what prompted it. My lathe came with virtually all the usual attachments, including a drive plate. What if I turned the drive plate into a collet chuck. If I need to use it as a drive plate I still can. I don't currently have any MT6 centres or adaptors anyway. Make a dead centre that fits into my biggest collet. I have the steel to make this. I would use a thick plate as the mounting base and press and weld the round stock into it. The problem with MT6 is that it takes some big expensive pieces of steel to make anything.
I would appreciate any comments or suggestions regarding this. I may have forgotten something important in my excitement. The drive plate only has 3 cam locks, but I would think this would be more than enough for what a collet would be used for.
I only have an ER32 collet set at the moment, but considering the cost for an ER40 set from CTC, I may order one of those first. Makes sense to me.
Dean
I was thinking about how to align the handle in the lathe in order to set the taper for the block to hold it in the mill for drill and tapping. An ER collet chuck would be handy crossed my mind. This is an issue that I have discussed before and I have given it a lot of thought over quite a long time. The problem is that a D 1-6 backing plate is hard to find and expensive. The only price I have seen was over $US1000. The other way was to make one with a taper to fit the spindle. An MT6 taper however is not something to be undertaken lightly, but was the method I had decided to eventually use.
Scottyd's collet chuck was in the back of my mind. The advantages of a small lathe.
I had a sudden thought. I have no idea what prompted it. My lathe came with virtually all the usual attachments, including a drive plate. What if I turned the drive plate into a collet chuck. If I need to use it as a drive plate I still can. I don't currently have any MT6 centres or adaptors anyway. Make a dead centre that fits into my biggest collet. I have the steel to make this. I would use a thick plate as the mounting base and press and weld the round stock into it. The problem with MT6 is that it takes some big expensive pieces of steel to make anything.
I would appreciate any comments or suggestions regarding this. I may have forgotten something important in my excitement. The drive plate only has 3 cam locks, but I would think this would be more than enough for what a collet would be used for.
I only have an ER32 collet set at the moment, but considering the cost for an ER40 set from CTC, I may order one of those first. Makes sense to me.
Dean
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire