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Plans, projects and how-to's for home machinists

Review – $40 QCTP for 7x Mini-Lathes

By Rob on March 13, 2017

This is a review of a very inexpensive Quick Change Tool Post (QCTP) set for 7x mini-lathes that can be purchased on Ebay for about $38 (including shipping).  It is considerably less expensive than similar size QCTPs that you can find on LittleMachineShop.com and Amazon that cost about $135 to $155 plus shipping.

I purchased it because the cut-off blade holder for my 10-year old A2Z CNC QCTP had broken and I needed another one ASAP.  I didn’t have time to fix it and I couldn’t buy a replacement because the company has gone out of business.  My set was on loan to the SparX 1126 FIRST Robotics Team, where I am a mentor, and it was getting heavy use because we were in the middle of the build season.

So, when I came across this cheap QCTP set on eBay I decided to take a chance and buy it for the team.  The same set is sold by many eBay vendors and I chose this one and paid a higher price, $45, because they were promising delivery sooner than most other vendors and the seller has a high rating.  It was delivered six days after I ordered it.

It’s manufactured in China and it comes with four tool holders – two identical holders for turning and facing bits, a ⅜-inch boring bar holder and a holder for ½-inch cut-off blades.  The tool post is made almost entirely from hard anodized aluminum and the tool holders are made of steel.  In comparison, the $135 QCTP that Little Machine Shop sells for 7x lathes is made entirely of steel and it includes an additional holder that can knurl in addition to hold another tool bit. Continue reading Review – $40 QCTP for 7x Mini-Lathes

Posted in Lathe, Mini Lathe, Mods, Other | 6 Comments »

Wrench/Hammer Combination Tool for Mini Mill

By rleete on December 2, 2012

By Roger Leete

This tool was made for my Grizzly G8689, but it can be adapted to almost any mill.  Just choose the right sized socket for your particular drawbar.  Note that I did not come up with this idea, but found it on the web.  I made the parts based mostly on the materials at hand.  Dimensions are mostly made up on the spot, and measurements were all made with a scale.  In other words, this project requires no careful measurements or has any critical dimensions.

Socket

First step is to find a deep well socket that fits the drawbar.  For my mill, that means 17mm.  I bought sockets at Harbor Freight, but just about any cheap deep well socket will do.  HF has them for about 2 bucks.  As you can see from the pictures below, I cut about 1/2-inch off the drive end, simply parting it off at the line on the socket.  (Some sockets have a different appearance, so roughly 2-3/8-inch long) This dimension is by no means critical.  I was worried that the sockets may be hardened, but a standard HSS parting blade cut it cleanly and easily.  This operation was done on a 7×12 mini lathe, so it’s not like you need an expensive machine to part off.  When you break through to the square bore it will be an interrupted cut, so take it slow at that point, or finish with a hacksaw.   Tip: get or make a carriage lock for your lathe.  It makes parting so much easier.

Next operation was to bore out the square drive hole.  Once again, this was done on the lathe.  The square hole makes for an interrupted cut, so take it slow and easy until you get it round to avoid too much impact on the tool bit.  Drilling first may be easier, to remove the bulk of the material.  You want to bore it out enough for the inner filler piece, but leave enough wall thickness for strength.  My bore is about 5/8-inch diameter, but this is not critical either.  I purposely made the bore tapered slightly.  I’ll explain why in the next step.  Set your compound over a degree or two, and bore it out to size.  The socket machining is done for now.

As purchased on the left, machined on the right

Next piece is the inner filler.  I made mine out of brass for weight, and because that is what I had on hand.  Steel would also work, but I’d not recommend aluminum as you want more mass.  This piece is slightly tapered the same as the bore.  The reason for this is to have it jam up into the socket to facilitate tightening of the hammer head.  Once turned to size, drill and tap for the hammer head screw.  I used 3/8-16, but 1/4-20 would work just as well.  You want enough thread to hold securely, but if you go too deep, you’ll be tapping into the side of the screw when you make the handle.  Using a hacksaw, cut a screwdriver slot in the opposite end. Continue reading Wrench/Hammer Combination Tool for Mini Mill

Posted in Other, Projects & Ideas | 4 Comments »

Update

By Rob on October 15, 2012

I feel like I have three full-time jobs. In addition to my day job and I’m working another 20 to 30 hours a week trying to get a nonprofit makerspace started in Rochester NY. My wife and I are also taking care of her father, a widower, whose needs constant care because of failing health. And we’re helping to take care of a daughter and her family. She’s just had surgery for the second time this year to repair a heart valve.

So I’m tired and stressed, but not nearly as much as my wife, who shoulders most of the burden of taking care of family members. I help too, but I mostly take care of our pets and our granddaughter. She is a genuine saint because but she has continued to be very supportive of the makerspace. She understands that I can’t stop working on it because many people are now counting on me to follow through with what I started.

I launched the website for the Rochester Makerspace in mid-May and we now have many supporters, seed money, tools and a dedicated group of volunteers. We still haven’t rented a space but we’re actively looking for the right one. I expect that our doors will be open within the next couple of months and maybe as soon as a few weeks.

I’ll be even busier for a while when that happens. Although I expect my workload to taper off as we figure out the best ways to manage the space. The health problems of my father-in-law and stepdaughter will also end.  So there’s a good chance you’ll see me regularly working on MachinistBlog again someday.

If you’re wondering, the CNC router I’ve been building for more than a year is still not finished, although I’m continuing to work on it. I obviously don’t have much spare time and when I do I’m usually so tired that I’m either unproductive or I make stupid mistakes.

But I’ll bet money that it’ll get finished because it’s going to have a home in the makerspace and there are others who will help me with it.

Thank you Mikey and Roger for answering the questions that Machinistblog’s visitors leave in the comments or on the forum.

Posted in Other | 5 Comments »

There just aren’t enough hours in the day

By Rob on May 4, 2012

I know I haven’t added much content to MachinistBlog lately. I haven’t lost interest or permanently abandoned my self-imposed goal of trying to add at least one new post to the front page each week (on average). It’s just that I’ve been really busy and I have to make this web site a lower priority for now.

I’d love it if you could help me keep it from getting stale by becoming a guest blogger. You can write about almost anything that is metalworking, tool, or workshop related as long as you’re not doing it to promote a product or service. And don’t worry if you’re not a great writer because Nate, our copy editor, just told me he needs more to do. You could also do a photo essay if you want.

I’ve been busy for a quite a few reasons. The biggest one is that I’ve become very passionate about getting a maker space started and I built a web site for one. RochesterMakerSpace.org still has a lot of rough edges and it needs some more meat on its bones. So I wasn’t planning on publicly rolling it out this week but that’s what I did when a discussion about maker and hacker spaces came up in a discussion group I run. And now, ready or not, I need to keep moving forward with the project until we either get something going or determine that there’s not enough interest right now.

I’ve also been busy working on my CNC router again. I neglected it for at least several months and I wasn’t happy with myself for letting that happen. So I’ve been trying, not always successfully, to get at least one small thing done on it each day.

On most days I only have enough spare time to work on either it, this web site or some other project. I usually choose the router because I want to be someone who does things and not someone who just talks about doing things. I’ve finished making nearly all the parts for it and pretty soon it’ll just a matter of putting them all together, like a kit. So you should at least see some pictures of it later this month.

I’ve also been trying to find 6 hours each week for exercise. I ran or biked regularly until about 2 years ago when I quit almost completely because I was too busy with other things. Well, in early December I realized that I felt like crap, looked like crap and was risking serious health issues because I wasn’t exercising.

So I started going to the YMCA 3 times a week and mostly just walked as fast as I could around an indoor track. But it made a big difference in how I felt and a few months ago I started running again.

I’ve been a runner almost all my life but I gave it up about 5 years ago and switched to bicycling because I was afraid running would eventually ruin my knees. I’d never had any problems or injuries but I’m very tall so I already had a poor power-to-weight ratio to begin with, and like most people I was getting heavier as I got older.

But bicycling didn’t do it for me and I really missed running, especially each Spring when the weather began to get warm. So I pre-registered for my favorite 10K and started training on treadmills and cinder tracks because they put less stress on your knees than pavement.

Five years ago I could go out for a long fast run and it wouldn’t affect me very much afterwards. But that’s not true any more because I’m still out of shape, still at least 10 pounds heavier than I used to be and of course I’m older. Now a hard run can ruin me for the rest of the day, tiring me out so much that I spend my evening goofing off instead of trying to accomplish something useful. Hopefully I’ll get into better shape soon and that won’t be as much of a problem.

And finally, the arrival of warm weather brought more opportunities to spend time with friends and family. And I’ve always made doing that a top priority.

Posted in Other | 13 Comments »