New Pictures

Some new pictures sent in by Lew Bishop, Lou Somers, Michael Paznar and Norman Crowson.

Lew Bishop writes, "Finished a milling attachment similar to the one made by Dean Williams and now need to get a set of collets to avoid the jaws of the chuck (which seem to be attracted to my fingers). I think that using the stock Taig units at this time will work just fine as the range of size is OK . I'm enclosing the pics of the attachment to show my interpretation of Deans fixture. I actually got the attachment to work and immediately realized that rigidity is the mother of milling - had to add additional bolts to the T-slots - total four - rather than the two that fit the holes in the angle plate. "



Lou Somers:

I used a 100 tooth blade as an index for graduating lead screw dial. As a detent I used a block of aluminum set against the motor pulley to hold it square and simply moved it back and forth as I rotated the blade to the next tooth. Worked great. All re cuts were dead on.

I set the carriage stop at .125 and cut all 100 divisions, each one being .0005. I then reset the stop at .250 and recut every other division, each being .001. I then reset the stop at .375 and recut every tenth division, each being .005. Finally I removed the stop and made a full cut at every twentith division, each being .010.

I find this dial much easier to use than the one on the Taig carriage. As you can see there is no cursor on it. I graduated it simply as an exercise to see if I could do it. When nessecary I use an indicator on the carriage.

boring bar holder

This may or may not be news to anyone but if you should break or wear out a short belt snatch one of your wife's elastic hair ties. They're not a perfect solution but if you take light cuts they can help keep a project moving till you get a new belt.

For reverse twist to figure 8.


Michael Paznar:

drilling a "prop saver for my little rc airplane"

"I should mention I modelled mine after the black one on the left."


"the prop saver is the first thing I have machined, it involved mostly using my taig lathe but also my sherline 5400 mill to drill and tap the holes.soon this will be on my GWS slow stick."

Norman Crowson:

Thought you might enjoy seeing a tiny brass gear made on my Taig mill... used a rotary table plus a gear cutting wheel to tooth a gear blank I turned on my atlas lathe using a microscope and DI.The brass gear replaces the delrin gears (black in the photo) that go on my Bachmann Climax HO Locomotive... the delrin gears are splitting on their axles.One gear down and 11 to go to finish the project. More details are available by email to any that might have an interest.

a tiny universal joint or "swivel" made on the Taig mill and atlas lathe for Bachman Shay and Climax locomotives ...


Thanks Guys!

Lew Bishop's Latest

Here's Lew's latest:

My old mahogany box salvaged from an old model flying buddy - in this case with some of the current crop of pens. Of note are the two on the right that are made from a 10 mm blank of fairly soft aluminum. Since the bodies are without the center band, a much more gentle shape can be turned. The finish is still eluding me and will require a lot more study and practice.

My current set up with the drawer box to hold the tools and act as a stand. The new additions are the longer dead center with more travel along with a new lever with softer edges and a cute knob on the end - borrowed from my b-in-law's parts drawer. The knob is also on the new tailstock lock lever as well as the new tool post lock.

The tool post is a refurb of the original tool post received with the purchase of the lathe many years ago. The hole was not clean so a new .25 hole was hogged out with a new shoulder recess to fit the new lock as well as new threads for larger hold down bolts for the tool. The anchor for the post is a machined 1/4 -20 bolt with the head milled and slots cut for the "t" to hold the bolt straight. Additional threads were required on the bolt to allow for proper clamping force. It works pretty well and loads into the slot very easily. I need to do a new post with the different anchor to test the process and to put the tool at the correct height without shimming. Later on the old post will be a guinea pig for an adjustable height device or something.

The latest pen turned from one of the rifle blank scraps that I cut last month. The grain of the walnut is just beautiful and is great to work with.

posted at cartertools.com as well.

New Pics and Links Galore

I fell a bit behind last week so here are a bunch of pictures.
Lew Bishop sent these 4 pictures:

"The first group of pens that I turned. The interesting part of this project is that I have much better luck (control) of the shape and finish of the pen barrels by using the metal cutters purchased from you . By setting up a right hand cutter almost parallel with the work and using a fairly high speed, the cutter makes a very smooth finish and gets the size down quickly. "

"We took the shop apart and redid the benches, storage, shelving and the rearrangement of all the tools. It is working really well. he shop is 7'-5" x 9'-7" inside. Marilyn and I did a lot of thinking and planning to get it all in. There are still some additions that will need ot be made as more things get sorted out. I have already replaced my old belt/disc sander and done an additional rework of the band saw with new blades and a fresh alignment by my son-in-law ( an ex cooper). The base of the lathe is a work in progress also - built from left-overs and other scrap to provide a convienient drawer for all the attachments and to raise the work to an acceptable level for an old guy. "



Rick Kernell sent these great pics of his motorized top slide.

"the project that used the spare compound that you sent to me. The idea is to create a smooth movement when cutting precise tapers. I want to produce very precise pivots that will fit into sapphire bearings. I have cut them but I found that hand cranking the compound gave inconsistent movement. The thought is that the motor will move at a steady rate therefore making the cut into the rod cleaner. I am using a 5/12/24 component power supply and the 12 volt tap for this motor drive. I have set the pot prior to the DPDT switch and then the leads go to the motor via Radio Crap connector. This allows me to change the voltage feed linearly to the motor regardless of which polarity that the DPST switch is selected. The inductance of the motor is the primary current draw so the pot isn't much of a limit in comparison, but it is enough that I will change to a PWM driver pcb when I have all of the control components ready for the lathe and the mill. "




Also two new blog/pages of Taig related stuff:

Dennis Schissler's blog shows his awesome digital clock built with the help of the Taig CNC mill.

Wei Terk Mok's CNC page shows off his Taig modifications, also check out the jewelry he makes with the mill.

All the above added to Cartertools.com as always.