Bustednuckles

I put him to work as soon as he got here and he wound up getting a lot done and did a good job running the machines today.

He doesn’t have a lot of experience running a lathe ot the milling machine but he takes instructions well and has the patience it takes to do good work.

I had him take a six inch long piece of 1/2 inch square stock and put it in the Mini Lathe and turn down about an inch and a half to a 3/8’s diameter.

First we had to take the 3 jaw chuck off and put the 4 jaw on.

That turned into a little project all by it’s self.

One of the 6mm studs broke off in the back of the chuck, apparently I had over tightened it the last time I put it on and it snapped right off the first time he put a wrench on the nut. I had to dig it out and take one off another chuck and screw it in.

Turning square stock in a lathe for a beginner is challenging.

It took me a while to walk him through it because it’s an Interuppted Cut and a good way break tooling if you aren’t careful.

After I showed him how to get it centered in the chuck with a dial gauge and explain why you have to be so careful he took to it like a duck to water.

I gave him a pre-set digital caliper to giive him a target to cut down to and when he got there, I set it at 3/8’s and told him to take small cuts and sneak up to the target diameter.

He nailed it without me watching over him.

It was basically just practice and I was impressed and proud of him.

Then we spent almost an hour setting up the mill and getting it centered and at the heighth he needed for the real project.

I’m telling ya, the kid is a natural.

He spent all afternoon on it but when he got done it was exactly what I wanted, the tooling fits in it good and it even has a nice finish.

I had him making a 4 Way Solid Tool post for my Smithy 3 In 1 machine.

It still needs all the holes drilled and tapped but the machining is done.

It started life as a 3X3 square of cast iron I bought just for this a couple years ago. I had to order it on line and it cost me $72.

After I get all the holes drilled and tapped for the tool retention, I also have to drill a 9/16’s hole in the center for the retaining bolt. I also have a big hunk of rectangular Aluminum that is going to need a WHOLE BUNCH of cutting, maching and drilling done to it to make a spacer to go underneath the solid tool post so I can take the compound off of it when I want to do some heavy cutting. One of our readers was extremely generous to me several years back and sent the compound to me because the machine didn’t have one when I got it and they are UNOBTANIUM.

He has two machines and only needed one compound. he said and sent the other one to me.

Like I said, EXTREME GENEROSITY!

So I want to take care of it and not expose it to any abuse of any kind.

Right now I have it taken apart to do some measuring so I can make the spacer fit in the same place.

Very rough estimate of some of the features that need to be cut into it.

So the next time I get my hands on Jesse, he is going to get some more Hands On using the Mill and start in on the spacer.

I have been wanting to get this done for about 3 years but have been lazy. I also had to order several more End Mills and two different kinds of Dial Indicator.

I had 3 other dial indicators laying around and all 3 were junk.

There was already one mounted to the front of the mill but it was messed up and didn’t have enough travel so I had to get a two inch dial indiator and mess with the home made mounting bracket the original owner had fabricated.

Then I got one of these little jewels because I couldn’t find the one I know I have somewhere

When Jesse cleaned up the joint and rearranged a bunch of stuff a while back, that has become a common experience. More on that in a bit.

So I was quite proud of the young man today and made sure to tell him that.

As for the rearranging thing?

When he was over here last time, he went through two large cans of WD-40 and when I looked where I normally keep them I didn’t see any. So I got on Amazon and found a smoking deal on 6 cans for $45.

They are going for dang near eleven bucks around here locally so I figured it was a good deal and I go through the stuff like crazy.

He needed some Black Satin spray paint so I told him to look in a file cabinet I use for that kind of stuff.

He didn’t find any of the paint I could have sworn I had but he did find TWELVE FREAKING CANS of WD-40 that he had moved over there and forgotten about and had never told me about.