Fingering the Golden Castings: Machine Working Bronze Castings

[@therealhineja]

I learn more from your videos than from my mechanical engineering lectures. You're the man Keith!

[@KowboyUSA]

There's something primal about working with the shiny golden metal. Must be something in our genes from the bronze age.

[@ScoutCrafter]

Hello Keith, this is one of your best videos ever! So many great tips not to mention outstanding camera angles and editing... Thankyou so very much for sharing!

[@wentbackward]

Very educational to watch you work Keith! So many great tips; the countersink and the way it ends up curling off once done is such a masterly touch!

[@not2fast4u2c]

That was Wicked watching that slinging around in the Lathe !!! I always enjoy the Variety of things you work on

[@benpress8884]

What a pleasure to watch someone whose dedication to excellence, pure craftsmanship, and the wherewithal do to a perfect job every time is displayed.

[@billwright2063]

Enjoyed the old 60's rock and roll music playing in the background.

[@KeithFenner]

Thanks for the comment. The bearing has a rubber insert bonded to the inside and its not cool if it gets heated, wouldn't want to question the bond. It presses in pretty easy, meaning the materials slide against each other very nicely, no galling. ;{)-----

[@rfnoise]

Thanks Keith, I look forward to your videos every week, I love the little tricks.

[@EdOfTheNorth]

In spite of not being a machinist, I found this video in it's entirety, very interesting.

[@outsidescrewball]

That reverse countersink is sweet!! Tks for sharing.

[@KeithFenner]

The boat design has the strut shape cast as a standard and the casting is made to suit. The casting is slightly gaped from the hull in most cases and soft set in place. One thing to keep in mind about alignments is the drive is always aligned to the driven. The strut only has to be straight in line with shaft when the shaft is centered with the thru-hull ;{)-----

[@Paddington60]

Oh! That three legged strut, too scarey! Very good video thank you Keith. John

[@JKGarageBMW]

Keith this kind of works scares the hell out of me. Props (no pun intended) for being so brave lol. Those whipping struts scare me in the event they broke out that could be serious! Experience is the difference here!

[@martinwalters1954]

Backboring a countersink. Amazing. Brilliant.

[@throngcleaver]

+Martin Walters I love his shop made tool, but in aviation we just use a store-bought reverse countersink. They also make reverse counterbores.

[@martinwalters1954]

hmmm. ..really. I guess I'll have to go dig through a ton of boxes of my dad's small tools he gave me. Before he died, he spent 20 yrs building two experimental aircraft at home. I bet there's one in there somewhere. Thanks for the tip.

[@throngcleaver]

+Martin Walters You're welcome! They look like a left hand cut machine countersink without a shank and a hole drilled through them with a slot on the end. You'll probably find the special shanks too, that fit through the hole and lock into the slot. Good luck!

[@vajake1]

That reverse counter sink tool was cool!

[@EVguru]

It's amazing how many people have not heard of 'dubbing' drills for Brass or Bronze! I sometimes radius the corners of a drill to get a round hole in thin sheetmetal (rather than tri-lobal) to get AVK inserts (like a rivnut/nutsert) to grip really well.

[@DesN4IN]

Love watching the bronze work.

[@nighthawk2k3rsx]

That reverse countersink bit was pretty dang clever.

[@reideichner8597]

I have never tried to tig bronze. The sound is like some of the dirty aluminum I have tig'd before but your job came out looking good. I really like how you reverse chamfered the holes! Thanks for the video!

[@KeithFenner]

Hi Peter, I tig brazed the wheel cuts in my table on the K&T when I rebuilt it, but after took it to a friend that Blanchard ground it flat again, the heat will affect it. The plus was that the table wears in a arc over the years so it slightly corrected the wear on the bottom or way side. You will have to live with it, or live with your repairs to it! ;{)-----

[@fall22123]

I was thinking the same as Roman. One thing I have done before, for holding round stuff vertically on a vertical mill, is clamp a 3-jaw to the bed of the mill. If you use spacers (like 1-2-3 blocks), you don't have to take the cam posts off the chuck. Anyway, in that set-up, you could still use the 3-jaw to clamp your part, then you could use a boring head in the mill.

[@elvishfiend]

Thats a really neat trick with finishing the part-off

[@KeithFenner]

Yes, it has a rack gear on the side and the old DUKW steering wheel controls the pinion gear. ;{)-----

[@garygrotsky4081]

I love watching a master at what he does. Your one of the best :)

[@tagoooU]

I would also like to see them mounted on the boat. Thanks

[@erikgrahn3363]

the end of the drill bit at the twist has a radius at the cutting edge so that the chip curls back into and up the flutes (kinda like putting a chipbreaker onto a cutting tool so that the chip curls). make this area perpendicular to a imagined flat bottom drill(kinda like a spade drill without the chip curler put into it).the flat is so the chip does not curl up into the flutes but breaks at the cutting edge. this also works great for plastics so that the drill will not grab and break the end

[@KeithFenner]

The collection you saw was not all for the same boat and some of the pieces are headed for marinas about 50 to 100 miles away, I don't always get to see finished and mounted components. ;{)-----

[@gbowne1]

rainbows are a good omen. Good work Keith!

[@KeithFenner]

I really don't do the one or two step drill for a rounder hole, but more for speed of the job less passes and life of the drills edge, a lot of just drilling and catching just the outside of the drill point wears faster and has a better chance to grab and snap a chunk of bit off. I do think that the three sided holes you may be talking about, will carry the shape through small steps, rather than jumping up in size and grabbing some new material. ;{)-----

[@CompEdgeX2013]

Looking at the strut it seems they have lots of porous areas? there seemed to be some little spots and holidays around the area you tigged. Nice to see some of the bronze work to go along with the usual. :-) Thanks

[@ShadonHKW]

Love the backwards countersink!

[@GarnettM]

Nice tooling Keith , I was helping line bore a center swivel on a Dyno packer this weekend it was bad , had to over size it 2 inch cut an 8 inch ingot by torch lathe it down to size press it in just to install a bushing for the 4 inch pin boring is not the word for it , LOL .

[@BruceBoschek]

Keith, that was very educational. Swinging that casting like that is about as scary as anything I can imagine. If you ever have a chance could you show exactly how you grind the drill bits so they don't grab. I have a lot of trouble with that and I'm too thick to follow your description. Thanks.

[@doubleboost]

Great video as normall The counter sink from the other side was clever

[@leecarter9525]

Awesome Keith, absolutely awesome! I love the reverse countersink. Thanks for sharing. ;-)

[@one4stevo]

Some nice tips in there Keith. One thing i like to ask how you organize all your small bits.

[@chrismechanic2000]

it's ok keith. i too am guilty of getting the drill sizes mixed up in the drill box. its amazing how far the tap will twist without breaking :)

[@KeithFenner]

Thanks for the comment! After being concerned about it,12 years ago, when I started doing them and checking for the amount it affected the bore and I came to the conclusion that amount of tension is not affecting the end roundness after the sleeve is pressed in, with its force, pressing out the outward. Double checked by measuring the bore next to the sleeve and the fit of the shaft within the bearing. ;{)-----

[@charlesmstover]

My thoughts exactly. I really need to learn silver soldering so I can do something like that.

[@halfdippedcom]

Good job. really enjoy watching your videos Like the tip about leaving a tinny bit of material when parting off the sst bar. Using friction to break it instead of possibly breaking your part off tool.

[@DG_Fabrication]

Thanks Keith for another great video!

[@GK1918]

Hi Keith, a quick drill press ? I see the head goes up and down freely. I must have a rack correct. Mine I need a block of wood on the table for up & down. And then my quill has a chain through rollers down the column with a window weight. also we too had the rainbow this side of the canal. sam

[@KeithFenner]

yes it will, It is a replacement and will need to be fit into place to resemble the old one. ;{)-----

[@williamlunbom2356]

Ditto on the swinging casting. I would add a rim of sorts. Maybe wrap a length of thick belting around, like a wheel. Even a strip of sheetmetal. I've seen some pictures of terrible accidents that occured because of protruding parts.

[@iancraig1951]

Keith I do not wish to give you a swelled head but that was some of the best left field engineering of obscure shaped pieces that I have ever seen.Anything boating is never square or straight so it is always difficult.. Greetings from Ian--southwest of OZ-- getter done. ps if you can make time to do videos-I've got time to watch them..

[@peterheuts7738]

Thanks very much for your answer. I take it the bronze from the brazing is strong enough as a repair then. I will have to try ;-) thanks!

[@KeithFenner]

All press fitting sleeves reduce the diameter of their bore, after being pressed in to place, just some sleeves and bearings have allowable tolerances built into them or clearances prefigured. All the rest have to be reamed or bored to the desired sizes. ;{)-----

[@KeithFenner]

Yes just kiss the leading edge of the flutes on the grinder so it lessens the scoop of the flute. Manganese Bronze is very stout material and I work it dry because I get more in return from the chips, causing a bit more noise, but worth it in the end. ;{)-----

[@mranthonye]

I enjoyed your video Keith. A little brush up on how to use your Snap gauges is in order lol👊

[@kenstein]

Wow, I had no idea you were down on the Cape! I know where I'm bringing stuff if I need something specialty done that I can't do myself... Watching how you bored out the single struts - doesn't putting the portion holding the bearing into a vise squeeze it somewhat and make for an oblong bore after it's removed? It seems to me like it would, maybe it doesn't change the bore diameter enough to matter.

[@bubster1981]

In my career as a Machinist (2 months) haha, on a little 10x22 you make parting off look some easy!

[@KeithFenner]

I had the AMP's set about 160 and use a pedal, I always set it about 25% higher than I think, I need just for the starts, and on bronze sometimes you have to be aggressive and push it in. ;{)-----

[@terrystoerzinger2584]

Great video. In the case of the single strut at about 11:00 min, once you have completed the bore, the alignment of the strut will be fixed by the shaft route through the stuffing box or whatever. How is the mounting surface aligned and fitted to the hull? Is it shimmed to the hull so as not to bind the shaft?

[@bcbloc02]

I am surprised there isn't a specified angle for the bore in relation to the monting plate. Keith is like superman! You see him twist that steel shaft off? lol

[@StefanGotteswinter]

Nice Video, as always :) But i have one Question: Is the brazing rod used on AC or DC? Hard to tell by sound.

[@mog5858]

on the tig you where DC negative and about what amp's. i got some AL-bronzes pump fluid-end to weld soon and looking for info you have to give. thanks for all the great videos.

[@moltenaluminium]

Hey Keith, I noticed at 47:30 when you tap ( and other videos I wached you tap) you do not reverse direction to break the chips. That's something I've always been taught and wondered your thoughts on the subject.

[@KeithFenner]

The Y strut is for a used boat and the rest was for new construction. ;{)-----

[@dragonrc0]

All of your machines are great, but there is something about watching that Sibley work...extreme tool envy :) Do you recall what kind of paint and what color you used on it? I like that grey.

[@gentharris]

Thanks for the reply! I did some small parts in 440 thinking it was realy gonna suck but it was much easier to deal with than 316,its almost too soft but tough as hell! We make lots of 316 parts for local fabricators of food and pharmacutical processing equipment, Springfield Mo. is a major center for that type of thing, cheap labor I guess LOL Most of what you do I am familliar with but I love to learn and you do a great job teaching, keep up the good work!!

[@ChrisB257]

More great items of interest Keith and thank you. Questions --(sorry, I know you are busy). Your drill grind modification - you said 'vertical' grind on flute ends - trying to see that clearly. Does that mean you grind a small flat on the actual cutting edge? Can you clarify? Other Q - after filling the pocket - what wheel were you using on the second grinder? Haha - that first tapping attempt - thought it was a bit too 'squeeky' LOL - mind you too, I notice you don't back off a lot.

[@paulduffey7975]

Great vid. Thanks for the tips, especially the reverse countersink things. There's something about bronze that makes me feel I'm missing something that's important but I can't figure out what it is. Thank you.

[@erik61801]

cool video wish I could apprentice under you. thanks for sharing your knowledge

[@yeshelloyou]

Lol three sided holes, how did you know :-) Thank you for your info Keith, much obliged :-) When Im fit enough to get back to work and get some money coming in I will make a contrudition to your WEB site and then buy a more powerful drill press to handle the loads. Many thanks :-))

[@xmodriver]

I would like to know how you knew the bore would come out centered in the lathe, you can see when doing the bore on the mill both ends, but how did you check side/center on the chuck side of the lathe?

[@ColchesterBridgeport]

That was an excellent morning's work Keith. What did you do for the rest of your shift?

[@billdlv]

Keith good job again. Reverse countersink=way cool. Do you know how much those casting run per pound roughly? Curious about the material cost of the bronze.

[@ShadonHKW]

I did have another comment though, I see you leaning on the vice pretty hard to clamp down before boring, no worries about egg shaped holes when released?

[@peterheuts7738]

Another great video Mr. Fenner. When I grow up i wanna be just like you! ( ;-) just joking, i'm 48) My career got cut short because of chronic disease, and am now trying to start up a small workshop. I have watched every one of your videos and learned the world from them. Thanks very much! I have a question about the tig brazing you showed. (it might be a stupid question though, because I am clueless) cont.

[@donpollard9460]

Reminiscent of the Isle of Wight!

[@badass98kx250]

Awesome video bud

[@mrbluenun]

Hello Keith, as a wannabe but too old to be an Engineer, can you tell me why you need to drill AND ream a hole? If you could answer this I would be much obliged as I have often wondered.

[@KeithFenner]

+mrbluenun To create the proper interference fit on the items being inserted into the bronze, bearing or stems. ;{)------

[@jqzIII]

lol I just paused at 24:13 to ask the exact same question. And here it is at the top O the comments. Thanks +mrbluenun & Keith

[@mrbluenun]

+Keith Fenner Does it leave a vertically ‘lined’ kind of tube with tiny slots going down the full length? Forgive me, I have worked with many drills and some lathe stuff but have never been in a situation where I had to have an interference-fit. What is the mechanical difference between this and heat fitting, I would imagine heat fitting would be a terrific job up to a certain temperature?

[@johnferguson7235]

Even though your question is a few months old I thought that I'd try to help. Reaming gives a very straight, smooth, and consistent bore with the identical diameter top to bottom and it leaves a flat bottom. Drill bits can wander around as they cut; they grab and release and twist and unwind. The amount of interference determines the temperature that the material must be heated to get enough expansion. In aviation they sometimes cool or super-cool one part as they heat the second part to get a very high pressure friction fit that can never be taken apart again.

[@mrbluenun]

Hi john, I very much appreciate your help, thank you so much.

[@Vickwick58]

Why is it that clamping a strut tube in a vise or in the lathe chuck doesn't change the shape of the bore enough to affect the cut?

[@badass98kx250]

Can you do a video on different ways to sharpen a drill bit

[@KeithFenner]

Sure no problem, keep it in mind. ;{)-----

[@helpfatbloke]

myfordboy has a video where he just puts the whole job chuck and all onto the milling machine - holds the chuck down and saves making a jig - although your chuck is slightly bigger than a myford

[@wyrtwister4260]

I find it interesting to see you do not use any lubricant when machining bronze . God bless Wyr

[@daleburrell6273]

...the sound of that creaking tap made me nervous-!!

[@KeithFenner]

The 3/4" inch drill pilots the hole good so no need to start out any small. After that I go to the 1 1/4" or reamers size drill. ;{)-----

[@glenncpw]

You would lose your sense of humour if you did get caught up in the the swinging masher - excellent video - informative and educational

[@KeithFenner]

When the pattern is made and the strut is cast all that specified angles when included within it! ;{)-----

[@Vsshooter]

I am taking a guess, is this new work going to be on a new build vessle or for a rebuild of an older vessle?

[@danst165]

Is the strut shimmed to the hull so as to align the shaft and prevent binding?

[@spaight711]

Do you do your own castings, Keith? I haven't heard you mention foundry work...

[@romandybala]

Keith, what is the reason you dont do this in the milling machine? That looks scary as hell.

[@yeshelloyou]

Hello Keith and plz say Hello to your lovely wife, Vanessa for me :-) I was reading that when drilling large diameter holes its is best to use only one pilot drill? as this gives a much rounder hole. I was always taught to "step up" the drills until the required size. I watch you use the first method so is this correct and why does it creat a rounder hole? :-)

[@jonka1]

Keith I've often wondered how do you know the exact angle of the axis relative to the flat mounting surface. Does the mounting get shimmed or adjusted when fitted to the boat?

[@ligurian728]

Moffitt and Sherwood invented the 'cutless' bearing for marine use.

[@KeithFenner]

The three jaw is the alignment, centering and axis. ;{)-----

[@dadmezz4024]

Thank you Kieth for another lesson...as usual...could you heat the casting up to drop in the bushng if you didn't have a press?

[@KeithFenner]

Yes you can heat and swell the bronze casting to insert any standard press fits. ;{)-----

[@drstampfli]

So you got a pretty rainbow picture and each of your neighbors got a pot of gold?... cool!

[@mrbluenun]

Hi Keith, I am not sure where you are regarding your shoulder or was it your ankle problems, but I hope you are sorted very well and can look forward to great health and lots of ‘light’ type work for a few months of 2016, and stay well! With regard to the Rudders and Drive shafts especially, you can say you are a true>>> SUPERMAN

[@peterheuts7738]

I am fixing up some old machines to put them to use, and one of the tables has a chunk broken out of the t-slot (not unique is it?). Searching the internet learned me welding it up isn't advised because of the high heat input and deformation. Would it be possible to tig-braze it (because of less heat) and re-machine the slot to original dimensions? or is the braze not strong enough for the purpose? If this doesn't work, is there any other way of fixing (learning to live with it?) Thanks, Peter

[@KeithFenner]

I do about three of them a year or less and not worth the fab of a jig, and the natural alignment in the three jaw is just right. ;{)-----

[@jesse038]

I would appreciate a video of that too please! :D

[@toddlisalower354]

I'm looking for a foundry to cast bronze .What foundry made your bronze casting ,not many foundries cast large bronze parts ?

[@markryan8734]

Thanks

[@KeithFenner]

Hi bill, I'll inquire from Prue next time I see him within the next couple days and ask him, he'll have the scoop! ;{)-----

[@KeithFenner]

Most of them are loose in a drawer and maybe a little box top holds real shorties. I am just as bad as the next guy, I can have them all organized and in two weeks it looks like a sh t hole, the price of being busy, I guess. ;{)-----

[@TheSpike420211]

How much did you make off all the brass/bronze shavings LOL

[@KeithFenner]

+Mike Stevenson I save all bronze chips for a year or so at a time so the amount per job is lost in the total. I also play with the market values by just sitting on it if the market is down on metals. ;{)------