Hardinge Cataract Turret in Action

The Turret still needs some tweaking but it's good to see it in action!

[@MyMiniHomeWorkshop]

I made many 1,000s of brass fittings on old capstans, if you don't want to have to de-tit parts, grind the end of your parting tool at a 15° angle, so the part will drop off before you finish the cut, works 99.9% of the time 👍

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Then the burr is on the other end of the nut.

[@MyMiniHomeWorkshop]

Not at all, once the part drops off you continue until the tip of the blade has passed centre, trust me, we made millions of parts on Capstans, Cam auto's and in the end with CNC's, you can't be de-titing all of that 👍

[@WinkysWorkshop]

@@MyMiniHomeWorkshop Dang... you are right! brain fart on my part.

[@MyMiniHomeWorkshop]

@@WinkysWorkshop Glad I could help 👍

[@WinkysWorkshop]

@@MyMiniHomeWorkshop I'm away ready to learn. Thanks

[@Farm_fab]

Mark, a couple more drill chucks, and you would be all set on your turret. If you have a local scrap yard, maybe you could find something there. I've bought drills just for the chucks in the past. Finding good ones is what's important. Also, you might go there to get some materials to stock your shelves with.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

I'll probably buy 3 more Rohm checks ( have 3 now)

[@glennwright9747]

Reminds me of the first automated lathe I saw 56 years ago in England. They were making the small rollers for the T rail curtain tracks, guessing about 3/8 diameter. Unattended the lathe fed about a 20 ft length of rod, faced, turned OD, drilled, chamfered, cutoff. Part dropped into a chute running to a bin. Whole process took mere seconds.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Thats the best automation. No human intervention :o)

[@robertwalker7457]

Mate, Henry Ford would be proud of that production line!!

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Haha... thanks!

[@magicbytes3835]

Hello Winky, WOW when you screamed it scared the hell out of me, I shouldn't have had my volume up so loud, OMG, that took me a while to calm down, I thought you got caught up in the lathe or something, Cheers from me. 😵‍💫👍👍👍👍👍

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Ha... I'm going to have to watch the video again!

[@donsengine3158]

BROKE THE TAP!!! Argghhhhhh... just when I was settling in to this segment. Maybe we'll get double time next week. Love your Hardinge Winky.. Don👍👍

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Thanks Don. I switched to a standard plug tap and it seems to do better. The spiral flute don't seem to eject the chip very well when they are super small.

[@angelramos-2005]

Good to see the lathe in working action.Thank you Mark.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Thanks you for watching~!

[@AmateurRedneckWorkshop]

I see you are really liking that turret. Thanks for the video keep on keeping on.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Its very cool. Thanks

[@kentuckytrapper780]

Great video winky, keep'um coming.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Thank you! Will do!

[@trollforge]

You know, Mark, If you're gonna call it Enterprise , you need 2 spare Morse Taper holder mounted up and back at the rear... ;) If you want to do old school production, you need one of those old school 4 tool self indexing tool holders, with a chamfer tool in 1 spot, and your parting off tool in another, sharpened to cut clean on the finished part, then it is just another turn or 2 to clean the stock face.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

All kinds of possibilities. I had more arbors on order, they cam in 2 day ago. I remember the 4 way tool posts but not any that were self indexing.

[@trollforge]

@@WinkysWorkshop The 2 guys I know that use them, I have actually never seen in use, or off... That being said, back when I was researching QCTPs it seemed like every one on KZbin had 4 holes drilled in the bottom, and a couple guys said the were for indexing... but other than that I really don't know. It sounded good enough to be true...

[@terrycannon570]

Excellent Mark. From a basket of parts to this beautiful functioning machine. others have already said much of what I think so best I can say is More more more !

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Haha... thanks

[@patrickoquin7215]

Quite the pucker factor on that little bitty tap😂

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Yep, the standard plug tap seems to work better than the spiral I was using.

[@kimber1958]

Thank you ;-)

[@WinkysWorkshop]

You are welcome!

[@alanremington8500]

I like it !!

[@WinkysWorkshop]

:o) Thanks

[@joeromanak8797]

You still have unused stations in the turret so you could add a chuck with a small drill rod as a “part catcher” during the cutoff step. You know way more tricks than I do but I felt compelled to make a suggestion. If you had this setup with every component in brand new condition, those little parts would be a snap to make. I hope you find a way to make it work to the best of its ability. Keep us posted. 🥸👍👀✅❗️

[@WinkysWorkshop]

I may get there... the parts catcher is an interesting idea!

[@thercbarn5001]

Nice to see it in action! Mike c

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Thanks

[@Rustinox]

Nice. Almost ready to produce tens of thousands of these little parts :)

[@WinkysWorkshop]

I hope I'm not the one doing that! ha

[@gregfeneis609]

A very cool demo! I first saw a turret lathe back in early 2000s. I think it was a Monarch 10EE. I wonder if you can get (or make) a turret tapping chuck. Something that would freewheel when you reach a certain depth, then you could reverse and begin to pull out and it would re-engage and allow removal of the tap? Something like that and setting the depth stops for that and the drill, then there's less risk of recutting abuse to materials farther down the stock

[@WinkysWorkshop]

The free wheeling idea is interesting. That little tap is easy to break.

[@stevewilliams2498]

As someone has already suggested ... grind your parting tool to leave the nub on your stock bar. After cut off, keep going and then remove the nub off the stock.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Thank would work. Although... I didn't have a chuck for this operation.

[@fna-wrightengineering]

Just need to add a few more drill chucks, and you'll really be cooking with gas! I don't know if Hardinge made a collet closer for the Cataract lathe, but that would be the final piece in some rapid production. Also, the VFD might have inputs for preset speeds... If so, you could add a button or 3, and switch between speeds for facing/turning/drilling, parting, and tapping speeds without having to mess with the speed potentiometer. Either way, excellent work as always!

[@WinkysWorkshop]

A collet lever would speed things up for sure. Yeah... I almost used the sped presets on the VFD but the pot is fairly quick and simple.

[@robertalbrecht1493]

Mark, grind a small angle on the part off tool face. This will get rid of the nub on the part that falls off

[@WinkysWorkshop]

And leave the nub on the part in the chuck... so the same problem just on the other side.

[@stevewilliams2498]

After cut off, keep going and remove the nub off the stock.

[@paulrayner4514]

I feel your pain😱

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Pain?

[@paulrayner4514]

broken taps😁@@WinkysWorkshop

[@65cj55]

Very slick Winky, tapping tiny holes is always problematic no matter how you do it..

[@WinkysWorkshop]

It wasn't too bad but you are right.

[@daveticehurst4191]

Winky, please be aware that the 5 C collet is of the "Draw In Type" so a consisten Accurate lenght can be a problem depending on how tight the draw bar is each time. OK if you only want plus or minus 5 thou in length. Another thing I suspect is that you are holding the hex bar in a round collett ???? be aware that the is a good chance that at times, that 3 of the hex corners could be aligned with the 3 collets splits and can affect the clamping position. Regards from Australia.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Yeah... I figured out the "Draw in" aspect. I found that if I tightened the collet some and then used the bar to position the stock I could keep the length fairly close. Just how much to tighten is a bit tricky. I may try to put a little feeler on my compound t set the length. Yes on the slots in the collet. I wish I had a set of hex collets.

[@WilliamChitham]

The inaccuracy of the depth stop must be frustrating, is the tailstock moving backwards? The capstan operation seems pretty violent, maybe it's enough to overcome the tailstock clamp. It's amazing how many operations there are for even a simple part like that if you were making a one off - facing, chamfering, centre drill, tap drill, countersink, tap, part off, face, chamfer & countersink the other end. As others have said you could regrind the parting tool to eliminate the pip but why not go the whole hog and grind a tool that will part and chamfer in one go?

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Yeah... I will regrind. I think the tail stock was moving on the bed. Also. tightening the collet draws the stock in. Good idea including the chamfer in the cuttoff!

[@grntitan1]

The problem with a turret lathe is, you need to have a need for a bucket full of the same part to justify the set up. Try gun taps instead of the spiral flute.

[@danharold3087]

The problem is when you need a bucket full of parts, you need a turret lathe. :)

[@EitriBrokkr]

You're going to have a bad time trying to run gun taps into a blind hole.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

I have a BUNCH. Probably about 75 of the part i was making and over 100 on the next one. Gun taps push the shavings into the hole. The spiral flute worked okay but I think the chip are too thin to reliably exit the hole. I switched to a standard tap. It seems to be doing the best.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

Yep.

[@grntitan1]

I misunderstood your procedures then. I thought you drilled a trough hole.

[@ianpendlebury3704]

Interesting problem with the stop not maintaining position. Hmmm.... Do you have problems with the threads not lining up in subsequent tap entries and having spoiled threads? Just curious.?

[@WinkysWorkshop]

I think the tail stock was not locked down well enough. Somebody else asked how many double thread nuts I got. As far as I know, zero. I've done the same in the past but with larger taps but never had issue... the fine thread might be more prone but I suspect at worst, the first few threads will be missing while the tap finds the previous threads

[@stevewilliams2498]

How many twin start threads did you make ?

[@WinkysWorkshop]

ZERO... ha, It seems like this would be possible but i have never had it happen.

[@dcraft1234]

The problem with a hundred year old turret is it was actually used in production, so its going to be pretty worn out. Oh well, good enough and fun anyway!

[@WinkysWorkshop]

To a point I agree but I think the biggest problem id my lack of knowledge. I think I'll eventually get it near perfect.

[@dcraft1234]

No doubt

[@ssboot5663]

1.10 each one a foot and an they're a quarter inch long. (: That doesn't sound right.

[@WinkysWorkshop]

heck yeah! haha