Home Hobby Hobber Part III

[@sd906238]

We would love to see how you designed and made the controller box.

[@FCleff]

Hi Floyd, I designed the box for the controller with TurboCAD and 3-D printed it on my old, reengineered Solidoodle 3-D printer. Unfortunately, I lost all the files when my hard drive died..........no backups. DANG IT!! Hope that helps? Cheers, F.C,

[@rogercrier]

Just an advisory note on using those clamps........ Try to arrange the clamp bolt so it is as near to the clamps "point" as possible, this puts more clamping force on the workpiece and not on the stepped "chock" Also, the tail end of the clamp should be a smudge higher than the point so the contact point with the workpiece is at the point, not flat, or rocked back and clamping the edge. Why not keep going and trick out that collet chuck with a nice set of teeth!

[@FCleff]

Thank you, Roger. Good points all and remarkable eye for detail!

[@jordanevans2644]

I'd love to know more about the modifications to that MK II lathe of yours...what is the tailstock off of? Any details on the quill mechanism? Is the cross-slide table the one from here: www.statecollegecentral.com/metallathe/A-11.html ? Details on the toolposts, or anything else you've modified would appreciated as well. I've had one of these stashed away for the last 20 years, and would like to make a functional machine again. Your changes help to eliminate some of the largest issues I have with it.

[@FCleff]

Hi Jordan, I bought my Atlas MKII/Sears lathe new from Sears in 1975 and as you mention, I made several changes over the years. I should say that most of the mods were done when I was younger and had more time than money but I learned a lot and had a GREAT carrier as a direct result of this learning. The most notable and useful modification would be: 1- Flame sprayed, hardened bed. (The beds on these lathes are rather soft) 2- Converted to 7" swing by adding 1/2" riser blocks to head and tailstock. 3- Cross slide is scratch-made from bar stock and has 5 T-slots on Myford7 dimensions (1-9/16" c to c). As on a Myford, the nut does not move giving a very long travel (5+"). There is also a "1/10" reading Vernier divided in the dial ring (See George Thomas book for dial details). 4- The tail stock is a rebored and lapped 7x14 mini lathe part. It has a #1MT socket like the original Atlas. The tailstock base is made from scratch and hand scraped to fit my bed. The ram was lapped to fit and has a travel of 6". It's GREAT for pecking deep holes and D-bit drilling. I cut the rack on my 7" SouthBend shaper. The pinion is a 16DP 20T, 14.5PA........I think. Hard to remember. 5- Motor is a Baldor DC unit and the speed controller is from a treadmill. 6- The tool holders and front tool post is KRF Tools Omnipost. The rear tool post is home made and compatible with Omnipost cutoff tool holder (works GREAT btw). 7- I added felt way wipers to the carriage ways. I strongly recommend this as your first modification. Thank you for your interest, F.C.

[@jordanevans2644]

Excellent stuff, much appreciated. I have a similar tailstock set aside, but has a 2MT socket. I'll be looking to do similar modifications. Thanks.

[@howto-bk8ev]

how much does it coast

[@FCleff]

Hi "how to", Thank you for your interest. It's not for sale(yet) but the target cost for the controller is/was ~$100 US. The cost for a complete, working system depends upon such things as how deep your "junk" pile is, how clever you are, how much time you spend finding best prices. That said, I imagine the whole thing can be done for less than $500 US. Cheers, F.C.

[@rogercrier]

So the .112 is how many thou of slip gauges you need under the sine bar to get the angle. Why is x5 in the calculation please. Is it sine bar length? You now need to tell us what you are using hundreds of gears for! Is it one of these? kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6KQc3tjqdure8k (2 trillion years per rev) A bit of cycle inner tube over that thrust bearing would be a plan :o)

[@FCleff]

Yes. The sine of 1 degree, 17 minutes (helix angle of hob) is approximately 0.0224. One multiplies the sine of the desired angle by 5 if ones sine bar is 5" (common sine bar length). If one's sine bar is 2" or perhaps 10" (far less common) the multiplier would be 2 or 10 respectively. Good point on the thrust bearing seal. Look for technical credit in future video. ;-) Regarding the use of these gears, I'm a "learning by doing" sort of person so I'm making the gears primarily as a learning exercise at this point. The 14/22 cluster is the exception. It's a "Pi cluster" for thread cutting "true" DP and Moldule leads that are essential to making standard lead worms and hobs. Also, the concept of gear hobbing is new to me and the Home Hobby Hobber is, as yet, not well characterized in real world applications. I think demonstrating that pesky prime numbers of gear teeth are no more difficult than any other number is useful and it's a built in feature of the Home Hobby Hobber. Demonstrating worm wheel, helical, herringbone, spiral and, perhaps, hypoid gear cutting will also be good learning exercises.