Skimming rollers out of a roller mill. I need a bigger lathe!

In this video I had 2 rollers out of a roller mill that needed skimming.
I took the job on thinking the rollers would easily fit in my lathe, however, I was wrong.
After removing the bearing housing and bearings from the first roller, I discovered the rollers where actually too big to fit in my lathe.
I decided I’d have ago at skimming them in the milling machine instead as I had no/limited other options. I set the lathes tailstock up on the mill and took some measurements of how high the centre was and how much higher the dividing head needed to be to match. I then cnc flame cut some plates of 40mm out and welded them together. This block then needed milling down to 77.3mm for the dividing head to sit on.
With the dividing head and the tailstock to match I mounted the roller onto the mill and set to skimming it. This process turned out to be very slow and chattery because of the back lash in the dividing head. I did a few cuts then decided it wasn’t the right process for the job.
I spoken to 3 people I knew but unfortunately, they couldn’t help, then I remembered my friend on a local farm had a bigger lathe and luckily, he agreed to let me use it. I loaded the rollers up into the back of the poor little corsa van and took them down. Once in the lathe it was a simple and easy job skimming them smooth again.
Hope you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.

[@anthonyj7989]

You really made your money today. There are a lot of people who would have told the customer that I cannot do it and it is now your problem. You should be proud of yourself for finishing this job.

[@adrianbew9641]

I got the idea it was their own mill.

[@JosephCarroll-g6w]

Grate work being done bye u u are a good man for doing things other lads woukd walk away from that job

[@dickdavidson3616]

And now he can do more large diameter lathing jobs in the future.

[@maranatha.media.c...]

I would have just left it in the machine and turn the machine on and tooken a big grinder to it, then made the adjustment to where the rollers will go closer together. Yes

[@gav2759]

You see two kinds of people when a problem crops up. One says "I can't do it", the other says "how can I do it". If it were a fair world the second guy would prosper more. Sadly I have found that not to be the case, they find they are unable to pass on the full cost of their solution to the customer and take it on the chin .....ask me how I know. Great vid kid. thanks for posting.

[@alexmeador7147]

As an American who owns a truck but commutes in a little sedan and knowing plenty of other guys out here in the Midwest who insist on driving big trucks as their daily driver, you've managed to do more work in your little hatchback than most of those guys have done with their trucks all year. Also I really enjoy seeing your ingenuity, and while you may not be a machinist, your willingness to overcome challenges and get the job done right is ultimately a testament to you being a true craftsman.

[@henkclaassen9267]

I love it! ‘I am not making parts for spaceships.’ But finding a solution to every problem! 😊😊

[@Mishn0]

I don't know, maybe Elon watches KZbin. I wouldn't be too surprised if a work order came in from Boca Chica.

[@bobhudson6659]

If/when you get a bigger lathe, make sure you get a travelling as well as a fixed steady. You were lucky with this roller. About 4 months ago I machined a 340mm dia roller (hollow, 900mm long) and it rang like a bell and there was chatter everywhere, no matter what we tried. We ended making a larger travelling steady using the rollers off a smaller steady. Took about 25 hrs work to make the steady but it worked like a charm. Have another 2 rollers to do in coming months. My lathe is a Victor made in Taiwan, having 660mm x 2500mm capacity. Self taught machinist/mechanic in Land Down Under.

[@dolvaran]

My cousin used to have a small machining workshop down in Wiltshire - couple of lathes and a few different types of mill. He used a 3-phase diesel generator - simple, reliable and easy to install. Allowed him to run several machines at the same time.

[@thepagan5432]

So pleased your mate had a bigger capacity lathe, must have been quite a relief. Using the mill was a good move and does reinforce the old saying "Necessity is the mother of invention". Good post, take care be well.

[@SPUDHOME]

Most intelligent. Fantastic job of solving the problem that others would have quit on.

[@kaxtell281]

Like CB at @NBSWELDING says. "Learn to work with what you have. That way you always have what you need." Enjoyed the video.

[@harveylong5878]

Kudos for the outside the box solution Ollie. not every shop has millions of dollars of equipment at their disposal. bigger lathe will be nice upgrade when the time comes. new fab/welding table already paying for itself

[@b.malnit8983]

Great job Ollie. The way you figure things out proves you are a very careful and knowledgeable individual.

[@gutsngorrrr]

I love the thinking outside of the box to get out of an unforeseen problem. Also, the clever construction of the riser, to allow for clamping, all signs of a good engineer.

[@delhatton]

your ingenuity is consistently off the charts

[@mauricekeithjohnson2598]

One of the main attractions to watching your show is that, there but for the Grace of God, go I. You very much accomplish excellent results, often without the very fancy equipment seen on many other shows. Please take this as a compliment, from a realist working Joe like me !

[@BigBoxDodge2020]

It's good to see you getting some new equipment and machinery Olly, love watching your show.

[@billblock8090]

Oliver your problem solving ability is amazing. I enjoy watching your projects work out to perfection. Greetings from West Texas.

[@ianmarsden8568]

Thanks for explaining what the things you fix, actually do. Brilliant seeing how you work things out from scratch - keep up the good work. One of the three highlights of my KZbin weekend; Friday am: Cutting Edge Engineering, Friday pm: Farmcraft 101 & Sunday your good self. Cheers.

[@ericmcrae7758]

I watch similar but you forgot Ashville and Wellderfabber

[@darrylwagar4144]

My friend CB says " learn to use what you have, and you'll always have what you need ". Remember, the best tool you have is between your ears 😁. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.

[@passenger6735]

The best problem solving channel on YT...and you still have a back window in the Corsa!

[@MarkSpry-s5s]

You ain’t scared of hard work boy! Bless you for that! love from Cornwall!👍🥟

[@glennbrown1961]

A couple of little screw jacks could have pushed that pulley assembly off. They are quite easy to make. Those taper bearing adaptors can confuse some people who don't know how they work. No lathe is big enough and no workshop is ever big enough after a while! You dont often hear people say my lathe is too big though! Cheers and thanks for the video.

[@782sirbrian]

You completed the job very well, I could imagine your frustration at the start ! A bigger lathe would be handy not sure how big a one you could fit in the workshop, go much bigger and your jobs will grow with it ! I said oh my god what's he doing to that poor little van !! I imagined you would have a Transit size pickup. Thanks for sharing your work week. Brian from South Yorkshire.

[@maadamos56]

I believe he needs more space, period. Easier said than done. Keep up the good work.👍🏾

[@mikeburton7077]

Well done ,we all want a bigger lathe !

[@roar40s]

The smile on the guys face unloading those rollers! 🤣

[@ianmcgowan-xh6uu]

Hi Oli love what you do and been following you for a while now. We’re only in Thirsk so not far away. We have same problem as you with only 2 phases coming in. Not a major problem for us. Your best option would be a Diesel generator wired into a separate distribution board that just serves your 3 phase equipment. It could be set up so that as soon as you switch a piece of equipment on it automatically starts the generator and switches it off when you switch the equipment off. I’ve been an industrial electrician for over 46 years and set a few systems up for clients along the same lines. Solar panels with batteries will be expensive to install and won’t be as efficient in the winter. Hope this helps. Keep up the good work. Regards Ian

[@eliduttman315]

@ianmcgowan-xh6uu If reliable running surface water is available on the Snowball property, would small scale hydro-electric generation make sense?

[@johnwarwick4105]

Also an industrial electrician here, have you read the rest of the comments, only think missing is a hamster wheel 😂😂. Yours is very Sound advice I think. Split phase is very misunderstood by a lot of people (as it was only ever supplied to farms needing more power back in the 60’s) as you know it’s nothing of the sort it’s only a 480V centre tapped supply.

[@jlumba81]

1-2 gallon garden sprayer for coolant?

[@mosshog5670]

@@johnwarwick4105 Thanks for explaining, so its bit like the US homes 110/220 systems, so when I see two lines on the poles across a field it’s not phase and neutral it’s two phase, the transformer on the pole is centre taped 👍😀

[@aserta]

Piece of advice, until it becomes second nature: put your free swing and between center swing dimensions on the lathe with a marker. There's no shame on it, make it big and easy to read. I did the same when i first started, because i had the exact same cockup. Happens to everyone. :)

[@neilward9932]

Love the old taper lock, best thing since sliced bread !

[@chox2001]

Easy mistake to make I think I would have done the same forgetting the saddle height above the bed. You overcome the problem so it’s as I always say. Every days a school day and the job was completed. 👍👏🙏🚜

[@billseymour-jones3224]

That milling setup... Looks like some vast alien insect attacking an enormous sausage roll.....

[@AW-Services]

Another brilliant video, Olly. Great to see investing in new equipment and growing For off grid power especially with the requirement for 3 phase you'd need a lot of money. PV system along with MPPT inverters and batteries would cost around £24,000 and more than a 50kva diesel generator. Rotary phase convertors are equally as good as using a VFD but your single / split phase 240v is most likely already at it's limit

[@stuartlockwood9645]

Hi Oliver, good idea using the mill, and clever use of the tailstock, and dividing head spacer. This setup will be useful for other jobs, as to a new lathe my advice would be first work out how much space is available in your shop, and then shop around for the the lathe whith the most capacity that will fit in there, they'll always be a use for it in the long term in your kind of work. Atb Stuart Uk.

[@H4rleyBoy]

I love the inventiveness you show in difficult jobs such a shame it was too much of a scrotum ache to continue.

[@tiposxdiesel]

You worked very hard for the customer. Well done, I might have given up on it!

[@zippo1009]

Your knowledge and engineering skills never cease to amaze me! I wish i was like you 😊

[@gregbakke8296]

Really admire your persistence to see a job through. Excellent. Thanks for posting!

[@JeffBlack1968]

Another great video. Thinking outside the box is what will keep the jobs coming when other people are out of work. Always looking forward to the next video.

[@alandawson2813]

Wow Oliver, What a amazing job, Your skill level and thinking outside of the box is amazing, Love your videos. From kiwi land

[@chrislindquist2003]

Impressed how you came up with a work around to get the job done. Doing it on the mill would not be ideal but it worked! Great job 👍

[@DavoShed]

You do a pretty good impersonation of a machinist 🤠 The first dimension you mentioned on your lathe is “Swing over bed” Which is the absolute largest diameter that will clear the bed. The second one is “Swing over caridge” I think your lathe also has a removable gap if I remember correctly which lets you turn an even larger plate with a limited thickness. Great to see your outside of the box thinking and determination to complete the job. Looks like you owe Angus one. I’m sure you have fun stuff he doesn’t have. Nice of him to let you film at his shop. I don’t know about phase converters but welding from batteries and solar panels is probably going to be expensive. If the suns not shining your welds are also going to be short 🤠 So for my 2c worth a generator is sounding a lot more like a stable option. You can turn it off when you’re not using it.🤠

[@csnelling4]

Well done on the difficult job Oliver 👍Thanks for the video share and good luck in getting a bigger lathe mate 🙂

[@barrysmith9020]

You're just a very clever guy Olly, and a pleasure to watch keep the vids coming

[@everestyeti]

Nice to have mates who have a lathe you can use, hope you cleaned up before you left. 😂 Re your off grid question, have dealt with something similar before but it's not cheap. Your best option would be to instal a 3 phase hybrid converter, this takes power from multiple sources when needed, solar, wind, generator or mains. From solar and wind you would need storage batteries, as you need the uninterrupted supply. If you can, speak to Tom Pemberton, am sure he got a grant to help with his solar panels. Good luck. 👍

[@FliesLikeABrick]

Regarding 3-phase power -- if you were thinking about making your own 3-phase from solar or generator with battery storage.... at that point you're doing DC to 3-phase via a 3-phase inverter. In that case, you could skip the solar and generator and generate DC from your split-phase AC. Basically an AC (single phase) to DC to AC (3-phase) converter, similar to how an "online UPS" works. That is to say, if you're looking at generating your own 3-phase AC, consider using your existing power supply as your generator rather than going full off-grid with solar/generator (unless you separately desire being off-grid as another goal)

[@rezkidgamingyt4725]

Awsome video man there is always more than one way to get the job done . Being willing to try different and new approaches is key . I love this stuff to tell you the truth I’d rather have the old school milling machines or lathes then a new CNC machine knowing how all the tools and machines work is way more important to me then speed and repeatable procedures.

[@noodles7011]

WOW. you do things the hard way a lot.

[@snowballengineering]

Well I can’t do it the easy way without the tools to do it 🤷‍♂️

[@martinmeasures829]

No problems just solutions. That's problem solving at its best. I thought maybe yo might have milled down the tool bed on the lathe but what do I know I'm just a telehandler operator in the construction industry. Love what you do, just keep doin it.

[@riggers6214]

Necessity is the Mother of all Inventions! Great job Ollie!!!

[@seanscott8125]

Hi Oliver, love how much you have come on in the last few months and how you think your way through problems. As for your power questions do a search for kris Harbour natural building. He runs his workshop totally off grid and uk based. We'll worth getting in touch with

[@gbentley8176]

Excellent recovery job. Investment in the new pieces of kit are clearly well judged. Thanks for posting

[@TechOne7671]

Nice work again Ollie, anybody can make a mistake but not everybody can fix it. Regarding the three phase, a small circa 20-30kva diesel genset wild do what you need with simplicity. Sure it’s possible with batteries panels and inverters but for the current you require would be very costly I imagine compared with the genset. You could use the waste heat from the genset to heat the workshop. From what I have seen from your abilities you would be able to maintain and repair it no bother too. All the best.

[@redknighton5405]

1. This is one of my favorite videos. I like the unique problems and how you get around them. Good job!! 2. When I saw the helicopter I thought the CEE team were coming to help.

[@wallbawden5511]

getting it done again , nice problem solving to work it out so you could do it on the Mill . me i would have just told customer i made a mistake and can not do the job . but in your true fashion you persevered with it then remembered another shop , friend and he had a machine big enough to accommodate the job well done . i say But mate your choice of transport !! i think was yet another problem solving exercise . Bigger lathe really would consider the amount of jobs like this you get to do . Bigger workshop to put all the new machines in . may also solve your power problems at the same time . a UTE may come in handy as well . your 3 phase problem can not help there except maybe the power company can provide this you are on a property . sure you would have checked this out already . really enjoy your videos keep them coming when you can Cheers from AUS .

[@walterverlaan1286]

As always, a pleasure to watch.

[@williambailey9378]

That was a mission mate !! Still it's all about learning these things so you'll know next time ,

[@davidMsargeant]

For a bloke that reckons he's not a Turner you'd make a good magician Oliver. Well done.

[@LarryYaw]

One of the hardest working fab guys on KZbin! You should have 500k members easy. Great work Oliver!

[@snowballengineering]

Maybe one day!

[@stevesutton6093]

Another great video Olly, I almost thought we were going to get through an episode without Harry the Hyster making an appearance but luckily at 38 minutes the world was put right again! If you have the money, solar panels, three phase inverter, battery with an auto start diesel or LPG (propane for our American friends) generator as a back up against weeks of cloudy conditions. Contrary to popular belief solar panels work even better in cold weather than they do in the hotter climes assuming no snow coverage or extended periods of overcast conditions.

[@chrisw.3680]

Great job! Very enjoyable and inspiring to watch! Anything is possible when you put your mind to it!

[@alangraham8926]

I think you do great stuff just like a "Yorkshire Terrier" ! A thought I did have was a motor driven welding chuck may have helped also useful for "other things".

[@barney2633]

Another good job. Intelligent and ingenious approach, well done !

[@cheechU38K]

This job really shows exactly what is engineering. Finding solutions rather than giving up. I hope young watchers get inspired and excited by your down to earth videos. Super Mill to the rescue 😅 poor corsa, heavy load 😂 your friend has a nice lathe setup with gantry hoist. Future purchases 😃 American Army Trucking ⭐ Solar & battery sounds a good solution but pricey. Maybe a grant 🤔

[@carloskawasaki656]

Thank you for sharing, another great job, i learn a lot have a nice sunday 👍👍👍👍

[@almostretired67]

Love your work truck!

[@crofty1209]

Nice vid Olly, i have done some milling in my time,i would say when you rotatianlly mill you need flat bottom cutters,which cost an arm a leg and a kidney. If you use an inserted cutter,unless you have many psi of coolant,don't bother with a spray. I noticed clamping,maybe it was a camera thing, but the heel of the clamp always needs to be higher than the clamping surface, and when surface milling make sure the swarf goes to the back of the machine ,and not down the front of your t shirt, it really does hurt,not making judgements just saying

[@franciscocerutimahn]

So basically, the Right Tool for the Right Job. Love your channel, hope it gets to 100k subscribers soon!

[@Dalbayob69]

Great video highlighting how important it is to have a right tool for the job. Also that even without a right tool, there is always another way to do it. Never let the customer down and always have great friends around you that you can rely on. Regarding your power supply. I watch Kris Harbour Natural Building, he’s done some great projects for himself and others. Has a lot of knowledge about wind, solar and hydro setups. His own workshop is run on off grid energy that he’s set up himself. Collaboration like that would also make great content for both of your channels.

[@snowballengineering]

Yes, I watch his videos. He’s a clever man

[@alastermacphail5086]

Great job as always ollie, well done 👍

[@ruairitrainor4013]

Someone send this man a new pair of gloves😂..great work mate!!

[@robertstewart7744]

Your a farmers dream it breaks and you fix it. Great job and video.

[@ronsimpson143]

This reminds me of what I learned as a combat engineer in the US Army. Improvise, adapt, and overcome. I always added "And disinfect and deodorize with a fresh, clean scent." My sergeant hated my sense of humor. Sometimes you just have to solve the problem with what you have on hand. I have seen a lot of bad ideas that worked. If it is stupid but works, it ain't stupid. Desperation can be a great motivator. If I had a bigger lathe to give you, I would. Keep up the good work.

[@rosewhite---]

new marking out table looks good!

[@kindabluejazz]

I doubt he's going to be directly welding things down to it like he did with his old table. 🙂

[@davetaylor4741]

Got there in the end. Plan B was ingenious using Starbug. But Plan C saved the day. Must admit I have never seen a grain crusher for cattle. You used to see small versions for horse feed. But I never worked anywhere that fed grain other than brewers grain. All the feed lots for the beef cattle in Australia feed grain. I just didn't come across it working dairy.

[@raymondrobertson3869]

Great video. Just like me never stuck. I did not read all the comments. But you could make a coolant tub and hang it from rafters and gravity feed the coolant. Just saying mate.

[@bobmcdougal738]

Really impressive. You have a great work ethic. Great video thank you.

[@edmondmccudden27]

Sir, you are a genius. Fair play to you.

[@AronRubin]

I am reading your license plate as YOLO...OOW for that haul.

[@royflint3551]

Adapt and overcome! Nice work. 👊

[@olliwhosu5593]

You are a young guy. Young guys do experimental things when they have Problems. It is a Try and Error Thing!😉

[@eppot1]

good 2 hawe friend .. and u did get it done !!

[@BallBusta]

I've gotta say, your mates gantry crane set up is pretty smart. Must make jobs a hell of a lot easier getting it on and off that lathe.

[@BigBoxDodge2020]

I've made a thick U-shaped piece of steel and tapped it. Then I could drop it behind the pulley and then run bolts through the tap holes into the plate in front of it and drive the pulley off. It's worked for me many times.

[@grahambaker9377]

A tried and trusted way to do it

[@petegraham1458]

Nice to have friends with big equipment! We had a feed mill that included both a hammer mill and a rolling mill. I was surprised to see the grooves as ours never had them ? I now understand really how badly they have been worn I wonder if the owner is steam humidifying the grain before rolling if you skip that step we got a lot of cracking and dust that got sucked out the top of the cyclone on the air conveying system. Nice job on the rollers but I think they are going to have to have new cylinders installed to make them durable over the long term.

[@alliiiieeeet]

Not much experience myself with off grid systems, but Victron is the brands with the best reputation for off grid systems.

[@paulhammond7489]

There's usually a plan B, but sometimes you have to think outside the box in order to find it. Well done Olly

[@dennisleadbetter7721]

Hi Oliver, There will always something that doesn't fit the machines we have. But there are always ways around the problem. You just need to be a tad inventive. There is a you tuber called Keith Fenner who is in Cape Cod USA, who 5 years ago he had to line bore the main bearing housings in a 5 cylinder Audi engine. The centre height to the crankshaft was well above the spindle in is Clausing lathe, but his set up could be copied to to do your current project. In basics, he made two bearing supports to carry his line boring bar and mouted those on the bed and mounted the engine block on the lathe carriage. He only had to turn the bearing housings so relatively short turned sections, and he had multiple tool mountings in the line boring bar. In your situation, if you had to bearing mountings (that could be height adjustable for future projects) you could mount those roller shafts in those two mountings, to drive the (line shaft in Keiths) the roller in your instance you would need a drive shaft with two universal joints (one each end) monted in the chuck and to the roller shaft, so the part is now turning as it would in the normal chuck tail centre, you could make a tool holder to take up the height difference to either mount HSS tooling or indexible tooling. If you want to view Keith's videos, this was a multi part project called "Because I Can Part 0ne, Two etc. I hope that is helpful for other projects in the future, Best Wishes, Dennis, Queensland Australia.

[@andyloebrown8250]

Keith Fenner hasn't posted a video for 2 months now. He was most recently working with molten lead, pouring babbitt bearings. Am hoping he didn't have an accident or fall off the wagon.

[@kindabluejazz]

@@andyloebrown8250 Keith posted to Rumble 22 days ago.

[@andyloebrown8250]

@@kindabluejazz oh thats wonderful, thanks.

[@peterwright217]

oh, yeah must be good to use an over-head gantry at the other work place , top job Snow

[@bradanderson1627]

Your N.A.S.A means Need Another Steel Apprentice Great work young man nice work.

[@DaveMHLV]

Hello Oliver, Can I make a suggestion for a “custom made puller” after seeing you struggle, at 6m.30s, trying to get the 4 vee belt pulley moving with a crowbar with a risk of slipping and smashed knuckles? 1-Cut a a U out of a heavy piece of plate to fit behind the pulley. 2-Weld 2 lengths of steel to the plate parallel to the axis. 3-Weld a short piece of steel to the 2 lengths of steel You can now hammer on the short piece in line with the roller axis to get the pulley moving. Design improvements when time allows- 1-replace the long steels with 25 mm studding. 2-fit a slide hammer to the short piece of steel. Hope this idea gets you out of a problem in the future. I discovered your channel a few weeks ago and I am really impressed by the way you solve the problems that crop up on each job by making the tooling/jigs you need, such as the line borer/welder. Looking froward to the next video.

[@ColinLennard]

That's what it is all about - improvision

[@rogercligg4531]

Another 15 out of 10 video and skill

[@BrucePierson]

i guess that's one job done at a loss, but the main thing is that you got the job done for the customer. Good thing you could use that bigger lathe at the other machine shop. It saved the day.

[@kindabluejazz]

I doubt it was a 'loss', just not high profit per hour. Accounting for lost labor in a private business is only valid if you have your time 100% booked at full charge. It may have just cost him a few less hours playing video games. 😲And time spent also goes towards learning for future jobs, which can then be reflected in higher rates with more experience.

[@800Viffer]

Oliver Snowball = The new Baldrick #cunningplan Top work overcoming all the hurdles on this job 👏👏👏👏👏

[@art1muz13]

37:42 If Mr. Musk should happen to see any of your content, he'd beg to differ. You do very good and precise work!

[@georgewalton-b5s]

great video once again

[@rogerhutchings5811]

I run my mill from a rotary converter which originally came from the 🇺🇸 so was 230v 3 phase then as an experiment i found a 415 to 220v step down transformer and reversed it to give me 415v 3 phase its been working near on 20 years so reliability wise it good , only ever run motors of it but always wondered how it would be with a welder

[@gapodo]

Hi Oli, Not trying to “backseat machine”, but had a couple ideas while watching (and ran them by my brother who is a master machinist (as in master tradesman) to check if I’m delusional with my setups or if it would be an “okay” / “ok in a pickle” idea). For the cut depth dilemma you had (checking across the whole length / noticing in the middle) you could have done a cut just on x (without rotating) across the roller in 1 or more orientations (rotating the roller) to check depth, instead of milling the entire circumference of the roller over the entire length. As others have mentioned already, the backlash issue could have been avoided by conventional milling, this would have cut down on your cutting width, but would have likely given you a more consistent cutting load, allowing you to use a drill (e.g. the feed of your line-boring setup or “just a hand drill”) to basically convert the indexer into a driven 4th axis. Once you have that, cut width becomes less of an issue, and you could have used your auto-feed in X to spiral your way down the roller. Having an “auto-feed” 4th axis would (at least if speed was adjustable, e.g. by using the line-boring feed motor) have also allowed you to mill the spiral groves across the roller by slowing down the rotation and then auto-feeding across in X. An option for your cutter issue would have been to use the shell mill with the Y-axis offset, so you are cutting on the “Y corner” of the cutter. Since the cutter is fairly large, you could have gotten away with a fairly wide cut, while still being “flat enough”. The increased number of engaged teeth would have equalized cutting forces and the cutting forces would have been in one direction, rather than mixed as they were with the end mill running on center and cutting full width. Another option would have been to use the shell mill on the side (the long 45° edge of the inserts roughly tangent to the roller, the cutter “behind” and below the top of the roller), cut width would have been smaller, but like conventional milling your cutting force would have been in a constant direction. PS.: do yourself a favor and when you’ve got a minute flip your indexer spacer around and add matching keys to the bottom for future setups and write down / knock out a small fixture / guide for positioning the tail stock, if you are planing on using the setup occasionally (the amount of setup work required often dictates which solutions you are willing to use / are worthwhile and reducing the dread of “having to use” a setup is key...)

[@alanrichardmiller7416]

🙏🙏🙏. A new, bigger lathe !!

[@kennethney4260]

You should be able to use VFDs (variable frequency drives) for things like your plasma cutter, lathes etc. They're pretty cheap too

[@MarkDurbin]

Another video showing your ingenuity. thanks! "I'm not making parts for spacecraft" - YET

[@frfrpr]

Great video! Super filming.