Needed to make a couple of stub axles for the wheels on the bandsaw table I am making. All a bit of a voyage of discovery as haven't really had a lot of time to play with the lathe since I got it a couple of years back, so was quite a nice learning project.
Had some EN16T (at least thats what I think it is going by bright finish and white paint on the end
) in 30mm.
Drilled some 25mm holes in the legs and the idea was to turn the rod down to 25mm, leaving a shoulder that would locate on the outside of the leg.
Then turn it down to 19mm which is the bore of the cast iron wheel, before ending with a M12 thread. I was going to weld in the stub axle but didn't fancy that in the end so by playing with the length of the various shoulders I have managed to mechanically fix and leave enough clearance so the wheel turns freely but doesn't wobble.
First challenge was turning the EN16T. Spent a wee while trying to work out speeds and feeds - not something I have every done before
.
I couldn't find a SFM for EN16 but as it is a bit harder than mild steel I reckoned on about 70-100? I was turning a 30mm bar so figured somewhere in the 200-300 rpm. The other imponderable was the feed speed.
I initially started it at what I thought was quite slow but it was just creating ridges/threads until I realised I was using the rapid transverse (or whatever it is called)
. Once I engaged the leadscrew feed at about .005"/rev it all started to come together.....
That was after grinding about 6 different HSS profiles before I got any that worked/were sharp enough.
So, 2 hours later and I could actually start turning the stub axle
- great learning experience though.
This was the chip when pushing a bit to hard/fast
And once I had it dialled in a bit better got them coming out like this with a 20 thou DOC
Even started to understand the value of chipbreakers as I dissapeared in a birdsnest of hot steel!
Eventually got the stub turned down and was quite pleased with the finish. Not polished but pretty smooth and way better than previous attempts
And after a beer even had time to clean down the shop ready to turn the other one tomorrow
Cheers,
MM
Had some EN16T (at least thats what I think it is going by bright finish and white paint on the end
) in 30mm. Drilled some 25mm holes in the legs and the idea was to turn the rod down to 25mm, leaving a shoulder that would locate on the outside of the leg.
Then turn it down to 19mm which is the bore of the cast iron wheel, before ending with a M12 thread. I was going to weld in the stub axle but didn't fancy that in the end so by playing with the length of the various shoulders I have managed to mechanically fix and leave enough clearance so the wheel turns freely but doesn't wobble.
First challenge was turning the EN16T. Spent a wee while trying to work out speeds and feeds - not something I have every done before
.I couldn't find a SFM for EN16 but as it is a bit harder than mild steel I reckoned on about 70-100? I was turning a 30mm bar so figured somewhere in the 200-300 rpm. The other imponderable was the feed speed.
I initially started it at what I thought was quite slow but it was just creating ridges/threads until I realised I was using the rapid transverse (or whatever it is called)
. Once I engaged the leadscrew feed at about .005"/rev it all started to come together.....That was after grinding about 6 different HSS profiles before I got any that worked/were sharp enough.
So, 2 hours later and I could actually start turning the stub axle
- great learning experience though.This was the chip when pushing a bit to hard/fast
And once I had it dialled in a bit better got them coming out like this with a 20 thou DOC
Even started to understand the value of chipbreakers as I dissapeared in a birdsnest of hot steel!
Eventually got the stub turned down and was quite pleased with the finish. Not polished but pretty smooth and way better than previous attempts
And after a beer even had time to clean down the shop ready to turn the other one tomorrow
Cheers,
MM
