Subject: cutting stock

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 01:11:08 GMT

Hi,

I';ve been reading the Home Shop Machinists Handbook and thinking
about buying a Sherline lathe.  There are a series of projects at the
back of the book that go from basic to more difficult.  The fist
project is a pair of punches made out of 1/4" high-carbon hex stock.

Two questions...

1. Where do I find this material?

2. How do I cut it to 4.o6 inches as they recommend?  Is a hacksaw go

     enough?

The first operation is to face the end.  The .06 inches is left for
cleanup cuts, facing etc. 

Any help will be greatly appreciated...

Lou

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From: PPIERCE <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 21:49:58 -0700

> Any help will be greatly appreciated...

1.  Try one of the suppliers who advertise in HSM.

2.  4.06 inches is probably 4-1/16.  Just rounded to two decimal points.  You could
    cut it to 5" if you want some facing practice. 

3.  I understand that Sherline puts out a nice book.

4.  Check out the Web Pages for Morton Machinery and/or Jim Harvey Racing Engines.
    They are both Sherline dealers.

5.  Subscribe to HSM and others...

Paul in AJ AZ

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---

From: [email-masked] (Jonathan M. Elson)
Date: 5 Jul 1996 05:40:14 GMT

[email-masked] wrote:
: I';ve been reading the Home Shop Machinists Handbook and thinking
: about buying a Sherline lathe.  There are a series of projects at the
: back of the book that go from basic to more difficult.  The fist
: project is a pair of punches made out of 1/4" high-carbon hex stock.

: 1. Where do I find this material?

You need to find a metal supplier.  We have some good ones in St. Louis,
but I'm sure there is one near you, too.  This is the sales end of the
metals scrap yard, which buys up odds and ends from large machine shops.
The junk pieces that they cut off the end of a long piece of stock is
a great piece for our stock shelf.

: 2. How do I cut it to 4.06 inches as they recommend?  Is a hacksaw good
:      enough?

Don't try to go for a dimension like this with a hack saw (or even a
band-saw).  Leave 1/4" or so excess, and face it down with the lathe on
both ends.  When both ends are faced clean, with no saw marks left
visible, then remove the workpiece and measure.  Now you know how much
you need to remove.  Chuck back into the lathe, and advance the tool
toward the end of the work until it just begins to cut a hair-thin chip.
Call that 'zero', and now advance the tool in stages and face off more
material until you have advanced the compound an amount equal to the
excess measured above.  You can routinely do this exercise to about
+/- .002".
(To put actual measurements on it, suppose final dimension is to be 4.000".
You measure after facing both ends and get 4.156".
You need to remove 0.156" from either end.
Rechuck and advance until a threadlike chip appears, and you observe
  the compound dial reads 33, and on your machine a full turn on the
  compound moves the slide .100".
Make several facing cuts, advancing the compound each time by an amount
  that gives good cutting, and come back around to 33 again - you've now
  removed .100".  Now, you have .056" left to go.  33 plus 56 = 89, and
  this won't pass zero, so continue cutting until you get close to 89, say
  make 79 your last roughing pass.  Then advance to dial reading 89, and
  make a last pass.
Your rod should now measure 4.000" plus or minus a thousandth of an inch
  or so.

I do this sort of thing all the time.  Don't try to save a few thousandths
of stock.  It is not worth wasting the whole piece!  And you can't keep a
hand held hacksaw cut straight within an eighth of an inch most of the
time.  Leave a good allowance for wander when you cut off a piece of
stock.

Of course, if this is Iridium bar stock, then you wouldn't want to waste
any, but you wouldn't be cutting it with a hack saw, either.  I'd like to
know what the writer of the Sherline manual had in mind when he
recommended rough-cutting stock to .060" precision.  Maybe he meant to
cut the stock off ON THE LATHE!  You can do this with a parting-off tool.
Long pieces of stock hanging out through the headstock can be a hazard,
however.  Thin rods can flail around suddenly and be a real danger.