Subject: One of those days (long)

From: [email-masked] (Edward Haas)
Date: 15 Jun 1996 08:05:04 -0700

OK, here's the problem: I've been using a stepper motor to drive 
the X-axis leadscrew on my Bridgeport, but it finally up and died. It 
looks like one of the reasons might have been a creeping misalignment 
which, transmitted through a funky U-joint coupling, caused an 
intermittent side load that nuked the motor. The solution: replace funky 
coupling with something nice like a helical coupling.
	 OK, I go to the bin and find one, but it's got a bore that's 
undersized by .062in. So-- how to hold it to drill it out accurately? 
It's kinda floppy, so it can't be just chucked in the lathe and turned. 
	I decided to slip it in to a closely-bored piece of pipe, hold it 
in place with setscrews and put the pipe in the lathe chuck (jaws only 
stick out about 3/4in.; the pipe sticks out 4in. to hold all of coupling) 
and then bore. Well, the pipe is under-sized by about .010in. and I 
realized that Idon't have a boring bar holder that will fit the Omni-Post 
on my Myford, so first I had to make a boring bar holder. 
	I grab the barstock to make the holder, turn on the saw and realize 
that it's been so long since I cleaned it that the filter is plugged and the 
pump hose is cracked with age. It was Sunday so I had to wait a day to get a 
$.50 piece of hose. Cleaning the saw and getting it working right took 
a day, doing it in 2-minute increments (the part-changing rate of a CNC 
job I was running at the time...). 
	Got the part cut, layed out and started whittling. One feature of 
the holder is a big hole in the back, where it mounts on the Omni-post. 
It took 4 hours of rummaging to find the boring head (in 2-minute 
increments).
	Got the part bored, drilled and tapped the clamping bolt hole, 
then sawed the split and got all clamped onto the lathe, where I intended 
to mount a center-drill in the chuck, then creep up on it with the 
toolholder mounted on the compound, in order to spot the center of the 
hole to be made for the boring bar. I flip the drum switch and smoke 
comes out: it's dead. $77.- for a new switch that had 3 poles to a side: 
the only one available in town, that the guy at the counter said would 
work fine; sorry no refunds (the old one had 4 poles to a side). 
	Couldn't figure out how to wire the thing up, so took motor off 
of lathe and down to electrician with new switch, to get all wired up 
correctly: the electrician had left for the day, since there wasn't 
enough work. Next day, after dropping another $81.- for the wiring, I took 
all back to the shop, but getting the motor bolted to the swinging mounting 
plate as a 4-handed job. Waited to sweetie got back from the market and 
had her pry up with a 4-ft. long 1x2 wedged underneath the motor while I 
tightened the bolts. Got all aligned and back together in only 2 days.   
	Spotted the hole and got the boring bar hole bored just right. 
Put all together and mounted the pipe, ready for boring last night.
	The moral of the story: routine maintenance is a good thing and 
knowing where everything is helps a bit, too: I'm setting up a table in 
Word that has the name of all of my tooling and their *exact* location 
indicated. Hope I remember to update the data... *Maybe* I'll get that 
$158.50 hole drilled tonight... Still, I wish I'd bought the correct 
coupling to begin with...
-- 
	"Steamboat Ed" Haas	:	When fortune proves elusive, 	
	COMING SOON		:	Concentrate on fame...
	http://www.west.net/~steamer  	
		---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

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From: [email-masked](Dale A. Keltie )
Date: 17 Jun 1996 00:29:21 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Edward Haas) writes:

<snip>

We have 4 to 5 Mondays per week in our shop too.

Regards,
Dale

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From: [email-masked] (Jim Shockey)
Date: 17 Jun 1996 07:54:01 -0700

In article <[email-masked]> PPIERCE <[email-masked]> writes:

>Edward Haas wrote:

[delete recounting of typical 35 minute shop maintenance task.)

>We probably all have a day like that occasionally, Ed.
>I'm not laughing...!

Yes, we probably all have a day like that occasionally, Ed 
and Paul. But, I'm laughing...! Sometimes it's the only way 
to keep from crying. (In two-minute increments.)

Take care,

--jim			<[email-masked]>

"Knowledge is power."
	-- Francis Bacon

"B-B-B-Bacon is b-b-b-bad for you."
	--Porky Pig

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From: PPIERCE <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1996 10:30:38 -0700

Paul in AJ AZ

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 1996 18:40:24

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Edward Haas) writes:
<snip>
>coupling to begin with...

Great saga...how true....yup, the actual part making time is 13.9 minutes
and the associated looking/checking/finding/setup is 47.2 minutes!
Thanks for your post.

You know you are getting old when
1.	you can't find the thing within 10 seconds
2.	halfway through your search you find something else and promptly
		forget what you were first looking for!

:-)    :-)   :-)