Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Boring-head lathe tailstock adapter (MT3)

I bought a boring head that takes a threaded 1 1/2" - 18 tpi adapter. I wanted a MT3 adapter so I could put it in the lathe tailstock. Because I'm "frugal" I opted to make it myself. 

  • I used a 1" mild steel piece for the taper and a 2nd piece welded on for the large threaded portion. I failed to take a picture at that point, but I turned an alignment nub on the end of the rod that matched center drill on ~2 diameter x 2" larger rod. 
  • Using that alignment, I welded them together.

This is where the pictures start, 2 rods welded together and roughed out:

1.5-18" threads cut:

The weld looks terrible. Either I was having shielding gas problems, or the 2" diameter stock is a leaded free machining stock, or ????
The final product:

I turned the taper by setting the compound angle to match an existing MT3 part and only advancing via the compound feed.

Monday, December 3, 2018

Bosh mid-drive chainring tool

Bosch mid-drive e-bikes use a goofy Bosch proprietary wrench to hold the front chainring on.
Rather than spend $60 on a tool I used $4K worth of machine tools to make my own.

I traced what was needed onto paper, and then transferred that to a steel slug. The milling was done manually and largely by eye. The final fit required a lot of filing. Since then, I've acquired a rotary table, so would be able to by much more accurate.





A bell for the holidays

At some point since my daughter was born I ended up binge watching all of youtube. I was inspired by Torbjörn Åhman's bell he shows here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xfND9OWKiM
Here I present my version. I basically followed his method, save I used the edge of the anvil rather than a power hammer.



I will be making a guillotine style fuller after doing this on the edge of the anvil. I anticipate the fuller will be much easier to keep aligned.

Spring fuller

This is a spring fuller made from 3/8" mild steel, mig welded to a 3" length of 1" square stock.

The loopy part was hammered to about 2/3 the thickness of the round bar to make it more springy.
I've been using it for at least a year now, and tt has worked well. The work facing parts have held up. The hammered on surface has started to deform from repeated whacking.

Allen wrench "roll"

I got a set of new Allen wrenches that came without a tool roll. I don't like the stand up type of tool holders, as I tend to take my tools to where I am working.

The side and top flaps snap down to keep the wrenches from falling out.
Each pocket is separate cut of fabric that was serged and then top stitched as a pile.




Next time, I would make the extra fabric in the middle larger so that it folds flat. As it is, it's sort of ghetto looking. But hey, it works.