gardening, self-sufficiency, homesteading, food preserves diary
Blog documenting progress in transforming new property (50 acres - mostly wooded) into garden-farmette . Trying to become more self-sufficient and more self-aware.
The socket head bolts came in so I installed them and cut them to length. The collets also came in this week so I chucked a couple in and gave the new chuck a spin! Works great! I much prefer the ER collets to the 5C's (and 5V's on the mill) that I have.
New metric (M8-1.25x40) socket head bolts installed (and cut to fit lengthwise)
ER32 Collet in the chuck - fits nice!
Video of Chuck construction and running for first time!
Shop lights
I finally got around to putting up some of the LED shop lights that I have had for about a year now! I dearly needed more light around the lathe and the mill! Now I have it.
Wow! Such a difference! I can SEE!
Its like a new shop! Except now I can see how bad the walls look!
Also, now I can see how dusty everything is!
TIG welding!
I managed to stop by Roberts Oxygen in Frederick Maryland on the way up to the farm. I got some E70S2 filler rod and a small tank of argon. the filler rod I had ordered off ebay didn't get to me yet. But I didn't feel bad about buying it at Roberts since I will always need more!
"consumables" that came with TIG. 3 different size collets, a collet closer, and 3 different diffuser cups - I think 4, 5 and 6
This is still setup with the plasma cutter - but the connections are very similar
Just a front shot of the combo unit
They don't get great reviews - but so far its done everything I need it for!
Here is the TIG torch with a "red" tungsten tip in it. I sharpened it myself on the grinder.
Its a "New Century" WP-26. New Century is a Chinese brand and WP-26 is the size designation. This is air cooled torch. WP26 is a larger torch from what i have read. But by no means the largest. Size actually isn't necessarily a good thing - it makes it hard to reach into places!
See the "New Cent" logo?
Here is the cute lil argon cylinder connected up! I had to get a hose clamp to connect it to the welding hose - the little clip they sent let it leak!
Notice that this flow meter is calibrated in L/min? I didn't at first - I was assuming it was cfh! I was blowing holes in my work!
Connected up and ready to go! I wasn't sure how much Argon I would be using so I got this small unit. I figure if I need more I can always trade up. Small cylinder is easy to move around!
TIG welding requires very clean metal and close-in work so I set up this table in the shop.
I put a chair in the - it helps a lot! but can't see the work that well - even with the halogen lights I set up nearby (you can see the glare from the lights in the picture)
The torch, in between tip sharpenings! I went through about 1 inch of a tungsten electrode during the weekend. I am not sure how much argon. So far though, I am not alarmed at materials usage.
Some of my first tries at drawing a bead! Yes, the metal was clean when i started!
I tried left and right handed. There is a surprising amount to keep track of when you are doing this! Besides the settings for argon flow and amps there is the torch angle and filler rod feed rate and tip "extension" from the cup.
I got tired of cleaning metal so i just used some old bolts
Some of these beads aren't as bad as they look - I hammered on some afterwards to see if that black was scale of just dirty metal.
On the right there you can see that I actually welded these two bolts together. The welds are surprisingly strong!
Bottom line: I need MUCH more practice! I am watching youtube videos like crazy and learning a lot. However, nothing but practice will get the hand steadiness that I will need to get good welds.
More orchard care
I got out the pole-trimming tool and went to work on the orchard. I did all of the high cuts and some of the low cuts on a few trees I didn't get to last time. Actually, I didn't get to the peaches at all last time - and peaches take a lot of trimming! I finally got to the spraying of the dormant oil and realized I needed to remove the plastic protectors to spray the trunks. Worked out fine though as a way of marking which trees I had sprayed. I would remove the protector just as I sprayed the tree. When I was done spraying the trees and grapevines I went back and gathered up all the protectors. The next day I sprayed the cherry trees and removed their protectors.
I was in a rush of sorts to get this done since the weather report says we are going to have a warm week and the trees might take damage if I do this too late this year!
Septic field concerns
While looking for some papers earlier this week, I found the septic field layout that the original inspectors drew up for us when we bought the farm!
The drawing shows some interesting things.
I tried to layout some markers on the ground to get a better Idea which trees I would need to move.
See the little white "baton" in the upper left of this picture? On the ground. That's about where the distribution box is for the septic drain lines.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out where the individual lines were - I think that this is close to where one of them is. (the yellow measuring tape on the ground)
Overall, it looks like I really only need to move the lower 2 sweet cherry trees! I will move them all - the lower two are the biggest anyway - the upper ones should be an easier move. I am considering moving some of the sour cherry trees too - but from my understanding - sour cherry trees are all "dwarf" and maybe wont send roots so far... I will do more thinking about this.
I got some new equipment in this week. New ER32 collet chuck, a spin indexer (with tail stock), a whole set of 5C collets for the spin-indexer, and a backplate to attach the collet chuck to the lathe. The backplate was for an 8" 3-jaw chuck but it had the correct spindle thread and size and it was a bargain at $36! So I figured I would just machine it down to size!
ER32 collet chuck. Only 100mm across. ER is a European standard so everything is metric on this chuck. This is the back of the chuck showing the registration depression and 3 threaded holes.
Here is the back plate on the lathe ready to machine! I didn't have to bore the hub this time - it just fit perfectly! Look closely and you can see the pencil mark showing the part of this backplate that I plan on keeping!
Here is the chuck held up to the backplate to get an idea of how much I would have to machine. Quite a bit!
Here I am with a cut-off tool making a deep groove in the plate. No reason to turn down all that material. I figured I would just cut through it!
Well, here is the thing.. The radius of this cut is tight enough to impeded the cutoff tool. So I had switch back and forth with a boring bar and the cut-off tool. It took a couple of hours to finally get through. Not to mention wearing one cut-off tool to the point where it will need to be reground!
Wooohooo! finally through! Just got to clean it up now.
Here it is with the registration hub all ready to go! I fit it damn near perfectly. The backplate and chuck match on this registration hub - no wiggle at all!
Side view.
The chuck test-fitted on the backplate! No Wiggles!
Closeup showing some defects in the casting! It worried me at first, but I think it will be ok.
I was having phone-battery issues again so I missed some of the pictures of hand-drilling the three holes into the backplate as well as pictures of removing the backplate using the old "bolt a piece of angle iron to the backplate and put it in reverse" trick! Sheesh! Those spindle threads really hold those things on!
Oh, and the joy of trying to hand drill the holes! I couldn't remove the backplate without having some kind of way of holding it. Therefore I had to drill the holes with the backplate in-place on the lathe spindle! Since the bolt holes in the chuck are metric, I had to go to the hardware store to get some M8-1.25x45mm screws.. They didn't have socket head screws - the only thing they had that would fit were hex-head bolts. I wanted the screws to feed through from the backplate to the chuck since the chuck already had the threaded holes. This approach was also best because it allowed me to drill (and file and generally mangle) the bolt holes oversized to give me wiggle room for my half-assed hand-drill job. I had to fiddle with the bolt holes for hours (it felt like it anyway). The holes look like crap and are sloppy as hell, but remember, the bolts are not what gives the chuck accuracy. The bolts are just to clamp the backplate to the chuck. The registration hub is what accuracy, and it fits perfectly!
The hex-head bolts in the backplate. I sharpened up one of the M8's that I got to use it as a center-transfer. That part worked fine. It was the sloppy hand-drill job that got me upset.
Looking at the back of the backplate here
See all of that space there around the bolt? Good thing the bolts are just for clamping and not alignment!
The chuck and backplate bolted together as best I can.
The hex-head bolts won't clear the hub of the backplate! Socket-head bolts will though. I ordered some nice socket-head M8-1.25x45mm from boltdepot. I hope to have them soon - I can't use this chuck until I get those bolts!
The next task was the cleanup of all of that damned iron-sand! UGH. I spent hours cleaning the lathe and vacuuming up all that crap! I noticed that quite a bit of the swarf got into the cross-feed screw compartment. I thought maybe that was what was causing a difficult to move feed.
On a side note, I tried using the powerfeed in high-gear and it made a HELL of a sound - I thought for sure that I had broken a gear. Thankfully, the sound I think is what the manual refers to as "clicking". The lathe has a safety feature to protect the gears when the powerfeed is overtaxed. Somehow the big gear that transfers power to the powerfeed box will "slip" thus protecting the gears from damage. I don't know how this works - maybe a big coiled spring or something?
In anycase, the cross-slide feed is hard as hell to turn. After cleaning and lubing it was still hard to move. So I decided to explore... I removed the cross slide feed handle and found that there are 3-spring loaded balls behind it! Fortunately, I didn't loose them! I did learn how to remove (some) slack in the cross-feed screw. I removed some, but not all. After the handle came off then I pulled out the dial. I needed a gear puller and as I was removing it from the cross-feed shaft I noticed that there was a bunch of gook on the gear of the cross-feed to powerfeed connection. I scraped it off and also filed some rust from the surfaces between the indicator dial and the hand dial. I cleaned everything with brake cleaner an even figured out a cleaver way of putting those balls back into the back of the feed handle! It moves a bit better now. I tried the powerfeed in high again and it didn't make the clicking sound and the feed stayed engaged. So thats something. Someday I will get the courage to dismantle the apron!
Spin-Indexer
I watched a video on youtube where a guy showed a spin-indexer that I thought would be useful in my shop. The indexer on ebay was very affordable. I got the indexer and tail stock for $88! Another youtube video shows a way of making index plates for a spin-indexer - so that might be a project down the road!
In the meantime, a little cleanup. One youtube video pointed out the utility of having the sides of the indexer trued up in order to make setup easier in some situations. Sounds like a good idea, especially for someone like me with no DRO or extravagant equipment.
Cheap Spin-indexer and tail-stock
Going to straighten up the sides of the indexer to provide more straight and flat surfaces to indicate off of during setups.
The face and bottom of the indexer are guarenteed flat and true. Holding it in the vise this way and using an indicator to be sure the faces are true to the spindle allows me to mill the painted edges off true.
I made a short YouTube video of the experience. I cut out the part where I made the mistake. I have to make a point (or make some notes) to use the mill more frequently so that I remember to check certain key points - like making sure the tool is seated in the collet correctly - and making sure that the collet is seated in the spindle correctly. Oh, and of course, making sure to use the dial gauges to make sure everything is true and flat and that the VISE IS TIGHTENED before making a cut!
Video showing the Van Norman 12 in operation!
Nice finish!
Trying to focus in on the flaw. Lower left corner. Someone didn't tighten the vise during one of the cuts...
As a boon, because I removed about 1/4"-5/8" off the width of this base, I am now able to mount the indexer in my table vise in either direction - which I wasn't able to before milling! Sweet!
Set-screw removal
I had been having trouble with a couple of set screws on the lathe last weekend. One was on a shaft in the powerfeed and the other was on the spindle handlewheel. I am not sure what the set screws are for on the handwheel - there are four of them and they seem to be holding in some springs. I got one out part way and could not get it to go back in all the way. After stripping the socket-head hex connector I had no recourse but to try a screw-extractor to get it out. I have never used a screw-extractor before - so it was an experience. I drilled out the screw and tried the extractor... MANY times. The extractor seemed to have a hard time engaging the screw. I finally drilled the entire way through the screw and THEN the extractor was able to grab! I got out the screw! YAY. It was a set-screw - 1/4"-20TPI .5 inch screw. I used a tap to chase the thread. Now just have to get another screw. Hmm - wonder what happened to the spring?
Tree-trimming
It was still very wet out in the fields but where the apple trees and grapes are was dry enough to get around. I trimmed all of the grapes and most of the apple and pear trees. I didn't do much with the peaches. I wasn't able to reach the tops to trim - I will have to go over them again with the pole trimmer. After trimming I plan to spray them all with dormant oil.
