Making a crankshaft

[toprecycler]

Not sure if boss charges a premium for this lathe or not. But he had figured it would take me a full day plus to do this rod. I did it in just over half a day. I was thinking that it probably should be charged and extra premium, since we usually only use it 1-2 times a year.

This year I set a goal to use it once a month. I’m putting the date on the machine each time I use it. I think I’ve used it 6 times this year so far. For some reason, my co-machinist does not want to use it, if possible.

Basically, spending time cleaning it up, so I can read the feed change tags, and downloading a manual for it, so I learned the little features of it has paid off in learning to use it efficiently.

The old guys used to have to power it off, coast to a stop, then reverse the motor to return the carriage when threading.

I learned that when you turn on the separate Quick traverse / coolant motor, I can thread to when I want to stop, turn in the cross slide to remove thread tool from the cut, and pull up on quick transverse lever and the carriage will move back to wherever I want very quickly, and then will drop back into the gear to start threading the next pass again.

This was the first time I ever used the turret slide, using the # 6 Morse taper for drilling the hole up to 2-1/2” diameter ( largest drill I have at work) I still haven’t figured out how to rotated the turret to other positions yet, not that I really need to, I just want to see the whole machine operating like it can.

We have talked about making a crane and attaching it to one of the turrets spots so I can more easily load bigger cylinders into the lathe from the front side so I don’t need to try to use the fork lift .
I have bosses permission to get it built someday, when it slows down.


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[greywynd]

Some turrets advance when you crank them back, they hit a stop internally then advance to the next spot.

That machine is pretty new compared to the old south bends in my garage. The 9” south bend junior is likely late 1920’s, and my larger one is pre WWII. Don’t recall the exact year now. It was originally a line shaft driven machine.


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[arizonian]

I've never oxy/acet cut something that thick, and I've never cut something close to a diameter half that thickness without using some kind of preheat. What size of tip was he using? How much oxy pressure? Boggles my mind they got it cut at all. Guess not their first rodeo.

[Ironman]

Originally Posted by greywynd

Some turrets advance when you crank them back, they hit a stop internally then advance to the next spot.

That machine is pretty new compared to the old south bends in my garage. The 9” south bend junior is likely late 1920’s, and my larger one is pre WWII. Don’t recall the exact year now. It was originally a line shaft driven machine.


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I was thinking the same thing..."Top,what is wrong with that machine?" I can see the problem if it was inaccurate. Now my lathe is newer than Mark's, being 1974, maybe and is an international wonder. Cast in India, machined in Poland, and shipped to the Mysore Kirloskar company to assemble and sell.

I worked in a machine shop where the 14 ft lathe could only be run by one man. The thing would cut a 50 thou taper in 8 inches and this guy had it down to an art as he slowly turned the crossfeed while machining and he could cut a perfect shaft without taper. They were unable to adjust the taper out of it.

[Ironman]

Originally Posted by arizonian

I've never oxy/acet cut something that thick, and I've never cut something close to a diameter half that thickness without using some kind of preheat. What size of tip was he using? How much oxy pressure? Boggles my mind they got it cut at all. Guess not their first rodeo.

A #6 tip should cut 3 inch like nothing. Did you notice the oxygen bottles all ganged together in the beginning where he is cutting the ship crank? That's the real issue with a big tip.
They are designed for laminar flow at probably no more than 60 psi but will freeze up the bottle due to high volume flow.
I have a 2.5" heating rosebud and when heating and bending 3.5 x 7" material, I had to heat the bottle with a 1500 watt heater to keep the valve and regulator from freezing.

[toprecycler]

Originally Posted by Ironman

I was thinking the same thing..."Top,what is wrong with that machine?" I can see the problem if it was inaccurate. Now my lathe is newer than Mark's, being 1974, maybe and is an international wonder. Cast in India, machined in Poland, and shipped to the Mysore Kirloskar company to assemble and sell.

I worked in a machine shop where the 14 ft lathe could only be run by one man. The thing would cut a 50 thou taper in 8 inches and this guy had it down to an art as he slowly turned the crossfeed while machining and he could cut a perfect shaft without taper. They were unable to adjust the taper out of it.

Not really much wrong with it. It does have a quirk of making a wierd groove when facing off the end. I’ve tightened up the gibs, but haven’t solved that issue yet.

It is just so big, and moving the carriage will wear you out quickly. Until I learned about the quick traverse motor. That makes it much more appealing to run.


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[digger doug]

Originally Posted by Ironman

A #6 tip should cut 3 inch like nothing. Did you notice the oxygen bottles all ganged together in the beginning where he is cutting the ship crank? That's the real issue with a big tip.
They are designed for laminar flow at probably no more than 60 psi but will freeze up the bottle due to high volume flow.
I have a 2.5" heating rosebud and when heating and bending 3.5 x 7" material, I had to heat the bottle with a 1500 watt heater to keep the valve and regulator from freezing.

Yup. My goto for oxy cutting, Airco manual from 1940's

FWIW the section on heavy cutting does mention preheating the part, but the examples I posted don't mention it.

---------------------------------------------------
Laminar flow, I changed over to Koike Hi-speed tips, they run at 100 psi:
https://www.koike.com/oxy-fuel-cutting-tips
https://www.shopfloortalk.com/forums...ighlight=koike

[Scotts]

Originally Posted by toprecycler

Not really much wrong with it. It does have a quirk of making a wierd groove when facing off the end. I’ve tightened up the gibs, but haven’t solved that issue yet.

It is just so big, and moving the carriage will wear you out quickly. Until I learned about the quick traverse motor. That makes it much more appealing to run.


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What machine is it?

The turret usually advances when you crank the handle all the way right.

There are also stops that look like a gatling gun on the back of some of them so stops can be set for each position.

We ran parts on a #3 or #5 Warner swasey where we did not use all the turret positions. You could roll back to a neutral position and spin the turret in any direction and roll in and it would click in where you wanted it to be straight in.

Look and see if something is keeping you from rotating the turret all the way back to get it to index.

Scott

[toprecycler]

Originally Posted by Scotts

What machine is it?

The turret usually advances when you crank the handle all the way right.

There are also stops that look like a gatling gun on the back of some of them so stops can be set for each position.

We ran parts on a #3 or #5 Warner swasey where we did not use all the turret positions. You could roll back to a neutral position and spin the turret in any direction and roll in and it would click in where you wanted it to be straight in.

Look and see if something is keeping you from rotating the turret all the way back to get it to index.

Scott

I do not know exact model off hand, but it is a “Libby” 10” thru bore. I think has about a 36” swing. Probably a 5-6’ bed for work.

I had downloaded a manual / sales brochure from vintage machine tools ( Kieth Rucker’s) site that made me aware of the quick traverse feature. I need to look over it again and see if I missed anything.

I guess one reason we don’t necessarily go to this machine first is the size of it. Only a four jaw Chuck, and the Chuck key is about 24” long. Each time I rotate the Chuck, I think I am spinning the big wheel on price is right. Takes a bit of effort to get something dialed in. But it will take a heavy cut for sure.


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[Scotts]

Originally Posted by toprecycler

I do not know exact model off hand, but it is a “Libby” 10” thru bore. I think has about a 36” swing. Probably a 5-6’ bed for work.

I had downloaded a manual / sales brochure from vintage machine tools ( Kieth Rucker’s) site that made me aware of the quick traverse feature. I need to look over it again and see if I missed anything.

I guess one reason we don’t necessarily go to this machine first is the size of it. Only a four jaw Chuck, and the Chuck key is about 24” long. Each time I rotate the Chuck, I think I am spinning the big wheel on price is right. Takes a bit of effort to get something dialed in. But it will take a heavy cut for sure.


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That,,,, is a monster for sure.

Scott