First Project - Machinist Jacks
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After getting my lathe setup
(See Pics), I decided to
make a set of four machinist jacks from the back of
Doug Briney's book: Home Machinist's Handbook.
Here are some pictures along the way.
You can click on the thumbnail to get a larger version of the picture,
and you can click on the larger version to get the full size image.
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After Facing
This is the starting point: a piece of 3/4" hex rod of 12L14 steel, cut
with a hacksaw and faced on the lathe to a 3/4" length.
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First Taper
This is what they looked like after center drilling and tapping. The first
one has had the 15 degree taper added (Hmmm added a taper by removing metal :)
I used a 17/64" drill (a bit under the proper "I" size) and tapped with
a 5/16-24 tap.
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First Taper
The last pic was a bit blurry but had the correct color. This one is in
better focus but the color was changed by the light I was using. In order
to get the pieces held in the 3 jaw chuck, I aligned the jaws so that one
was facing straight up. I then placed two pieces of 1/4" HSS tool bit on
the lower two jaws and put my piece on that. IMPORTANT: After tightening the
jaws, slide the tool bits out. You don't want those flying out at you when
the jaws start moving! This left enough room for the lathe bit to cut the
taper. Also, before turning the lathe on, make sure that the cross slide
won't be hit by the jaws when your tool bit is close to the jaws. I made
this mistake and wondered why the jaws stopped moving when the lathe bit
got close (but not touching). I now have a couple of little gashes on my
cross slide to remind me. Fortunately, the speed was fairly slow (around
400 RPM), so nothing serious happened. A lesson well learned!
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All Tapered
Here they are, all tapered, with the bolt heads faced and cleaned up. I
couldn't get the bolt heads to come out with a clean finish on the lathe,
so I used a good old fashioned file, followed by a few swipes with some
varying grades of sandpaper. I used 320, 600, and 800 grit sandpapers (one
after the other) and wound up with a pretty nice finish. The second and
forth bodies from the left were sanded on the lathe. The first and third
ones were left as-is.
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All Tapered
Another view. The bolt head that's second in from the left was the first
one I did. I kept trying different things trying to get a smooth finish on
the lathe. With the last three, I just took off the lettering and bumps
and finished as described in the previous picture.
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Closeup
Here's a closeup of one of the jacks. I think I got too much flash (from
the camera).
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Oil Finish
I went to the gas station and picked up some 20W-50 oil. I dipped the bases
in the oil and cooked them on my barbeque for about 30 minutes. This is
what you get.
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Oil Finish Closeup
Here's a closeup of one of the jacks with the oil finish. I found out
afterwards that the color had nothing to do with the oil, but rather is this
is the temper color of steel that's been heated to 400-500 degrees F.
Sometime in the future, I'll heat these up to a dull red and quench in used
motor oil to give them a black finish.
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