Sherline Lathe - Workpiece Centering Device

I picked up a cool idea from the CNCCookbook check out the video to see how it's used.

Centering a piece that is too short to get a good grip in the 3 jaw can take way too long.

For the Sherline it needed to be small unlike our friend from the Cookbook. I have used the little bearings from my router bits in the past; they seem to be a great size for smaller work and are readily available. 

These little guys are 1/2" x 3/16, I found a little shoulder bolt, made some modifications to it and mounted onto a 1/4 square piece of stock. After is was all assembled I bent the end up until the bearing was on CL with the lathe axis. A cool 45min. project.

Drill press Tool Caddy

I've been using Grandpa Carbone's drill-press since I inherited it about 25 years ago. It's a Craftsman, King-Seeley from the early 50's made right here in Michigan.The War supplied a huge amount of over capacity and I suppose this was one of the results.

I had over the years duck taped the minimum required tools to the vertical post and finally decided to make it right.

The minimum requirements are:

1. Oil can
2. Three sizes of deburing bits
3. Center drill
4. Set of 4 inch calipers

I milled it out of 30lb tooling foam on my Sherline CNC mill.

FYI, Here is my CAD dwg.

I machined a clamp for the back side and secured it with screws.

Tool Caddy Update: 01.11.20

Now the proud owner of the NOVA 58000 Voyager DVR 18 I needed a larger dia. Tool Caddy

This time around I have access to 3d printing and so thought I would go for it

The CAD model is parametric so the dia. change was easy, however, I made some minor functional upgrades

I made the clamp more robust and different diameters for different tools

I usually go with what ever color is in the machine when I order so i got Emergency Yellow!

Sherline Lathe - Hand Wheel Extension

I added a hand wheel extension. I kept increasing the dovetail wedge pressure until I couldn't hardly turn the wheel so I was forced to get more leverage.

I think that the increased wedge pressure is essential for accuracy and the longer lever arm is great for tiny movements.

Sherline Lathe - Chip Guard

I needed a chip guard for a while but I'm particular, so when I finally designed it in my mind I started looking through the scrap metal bin and found the perfect aluminum extrusion.

I was looking for the smallest screen possible, not a whole machine type cover. The only way a minimum chip shield works is if it travels with the tool bit. The chips come off of the tool bit and go radially from that point. My machine is not set up to bathe the parts in coolant so I am only protecting myself from chips and oil spray. I use a needle point tip on my oil can (see in background) and put the absolute minimum drop by drop on my work.

I also wanted to attach it the same way as the tool holders. I leave the holder post in each T slot on the cross slide and spin out the Allen screw for each tool holder change so there is always a post available to the right or left of the tool holder post in use.

Sherline CNC MILL - Diamond Circle Square Test

The reason I went to the 20kg motor was because of the problems I was having with my millings specifically the motors skipping steps. The most important thing that I think I have done to mitigate this problem is slowing down the feed rate to 75% of top speed; 16ipm.

I performed a Diamond Circle Square test milling with the new motor and my 75% speed setting. The milling took about 30mins and went off fine.
I will provide all of the inspections data in a few days.

12.11.12
I am not a statistition but I do have a lot of inspection room experiance. This is the over - under graphic with dimensions for the DCS test.

I think that the circles are the most out of spec and because most of the dimensions came from a circle to a flat it is difficult to figure out. Ultimatley the X axis has most of the errors, Y axis is evry good.

The next time I run this test I will make two decrete runs: multiple concentric circles and multiple "concentric" squares.

Sherline CNC Mill - Motor Upgrade

Like so many Sherline owners I too had questions regrading the Z axis with respect to the motor capacity to handle the weight.
I found a 20kg - cm 6 wire motor to replace the 10kg - cm original equipment motor.
For installation I carefully reviewed the two spec sheets and  matched the color coded wires, making a temporary set up on a breadboard to test things at every stage.All went fine and the 1.8deg. motor was a perfect match but it turned in the wrong direction. Luckily for me the Mach 3 software has a reverse motor direction switch so with a few clicks I was up & running.

Unfortunately I did not get the dual ended version, I don't recommend this; you will want the hand wheel someday I'm sure.

Standardization is a wonderful thing isn't it?
I don't think I' am going to replace the other two axis right now but it would not hurt. 

Sherline Mill - Double wide T slot clamps

I have found that with so many of my larger milling projects that clamping the maximum area is preferred especially when using 12 lb foam. Another issue is that the exact center of my Y travel is located at the front edge of the cross slide which means that these bigger millings always overhang.

I especially do not like the extra step of bonding  the blank to yet another piece of material just to have to chisel it off later.

I decided to make a gang clamp that would combine both of the standard Allen screws onto one bar giving me maximum surface area and extending a little way over the edge for added stability.

The question was how wide is wide? The T slides are 1.5" apart so right off it became at least 3", the T slot to the edge is .615" so add them up and you have 4.230" total.

I took 5/8 x 1 C channel and cut off one leg; a perfect 3/8 height without any further work.

04.04.13
I made V2 of the double wides out of 1 x 1 x .12 aluminum channel.

The goal this time was to get a deeper bite onto the tooling foam groove that I cut using my biscuit joiner.