SPEAKING OF HARBOR FREIGHT

I just thought it would be fun to post this. This is how I cut the slot for the slider handles. The mill From Harbor Freight.

funny my handle looked like it was punched

Naughty, Naughty...Your not supposed to use an end mill in a drill chuck. (smiles)

Its a woodriff key cutter.

I remember my machine shop teacher throwing fits when he saw one of us using any cutting tool other than a drill or reamer in a drill chuck. He said that the side loads created on the three jaws of the drill chuck would ruin or wear out the drill chuck. (very little surface area supporting the shank of the cutting tool)
He was my teacher...
I still remember his name. John Palowich
It's funny how you remember stuff like that.

A tiny cutter in a big chuck like that is no problem for the job he's doing.

I'd like to see how you cut the grip on the wooden handle.

Giffy, I agree it probably won't hurt the chuck, especially cutting aluminum.
Dick, I have extra R-8 end mill holders (if that is what your mill takes) I'd be happy to send you a couple no charge.(I don't use them anymore) You might even save a little time.
Email me and I'll send you what I have.

Regards,
John Jolley
PS: I in no way meant to rag on your set-up, or show any disrespect.

LAST EDITED ON Nov-23-04 AT 07:11 AM (CST)
 
I also remember a bunch of my shop teachers, some others, but more shop teachers. When I wanted to use the lathe to turn up a monoline button, Mr. Matilda made me read the danged "how to run a lathe" book. I figured out a way to fabricate what I needed, but I turned out to follow the machinist's trade.

Today, I finished up a batch of these little puppys. I have no idea what they do, but they get welded to something else. They're 303 cres., and started out as 1/2"sq. x .70". Currently .197" x .276" x .551" (nominal dims), probably the smallest PITB that I've ever made. Well, check that. I had to make some microphone adapters that had a 1/4-60 internal thread, single pointed on a Monarch EE. That was relatively fun, compared to this. The part is sitting on a US penny. The two holes in line across the middle are 0-80, power tapped with a roll tap, rigid in a 1/4" Jacobs chuck, no problem. The hardest part was holding onto the parts to deburr them. That and finding them on the floor when dropped. I have a pic around here with some parts I had to do because they were too big for the biggest CNC mill in the shop, and the whiners couldn't deal with it. Steve

Edit: I didn't do this on a Harbor Fright mill. Bridgeport EZ-Trak SX, about 11 years old and clapped. It'd be great in a (my) home shop!

Edit2: Here's one of the biggest parts. First, I had to make a pair of bars to bolt to the table and support the rings. I had to swing the ram back and forth, and pull it in/out, to reach half the holes. Then reversed the parts, pinned the part in two of the CL holes, and continue. Luckily, .001" true position was not required. I have had to make parts where .001" true position was specified. My machine won't do it, and I'm not sure it can be done. I have sat, looking at a drawing for about 4 hours, trying to figure out how in the he!! to do the impossible! Hate it. Some Engineers are clueless.

http://www.nwskyraiders.com/index.html

Ahh someone who is skilled in the art is a joy to behold

Mike (trained as a scientific instrument maker)

Regards

Mike

LAST EDITED ON Nov-24-04 AT 10:06 AM (CST)
 
I have a similar mill. Mine's a Grizzly with an MT3 shaft and while I do use the chuck for some precision drilling operations, I generally use the collet holder for milling stuff. It seems that the Harbor freight unit uses an R8 (according to LittleMachineShop.com)

Using a woodruff key cutter for the slot operation is interesting. I use a small end mill.

I think guys tend to remember their shop teacher(s). Mine was Mr. Prop (true). Never knew his first name.

...BUT, how many are old enough to remember having to sit through those "Primative Pete" movies on tool use?

One guy once told me that those movies taught him what to use if he didn't have the right tool.

> I think guys tend to remember their shop teacher(s). Mine
>was Mr. Prop (true). Never knew his first name.
>
> ...BUT, how many are old enough to remember having to sit
>through those "Primative Pete" movies on tool use?
>
> One guy once told me that those movies taught him what to
>use if he didn't have the right tool.
>
>George

Had an auto shop teacher in high school who's name was "Off". And you just KNOW what his nick-name was among the students!

Funny but true story: Mr. Off had a brand new Porche Speedster. Silver. Beautiful car. He was very proud of it.

One day after school hours while I was working on an engine rebuild, Off decided to polish the car. He retrieved an angle sander, the kind used to sand/grind metal when doing body repair. It is used with a round sheet of coarse sand paper.

Off placed a thick pad of red shop rags on the roof of the Porche and put the sander on top, of COURSE with a piece of sand paper on it.

As he hit the switch, the sander spun quickly, threw the pad of rags off the top of the car, and the sander cut a BIG, NASTY hole in the paint on the top of the car!

I watched the WHOLE thing! Off looked at the car, looked at me, and we BOTH silently agreed to never say a thing about what had just happened.

I just about exploded keeping from laughing my tail off! But I suspect I would have never finished the class alive if I had!

LAST EDITED ON Nov-23-04 AT 07:33 AM (CST)
 
I remember Primitive Pete, Hasty Hal, and all their pals. I also remember my 8th grade woodshop teacher " Mr. Lolly". Typical shop teacher, hard eyed, gruff voice, scarred hands. Talked to wood and tools in a gentle voice, yelled like a drill seargent at us "mindless dolts". The 2 biggest lessons I learned from him are _ You are not done sanding yet, if you can still lift your arm, and every piece of wood has a perfect object inside it- you have to find it.

The thing I remember most is that he would put a rope up along the back wall of the shop leaving an alley 6-8 feet wide and aboyt 50' long. No one crossed the rope line. He would give a demonstrations of archerey skill- right there in the shop! I saw him do a couple "William Tells" ( arrow in the bullseye, then an arrow into the arrow), and my favorite trick - hang a life saver from a string over the bullseye- and put an arrow into the target without breaking the lifesaver.

Can you imagine a teacher trying that today? I wonder if they even let kids use tools anymore, or do they just watch videos of how to do it?

LAST EDITED ON Nov-23-04 AT 01:26 PM (CST)
 
I went to Weymouth Mass. trade school in 1957-58-59. My shop teacher was Mr Dwyer. He did the original cabnet making programs for WGBH in Boston in 1958. He was very dry most of the time. He did teach us much but I still watch the New Yankee Workshop every chance I get.

Here is a photo of how I make the wood part of the handle. As you can see I use a 3/4" sanding drum and first sand out the finger grips, then I sand the edges on an 45* angle, finally rounding all edges to make it fit my hand. It is very labor intensive and each handle takes 156 seperate sanding movements to just get the finger grips rounded. I then need about another 40 movements to trim the rounded features get it right.

On the milling machine from Harbor Freight, I is a milling machine not a drill press. I use my drill press to sand the handle finger grips. My handles are very labor intensive but a labor of love.

I am approching number 1500 sold, 1100 were hard point, the rest cable sliders.

How many of you had a shop teacher that had a "finger" hanging above the table saw? Later we found it was nothing more than a dried out Vienna suasage. But we were very careful around that table saw. I still am!! LOL.