how much can go wrong?

Frank Fusco

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Mountain Home, Arkansas
Yesterday, I wound up the rubber bands on my Grizzly lathe to do a small project, and I do mean small. Since my wife is back into shooting our muzzle loading rifles, she needs her own set of equipment. I made a range loading rod for her and intend(ed) to put a handle on the end for comfort. And, to make her rod a little distinctive. I selected a hunk of Osage Orange from my stash, put between centers and turned to shape leaving a tenon at the head end. I then put into my mini chuck so I could drill a hole for the handle.
Flew out at first touch. Oh, well, change jaws. Changed jaws. (that's an irksome, time consuming task) Put back in. Lined up with live center for a true turn. Wobbled like nuts. Wat gives? Lined up should be lined up and true. I have made scores of similar items like this before. Simple job. Or should be. Took out and decided to try yet another set of jaws. Uh-Oh, one of the hex head screws did not want to come out. Gave a little more muscle. Double Uh-Oh! Rounded the hole in the hex head. Cussed mightily and set aside. Picked up my new Barracuda 4 chuck, put piece in, lined up with live center. Wobbled like crazy. How can a perfectly lined up item wobble like that? Done this many times in past without that happening. Wassup? OK, surrender. Bring up live center and re-turn to true. Let the Murphy gremlins win. Now true. Replace live center with drill chuck and bit. Bring up to center, reduce speed and drill my hole. Take off lathe. Hole way off center. Threw in trash and stomped out of shop. I'll try again. But am still wondering how I am going to get that hex screw out of the mini chuck. :bang: Maybe I'll take up knitting. No, I would put my eye out. :(
 
Frank, maybe your lathe is run by a Dell computer running Vista? :D:rofl::D

Sorry, couldn't resist a little fun at ya. :wave:

Oh, now that was uncalled for - funny - but totally uncalled for.;) Though I was thinking the same thing.:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Frank,
Sounds like a normal day around here.:rolleyes::p Seriously though, it sounds like the best thing was to walk away for a bit. Some thing's up - a few hours (days) off may lead to the remedy.
Concerning the stuck screw, If the hex is badly stripped, CA the allen wrench into the bad hex - then when it's out, heat the screw to release the CA. I've had to do this a few times on old equipment and it's worked out well. A bit easier/safer than drilling and using an easy-out.

No matter, good luck!

Wes
 
Frank,
sorry to hear that the murphy gremlins were at your shop yesterday. It will get better, Brother, trust me.

I'm a Comics fan, and one of my all time favorites is a sunday funnies strip from Beetle Baily. It featured Sarge having one mishap after another, and in every frame he has this stoic look on his face. His comment in the last panel was 'Some days you just have to ride it out' (slight paraphrase, but that's the gist of it).

I wish I could find that strip, cause I'd frame it and put it in my shop.
 
Oh, now that was uncalled for - funny - but totally uncalled for.;) Though I was thinking the same thing.:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Frank,
Sounds like a normal day around here.:rolleyes::p Seriously though, it sounds like the best thing was to walk away for a bit. Some thing's up - a few hours (days) off may lead to the remedy.
Concerning the stuck screw, If the hex is badly stripped, CA the allen wrench into the bad hex - then when it's out, heat the screw to release the CA. I've had to do this a few times on old equipment and it's worked out well. A bit easier/safer than drilling and using an easy-out.

No matter, good luck!

Wes

You guys are cruel. ;)
But, thanks for the tip, I'll try that.
 
Frank,
sorry to hear that the murphy gremlins were at your shop yesterday. It will get better, Brother, trust me.

I'm a Comics fan, and one of my all time favorites is a sunday funnies strip from Beetle Baily. It featured Sarge having one mishap after another, and in every frame he has this stoic look on his face. His comment in the last panel was 'Some days you just have to ride it out' (slight paraphrase, but that's the gist of it).

I wish I could find that strip, cause I'd frame it and put it in my shop.

I think, maybe, my mind was a million miles away. I'm considering getting into a sideline business, and maybe starting to sell a product of interest to turners, trying to figure out how to fix a mysterious problem on my trailer and cogitating the possibility of running for president of my church council during a very controversial period in the church history. Should not have been around machines and sharp things yesterday.
 
I'm more surprised that you've had success in the past getting things to spin nicely going from one holding method to another. In fact, an old machinist's trick is to mark the location of one of the jaw locations accurately onto the work piece if you, for some reason, have to take the work off of the chuck. It is best not to have to do it, but this gives you the ability to put it back into the chuck oriented as closely as possible to the original.

If I need to put something between centers to turn a tenon to use on the chuck, I'll only turn as little as I have to to get rid of the vibration, get a flat bottom and get the tenon turned.

I hate those L shaped allen keys. I have a set of allen keys that fit a quarter inch hex holder that I use with a pivoting head ratcheting screw driver that is permanently set up for removing and replacing those jaw screws. Haven't lost one since I started using that set-up.
 
Concerning the stuck screw, If the hex is badly stripped, CA the allen wrench into the bad hex - then when it's out, heat the screw to release the CA. I've had to do this a few times on old equipment and it's worked out well. A bit easier/safer than drilling and using an easy-out.

Great idea Wes! I'm sure I will use it in the future.:thumb:
 
Frank, maybe your lathe is run by a Dell computer running Vista? :D:rofl::D

Sorry, couldn't resist a little fun at ya. :wave:

and he SCORES:rofl::rofl:

ok frank to add to your self estyeem,, i ran over my own foot with a pallet truck this afternoon at work i tried but i just couldnt walk and chew gum too:)
 
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What size is the allen head? I have a pile of t-handle wrenches my Old Job threw out and probably have the size you need. Good luck on the jaws.

Thanks. I have the right size and was using a T handle. The screw must have been soft, this is a new problem. Instead of CA, as suggested, I may use JB Weld to remove that screw. Not today. Covered up.
 
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