Shopsmith Forums

Not a woodworking project, but using the SS to make a thingie for the SS.

First I had to drag out(find) the drafting instruments that were originally my grandfather's.
Used the compass to perform some elementary school geometry. Divide a circle into 6 segments.
Then bisect two adjacent points and project 5 more points between the original points No I am NOT making a clock face! . Then attach the 'drawing' onto a MVII 10" sanding disk using "77" sticky stuff and a 5/8" shaft to center it. Place a piece of 3/4 " plywood on the way tubes, then set a 12" sanding disk on top and temporarily clamp it all to the way tubes. Insert a 5/8" shaft into the 12" sanding disk hub and slip the 10" sanding disk onto the shaft above it. On the top end of the shaft, place a molder arbor. That other thing is the intended victim( a 5/8id x 1 1 /8od x 1/2" unplated collar with 5/16-18 tapped set screw hole). Next make an alignment tool by cutting the head off a bolt and filing a reduced diameter 'nubbin' on the other end of the bolt. The purpose of the nubbin is to allow the bolt to tighten against the bottom of the keyway on the molder arbor shaft and not press against the threads on the arbor. This shows the nubbin after the collar(the victim) is installed. The bolt aligns all this stuff and the plywood, sanding disk is positioned after the arbor nut is installed. Then all the clamps are secured. This piece of tape(with a barely discernible hole) is centered on the back top of the belt cover. More about these red lines next post. The red line shows that arbor bolt is centered in path of the quill advance. **please let me add two additional posts before any comments. I will simply create two space saver posts for now. I will continue this tomorrow. Feel free to comment following the next two posts.

Aha the source of de red line(s). A real Rube Goldberg setup. An aux table set of legs, A vice clamping itself onto the legs and a laser level(with magnetic base) setting atop. Y'all know the legs are clamped very securely since I know how to adjust those square headed screws correctly!
Over several days only the laser moved but only when inadvertently disturbed. Calibration point. Blue tape the other calibration point. And finally the third point that determined the "index table" location A bunch of 'details' that must be mentioned here.
The 5/8" shaft has a flat (oh BTW it is from a mortise hold down).
The molding arbor is set screwed to the flat and never moved. The height is set by the alignment screw and arbor nut being tightened simultaneously.*
The flat is thus aligned/centered/perpendicular to the red line and one index line is aligned also by rotating the 'index table' and tightening that set screw(also never moved).
Since the index marks are diametrically opposed, the shaft flat is centered about the opposing index line(the one towards the headstock).
So by having the set screw in the bottom 12" sanding disk hub 'loose' the whole she bang can be rotated and locked down at each index mark by tightening that set screw.

So yes Dennis gonna drill 11(the set screw hole is already there) holes 30° apart.


*The aligning screw in the drill chuck is tight to the keyway on the arbor and is rotated manually to run the screw in/out of the victim. I say manually while the alignment screw is tightened in the drill chuck. So the quill shaft is manually rotated.

All this is to allow mounting several victims and not having to repeat alignment for each one. I drillled 10 victims.

So what to use for a drill that must start on a cylindrical surface(twist drills tend to wander).
So from our machine shop kindred spirits comes a solution - a center drill. The first of 110. Arbitrary starting point index. I drilled them about 1/8" deep. They are a pilot hole for a shallow depression. So what will make a shallow 'depression'. A 5/16" ball end burr. Now the real work begins. Burr not intended to be used this way. The end flutes are very fine. The burr made it through 66 operations. After 'depressing', mount the victim onto the quill shaft. And finally clean up the burrs running under file (run victim both directions). Also decrease od at edges for reason that will be apparent later.

That's it for the victims. However they have a partner. A collar with a 1 1/8id and a 5/6-18 set screw hole. Another Rube Goldberg setup. The vise is clamped to the table which is tilted to 15°. A different burr(also 5/16 max od) is intended to enlarge the set screw hole to 5/16 at a 15° bias in preparation for tapping to 3/8-16. A close up of the 'flame' shaped 5/16 burr. I neglected to take a pix of the tapping operation, but I used a tapered end tap to start the threads by mounting the tap in the jacobs chuck and using the 12" sanding disk as a crank mounted on the rear shaft. There came a point where the chuck could not drive the tap. At that point I used a standard tap in a tap handle and manually finished the threading.

The reason for needing the larger thread was the thing that goes into that hole has a 3/8-16 thread and I needed that 15° bias to duplicate a preexisting feature of the ss.

So what was the result of all this monkeying around. It was NOT to save $ but to try and improve upon a recent addition to the ss 'stuff'. Tooling broke the bank! Shipping also.
I have no doubt that there is concern re the shallowness of the 'depressions, but I show y'all the shallowness of the OEM depressions in the quill feed shaft as seen by the lever with a 5/16" half sphere shape(ball end). Further proof of depression adequacy. This over sized collar(which has a 3/8-16 set screw hole) was used after the first victim was made for doing ALL the rest of the 'machining'. It is far from perfect since the over sized id allows the collar to get cocked and come loose. Other than an occurance caused by the victim's set screw coming loose on the quill shaft(once) it never budged at all. Final comments: The set screw operation was a mixed result. The vise could not hold the collar securely and the 5/16 holes ended up being skewed, but that was not critical. The amount of threads on the outer collar is a bit skimpy. I will have to ponder that.

BTE that lever is an original that is over 55 years old and still going strong.
I currently have two dimpled collars on the goldie. I have two more sets for the MVII and the 510. The other ones will have to live with what they already have.

A SS thingie.... I always wanted to build a SS thingie JPG... And your SS thingie looks quite interesting...

JPG.... What the hell is a SS thingie? and yes... I think I want one...

I can't even guess what it might be, but it has my attention. Even though I don't have an original mk VII for the 1960's.

A little deduction from what is already revealed 'might' lead thee to the answer thee seek.

Relevant 'details'.

Victim has 5/8" bore.

Victim is positioned in line with quill path.

Rotary table(10" sanding disk) with 30° segments defined is also centered on the quill advance path.

DO not have time presently to continue, but WILL later today. This stuff takes time with the convoluted pix posting procedure.

JPG wrote:A little deduction from what is already revealed 'might' lead thee to the answer thee seek.

Relevant 'details'.

Victim has 5/8" bore.

Victim is positioned in line with quill path.

Rotary table(10" sanding disk) with 30° segments defined is also centered on the quill advance path.

DO not have time presently to continue, but WILL later today. This stuff takes time with the convoluted pix posting procedure.

Nope.... Need more clues. Things are piecing together but still no clear picture. YOU sir are what they call a tease...

Hypothesis #1: You've gone off the deep end, and you're going to convert your Shopsmith into a woodworking turret lathe. Nah -- turret lathes usually have just six or eight tool stations.

Hypothesis #2: You're going to make some 12-spoked "wagon wheels", and this is a fixture for boring the spoke holes in the wheel hubs.

[quote="BuckeyeDennis"]Hypothesis #1: You've gone off the deep end, and you're going to convert your Shopsmith into a woodworking turret lathe. Nah -- turret lathes usually have just six or eight tool stations.

Mine have 10 & 12 stations.