The latest edition of "Machinist's Workshop" has a simple project as the lead off article. I needed a simple project to take a break from the Ferguson inspired orrery and this fit the bill as I have a lot of filing to do on the orrery decorations.
The first change to the plan outlined in the article was the diameter of the handle. I have no 5/8" aluminum rod, so used 3/4" instead and did not reduce it to 5/8". A 6" length was held in the three jaw chuck after center drilling in the drill press. A tailstock center was used while turning the rod down to clean it up along its length. This was followed by knurling that went surprisingly well. WD-40 was used as cutting fluid. The knurling is shown below.
The part was then supported with a steady rest during drilling. The hole for the jeweler's files was drilled with a #30 drill, but only 2 1/4" deep as that is the length of the drill minus the minimum held in the drill chuck. The drilled hole was checked with a few files as their diameter varies and all fit. The hole was then opened with an "O" drill for 3/8". This hole was threaded in the vise by hand with a 3/8-24 tap. A bottoming tap was used to push the threads as deep as possible.
Tapering for a part as long as this could not be done without support, so instead of the usual Sherline headstock rotation, the compound slide was used. The tool is put in upside down and the cutting is done from the back side. This tapering of the end is shown below. Due to the larger diameter, the angle of the taper was increased to 20°.
The part was removed from the lathe and cut off at 4.5" with a hacksaw. The newly formed end was faced and then heavily chamfered with a file, a second change from the plan. My hands and the part were quite dirty from the cutting fluid saturated with aluminum dust. Both were washed with soap and water, but only the handle is shown in the photo below.
The collet was made from a 1 1/2" length of 3/8" steel hex. It was first faced and then turned round. The steel was drilled over 1" deep with a #30 drill to fit the handles on the jeweler's files. The first 1/2" was reduced to 0.25". A 15° taper was cut on the end. The remainder of this reduced section was threaded 1/4-28. About 1/2" of the unreduced section was threaded 3/8-24.
The part still held in the chuck was transfered from the lathe to the four sided dividing block, held in the vise on the mill. The angle plate was used to raise the part sufficiently for sawing. This setup is shown below. A 1/32" thick saw blade was used for cutting the slots. The blade was lowered to the top of the part, lowered 0.015" and then a further 0.125" putting the center of the blade at the center of the part. The blade was slowly pushed into the part until most of the reduced end was slotted. The back end of the four-sided block was flush with the vise, so when rotating between cuts all cuts were similar. The chuck with part was returned to the lathe, where the collet was parted off. The finished collet is seen in the second photo below.
The last part of this handle is the collet nut. A 1 1/2" length of 1/2" brass rod was placed in the lathe chuck and drilled with a #30 drill for a depth of 1". A counterbore was then drilled 0.300" deep with a #3 drill. The next step is cutting the internal taper to match the taper on the collet. This requires making a D bit with the desired 15° taper. The garage is only 5°, so grinding a D bit will have to wait for a warmer day. The temperature needs to be at least as high as the desired taper!
Well the temp was not nearly warm enough, but the time in the garage was minimal. A 2" length of 1/4" drill rod was reduced to 0.125" for a length of 1/2". This was hardened with a torch and oil. After cooling the D profile was ground. This was followed by grinding the 15° angle using a 15° angle quickly prepared from aluminum. The most challenging part was grinding some relief on the part. The tip was sharpened with a diamond hone. It didn't work as the drill is not long enough to reach!
When grinding something like this in the future warmer garage, the use of a machinist's clamp for holding the round part is strongly recommended. It would have been much easier to manage the tool without it rolling. The square shape of a machinist's clamp jaw would also make cutting the bevel at right angles to the first cut, a breeze.
This was remedied with the Dremel sporting a grinding wheel. The 1/4" diameter was reduced to a cone shape with the Dremel almost down to the 0.125" dimension of the drill. The internal 15° bevel was quickly cut with this modification. The rather ugly tool can be seen mounted in its holder below.
The nut was threaded internally with a 1/4-28 tap, bottoming, beginning in the lathe and completing in the vise. A knurl was put on the first 3/8" of the nut. It is not nearly as nice as the knurled aluminum as the tracking was not great. The free end was heavily chamfered.
The end of the nut was marked and the cutoff tool was used to cut a groove 0.125" deep. The rear mounted tool in the compound tool holder then cut the desired 25° bevel, seen in the first photo below. About halfway through this process the groove made by the parting tool was widened to allow further progress. When the cut looked to have reached the depth of the parting slot, cutting was terminated. The parting tool was returned and the nut was cut off and is shown in the second photo below.
The collet was quite tight when inserting jeweler's files, so it was reamed with a 1/8" reamer. It was permanently attached to the aluminum handle with Loctite. The attached collet is shown below along with a photo of the nut in place and finally a photo of the handle with a file installed. Thanks, Dave, for writing the project up for the magazine.
A wooden box was made to hold the files and the handle. The internal dimensions were set at 1 1/4" X 3 3/4" X 6". Most of the wood was to be 1/4" thick except for the bottom which initially was planned to be 1/2" thick, but as I have no 1/2" wood that was wide enough the bottom became 3/4" thick and a scrap of hard maple was selected. The 1/4" stock was purchased from Menards. Butt joints were used for connecting the four sides. The bottom was rabbeted to accept the 1/4" sides. A 1/8" dado was cut 1/8" from the top edges of the two long slides. The top had a matching 1/8" rabbet cut along its two long edges. It will open and close by sliding in the dados.
The parts were all cut on the table saw with a dado blade set used to cut the rabbets all around the bottom. After a bit of fitting and trimming all of the parts fit well. The parts are seen in the photo below. The second photo shows the four sides glued and clamped to the bottom. The top's fit in the clamped box was checked before the glue set.
After an hour of drying time two plugs were cut to fill the ends of the dados in the sides. These are shown in the photo below. After a little sanding on the downdraft table the box was finished, though a few additions might happen.
A scrap block of oak was cut to 1 1/16" X 1 1/4" X 2". The center of the block's end was punched and a 7/8" Forstner drill was used to drill a 1" deep hole. 1/2" of this holed block was cut off, followed by making a saw cut across the hole at the halfway point. A 1/4" length of this halved section was cut off. Both the hole and the half hole were lined with blue felt. The two parts were glued inside the box to support the handle as shown below.
The last task was cutting a groove in the top for easier removal. An attempt was made to use a dado set at 3/8" to cut an arc into the top. The lid jumped when lowered onto the blade, so a dado was cut across the top. The dado became a feature by gluing some old scraps of abalone shell into the bottom of the dado.
Stained the box and lid this morning with Lockwoods Medium Yellow water based stain. The stained top and box along with the abalone inlay are seen in the first photo below. The label was cut from the box containing the files, made by Heller Brothers in New Jersey before they moved to Ohio in the mid-fifties, and glued into the bottom of the box (seen in the second photo). Three coats of shellac were painted on the outside with light sanding between coats to complete the box.
