Phase II Quick Change Toolpost Mount

The Grizzly G4000 comes with a rather crummy 3 bolt, tool holder.  The first time I tried to turn anything on the lathe, I noticed it was a problem.  Lots of chatter, not very good at holding the tooling steady.Enco had a sale going on the Phase II QCTP.  So, I bought one.  Once it showed up, I quickly realized it was going to be a problem to mount this tool-post, to such a small lathe.  It is big, and has a huge 9/16 mounting bolt to hold it down.  Much larger than the little, built-in one that comes with the lathe.  Also, the tool holder would end up riding too high on the work piece.  Some of the metal would need to be taken off the plinth in order to allow the tool holder to ride center or lower on the work.

I took the plinth off the lathe, and milled off the edges and corners to allow the tool holder to sit nice and low on the plinth.  Also, bored out the mounting bolt hold, and re-tapped it to a 9/16 fine thread.  These two photos are the finished work.  First, there is the plinth with the edges taken off, and the new mounting bolt in-place.  Next there is the Phase II all mounted up to the compound, and ready to start cutting.Several others have done the same thing to their lathes on the 9×20 Yahoo group.  I love this Yahoo group.  Everyone on the list knows WAAAY more about metalworking than I do, so it is great to tap into the extensive knowledge of the people on the list.

Tabletop Robot Wheels

I went down the the scrap metal yard, and found this 5″ diameter chunk of round 6061 alloy stock.  After a bit of work to chuck it up using the 4 jaw, I started cutting away. And cutting….and cutting….and cutting…and cutting……whew!Trimmed it down a little, to true it up.  Then cut a shoulder in the tailstock end.  Then I was able to saw off a wheel blank using the horizontal bandsaw.  Once I had the blank cut, I was able to chuck it back up to do a cleanup, facing operation, and then cut a groove in it to take a large rubber grommet to use as a wheel tread.

Here is the finished robot wheels, all mounted up to the robot.  Pretty good, for my first real lathe project…eh?!?This robot is for the Phase II tabletop challenge.  Follow the link to see more pictures of the robot, and videos of it in-action.

Robot Wheel Hubs

I have done a number of small projects on my lathe, but so far, I have yet to do a complete CAD design for a part and then, build it from the design.  I am still trying to learn CAD well enough to do more complex assemblies.  I eventually hope to someday own a CNC mill.  Without good drawing skills, a CNC mill doesn’t do me much good. I finally sat down and did a CAD drawing for a change.