Discovered A New Backyard Trick Today
idbruce
Posts: 6,197
As the title indicates, I discovered a new trick today, and I thought I would share it with everyone, just in case someone else has a similar need, and I am fairly sure that some of you will, because it involves rotary shafts and robots use rotary shafts, or at least some of them do.
As many of you already know, I use a makeshift shop to turn my ideas into something tangible. Of course it has never been easy, but I get through it, by using tools in the most unappropriate ways, and I am always looking for ways to make my work more accurately.
In one of my threads, I am currently working on a project which requires a rotary shaft. This rotary shaft requires two retaining rings, one for each end of the shaft, to keep it in place, within the housing that it rotates. Attempting to cut accurate retaining ring grooves has always been a chore for me, and they never come out as well as I want them to. I have recently been searching around the house for some fairly square or rectangular high speed steel to grind into retaining ring groovers. No matter where I turned or whatever I found, it seemed to be a daunting task, especially since my current project required a groove width of 0.024 inches. And then....
BAM
I thought to myself.... I bet a feeler gauge is made of high speed steel.... And I probably have a blade compatible with the 0.024 inches that I need.
So I went and checked my feeler gauges, and there it was, 0.024 - 0.026 inch blade, with two sharp points on it for cutting grooves (not the perfect points for grooving operations, but definitely worth a try). I measured the tip with my dial calipers and it came out 0.024 inches, which was just what I needed. So I clamped the feeler blade in my milling vise and installed some rotary shaft material in the chuck of the drill press, and turned the drill press on. Using the milling vise, I slowly advanced one of the points into the rotating shaft, and sure enough, it started to cut a groove, so I kept advancing, to a depth that I thought was fairly appropriate (no need for accuracy on a test run). After turning off the drill press, I immediately checked the feeler blade for wear and overheating. The point had very minimal wear and there was no discoloration from overheating. I then decided to check the groove with a retaining ring, and what do you know, it appeared to be a perfect fit. After removing the retaining ring, I then checked the groove with the next largest feeler blade (0.025 - 0.027 inches), and it would not insert completely into the groove.
BAM
Inaccurate retaining ring grooves are now part of my past.
As many of you already know, I use a makeshift shop to turn my ideas into something tangible. Of course it has never been easy, but I get through it, by using tools in the most unappropriate ways, and I am always looking for ways to make my work more accurately.
In one of my threads, I am currently working on a project which requires a rotary shaft. This rotary shaft requires two retaining rings, one for each end of the shaft, to keep it in place, within the housing that it rotates. Attempting to cut accurate retaining ring grooves has always been a chore for me, and they never come out as well as I want them to. I have recently been searching around the house for some fairly square or rectangular high speed steel to grind into retaining ring groovers. No matter where I turned or whatever I found, it seemed to be a daunting task, especially since my current project required a groove width of 0.024 inches. And then....
BAM
I thought to myself.... I bet a feeler gauge is made of high speed steel.... And I probably have a blade compatible with the 0.024 inches that I need.
So I went and checked my feeler gauges, and there it was, 0.024 - 0.026 inch blade, with two sharp points on it for cutting grooves (not the perfect points for grooving operations, but definitely worth a try). I measured the tip with my dial calipers and it came out 0.024 inches, which was just what I needed. So I clamped the feeler blade in my milling vise and installed some rotary shaft material in the chuck of the drill press, and turned the drill press on. Using the milling vise, I slowly advanced one of the points into the rotating shaft, and sure enough, it started to cut a groove, so I kept advancing, to a depth that I thought was fairly appropriate (no need for accuracy on a test run). After turning off the drill press, I immediately checked the feeler blade for wear and overheating. The point had very minimal wear and there was no discoloration from overheating. I then decided to check the groove with a retaining ring, and what do you know, it appeared to be a perfect fit. After removing the retaining ring, I then checked the groove with the next largest feeler blade (0.025 - 0.027 inches), and it would not insert completely into the groove.
BAM
Inaccurate retaining ring grooves are now part of my past.
Comments
Yea I have many old tungsten carbide turning bits, but the size I need was so small, that I ground off all the brazing.
I just cut a groove in my rotary shaft, using the same point of the feeler gauge, without sharpening it, and it worked perfectly. One down and one to go.
This morning I attempted to cut the remaining retaining ring groove using the opposite side of the feeler gauge and it did not work out well. I did not have the point positioned properly, which led to overheating of both the feeler blade gauge and my rotary shaft. And of course when the shaft gets overheated, it becomes much harder cut. To salvage the shaft, it became necessary to grind a proper cutting angle on the feeler blade. So if you decide to attempt this trick, you may want to start by grinding a nice point on the feeler blade to start with.