DIY Mill Vice Speed Handle in Cast Aluminium
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- My import Kurt style milling vice came with a massively oversized handle which is awkward and difficult to spin quickly when you need to open or close the vice a lot. What I need is a smaller speed handle but because I hate spending money I decided to make my own. This one is cast in aluminium from a 3D printed patterns and it has two modified deep sockets set in the casting with loctite and M6 socket head cap screws. If you would like the STL for the pattern I used you can get here (free).
www.dropbox.co...
Wow Mark, you had all my favorite's, bit of lathe work, some metal casting and powder coating! Well done sir.
"Damn"... the most often used word in the shop (Followed by many other words containing four letters)... using repurposed socket to pin into the casting is a solid plan. Excellent Video, Mark!
I literally started designing one of these at work yesterday!! I can't believe the impeccable timing of your video!! I might just steal your idea for inserting the sockets!
Go for it!
Regards,
Mark
Whether you call it a feeder or a riser it still does the same job. We were taught to call it a riser in the Navy. Love the color, good casting!
Thanks for that. I feel like I am starting to get the hang of this whole casting thing! 🤣
Regards,
Mark
You reckon the hex on the vise screw might be 9/16"
It is a Kurt, so most likely it is....
14.6mm is pretty much 9/16’s, dunno how Preso missed that ?
@@simongroot7147 No it's not. He said "Kurt style" and the actual brand is Vertex.
@@blooVZSS 9/16 will fit but is tight to a point you cannot just quickly slide the socket in and out.
Also, finding imperial sockets outside North America may not be easy.
@Ro K, I agree with your first point. As for getting AF sockets in Oz, I’m Aussie and a mechanic and I assure you that imperial tools and fasteners are very common down here.
"Lollypop red -- you know I'm right."
Yup; no argument from me! 😄
Everyone knows red things are faster!
Hmmm measure twice cut once.... well I measured 6 times, maybe more, before I cut my Y axis for the DRO and it still came out 1" short. Now I need a scale stretcher....DOH!
Oh no! There's an inch of travel you won't get back. Reminds me of that description. "A hacksaw is a device for cutting materials too short".
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 nothing money can't fix....wish I had some.....
Love the color. That’s a sweet tool. I was only mildly offended when you called that feeder a riser 😄
That was for you!
Regards,
Mark.
Mark that is a beautiful piece. Wow.
Yep, I know the colour looks nice but - really - painting such a nice looking casting - sacrilege!
I will send you an email showing something similar - a cast aluminium double ended spanner with the Hexs cast in place using metal hex core pieces pressed out afterwards worked very well and spanner still going strong... Martin
Is it a nice looking casting? Really? Have I joined the foundryman's hall of fame? I didn't know you could use metal cores. Maybe I'm not worthy. 😃
Regards,
Mark
Nice video and project. I was wondering if 9/16" hex sockets would have fit better?
No, the vice is definitely metric. It is a Kurt clone made for the Australian market. I did try my imperial sockets but none would fit.
Regards,
Mark
"Measure twice. Cut once" ... reminds me of Murphy's Law of Decreasing Accuracy: Measure with mic, mark with chalk, cut with axe!
Manual machining more like measure 5 times cut 5 times and still overshoot.
I just saved that quote!!! That is FANTASTIC!!
Thanks for the video! It occurred to me to wonder if you could have ground some flats onto the socket and then cast it into the handle, although I guess some metallurgical black magic involving different thermal expansion and contraction could have killed it.
My casting guru, Olfoundryman has just let me know that you can use hex shaped metal cores and cast the hex directly into the handle. Now I have another technique to try.
I am thinking that if the sockets had a fine spline cut into them they could be pressed in and they'd never move.
Regards,
Mark
Hi Mark I've been enjoying your videos lately they have been helping me with some of my projects I'd like to give you a mention in one of my up coming videos if thats ok........the vise handle turned out great
Mention away! That would be great.
Regards,
Mark
Lollipop is awesome.
I’m surprised you had a sloppy socket (childish giggling). My Kurt is 3/4” tooling and there is no play with any socket (19mm or 3/4”) or spanner (wwwwwrench with USA accent). I use the same ratcheting 3/4” closed end wrench on the Kurt and the drawbar and the hold down clamps.
‘Good to be catching up on your videos.
Thanks. The Vertex brand of vice we get here in Australia is a metric copy of the Kurt style vice and I tried all the sockets I had in both metric and AF but the 15mm was the only one that fitted. The measurement across the flats is a bit less than 15mm but at least I don't have to fight it to get the socket on and off.
Regards,
Mark
You can also get Personalized Speed-Handle for Vise from ebay, those have been made in the UK and one off pieces.
Why cut the casting for a sliding fit? Wouldn't an interference fit be easier?
I feel like I've asked this before but can't remember the answer. Won't there be a bare spot on the part where the hook was during powder coating? Do you have to go back and do a second coat and move the hook to another location to get full coverage of at least one coat?
I find that if you want to rely on loctite as a means of keeping parts in place you need to have some clearance for the adhesive film to bond. I was worried that even if I was able to get a good interference fit it might still be able to spin the socket in the bore with sufficient torque. Probably a fine splined finish on the socket would solve that problem but it's already hardened and chromed so that was sort of out of the question. I am thinking that the socket head screws are insurance.
The hook can be a problem if it fits closely against the part. There's often a bit of fiddling to get the hook to hold the part without actually touching the faces. A sort of "U" shape is best. If you do notice a bare spot you can swap the hook to another hole and give it another shot with the powder. Sometimes it can be very difficult to work out a way of handling the part and getting it into the oven without wiping off the powder.
Regards,
Mark
I'm interacting to show my support for the channel.
It's always better to put it in the hole. There was movement when you pulled that out the oven!
Great job man, make mine just like yours. LoL. Alsome.
Have you ever considered casting those hex sockets in the handle and then you don't have to glue them in? Years ago i used a steel pin that was polished to a mirror finish to make a core for a aluminium pulley. The problem was it would not come out even though it had a mirror finish. Using steel inserts in aluminium castings can make aluminium castings far more useful because it can be a weak and soft metal.
Bill, I have decided to try another version of this casting. Martin West has convinced me to have a go at using some hex steel cores to cast the correct hexagonal shape into the finished casting. He has suggested using a graphite wash to coat the hex steel cores so they will press out after the casting has cooled. I don't have access to the graphite spray on wash that he uses but I thought that a slurry of graphite and alcohol might work. I want to try using a T5 heat treatment as well. If it all fails it will at least teach me what won't work. I didn't think about casting the sockets into the original handle. I did think that with differential shrinkage it might split the casting bosses or perhaps just allow the sockets to spin in their cast in bores. The ideal would be to spline the outside of the sockets and then cast them in.
There was also the issue of being able to powder coat the finished handle separately from the chrome finish on the sockets. I am very keen to see if the T5 heat treatment gives a better and stronger handle.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 I shall look forward to that video.
Beautiful end result, I should try making one of those. The powder coat turned out lovely and the whole process was very interesting. Cheers!
we have a honest to god kurt vice on a 1940's bridgeport at work in the maintance shop, it has the same problem
I realise casting is more fun, but wouldn't it have been easier to machine the handle out of a piece of 3/8" flat stock, like Jason from Fireball Tool did for his vice build? He did the same sort of thing
Martin, If only I had lots of billet aluminium stock lying around. My son lives in Wellington, New Zealand. He works at a large engineering facility and they have racks of offcuts in brass, bronze, alloy steels and all grades of aluminium. I think he wanted to torture me by telling me that when the racks get full they just toss it in a skip and send it all to the recyclers. I hate to think how much it would cost me in overweight baggage if I filled up my suitcase. However, the real reason I made the casting is because I like making castings.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 , that's what I figured :D Greatly enjoyed the vid.
Is this an ANSI approved colour for a machine tool? oh, NZ uses ISO. :)
Thanks for the pointer to Touch DRO (from a previous video). I found a tablet I got for 'Free' with my last phone contract
so instead of more e-waste I'll install a DRO on my friend's J.
Looks good, I’ve had a homemade speed handle for several years now. I made mine out of billet aluminum and sockets also. The biggest difference is I used a press fit, and locking compound. Never had an issue with it
I was wondering if an interference fit would prevent the loctite from forming a thick enough film to work. The ultimate would be to have a very fine spline on the socket and then press it in.
Regards,
Mark
I aint no foundryman, but could the sockets have been roughed up a little, preheated, and cast into the handle like a core?
Maybe but a better solution would be to cut a fine spline into the outside of the socket and then press it in to the bored hole. I didn't want to powder coat the sockets so they sort of had to go in last and with differential shrinkage rates trying to cast the sockets in might be a problem. There's probably room for experimentation there but for now I'm happy with how it turned out.
Regards,
Mark
Good Show Mate...as per normal. Lollipop red. Of course. Beating heart is GOOD. Still heart is BAD. Continue beating heart. Makes everything better. Take this from someone who has cardiac irregularities. Notice you are using a convection oven. Some overkill there. You make cookies too?
I had to disable the circulation fan in the back of the oven. I found out the hard way that it blows the powder off the parts before it has a chance to fuse.
Regards,
Mark
Red ones always go faster
It looks because you did it twice.
Possibly you should try cutting down a 9/16" imperial socket for a better fit...
Unfortunately my 9/16" socket doesn't fit. The hex on the end of the vice screw is 14.6mm and 9/16" is 14.28mm. It's one of those metric vs imperial things!
Regards,
Mark
Are those chrome plated sockets? No need to take off the chrome or rough up the OD for loctite?
It is more critical for the surface to be clean ( degreased) than rough when using Locktite.
If you look at the chrome-plated surface with a microscope you will see the surface is quite rough.
Even gage block is not that smooth when magnified 50x :-)
It was a sort of satin chrome so it would have some surface roughness. I am really hoping that the socket head grub screws will do most of the heavy lifting to keep the sockets from turning in the bores.
Regards,
Mark
Oh to have a green sand foundry and powder coating machine! 🥴 The handle came out beautifully 👏👏👍😀
Be warned! Foundry work is a very deep rabbit hole. I fear that I will never learn enough to make good repeatable castings.
Regards,
Mark
Either you have an old oven for baking paint or a very understanding wife.
Probably both...
No, that's my specially adapted shop oven! I pulled it out of a skip at the local appliance repair place and fitted some new knobs to it. It appears that this was the only reason it had been scrapped. I also fitted a PID controller so I can set the baking temperature fairly accurately. I would be recently divorced if I tried to bake my parts in the kitchen oven. "Not in the Siemens"! 😱
Regards,
Mark
The best solution, if you were to ask me, and in a way you did (thanks), is to shorten the stock handle and then just use it like that. Well, you may want to burr the sawnend. When you want to open or close the vise quickly you get good at holding the handle such that it speeds how many turns you can make in a short amount of time. Very convenient and it won’t run into the Y-axis ways. This is not new to anybody. I do understand that want to go thru the whole process to your ends, which I enjoy. Always nice work. At any rate: 👉 Handled.
I did consider doing just that but I also wanted to keep the original handle just in case I ever really needed to crank it really tight or "unloosen" it as Joe Pi would say.
Regards,
Mark
Mark, what are your thoughts about casting a shorter length, for the original vice handle? Would aluminium be strong enough?
I guess it would depend on the exact length. The shorter you made it, the less torque you could apply to the swivel joint. The alloy I am using is 601 which can be hardened to a T6 treatment but that's beyond the scope of what I can do in my own shop. Apparently, T5 is doable and it gives high strength.
Regards,
Mark
Could you have filled the sockets with sand (first roughened their exteriors) and then put them into the mold and cast the metal around them? Maybe too hard to get them lined up perpendicular the axis of rotation? Or would it also ruin the heat treatment of the sockets?
Very nice design and execution.👍👍
You can absolutely do it that way and it does work. I haven't tried it but I heard from Luckygen1001 who has a lot more experience than I have and he suggested a similar method.
Regards,
Mark
Gday Preso, I have the same problem with my vertex vice, I really like the design and the colour just finishes it off beautifully, if you ever another poor and make another one I’d be very interested in purchasing one off you for sure, very nice mate, thanks for sharing, cheers Matty
Matty, I have a lot of casting coming up. New project will require a lot of decorative bits. SWDweeb and I are also looking at upgrading our foundry burners to use diesel fuel and if it works out it will be a lot quicker to melt alloy. I'll run one off for you next time I'd doing some small bits. ps: I got your second set of stickers. 😀
Regards,
Mark
I was inspired when I watched this a few weeks ago and made a speed handle for my own vice. My small hobby machine shop doesn't have sufficient room to accommodate casting, so I machined the cast part out of a length of stainless steel bar stock and pressed the sockets in with a good interference fit. I was concerned that socket would rotate when I cranked down on it, but it seems robust enough. I was able to get a near mirror finish on the stainless steel parts.
Stainless would be way more durable than the cast aluminium. A few days ago I stupidly dropped my handle and chipped the powder coat. The cast aluminium remains soft for some time after casting too. It gradually age hardens but it's possible to do a T5 heat treatment on it.
Regards,
Mark
I've cut this thing 5 times and it's still to short....
Ha, ha. I know that feeling!
Regards,
Mark
looks good Mark..
Looking at the setup, I think someone has been paying attention to oldfoundryman
Absolutely. Mentor extraordinaire in my view!
Regards,
Mark
Great job Mark, I know some machinist that love to beat down on the handle with a sledge hammer so keep those guys out of your shop👍
Thanks Clarke. I've still got the gorilla handle as a backup in case Abom79 turns up! 🤣
Regards,
Mark
may be some one else had the same fix, but I would have placed the pattern back in the cope and tried to repair edge ?
That would certainly be better than just accepting the extra metal where the breakaway occurred but the finished part turned out OK with a little filing and sanding.
Regards,
Mark
What are your thoughts about using the sockets as cores and casting them into the part?
That's a possible approach. I have just heard from Olfoundryman (casting guru) that it is possible to use hex shaped metal cores which are pressed out later leaving the correct sized hex opening directly in the casting. Now I'm dead keen to try it!
Regards,
Mark
Looks great Mark !!
Great color choice.
Hi Mark,
A good design and implementation...
Take care.
Paul,,
Dalray
Brilliant thanks
I can attest that the original handle does indeed hurt when it drops on your foot !
Yes, I'm pretty sure it would ruin your day!
Regards,
Preso
Weld a decent sized washer sideways to the head of the screws you're using to draw the pattern out, and just put one in the middle boss, use a bit of ~3/8-1/2" rod as a handle and lift.
No need at all for the swirly vent thing on the end of your runner bar, just continue it past the gate a few inches is enough. The dross will flow past.
Still need to work on your riser design, your gates aren't designed to feed.
Also, for the size castings you're making you don't need to worry about a pouring bowl, just cut a cone at the top of the sprue.
Oliver, As a metallurgist and student of modern developments a la John Campbell et al, plus over 60 years’ experience in various foundries including my own I feel compelled to put my 2 cents worth in here.
I am guessing from your comment that whatever you “know” about foundry came from either a very “stagnant” establishment or the plethora of the equally backward foundry books out there - Ah, the 6000-year-old technology rears its ugly head yet again.
No need for the complexity of washers welded onto screws and rods as handles etc. A sharp pointed screw on its own is the easiest, but I do agree that just the one screw would be better as it avoids one’s hands fighting each other.
Simply taking the runner past the gate is no guarantee of freedom from dross as stream momentum on impact with the blunt runner end can cause a back surge to spurt through the gate, dross and all. I tend not to use spin traps (but I should) as the design is still uncertain and I often do not have the space to fit them in. Instead, I taper the runner end to avoid a sudden stop. However, even this tapered end is not as good as a spin trap, and unfortunately can give a dangerously sharp end on the solid runner, so one has to be careful on knockout.
Presso’s feeder design is excellent - right where I would have put it. It is a hot metal feeder. The short gate plus the large thermal mass of the feeder guarantees that the gate will still be at least sufficiently liquid to provide a viable feed path at least until the casting proper is solid.
One could have adopted a belt and braces approach with this casting by providing a feeder atop each end as well. This would have made for a poor yield. Alternatively (and better) the ends could have been lightened out with self-coring divots. But Presso chose to rely on the end effect to keep these areas solid - a technique that by the look of the casting does seem to have worked well!
Your suggestion to use a cone atop the sprue is about as bad as advice gets! This constitutes what Bob Puhakka calls the “conical devil” - a metal stream entering such a cone pulls in air in about the same volume as the metal poured. The idea of pulling say, 250 cc of air into a 250 cc casting does not fill me with great joy. The offset ridged pouring basin atop a suitably small tapered sprue is one of the best ways of avoiding air aspiration and undue turbulence with all its problems. The calm, quiet casting fill you get with this system is a joy to behold. It is also easy and cheap to use - no casting should be made without it - large or small!.... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 I run a foundry bud, what I know is from 18 years practical experience, and not just text book theory. We do everything from aluminium to bronze to steel to stainless to cast iron.
You get just as many issues with low velocity and initial cold front of metal from going from the basin into the job as you do with just filling the job up. He's not making aerospace parts here after all.
You can see that there is not enough velocity to push metal all the way up the small third vent, which it should easily do.
Very cool. The red is a very good choice I think!
Yes, I like it. I have a lime green lollypop finish too. They look best on polished aluminium. The sexiest one is a red transparent with a sparkle in it as well.
Regards,
Mark
Love the powder coating finish it really looks awesome
Thanks Tom. I don't know why but I am now receiving comments that are months old that I didn't know about. TH-cam is now telling me that they have "fixed an issue"? Who knows! Yes, the powder coat looks very slick and on the right substrate it has tiny silver flecks in it that make it sparkle. Maybe too much bling for a workshop tool.
Regards,
Mark
and type of alloy, old pistons ....wheels ?
Rob, I used to melt scrap for my castings but after a couple of spectacular failures I decided to buy ingots of 601 series alloy from a foundry. I think I paid $5 per kilo and it was well worth it. My castings are now free of inclusions and porosity and the alloy can be heat treated if necessary to a T5 spec.
Regards,
Mark
Cool project. Looks like a good handle.
Thanks 👍
Looks almost exactly like the three I made from solid stock. Two for me and one for a friend. Just recently black anodized my two, have to get my friends back, to anodize his as well.
One thing I should have mentioned is that I don't have a lot of good quality solid stock to make this sort of tool from. Plus, I like making castings. But, an anodised finish would look pretty good. I have a really nice copper dye that works great.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 Where are you getting your dyes from?
@@MrJohnnaz I get mine from an Australian company called Caswell www.caswellplating.com.au/store/store.php/products/copper-bf-anodizing-dye
Eecree
what kind of dro do u have and the edge finder u used, what kind is that, this is the first time ive seen a edge finder like that and only dro ive ever seen that has a touch is the ones that use arduino an i wish i would have found those b4 i ended up buying the cheaper setup i have on my mill now, but eventually i wouldn't mind upgrading the dro on my mill an using what i have on it now on my lathe.
I am using TouchDRO www.touchdro.com on my milling machine. It is a bluetooth connected adapter that takes the position data from the scales and then sends it to an app on an android device using bluetooth. I recently upgraded to 5 micron glass scales on the mill since the capacitive scales were unreliable. The TouchDRO app has been overhauled and it now has a lot more tools integrated to make it easier to do tool tables and edge and centre finding. The "wiggler" seen in the video is an old Starret tool. It has several different probes which can be swapped out. Some have ball ends and there is a sharp pointed probe for locating centre punch marks. They are very sensitive, especially the ball ended type.
Check it out here www.amazon.com.au/Starrett-S828HZ-Centre-Finder-STRS828HZ/dp/B0006J4PIS
Regards,
Mark
Nice
You're on the money but not everyone knows that red is the fastest color....I was interested to see the boring bar move slightly when you were doing the sockets. What is that terrible noise on the Bridgeport when moving the X Axis?
William, the noise in the X axis was the power feed being moved manually. It's one of those aftermarket "Align" units and it made that noise when I got it. I don't know if it is supposed to sound like that but I noticed that Joe Pieczynski's mill makes a similar noise. I didn't notice any wayward movement of the boring head but I was using a combination of moving the Z axis and the quill for some of the boring cuts. I still don't trust the quill power feed trip mechanism although the power down feed does work great.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 Check it out around 22:09
@@wyohman00 Sorry, I thought you were talking about the boring head in the mill. Yes, the boring bar was deflecting and the bore was almost certainly bell mouthed but as it was just for clearance it didn't matter. Those sockets were very hard and the inserts I was using had a nose radius that was probably too large.
Regards,
Mark
Watching that video was the most fun I've had all week. Thank you.
so what you are telling us is that you used metric.. as opposed to impearl size ??
Yes, sad but true! 9/16" is too small. The hex is 14.6mm. 9/16" is 14.28mm. I should add that it's not a genuine Kurt vice. I'm not that rich.😥
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 their are not that many rich people about these day ? lol
well done, impressive, I would have bet real money that in-use the sockets would rotate. Yes has to be red... but could have used a lightening bolt and still needs a name plate with date.
Well, I won't be loaning it to Abom79 and I'm a 120 pound weakling so it's safe with me. I have some refinements to do on the handle so stand by!
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 I recently used ink-jet printed water slide decals for labels. After installation a top clear coat seems to make them very durable. While they are waaaaaay less fancy and require almost no skill com-pared to your typical approaches you might consider them.
@@sheph7ceo799 I have some of those inkjet printable water slide decal sheets. We used to use them to make decals for the F1 in Schools competition. Towards the end of the time I was involved we got really good an making them look seamless. We used white paper so we could leave white areas on the decals and then colour matched the background to the base colour of the car. After applying the decals we took the cars to a spraypainter who clear coated them for us in 2K finish. I still have one of the last cars we made (we made three plus a 200% scale display car). One day I might feature it in one of my videos.
Regards,
Mark
Try as I might I just couldn't ignore that other casting... I could see myself making this with both sockets extending the same amount and being disappointed when trying it out for the first time. Great work!
You don't know how close I came to cutting both sockets really short. I left one intact just to show the process of cutting it down for the video and it's amazing how your plans change when you don't rush headlong into the first course of action. Whew!
Regards,
Mark
Well done sir. Looking forward to part 2.
I asked Tubalcain about using an air hammer for ramming the sand. He said it might not work because the throw is too short. Do you concur with that assessment?
Bob, I had already asked Olfoundryman th-cam.com/channels/90RoN_IjSRF18jAG0HIA6g.html the same thing. He has a long stroke air tool for ramming sand and my little air chisel only has a stroke of about 1/4" I think the commercial tools have a stroke of several inches.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 Hmmm. It's kind of counterintuitive in that you would expect an air hammer's ramming power to be a function of speed, distance and force, but not distance as the sole dominating factor.. I would expect a hammer with a shorter throw (distance) to be compensated by it's speed and force (psi). In fact, if you've ever seen those asphalt compactors the bottom plate merely vibrates a few millimeters at most, but it has a lot of force (weight) and speed.
@@bobweiram6321 check out this video by Olfoundryman th-cam.com/video/7Y5eWT1lPtE/w-d-xo.html He uses his pneumatic sand rammer at 15:00
Regards,
Mark
Great build and it looks good too.
Thanks 👍
Regards,
Mark
Well done sir and I like it!
Thank you! Cheers!
Regards,
Mark
Wow Mark! Great video yet again!
I think you said this before, but what kind of wrenches are those allen/hex keys/wrenches you use?
I got mine from Hare and Forbes in Australia. www.machineryhouse.com.au/H820
Regards,
Mark
Thanks for sharing! Nice project and I complement you on your choice of color but I have to ask, have you never heard of "Abom Torque?"
I did grunt when I tightened the vice up. Does that count?
Regards,
Mark
Ignore the casting behind the curtain!
Nice work Mark! I am working on repairing an old wheel type three handle speed handle for my vise. Yours looks way better though. Plus you have the satisfaction of making it yourself from scratch. 😍
Ike, I did consider making one of those three handle types a bit like the feed handle on my drill press. Secretly though, I need to work on my casting technique any chance I can get.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 Absolutley. Building a casting furnace is in my list for awhile now. I hope to get it started eventually. The day job and family time are pretty consuming.🤣
Once again great project. I'm from Sydney and I'm starting to get into casting so I was wondering if it's possible to do a video on casting especially the formulation of the sand and where to obtain the ingredients locally that would be very helpful. Thank you.
Bill, I should let you know that I have only started the whole foundry thing in the last 8 years or so. It's a bit of a hobby and I am by no means a specialist. I can highly recommend Olfoundryman as a resource th-cam.com/channels/90RoN_IjSRF18jAG0HIA6g.html. he lives in Melbourne as does Luckygen1001 th-cam.com/channels/Ufvmfsw2tH79cd13u_lbpw.html. Both are highly experienced and they will have some information to help you.
The greensand that I use is made from fine white silica sand from Ballina and I purchased the bentonite clay from a rural supplier. I got a 20kg bag from them. It is sold as a dam sealer. I mixed the sand/bentonite at a ratio of about 90% sand and 10% bentonite. The bentonite I bought was a bit lumpy so I ran it through an old blender first so that it turns to a consistency like cornflour.
Good luck with your foundry adventures.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 thank you. That's greatly appreciated.
Wow, this was an amazing video to watch!
When I saw it on my recommended I was wondering how you'd do the pattern - 3D-printing it is a fabulous idea!
That Speed Handle came out beautifully, the colour is just perfect! Watching you build this tool was a pleasure! Thank you so much for uploading this! I'm already excited for the video where you show how you manufactured the handle!
Greetings from Austria, Erik
Erik, what did we do before 3D printers were a thing? I first saw one back in about 2005 and I thought it was some sort of Sc-Fi magic. Unfortunately, the one that I saw was an industrial SLS model and it was worth around $1,000,000. By 2010 the first affordable desktop models were being rolled out in Australia. We were able to purchase one for the school that I was working at an overnight it revolutionised the way we could carry out R&D in the school. With that machine and a laser cutter/engraver you can rapid prototype just about anything.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 Thanks for your reply! My idea on how the pattern would have been made is to make the bosses for the handles on the lathe and the main body would be drawn my hand on a paper template and then transferred to the wood and then with a offset another mark to cut the wood our and then file/sand the draft angle. The bosses then would be glued/screwed onto the main body.
My experience with 3d printers started with a university tour in probably somewhen 2010 too - they had an industrial sls printer for about 100.000 euros. They also had an amazing cnc mill with a extended delta movement with 5 or 6 cylinders. I also thought that 3d printers were amazing. My interest in them started when cheap ones from china gained traction - original prusas and anet printers... I wasn't allowed to have one since I didn't have the place for one nor a real use. But then in 2019 my dad got a 3d printer - but it doesn't do much than some fun stuff. And yeah, with a 3D printer, a router/mill, lathe and laser one can almost prototype anything.
Greetings,
Erik
Love the candy red finish.
You've right to be excited, that's a great result!!👊😄
Oh yeah!
Regards,
Mark
I have the same problem with my vice and mill combo, a baby bridgeport type. You should sell the castings, i would buy one.
An off topic Q, how do you find the touch dro with messy hands. I just ordered a new lathe and am tempted to add one to that
Mike, I have a screen protector on the tablet and I would think that they are cheap enough that you could replace them periodically. I do recall reading about a guy who crashed his CNC mill because he had a touch screen and he tried to move the Z axis as a rapid move by touching the down arrow on the touch screen. His oily finger left a mark on the screen that was misinterpreted as a finger. When he lifted his finger off the screen the mill kept moving! At least with the TouchDRO there is no chance of actually crashing anything. If the screen got messy you could just wipe it off.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 Thanks for that. The lathe is new and fairly fancy, Sunmaster TC-1640V, so want to put something nice on it. Probably give the touch a go.
Thats a nice clean casting. Did you degas it? And what with?
Phil, I have stopped worrying about degassing. The best thing I ever did was to buy good quality ingots of 601 series alloy. There is a small foundry near where I live and I just turned up one day with $200 in cash and asked to buy some of their ingots. The going price is about $5 per kilo and I offered them $6. It machines beautifully and can be hardened to a T5 with heat treatment. I haven't done that yet but the advice I was given my my casting guru, Olfoundryman th-cam.com/channels/90RoN_IjSRF18jAG0HIA6g.html was to just melt the metal as quickly as possible and pour it without entraining a lot of air. That's why I use a tapered sprue and a pouring basin. Since adopting those measures I have almost no porosity in my castings.
Regards,
Mark
Mmmm, Red and shiny!!
Very nice job!
Cheers
I’m going to have to give powder coating a go!
I can recommend it highly. I love that you can get such a great finish ready to use within 30 minutes. No waiting around for paint to dry, no fumes, very little clean up and the range of colours and effects you can get are amazing. The up front cost is a bit high but after that you are just paying for the powders which go a long way especially on smaller types of projects.
Regards,
Mark
Beautiful Mark.
Beautiful!
Do you have an email contact?
Have a look on the "about" tab on my channel page.
Regards,
Mark
Must confess I did, and just did again. Maybe my tablet doesn't like email. I will try on a computer. Have to love technology :)
@@tcratius1748 try mark.presling@gmail.com I believe that Apple operating systems don't show the same "about" page as us Windows people get to see.
That is hilarious, I can't even begin to understand how that works. Oh well, their loss I guess, though it seems a bit cruel considering the amount of money they spend on their devices. I digress, I will contact you soon with an idea. :)
G'day Presso.
Beautiful.
👍👍
Mark,
The handle shown in this video has a magnet to “store” it on the vise.
This may be a nice enhancement to your handle.
th-cam.com/video/0BZm4VCAVMU/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for that. I will absolutely be adding that feature (the magnet) to the handle. What a great idea. I often call magnets "the engineer's friend".
Regards,
Mark
Great product! Love the birds in the background noise. Thanks.