Rotary Broaching a Hex Key Recess on a Mini Lathe @TheRecreationalMachinist

The Recreational Machinist Whilst busy working on something entirely different, I wandered off on this hexagonal hole cutting tangent. Essentially I wanted to be able to make an Allen key recess.

Rather than double the length of the original project, I’ve separated it out as a stand alone film.

Cutting small a small hex recess in a blind hole is relatively easy using a simple tool that can be knocked up from materials lying round the home shop.

Credit for at least 50% of the design goes to Mike at Mikes Workshop. Take a look at his web site. There’s some real gems in there for the bench-top machine tool user.

http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com

Mike’s rotary broaching tool can be seen in action here:

youtu.be/T8EhGxH7z_w

Although I’ve yet to try it, the same technique can be used to make holes in various other shapes including polygons, splines, Torx etc.

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POST UPLOAD UPDATE:

Thanks for all the comments and feedback :-)

I've read them all, but I’ve not the time to respond individually. There’s some good ideas and advice for me to try next time.

In response to queries about the white material in my tin can brazing hearth:

It’s called ‘Insulfrax S Blanket’ ceramic fibre. It’s available from eBay (in the UK at least). There’s a thin piece of steel sheet in the bottom of the can (where the part sits) to help prolong the blanket’s life where the flame hits it directly.

Note: some types of ceramic fibre are bad for the lungs (in the same way as asbestos is) so I’d recommend at least gloves, mask and ventilation when handling (what ever the type of fibre -just to be safe). I only handle a small amount, infrequently, and Insulfrax S is body soluble so think my precautions are enough.

As for how the broach works:

Consider if the broach and brass were in-line on the same axis. You’d be in an arbor press situation, with all corners cutting simultaneously. The rotation would contribute nothing.

The key is the 1 degree offset and the relief on the broach.

This allows the small contacting part of the cutter to present a shearing action to the inside of the pilot hole as it rotates in the brass. As the work turns so does the cutter, presenting a different cut profile as the broach rotates.

The cutter has to be free to rotate or it would just act as a boring bar and inefficiently cut a circular hole.

I’ve not tried it, but I imagine as the number of sides increases, and the shape tends towards a circle, the less effective the tool will become.

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Made with subtitles -click the CC box.

Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: C01U

updated 7 years ago

Rotary Broaching a Hex Key Recess on a Mini Lathe

The Recreational Machinist 2019-03-21 | Whilst busy working on something entirely different, I wandered off on this hexagonal hole cutting tangent. Essentially I wanted to be able to make an Allen key recess.

Rather than double the length of the original project, I’ve separated it out as a stand alone film.

Cutting small a small hex recess in a blind hole is relatively easy using a simple tool that can be knocked up from materials lying round the home shop.

Credit for at least 50% of the design goes to Mike at Mikes Workshop. Take a look at his web site. There’s some real gems in there for the bench-top machine tool user.

http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com

Mike’s rotary broaching tool can be seen in action here:

youtu.be/T8EhGxH7z_w

Although I’ve yet to try it, the same technique can be used to make holes in various other shapes including polygons, splines, Torx etc.

----------------

POST UPLOAD UPDATE:

Thanks for all the comments and feedback :-)

I've read them all, but I’ve not the time to respond individually. There’s some good ideas and advice for me to try next time.

In response to queries about the white material in my tin can brazing hearth:

It’s called ‘Insulfrax S Blanket’ ceramic fibre. It’s available from eBay (in the UK at least). There’s a thin piece of steel sheet in the bottom of the can (where the part sits) to help prolong the blanket’s life where the flame hits it directly.

Note: some types of ceramic fibre are bad for the lungs (in the same way as asbestos is) so I’d recommend at least gloves, mask and ventilation when handling (what ever the type of fibre -just to be safe). I only handle a small amount, infrequently, and Insulfrax S is body soluble so think my precautions are enough.

As for how the broach works:

Consider if the broach and brass were in-line on the same axis. You’d be in an arbor press situation, with all corners cutting simultaneously. The rotation would contribute nothing.

The key is the 1 degree offset and the relief on the broach.

This allows the small contacting part of the cutter to present a shearing action to the inside of the pilot hole as it rotates in the brass. As the work turns so does the cutter, presenting a different cut profile as the broach rotates.

The cutter has to be free to rotate or it would just act as a boring bar and inefficiently cut a circular hole.

I’ve not tried it, but I imagine as the number of sides increases, and the shape tends towards a circle, the less effective the tool will become.

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Made with subtitles -click the CC box.

Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: C01U

All Metal Silica Gel Holders & 3D Printing Tips

The Recreational Machinist 2024-04-01 | In this film I share a couple of things I’ve leant in my first year of 3D printer ownership, and in particular the role silica gel can play in keeping 3D printer filament in good condition.

The gauze containers will find uses beyond 3D printing filament storage, indeed anywhere anything needs to be kept moisture free. Electronic assemblies, camera equipment, documents etc

Clearly not everyone who has a 3D printer also has a metal working workshop, but maybe you know someone willing to swap some print time for some machine tool time, maybe you have a nearby maker space, or maybe what I’m describing will plant the seed of an alternative approach that better suits the tools and materials you have to hand.

Be aware, unlike using a powered dehydrator, it can take several days for the moisture to diffuse out of the filament. But I’m a low consumption user and am not in any rush. This passive drying approach suits my needs perfectly, but may not work for everyone.

The elegant simplicity of the factory fitted reverse Bowden setup has the great advantage that it keeps the distance between the reel and extruder constant, regardless of where the print head is, so filament is only pulled through by the extruder itself.
Using the pulley arrangement means that the X Y movement of the print head carriage also tends to pull filament off the reel, sometimes in big chunks. In my experience at least, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. It may not work as well with very heavy reels or machines that have high speed movement over a large work envelope.

There are plenty of breakfast cereal storage boxes out there that will probably work well. I chose the Lock-n-Lock HPL951 as they were end of line at the local supermarket, and going for a song. If anyone would like to print their own RH meter holder (to suit this particular box), it’s available on Printables here: printables.com/model/821386-hygrometer-relative-humidity-gauge-holder-for-lock

I use two thermal cuts outs, a standard thermal pellet fuse and a non-resetting bimetallic trip, to increase the chances of a successful disconnection in the event of an over temperature event. The 70 Celsius temperature chosen may be too low for more exotic filaments, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Arbour, arbor or mandrel / mandril? Meh. Call it what you will.

Chapters

00:00 Chapter 1: Introduction
00:39 Chapter 2: Improving TPU prints
01:49 Chapter 3: Printer Enclosure & Safety
02:30 Chapter 4: Keeping an eye on things
03:08 Chapter 5: Clean and dry
03:51 Chapter 6: Using silica gel
06:17 Chapter 7: Gauze silica gel containers
08:17 Chapter 8: Preparing an end cap arbor
09:56 Chapter 9: Making a set of end caps
13:11 Chapter 10: Filling the tubes
13:47 Chapter 11: Reusing silica gel
15:17 Chapter 12: Room for improvement

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POST UPLOAD UPDATES:

Thanks for the suggestion of a food dehydrator. If I ever drop on a cheap one, I'll pick one up to try. Although they are available, they’re not at all that common here -I certainly don't know anyone who has one. UK kitchen gadgets like this go through phases (think the Breville sandwich toaster, the smoothy maker and more recently the air fryer). If food preservation catches on, charity shops will soon be filled with filament driers for everyone!

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I’ve had a couple of queries about the kitchen cabinet I used:

It’s an Ikea METOD 60x60x80 base cabinet.
I’d forgotten until I had a closer look just now -these come with an open top (they are supplied with two metal strips to retain the sides) so I promoted an UTRUSTA 60x60 internal shelf to be a top (secured with six large furniture screws fitted through the top edges -wouldn’t look great in the kitchen, but fine for my purposes).
The door is a 60x80 VEDDINGE.
I sealed the edges and painted the back of cupboard back board the try and make it a bit more durable in my damp workshop. As it sits on a shelf, the rectangular cuts outs at the top corners (meant for fixing it to the wall) were filled with a couple of scraps of thin plywood.

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Manually subtitled for accuracy. Click the CC box.

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Shot: HC-X920 & HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD. Nozzlecam 3840x2160 30P
Edit: DaVinci Resolve 18.6.4
Mic: NT1

Mini Lathe Centre Drill Storage Holder #shorts

The Recreational Machinist 2024-03-25 | A simple holder to keep the centre drills I keep around my Chinese mini lathe tidy but accessible. The hook section is shaped to fit over the angled top edge of the chip tray / splash guard.

Granted it would have been much quicker to just drill 4 holes in a block of wood, but that wouldn’t have taught be anything about choosing print orientations which remove the need for support structures.

The model was drawn in Design Spark Mechanical 6.0 and sliced with PrusaSlicer 2.7.1.
Printed on a Creality Ender 5 S1 in around 2 hours and 9 mins, using around 7.5m of 1.75mm PLA filament with 5% gyroid infill. The ‘holes down’ orientation means supports are not required (relies on good adhesion to the textured PEI build plate though). I’m sure it could be done much faster, but my preference is to dial everything down to get a decent print first time, rather than wasting filament on failed prints just for the sake of pushing the envelope.

If anyone would like to print their own, the files can be found on Printables: printables.com/model/741588-mini-lathe-centre-drill-storage-holder

Note: the close up camera is *behind* the nozzle and the wide shot is in *front* , so it can appear that the print is running reversed when in reality it isn’t.

Music: The Movement of India by Aakash Gandhi
youtube.com/watch?v=jQ1_2F50fME

Building a Wad Punch Arbor Press Adaptor @ollysworkshop 2023 Advent Calendar

The Recreational Machinist 2023-12-19 | Olly from @ollysworkshop has been in touch to ask if I'd like to be part of this year's advent calendar series of workshop videos, by contributing a little film of my own to his new guest channel feature. I was flattered to be asked, and was only too pleased to support the project!

If you’re any sort of home machinist, maker, DIYer, inventor, hacker, repairer or general tinkerer be sure to pay him a visit and see what else is on offer this year (and if you don't celebrate Christmas, fear not as any association is minimal -it's just an excuse for a bunch of workshop videos!)

In this film I make an experimental arbor press adaptor for my @maunindustries metric wad punch set. It’s not intended to replace the hammer driven handle, but to be an alternative to play with when the need arises for a different application method.

00:00 ~ Ollsworkshop 2023 Advent Calendar
00:15 ~ Wad Punch Kit
01:27 ~ An Idea to Try Something Different
01:54 ~ A Touch of TIG?
01:40 ~ Making the Attachment Box
03:00 ~ The Only Critical Part?
04:07 ~ Single Pointing Left and Right Handed Threads
05:09 ~ Making the Spring Loaded Plunger Part
08:14 ~ Tailstock Die Holder
09:20 ~ Rotary Broaching a 6 Sided Hole
10:10 ~ Final Assembly and Testing

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Post Upload Update:

At the start of this project I contacted the manufacturer of the wad punches to see what the handle thread actually was. Their reply was both quick and helpful, but found its way into the spam folder and I've only just found it! In case you were wondering, this was their response:

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All our wad punches, all sizes, are tapped 5/8” BSF (this is 14TPI).

The handle has a 5/8” BSF thread in a truncated form turned to 0.595” diameter, + or - 0.005” (14.97mm-15.24mm).

The truncated form allows for easier and quicker changing between punches.
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So if you were to embark on a similar project, I've proven a metric thread is close enough, but if you want to do it properly it's actually imperial!

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Manually subtitles for accuracy – press the CC button

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For the material I couldn't capture myself, my thanks goes to the following:

Christmas banner image kindly supplied by pikisuperstar via Freepik

freepik.com/free-vector/realistic-christmas-light-frame_11240784.htm

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Shot: HC-X920 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: Davinci Resolve 18.1.4
Mic: NT1-A

10 Years of Mini Lathe Ownership: Pros, Cons, Modifications and Improvements

The Recreational Machinist 2023-10-29 | The ubiquitous Chinese Mini Lathe comes in for a lot of flak. Some of it is justified, some of it really isn’t.

It’s a simple case of horses for courses. Whilst there are very many instances where a small cheap machine is completely unsuitable, I maintain there is definitely a place in the world for the mini lathe.

Over half an hour, I’ll explain what you get for your money, the pros and cons of ownership, some limitations and practicalities then cover some modifications and improvements from the perspective of a user who has enjoyed using a 7 x14 mini lathe for a decade.

I’m channelling @ThisOldTony a bit on this one, as I’ve more words than I’ve got video to say them over. I’ve included some crummy old archive stills and video I’ve dug up from the depths of my phone, that were never intended for public consumption.

Approximate imperial sizes are shown. They're not intended to be direct equivalents, but are there to give the non-metric viewer a rough feel for what I'm discussing.

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00:00 ~ CHAPTER ONE - CHOOSING A LATHE -
01:14 ~ 1a Buy Big?
02:08 ~ 1b Buy Old?
02:35 ~ CHAPTER TWO - MINI LATHE GUIDED TOUR -
02:46 ~ 2a How Big is Mini?
03:32 ~ 2b More Similarities Than Differences
03:49 ~ 2c Chuck Sizes
04:04 ~ 2d Headstock and Tailstock
04:28 ~ 2e Motors and Drives
05:12 ~ 2f Change Gear Considerations
05:39 ~ 2g But What Will it Cut?
06:01 ~ 2h An Example Project
06:40 ~ 2i Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
08:25 ~ 2j High Speed Steel is Your Friend
08:47 ~ 2k To Carbide or Not to Carbide
09:25 ~ 2l Mini Lathe Accuracy
09:57 ~ 2m Starting to Taper Off
12:37 ~ CHAPTER THREE - CHANGES AND MODIFICATIONS -
12:53 ~ 3a Assorted Simple Improvements
16:32 ~ 3b Saddle Strip Upgrade
17:50 ~ 3c Compound Slide Modification
20:24 ~ 3d Adding a Carriage DRO
21:25 ~ 3e Tailstock Rebuild
23:38 ~ 3f Cross Slide Improvements
24:07 ~ CHAPTER FOUR - STILL TO COME -
24:24 ~ 4a Trade Speed for Torque?
24:39 ~ 4b Saddle Twist
25:17 ~ 4c Facing Cuts Could (Sometimes) be Better
25:48 ~ 4d Screwcutting Gearbox Weakness
26:00 ~ 4e Headstock Bearings
26:28 ~ 4f Coarse Handwheel Saddle Traverse
27:17 ~ 4g Keeping Rust at Bay (off on a tangent!)
28:01 ~ CHAPTER FIVE - IN CONCLUSION -

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Manually subtitled for accuracy -click the CC box.

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With Thanks:

Thanks to Stewart for the RC plane footage, and for opening my eyes to the possibility that a lathe can be as much at home in the garden shed as an industrial unit or factory. Without that little push, I may have missed out on many years of hobby machining.

Thanks to Ben for the Striker material. A seriously quick car!

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Links:

Link to my video which describes in a little more detail the changes I made to allow the cross slide to move back an additional 15mm, and how I incorporated a modified dial that makes it easy to read to 1/100th of a millimetre.

youtu.be/lNznefS02lE

Note this isn’t a step by step guide, but it should give useful pointers to the home machinist who would like to try something similar.

Links to Brain’s Workshop where details of the brass saddle plate modification can be found:

http://briansworkshop.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/9/3/20933970/top_adjustable_gibs_for_7x--lathes.pdf

http://briansworkshop.weebly.com/lathe-projects.html

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For the material I couldn't capture myself, my thanks goes to the following:

Clip from ‘Transporting an Old Very Heavy Smart & Brown Lathe’ used with kind permission from Keith Appleton youtube.com/watch?v=Qrp28zctP8Q

Patrick Stirling for his amazing free custom promo DaVinci Resolve plugin:
youtu.be/SP3jzOW56N8?si=kxkJxCuOhWf84ebu

Monarch lathe still:
rawpixel.com/image/3322909

Motor and pulley still:
pixabay.com/photos/lost-places-warehouse-abandoned-2745649

Machinist running an old lathe video:
pixabay.com/videos/engineering-old-machines-109642

Icons by @Guapoo from reshot.com

Stills used to illustrate compound rotation modification from ArcEuroTrade strip down guide here:

arceurotrade.co.uk/machineguides/SC3-Mini-Lathe-Dismantling-and-Reassembly-Guide.pdf

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Shot: HC-X920 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: Davinci Resolve 18.1.4
Mic: NT1-A

Mill Vice Stop From Leftover Parts #shorts

The Recreational Machinist 2023-06-15 | This little project has been on my to-do list since Olly over at @ollysworkshop suggested it on day 19 of his excellent 2022 Workshop Advent Calendar series [see here: youtu.be/xb31WP-s7xk ]

Check out his channel. There’s some good stuff in there 👍 🇬🇧

It’s a straightforward build, and really only involves drilling a couple of holes and shortening a couple of rods. Just enough to fit into a 60 second #SHORT

The hardware I chose has relatively thin rods, so a certain amount of ‘feel’ is needed when in use to avoid the springiness of the stop resulting in positional errors. That said, it’s already proven itself useful for the type of light work I do. If I were throwing in heavy lumps of steel on a rapid production turnaround, clearly something much more rigid would be required.

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This was really a bit of a test project using a different camera.

This #SHORT was recorded on a Panasonic HC-X920, which on paper is (possibly) a better camera than the HDC-HS700 I usually use. On the plus side the X920 has larger back illuminated sensors, on the minus side it is also slightly larger and slightly heavier. It also has something of a cheap plastic feel when compared to the HDC-HS700. And doesn’t have an infra red remote (almost essential for starting a recording without introducing shake -its snazzy WiFi remote is about as much use as a chocolate teapot) and using manual modes is a bit more fiddly. The on-board mic has a tenancy to pickup camera fan noise when when recording near-silence. That said, white balance seems to be more consistent with my LED lights, and the back focus seems more accurate so zooming in to fine tune the focus and then zooming out again is more reliable. The jury is out on whether the picture quality trumps the niggles.

Both models are over a decade old, and there are doubtless better more contemporary cameras out there. But these two produce good (enough) quality in a convenient size and whilst not throwaway money, are cheap enough to risk in the relatively hazardous workshop environment.

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Shot: HC-X920 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: Davinci Resolve 18.1.3
Mic: DR-05

Machining a Pulley From Scrap #shorts

The Recreational Machinist 2023-04-17 | This #SHORTS project was meant to be a quick and dirty proof of concept, but once it got going it turned into several hours of fiddling. Don’t they always?

The material used for the pulley was an old die cast gearbox casing. It’s some sort of zinc alloy that is stiffer and harder than aluminium, but machines really nicely. I was just what I had to hand on the day.

I dialled in one of the existing features on the metal casing as there was barely enough material for what I had in mind. Possibly a bit overkill, close enough would probably have been good enough in this case. If you're interested in the tool I used, take a look here: youtu.be/WmjLUMajaPU

I took a preliminary pass and measured the resultant hole with a telescopic bore gauge.

A few people have pointed out the technique shown isn't great. The truth is there was a nice close up of me deftly rolling the gauge through the hole, but it was unusably out of focus, and it was too late to re-shoot by the time I realised, so I'm stuck with the wide shot. 🤷‍♂️

After adjusting the head I took another pass (actually it took two or three iterations to creep up on the dimension to avoid going over size) then switched to a drill chuck to add some holes.

I used coordinate drilling as the work was already clamped down and centred. The rotary table would just have added another complication. I spotted the positions with a centre drill then followed up with an 8mm bit.

After refitting the boring head I used a home made trepanning tool (ground from a broken end mill) to cut out the disk. A fret saw might have been quicker, but I needed the practice at this technique.

The 6800-2RS (10 x 19 x 5mm) bearing had its shields and factory grease removed (to be replaced with light oil). It will be very lightly loaded in a clean environment and I’m more interested in minimum drag rather than long life.

Before anyone chips in you can get those from such-a-place for pennies, you’re missing the point! Anyone can just buy something that somebody else has made. That teaches you nothing and isn’t nearly as much fun.

There’s an hour and three quarters of video shrunk down to make this 60 second short.

Manually subtitled for accuracy. Click on the CC box.

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: DaVinci Resolve 18.1.4 ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

LED Spindle Light: 3D Printing Update

The Recreational Machinist 2023-02-26 | A quick three minute reply to some of the comments I received from viewers on my recent milling machine LED ring light project (youtube.com/watch?v=KiYS3VVILCo).

Made with subtitles -click the CC box.

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For the material I didn't create myself, my thanks goes to the following:

lemonmusicstudio for ‘Inspired By The Street’, via pixabay.com pixabay.com/music/acoustic-group-inspired-by-the-street-122694

StudioKolomna for 'Fast Whoosh', via pixabay.com pixabay.com/sound-effects/fast-whoosh-118248

DJT4NN3R for 'whoosh long low', via pixabay.com pixabay.com/sound-effects/whoosh-long-low-6087

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: Davinci Resolve 18.1.3
Mic: DR-05

An Improved Work Light For The Mini Mill

The Recreational Machinist 2023-01-10 | For some time I’ve used Ikea JANSJO gooseneck lamps around the workshop. They’re great, but they’re not totally without shortcomings. In this film I build an alternative work light for my milling machine.

I examine what makes the JANSJO lights tick, and find out what’s under the bonnet of some low cost automotive LED ring lights (and learn a bit about the PT4115 and TP8005 LED driver), and modify them to suit my needs. Once relatively uncommon, these rings are now readily available from all the usual on-line suppliers (also variously referred to as DRL rings, AngelEyes, Halo Lights, COB rings, etc).

This build started way back in 2016, before having the misfortune of becoming one of my many ‘paused projects’. It resurfaced almost a year ago, and has been on the back burner ever since, creeping along bit by bit as-and-when I had a few minutes to spare. This film contains (amongst other things): turning, milling, drilling, anodising, annealing, electronics, CAD and how not to make a face grooving tool 😉

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I’ve had a couple of viewers ask about the plug and socket I used between the die cast box and wall wart power supply: They’re Binder 719 series circular connectors. Over the years I’ve used them for a number of projects and found them to be both versatile and reliable (coming in male / female / cable end / panel mount varieties and in 3, 4 and 5 pole). They’re a little bit expensive for my budget (though not in the same league as the all metal connectors from the likes of Lemo and Fischer) but being solder bucket you can offset the cost a little by not needing special crimp or pin insertion tooling.

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I’ve had a number of comments suggesting this build may have been completed using 3D printer.

Take a look here: youtu.be/X4ctgZKo18g for a little more info on why I completed the build the way I did.

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A quick shout out to @JimTaylor42 whose Design Spark Mechanical series have managed to drag me from strictly back of an envelope to an occasional (but still not yet very proficient) CAD user.

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All imperial conversions are at best approximate, and are just for the benefit of anyone not viewing in metric 😉

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Chapters:

00:00 – Jansjo lights: The good
00:16 – Jansjo lights: What’s inside?
00:31 – Jansjo lights: The not so good
00:53 – Planning an alternative light source
01:40 – So many projects, so little time
01:55 – A change of plan
03:00 – Starting the build
03:53 – Adding some detail
04:14 – An experimental grooving tool
05:10 – Perseverance over planning
05:27 – Adding more features on the lathe
06:49 – A little coordinate drilling
07:23 – Modifying button head screws to suit
08:21 – Planning LED fitment
08:56 – Prototyping the wiring
09:48 – Machining a brass saddle
11:37 – From machining to electronics
12:08 – TP8005 versus PT4115
12:47 – Ring light driver circuit tests
13:29 – Adding a brightness control
14:06 – Here’s one I prepared earlier
14:28 – Bending thin walled brass tube
15:13 – Anodising aluminium
16:33 – Starting assembly
18:48 – It works!
19:02 – A side project from left overs
19:16 – Jansjo lights: Change to survive

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For the material I couldn't capture myself, my thanks goes to the following:

Evan at https://time.is/ for kind permission to use calendar screen grabs.

-=-

Mike from AutoPhotography for the use of the BMW headlight, via pixabay.com

-=-

Blastwave FX for the slap sound by via zapsplat.com

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Manually subtitled for accuracy -click the CC box.

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: DavInci Resolve 18 ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

Adding Ratchet Spanner (Wrench) Storage #shorts

The Recreational Machinist 2022-10-17 | I recently modified a small scissor jack for a particular (low weight) lifting job I occasionally need to do, and wanted to add somewhere to store the ratchet spanner (wrench) so the whole tool would be complete, together and ready to use whenever the need arose. This #shorts is what I came up with...

The imperial conversions are only approximate for the benefit of anyone not viewing in metric 😉

Manually subtitled for accuracy. Click on the CC box.

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: DaVinci Resolve ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

Making a Low Noise Compressor More Workshop Friendly

The Recreational Machinist 2022-09-22 | I recently swapped my ‘conventional’ piston compressor for a much quieter ‘fridge type’ that better suits my needs.

Having a small workshop means not much is lucky enough to have a permanent home: many tools have to have wheels so they can moved out to use, and pushed out of the way when they’re finished with. The new-to-me Bambi BB24V compressor is no exception.

This video gives a brief comparison of my old and new compressors, and shows how I used the mini lathe to turn a piece of scrap aluminium into two threaded bushes to allow castors to be fitted to the compressor’s tubular frame.

This is one of those quick projects that didn’t really justify a film, but I quite enjoy the process even when there’s nothing too taxing about the engineering involved.

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Chapters:

00:00 - A comparison of old and new
00:46 - A small downside
00:58 - Mini lathe machining montage
04:14 - An improvised nutsert fitting tool
04:59 - Slimming down to fit
05:50 - Casting lead counterweights

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My thanks goes to Olexy for the piece ‘Road in the Forest’ available from Pixabay pixabay.com/music/id-115035

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Manually subtitled for accuracy: click the CC box

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: DaVinci Resolve 18.0.1 ProRes 422
Upload: 3840 x 2160 Ultra HD
Mic: DR-05

Making Mini Brass Thumbscrews #Shorts

The Recreational Machinist 2022-07-30 | I needed a handful of M4 thumbscrews. In the time it took to make them I could have had some delivered, but where’s the fun in that?

I used grub screws for the threaded section rather than single pointing or die threading the brass as I have a big bag of them, and it means I can choose the length after the fact.

For this to qualify as a #shorts I've only got 60 seconds....

Manually subtitled for accuracy. Click on the CC box.

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: DaVinci Resolve 17.4.6 ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

Reducing Video Flicker When Using LED Panel Lighting

The Recreational Machinist 2022-07-02 | Another of my occasional 'no machining' videos: This time I address the flicker I was sometimes seeing on my recordings, particularly on those shots which are subsequently sped up. Flicker may not be the right word, but I'm not sure in this context that 'hum-bar' is either, so I'll stick with 'flicker'. Anyhow, this is something that I first came across back in 2018 ( youtu.be/YdOQ7VCxjEI?t=463 ) so this is a bit of a re-visit to that topic.

During the course of making this film I have come to better understand why the 'flicker' looks the way it does (in particular why I see narrow bands across the frame, not a whole field brightness change), which is related to the rolling shutter on my CMOS camera. It would have been interesting to compare the effect against a global shutter (CCD) camera, but I don't have one to hand. Some high end CMOS cameras now implement global a shutter arrangement to help minimise rolling shutter artefacts, but it will be a while before this technology filters down to my price bracket. Hopefully I've proven that a handful of electrolytic capacitors can mitigate the problem for my modest needs.

This isn't the film I'd planned to be publishing in summer 2022, but one or two niggles in the workshop made it feel that it would be worth the effort to pause the project I was on with to try to sort them out...

The first niggle was reducing the to-and-fro rock on the lathe, and was covered in a recent pair of shorts ( youtube.com/shorts/e4oOzV-Vxt8 and youtube.com/shorts/XDuqPwxMW3k )

The second was the flicker issue. Hopefully with it now resolved, I can get back to finishing what I was part way through making. Unless something else crops up 😉

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If anyone would like a bit more information on the instantaneous frequency wobbles present on the mains, this makes interesting reading: http://mainsfrequency.uk

For a little bit of further reading on rolling versus global camera shutters, and the artefacts they can generate take a look here: tinyurl.com/3p47ks83 and tinyurl.com/wbd6y8yy

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Manually subtitled for accuracy: click the CC box

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: DaVinci Resolve 17.4.4 ProRes 422
Upload: 3840 x 2160 Ultra HD upto 200000Kb/s
Mic: DR-05

Milling a Radius Without a Rotary Table #Shorts

The Recreational Machinist 2022-06-02 | As part of trying to make my mini lathe a little more stable (for filming) by removing the soft rubber feet and making the new stiffer ones further apart, I wanted to put a radius on both ends of some 40mm x 8mm EN3 flat steel bar ( 1 9/16” x 5/16” ).

I wanted the result to be neater than I could readily achieve with a hand file, but not so precise / time consuming to setup as using the rotary table.

This is what I came up with. The cuts were very light, and always conventional rather than climb. The radius is just less than a full half circle so the cutter didn’t contact beyond the intended cut at the ends of swing. With the relative length of the levers before and after the pivot, the cut was very controlled.

If anyone else were to attempt this, I'd think carefully about which direction in which things might move if anything were to grab unexpectedly. The low power / inertia of my mini mill means the motor will stall at the first sign of trouble, this might not be the case on a 2 ton Bridgeport...

Threading With a Homemade Tailstock Die Holder #Shorts

The Recreational Machinist 2022-05-25 | Today I used my home made tailstock die holder ( youtu.be/bK_Is7QarxY ) to put M10 x 0.75 threads on some EN1A leaded steel rod.

This material cuts beautifully!

The plan is for the studs to form part of a set of new adjustable feet to improve the stability my mini lathe (it tends to rock too and fro when the hand wheels are turned which looks odd on camera).

The focus is hunting a bit as this #SHORTS was filmed on my phone 👍 🇬🇧

Camera and Lighting Supports: Making Switchable Magnetic Mounts for 11 Inch Magic Arms

The Recreational Machinist 2022-05-10 | In this short film I make magnetic posts using switchable bases (the type that are usually used to hold DTIs and the like) to allow easier mounting of camera and lights when filming my YouTube videos.

The 11” magic arms are available through all the usual on line marketplaces. I’ve only used the low cost ones (high end / professional brands also supply them, but I can't say if their extra cost translates into extra quality / longevity). The cheap ones work really well, but as noted in the film the wear out fairly quickly. This is probably as much my fault as the arm itself, as I don’t always fully slacken off the hold-nut before moving the arm to a new position. I wonder if introducing a sacrificial washer (fibre? leather? plastic?) between the two halves would make them last longer…?

My thanks go to Andrew for donating his aluminium pole to the project 😉
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It’s been a little while since my last film.

Up until this point I’ve been using Final Cut 7 on a late 2012 Mac mini (Quad i7 16GB). It worked beautifully, cutting 1080/50P ProRes 422 with ease, but I was becoming increasingly frustrated with a system that couldn’t move forward (FCP 7 has long been end of life and wouldn’t run on a later OS, preventing me using any other software that demanded a more contemporary environment, not to mention security updates, browser functionality etc)

Another issue is trying to find help when I ran into difficulties or wanted to try something new; sites which used to be full of tutorials, tips, tricks and advice have started clearing out seldom visited decade old threads to make space.

So I’ve updated my setup to an M1 Mac mini, and I’ve been trying to get to grips with DaVinci Resolve 17. There are some aspects I really like, and some less so: It’s incredibly fully featured given its cost (currently free), though having to go back to working with proxies and optimised media is a bit of a shock. I’ve become used to just loading and going (my 10 year old hardware and software just worked, rendering when complex but quick and / or not required at all for basic stuff).

For the same reasons I’ve had to ditch my ancient copy of Photoshop in favour of Affinity Photo. And it’s a similar story; incredibility good for the price, but needs a lot of re-learning. Lots of time spent figuring out the new keystrokes and mouse clicks to get out of Affinity was was second nature with Photoshop

It’s early days and the more I use them, the less reliant on a 20 minute YouTube tutorials I'll become.

This film is short, but owing to the learning curve took no less time to put together. Plus I didn’t want to risk making a 45 minute epic, only to run into problems near the end that might have scuppered the project.

One interesting thing to come out of the exercise (thanks to numerous other content creators for doing the leg-work) is that upscaling the finished piece to 4K for upload to YouTube appears to give slightly better looking results compared to uploading the native 1080 material. It seems like YouTube's recompression algorithm is a little kinder to the higher resolution material, even though it started out lower. This is entirely subjective though -I've done my own little tests both ways and the results look better at my end, and I don't want to fall out with anyone over it.

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Manually subtitled for accuracy -click the CC box.

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD / Galaxy s10e 1920x1080 30P H.264
Edit: DaVinci Resolve 17.4.4 ProRes 422
Upload: 3840 x 2160 Ultra HD upto 100000Kb/s
Mic: DR-05

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Machining and Casting Recycled English Pewter Workshop Magnets

The Recreational Machinist 2021-12-26 | This film follows me making a number of novelty (though hopefully useful) workshop magnets. The plan was to make 36 (6 sets of 6) to give away, in the end there were nearer 50. This is the most of one thing I’ve ever made!

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I begin by machining the cast pewter bars from my previous film ( youtu.be/Ub9NtvyIn7w ).

When my parcel of disk magnets arrives I’m reminded that “the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten”, and embark on some testing to see how good or bad they really are.

As is entirely normal for me I suffer from another case of project creep, and take a meandering detour from my machining to try directly casting the molten pewter.

When it comes to assembly time I realise winter has crept up on me and adapt my mini mill’s rust prevention heater to warm things up.

Finally I make a tubular cutter to prepare the foam insert for the presentation tin.

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Why pewter? Why not! I’ve machined wood, plastics, various brasses, bronzes and copper, steels, cast iron, titanium and anything else I can get my hands on to play with. Part of the fun of my hobby is seeing how different materials behave, and what can be achieved with benchtop tools in the home workshop.

Any imperial conversions are ballpark at best, just so non-metric viewers can keep up.

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Chapters:

00:00 - Machining Pewter
02:16 - Magnet Tests
04:13 - Adhesive & Prototyping
09:07 - Mould Making & Casting Pewter
16:30 - Cleaning, Polishing & Buffing
18:22 - Warm Box & Magnet Assembly
20:53 - Presentation Tin Preparation

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The polishing compounds I used (in order of appearance) in the film are (no affiliation):

Yellow: Dialux Jaune Compound

Green: Menzerna 439T Pre-Polishing Compound

White: Dialux Blanc Compound

Red: Dialux Rouge Compound

Yellow: Menzerna P175 Superfine Compound

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My thanks go to @JimTaylor42 for getting me started on Design Spark Mechanical, which I've used for the 3D visualisations.

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Manually subtitled for accuracy - Press the CC button

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

Identifying, Melting and Casting Bars of English Pewter Metal

The Recreational Machinist 2021-08-21 | Without the time, space or wishing to antagonise my suburban neighbours with the pungent aroma of a backyard foundry, the chances of me melting any aluminium or brass anytime soon seem remote.

However, thanks to inspiration from @JimmiePorterAtStuartArts , I decided to scratch my metal casting itch by converting unwanted tankards into round bars of pewter metal.

To the best of my knowledge, everything I've melted down is younger than me, and as far as I know had no historical significance whatsoever. I've no intention of destroying anything that may have any real value.

In this film there's a little bit of history, some safety advice and details of what I've found works well and not so well when re-purposing battered old jugs, teapots and mugs. There are unanswered questions about crystallisation and yellow surface finish that my (fairly unscientific) investigations were unable to resolve.

One thing I forgot to mention for any non-metric viewers is the melting point of pewter is around 450 degrees Fahrenheit, so around the upper end of what you'll see in a domestic kitchen. Not without its dangers, but not too unfamiliar either.

What use are short lengths of 25mm diameter solid pewter bar? Hopefully that will be the subject of a future film...

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00:00 - Choosing lead free pewter where possible
02:34 - Mould preparation
03:25 - Down the yellowness rabbit hole
05:00 - The mystery crystal surface
05:48 - A rough guide to temperatures
06:25 - Casting round bars
07:50 - Seeing what we've got
08:26 - Tidying up on the lathe

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Manually subtitled for accuracy -click the CC box.

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Attribution is not always required, but usually deserved. For the material I couldn't capture myself, my thanks go to the following:

****~~~****

From Freesound.org:

firework_explosion_fizz by soundscalpel.com
freesound.org/s/110391
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 )

****

7-thump by numar: freesound.org/people/numar/sounds/118401
Licensed under the Sampling+ License
( creativecommons.org/licenses/sampling+/1.0 )

****

5 by adcbicycle: freesound.org/people/adcbicycle/sounds/13857

lightbulletping by wilhellboy : freesound.org/people/wilhellboy/sounds/351369

Both licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License
( creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 )

****~~~****

Foundry footage by ArtHouse Studio via pexels.com

pexels.com/video/flowing-molten-steel-5121753
pexels.com/video/flowing-molten-steel-5121751
pexels.com/video/video-of-molten-metal-in-a-factory-5121701

****~~~****

Mechanical Claw Closeup by Harry via videvo.net
videvo.net/video/mechanical-claw-closeup/2205

****~~~****

Tabulae osteologicae by Christoph Jacob Trew (1695?1769)
via nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies/trew_home.html

****~~~****

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

Low Cost TIG Welder Foot Switch Aux Start

The Recreational Machinist 2021-05-31 | Andeli TIG-250 Welder First Impressions and Adding an Aux Start Switch

I start using my low cost inverter TIG welder, and compare it to the tiny bit of other welding methods I've tried.

Not a review though 😉

Later I add a foot controlled start/stop switch to make my life easier (call it training wheels if you like). Also there a brief look at storing filler rods, a torch holder and a light duty welding table.

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00:00 Not improving by not practicing is a vicious circle
03:00 Adding a footswitch to make my life easier
05:00 How it works
06:55 Bonus Feature - DIY Torch Holder
08:00 Bonus Feature - Filler Storage
09:27 Bonus Feature - Light Duty Welding Table

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The laser cutter I used can be found on ebay.co.uk, seller ID custosig-0

Aside from being a very satisfied customer, I've no affiliation with the company whatsoever.

ebay.co.uk/usr/custosig-0

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A note about argon gas:

Obtaining gas almost made a 4th bonus feature, but I didn’t have enough video to cover the dialogue so it went on the cutting room floor! After a query from a viewer this is more or less what I was going say (this is my experience of the situation in England. Your mileage may vary)

100% don’t use disposable bottles. The small grey ones hold about 60 litres of gas, that’s about 10 minutes of welding time (less at a higher flow rate). I can get through that messing about before I even attempt my first weld! There are larger capacity disposable bottles (often green) that hold twice as much (for almost twice the price). Again, a very expensive way to do it.

If you’re a heavy user (think commercial / industrial), a rental account with one of the big gas suppliers (BOC, Air Products etc) works out cheapest.

For the occasional (hobby) use, Google rent free gas in your area. There are a few of nationwide firms (notably Adams, SGS and Hobbyweld) and often local firms too (depending where you are in the country). Do your homework though: The cylinder is often the same physical size, but some suppliers only part fill it, so be aware a slightly more expensive competitor may be supplying a 200Bar bottle versus 100Bar (i.e. double the gas).

You’ll have to pay a deposit on the bottle, but no monthly rental. With some companies the deposit lasts indefinitely and you should get it back provided you return the bottle in good condition (sometime less an ‘administration fee' 🤔 ). Other companies have a diminishing deposit that evaporates over time. I guess this is to encourage you to return that bottle you’ve had in the shed for 10 years and never use anymore. If they’re local you can go and exchange in person. If not you may need to consider the delivery / collection cost and the possibility of renting two bottles (the full one you’ve just got and the one that you’re sending back empty).

My welder didn’t come with a regulator of any kind (I’ve seen some small MIGs come with a disposable bottle reg in the bundle) so I bought a standard reg. In the interests of making your precious gas last as long as you can, I’d recommend a floating ball type flow meter (either at the bottle or a pea shooter at the torch) as the pressure based one on the reg (on mine at least) is pretty inaccurate. This, plus gloves, tungstens and filler all add to the initial outlay but should last some considerable time.

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Manually subtitled for accuracy -click the CC box.

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For the material I couldn't capture myself, my thanks goes to the following: Whoosh by Aysonny https://freesound.org/people/_bepis/s... Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

Quick Low Cost TIG Filler Storage Tubes

The Recreational Machinist 2021-02-15 | The first film of 2021! Just a short one outlining how I quickly whipped up some inexpensive TIG storage tubes to keep my short filler rods clean and dry when not in use.

I'm still pottering in the workshop through winter, but it's too cold to stay in there for long!

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I've had one or two viewers ask me what I think of my new Andeli 250 Amp TIG / MMA welder. Asking me to review a welder would be like asking someone who can't drive to review a car!

I don't even rate myself as a novice welder. Here's the proof...

youtu.be/E9X3l2b6Ji8?t=282

That said I'm really pleased with it so far. I've a long way to go, but already I can manage a relatively clean controlled weld than needs little or no dressing afterwards. It produces no showers of sparks threatening to set the place alight, it's small and light enough to not clutter up my already overfilled garage. It has HF start, ramp up and down, pre and post gas. When I get there it will pulse and it will stick weld should the need arise.

Time will tell how long it lasts, but I'm not a heavy user earning a living from it -so hopefully a while. I couldn't justify the additional cost of AC for aluminium at this stage (the next model up). That might be one for the future...

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Manually subtitled for accuracy -click the CC box.

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Shot: Galaxy S10e 1920x1080 30P H.264
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

Record No 23 Quick Release Vice (Vise) : Mechanism Strip, Clean and Reassembly

The Recreational Machinist 2020-10-30 | A strip down, clean, paint and reassembly of a Record Number 23 ‘Made in England’ quick release fitters vice. There’s a little history, and an estimate of the age of my new (old) workshop vice thrown in for good measure.

I bought the vice from a garage sale down the road for 60 English pounds. Compared to what £60 will get you new, I think it was a bargain.

Although it was likely salvageable, I make a new replacement handle from scratch, rather than spending time trying to clean up the old one. Possibly not to everyone’s taste, but this was never meant to be a faithful restoration of a historically significant tool. It’s a refurbishment of a common or garden bench vice that I’ll be using for anything and everything in my workshop from now on.

The paints I use in the video come from www.paragonpaints.co.uk - a company I have no affiliation with.

As an Englishman, I spell vice with a C. And I occasionally spell clamp with an R.

But not always.

I hope everyone can get on with that.

As with my other films, this is not intended to be a how to. I'm not suggesting my method is the proper, best or only approach. It's just a record of what I did.

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Feel free to jump along to the bit you’re interested in:

00:00 - Background & History
03:05 - Dismantle & Clean
06:07 - Making a Replacement Handle
08:07 - Adding Paint
09:29 - Rebuild

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Post upload update:

It's possible that the 5/16 BSF (fine) screws my vice uses to retain the jaw plates are not (a universal) standard. At least some number 23 use 5/16 BSW (coarse). Take a look here for more info:

facebook.com/TheRecreationalMachinist/posts/392855185790477

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Manually subtitled for accuracy -click the CC box.

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For the material I couldn't capture myself, my thanks goes to the following:

Whoosh by Aysonny freesound.org/people/_bepis/sounds/414422
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

Mini Lathe Cross Slide Improvements

The Recreational Machinist 2020-07-26 | In this film I give an overview of the modifications I've made to improve the performance of the cross slide on my 7x14 Chinese mini lathe. I replace the hard to use graduated dial, add bearings, increase the cross slide travel and make a replacement gib strip.

Details for the homemade aluminium anodising setup mentioned in the video: youtube.com/watch?v=L2RKze7baJw

Details for the homemade tailstock die holder mentioned in the video: youtu.be/bK_Is7QarxY

Details for the homemade rotary broach mentioned in the video: youtube.com/watch?v=yHuwBwmV1OE

Approximate imperial sizes are shown. They're not direct equivalents, but are intended to give the non-metric viewer a rough feel for what I'm doing.

Made with subtitles -click the CC box.

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For the material I couldn't capture myself, my thanks goes to the following:

Whoosh by Aysonny freesound.org/people/Aysonny/sounds/414422 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License ( creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 )

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

Low Profile Mini Mill DTI Indicator Holder for Hole Alignment and Centring

The Recreational Machinist 2020-05-11 | As a bench top mill user, I often find myself with too little Z height when trying to centre an existing circular feature under the spindle. This rack and pinion DTI centring attachment made from a repurposed microscope stage gives more headroom than some other methods, and was a nice project to introduce me to cutting dovetails.

Activities include cutting a female dovetail in brass, making fluted knobs without the use of a rotary table, threading with a tailstock die holder and general drilling, milling, turning and tapping.

For clear and easy to follow information on measuring and making dovetails (and just about everything else machining related) see Mr Pete's@mrpete222 channel:

youtube.com/watch?v=0VGOa69sePo
youtube.com/watch?v=6S_iOU0C-Ug
youtube.com/watch?v=xT2oACFlB0c

If your maths is as rusty as mine, I can recommend Mark Ganson’s online dovetail calculator

mwganson.freeyellow.com/dovetails

Construction details for the homemade tailstock die holder used in the video: youtu.be/bK_Is7QarxY

Approximate imperial sizes are shown. They're not direct equivalents, but are intended to give the non-metric viewer a rough feel for what I'm doing.

Made with subtitles -click the CC box.

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Filmed and constructed during March and April 2020. The only place I could find a quiet spot to record the commentary during the UK's Covid 19 lockdown was in the car, hence the unusual ambience.

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For the material I couldn't capture myself, my thanks goes to the following:

Drew Garrett for the use of his stills of the Verdict centring attachment.

@Swisstoolmaker for the use of his video of the Hauser centring tool.
Check out his YouTube channel at

youtube.com/channel/UCrks4ar5QjxvRhtTcW75kBQ

Whoosh by Aysonny
freesound.org/people/Aysonny/sounds/414422
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License ( creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 )

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

Arduino Based Home Automation Dusk To Dawn Lighting Timer Based On Vintage Sangamo Suntracker

The Recreational Machinist 2019-09-26 | Details of my simple home-automation lighting timer project, using an Arduino microcontroller and an RF remote socket system which was inspired by the vintage Sangamo Weston S351 Suntracker 'dawn until dusk' round pattern time switch.

No machining at all this time from The Recreational Machinist (though I did make the brackets and standoffs from acetal). And for a change, no background music.

Made with subtitles -click the CC box.

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Some links with background information:

History about daylight saving in the UK: historic-uk.com/CultureUK/British-Summer-Time

Anyone interested in the 1968 British Standard Time experiment might like to read some of the parliamentary debate of the time that led to it being abandoned: api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1970/dec/02/british-standard-time

Information on the possibility of the UK no longer observing daylight savings: wired.co.uk/article/daylight-saving-time-european-parliament-vote

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I'm not posting my clumsy, inelegantly written code (it would be very hard for others to follow) but I thought it worth including details of some of the most useful libraries I experimented with during development.

DM Kishi’s Dusk2Dawn library ( github.com/dmkishi/Dusk2Dawn ) does the heavy lifting in regard to sunset and sunrise times.

The library gives apparent times and in my application any difference between apparent, civil, nautical and astronomical is of little importance -so long as my lights come on.

Mikal Hart’s TinyGPS++ ( http://arduiniana.org/libraries/tinygpsplus ) library takes care of GPS NMEA data stream processing.

Adafruit’s RTClib (github.com/adafruit/RTClib ) interfaces the real time clock.

Bill Greiman’s SSD1306Ascii (arduinolibraries.info/libraries/ssd1306-ascii ) is the lightweight library which drives the 128x64 pixel OLED display with text.

Naguissa’s uEEPROMLib (github.com/Naguissa/uRTCLib ) takes care of non volatile storage of latitude and longitude coordinates.

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For the material I couldn't capture myself, my thanks goes to the following:

Sunrise and sunset time lapse footage by Beachfront B-Roll.
http://www.beachfrontbroll.com
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 )

Lord Wilson photo by Allan Warren.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lord_Harold_Wilson_2_Allan_Warren.jpg
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. ( creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en )

Dawn Chorus audio by sean.townsend.
freesound.org/s/98371
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 )

Owl Hoots by Breviceps
freesound.org/s/465697
Licensed under a Creative Commons 0 License. ( creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 )

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

Building A Tailstock Die Holder For The Lathe

The Recreational Machinist 2019-04-21 | I’ve been keeping my eye open for a tailstock die holder for a while but one’s never come up a the right price.

When I came across a scrapped gas regulator, I figured it would be a good starting point to build my own.

Clearly not everyone will have one of these lying around, but making something similar from new stock should present few problems.

This film shows the process to make a tailstock die holder for my 7x14 Chinese mini lathe.

I know brass won’t be nearly as durable as steel, but it’ll be more than adequate for the occasional use it’ll see in my home machine shop.

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POST UPLOAD UPDATE:

Thanks for all the comments and feedback :-)

I've read them all, but I’ve not the time to respond individually.

In response to queries about the little bottle I keep my cutting fluid in, they're freely available on eBay and the Chinese shopping sites. Just search for needle dropper bottles. They come in different sizes and are quite inexpensive.

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: C01U

Safety First - Home Shop Improvements

The Recreational Machinist 2019-01-20 | First film of 2019! Just a bit of fun, trying out a different camera and a faster edit computer. No prizes for lighting and focus here. Or the colour balance for that matter. Or the audio. Mustn’t forget that.

It was much too cold for time consuming setups, and I just wanted to get cracking.

As it’s all pretty self explanatory there’s no commentary on this one, I’ve added a few captions instead.

In spite of my best efforts, my garage is often a bit cluttered and perhaps not ideally suited to welding, grinding and blow-lamping.

In this film I marginally improve workshop safety by fitting a CO2 fire extinguisher. I realise I could have just hammered a nail in the wall, but there’s much less fun in that.

You’ll see me make a plywood backboard board from some scraps of an old packing case, make an anti-swing bracket from polyphenylene ether engineering plastic and make an overly elaborate aluminium hanging boss. The horrible noises from my mini mill were telling me I was pushing my luck running a 20mm cutter with 40mm depth of cut.

Trying to turn a roughly spherical end has moved a ball turner project further up the to-do list. But it’s a long list, and I doubt I’ll have one by this time next year…

Towards the end of making the boss I’d machined myself into a corner and could no longer grip the part I’d made. A tight fitting ABS plastic sleeve came to the rescue for the final drilling and tapping operation.

Sometimes the best Christmas presents are the things you’ve been promising yourself, but never actually got around to buying. Cheers Ben.

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50i AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422 / DeInterlace
Mic: n/a

Small Scale Aluminium Anodising in the Home Workshop

The Recreational Machinist 2018-09-19 | A short film sharing what I’ve learnt about low current density anodising of aluminium from my limited experience in the home workshop. This isn't meant to be the right way, or even a good way, it's just the way I do it.

The technique provides a measure of improved durability / corrosion resistance to parts, as well as changing the aesthetic.

Note: The chemical baths can be reused over and over, so no need to remix for every job.

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00:00 - Materials used in this film may now be hard to source in the UK
00:30 - The importance of surface finish of the part
01:34 - Beware hazardous chemicals
01:50 - Dilute your chemicals the safe way
02:53 - Calculating sodium hydroxide etch bath dilution by weight
04:30 - Calculating sulphuric acid anodise bath dilution by weight
07:28 - Discussing anodising dyes
08:57 - Powering the anodising circuit
09:25 - A simple magnetic stirrer
09:45 - Cathode material and layout
10:21 - Estimating the surface area
11:03 - Using the 720 rule to set time and current
11:15 - Connecting the part to the anodise circuit
11:55 - Cleanliness is next to godliness
12:47 - Pre-anodise etch
13:02 - Setting the power supply
13:13 - Completing the circuit
13:57 - Dying the part
14:27 - Hot water sealing
14:40 - The finished part

*Useful links and further reading*

Changes to the rules surrounding the supply and possession of sulphuric acid in the UK during 2018:

gov.uk/government/publications/licensing-for-home-users-of-explosives-precursors/licensing-for-home-users-of-poisons-and-explosive-precursors

and

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/694030/FAQs_general_public_v4_-_Mar_2018.pdf

For those speculating about the reason for the withdrawal of concentrated sulphuric acid products from general sale in the UK, this article might give food for thought:

bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/5d38c003-c54a-4513-a369-f9eae0d52f91

youtu.be/9pZIl2EwlvY

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Using sodium bisulphate in place of sulphuric acid:

http://www.observationsblog.com/sciencetechnologyexperiments/anodizing-and-dying-aluminum-without-battery-acid

youtube.com/watch?v=7jFN3l_mrKk

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A 15% acid solution seems to be what many people aim for. There’s pros and cons to higher and lower concentrations but they’re beyond the scope of my little setup. finish.com has a wealth of information:

finishing.com/11/30.shtml

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Some 720 rule calculators.

The one featured is by ‘kreutz’, mainly as I can use metric sizes with it. 1 mil is an optimistic coating thickness for sulphuric anodising -thicker coatings require hard anodising which is beyond the scope of this film.

chemeon.com/p/calculator

hobby-machinist.com/threads/diy-anodizing-at-home-720-rule-calculator-for-low-current-anodizing-method.6775

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POST UPLOAD UPDATE:

Some overseas viewers seem annoyed that the UK government would take steps to try to ensure the safety of their citizens by making it more difficult to obtain something that (a small minority of) the general public has demonstrated they're too stupid to have free access to. I dare say the persistent shopper will still be able to obtain it, but I wanted viewers to be aware of which side of the law both buyer and seller will be on if the relevant paperwork is not available.

I should probably have said “small quantities of clean lead sheet are surprisingly hard to get hold of”. I've since obtained some from a friendly roofer 😉

I’m not a chemist, but I believe having too little acid to mix to the original calculation left me with a solution of around 14.5%. Given my ball park approach, I didn’t think it was worth the re-calculation / re-weighing / re-filming for a such a small difference. With concentration, time, temperature, current density and material all playing a part (and being beyond the scope of my simple setup) I just wanted to get on with it. Note: You can’t just divide the weight of acid by the weight of water to get a percentage, it needs to be the weight of acid by the weight of solution (i.e. acid plus water).

I've had a few messages about MEK. Whilst not to be taken lightly, some comments might be an over reaction:

gov.uk/government/publications/methyl-ethyl-ketone-properties-and-incident-management/methyl-ethyl-ketone-general-information

Both etching with sodium hydroxide and anodising liberate gas. In a well ventilated workshop for a short time I see no issues. If you're in a sealed room for a long time, it may be something to take into consideration.

Here are a few other clips where I use the same setup, with pretty good results: youtu.be/lNznefS02lE?t=146
youtu.be/iIxKXUGVJEE?t=769
youtu.be/KiYS3VVILCo?t=914

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Manually subtitled for accuracy (click the CC box)

Shot: DMC-TZ30 1280x720 50P AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: C01U

Workshop LED Panel Light Build Part 2

The Recreational Machinist 2018-04-24 | The second of a two part film: In this episode I make a remote switch panel to enable individual control of the 8 LED panels which form the lighting frame built in episode 1.

If you plan to buy some LED panels yourself, be sure to see the postscript towards the end (7’ 43”)

Contains sawing, milling, soldering, drilling and tapping in the home machine shop.

Created with subtitles (click the CC box) for the hard of hearing, or when you need to keep the volume low.

Part 1: youtu.be/E9X3l2b6Ji8

Part 2: youtu.be/YdOQ7VCxjEI

Shot: DMC-TZ30 1280x720 25P MP4
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422 HQ
Mic: C01U

Workshop LED Panel Light Build Part 1

The Recreational Machinist 2018-04-21 | The first of a two part film: In this episode I find out what’s inside of an eBay 18W LED panel light, compare it to my existing fluorescent strip light and begin building an 8 panel lighting frame to improve the illumination in my home machine workshop.

Like the look of these panels? Before you add to basket, check out Part 2's postscript (7 minutes 43 seconds in) -it turns out not all panels are created equal:

youtu.be/YdOQ7VCxjEI

Contains sawing, milling, welding, drilling and tapping in the home machine shop.

Created with subtitles (click the CC box) for the hard of hearing, or when you need to keep the volume low.

Shot: DMC-TZ30 1280x720 25P MP4
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422 HQ
Mic: C01U

Home Machine Shop Project: Syringe Engine Part 4

The Recreational Machinist 2018-01-22 | A series of short videos showing the up-cycling of various items of scrap metal and plastic into a useable pressure generation device.

Contains sawing, milling, turning, drilling and tapping in the home machine shop.

For demonstration / teaching purposes, as part of my day job as a medical equipment technician, I need to be able to produce an oscillating (air) pressure (of say +/- 20mmHg) overlaid on a static pressure (of maybe 250mmHg).

The absolute pressures aren’t critical; however device creating them would need to run for up to an hour at a time, reliably producing the pulsatile pressure waveform whilst maintaining the underlying static pressure without any net gain or loss.

The oscillating pressure component is required to fool the medical equipment into running a simulated treatment.

The underlying static pressure needs to be adjustable at will to create under / over pressure alarm conditions that may be encountered (e.g. through blockage or leakage) during a typical therapy session whilst a patient is connected, but in the classroom environment where no patient is present.

There are many possible approaches to the design, but with no budget, time, materials, tools or any other resources allocated to the task, I elected to complete the device in my spare time in my home workshop using odds and ends I’d collected from the scrap bin.

Created with subtitles (click the CC box) for the hard of hearing, or when you need to keep the volume low.

Part 1: youtu.be/QbiITduEk24

Part 2: youtu.be/u1l1V5iHwqM

Part 3: youtu.be/CZb_chnlOCA

Part 4: youtu.be/P5gGDGHxBaA

Shot: DMC-TZ30 1280x720 25P MP4
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422 HQ
Mic: C01U

Home Machine Shop Project: Syringe Engine Part 3

Home Machine Shop Project: Syringe Engine Part 2

Home Machine Shop Project: Syringe Engine Part 1