Cadflat Tube Bender Project.

[Oddbod]

With the cold mornings I decided to get the oxy torch out and bend a bit of flat bar in readiness for attaching a hook locking mechanism to my earlier posted form.
Just ticking jobs off the To Do list.

Painted the underside of my plate table and attached the bearing, pic wont attach.

Also started figuring out a length and position of my cantilever idle shaft and how it will attach to the main frame etc.

I am also trying to make a gizmo for my lathe to improve the way I do keyways.
No pic of the gizmo yet but I will try to post it when done...

[Esteban]

Some serious bending! It looks good, congratulations.

Very interesting to follow your fabrication.

[Oddbod]

Well, I finished fabricating my two gizmo's that hopefully will make life a little easier for me on this and future projects.

I had to bite the bullet and get them done, otherwise everytime I need to repeat the same process from basics and I am kinder getting a little tired of that.

So now I have a holder for doing external keyways in round bar that will handle the smaller sizes I get involved in, plus a steady mounted drill chuck that upto now, I have not really had a need for, but I decided while I was doing the other holder, I might as well get it made.

Since I only own a humble small lathe, the drill chuck is limited, but I see it being capable of at least spoting and starting holes parallel with the lathe chuck and definitely it will be able to do off set holes (flange) when required, something that I would use if I had it, and now I do.
It is just driven by a hand electric drill and fortunately I got it spot on with accuracy and alignment.

Cost of parts for the drill was two bearings and a threaded chuck from ebay totalling $26.00
Now, I will keep a collection of short and broken drill bits as a stock for this drill since full length bits just wont fit.

The keyway bar holder pretty much cost nothing.
I guess if I purchased new radiator hose clamps, that would be the only cost but I've just employed old ones that I have kept as spares.

While both these gizmo's in the pictures are useable, I have now undercoated them and hope to paint them in a day or so.

I also purchased a 2nd morse tapered drill chuck (for my tail stock) specifically to hold my center drill bit as I am tired of installing and removing it as required.
This has been a good opportunity to kind of improve my efficiency when machining by up dating some of my tooling capability.

I am self taught on the lathe and have learned a lot by initially doing things the hard way.
Plus YouTube in more recent times has been a great source of knowledge for somebody like me.

In the near future, I plan on making a tidy unit to hold all my machining stuff or a trolley that I can pull up next to me when machining.
There is always something to do that can help improve life in my shop...

[RiverPatrol]

That does look like it would come in very handy.

[Oddbod]

Yes handy it will be.
If you have it you generally use it philosophy.

In hindsight, I probably could have used a smaller 3/8" chuck instead of the 1/2" item I did use for my offset drill, which may have afforded me a little more elbow room for drilling perpendicular stuff.

We live and we learn I guess...

[Oddbod]

The best thing I have ever done for my lathe, was to buying a quick change tool post, now they are something.
I knew nothing about them at the time, but during a USA visit and staying with a good friend who use to work for Boeing in OR, suggested that I find myself a set while visiting and as he was a machinst his advise proved to be invaluable to a novice like me.

[Oddbod]

Well it is time once more to post my progress picture and try to stay on subject.
Althoufgh straying off topic can be educational when information and ideas are offered.

So, I have worked out a way of mounting my idle shaft support bracket and have proceeded to fabricate it and get it test mounted onto the main body of the bender.

I was at a loss as to what direction to go in and honestly had a couple of better ideas including a fold away arm setup, but since I am still not 100% convinced I am on a winner yet I went with a simple design.

It looks to me like it will hold together for a test run soon.

Sorry, pics seem to be in reverse order of progress.

[Oddbod]

It is amazing what a coat of paint does to make my work look better.

I am at the stage now where I need to decide on a method of attaching the lower sprocket and the upper turntable plate to the idler shaft.

If there is anybody out there with an informed opinion, I be happy to hear from you.

With the lower sprocket, I was planning to just use a 8mm keyway since the boss body of the sprocket has quite a bit of thickness/depth to it for what should be enough purchase, however it has crossed my mind to use two keyways on the opposite sides of the shaft, but not sure if that would be over kill???

The upper turntable plate is where my concerns are raised, since my idler shaft is 36mm diameter (1 7/16") and the plate is 16mm thick (5/8").
I pretty much need a flat finished surface top and bottom as each surface will meet other flat surfaces.

Right now, I have a shaft that is protruding thru a neat hole in the turntable plate.

Options that I see are as folows;
1. Vee out both sides of the turntable plate and weld it, then machine the surfaces flat?
2. Install one or two keyways and hope for the best?
3. Square out the hole and add weld metal to the shaft to make a square head on it?
4. A suggestion from the audience...

My buddy seems to think decent welds in option 1 would be good enough, but I just am not convinced right now...

[RiverPatrol]

I think option 2 is a less permanent solution, in case it ever has to come apart again.

[faux40]

I like option 1 if you really want it to always be squared up. You'd still be able to disassemble it as the sprocket can be removed below, the pull the shaft and plate up... just means that the shaft and plate are a single unit. Anyway, that's my two cents and worth at least half that!