Making a float-making lathe.

Made some other form of traditional fishing tackle.
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Greentura
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Greentura »

I found it Nobby, he has a facebook group that's worth a look 'Hand crafted fishing floats', and this is his bit on tube cutters

"Drilling holes for antennae, float stems and metal stabilizers is a job which has always caused problems for the float maker but if the right methods and tools are used this work is no real problem. The main thing to remember is that soft materials do not take kindly to a drill bit, which is liable to tear its way rather than cut and will wander off line at every opertunity. A piece of metal tubing will make a good cutter if it is not too thick in the wall. Such tubing may be picked up around the house and garage in the form of old fishing rods, fuel piping, old telescopic ariels ect
To make a cutter is very simple. Take a length of tubing and check that the chosen end is cleanely cut and squared off and then sharpen this to a cutting edge, using a fine file and taking metal from the outer edge only. Dont overdo this filing, if you make the cutting edge too wafer thin it will buckle each time it encounters a hard spot in cork ect......
Some metal tubing is so thin in the wall that it hardly requires sharpening at all, just cleaning off. The reason for filing the cutter on the outside edge only is to prevent the cut core from jamming in the tubing after the hole has been successfully cut.
Some materials, soft balsa is one, can be bored with small holes by simply pushing a metal rod through from end to end or, from first one end and then the other to meet in the middle, this is a good idea if you want the entrances and exit holes to line up.
I will post a picture of my tubular cutters."


if you look in the 'files' section at the top of his group page there are some good tips

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Kevanf1
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Kevanf1 »

Paul-H wrote:Nice job going on here.

I do find it quite amusing though that to make a Lathe, a Lathe has to be used.

Paul
:) It is rather ironic. However, it is possible to make a lathe without already having one. It's just harder... guess how I know :Wink:
Currently reading......Go Fishing For Bass and Go Fishing For Skate and Rays both by Graeme Pullen, The Kill Switch by James Rollins, Raspberry Pi Manual - Haynes, 'Make: Electronics by Charles Platt' & the 'Myford series 7 manual by Ian Bradley'

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Greentura
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Greentura »

Nobby wrote:That's almost certainly 'Ronald' from Maggot Drowners. A nice answer, but I think it'll only do for pole floats. I'd like to be able to turn thin tapered wagglers like Billy Makin used to offer, though I suspect it was a particularly hard grade of balsa he used.


http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g288/ ... G_0193.jpg



Here's bigger in balsa by Martin, who copied Ronald's:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAdCSexA0K8


But you can't see how he mounted the work in the chuck.
I think like mine they were mounted on a long aero drill bit to cut the first hole right through, then on a long spike witha couple of pins and held in a fixed chuck the other end while being shape. some of my thin ones, like those in your pics, had cane right through to strengthen and the tips brought to a point with the end the line fixes to in a dremmel and held against a running belt sander upturned with fine sanding belts in. could get them down to a millimeter or so if careful for the last inch or so, made great crucian floats.
There seem to be more ways to make a float than to use one it seems though ;)

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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Nobby »

:Hahaha:

Estaban

Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Estaban »

Kevanf1 wrote: However, it is possible to make a lathe without already having one. It's just harder... guess how I know :Wink:
Copious amounts of elbow grease and inginuity

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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Kevanf1 »

The way I have always made the holes in balsa and cork is to start off with marking a cross on each end. For this I use an easily obtainable centre finder. Axminster sell them designed for use with wood. It is simply a square of metal with a raised line of metal going through the centre from corner to corner. Two sides have a slightly raised lip at 90 degrees to each other so that the round wood nestles nicely in the centre. Now, normally the wood is tapped lightly onto this centre line so that it marks it then the 'dowel' is turned and redone. This gives a cross with the centre neatly shown. It's not quite so easy with balsa or cork though. So, I just mark the raised centre line with a marker and this transfers the line without have to tap against it. Do both ends and you have your starting mark to drill through or push through with a sharpened tube.

The sharpened tube I have mentioned (and as above in Greentura's post) does work but I have gone back to an ordinary HSS twist drill in my pillar drill. I lightly hold the balsa or cork in a machine vice having made sure the drill table is level of course. It works fine for me but I have found that it is best at as high a speed as my drill will go. I am intrigued because this would tend to go against the grain of advice already given? I have also found that as high a speed as I can obtain is best for shaping both balsa and cork float bodies?

I have an idea for mounting pieces of cork or balsa onto a brass rod in order to shape them. On its own the material will always tend to start to spin in situ :( Not an ideal thing to happen... So, I am pondering placing some solder onto the tube then shaping it. Then, when the dowel material is slipped onto the brass rod it will go over this soldered area (it may need to be filed to a spade like shape) and will hopefully hold it in place. This is, as yet only an idea and I do not now if it will work..
Currently reading......Go Fishing For Bass and Go Fishing For Skate and Rays both by Graeme Pullen, The Kill Switch by James Rollins, Raspberry Pi Manual - Haynes, 'Make: Electronics by Charles Platt' & the 'Myford series 7 manual by Ian Bradley'

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Kevanf1
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Kevanf1 »

Greentura wrote: There seem to be more ways to make a float than to use one it seems though ;)
Exactly :Hat: Not one is especially better than the other. My way will not suit everybody but it does work for me :) I am, however not so conceited as to ignore other methods and I thank all who detail them on here.
Currently reading......Go Fishing For Bass and Go Fishing For Skate and Rays both by Graeme Pullen, The Kill Switch by James Rollins, Raspberry Pi Manual - Haynes, 'Make: Electronics by Charles Platt' & the 'Myford series 7 manual by Ian Bradley'

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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Greentura »

just made a few carbon tube cutters from an old pole tip, range from 2- 4.5mm, will be scrounging some 6mm carbon tomorrow amongst other things. i like cane stem avons with thicker tips, some cane and some balsa so as the first bodies i have were 1 1/2" with a 3mm hole already in i found drilling enevitablt split the pre maid bodies around the taper. Using the tube cutter that i sharpened up with the dremel and a small grinding wheel i positioned it over the existing hole and with a twist and push it went straight through with ease. i decided half way would be enough and the cane tip and stem would meet in the middle so made a depth mark on the tube cutter. Once cut half way into in another body it was removed and a dremel cutting tool small enough to fit through the 3mm hole was used to trim the inside where i had cut to. The waste came out as a tube of balsa, surprisingly easy and with a perfect edge all round the body. i mad ea few more and some 4.5mm cane tips, 3mm stems and some inserts for wagglers and these are the results
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Watermole+
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Watermole+ »

Part 4. The Tailstock

Firstly, many thanks to everyone for all your constructive comments and advice.
Have not had the opportunity to do very much to the project this week, but have taken a few pics. of progress so far, so you can see how everything was done.
I think I ought to say now, before we go any further, that Please!-don't take this too seriously! There are a great number of you out there already producing wonderful pieces of work in float-making, with artistic talent that would be hard to equal-anywhere-without anything like this strange, totally pointless and unnecessary contraption to assist(?) you.
Quite honestly, most of you could probably make a better job with just an electric drill clamped in a vice!
The only reason I am doing this is to see if it can be done, rather like when we make all manner of different floats & other fishing things; in all probability, it will never be used for mass, float- production, but it just may give some of you a few new ideas and help to solve a few difficulties which you have experienced, when making your own..
..if nothing else, it's something different to look at!

..Anyway; last time, we were starting the tailstock. For those of you out there who do not have any experience of machine terminology-and Please! I am not 'talking down' to anyone-the 'Tailstock' of a lathe is that moveable part on the right-hand side, which has the same common 'centre height' as the 'Headstock' (the drive end) and which can support the free end of a workpiece, or hold a drill-chuck, or other tools as required. That is a very simplistic description, but you get the general idea. It has the same function on all lathes, from those over 100' long, used for turning huge components (pipes, gun barrels etc.), to the smallest watch makers' lathe. In our case, it will be used to either support the free end of a float stem, or drill the hole through the body.
As said before, I would have preferred to have made it from a block of fine-grain, cast iron, but have been given a block of 'black' mild steel, so we shall use that.

The first step was to 'face off' the rough block, so that all faces are reasonably square to each other. There have been comments about it odd that a lathe should be making a lathe-and I agree with you; in a way, it does sound strange.
To make something like this, you ideally need a small, vertical mill. Such a machine would do this job in less than half the time-and so much easier. However, I do not own one and so will try to do as much cutting as possible, using the versatile lathe. All machine tools are made to serve our purposes, a means to an end and we are not slaves to them. They can do a lot more than we give them credit for, but are often limited by our own imagination. I think the key is, to not be afraid of making mistakes.

Having faced off the block square, the next step was to put in the groove, which will locate over the centre rail and slide up-and down as needed. I marked this out and set it up on the lathe, clamping it to the cross-slide by means of some screws and 'T-nuts'.
It was set square by clocking the face.

Image

Then, by holding a cutter in the lathe chuck, I was able to produce a quite accurate slot, as you see here..

Image

The block was then re-positioned, re-clocked square and a slight relief milled across the centre. The reason for that is so the block will sit nicely on it's 'four corners'. The coolant pump, by the way, is nothing more than a cheap, fish-tank aerator, sitting in a small container of coolant suds !

Image

This is the result. It will be 'lapped in' on the bed, before final finishing.

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..A trial fitting on the bed..

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Next thing is to reduce the thickness of the sides of the block to match the bed. The easiest way was to do it in the lathe, using the 4-jaw chuck.

Image

Then it was again clamped to the cross-slide, in order to 'waist out' the middle..

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Now I can cut out some of the unwanted material. The areas were marked out first..

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..and sawn out roughly by hand. Warm work this!

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The piece on the left is discarded and the remainder is now ready for further work. There's a lot more metal to be removed yet, but more next time..

Regards,

wm+

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? Yet one of them shall not fall without your Father knoweth" ..Jesus of Nazareth, King James AV

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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Nobby »

Great stuff!


Come on then...who saw the second photo and thought he's spilt his glass of milk, then? :Hahaha:


That's 'soluble oil' that is. Lubricates and cools the work...you mix it with water and it goes 'milky'.


I used to get covered in the stuff...always was a messy worker....and had to quit the engineering works as my Mother couldn't stand the smell on my clothes. I rather liked the smell and it does keep you.....er......regular, shall we say.


I'm looking forward to next weeks episode WM+.

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