Making bolts on a lathe.

[n3303j]

Putting wrench flats on a bolt using your lathe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCFfvmREacA

[Mike Tashjian]

That link is a guy making a shell style cutter?

[PeteS]

That link is a guy making a shell style cutter?

More than that. That guy is a genius. Maybe I missed it but a slow motion segment of the tool passing over the work would have helped understand how its making flat surfaces.

Pete

[n3303j]

When I think about the geometric intersection points that allow this to work it hurts my head.

[tazio]

I would have thought the phasing of that drive shaft he cut to be important for the cutter to hit just right to produce the flats.
Didn't look like it was marked for that.
See at 10min 52sec.
Cool project all the same !

[FarmallA]

"I would have thought the phasing of that drive shaft he cut to be important for the cutter to hit just right to produce the flats."

Once the cutter makes the first cut, as long as nothing is changed partway through the process, it establishes it's own phase.

Does that make any sense?

As far as making flat surfaces, I'm just going to have to believe. (not that I don't believe it, but I just don't completely understand.  Thankfully, I don't have to understand).

I wish I still had a half decent machine shop. 



FarmallA
steve

[fotoguzzi]

I think he forgot to grease those two bearings

[Chuck in Indiana]

I don't get it. As far as I can see, just mechanical masturbation. Sure, you can do it, but why bother? You have perfectly adequate machine tools to cut those flats on the mill and be done with it in *much* less time. <shrug>
Whatever.. just *don't* do like he does and leave the chuck key in the lathe chuck while doing other stuff. It's inviting disaster..

[n3303j]

I don't get it. As far as I can see, just mechanical masturbation. ×SNIP×

Well maturation is fun. Mom was right. I needed glasses. If the Nuns were right I'll have a very warm afterlife.
But you do these sort of mechanical things just because you can. It is another path to a result. It is good to have multiple roads to any destination. It is the sort of thought that led to Wankel engines, constant velocity axle joints and contactless screw air compressors. If we didn't explore alternate paths we'd still be dealing with external combustion engines.

[Mike Tashjian]

I see the original link has changed.  The new link matches the post now.  Making machines to make thousands of parts is something a home shop machinist is not trying to do.  I am able to make bolts and screws with almost any configuration if I desire.  When I desire is when I cannot buy one faster and cheaper.  As Chuck points out Safety first and yes there are plenty of ways to make wrench flats quickly in a home shop without that crazy setup. 

[Moparnut72]

I don't get it. As far as I can see, just mechanical masturbation. Sure, you can do it, but why bother? You have perfectly adequate machine tools to cut those flats on the mill and be done with it in *much* less time. <shrug>
Whatever.. just *don't* do like he does and leave the chuck key in the lathe chuck while doing other stuff. It's inviting disaster..

I was going to comment earlier but didn't due to the fact I am a self taught home mini lathe abuser. It seemed to my the hell didn't he do the flats on a mill. I don't have a mill so I don't have any experience with one other than testing valve springs in the aircraft shop. When I first started working in that shop one of the first things I was told was to never leave the key in the headstock. 
kk

[n3303j]

I see the original link has changed.  The new link matches the post now.  Making machines to make thousands of parts is something a home shop machinist is not trying to do.  I am able to make bolts and screws with almost any configuration if I desire.  When I desire is when I cannot buy one faster and cheaper.  As Chuck points out Safety first and yes there are plenty of ways to make wrench flats quickly in a home shop without that crazy setup.

Link was never changed by me. Guess you took the alternate path.
That aside, I've made my share of hex head bolts with a miller and rotary table. But that's not the point here.
His project resulted in a group of points projected in space generating a relatively straight line through a rotating cylinder with a circular path cutter. He generated a repeated chord line on a moving cylinder. I'm sure cutter rpm vs cylinder rpm and the number of cutter inserts are all critical to this working. I'm sure there is a mathematical formula that describes these intersections. As a tool & die maker I delight in the process. As a human, just trying to imagine each tool pass makes my head hurt.

[PeteS]

As a human, just trying to imagine each tool pass makes my head hurt.

Thats the part I haven’t figured out either but this is how learning is advanced. Hegel’s dielectic. Making a hex on a mill with one rotating tool (thesis), making a hex on a lathe with two rotating tools in synchrony (antithesis), and now someone using these two methods to come up with an application using these concepts on something else maybe not even related to shaping metal (synthesis).

Pete

[Kaladin]

I have most of these machine tools, but nowhere the confidence to embark.

Is it practical?  An astounding 730,000 views in 6 days.  That's entertainment.

[hauto]

The answer to a question no one asked.