“Notice how there’s a tool for this but it’s 450 paychecks” I love how normal machinists like artisan give actual reasons to make tools.

I've solved this problem in the past with a puck. Deep center hole on one side for the live center, shallow one on the other to hold the work. I don't get to have nice things though, and this is nice.

Was wondering if you were gonna post this week...missed ya last week!

As for finding used "hard stuff," if you have any truck shops in the area (or truck salvage yards) try to get some steer axle king pins. I found one in a trailer that was gifted to me by a retired tow truck owner. That stuff happily flattened the point of my center drill bit. Then it laughed at my HSS tool bit, and ruined the tip on a TPG-C6 carbide insert before breaking the tool holder. 24 hours in a fire that I allowed to burn out and cool under cover finally got it where I could turn it. I don't know what material it is, specifically. I do know it is tuff stuff, even in an 'annealed' state. I'm hoping this material will work for a machine that I can't keep one certain gear in. Old brake cam rods might also be good, they have to withstand repeated torsion loads.

Nice innovation and great work. I remember seeing somewhere that the rigidity is increased by stacking 3 or 4 bearings instead of spacing them. I can remember many times one of these would have saved my bacon, or at least some time. Enjoyed very much, cheers!

Nice work as usual. We shared this video on our homemade tool forum last week 😎

Nicely done, great addition to the shop. Thanks for sharing

Very nice work. I was thinking of making one myself, as I needed it a few times now

Beautiful work, dude! Nicely done! 😃 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

I used to make cone drives and tailstock centres for woodturning out of iroko and Beech, Beech was a bit grippier for tailstock cones and spun better on a bearing but Iroko does a great job as a drive cone, for small work you can even turn a one morse taper so its all one piece and it will work fantastically. I used them for making lace bobbins and some weird art pieces I did a while back.

Excellent work, thank you.

A static center and a dab of grease is surprisingly functional as well as dead simple to make with high precision as no bearings are necessary.

Glad to see you back.

awesome job mate looks great

awesome work bud as always!!!

Well done. I put the same type of bearings in a center for a wood lathe thirty years ago and they are still fine.

nice build.

Good stuff

Nice

Hi mate. Great video. I noticed your compound slide needs adjusting. I see it dragging and cutting on the retract stroke plus i see the once per hand wheel rev ridged finish on your machined surface. I have 2 hafco's and have resolved the same issues with adjustment. Note: This can also be the cross slide and saddle adjustment adding up as well. Love your videos mate. Please keep up the great content.

Cheers 👍💪✌

you could assemble the live center and machine the tip later, you just need to make some sorf of a contraption to lock the live center. You get less runout

Well looks good a tool only needs to as tolerances your working in.

Always look forwards to your vids ^^ Could an adapter be also used? A piece with both ends inverted, one side matching the live center? Could be semi-permenantly attached to the live center with some cyanoacrylate.

👍

To save turning the morse taper why not consider employing a taper from a redundant drill?? I employ one, well two fitted with center drills to save swapping about in the chuck. An old drill taper can be employed for many useful tools. Also why harden the cone as there should be no wear as the cone is running at the same speed of the job, so why not use brass or bronze?? But do believe there is a need for a small thrust bearing and does it need to be such a force fit?

As best I recall the axial load rating for a typical deep groove ball bearing is 30% of the radial load, maybe, question mark.

Hey dude, if you're using the RYOBI 18v system, get yourself the Die Grinder RDG18C, it's awesome, i use mine tons with RO.LOC Discs and Burs etc..

“That’s a pretty good fit” - have you ever made a _bad_ morse taper?

"I'll be using coolant here to keep the part cool" 🤯🤯🤯

Question - The bearings support side-to-side load but what supports front-to-back load?

You could have made a double fee adaptor one angle for the live centre and one for the component , easier and cheaper for small projects, and make another adaptor one end for your live centre one end 90 deg with a 50mm mouth for holding stock that does not have a centre drill

Does a lathe centre see much axial force when the workpiece is chucked? I would think a pair of ball bearings is fine for the job, preloaded to reduce radial play.

You could have made a double fee adaptor one angle for the live centre and one for the component , easier and cheaper for small projects, and a wide and make another adaptor one end for your live centre one end 90 deg with a 50mm mouth for holding stock that does not have a centre drill

if the bearings dont last, how would you get the old ones out,

What coolant are you useing?

I havent seen anybody else use air as a coolant.

I'm surprised you didn't just get a normal live center and modify it to have an inverted tip. I know us machinists like making things, but I also know we are incredibly lazy.

Please be careful with intermittent coolant on your carbide tips. It can shorten their life due to thermal cracking

Second

for hard stuff, i have a friend that can get me pins used in construction equipment joints for free. they toss and repalce them when worn, bot would be perfect for our kinds of projects. we can work something out where i can ship ya a couple.

Where do you buy your stock from? I'm in Melbourne (Aust) and I haven't been able to find a supplier who will sell and cut small orders. Thanks

I would have just bought a live centre, faced off the end and drilled a hole. *shrug*

You wouldn't make the part in that order that would make this nessesary. You're also limited to it supporting a workpiece with that angle taper. It couldn't support a workpiece with a more acute taper as it would only be touching on the point, and a more obtuse taper would only be supported on the very outside edge. You would turn it to the diameter first and them hold it to turn the taper. It would have a better chance of being concentric compared to the rolled finsh you first held it by

Press-fitting both the inner and outer races of a ball bearing 😞

first

This video was definitely not live!!

Why does every hobby Machinist only make tools? especially when they don't need them at that time. When I work on a woodworking project I make something I need or something that's beautiful and when I don't have a tool for the project I'm working on I normally make it while I'm doing that project. There are so many projects I'd like to see these Machinists make but they never do like a beautiful copy of a Victorian orrery in brass ect.