A good source for boring bar stock is old drill bits that are no longer usable. I know no one really throws them away. Just shape the end to suit, braze the carbide chip and you’re good to go. Drill bits also make good pins in various applications. Dale
You are a man after my own heart Rob. Never throw anything away. Your under bench area looks just like mine. Tins of useful scrap. Nice little job for the learners to do. I went with a mate to help an old lady clear her late husbands shed a couple of weeks ago. She said if there is any thing you want just take it. I ended up with a nice pile of steel offcuts and other metal bits and pieces probably 50Kg or so. She said "don't you want any of the tools" of which there was a big heap. I declined most of them as they were common and garden mechanics tools and I have a lot of those. I paid her for a few nice machinists bits and bobs. We put her in touch with a chap who buys and sells tools so she could get rid of them. So we all got some thing out of it that we wanted. regards from the UK
Hi Gary, Yes, steel is not cheap and it's very handy having all those odd sizes and grades. I was brought up to be frugal in an era where nothing remotely useful got thrown out. I'm not sure if the current generation understand that ideology. Cheers Rob
Got divorced years ago, lost the house... Had to take my scrap collection to the tip It's been harder to replace the scrap collection than the house : )
For sure - like you I keep every single piece of ''scrap'' - just never know what can be used. I have a good few odd carbide inserts - must get to using them for new cutters sometime. That worked out pretty well. :)
Top video Rob, nothing more satisfying than making your own tools. I'll be keeping my old inserts from now on. Think I need a Bullfinch for my Birthday! Cheers Craig
Yes. He was a motor mechanic and used what was laying around. It was the only grinder we had for many years until I bought an 8" commercial one in my early twenties. The conrod grinder then got relegated to other duties, eg buffing, cutting and tool grinding as is. Dead easy to make one. Cheers Rob
I have had to do this same job Rob, I used a Carbide boring bar off the cheap Chinese 2 inch boring head kits with the 1/2 inch bars. They are tapered. I had to bore a Hardened Sleeve off a Motorbike rear Shock to 12mm from 10mm
Good solution. It's a problem when you need one "now" and nothing's available. Those cheap sets of very small insert tipped boring bars on Banggood look interesting. But then you have to buy yet another type of insert to go with all the others you accumulate ;( Cheers Rob
Hi Shawn, Same here. I have a drawer half full of them. Great solution when you have to cut an internal profile or groove for an "O" ring etc. Keep the camera rolling. Cheers Rob
Is that a bicycle peg repurposed as a handle for your quick change tool post ? My dad made me a set that looks similar when I was younger. I remember I was so embarrassed when I pulled up on my bike only to learn they were wildly popular as they were unique compared to the “cool store bought ones” I thought dad was just being a little cheap, turns out he was quite handy with a metal lathe and could whip up some pretty amazing stuff. So amazing that someone wanted them so bad they stole my bicycle, took off the “pegs” and left the bike at the school playground.. it was a few years later I started seeing ones just like it for sale at the bike shops. They looked identical to the one on your tool post. 😊 … Hang on a second….. Where did you get that Peg from buddy ? 🧐 🤷♂️😂
It's a foot peg for the front axle of a BMX bike. I bought it from the bicycle section of K Mart or BigW. Turned off a part of the knurling to protect my fingers. Works fantastic. The OEM tool post handle was wimpy and I'm not a fan of ball grips. This was cheap to buy. I think the internal thread needed re-tapping as the handle shaft was metric and bicycle stuff is all BSB. I still have the other one somewhere 😎
Hey rob as always good work. I note that you quenched the brazed carbide tip. Carbides do not like being quenched as they tend to crack. best to let air cool or dip the other end in the water and let it cool from there. cheers
Rob some good processes in their. I will never throw another carbide tip out. I read some of the comments below and the boys are right, part of being a home machinist is reinventing yourself and some of the bits and peices you have lying around the workshop, Good job, keep the commonsense videos coming
The hardness of the steel is actually wholly irrelevant to how well it will work as a boring bar, the important factor is the how rigid it is, and it doesn't matter if it's hardened or not, the rigidity is the same. As far as I know, most steel alloys don't vary in rigidity enough to matter.
Hi Ian. Just takes a bit of time. These are a definite "get out of jail" item when you need it now. I've also made them with broken parting off blade (HSS) on the end to do "O" ring grooves. Cheers Rob
Wire terminals in a vanilla ice cream box?? That is just unheard of! I could see a chap using chocolate ice cream boxes for that, but vanilla ice cream boxes for electrical stuff...that is just pushing it! I knew a chap who kept metric bolts in boxes that had contained leek soup.... he came to a very sticky end! Paddy
Great video Rob, I love it when you make something useful out of scrap. I have a sweat shirt just like yours and I love it. I see you have been turning some rebar, how did that go and what did you use to turn it? Thanks for your videos I always learn something!
Hi Ron, It's not difficult to turn Rebar, but it is the devil's metal ;) It's multilayered and not consistent. You have to use carbide to remove the hard outer crust and serrations. From then on you can use HSS as the core is softer and easily machined. It's not the metal of choice unless you need something fairly rigid in a small diameter. Cheers Rob
The cutter type and the job material, or both. My rule of thumb below. I never use coolant/lube with carbide. I see others using it, but I don't see any benefit as carbide works best when hot. In production machining they often flood lube the work to prolong tool life, but that's a different situation to home use. Spasmodic coolant as from a squirt bottle is actually bad for carbide as it experiences thermal shock from the irregular application. With HSS I only use coolant if things get hot or I think it may give a better finish (which most often it does not). On some jobs it pays to cut dry at a slower speed than risk work hardening from irregular lube application - particularly centre drilling. With alloys it pays to use lube to prevent gumming on the cutter tip. Once again, you may get a better, more regular finish on the final pass dry than wet. A shear tool is a perfect example of this. I never use lube on brass. Don't be afraid to experiment, particularly at the finishing stage. In summary, do what works best for you. There are no hard and fast rules for lube application, as it varies with the metal and tooling effect. Cheers Rob
Have you tried these new CBN wheels? Man made diamonds and very hard. The price has dropped on some of the imports to under twenty dollars and they are end or face wheels. Do a very quick job of grinding with much less heat developing in carbide or steel. Amazon is one source or I wouldn't be surprised if Bangood had them also. They also have diamond wheels for twelve or fifteen bucks very nice on the bench grinder for shaping tooling. Dave M did a segment on his channel also. It was where I discovered the price had dropped (I bought an 8" x1" wheel a couple of years ago and it was close to a $100!). Take care. Doug
Hi Doug, No I haven't checked those out. Interesting. I will check out Dave M on this. I've shaped carbide with diamond burrs in an air die grinder and it does it well. Thanks for the heads up. Cheers Rob
Nope smash a chunk of brass rod flat flux brass carbide hold it down heat it up move it around to position till melt done one step i did this for many years look it up
For the benefit of the amateur viewers watching, you should not wear sleeved soft clothing when using a Machine tool. Tee Shirt is good for example. Wooly jumpers with sleeves or sweatshirt are dangerous.
Cracking job Rob, I'll be keepingmy old inserts from now on, thanks for sharing
A good source for boring bar stock is old drill bits that are no longer usable. I know no one really throws them away. Just shape the end to suit, braze the carbide chip and you’re good to go. Drill bits also make good pins in various applications.
Dale
16:26 love that homemade grinder made with connecting rods etc
You are a man after my own heart Rob. Never throw anything away. Your under bench area looks just like mine. Tins of useful scrap. Nice little job for the learners to do. I went with a mate to help an old lady clear her late husbands shed a couple of weeks ago. She said if there is any thing you want just take it. I ended up with a nice pile of steel offcuts and other metal bits and pieces probably 50Kg or so. She said "don't you want any of the tools" of which there was a big heap. I declined most of them as they were common and garden mechanics tools and I have a lot of those. I paid her for a few nice machinists bits and bobs. We put her in touch with a chap who buys and sells tools so she could get rid of them. So we all got some thing out of it that we wanted. regards from the UK
Hi Gary,
Yes, steel is not cheap and it's very handy having all those odd sizes and grades.
I was brought up to be frugal in an era where nothing remotely useful got thrown out.
I'm not sure if the current generation understand that ideology.
Cheers Rob
xynudu , I just took 1/2 ton of scrap to the scrap dealers today, now I feel ashamed and dirty.
Ha Ha Ha. Slap your wrist.
But if you turn that money into beer, it's OK.
Got divorced years ago, lost the house...
Had to take my scrap collection to the tip
It's been harder to replace the scrap collection than the house : )
Life can be cruel at times.
But where there's scrap, there's hope.
Cheers Rob
For sure - like you I keep every single piece of ''scrap'' - just never know what can be used.
I have a good few odd carbide inserts - must get to using them for new cutters sometime.
That worked out pretty well. :)
Top video Rob, nothing more satisfying than making your own tools. I'll be keeping my old inserts from now on. Think I need a Bullfinch for my Birthday! Cheers Craig
Sounds good to me :)
If you do, make sure to get the right gas bottle connector. Read the video description on this.
Cheers Rob
Very nice. But I like the idea of the connecting rod on your green stone grinder, super !!!
Yes, you don't see that in many workshops ;)
Cheers Rob
xynudu, Rob, if I remember correctly your dad made the grinder?
Yes. He was a motor mechanic and used what was laying around.
It was the only grinder we had for many years until I bought an 8" commercial one in my early twenties.
The conrod grinder then got relegated to other duties, eg buffing, cutting and tool grinding as is.
Dead easy to make one.
Cheers Rob
Give us some close up shots of the connecting rod grinder please.
I did a video on it quite a while back.
ruclips.net/video/q9JMRDzhtqY/видео.html
Cheers Rob
Thanks very helpful! I was just recently hoping I had a boring bar.
Nicely done Rob, thanks for sharing!
I have had to do this same job Rob, I used a Carbide boring bar off the cheap Chinese 2 inch boring head kits with the 1/2 inch bars. They are tapered. I had to bore a Hardened Sleeve off a Motorbike rear Shock to 12mm from 10mm
Good solution. It's a problem when you need one "now" and nothing's available.
Those cheap sets of very small insert tipped boring bars on Banggood look interesting. But then you have to buy yet another type of insert to go with all the others you accumulate ;(
Cheers Rob
AWESOME share ! I have made many bars to do just one special job ..I keep them and they are handy ! thumbs up..
Hi Shawn,
Same here. I have a drawer half full of them. Great solution when you have to cut an internal profile or groove for an "O" ring etc.
Keep the camera rolling.
Cheers Rob
G day Mate 👍 it worked a treat thank you much appreciated 🍺🍺🍺 cheers
Glad it helped
I can see rob, you have done this before, you make it look easy.thanks for this great tip.......
Metalwork is not difficult. Some people just make it out that way. Common sense rules.
G'day Rob bloody good idea that, interesting video thanks mate John
great attitude.very inspiring.
Very nice video! Will try this someday. Thanks.
G'day Rob. Once again you make a silk purse from a sows ear. Great video.
Is that a bicycle peg repurposed as a handle for your quick change tool post ?
My dad made me a set that looks similar when I was younger. I remember I was so embarrassed when I pulled up on my bike only to learn they were wildly popular as they were unique compared to the “cool store bought ones”
I thought dad was just being a little cheap, turns out he was quite handy with a metal lathe and could whip up some pretty amazing stuff. So amazing that someone wanted them so bad they stole my bicycle, took off the “pegs” and left the bike at the school playground..
it was a few years later I started seeing ones just like it for sale at the bike shops. They looked identical to the one on your tool post. 😊 …
Hang on a second…..
Where did you get that Peg from buddy ? 🧐 🤷♂️😂
It's a foot peg for the front axle of a BMX bike. I bought it from the bicycle section of K Mart or BigW. Turned off a part of the knurling to protect my fingers. Works fantastic. The OEM tool post handle was wimpy and I'm not a fan of ball grips. This was cheap to buy. I think the internal thread needed re-tapping as the handle shaft was metric and bicycle stuff is all BSB. I still have the other one somewhere 😎
Hey rob as always good work.
I note that you quenched the brazed carbide tip. Carbides do not like being quenched as they tend to crack. best to let air cool or dip the other end in the water and let it cool from there.
cheers
Hi Charles,
Good point. I've never had an issue with cracking, but better safe than sorry.
Cheers Rob
Rob some good processes in their. I will never throw another carbide tip out. I read some of the comments below and the boys are right, part of being a home machinist is reinventing yourself and some of the bits and peices you have lying around the workshop, Good job, keep the commonsense videos coming
Up next rob makes a telly out of a couple of coconuts
cold chisels work well as boring bar carbide holders.... very rigid.
Where before I would've thrown them out, I'll definitely now save broken inserts.
The hardness of the steel is actually wholly irrelevant to how well it will work as a boring bar, the important factor is the how rigid it is, and it doesn't matter if it's hardened or not, the rigidity is the same. As far as I know, most steel alloys don't vary in rigidity enough to matter.
Lovely job.
Good little demo Rob--it proves you do not have to use the credit card for tooling..E
Hi Ian.
Just takes a bit of time. These are a definite "get out of jail" item when you need it now.
I've also made them with broken parting off blade (HSS) on the end to do "O" ring grooves.
Cheers Rob
Good little tip and Video. Thanks.
lol, 6:05 is only a man's second favorite "tool" ... haha
Wire terminals in a vanilla ice cream box?? That is just unheard of!
I could see a chap using chocolate ice cream boxes for that, but vanilla ice cream boxes for electrical stuff...that is just pushing it!
I knew a chap who kept metric bolts in boxes that had contained leek soup.... he came to a very sticky end!
Paddy
You didn't see the spade connectors in the choc chip container ;)
Rob
My word! Are all people from Oz such risk-takers!?
Paddy
Only the unkempt, couldn't give a damn, workshop inhabitants.
Good job
Is the tungsten carbide Tig electrodes the same thing as the carbide in in lathe bits? Could you use the tig electrodes on a boring bar?
I have no idea how they compare. Can't help on that.
Great video Rob, I love it when you make something useful out of scrap. I have a sweat shirt just like yours and I love it. I see you have been turning some rebar, how did that go and what did you use to turn it? Thanks for your videos I always learn something!
Hi Ron,
It's not difficult to turn Rebar, but it is the devil's metal ;) It's multilayered and not consistent.
You have to use carbide to remove the hard outer crust and serrations. From then on you can use HSS as the core is softer and easily machined.
It's not the metal of choice unless you need something fairly rigid in a small diameter.
Cheers Rob
good job
What kind of torch are you using? Can you make me a healthy supply of boring bars if i send you the stuff?
What determines whether you use fluid to assist with cutting on the lathe? Thanks
The cutter type and the job material, or both. My rule of thumb below.
I never use coolant/lube with carbide. I see others using it, but I don't see any benefit as carbide works best when hot.
In production machining they often flood lube the work to prolong tool life, but that's a different situation to home use. Spasmodic coolant as from a squirt bottle is actually bad for carbide as it experiences thermal shock from the irregular application.
With HSS I only use coolant if things get hot or I think it may give a better finish (which most often it does not). On some jobs it pays to cut dry at a slower speed than risk work hardening from irregular lube application - particularly centre drilling.
With alloys it pays to use lube to prevent gumming on the cutter tip. Once again, you may get a better, more regular finish on the final pass dry than wet. A shear tool is a perfect example of this.
I never use lube on brass.
Don't be afraid to experiment, particularly at the finishing stage.
In summary, do what works best for you. There are no hard and fast rules for lube application, as it varies with the metal and tooling effect.
Cheers Rob
Thanks for taking the time to answer Rob, again very helpful info. All the best
Rob
How much dose the map gas and gun cost about.
It's not MAPP gas, it's butane/LPG.
Have you tried these new CBN wheels? Man made diamonds and very hard. The price has dropped on some of the imports to under twenty dollars and they are end or face wheels. Do a very quick job of grinding with much less heat developing in carbide or steel. Amazon is one source or I wouldn't be surprised if Bangood had them also. They also have diamond wheels for twelve or fifteen bucks very nice on the bench grinder for shaping tooling. Dave M did a segment on his channel also. It was where I discovered the price had dropped (I bought an 8" x1" wheel a couple of years ago and it was close to a $100!). Take care. Doug
Hi Doug,
No I haven't checked those out. Interesting. I will check out Dave M on this.
I've shaped carbide with diamond burrs in an air die grinder and it does it well.
Thanks for the heads up.
Cheers Rob
GREAT VIDEO !!
WHEN YOU DUMB TREASURE BIN :-) PUT WAY TOO BIG STUFF RIGHT BACK IN , TONS EASIER TO SEARCH .
Nope smash a chunk of brass rod flat flux brass carbide hold it down heat it up move it around to position till melt done one step i did this for many years look it up
For the benefit of the amateur viewers watching, you should not wear sleeved soft clothing when using a Machine tool. Tee Shirt is good for example. Wooly jumpers with sleeves or sweatshirt are dangerous.
There's no such thing as a small job son.
BIG jobs starts from SMALL jobs. xxxxx