After having a go at machining the castings I decided to make them I feel a better way. If you were wondering how long it would take... well I made 6 of these...
Sometimes castings can be harder to fabricate into the intended part than bar stock, that's why I prefer to build from scratch "usually more to hold on to" Nice job 👍
It's a really good idea to put a piece of thick vinyl or leather on the front of your carriage to shield your lathe bed from chips and other abrasive substances.
Dear sir, some, maybe, suggestions from my side. As a first; I would start with a solid bar too but would mount it in a horizontal dividing head and support it with a center and/or machining jack. If you use a center then the end needs a part left untouched to keep the center at work. In this setup you can easily mill all the required angles on the already turned to diameter bar. After this I wouldn't part the pieces of in the lathe like you did. I think it's a somewhat sketchy set-up with risks (e.g. breaking a parting tool) I would saw them close to the desired width and mount them with an added counterpiece in the chuck of the lathe (or a big soft collet) and machine the recess and chamfer this side. Turn it 180 degrees in the collet or soft jaws, clock them parallel and finish the part. I know this is just another way to get to Rome but I would certainly avoid parting of the part with an interrupted cut and quite a stick out from the chuck. If it grabs your done with tooling and parts. Thank you for sharing your work. Best! Job
All the above is very useful info thank you for taking the time to comment. I think I was lucky it was only cast iron. In hindsight, all of the above is very correct.
hi Andy great job, at the beginning, in my head i was saying make them from solid, then you stole my thunder🤣🤣 well done they look great👍👍👍👍👍👍 regards Kev
