Here are the basics:



Machined and reamed on the milling machine first ... then moved here to band saw the two apart





Sanded on a Barnes vertical belt sander



Sanded on a Barnes horizontal/wheel belt sander



Sliced apart ...



One side tapped with threads ... the other bored and reamed



Counter-bored for the head of the machine screw ...

(Where do you get these magnificant piloted machine cutters???



Counter-bored socket ...



Sand all over ... one complete



And ... it fits as required.

Gary

Whew! And that's only one small part of the whole...
I can only sit back and marvel as to what goes into these masterpieces.
Regards
Neil

Yeah - and half the steps and set-up weren't there. haha. I know - I'd have to be completely nuts to do this for a living. haha.

Gary

Less than 8 slugs per pound!

Hi Jerry,

I see that (as it's often tried for me) it's easy for the forum program to give you an overall topic comment box - rather than the one you wish to respond to a given comment. I often have to hit "reply" multiple times before it will give me an open box referring to the previous comment I want.

Nevertheless: less than 8 slugs per pound is "Honkin' Big!"

Gary

Lookin' good . . . that's a big one. Field-grade Justice again?

-- Jim

That's right Jim.

Honkin' BIG!!!

;?)

Gary

Machinists blue, and a sharp scribe? Who's he fooling? More proof that he's got a basement full of CNC stuff......

And did I see that right? the sanding wheel is wood? One more reason to hate talented creative people who can actually execute what they concieve?

Oh, and I'll stop poking Gary, but it points out that what goes on behind the scenes..... guessing Gary made the cutters, and keeps the scribe sharp, and made the wood sanding wheel to his required specs. Reminds me of the afternoon I spend building one (yep count'em one) jig to drill 4 holes. Which I'll never use again.......and no one but me will ever know that.

In this day and age, no one believes that some one still builds the tools to build their products.

Kudos

Hi Dan,

Interesting comments. Good eye.

You bet. I built the grinders ... and the wheels to go on them. Contact wheels used to be very expensive (relatively to my class). They are still rather salty. I made that sanding grinder in 1776 ... or was it 1976 ... (probably ) It's been going strong since. In fact - I needed small fast rolling idler and tracking wheels. Catalog? Yeah - right! Actually ... I bought skateboard wheels to do the job. And ... they ran forever. I guess forever ended last week though ... After only 33 years of running high speed in abrasive and steel grit ... one of the skateboard wheels locked up. (I hope I still have that receipt!! )

Even funny as that sounds, it was still a pain when it quit. Single operator businesses are a real hoot. It was Saturday evening ... I was in the shop working ... needed to keep going ... and the machine locks down. Required a work around. Disassemble ... find a substitute (robbed from an attachment) .... compensate for a different width wheel face ... machine a special alignment bushing .... reassemble .... and then get back to continuing to work Saturday night. Yeah!

The contact wheels on a number of my grinders are laminated plywood, turned down, filled, contact surfaces applied, and on we go.

You are correct about the nature of craftsmen though. If you have the spark (and especially if you are self-employed) then you find a way around the deficiency, and keep going. You can work with absolute junk for tools, and create quality art. If that sounds a bit screwy ... consider that precision tools come from less precise tools. Otherwise, we'd have had to await some alien gift of magnificient machine tools, to ever build the ones we use. Nope - they were built by careful minds controling the best generation of tools that came before.

Well, now I need a cuppa coffee ...

Gary

and you didnt mention the piloted counter bore ,, that would make a skateboard wheel look simple , its the things that look so simple in a picture that really arent , even cutting round a scribed line with a jigsaw isnt as easy as it looks when you try it in real life .
nice work indeed gary , but nothing new there.

Dyson Diver Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> and you didnt mention the piloted counter bore ,,

Oh was gonna mention that bit..... (oh, no pun meant....)

So if the cutter to cut aluminum is steel, how do you cut steel? with harder steel? Usually the hardest thing I work with is my attitude baltic birch plywood, so making tools to make tools is outside my realm......


oh, and depending on how old that skateboard wheel is/was, you may be able to get a replacement bearing for it. When I was riding, they were switching to sealed bearing units, which were replaceable for just that reason......

Right - you bet. I'll get a set or two.

I've always remembered that, when I bought those over thirty years ago ... I was told they were "German bearings". Well - hat's off to the Germans! That was some serious over-engineering.

And - if there are some old skateboarders out there (I'm not) ... these wheels have "Pure Juice" in raised molded letters. Sort of a translucent wine color. Probably worth a million bucks (if i hadn't ground a crest on the circumference). haha.

Gary

Hello Dan,

I make them from tool steel of various alloys. I heat treat them depending upon what they are designed for. Sure - you can cut steel with steel. I even make cutters which will cut tool steel. Remember though ... I do have a Master Bladesmith's rating from the American Bladesmith's Society (so I cheat ... )

Gary

barnespneumatic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
I do have a Master
> Bladesmith's rating from the American Bladesmith's
> Society (so I cheat ... )


ok, if thats cheating, cant wait to see what comes of doing it "straight up" .......

it's amazing that even the simplest things......aren't !!!

Yeah - they never are.

Would be fun to show and discuss the complex stuff I do, and some rather creative ways I've found to do things I really don't have the traditional tools for ... but I just can't show everything.

Gary

Looks like there is a small bevel/chamfer on the bands. How do you make it? Set a sander to a specific angle relating to a table and freehand it? That would keep the angle the same, but not the depth (allowing the width of the plane on the angle to vary). How do you keep it so uniform in the transitions from the curve to the straight and back again?

That's sanded freehand on the outside radius of the wheel. Hand held - controlled just by eye - I don't even think about it after decades of doing it.

Thanks for posting.

Gary

Good post Gary. I've always enjoyed reading about your works, it's very interesting and educational. Thanks!

While that piloted cutter was undoubtedly a PITA to manufacture, I'll bet it's saved you a TON of rework over the years. Sometimes the right tool makes all the difference, and the ability to make EXACTLY the tool you need has got to be a lifesaver at times.

Nice pics, thanks for the post Gary.

having been gone a couple of days (had to get the wife outta Dodge for while, she's teetering on burnout.....or maybe I was...)....

reading this again, and gawking at the process... one question:

why didnt ya drill a "thru hole" first, then tap and ream the halves (using the thru hole as a reference). Or maybe that just my lack of machining experience? Or "many ways" to the same thing?

Hi Dan,

I did.

Refer back to pic #1. (Where I'm bandsawing the basic shapes). The thru holes are already in place in the pic.



Gary

I see that now.... drilled while the raw stock was still square.... I'd have cut the clamp out then drilled it, geatly complicating getting the thru hole "square".

Still learning!

tahnx Gary!

That's right, my Son.

That's why I get the big bucks ...



Gary

I just noticed that your bandsaw has a little nozzle pointed at the work, I assume it's low pressure air to keep the chips/dust from obscuring what you're working on. The ones I've used never had that, and I always ended up blowing the chips away at intervals myself (gee, now I guess I know why bandsaw work always made me a bit dizzy after a while) Did you have to add that or did it come with it attached?

Hi Sean,

That came with it. It's very, very low pressure I'm afraid. Not much help. However; I really like the saw. That was one of the most expensive tools I've ever bought. Always wanted one. Always had junior grade. This one has a blade welder/grinder on it.

One of my supply companies where I phone in orders, told me once ... "Mr. Barnes ... the computer tells me that you are due for a 10% (might have even been 20%) discount on an order". "Would you like to take that off of THIS order?" I think ... what ... THIS $100 order? I don't think so. "Can I let it ride and retain it?" "Sure thing". So ... I go dump my marbles, lead slugs, coins, and crumbled dollar bills out of a coffee can .... hummmm. Next time, I ask ... "Could that discount be applied to a TOOL?" Hummmmm???? And, the girl on the phone put me on hold while she went to ask. She came back and said .... "Yes". WEHheeeLLLL!!!!! ... I do believe I'll order one of those gigantic band saws!!!! Yippie!!! Nice little discount there which I appreciated very much. Odd, they haven't offered me any more discounts ... must not be due yet again ..... haha.

Gary

I remember using the blade cutter/grinder/welder on the metal cutting bandsaw in highschool shop class. They always had a box of bulk (and cheap) blade hanging up on the wall behind it since we went through blades so often. I just thought they ALL had a setup like that.

The first time I had to change out a (premade, big $$$) blade on a consumer model I couldn't believe how involved the whole process was. You had to unbolt top and bottom covers, adjust the big blade pulleys a bit smaller than the blade, wrestle it in place through the tiny little slot in the throat, tighten up the big blade pulleys, adjust the blade rollers in the throat, re-adjust everything, bolt the covers back on. what a PITA. It took at least an hours work if you hadn't done it recently, maybe half that if you'd just broken another one of those overpriced blades.

Despite the much lower prices, the "cheap" models are usually only a bargain if you don't value your time.

Gee ... sounds like alot of work. With my bandsaws, I just speak verbal commands, and the change blades and readjust themselves. Same with all my milling machines, and lathes ...

Gary

"Tea. Earl Gray. Hot."

-- Jim

That's it!

Hmmm....that's strange, the bandsaw in the HS shot class worked the same way.

Old Mr. Schick would say "hey dummy, you broke it, you fix it", and he'd never have to touch it. Still and all, it was better than the woodshop teacher. He'd just say "needs more sanding".

Sandpaper is the ultimate tool for a woodshop teacher. It's safe for even the most boneheaded teenager; you REALLY have to work hard to hurt yourself with a sheet of 120 grit.

Sandpaper. I'm still "damaged" from old "Pop Walker" at the Mt. Airy 8th grade wood shop class.

You NEVER got finished sanding with the man. I HATED to have the man review my work. That's because he had this carbide scriber disguised as a lead pencil. His routine was to rub the pencil lead over the aeras he thought needed more sanding. Supposedly, the lead smear would "skip" over the voids he claimed were there, and highlight them. In reality, he'd get this gleam in his eye. I say "eye" ... cause he only had one huge one in the middle of his forehead. And he'd lean into that carbide scriber of his, and scratch the heck out of the project you'd just spent four shop days sanding. You could reduce the plank a quarter inch with sandpaper, but you could NEVER sand out thosed cursed pencil marks old Pop Walker ground in there.

I have to go lay down now. And, I seem to have broken out in a sweat ... is it hot in here .....???

Yup, the old "needs more sanding" nightmares have gotta get to you from time to time. probably why you've built so many fiendishly clever devices to insure that you'll never have to hand-sand anything that a machine could do instead.

His other favorite was to suggest that whatever project you had finally finished sanding needed yet ANOTHER coat of varnish. I think the real motive was to get the troublemakers and the perpetually unskilled to spend as much time as possible in the paint booth, where the solvent level was just short of lethal. After fifteen or twenty minutes in there even the most loudmouth and irritating kids would come out nice and quiet, if perhaps more than a bit woozy. Of course, some of the kids got to liking it a bit TOO much, and those ones would get to do...drumroll please, MORE SANDING!

Most of the other machinery in the shop was just for show. Sure, someone would occasionally get to make a bowl or some candlestick holders on the wood lathe, but nobody got to use the "cut your little fingies off" powertools more than occasionally. Just the minimum needed to provide an article that could be sanded and varnished.