Not a boring machine!

[AndyT]

Most of the bigger old auger bits I have looked at have a pretty well standardised shank (below the taper square end) which is 3/8" diameter, so I thought I would have a go at making an adaptor. Here's the result, after a pleasant morning at the lathe, with a lump of cast iron and some drills and stuff. It has a shaft which is 1/2" diameter, with a flat on, and a concentric 1/2" hole in the thicker bit,

So how well do the 3/8" shanks fit the 1/2" hole of your adapter ?



BugBear

Fortunately, this time my metalwork was more accurate than my writing! :lol:
It was a 3/8" hole.

 

[blackrodd]

An excellent modification there Andy, when the new steel piece has mellowed in colour and having used that older square grub screw,
It will all blend in nicely and, as you say, make for easier drilling with the machine and having a full choice of drill bits available.
Regards Rodders

 

[AndyT]

With the bit holding sorted, I just need to replace the missing latch. This is needed to hold the works at the top of the frame, so you can move on to the next location to be drilled, without a lump of cast iron crashing down at the wrong moment. It needs to operate automatically when you raise the drill out of the work.

I just happen to have a length of suitable sized steel, which I bought from a scrap merchant years ago for some garden railings but did not use. It's marked "2S92B K13200", the size, and "H+T" if that helps.

I decided that I couldn't go straight to metal with any confidence of getting the critical dimensions right, so I spent a little while making a wooden prototype first, using a fretsaw, chisels etc. Having got it reasonably close, I drew round it on the steel.

It was then simply a case of drilling, hacksawing and filing. I didn't take loads of pictures, just a few to confirm that I did this the old fashioned way:

including some cold chisel work

I was pleased to find that this little filing clamp - which I made in school metalwork lessons about 45 years ago - has finally come in useful!

For the spring, I drilled a tiny hole and superglued in a piece of spring wire.

So here, after lots of filing and rubbing with emery paper, is the finished thing in place as the drill rises up

and then it latches nicely

It does look a bit bright though.

Short of putting it outside to rust, or buying specialist gun barrel browning products, is there an easy way to tone it down a bit, using ordinary household products?

 

[dickm]

That is a brilliant bit of metalworking! Pretty sure someone has posted somewhere in the forum a reasonably simple way of blackening such material; maybe a search?

 

[blackrodd]

I read that vinegar ages metal, Google it I guess.
Regards Rodders

 

[Vann]

Nice work :!:

Short of putting it outside to rust, or buying specialist gun barrel browning products, is there an easy way to tone it down a bit, using ordinary household products?

There's a method of "blacking" steel that I haven't tried yet, that involves heating the item to a certain heat, then dunking in oil. It wouldn't do the spring any favours though, nor the glue #-o

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Corneel]

I've tried a few methods too. Most succesfull was an electrolitical process. Put a stainless anode on one side of the object and connect the object to the kathode (or the other way around...). The elctrolyte is just vinegar with a spoon of salt. The action is very direction snesitive, so you should wrap the anode around the object.

A worry now is future corrosion with all that salt and vinegar. So you might want to try the heating and oil trick too.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Very nicely made, Andy. With regard to the bright finish, why not just let it age gracefully?

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[bugbear]

In the world of high carbon, non stainless, knives, forcing patination is a common desire.

Essentially they want the "right kind" of rust, the tight blue/black kind, not the red kind.

You could search for it:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=20& ... yflrtKx25s

BugBear

 

[Corneel]

Those knife fans patinate the steel with mild acids, like lemon juice, vinegar, mustard etc. In my experience, that doesn't work so wel with mild steel. It turns black, yes, but the blackness is hardly attached to the steel. It is easilly rinsed of under the running tap. I had a lot more succes with the electrolytical method.

 

[AndyT]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will try some experiments on some offcuts and decide what to do.

 

[AndyT]

Now I understand why Bugbear was taking such a close interest in the diameter of the bits needed to fit this machine. He has very kindly sent me this magnificent evidence of his skill at the spotting the good stuff at the boot fair - a 1" auger bit with a round shaft, 5/8" in diameter. It's a bit of a beast (or a beast of a bit!) - here it is beside an ordinary lightweight Jennings bit:

- you can see how much thicker the lands are; it's also longer than normal, at about 12". The maker is clearly marked as A SPAFFORD & Co.

Grace's Guide lists a firm of this name, established in Sheffield in the 1880s and continuing to the 1940s and although they described themselves as making agricultural machine parts, a local history page refers to a "huge range" of manufactures, so I think it was probably one of theirs.

To use it, I needed to turn the end down to 1/2".

Once I had sorted out the right way to hold it, got everything centred and selected the right cutting tool, this was reasonably straightforward.

and here it is fitted.

So many thanks to Bugbear for his generous donation to the historic re-enactment of boring beams! =D> =D>

 

[Vann]

I don't have any others like the one that came with it so I shall just limit myself to making 1" holes :lol: .

Situation unchanged then :mrgreen:

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I think I mentioned that these drills were handy for chairmaking. Well, amongst a pile of tools at the Wimpole scythe festival today, I spotted this one:

The owner is not willing to part with it !

 

[AndyT]

I'm not surprised - I think that is an extra sophisticated Millers Falls model with depth stops.

 

[AndyT]

A while back, Vann mentioned in this post that he had an auger bit that would fit my drilling machine

In an act of selfless generosity, he offered it to me and I am pleased to report that it has now completed its round the world trip and found its place, alongside Bugbear's gift and the one I modified and adapted.

So now I am properly set up to make 3/4", 7/8" or 1" holes!!

Here it is ready for action:

and the action shot:

I really am touched by this level of generosity. Huge thanks to Vann for 'going the extra mile' and sharing his not-rusty-at-all gatherings! =D> =D>

It's this sort of thing that keeps me coming back to UKW.

And if anyone in the Bristol area needs some holes drilling, do get in touch! :lol: :lol:

 

[Vann]

A while back...

13th June. I'm sorry I took so long to get around to posting it

Huge thanks to Vann for 'going the extra mile'...

Or, according to Google, 11,784 miles. Plus the 11,780 odd to get to NZ in the first place - that makes it one well-travelled auger bit

It's good to see it in action. Enjoy!

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Bm101]

Andy, another great thread on sympathetically restoring a lovely tool. As always a pleasure to read and learn. (I've already stolen your restorative recipe). Got to thinking about the blackening process. Realised I knew not much about anything but I do have a friend who knows lots about lots of stuff.. Skyped him so i'm gonna copy and paste bits of the conversation in the hope it helps. You'll have to piece together the rest of the conversation. Shouldn't be hard its me Just going 'oh'/ 'really?'/ well I never' in the missing bits. The usual then.
Maybe this will help. I'm not qualified to judge.... It might be a bit awkward to read in redacted form!

Part 1:

[19:41:06] D: just warm it and then apply the oil
I get things much hotter in the forge and get a similar effect
but the electrolysis process also chemically changes the residual iron oxide to the black form - like magnetite I think
easy to do with a bucket, car battery charger some washing soda for the electrolyte and some sacrificial steel rods
[19:43:00] C any particular oil?
[19:43:18] D I tend to use beeswax or veg oil
you can use old motor oil but that is not good for you

P2:

[19:45:14] D reading page 2, washing soda is the best...not as agresssive as the vinegar and table salt
but make sure it's washing soda

P3:

[19:46:07] D: the other kind is good for other things
I have done the electrolysis thing...it does work
and you can make up containers for odd shapes
Also worth looking at is the tannin method...very strong tea solution

[19:47:29] Chris : shut up <<<< SEE!
[19:47:31] D: didn't work in my experiment but a chemist was saying it is the mutts

[19:47:53] D: but I would go electrolysis

[19:48:06] D: just make sure you get the polarity right
[19:48:18] D: takes a few hours

Maybe this will help? Some leads? Hope it helps.
Cheers
Chris.

 

[AndyT]

Thanks Chris. I should have said that I did try the earlier suggestions and the appearance of my new adaptor was toned down by rubbing it with a lemon a few times.

It's certainly an improvement on fresh mild steel, and probably good enough for this one, but I have noted your suggestions for future use. Many thanks!

 

[Racers]

Mild steel with a squeeze of lemon, on a bed of rocket with a nice crisp Chardonnay?

:shock:

Pete