Portable Workbench Build Process

20/3/2021

With the concentricity problem fixed, I could get on with some of the steel parts. I started by putting a bit of 50 mm EN1A into the three jaw chuck and pulling out my infrequently used fixed steady. The stock is too big to go through the bore of the chuck and it would be quite wasteful to cut a length off as I'd need an extra bit to be held in the chuck and that extra bit might end up being too short to be useful.

With that all set up (and well lubricated), I spot drilled the centre point, then drilled it out 6 mm, 12 mm and 16 mm to a depth of about 70 mm.

I then bored the hole to 17.75 mm, which is tapping size for 70% thread engagement on a M20×2.5 threaded hole.

I then set the lathe up for thread cutting and used the only tool I could find in my collection that would cut an internal thread with such a coarse pitch. Unfortunately, it's a right-hand threading tool so I had to cut the thread in this blind hole with the lathe running forwards and the tool the normal way up. I generally prefer to cut threads with the lathe running backwards as the tool exits the hole at the end of the cut rather than (potentially) running into the bottom of the hole.

I didn't enjoy that much (I much prefer finer pitch threads!) and it's making me rethink the equivalent parts for the dual-screw vice. I may either decide to do them as simple plain sleeves and epoxy them in place or I might buy a tap to make life a bit easier.

Anyway, with that done, I faced the end and turned a short section on the end (to get rid of the rusty surface on the end of the bar):

I then parted off…

… pausing part way through the parting operation to chamfer the edges:

The parted off face needs a bit of work (my parting results are a bit hit-and-miss), but that'll do for now…

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