07-07-2017, 04:58 AM
Another task revisited at slow speed:
Our school had a white board (a dry erase board on rollers) with a broken roller. It was essentially in storage and a source of frustration to the teacher who needed it. The threaded shaft on the replacement roller was not long enough.
I purchased a connecting nut (a hexagonal nut about an inch and a half thick. I needed to make it round and reduce the diameter in order for it to fit in a cavity. Not having a metal lathe, I went to work with my Viel, single speed at the time. The repair was successful; the white board is now back in service and looks like nothing happened.
This week I am repairing an old photographic light stand. The top connection was lost or broken by a distant previous owner. Once again, a connecting nut was the key. This time the nut needed to be rounded, but with very little diameter reduction. It was my first project with the Gen II slow speed Viel using higher grinding pressure. This connecting nut used 1/4" x 20 threading. I left the top part of the connecting nut hexagonal. Most of the nut slides into the shaft of the light stand. I will glue it in place with JB Weld. This will let me attach a new replacement threaded top connection.
The connecting nut did heat up while being ground, but to a lesser extent than when using higher speed. Cooling stops were less frequent and shorter. The slower speed really offered no speed advantage. It did give me a feeling of more control. A lathe would have been the obvious choice for this, however the Viel proved an adequate Plan B.
Ken
Our school had a white board (a dry erase board on rollers) with a broken roller. It was essentially in storage and a source of frustration to the teacher who needed it. The threaded shaft on the replacement roller was not long enough.
I purchased a connecting nut (a hexagonal nut about an inch and a half thick. I needed to make it round and reduce the diameter in order for it to fit in a cavity. Not having a metal lathe, I went to work with my Viel, single speed at the time. The repair was successful; the white board is now back in service and looks like nothing happened.
This week I am repairing an old photographic light stand. The top connection was lost or broken by a distant previous owner. Once again, a connecting nut was the key. This time the nut needed to be rounded, but with very little diameter reduction. It was my first project with the Gen II slow speed Viel using higher grinding pressure. This connecting nut used 1/4" x 20 threading. I left the top part of the connecting nut hexagonal. Most of the nut slides into the shaft of the light stand. I will glue it in place with JB Weld. This will let me attach a new replacement threaded top connection.
The connecting nut did heat up while being ground, but to a lesser extent than when using higher speed. Cooling stops were less frequent and shorter. The slower speed really offered no speed advantage. It did give me a feeling of more control. A lathe would have been the obvious choice for this, however the Viel proved an adequate Plan B.
Ken