Making leather working Mauls

[MADMAX22]

Nicely done. What materials are you trying out for the heads? 

By the way is that an old Atlas bandsaw ya got there? I have one of the smaller 10" or 12" (cant remember) that I replaced bearings on, just need to mount my motor and replace the blade guide inserts. 

[Colt W Knight]

The red saw is an old cast aluminum craftsman I refurbished and painted red. The green one is just a harbor freight central machinery. 

I'm trying out some high impact strength ABS plastic and Nylon( Remington made rifle stocks with the same material). 

[Colt W Knight]

7 hours ago, MADMAX22 said:

Nicely done. What materials are you trying out for the heads? 

By the way is that an old Atlas bandsaw ya got there? I have one of the smaller 10" or 12" (cant remember) that I replaced bearings on, just need to mount my motor and replace the blade guide inserts. 

By the way, if you got blocktype blade guides, you can make hard dense wood blocks instead of those fancy plastic ones they sell. I use maple, and soak it in oil. 

[MADMAX22]

2 hours ago, Colt W Knight said:

By the way, if you got blocktype blade guides, you can make hard dense wood blocks instead of those fancy plastic ones they sell. I use maple, and soak it in oil. 

Thanks, I read about that and was considering it. The original ones are bronze I think, could be brass also. Not sure what I  will go with, need to do something it tracks very well and is a nice size for cutting patterns and what not. 

[Colt W Knight]

I thought I would show some of my process.

First, I cut the wood out on the table saw

Then take it over to the lathe

I am going to add some decorative rings to this one

Using epoxy

 

[Colt W Knight]

Cutting out the rod isn't as easy as sliding it over the table saw, I had to make a jig to hold the round stock at 90 degrees and clamp it tight so it doesn't move.

I forgot to take a picture of how I find the centers on this nylon rod. I drilled a 2" hole in a piece of scrap walnut with a 2" forstner bit, Then I clamped the wood to the drill press table. Now the center of the hole and the drill chuck are cowitnessed. I can put the rod in the hole, and change the bit to whatever size I need to drill centered holes. Without a metal lathe or nice wood lathe, this is about the most accurate way I can do this.

I cut the recesses for the handle and brass retainer using forstner bits

I don't really like cutting these angled heads on my lathe because the plastic/nylon curls wrap around my lathe chucks. I am afraid some of those curls are going to over heat and burn up the bearings on my live center, so I stop frequently to clean off the curls

I drill the center hole using a 27/64" bit, then ream it out with a 1/2" bit. The tails like to get hot and mar the hole. Doing it in two stages leaves a nice clean hole of the right diameter

Mock up -  The heads gets sanded with coarse sand paper so it doesn't glance off the stamps

[Colt W Knight]

Drilling out the handle to take the threaded SS rod

Tapping the hole

Installing the rod, and trimming it down to make it more wieldy whilst working on it

[Colt W Knight]

So far, I like working with the Nylon better than the plastics. The plastics get hot and melt while drilling and turning if you aren't very careful. A non-lazy man would take the time to change the belts on all his machines to their slowest RPMs and work very slowly to prevent this, but what do I look like? A guy who isn't lazy?

The nylon is pretty cool on the lathe, when you have your tool really sharp, and you move with the right pressure and speed, the extra material come off in one single piece/tail. That also make it get stuck around the chuck. I tried to setup my dust collector to catch it and suck it up, but it just can't keep up with the rpms of the lathe.

Edited July 25, 2016 by Colt W Knight

[bikermutt07]

Ha!

[Colt W Knight]

Time to trim up that handle