Machined my version of Lucky Dog Manufacturing Rotary tool

[Rich Fife]

Thanks. That is for the handpiece kit with two burrs and an extra head. That way they can get right to porting!

Right... I honestly tell the local guys that port to go onto your site to purchase your tool... It's a great product for a great price. Truth be told, seeing Your tool motivated me to machine my own...
Sadly enough, not too many people nowadays have the skillset, knowledge or even the desire to try and do things like what you and others do....

 

[Al Smith]

It's a niche market from my view point .First would be the skill set then the machine .I have the machine,a Monarche 10" EE and the tooling but not the desire .Weather I have the skill set I really don't know .
My 2 cents this device would be of very good use for someone who reworked a lot of cylind
ers .However someone like myself who might only do that work once every two years not so much. You can do a lot with a Dremel and long shafted burs although you might go blind working with a mirror where every movement is backwards .My poor old beat up 75 year old fingers hurt just thinking about it .

 

[Rich Fife]

It's a niche market from my view point .First would be the skill set then the machine .I have the machine,a Monarche 10" EE and the tooling but not the desire .Weather I have the skill set I really don't know .
My 2 cents this device would be of very good use for someone who reworked a lot of cylind
ers .However someone like myself who might only do that work once every two years not so much. You can do a lot with a Dremel and long shafted burs although you might go blind working with a mirror where every movement is backwards .My poor old beat up 75 year old fingers hurt just thinking about it .

Valid points. Those Monarchs 10" are Nice. The most difficult part in making these would be threading for most people. Everything else is straight fwd and simple, basic really. ODs, IDs and Lengths. I have an infatuation with machining threads and cutting gears... a long dremel will work ok, but, imo... ideally you want to be able to reach towards the back of the transfers to help with flow characteristics. Before i had a transfer tool I've messed around with chamfering and angling the material on the piston to get my desired numbers... is it the most effective? No. Does it work? Absolutely. Many ways to skin a cat, but there are only a few ways to get the saws to run at their peak.... I am always searching and tinkering with stuff to find what the saw likes more. Lol

 

[Al Smith]

From my perspective threads are not that difficult but real tiny ones you'd need to use a magnifying glass and brilliant light source and a really sharp tool .The challenge would be a gear that tiny .I don't think my 1940's vintage Bridgeport could do it .BTW I do have a right angle dentists drill but it takes the special dental tooling which I have some .At the moment I have no idea where it's at .

 

[Rich Fife]

From my perspective threads are not that difficult but real tiny ones you'd need to use a magnifying glass and brilliant light source and a really sharp tool .The challenge would be a gear that tiny .I don't think my 1940's vintage Bridgeport could do it .BTW I do have a right angle dentists drill but it takes the special dental tooling which I have some .At the moment I have no idea where it's at .

Watch makers/machinists are absolutely incredible... those guys make micro gears, levers, springs... etc.

 

[Al Smith]

I was going to suggest perhaps a watch makers lathe would be the hot ticket for jobs like these .I looked them up on flea bay .On that I've seen table top precision lathes but never an actual watch makers lathe .These things have minature dividing heads ,tiny little chucks ,little colletts every thing is just shrunken in size . The smallest chuck I have is a 4" precison Sunnen chuck that came from an OD grinder which I've never used .The largest I have is 20" 4 jaw I cannot even lift which would not be a good choice to make a gear with a 1/4" major diameter .Most likely would work to reface a brake drum for a dump truck but I do that with a 12" three jaw .

 

[Rich Fife]

From my perspective threads are not that difficult but real tiny ones you'd need to use a magnifying glass and brilliant light source and a really sharp tool .The challenge would be a gear that tiny .I don't think my 1940's vintage Bridgeport could do it .BTW I do have a right angle dentists drill but it takes the special dental tooling which I have some .At the moment I have no idea where it's at .

I used to cut gears manually... helical, spur, worm, bevel, etc... I machined custom output shafts for the Jeep Dana20 transfer cases... way back when on Pirate4x4 I had a thread... 'machining my own custom HD dana 20 output shaft' or something to that affect... for whatever reason all of my photobucket account pictures were erased... something. I went through the complete stages of making the shaft/gear/splines and housing... those were fun days.

 

[Rich Fife]

Machining My own HD Dana 20 Output Shaft and Housing

I was asked on a few other sites to post my current Jeep Project over here on Pirate... The title says most of it... Machining my own HD Dana 20 Output Shafts and Housings... I can honestly say that I love building/making junk for my rig... I seriously hate spending gobs of money on parts...

www.pirate4x4.com

Wish the pictures were still there... I haven't changed too much... besides age and aches-n-pains. I'm still cheap af. Lol