Anyone with slotting head to cut a splined sleeve

[Adam HarrisParticipant @adamharris13683]

I wonder if there is anyone local to Oxford that has a slotting head and would be willing to cut for me a sleeve for a simple splined shaft (4 splines, D1 25mm, D2 21mm , width of splines 8mm). The ironic thing is the shaft drives my own slotting head otherwise I would do it myself! Of course I will pay for the job. Adam

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

You don’t need a slotting head to cut a splined sleeve, you can do it in the lathe with a slotting attachment, unless when you say ‘slotting head’ you actually mean a ‘slotting attachment’ which I take to mean a lathe accessory.

[Adam HarrisParticipant @adamharris13683]

A lathe with some manual slotting attachment and dividing attachment on the spindle? – sounds very laborious. A mill with a slotting head and dividing head simples.

[DC31kParticipant @dc31k]

Please could you advise length of part. Something 30mm long is a different proposition to something 300mm long.

Providing it is short enough, at 8mm wide, some pre-drilling and plunge milling to remove excess material (preferably before forming the 21mm bore) would make an armstrong method on the lathe less laborious.

I am not sure it makes any difference, but OD of the part might be useful.

[Adam HarrisParticipant @adamharris13683]

Sleeve OD 35mm, length 75mm. Please see attached diagram and photo. 

[Adam HarrisParticipant @adamharris13683]

[Adam HarrisParticipant @adamharris13683]

Sides of splines are parallel , not sloped (as they appear in photo)

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I have cut a similar component in the lathe for a telescopic drive shaft with a slotting attachment even though I have the Tom Senior slotting head for the miller. It is not at all laborious and, if you have a lathe with a bull-wheel with a number of teeth that can be divided by four, you can use it to index the spline. Other than that, use a convenient change gear and detent.</p>

[Chris Crew]

On Chris Crew Said:

I have cut a similar component in the lathe for a telescopic drive shaft with a slotting attachment…

Was it 75mm long as the one above?

Do you happen to know of a published or commercially-available design that provides this length of stroke? The Hemingway one is silent on its capacity/dimensions.

—-

It may be worth looking at the 75mm length quoted above and thinking a bit if it is actually necessary. The part would be considerably easier to make if it had 25mm of splines at each end with the centre section a plain 25+mm bore. It would allow the two splined ends to be clock-position independent of each other, meaning the component could be machined from both ends.

Rather than attempting to produce a facsimile of an OEM part, it can be useful to start with a blank sheet of paper and write down the minimum requirements for the part and then see how they could be achieved in an amateur workshop. The OEM one would likely have been broached, with the method of production determining its form.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

8mm wide is quite an effort to do on the lathe maybe OK if you split it into 8 cuts with a 4mm tool or ran a 4mm tool then an 8mm to remove the remaining 2mm each side of the first cut. Using the carriage handwheel would give you the 75mm without an issue.

The widest I have done is 3/16″ on the lathe

[Adam HarrisParticipant @adamharris13683]

Did you do those on the lathe Jason. Very nice. Although I admit I do have an indexing plate on the spindle and could do it with the carriage back and forth as you suggest, I still think laborious and simply a doddle with a mill and slotting head. Someone has already very kindly offered to do it with their mill so the issue is now put to bed.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Yes done on the lathe but as you say quite a long process.  I held it in the 4-jaw with a simple spacer up from the bed to the side of a jaw to index. I’ve got broaches big enough to do them now.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

There is a little article on doing this on Arc Euros site under ‘projects’

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

“Do you happen to know of a published or commercially-available design that provides this length of stroke? The Hemingway one is silent on its capacity/dimensions.”

I made and used the Radford slotting attachment as described in ME and the book of his designs ‘Improvements and Accessories for your Lathe’ (TEE Publishing). Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, castings have never been commercially available for Radford’s designs, probably because many of them are not for beginners or the feint hearted. This is to be regretted, IMO, because you can learn so much when making them. I have had patterns made for me and also made patterns myself and prevailed on a local foundry to cast them. I quite accept not everybody would want to do this and, unfortunately, I sold the professionally made pattern for the slotting attachment a few years ago.

[Chris Crew]

On Chris Crew Said:

I made and used the Radford slotting attachment as described in ME and the book of his designs ‘Improvements and Accessories for your Lathe’ (TEE Publishing).

Thanks for the reply. Please could you advise the stroke length on the Radford attachment.

As there needs to be some mechanical advantage between the operating lever and the slotting ‘ram’, I am trying to see how much space would be needed to operate a device that could achieve a 75mm stroke.

[Anonymous]

I assume this setup is what the OP was looking for; pity I’m in the perspiring dreams place:

And the finished gears with internal splines, top left:

The slotting head on the Bridgeport has a 4″ (100mm) stroke.

Andrew

 

 

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

“Please could you advise the stroke length on the Radford attachment”.

The stroke on my particular Radford slotting attachment is 2.625″ but there is no reason why it could not be made to travel any desired length. All you would need to do is cut a few more teeth in the rack which is integral to the piston/plunger which could be made to any length you wanted.

(I tried to post some photo’s but for some reason it will not let me copy & paste or drag & drop tonight)

Addendum: I just noticed that someone had suggested moving the lathe carriage back and forth. Personally, I would not recommend this as the force necessary to power the cut usually shifts the tool in the tool-post and puts an inordinate strain on the saddle rack of a light lathe, i.e. a Myford. When I use the Radford slotter I use a clamp made to fit between and across the bed-ways to stop the saddle moving backwards. I do not rely on the saddle clamp screw or engagement of the half-nuts to prevent movement.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Kind of surprised that no-one suggested using a shaper..  🙂

 

IanT

 

 

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Yes the lathe method can load the rack which is why I suggested not doing the whole 8mm width in one go. Anyone who has used a broach will know how much effort is required to drive them and it obviously goes up as the width does so taking smaller bites and working upto the required width will save overloading the lathe. I did do the 3/16″ ones with a 3/16″ tool but that was as much as I would have wanted to load the Emcomat 8.6 that I had at the time

What sort of width of slot can the Radford manage? I can’t find any online photos of a slotting attachment by him only a graduating tool.

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

“What sort of width of slot can the Radford manage? I can’t find any online photos of a slotting attachment by him only a graduating tool.”

Without going down to the workshop to check, I think the splines on the telescopic shaft I made were approx. 0.250″. Of course, you have to take very shallow cuts, approx. 0.002″ – 0.004″, until you reach the desired depth and also work out any spring in the tool. I found that a piece of HSS tool bit silver soldered or brazed into the holder is better and far less flexible than a small piece of HSS held cross-wise in a MS holder. A piece of 0.125″ parting blade similarly silver soldered into place is good for slotting keyways.

Can’t seem to get any photo’s to load, sorry.

[Author]

Posts