Ornamental Lathe Work --- A Brass Cannon Barrel

hey guys don't buy here advanced innovations welcome back to the shop welcome to all the new subscribers and thank you to all the people that have been blowing up those spider videos it is cricket season here in Texas and where you have food you're gonna have things that eat the food so it's full spider season as well thanks for making oh so popular really killing it every once in a while you get to make something for yourself as an owner of a machine shop which I don't get to do very often but the opportunity presented itself this week and so did a dare from one of the commenters offline about making a cannon a brass cannon I've seen a lot of other guys do it and it's something I've always wanted to do so the window of opportunity opened up I decided I would jump in now knowing where the camera is placed for this particular video you are not going to be able to see what I'm doing with the dials and I figured I would clear that up because some of the movements are the tools you're gonna wonder how the tools moving around so let's take a look at the board the natural taper of the barrel on the cannon because they are tapered very maza degree and a half to three degrees depending on where and how and what whatever that is all done with the compound move the compound you set it hopefully it doesn't get in the way the live center on the end because that's usually the problem when you the compound to it to an external tapered angle like that the compound usually interferes or the tail stock usually interferes with the compound body that being said all the moves along that taper all the moves are done with the compound you're going to be cranking that little dial a lot so get used to it any depth or height changes on the part or done with the cross line you do not move the character when you set a taper initially for this type of work because these are ornate when you do this lock the carriage because when you get through your obstacle natural tendency is to grab that hand wheel and move that carriage if you do that it's gonna cause a little bit of anxiety and you don't need that show you how much easier it can be no tool I'm using out there's about degree angle with a sixty degree or a 60-mile radius on it let's look at number one number one is the main taper on that cannon barrel so as the compound is cranking down grab the cross slide crank the compound move the cross slide back into the same number it was on this side and that assures you that you have a continuous line as if this feature raised feature wasn't even there now if you want to establish the size of here will naturally come in what the compound cross slide out compound over cross slide back in and then you can use the compound to back up into the opposite side and move across you could also use dimensions if you wanted to do the math because this is an angle and when you have that it changes England you know that right so any move along the trajectory of the taper of that particular feature cannon barrel whatever you're making any moves along that is done with the compound any diameter changes and you hit changes and steps done with the cross slide the only time you're gonna want to move the carriage is when you run out of stroke with the compound back the compound all the way out reposition the carriage so that the position of the tool is somewhere within the boundary of the previous cut locked the carriage down re-establish your cross line with some kind of witness mark and you can continue so I've got the barrel in the machine spent about an hour on it yesterday I'm going to back step with some of the video I'm going to plug in after this intro so you can see that and we're going to pick up and do the other half of the bible's form let's take a walk all right I'm going to throw this down a little bit out of sequence these barrels are already turned and as I was turning them I realized that it's not so much the tool peel on the brass off that's the interesting part or the confusing part however it may be in as much as the coordination of the tools and the moves of the tools that you can apply this type of turning technique to whatever you decide to make so instead of actually showing you the production of these barrels by back stepping into the video that I've already archived I'm going to show you more of the detail on how something like this is created these raised elements really add quite a bit of detail to a particular project now I'm going to talk to you a little bit about how to maintain a finish like this on your part it's really not all that hard these are 50 caliber actually it's a 506 diameter high speed reamer that I went down in the barrel with about nine inches long and I'm going to leave the background I'm going to face the back off so I can squeeze it end to end and do the cross holes I'm making one of these for of viewer and I'm making one for myself the one I'm going to keep is going to be strictly cosmetic you know strictly a showpiece so I'm not going to worry about drilling all the way through the bore it's just going to be a one continuous ride straight through but the other one will be countersunk and little buttons pressed in so that it's functional should they desire to complete it and go that way anyway let's talk about the tools that it's going to take to do this and then do it okay guys let's talk about the tools that I'm going to use for this particular demonstration the majority of them are high speed steel this one is a bout a 20 degree diamond with a 60 now I am etre tip on it and this is a turning tool as well as a plunging tool because it's got side relief on both sides I'll be doing the majority of the work with this tool because it's a great profiling tool this guy here is the large radius tool for behind the muzzle of the gun and this is not a turning tool this is a plunging tool you can tell because the size of the tool is not relieved it is a straight up high speed steel blank on either side so if you wanted to turn with a tool like this you should stay within the profile of the relief you can see it's a very mild so you'd only be about a hundred thousand to side another very sharp high speed steel tool here this is say I believe it's a cobalt tool it's also incredibly sharp I use this a lot for plastic keep a nice little sharp edge on that this will be doing the ornamental Stairsteps around the front of the barrel large 45-degree high speed tool that's all this is for strictly high strictly bumping the edge of a part putting a big chance run it deburring it whatever you want to call it this is a double 45 tool much smaller 45 in the back and this would be for doing the backside of a flange or down inside of a thread undercut and coming forward towards the tail stock that's why it's ground so far off center like that this will get down inside your undercut solid easily and since it's a double sided tool I'm going to use the other side for a boring bar and when you do this just be aware that one's going to be a little taller than the other so if you're going to set your height make sure you set it to the high one that way you can always race the tool holder up for the lower and the only carbide tool in the bunch is a 30-degree tool that I'm going to use to put the flare on the front of the barrel prior or somewhere in the same area as the radius so let's pop a piece of brass in the machine and I'm going to use brass because it's only fair I'm gonna put a piece of brass in the machine and we'll do a bunch of features we'll do a bunch of those ornamental elevated features show you a couple different ways to do it and some philosophy on success you know if you're going to use a file and start doing hand work on the part not using form tools it's okay to modify the file to suit your need this particular file used to have teeth on the edge but because I use this for a lot of profiling and rounding and smoothing in tangents I have ground the teeth off and radius the corners of the file so as I come in contact with the part of the work that I don't want to gouge up it's the round edge is more of like a guide surface instead of doing any damage I've got some exceptionally small Jewelers files as well and I've done the same thing to the edges on those and my file selection I know which files I can hit large surfaces with using the entire surface of the file and I know which files I can use on edges because files that load up with material in the center and you try to do something cosmetic on a surface that stuff in the center isn't going to cut and it's going to start leaving deep gouges in your part so pay attention to how clean your files are this file here is Old Faithful I'll use this guy on everything and you can see that it's pretty jammed up in the center from well that's some Flynn work on the last barrel but you can see these little spots right here these little silver spots well they cause you a problem if you were to lay this down on a smooth surface and think you were going to get a nice cut you're not one thing that I use sometimes a file card this is the file car that I've used more often than not set this little pic in the back and all that is is a little little screwdriver a little little bigger watch those little spots come right out you can just rake your file across the across the center of your file and if you're tired of using little pieces I also have a piece of brass so I guess this is about three sixteenths by one-inch and I've sharpened the end and if you lay this right down in the teeth and scrape it back and forth it'll push all the dirt out of the teeth of this file and it'll recondition this file like it's a brand new file it'll knock everything out just try it on this side show you exactly what I mean I mean it's not hard to tell where that thing dragged across because you can see it cleans it up pretty good seeing guys say use acid use this that and the other but I tell you nice piece of brass with a good point on it even even pointy ER than that make it so that the first couple of swipes across the file actually shape the lead on the piece of brass that you're using it'll get down in there nice and deep and it's a great thing to have around if you're gonna start doing handwork this is a good trick to know you want a nice clean file when you start laying this thing down flat on a big surface take what okay a good place to start let's so take a look at how this feature here was formed this is approximately a thirty five degree angle maybe a one-eighth radius into a much larger radius with a two degree out taper and that is a little easier to do than you would think let's take a look okay the machine setup for this particular first operation we are about two degrees into the park this way the part has already been faced off and the first tool we're going to use is probably this high-speed tool right here I'm going to turn this into quarter material down to one inch and we're going to start there alright the first thing I'm going to do with this material hanging out like this is put a Center in the end Center feature and then I'm going to put a live Center in it for support and I'm going to keep the spindle of the tailstock extended as as as mildly as possible because I want as much rigidity as I can I'm gonna face this off we're gonna turn a one-inch diameter on the front and then we're going to plunge a really wide form tool in there to give the large radial undercut beginning of the flare the end of the barrel [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] let's go for the one-inch diameter [Applause] just a little bit for cosmetics on the end because you can get away with [Applause] putting in the large work tool [Applause] I want the center of my form tool feature 400 back from the face of the cannon barrel I know this is a half inch wide tool so I'm going to bump the tool up against the material and zero out my digital which is what you can do with an indicator a drop indicator or whatever so now I know that the leading edge of the tool is against the face of the part I'm going to go to 50 that tool is now on center with the edge of the part I can now go 400 to my desired dimension [Applause] my calculations are correct that tool should come in and start to dig right about there let's pop a live Center in and plunge it to see what happens to slow it down to about 320 for this a lot of content [Applause] and I'm gonna go 100 feet see how that works out [Applause] a whole idea behind eliminating chatter or avoiding chatter on a large cut is to keep the pressure on the part keep the feed going I'm changing over for the profiling tool the 516 school I'm gonna do exactly the same thing with this one find the center of that truck or welded work 770 rpm bumpit zero out your indicators 1:56 the center and you can see that's pretty much spot-on here we go another 400 that you put me right back where that previous tool was mr. sharpie marker is your best friend right now that's going to be very important for the pledge if you want a nice clean blend make sure you keep it worked up [Applause] I'm gonna get down in there and take a nice healthy buddy right off the get-go [Applause] [Music] [Applause] now I did not move my carriage for that only two compounds at this point what you want to do we're going to come back to my zero and because it's an angle the true tangent point contact of this tool is not dead center as the angle of this barrel changes the tangent point starts to walk up the radius so there's a little bit of finesse and a little bit of iWork going on here as you look down on your tool definitely don't go back beyond the center of the original feature stay forward of the original features just a hair and dial it in until you see that mark start to go away [Applause] currently the number on my cross slide is 115 that is what my cross slide is set to as I dialing the compound to create this taper I am going to back the tool out using the cross slide move up using the compound and I'm going to plunge back into the 115 and continue this taper that will guarantee that if this ring was in here that this tapered surface was a continuous surface [Applause] compound move by ayah one about a quarter of an inch right here and I'll go back in for the 115 [Applause] continue to cut with the compound the carriage is not moving grass is extremely soft and you can take pretty healthy by system walk peaceful support it okay off the part and coming back with the compound back to 1:15 for the finish cut [Applause] there are no chips falling right now which meets this tool I'd flex beyond the five now that I left it or the workpiece flex more than the five now that's all right [Applause] out with the cross slide back with the compound now I'm going to take some of this down because we're going to put one of those beads on there [Applause] [Applause] why I'm gonna put a mark in the center this is strictly cross slided compound the carriage is not even [Applause] just for reference I am at zero on my cross line I'm going to dial in until I hit that black line I am coming off with the cross slide to go beyond it with the compound back to the zero on my cross way I am now 30 with compound counterclockwise to come back to that line [Applause] cross-slide off now I can move the carriage [Applause] taking the very small bubble 45 degree tool and I'm going to knock the high spots [Applause] also by I there's no numbers here I'm just doing these by I want to see the same amount of material come off on both sides [Applause] I would say that's pretty close gonna put a 30-degree angle on the front [Applause] with the carbide tool from the table before [Applause] for tool I am using a large center [Applause] well there's not a lot of room here on [Applause] I want this to just about go away I think I've been a lead maybe a little bit of the blacks you have [Applause] back to the high speed tool also a carriage moves I'm going to put two small steps in the face of [Applause] [Applause] now here's where all the nice fire war comes in you can take the file because it has no sharp edges on it and you can round these features off and actually use the taper on either side as the guide and the file should not dig in so let's put a nice round on the top right here turn this into a bead and break those edges then we'll shine it up and forgive me if I film the back of my hand here for a second it's almost impossible not to [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] and all the guys that are saying oh my god he's reaching across this Chuck I have my forearm and my elbow resting securely on the headstock to my machine and this arm is not going anywhere let's take the high spots off it easy guys [Applause] [Applause] now I hope against this black shirt on where and you can see how the center is a nice round bead it has a Ledge on either side and we have considerably different surface finishes on either side of this once I put Emery to this you're going to see exactly how different these surface finishes are so hang in there 400 every actually not bad at all not on this side this is the one where the feed was a little bit more aggressive and the cut was deep so if you can see the lines in that [Applause] as you polish with any piece of Emery make sure you continued to keep it moving and not necessarily maintain the same amount of force onto the part as when you begin so put a natural heavy bite on it move back and forth look for your lines to disappear and then relax the pressure that you're putting on that part and feather out the lines that you want to make go away [Applause] this is where having a nice smile that hasn't been used on edges comes in handy can work a flat surface take the scratches out pretty good watching for how the files loading up if the file is loading up evenly then you know you have a nice flat file [Applause] [Applause] yeah I need a handle on [Applause] [Applause] I am relaxing the pressure on this as I move [Applause] I'm feeling the peace through the memory [Applause] a little bit of heavy pressure there and relax [Applause] this is a 3o steel wool and wd-40 [Applause] there's anything left on here that needs to be sanded down you're gonna see it now [Applause] here's the pending [Applause] that guy's was real time I didn't cheat didn't speed anything up didn't slow anything down [Applause] alright that's about 15 minutes worth of work let's reposition the camera over there she can get a good look at what's going on a walk [Applause] let's see the raised feature on either side of the beat is at the same taper as the 2 degree outside now that's a 4 degree included so it's 2 degrees per side large radius has a nice blend the top half of it let's go against the darkness top half is rounded by hand two steps in the front and you can just continue to do this all the way down the full length of that barrel if you wanted to and since this is freehand it's dealer's choice on the cosmetics of that you go high-low whatever you want you have deep scratches start with the Henry Emery but be careful if you put a deep scratch and brush you might have to really change the dimensions of it to get that scratch out so I would say start with the mid grade and the higher grade memories like a 240 320 if you're going to start taking scratches out just you want to work it down to a polishing paper or some type of polishing paste give that a go as well but there you go don't be afraid of it coordinate your tools as you have to support it in ways you need to and have some fun hope you enjoyed them well I gotta say that I really enjoyed doing the freehand stuff I don't usually do freehand work or stuff by eye or use a sharpie marker I just hit the lines to me that's that's almost inconceivable how I you know I just don't do that but I enjoyed it it was fun one thing that I may not have made perfectly clear when I make a freehand round I see a lot of guys stand there and file forever and just tweak and go tweak and go when you make a freehand round on something like this the bead that was in between the two shoulders I'm gonna take and I'm gonna use a 45 degree tool and I'm gonna bite them most of that off so that when it comes time to file that particular beaded feature if you only have to hit the high spots and the bead comes around pretty quick so keep that in mind if you're going to turn something square to something round knock the corners off heavy with a 45 don't overdo it because you'd be surprised how quickly a 45 to become tangent to that round beaded feature anyway I'm going to continue with this I plan on making the wheels spoked wheels and the chains and the buckets and everything else work as time permits I will so post those videos thank you very much for watching appreciate it jump isin skate advance innovations Austin Texas you

Channel: Joe Pieczynski

Views: 103,034

Rating: 4.9224257 out of 5

Keywords: joe pie, joe pieczynski, advanced innovations, advanced innovations llc, brass cannon, cannon barrel, lathe work, lathe, shop tricks, shop hacks, turning videos, turning, ornamental lathe work, how to blend tools, coordinating tools, freehand turning

Id: ZuxYcbxPuiI

Length: 36min 37sec (2197 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 14 2018