HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

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rudd
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Re: HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

Post by rudd »

Good judgement is gained from experience, and experience is gotten from bad judgements. Do yourself a favor, don't think for a minute the crappy allthread from the big box store resembles a drawbar. It's way too stretchy, and you'll end up with loose collets every few minutes, which means you need to re-tighten the drawbar, which means you just lost the end position of your endmill. Three guesses how I know this, and the first two don't count. :oops:
Drill rod from one of the metal suppliers is dandy stuff to make drawbars out of. Threads easier than you'd think. Holler if you need a hand.

R
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RangerGress
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Re: HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

Post by RangerGress »

"drill rod" is round bar made of better steel?
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Harold_V
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Re: HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

Post by Harold_V »

RangerGress wrote:"drill rod" is round bar made of better steel?
It comes in various flavors, and, yes, it's "better steel". Common Allthread is made of low carbon steel, but it is also available in greater strength materials. The mild steel material has marginal tensile strength, likely likened to a grade 2 bolt.

Drill rod can be as simple as high carbon steel, or it can be found alloyed with various other elements to give particular qualities. The varieties vary in how they are heat treated and/or quenched. Water hardening drill rod is carbon steel, but air hardening and oil hardening are alloys with additional elements included. Tungsten, vanadium, manganese, molybdenum, silicon and chromium are included, depending on the type of drill rod.
Generally, drill rod is ground, but often lacks the high precision that may be desired. It can be out of round, and vary in size from piece to piece. or even within the same piece. Tolerance, from the mill, is ± .0003" for material .124" and smaller, ± .0005" for material between .125" and .499", and ± .001" for material from .500" through 2.000".

Hope this helps.

Harold
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RangerGress
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Re: HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

Post by RangerGress »

I head out tomorrow for a weekend of racing, but when I get back the collets should be here and I can figure out what I need to buy in order to make a draw bar.
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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
-Thomas Jefferson
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rudd
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Re: HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

Post by rudd »

Harold,


I once heard the stuff sold at the big-box home improvement stores described as an alloy of low grade steel and bubblegum.

Sure fits the way the stuff acts.

Gress, if you tell me what size you need, I may have a piece of O-1 drill rod laying around.
Regards,
Rudd
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Re: HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

Post by RangerGress »

rudd wrote:Gress, if you tell me what size you need, I may have a piece of O-1 drill rod laying around.
Regards,
Rudd
That's cool of you, thanks a lot Rudd. I'll give you a holler once the collets get here and I can check their threading.
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
-Thomas Jefferson
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Harold_V
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Re: HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

Post by Harold_V »

rudd wrote:Harold,


I once heard the stuff sold at the big-box home improvement stores described as an alloy of low grade steel and bubblegum.

Sure fits the way the stuff acts.
Chuckle!

Well, for various reasons, I've machined the stuff a few times. It may be fine for threads, but it's a far cry from being machining friendly. I'm not real fond of the stuff, but it sure has bailed me out a few times. I expect that for the purpose it's intended, it's more than adequate, but a guy must use good sense when it comes to items that demand strength.

One thing to keep in mind---it's a rolled thread, not machined, so it's likely stronger than anything a guy would turn out in his home shop with a die or by single pointing. That's assuming he used low carbon steel, similar to that used in Allthread.

Harold
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Dan
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Re: HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

Post by Dan »

Fascinating thread and I will be following closely. Just bought the HF 5980. Is sitting behind me on my shop floor semi unpacked. (is still bolted to the crate's bottom)

Still looking around for newbie threads. Am brand spanking new to the whole machining thing and am excited at all that can be done.

Just wanted to post so as to get emails on new posts and to say thanks.

(pic is the moment after I got it off the hand truck, lol. It is a whole lot bigger then I had thought it would be)
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Harold_V
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Re: HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

Post by Harold_V »

Welcome to the forum, Dan.

How about a picture of the new machine after it's been unwrapped?

Harold
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Dan
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Re: HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

Post by Dan »

Thanks Harold!

Will start a thread. This dang thing is pretty exciting. All the stuff possible.

LOL, didn't know "Notify me when a reply is posted" (Was wondering why no more posts on this thread)
Dan
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Re: HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

Post by Harold_V »

Dan wrote:(Was wondering why no more posts on this thread)
Heh! Hard to say. It's not uncommon for a thread to die a natural death, even when you feel there's more that can be said.

Part of the problem is this forum doesn't have a huge following. Some are turned off because they can't flame, or use bad language. We try to keep it polite here, and prefer a high quality environment to heavy traffic. Don't be discouraged. Many just lurk--rarely, if ever, making a comment.

Harold
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Dan
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Re: HF 5980 Spindle Specs?

Post by Dan »

That is great to hear. I mod on a forum with 30K+ folks and frankly, most folks are mostly good but ya get some people who think they can be unkind or use any sort of language. Hate that. Kids can read this stuff. Even if one uses a nic-name and believes them selves to be anonymous, don't ya own what you say? [/rant]

I had forgot/didn't know to check "notify me" box below. Just assumed I would get notified, snork.
Dan
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