Mini live center from bolt - video

[Jon]

Mini live center from bolt. By Metall Antik. 7:29 video:

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[nova_robotics]

That doesn't look like a tapered bearing. I guess having to replace a bearing once in a while isn't the end of the world.

[sossol]

I dig these I-made-a-thing-out-of-a-bolt videos. They put more work into the projects that if they'd started from raw stock, but it shows ingenuity and resource management.
The only things I've made out of bolts are other bolts. Not sure that qualifies.

Neil

[Frank S]

That doesn't look like a tapered bearing. I guess having to replace a bearing once in a while isn't the end of the world.

Could be angular contact
I have a large live center I made using 1 angular contact ball bearing and 1 radial ball bearing it will probably last me forever.

[hemmjo]

I dig these I-made-a-thing-out-of-a-bolt videos. They put more work into the projects that if they'd started from raw stock, but it shows ingenuity and resource management.
The only things I've made out of bolts are other bolts. Not sure that qualifies.

Neil

Depending on what kind you get bolts are a good source of quality steel. If I don't have a piece of steel appropriate for my needs I can make a run to Tractor Supply, and get a bolt to cut up. MOST of the materials I use are "mystery metal" of unknown origin or quality. Bolts are a known quality, even if it is one you find laying along the road. (yes I do that) If the head it is intact, the marks on it tell you right away if it is a good piece of steel.

[piper184]

Many years ago I bought a 5 gallon bucket of assorted bolts at a surplus store. Nothing much longer than a couple of inches, lots of sizes, types, materials, etc.
Sorted them all into separate containers and over the years have barely used any of them for bolts.

But now that I have a lathe the larger ones often get used for various purposes. They are great for making one off fixture setups of misc. small parts that are not too critical. Being a cheapskate and scrounger I often go the surplus bolts rather than cut off a piece of steel that costs a lot more.

Sometimes I just knock up a prototype out of a soft bolt just to get the setups and order of operations down before risking "real" metal.

I was amused at the end of the video where he put the live center in the hand drill to polish it. It seems to me that spinning the base would have no effect on how the nose interacted with the disc sander. It's a great way to get a small tool faster and cheaper than ordering one, especially if he already had the parts on hand.

[Frank S]

As has been said, bolts are a great source of known quality metals for making things.
Imperial or SAE grades commonly used here in the USA generally start out with no markings on the head I call them mud and fat, not all that different from plain hot roll steel. and go all the way up to grade 9, usually only found in black anodized socket head cap screws and even those may or may not always be equal. There are some extremely special hardened bolts found mostly on certain parts of Earthmoving equipment. Caterpillar track bolts are among some of the hardest bolts you will ever encounter, because the case hardening on them is much deeper. Construction grade bolts such as A307 and A325 in general fall into the gr5 category but are specifically designed to withstand forces not as commonly found in automotive grade bolts the A325 bolts generally have larger head sizes such as a 3/4" Dia bolt instead of using the wrench size of 1 1/8" will be 1 1/4" inch for larger contact area. Metric bolts grades are usually 5.5, 8.8, 10.3 and 12.9 in general will coincide with the SAE grades, in hardness and tensile strengths of 3,5,8, &9 but not exactly. This pertains to steel bolts only other metals such as aluminum brass Stainless, and Titanium may or may not have similar markings on them. usually not. The exceptions being for Stainless and titanium.