Thursday, December 26, 2013

Baseball Bat Key Chain

I was commissioned to make a baseball bat key chain similar to one I made in school.  I used a piece of recycled aluminum from a bicycle kickstand found in a dumpster about .440"⌀ to build it from.

Some arbitrary numbers written on a sticky note.
Starting by facing the piece in the lathe.
Then filing the end radius.  Before anybody outrages about the gloves I suggest they read this.  Feel free to outrage about the cuffs though.
Using my smallest center drill to make the least conspicuous center hole possible.
While supporting the piece with a live center, turning the outside diameter to .425"
Plunge cutting the handle diameter to provide a starting point for the subsequent passes.  This makes it easier to start the cutting passes.
Turning down the handle.
Turning the tapered section to 7.5° blending the two sections together.
I then filed the whole thing to make it look more uniform, but I think it made the finish worse overall.
Parting it off.  I cut most of the groove while the live center was still in the other end.  I then removed the center and broke off the piece.
I wasn't satisfied with the end radius as it looked too small compared to the original.
I put it back in the lathe and cut it with a small corner rounding endmill held in the boring bar holder.
The spindle had to be run backwards to use this cutter
Filing off the part-off tit and smoothing out the handle end.
All done after drilling a .150" hole in the handle and polishing.  Even after polishing, the lines from filing were still visible.  Next time I should use some 600 grit sandpaper.

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