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Best material for a barrel spider ?

That unobtainium brought me back to machining school. It always was on our test but never in the stock room. Never had an opertunity to machine any. Can't comment on the feeds and speeds needed to machine any. Does it really come from Poetry Texas?
 
That unobtainium brought me back to machining school. It always was on our test but never in the stock room. Never had an opertunity to machine any. Can't comment on the feeds and speeds needed to machine any. Does it really come from Poetry Texas?


Could be.
 
What does that have to do with a spider? I wouldn't waste a piece of good tool steel on a spider.
Just a joke good sir!! I usually use 4142 prehard for a precision fixture then machine it with carbide. I think the extra mass and rigidity can only be a benefit when you're often forced to work with smaller/lighter machines as I am.
 
Not sure if this is a good idea but it's working quite well for me so far. I tried to align four holes in a standard back plate but the original hardware is the way. Six 1/4-28 holes fit and it uses brass tipped screws from McMaster-Carr. The six contact points aren't any more difficult to adjust than a pair of opposing screws. I've also learned that since I can only get so much torque on the short end of a 1/8" allen key, I'm not bending the barrels nearly as much as when using a copper wire in a four jaw chuck. They also have yet to slip so I'm going to keep using it.

IMG_4130_zpsct0d7xbs.jpg
 
718 is great stuff, but we are not in a corrosive enviorment or high temperature.
If you have to come to an interdnet forum to ask a question like this, that you really should be able to figure out for yourself, well, maybe you shouldn't be building a spider at all! So, you should expect a cock-eyed answer!
 
I'd go with stellite. It'd last forever. As far as the machinist test, I flunked when they asked how many thousandths in an inch and my answer was "they're pretty small, must be a million of them".
 
"And I'm still wonderin' what's wrong with diggin' around in the scrap box for something that'll 'work''

Likewise!!!!
 
Scrap it is. I found a piece of 1" aluminum plate at one of the sales I went to. Paid a dollar for it. It is big enough to cut a 6 3/4" diameter disc from it. I think that will be big enough. I got another piece 3/4" that I can cut the little pivot blocks from. Working on the house still so the shop and fun time projects are still a way off in the future.
 

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