Barrel polishing?

[Sniperhandle]

This one will keep you out of trouble. Hands/fingers not close to the barrel. No strip of emery loth to wrap up your fingers. I have belts from 80 grit to 600 grit. Variable speed DC motor.

Set the thing up, engage the lathe feed and watch.

The Russian lathe incident happened when the operator was polishing bearing fits on the rollers you see on the pallet in front of the lathe. He was using a long strip of emery, wearing a baggy heavy coat, and got his left sleeve caught by the chuck jaws. I saw the original video a few years ago on Practical Machinist forum. A camera was tucked away over the lathe. Very nasty, the camera captured everything, showed him picking up the emery strip and then disaster. Torso was jammed between the lathe bed and the chip pan.

You've made yourself some cool Schitt John!

 

[Machinist John]

Old school machinists call it a "Slack Belt grinder". Made mine entirely from junk box materials, even the DC motor (Which was from a scrapped blue pint copier).

The thing swings about the horizontal axis so I can swing the lower contact wheel to grind a shaft or barrrel end, such as in the photo below:

Grinding the muzzle on a 416 M70 to fit a NECG banded front ramp:

Removing markings on a M98 bridge. Receiver is rotated by hand.

Next, I need to make a larger one that uses 2-inch x 72 belts with a 3/4 DC motor (which I have in the junk box).

 

[clowdis]

John, how do you prevent the grinding dust from getting on the machine ways?

 

[urbanrifleman]

John, how do you prevent the grinding dust from getting on the machine ways?

Beat me to it. Grinding dust everywhere.

I have a dust collector with 4 inch duct with a 3 HP motor just to suck out the dust from my sanding belt. That dust from fine sanding is the worst dust I've ever seen.

 

[Sniperhandle]

Keep everything covered and use an old lathe that doesn't matter.

 

[SKWERLZ]

Keep everything covered and use an old lathe that doesn't matter.

I do my barrel polishing on a wood lathe.
I am going to invest in one of those belt sanders.
That lol like it’s far faster.

 

[Machinist John]

John, how do you prevent the grinding dust from getting on the machine ways?

Big shop vac you can see the hose in the photos. Run the belt so the plume goes up and the vac catches all. And I cover the ways with cardboard or newspaper when grinding or polishing.