Making The Eccentric Rods

The Supplied Stamping

Stuart provide the stamped brass eccentric which makes life much easier.

Marking-up The Eccentric Rod

A centre line needs to be marked on the Rod to help with lining it up for the machining operations.

I used a Height Gauge, but a rule and a scriber will do just as well.

Try to mark the position of the hole at the small end as accurately as possible, and mark with a centre punch.

Setting The Mill and Clamping the Workpiece

Boring the large hole in the Eccentric Rod can be done on a lathe with either a Four Jaw Chuck, or a faceplate.

As I have a Mini Mill I find it easier to bore the hole on the mill.

I have made several sets of simple clamps some of which I have used to clamp the eccentric rod to the milling table.

Note the spacers under the eccentric Rod to provide clearance for the boring tool.

You can use the Boring tool to centralize the Eccentric Rod, moving the table till everything is centered.

Boring the Eccentric Rod

Carefully enlarge the hole until the provided cast iron bar fits the hole.

As measuring bored holes can be difficult, I usually turn a piece of scrap steel to the required diameter, then turn a series of 10 thou smaller steps two or three.

This enables me to check the hole as it gets closer to the correct size.

Fly Cutting The Eccentric Rod

A quick way to trim the eccentric rod sides which gives a good finish.

Note the Stanley Knife Blade used as a packing piece (With the sharp bits ground off) a handy way of adjustment.

Fettling the Eccentric Rods

Another use for those Swiss Files, it's worth buying some good quality files, it makes work much easier and pleasant.

Eccentric Rod Fettled ready for drilling

Drilling The Eccentric Rod

You can see that I have made a jig fixture to facilitate drilling these holes.

It's a bit of steel turned to take the Eccentric Rod, bolted to a piece of flat bar.

Now for the silly bit

I mounted the Eccentric rod, carefully lined up for drilling, drilled the centre hole.

Then when halfway through the Rod found that the Eccentric Rod had moved on the jig, and the drill broke through the side.

See part 2 for disaster recovery

Continued in Part 2