Continued today and let me say, not liking all the work involved.
Lots of time on the lathe making stuff and not for sure it is even worth it other than being able to say I made it myself.
The first thing I did was cut off a chunk of 1 inch solid rod and bore out the center to 3/4 inch.
This left me a 1/8 thickness on the walls.
Then I turned an over sized 32 inch 3/4 solid rod so the sleeve I made can slide up and down it.
This 3/4 rod will be the drive rod with some sort of these sleeve things up and down the rod.
Totally over complicated the whole thing.
What ever the case I had a good time making chips on the lathe it's been awhile and I needed to brush up.
One thing is for sure you know its set up right when it sounds right, just a steady hum of the machine and the chips fall off in little 6's and 8's.
Not long strands that are like razor blades.
When this happens it is a real joy to behold.

Sixs and eights the sleeve on the rod and the rod..
Notice the chips are blue that's what you want.
Running pretty fast feed and speed.
I think 800 RPM.
Hot roll steel is a bugger to make look good.
Tool steel is a dream come true.
This is hot roll chucked up and the other end on the live center.
Could have used the follow rest but to lazy to set it up.

Got all the other rods cut out and installed on the other grill square.
Just need to weld them.
I think it is 46 rods in all.
I need 5 more fire bricks plus 3 or so more I need to cut maybe.

Been looking for a round metal disc.
Found this in the trash.
Rock saw blade 19.5 diameter 1 inch hole in center.
Will bend and weld flat strap around the outside edge.
It'll make a nice wheel to raise and lower a grate.

I got the wheels mounted and bought some trinkets at the metal supply place.
4 4 1/2 metal disks and 4 of those shiny coil things you put on handles to keep from burning your hands like wood stoves have.
Also got the rest of my fire brick plus one extra.
Most of the rest of this is time consuming odds and ends and finishing up some welds.
Plus a little fancy foot work with the drill press and lathe.

Ya live and ya learn.
Here is the results of a very lazy weekend.
Sometimes sitting back and contemplating is best.
New ideas come to a person's head.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Direct indexing with the rotary table.

I wanted 12 evenly divided holes in a metal disc.
The rotary table is a real must in any shop and I can also index with plates and a lot of complicated stuff to cut gears if I wanted.
But lets keep it simple.
12 divides into 360 which is the degrees in a full circle 30 times.
So You start out at 0 drill hole and rotate 30 degrees drill hole add 30 rotate to 60 drill add 30 rotate to 90 drill hole add 30 rotate to 120 drill hole add 30 rotate to 150 drill hole add 30 rotate to 180 drill hole.
Keep adding 30 to the last number and you will end up back where you started from.
You can direct index with any number the evenly divides into 360.
If you have a number like 100 you have to use the indexing/dividing plates mounted on the crank wheel.
Doing it depending on what you want you have to rotate one rotation and move 3 or some such thing.
Or maybe not go a full rotation at all and move a certain number.
All of this depends on the gear ratio of your rotary table.
Mine is 90:1 meaning I have to crank the wheel 90 turns to get it to go one full rotation.
This stuff is fun and if I would have had something like this in school math would have meant something to me and I wouldn't be where I am today.
I had to teach myself all of this years later.

Worth, you amaze me.

[mention]worth1[/mention] Its still true today. If kids had a chance to apply the mathematics they learn rote from their books it would be so more meaningful, and stick in their heads and be useful rather than just something to get through at school. I loved math and still do.

Thanks folks.
I made two of them.
It is the ratchet stop aperatus for raising and lowering the grill.
The hole in the center will be larger but since I was locked in on the press all centered and adjusted I drilled the pilot hole as well.
That's a 4 jaw independent chuck so it takes a little time getting everything set up.
You can get out of wack 6 ways to Sunday with this setup.
Didn't get dead on to the thousands but close and it wasn't necessary for the intended use.
I'm pretty happy with it.
Keep in mind you can also lay the table on its side and and drill or cut in the outside edge of something.
Or at any angle you want.
I made all the mounting plates and even the tee nuts to do all this myself.
I read the instructions and the way it worked for a milling machine that cut helical gears.
Who ever came up with that one was a genius.
The math involved was long and tedious to say the least.
Then the whole mechanical aspect of it was mind boggling.

Just catching up. Worth, you have been busy.
Looking good...

Also lazy.
I could have turned drilled threaded and tapped on the lathe for where the cheap bolts are now it would have looked way cool.
But after doing one of them I realized I didn't want to do 12 to 24 more.
I didn't like the idea of welding them all either.
Then there was the go down and buy a 4 1/2 inch saw blade and use the teeth for stops but that isn't much fun.

Working on the upper shaft assembly today.
Started over on a new shaft because I didn't like the other one.
Different idea to boot and better.

I have to think a little and not make a mistake.
I have too much time invested in the shaft to mess up now.
I have made a spacer for the giant saw blade to go from the one inch hole to a 3/4 hole.
It was so close a fit I had to put it in the freezer to get it to go in the hole because it was hot coming off the lathe.
I also cut down the end of the shaft to 3/4 and threaded the end of it for 10 threads per inch nut, did this on the lathe too.
Next I needed a spacer that was bigger than one inch but 3/4 center hole.
I wanted it dead on and it had to be.
I used washer that was too small in the center and drilled it out to 3/4 on the lathe.
Drilled the ratchet apparatus out to 3/4.
Made a one inch X 3/4 spacer to accommodate the bolt heads on the ratchet apparatus.
All of this will be stacked up on the shaft.
Pictures soon, my phone was about to die.

A few pictures of the contraption in the making.
Almost there but much to do.

Turning shaft on the lathe.

My neighbor liked my fabrication so well he wanted me to come up with a dolly type thing to set a car body on.
That car body is a 429 Boss Mustang.
The engine is already built and in the garage with blower on it.
Sort of a side track from the grill conversation but the 429 Boss Mustang is one of the rarest cars of this type out there.
Only made in 1969 and 1970.
Only made so they could complete against the 426 Chrysler hemi from what I was told.

I need to take some measurements and make some drawings.
No way can I remember everything I need to do at this critical point.
That and the weather has me delayed.

No work this weekend the weather was horrible.
But did buy an end mill set and a thing called a ring roller.
The former is to drill straight down to make a flat surface off center of a round object.
This allows me to drill off center without the bit sliding off the round object.
The ring roller is just that, it allows me to make metal rings from flat stock.
Here is how it works.

Here is a picture of an end mill.
Not ment for drill press as it cuts sideways too.
But I'm just going straight down.