How do I quad bore Mag Tubes?

[Ogg Vorbis]

Hi, first let me introduce myself...

I've only been a member of CPF for a short while, and my interest in lights and grown and grown in the past few months and i've slowly began to build a nice little collection of lights. Numai Q3, Fenix P2D RB100, Fenix L0D rebel, Ultrafire Alpha C3, Mag 2AA with Nitize Drop in, to name a few. I recently bought a Mag 2D and 8AA to 2D battery holder from a fellow CPFer, this is now of course a nice ROP :naughty:

However, the battery pack is a rather tight fit in the tube as you can imagine, so i would like to quad bore it.

Now for the important bit... I am an apprentice mechanical engineer, training in milling and turning, so I am quite capable of the task and I've got support there when I need it. Plus I'm able to use the machines for personal use (occasionally). So my questions are:

1. Is it done by jig boring?

2. What pitch circle diameter are the holes done on?

3. What's the diameter/radius of the cutter/holes?

4. How far does the depth of cut need to be for a 2D mag?

I am however new to jig boring but I've got some great guys to turn to.

Any help would be great and just make the process easier, less trial and error really. So if anyone can help? Please feel free to post if you don't mind sharing your secrets, otherwise PM me?

Kind Regards, and thanks

Daniel

 

[will]

You should be able to answer your own questions by measuring the battery pack you have. The amount taken out of the Maglite body is not all that much and the measurements are not all that critical.

I don't have one here to measure, so I am not able to give you numbers.

 

[Ogg Vorbis]

hmm good point... i guess it's just easier to ask sometimes...

i'll just have a measure later on then.

I wouldn't have thought the amount coming out would be much, the battery pack fits as is. Just hope it doesn't cut through the threads...

 

[will]

The ones I have seen have cut through the threads.


(tri bores do --- thanks Mac)

 

[cmacclel]

Tri-Bores cut through the threads quad's do not.

Mac

 

[Ogg Vorbis]

Nice one, that'll make de-burring a little easier then :thumbsup:

I've had a measure, i figure maybe a depth of cut of around 0.5mm, giving an extra 1mm space for the batts. The wall thinkness of the mag tube is approx 2.5mm so there's plenty to play with.

Just got to wait untill the new year now... :sigh:

Thanks everyone!

 

[Data]

Ogg

Please post pictures of your machining setup when you get it going. We would love to see it.

You should be able to bore the tube with a 4 jaw chuck and a boring bar.


Cheers
Dave

 

[cmacclel]

Ogg

Please post pictures of your machining setup when you get it going. We would love to see it.

You should be able to bore the tube with a 4 jaw chuck and a boring bar.


Cheers
Dave

Dave I know this can be done but how would you set it up? also how would you index the tube over 90 degrees after each bore?

Mac

 

[Data]

Mac,

I just thought that Ogg may have a really big lathe available like mine with one of those really large four jaw chucks. He could indicate in the tube by hand and then loosen it up to index it around by just eyeballing it.

I bet you have a super nice fixture made up don't you!


Cheers
Dave

 

[cmacclel]

Mac,

I just thought that Ogg may have a really big lathe available like mine with one of those really large four jaw chucks. He could indicate in the tube by hand and then loosen it up to index it around by just eyeballing it.

I bet you have a super nice fixture made up don't you!


Cheers
Dave

I tri-bore mine in my lathe using it like a horizontal mill. I have a vise mounted to the crossslide. I index the bodies in with a 360 degree protractor.

Mac

 

[Data]

Mac

My mini-mini HID is very nicely bored. :twothumbs

If it were me, I would just put it in my mill. If it is too long I just hang stuff off the edge of the table. I think I could do up to about a 9" tube before I would need to hang it off the edge.


Cheers
Dave

 

[LuxLuthor]

I mostly send mine to FiveMega for him to bore.

Another quick mention of the KD Brake Hone which I use under a trickle of water in the sink to wash away the aluminum powder, & keep tube cool. Hone is used with an ordinary portable drill, and gives a nice, diffuse enlarged I.D.

 

[Data]

I mostly send mine to FiveMega for him to bore.

Another quick mention of the KD Brake Hone which I use under a trickle of water in the sink to wash away the aluminum powder, & keep tube cool. Hone is used with an ordinary portable drill, and gives a nice, diffuse enlarged I.D.

how long does it take to do the job?

 

[LuxLuthor]

how long does it take to do the job?

Depends on the length. Around 15 minutes for a 1D, and about 20 mins for a 2D. You switch directions on the drill. One time I wrapped coarse (50 grit) cloth-sandpaper around the tripod stones, and went in the direction of how the cloth was wrapped, and that went even faster.

 

[Ogg Vorbis]

Thanks for your interest and help guys...

I had thought about doing it on a lathe with a great big 4 jaw chuck, but why do it the hard way? I've just completed an ecentric turning exercise where i had to do one off-set and it was a nightmare. Doing it this way would mean having to clock it true, then offset it in one direction, machine, re-clock it true, do another off-set at 90 Deg and hope it was at 90. Plus you wouldn't be able to grip that hard as it would totally destroy the tube and the finish... not to say it couldn't be done though...

The way i plan to do it would be to grip it in a chuck on a milling machine, clock the head to the centre of the tube, then either jig bore it with 4 holes equispace on a PCD (hence the questions in post 1) or to mill it with a great big end mill.

As for pics, i will do my best to take some. I won't be doing it till i get back to work in the new year though... so you'll have to sit tight!

Cheers,

Danny

 

[wykeite]

How do you think clocking will help? It doesn't come up to the mark at an exact degree point. I could get better accuracy from a couple of pencil marks than a clock gauge.

Rule number 1 is think simple. You don't need the accuracy you are trying to achieve. You need some clearance. KISS

 

[Data]

Please do take some pictures.

I would use soft aluminum jaws on the 4 jaw lathe chuck (just use two jaws) and bore them to the diameter of the tube.


Cheers
Dave

 

[gadget_lover]

The neat thing about quad boring with a 4 jaw chuck on a big lathe, is you can set it up once and then just loosen two jaws, rotate the maglight and tighten the jaws again. It should stay close enough to center that you don't have to even measure the 2nd, 3rd or 4th one. A simple pipe center finder will let you locate each 90 degree measurement.

Dan

 

[cat]

Thanks, Ogg Vorbis. This thread is needed. For one thing, I've learned that tri-boring cuts into the thread.

LuxLuthor, if the stock wall thickness is about 2.5mm, how much do you / can you take off with the honing?

 

[Ogg Vorbis]

Hi all, and a happy new year!

I went back to work today and got stuck into the 'idea' of quad boring. My initial direction was to look for a long series milling cutter, either slot or end mill, which i planned to run down the inside of the tube to cut the 4 grooves. After searching the factory, all i could find was a slot drill in overall length of 150mm, which was too short as the depth of the cuts needed to be around 140mm. You can't grip on 10mm! I did however find a really long imperial reamer, so i thought i might be able to use that.

So i set the milling machine up, but i just couldn't get a rigid enough set up, the mag body was waving all over. It all just seemed like too much messing about. So this is where i let us down...

I ended up putting the body in a great big lathe and boring the inside out with a nice big boring bar! I took off about 0.75mm from the diameter.

Now i know most of you know what a lathe looks like so i didn't take any pictures... but i did take a picture of the end result (please excuse the quality, I took it on my phone... don't own a fantastic super duper camera yet )

The surface finish wasn't the best ever, but i was able to use some silicone paper to smooth it out a little. Isn't exactly a work of art but the battery pack fits nicely now and thats the main thing :thumbsup:

I think the 4 jaw chuck would be the best alternative. Once set up it would be easy to do a number of bodies. You'd just need a great big boring bar for those 3D Mags!

Thanks for watching!

Danny