Thanks Vic..will leave it out "cooking" for a while....
Alright, anybody who has done a million metalwork jobs, gets bored easily or thinks I just like to hear myself type, tune out now....long post, large number of pictures alert!!!
Having said that...I have now finished the door, its associated locks and the door pier and slots for the fitting. I confess that until recently (last year) I really ahd NO idea how solid chunks of metal became"things". I guess there are not THAT many people who have been living under rocks or exclusively in an office, (like I have) for 30- 40 years but for those who have, I thought I would post somee shots of the door latch guide making process.
To start I drilled the 16mm hole in the end of the bar stock, which hole will eventually become the square hole in
the guide.I did this first as last time I learned that the cut down guide is not very stable in the vice, after
large portions of material have been removed. Then I began to carve away the centre of the latch guide.
You can just see the edge of the hole in the right of the picture as the cutting beins.
As material "disappears" the shape starts to look vaguely familiar.
The first (front) side finished, now time to start carving out the rear part.
(The middle swathe will be taken out last. On the front latch guide I used a 20mm cutter twice which caused some
vibration etc..so this time I used a 16mm with a slower speed and that worked better..but meant three sections had
to be cut instead of two. Time vs tool vs material..there is quite a bit to get your head around with this milling lark!!)
The job starts to look even more like a latch guide. (about an hour and a half to here with setting up, measuring and cutting)
Next, testing size, position and general comparison to the front guide.
Domed rear end of guide started (at this point there is still over 1mm finishing cut to be taken off one side, you
can see the hole is not central) This just fit with the bar stock size and not having to trim BOTH sides of the
bar (another simple thing I had to learn LAST time!!)
The small cutter machining and fine hand filing begin to convert the round 16mm hole into an 18mm x 16mm rectangular hole with squared corners.
An hour, some fine hand filing and two broken 4mm cutters later, the claw starts to get close to fitting into the
(only now) "squaring" hole.
Finished, fitted and painted. The door on half lock.
And full...
A very snug (MUCH to my relief!) fitting door and latch.
And the view from afar....
(if you don't mention that the f##king door is a different colour, even though from the same tin of paint, due to the main body floor seal coating fading over time, then I won't..I have had a week's therapy and I am no longer annoyed about it...well, no longer murderous about it..well, I'm still ever so slightly p1$$ed off...actually I'm pretty mad...in fact, I ate my therapist, with a some fava beans and a nice Cianti.....)