Broaching is the way you cut the keyway in a shaft hole. It takes a slotted
bushing the size of the hole and a broach, a rectangual tapered rod with
teeth on one side. You press the rod through the hole and it gradually cuts
the slot.

My lathe is a rebuilt and tricked out Southbend 10K. It will swing 10" over
the bead which means it can face a 10" cylinder but only about 7" down the
side. The Rong Fu is a square columed 3 HP mill/drill which is big enough
to do anything I need. Together they might be worth $3K. The problem is
the tooling. Between mill bits, turning bits, tool holders, rotary tables,
vices, collets, V blocks, and a hundred other required parts over the years
I probably have spent over $10K. That doesn't count the MIG welder, the TIG
welder, the plasma cutter, drill press, assorted vice grips or any of the
woodworking machines and tools. It took 20 years to accumulate all that
stuff but I could probably buy everything in the Harken catalog for what I
have in tools.

Even worse, there is not enough room in the back stateroom to put it all!
:-)

--
Glenn Ashmore

"Courtney Thomas" wrote in message
...
Glen,

Pardon my ignorance, but what is 'broaching' ?

So many toys, uhhh tools, so little time :-)

What criteria led you to the Southbend and the Rong Fu ?

Any recommended vendor(s) for such ?

Appreciatively,
Courtney



Glenn Ashmore wrote:

With all custom machine work the setup time is 90% of the cost. Once
you
get the setup done you can machine 10 parts for only twice the price of
a
one off.

I am running a Southbend 10K lathe, Rong Fu mill and lots of welding,
grinding and polishing equipment. I machine parts for the equipment I
design myself and a few replacement items but usually the OEM parts
require
tooling that I don't have and so much setup time that it is cheaper to
just
buy the part. Lewmar could probably machine and assemble 20 windlasses
it
the time it took me to turn, bore, broach and polish one drum and the
broach
would probably cost as much as an OEM drum. OTOH, if you are a tool
junkie
like me it is a great excuse to buy more tools. :-)




--
s/v Mutiny
Rhodes Bounty II
lying Oriental, NC
WDB5619