Your cart is currently empty!
Making a PRECISION Machinist Jack
Welcome back to the manual machine shop! In this video I’ll be prototyping a machinist jack with a few unique design features. The original idea comes from a very nice follower who shared his idea with me and I’m excited to share it with you as it solves a lot of the common problems with typical screw jacks. As always I spent a little time at the drafting board engineering the design (mostly) based around the tooling I had available in the shop. The final design is made from A2 tool steel and one of the key features that sets it apart are the knurled clamping collars that replace the standard jamb nut designs. Additionally there is a 2 stage threaded mechanism that uses a very coarse multi start thread for quick adjustment. Then ultra fine threads for high resolution allowing for precisely setting the jack height to within one ten-thousandth of an inch. Most of the work was done on the metal lathe as well as the vertical milling machine, but I used my previously made rotary table chuck adapter to maintain my references as I bounced back and forth between the machines. And it worked flawlessly.
4 responses to “Making a PRECISION Machinist Jack”
Do you ever think you would release your drawings weather for free or for a charge?
Yes! I do have them all available on my Patreon account.
Next project idea: Knurling tool.
Design a new knurling tool that is self centering (scissor style) with easily removable knurling wheels. If possible a new design, a hybrid of some sort or combing the idea of a geometric die head where it doesnt up on its own but it registers the position of the wheels so once engaged it’s always back to the same preload/position. A conical knurling tool may be another option.
I can’t imagine you being happy with the current knurling tool design you have in your arsenal.
What do you think?
Lucas
Hey Lucas, the geometric die head is an interesting idea. I haven’t come across that until now. I was playing with the idea of som sort of tailstock mounted knurler, but felt like it would be limiting in both capacity and stroke. I’ll probably end up going the scissor route, and I definitely like the design you pointed out in Adam Savage’s video. But I’m trying really hard to put a unique take on it. The ideas are churning though.