Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

I thought some of you might be interested in how I am trueing up my connecting rod.  The rod has a curved middle section which is always difficult on a lathe.  So I made my own "sweep" cutter to replace the cross feed on my Logan lathe.  It is not my idea, but I did my own implementation.  I thought it came out pretty good.  It turns freely as the part is spinning allowing me to select a wide range of radius' and slowly rotating the cutter.  It can be reversed allowing concave or convex curves.  The cutter I use is a tiny (6mm) round carbide insert which is great for cutting rounded surfaces.  The next step is to clean up the "groves" on the connecting rod using a ball nose cutter on my mill.