Little wheel train I made with my lathe !!!

[Paul Loatman]

To those of you I see mounting loupes with some sort of blue bonding stuff-

I recommend trying Shapelock compound. It comes in plastic pellets, 500g for about 25$, it's a thermoplastic. At 150 Degrees F, it becomes clear and moldable like silly-putty or playdoh. It hardens to opaque white, is self-lubricating, and tough as nails- it's machineable, tapable ABS plastic.

You can heat the stuff up again and again- near infinite reuse. It makes perfect molds of stuff too. I love the stuff, and I can use it to make custom jigs/workholding for any piece of metal or wood I have. Since it's self-lubricating hard ABS, it also won't mar any of your work.

The stuff is incredible- you can only get it from the company's website, but I highly recommend it. Just because you choose a less precise option in loupes over scopes, doesn't mean they have to be loose. Shapelock would hold those dead solid at any angle you want, and you could keep adjusting it by reheating with a heat gun, or in hot water.

Just an idea. (I'm not affiliated with them, I just love their product)

That sounds interesting, would it be a good replacement for shellac? Would it hold something well enough to machine?

[Ophiuchus]

I'd recommend it more for medium to larger things. If you are starting with metal stock, then possibly, yes.

Cutting a screw? No. But for holding pieces you can wrap enough of it around, say pieces of metal an inch or so around and bigger? Yes.
The more internal grooves or spots to push it against, the better. It's great for stuff that's too strangely shaped to fit in a vice or chuck.

Since I do occasionally cut tourmaline and ruby, I have used shellac in cutting operations, and I usually use the high temp diamond shellac.
Thus I know it can still move when heated, and it has on me before. This stuff is stable up to about 140 F. After that, it starts to get soft,
like you're reforming it.

I wouldn't be comfortable using Shapelock for crucial or small parts, like most of the work for a watchmaker. If you want to use it while machining,
it would be for larger things, or stuff made on a mill table.

Shellac is also self-adhering to metal- Shapelock ISN'T.
You would need some sort of face or feature (like a few screwheads) to wrap it around to anchor it. Shellac will mate flat faces of metal with
almost no overlap. Shapelock never adheres to anything except plastic, it would have to overlap part of something you are cutting, or be
forced into a threadhole from behind to be useful to machining on a lathe- otherwise, it's in the way while you are cutting.

This is the ideal use I can imagine on a lathe for working use to a watchmaker so it's not in the way- mounting a plate with threaded holes to
another flat plate by pushing Shapelock into the threads, and over top of parts you don't want marred. The plastic solidifies in the threads for a solid hold,
and you place it in hot water to delaminate later.

Yes, I know, shellac is a pain, even diamond shellac, but not much else will hold to ground metal, or metal gem dop sticks.
Shapelock will hold really well as long as you can anchor it around some sort of geometry- but that's what makes it so nice otherwise-
the self-lubricating property of it means you can make perfect molds of a shape.

So really, I recommend it for odd shaped parts, special work holding, and quick-mounting lower tolerance stuff, like a loupe to a lathe table.
Shapelock would also be easy for Jey66 to get, unlike many special supplies for this work, because it's available online and they ship everywhere.

On that note, I really wish someone made a truly high-temp shellac, something that lasted up to 800 degrees or so. But no, not yet.

[jey66]

I've already finished working on this piece and I'm now working on a smaller one.But I do lack time to post photos(actually I only took few photos). The old problem still excist and presicion of works still needs improving!
God bless us