The Workshop Progress Thread (2017)

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

A couple of major milestones today. The electricians came round to test and sign off my second fix wiring for the workshop, dining room, utility room and karzi. Also connect the supply to the dedicated dual-RCD workshop consumer unit. This has its own non-RCD feed and thus avoids unauthorised outages (outrages?) in the house if bad things happen out there. No major issues found and no requirement to rework any of it. Good result. Now I just need the building regs guy to witness the smoke (actually mostly heat) alarms, extractor fans and door closers and the whole extension business will be formally signed off on the council website. Bargain buckets.

With the new wiring all done and dusted, I found the CNC milling machine works fine. Running it from a 20m long 13A extension wasn't working out too well, especially with two 3.3kW isolation transformers (providing the 55V and 110V supplies) and a 5kW spindle VFD on the end. Now it comes up without tripping anything and just…..works. With the new bearings on X and Y axes, it's really smooth and quiet. As an added bonus, the spindle has started working now, so I can only assume the soggy mains was causing some sort of undervoltage trip previously. The ancient controller uses odd G code which makes it quite unique but luckily I have the manual with some demo programs and I was able to type in a short circular pocket cycle. Program storage is by cassette(!) and the memory space is only 128K or so. At least I know the basics are there before I start to replace the ancient bits with something more workable.

All in all, a reasonable start to the weekend!

Murray

Edited By Muzzer on 24/02/2017 17:59:48

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I'm going to have to keep a pile of sick bags handy if people keep posting wobbly workshop videos…

Or give away tripods as the prize for tip of the month!

Neil

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Or put up plans so video makers have somewhere stable to put their camera.

Ian S C

[Benny AvelinParticipant @bennyavelin86238]

Thought this would be useful. Not sure

[JAParticipant @ja]

Posted by Benny Avelin on 26/02/2017 12:14:06:

Thought this would be useful. Not sure

I made a smaller version, with a Jacobs type chuck, about a month ago to replace a rather decrepit pin chuck.

JA

Edited By JA on 26/02/2017 13:12:41

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Benny Avelin on 26/02/2017 12:14:06:

Thought this would be useful. Not sure

.

Nice knurling, Benny, but [assuming it's meant to be hand-held] … mine is on a small file handle, which I find very convenient.

MichaelG.

.

Of course, yours may have a centre-drilling in the end, and be useful for other than hand-work … I accept that the knurled shank may be optimum for the way you intend to use it.

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

The scrapyard press!

At long last I've finished my press. It's designed to press down (not the thrust bearing at the bottom)

And pull up.

My new spindle is shown in this example.

Hopefully, I will now be able to disassemble and reassemble the headstock without recourse to a hammer and I will instantly become a brilliant lather…

It's not pretty, but it should be able to squish stuff nicely!

Iain

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Benny, it will be. I made a similar device using the spindle and chuck from a defunct Makita battery drill fitted to a wooden handle. Only took half an hour or so, very useful for holding small screws and pins for grinding or filing. Dave

[Benny AvelinParticipant @bennyavelin86238]

JA, I actually made it to hold a countersink so that I could hand-deburr stuff, but as a pin chuck it would be great… why didnt I think of that?

Michael, I didnt have a file handle I felt I could spare so this was the easiest step, took maybe 15 min or so. But I am lost as to why a centerdrilled hole would be of use, what am I missing, a small chuck for turning between centers?

Dave, great!

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Benny Avelin on 27/02/2017 08:05:13:

Michael, I didnt have a file handle I felt I could spare so this was the easiest step, took maybe 15 min or so. But I am lost as to why a centerdrilled hole would be of use, what am I missing, a small chuck for turning between centers?

.

Benny,

I was actually wondering if I had missed-a-trick regarding your design [although it appears not]: If the tail end of the handle was centre-drilled; the device could be used, with tailstock support, for 'sensitive' drilling & tapping.

MichaelG.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

And I misunderstood your post Michael – I thought you were suggesting drilling all the way through the handle (and chuck) – to make a form of hollow hand vice…

They are not expensive to buy though…

https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/10mm-jaw-width-indian

Regards,

IanT

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by IanT on 27/02/2017 09:56:19:

And I misunderstood your post Michael

.

Sorry … I should perhaps have mentioned Slocombe

MichaelG.

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

I do not think mentioning either Mrs Slocombe or her cat would help.

Regards,

Richard.

 

Edited By richardandtracy on 28/02/2017 10:16:54

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Touché, Richard

… the e was superfluous

I should have written Slocomb

MichaelG.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 28/02/2017 10:38:21:

Touché, Richard

… the e was superfluous

I should have written Slocomb

MichaelG.

Or superficial as Mrs Solcombe may have put it.

Neil

[Benny AvelinParticipant @bennyavelin86238]

I decided to perform one of Steve's improvements as found on this website **LINK**. This amounted to turning a new pulley for the motor, this one is approximately 1" (25mm).

My particular version of the mini-lathe had a different setup for adjusting the belt tension, essentially there was no bracket at the end where the adjustment screw was, instead it was built into the plate, so I had to begin by milling away that material, making a flat on the top and two holes for mounting.

This is how the bracket turned out

Everything mounted and adjusted, now the max rpm for the low ratio is 600 and the max for the high ratio is 1200. Previously it was 1200 and 2400.

Looking forward to trying it out.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I made a start on the part completed Root & Van Dervoort vertical, generally assesing what still had to be done and making up some of the assorted fixings and small parts.

The crank shaft was going tight a TDC so I put one end in a collet upto the web and clocked the other end, 0.018" TIR so out came the precision tools to try and improve matters, no lead hammers here as mentioned in another thread. It is quite surprising how much "spring" there is in a bit of EN24 but it submitted in the end to the 18" Stilsons

There are quite a few square headed fixings, non standard nuts and some filaster headed screws so the 5C spin indexer got a fair bit of use.

J

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by JasonB on 05/03/2017 18:00:35:

Interesting optical illusion, to me it looks like the stilson is climbing up the cabinet!

Neil

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Just to show that I do make stuff now and again, here's some pictures of the bogies for a new club riding truck

[Martin CottrellParticipant @martincottrell21329]

Posted by JasonB on 05/03/2017 18:00:35:

I made a start on the part completed Root & Van Dervoort vertical, generally assesing what still had to be done and making up some of the assorted fixings and small parts.

The crank shaft was going tight a TDC so I put one end in a collet upto the web and clocked the other end, 0.018" TIR so out came the precision tools to try and improve matters, no lead hammers here as mentioned in another thread. It is quite surprising how much "spring" there is in a bit of EN24 but it submitted in the end to the 18" Stilsons

Good to see that even the experts need to resort to some "agricultural adjustments" when chasing that last few thou' of precision!!

Martin.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Started off having a clear up but got side tracked into a job that's wanted doing for over 2 years.

 

When I bought my big mill , a WM40 from Warco it came with a two axis DRO fitted but I swapped the 3 axis read head off my old mill onto this which was OK as I use a vernier type bar on the quill but I had a spare scale kicking about to fit so in the clean up, found and and started to fit it,

 

The only place to mount this was on the electrical cabinet at the side but as I guess although it looks square it's not plumb in both plane because of the column tapering so a lot of winding up and down and shimming before I was happy.

 

This mill has a three phase motor driving the knee directly which is one of the main reasons I bought it as it's the next size up to a standard Bridgeport but they had been very conservative in fitting the stops for the knee motor and I was loosing out at least 3" top and bottom under power although I still had this movement if I wound it by hand.

 

So a re measure and a bit of drilling and it stops just short of the physical stops. So 433mm on knee movement under power and can just scrape 450mm if I hand crank to the physical stops.

 

So all in all a productive day and we won't mention dropping a very large box of Coventry Dies and having to re-sort them all out off the floor.

 

I said we won't mention that bit.

Edited By John Stevenson on 05/03/2017 22:56:59

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

I am surprised by Jasons method of crankshaft straitening, has he not heard of scaffold tube ?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Seemed a pity to cut the length of scaffold tube that I have as there would not have been room to swing it and even if cut down I don't have room for much more than the 18" stilsons provided. Did have a hunt around for some other tube but nothing to hand.

[Allan BParticipant @allanb]

so I am glad to say I am finally making some progress on my horizontal mill engine

have got the cylinder and the valve block all done, I just need to get some M2 stud and nuts to finish the bits on the valve block, and even managed to get it bolted to the base, at least it is a start 😀

[David RobinsonParticipant @davidrobinson97581]

Finally finished my new machine bench

The photo shows the bench and cupboards installed along one side of my small upstairs workroom (2.7 x 2.1m). I had to stitch a panorama to get everything into the picture!



It is based on kitchen cabinets with extra strength from wall plates back and sides and two stout triangulated brackets that go between the cabinets. The static load is taken by the cabinet legs to the wooden floor, the brackets taking dynamic loads back to the wall. The result is satisfyingly rigid.



more…

[Author]

Posts