Member postings for ronan walsh

Cost aside , which are better and why, the glass scales or the magnetic ?

The problem has resolved itself, please disregard. thanks.

Just downloaded the latest issue of this excellent free software and i cannot use it as it won't let me sign in. Has anyone else had this problem ?

Will you tell us how you got on with the beta CH powder ? If it worked out for you or not. I have heard since the 'elf and safety brigade meddled in the ingredients of case hardening powder it isn't so effective.

An article about a lathe made in a notorious japanese pow camp.

http://dutchman.rebooty.com/temp/Prison-Camp-Lathe.pdf

Firstly is the motor a dual voltage (440v/240v) unit ? It should say so on the makers plate. If not and its only a 440v motor then your inverter might not run it. Also is the motor itself wired correctly ?  Eg star or delta for the appropriate voltage. If you try to start the motor too quickly it might cause the inverter to trip out, maybe change this parameter.  These questions might be simplistic or basic , but normally inverters and motors are easy enough to wire up and usually work very well from the get go.   

Edited By ronan walsh on 19/11/2014 22:34:27

These arduino and raspberry pi devices seem to be ideal for all sorts of control uses around workshops and the home. As few things now are solely either mechanical or electronic, surely there might be a place here on this forum for a specific section for them and projects related to them ?

Could you not drill the end of the leadscrew and fit a pin into it so it cannot come out of the nut ?

Geoff, i cannot help there, my machine has an electric motor on the left hand end of the table for power feeds and so has no oil reservoir.

If the power trips out going to the vfd on my tom senior, it stops dead, so i imagine a brake resistor might be not needed.

I had this nuisance too bert, its definately a virus, trojan or spyware, dunno which one it is technically.

The problem is the judges only give slaps on the wrist to the idiots who appear in front of them for thieveing, i suppose they know they are wasting their time as jail doesn't appear to deter them. So why would they stop ?

I was big into electronics as a kid (long time ago now) always working on something, but for some reason i wandered away from this line of interest. Can anyone recommend a project to get me back into the swing ?

Neil, every hear the old line "lies, damned lies and statistics" ? If someone breaks into an outbuilding is it classed as a burglary or a trespass for instance ? You know when politicians want certain types of crime to go down , figures can be manipulated or massaged to suit.

No Iain i don't believe that spec creep would be an issue, i only want the thing to work and that would do. What happened was i was given an old industrial warehouse door opening mechanism about 5 or 6 years back. A forklift truck would approach the large rubber door and when near would break an infrared beam, when the beam was broken the door would open (open sesame) and be held open by the mech until the forklift had gone through or stayed open if something continued to break the beam.

The mechanism itself was a great bit of kit , containing a small but very torquey motor, and an electronics board. With various pot's and things on the board i was able to get the motor shaft to turn 90 degrees, and i encorporated the door opener into the turning target you see in the picture below. I connected the shaft of the motor to one of the target uprights (near the can of paint) and connected the other three targets to the powered one via tie-rods.

The thing worked great, an electrician in the club replaced the infrared beam sender with a simple switch. There the happy story ends, the club had a bit of a civil war with the usual politics and other rubbish and the target was never allowed onto the range, but was chucked outside in the elements. When we did manage to get it out on the range after about three years, the thing wouldn't work well. What happened next really annoyed me, everyone and his wife decided to dismantle it and have a mess around with things they didn't understand (now i know what soldier proof, idiot proof etc means). People with zero technical or any sort of engineering experience suddenly become experts ....until the time comes to put it back together and all the parts are in a heap and then they suddenly aren't.

Anyway the thing has finally been dropped back in my lap with the task of getting it going, hence my idea of a stepper motor and an arduino.

Bob i used a larger staple in the end and bolted and welded the lot to the steel strong room doors, anyone eyeing the doors up would have to get through the bolt first and then three five lever deadlocks, as well as a monitored alarm and cctv. So any little scroat weighing up as to wether its worthwhile having a go is going to decide its simply not worth his while.

As we are discussing shed security or workshop security if you want to be posh about, no one is going to spend out on a security consultant incase his drill or angle grinder is going to be swiped. So any solution is going to be diy most likely. I have never had a wooden shed, and to be honest i don't know how you could secure a woodlap shed, as its so easy to pull off the planks and gain access.

You could ask your local crime prevention officer from the local plod and see what you can and cannot do. One of the things i found good advice when i asked mine, was to plaster the top of my back wall (backs onto a laneway) with 'orrible old black grease from a lorry or tractor back axle. The scroats only try to get over it once and it really works lol.

Noisy electronic squawk boxes on the wall are all fine and well but if they aren't monitored they are nothing but a noise nuisance to your neighbours. I agree that security cameras can be used to identify the rubbish that breaks in, but be careful , i have heard some types of footage isn't legally allowed in court, it must have a date stamp or something to be admissable.

If you are going to get serious about security, thick steel doors, steel safes (the job box type, bolted to a concrete floor with rawl bolts) and substantial lockable gates are they only way to defeat this malady of modern life, namely the scumbag out on the rob.

Below is a picture of a strongroom door bolt i made for a gunshop, believe it or not its not as heavy as i'd liked to have made it, a little drug addicted scroat turning up with a screwdriver and a junior hacksaw isn't going to try to get past security like that.

You could use 2 pack epoxy primer, its not a dangerous isocyanate paint, it doesn't need an etch primer , it will stick very well to anything you spray it on, and lastly it is very very tough.

Back to my original question for a moment, as to is it feasable to control a large stepper motor via an arduino rather than a plc. I have come across a video on youtube showing just this, a large high torque stepper motor being controlled by an arduino, link below to nyc cnc's channel which is excellent. The final part of my question is can i connect three push buttons to the arduino to operate the motor for three different time periods , as would be simple enough to do on a plc ?

http://youtu.be/RakXequOrSY