Member postings for David Cambridge

"Not done in yet" - good point. Belt size is 100 mm x 915 mm, motor power is about 400 W, machine weight is about 20 kg. I'd be looking to buy new in the UK. I chose not to mention the name of the machine because there is nothing wrong with it - the failure is my own fault so it's not fair to bad mouth it. (The machine is very common, and it looks like lots of people sell it rebadged to various brands)

Also a good point about a D.I.Y version, but I've enough projects on the go so I don't want to divert.

Thanks again,

David

For what it’s worth, back in the 80’s my wife used acid for etching in her jewelry business. A few decades later I was left with something concentrated and nasty. I don’t like chemistry and dangerous chemicals scare me. I used the below people to get rid of it. The best money I every spent.

http://www.wastecare.co.uk/

Afternoon All

My belt sander\linisher, which is one of the small table top mounted wood working models is on its way out. I really like it, it’s not particularly aggressive but it suits my needs primarily because it’s compact and easy to stow away when I’m not using it (space is a premium). Unfortunately, when the manual says it’s not suitable for ferrous metal they mean it. The failure mode being a motor full of steel dust. For now I’ve been able to fix it but I doubt it will last much longer.

I’d like to replace it with something of similar size and weight, but something intended for steel. I’m not interested in modifying the machine as a major project, so I’m looking to replace it with something suitable for the job in hand. My use is occasional and relatively light work on mild steel.

I’d be really grateful if anyone has any recommendations.

David

Sorry this is a bit of a late follow up, but in the end I went on Neil’s advice and bought one of the Clarke drills (in this case the CDP452F from Machine Mart). After a few month of ownership I’m very happy with both the drill and the service from Machine Mart. I certainly don’t have any of the problems I showed in my opening video. Thanks for all the advice, it proved useful, and hopefully also useful to people reading this in the future!

David

Afternoon all

Here is a video of my old drill press in action.

I’m hardly putting any pressure on the quill, and you can see the problem. In absolute fairness I bought this maybe 15 year ago from Aldi with the intention of drilling through balsa wood – and for that it was fine. Now that I’ve transferred my attention to metalwork it is time to upgrade.

Space is an absolute premium, and buying better quality but second hand just isn’t my thing. I’m hoping people may have some recommendations for a UK new purchase.

I’m thinking of one of the below (axminster ATDP13B), but since you’re a knowledgeable bunch of people I’d like to check first.

https://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-trade-series-atdp13b-bench-pillar-drill-102552

Usage is light hobby stuff, with up to maybe 16 mm holes through 5 mm mild steel very occasionally. For precision work I already have my trusty Warco WM16 mill.

David

Edited By David Cambridge on 28/08/2018 18:00:43

Edited By David Cambridge on 28/08/2018 18:01:51

Thanks all for the positive feedback. The music is definitely a tricky one, because some people like it and some people don’t. In the end I came to the conclusion that it takes so long to make the video, and in fact almost as long as it takes to make the project, that you’ve got to make the video for yourself in a style you like yourself otherwise you will never have the motivation to finish, but I absolutely get that it’s not for everyone, which is of course a shame! Sadly, there is no easy way to have different audio tracks for the same video.

On a different note, the next plan for the device, is I suspect a dust collector on the shelf. Just like everything else I ever make!

Hopefully nobody minds my posting this as it is not strictly model engineering – but I figured it is still lathes, milling machines, and electronics. Anyway, after what seems like months of Video editing I’ve finally manged to publish my Lidar build video.

David

After the hard work of getting my home made Lidar up and running over the last six months, I decided it was time for some quite reflection at the local church

Edited By David Cambridge on 23/06/2018 19:15:47

Muzzer. I did take a look at the Autodesk solution and in fact there are quite a few tools out there for rendering point clouds. But, the truth of the matter is that I was eager to get results quite quickly and any of the “off the shelf” tools would require me to digest and understand the necessary file formats. That seemed like a rather dull task! Luckily, as I know the Unity game engine I figured it would be quicker to put something together myself and build my own rendering tool. In the end, that aspect of the project only took a few hours.

Hi Michael - thanks for the kind words! I didn’t have any real application in mind, the only driving force was that I’d been looking for a project that could combine machining, electronics, and software. I heard somebody talking about Lidar at work, and it seemed the idle project!

I’m still working on the build video, but this weekend I thought I’d take my “home shop” build Lidar outside and try it in the garden. Here is a quick video of the results.

I’ve finally managed to get my Lidar up and running. If you’ve not heard of these before they are just like radar, but use a beam of infra-red light rather than radio waves to build up a 3D scan of an area. Admittedly straying from model engineering, but It’s been a really fun project with lots of shop work, lots of electronics work, and lots of software work. I’ve still a good few hundred hours of footage to edit down before I can get together a build video, but here is a demo of the first results.

Edited By David Cambridge on 15/10/2017 09:00:35

It’s strange, in the past I’ve bought all sorts of stuff from all over the world from all sorts of dodgy looking suppliers and nothing has ever gone wrong. But this project just seems cursed!

I should perhaps explain. The real purpose of the project is to find an excuse to mess around with lead screws. In other words, vastly over engineered because I fancy doing it I probably don’t need to say anymore than that to justify it!

David

Edited By David Cambridge on 17/08/2017 19:42:15

Thanks Michael

Thanks Steve

The goal of the job is to make a system for moving my camera for some time lapse, but as you will see from the thread I've just started (Fate telling me not to do something) I think I'm going to give up!

David

Right, now I’m getting aggravated

Three weeks back I spend £55 on a TR10x2 lead screw, and TR10x2 tap. It turns out the company I ordered them from are scammers. They have an internet yesterday going back maybe a decade of unhappy people never receiving their goods. It was my own stupid fault for paying someone who was bank transfer only. You live and learn.

Luckily, I also ordered a Tr10X2 tap from an ebay Chinese retailer. Much to my amazement it only took three weeks to get here. Sadly I was out, the post office left a calling card, and now the post office have lost the parcel.

After the failure of my first lead screw purchase I ordered one from someone else. It arrived today – bent like a banana!

Do you ever get the feeling fate is telling you not to do something ?

Grrrrrrrr

Thanks Jason

Yes, I have spotted the Tracy tools tap but I can’t justify the cost to myself – especially If I snap it!

The Chinese eBay variants are about £10 - which is great. The one that didn't turn up was about £30, which is expensive but OK (delivery failure not withstanding!)

David

Hi Oldiron

For now I will give them the benefit of the doubt - just in case there is a valid reason as you never know. Maybe in a few months time when it's beyond doubt that I've been scammed I will reveal all!

David