Member postings for Ian P

Its not clear from your posting whether the rattling noise is still present now you have stripped (and presumably reassembled) the motor.

Rattling sound would indicate a mechanical problem rather than electrical, maybe like a loose pulley. I am not conversant with your particular motor but it sounds like a common universal brushed motor and if the Unimat 3 does not have electronic variable speed control then fault finding is pretty straightforward.

What part (or which) country are you located? (someone nearby may be able to help)

Ian P

There is a thread about this motor on another forum. The first post by 'Phil' shows a picture of the motor name plate and I would say that the motor model is type 'BA147'. (it also clearly shows its single phase)

Ian P

My wireless keyboard (Logitech) does not actually have LED indicators which I assume is because they would drain the battery. Not a problem on wired keyboards that get their power from the PC but even the most efficient LED's need some power.

I thought the Dell 5400 was a laptop not an 'all in one' desktop machine, does not affect the second keyboard requirement though.

Ian P

I would think that your Transwave unit has a secondhand value greater than the cost of a VFD to suit the motor. No disrespect to Transwave but its not exactly at the forefront of technology

I know which I would have.

Ian P

Maybe I'm being too pedantic but does this new rule apply only to this thread?

It is a serious question though

Ian P

'Best to move on' What does that really mean? 

Edited By Ian P on 28/10/2021 20:22:11

I wish you good luck with your project but based on what I have gleaned from the various threads I would say its doomed to failure. I'm not trying to depress you or dissuade you from continuing but the reality is that to get the project to a state where it is protected by patent you will need to invest quite a lot of money (say compared with the tools and machines you have mentioned).
Unless you already have some sort of arrangement with a potential manufacturer bear in mind that many large companies have a deliberate and rigid policy of NOT buying in external ideas (damhik).

One observation, as you say the magnetic attraction between two parts can be seriously reduced if the parts do not fit together well and it sounds like its the 1mm wide face that is one of the abutting surfaces, It would need seriously strong magnetic force for your metal strip to stay at 90 degrees if whatever is attached to it is going to do anything useful.

I cannot understand why you thought Nicholas Wheeler's comments were a personal attack on you, he just summed up the situation perfectly.

Ian P

+1

Four wheel chariot could hold the 'steels' at 90 degrees.

How many do you need to make John?

If its (say) 10 then slightly oversize blanks could be temporarily laminated together with adhesive under pressure and the resulting block could be filed by hand to exact size by checking frequently with micrometer.

I foresee two problems with Jason's suggestion. One is the requirement to have a slot in the stone, and secondly how will the user know the edge is at exactly 90 degrees (angle changes as the steel is ground away.

Ian P

From the Align unit manufacturers point of view making only a 110V model is easiest but it does complicate things somewhat in countries that have other mains voltages.

I know some machines have a built in 110V supply for the control gear (nowadays more likely to be 24V) but would that supply be rated high enough to drive the feed motor I wonder.

Using a site transformer (55-0-55) to drive a feed motor is overkill in terms of weight, bulk, wattage and cost. If the Align unit is intended to be connected to a mains supply then isolation should not be needed and a much smaller autotransformer will do the job.

I have never examined one of these units and dont even know what colour wires are in the power lead or whether it come fitted with a moulded on plug, The cable though (to me) looks out of place on a large milling machine compared to the usual heavy duty cable or conduit.

Ian P

Seems odd in this day and age that there is not a power feed unit natively designed for UK and European mains voltage.

I know some industrial equipment, like site tools, are intended for 110V operation but presumably these power feed units would be connected directly to the mains in the USA. If that is the case then a fairly small (physically) autotransformer could be used to connect them to UK mains.

I had a quick look on one sellers website and in none of the pictures is the connector on the end of the mains cable visible so its not clear whether its just bare wire ends or a USA style plug. I thought electrical appliances could only be sold with a fitted BS1362 plug?

Ian P

Does 'Contra indicated' in your third point mean that one should not put capacitors on the VFD outputs? (I wasn't thinking of doing it)

Does the sine wave filter operate over the full frequency range of a typical VFD?

Ian P

I dont see any announcements of Sky giving up the satelite system, what I do see is Sky selling their own brand of smart TV

Ian P

I think that determining the number of holes in this mechanism is unlikely ever to be solved from the currently available (physical) fragment. If in the future more of the mechanism was ever retrieved then it might be possible to count more accurately.

It seems to me than no amount of measuring, statistics, probability or other methods will give us the exact answer because we know there is a variation in hole spacing in the ones we can see and there may be similar variations in the missing ones.

Ian P

One again SoD has nailed it!

If one trawled back through years of years of postings there have only a small number of forum members that consistently give honest, sound, unbiased and practical advice and replies (john Stevenson was my hero).

There is no 'like' button here (thank goodness) but Dave get my current vote.

Ian P

PS I wonder if I should have started this as a new topic

I'll stick my neck out and say think I could do 0.2mm if I was careful and took my time (on something like brass), would be far less confidant about 0.1mm but I can imagine that a craftsman with unlimited time and a suitable magnifying glass could achieve that by continuously monitoring the start of the hole and tweaking (most probably) a bow driven or archimedes type drill.

Ian P

Double post!! That's the first time it happened to me and I did nothing different than I ever do

Not really answering Niel's question but 'Clickspring' on YouTube has some videos showing his build of the mechanism using tools and technology that the original maker might have used.

Apart from showings the marking out of the parts he actually made the files and other tools totally from scratch.

The videos and presentation are among the very best of the Youtube

Ian P

Not really answering Niel's question but 'Clickspring' on YouTube has some videos showing his build of the mechanism using tools and technology that the original maker might have used.

Apart from showings the marking out of the parts he actually made the files and other tools totally from scratch.

The videos and presentation are among the very best of the Youtube

Ian P

I've not actually used the laser and line method and my current milling machine is already constrained by a keyway but it occurs to me that the line on the wall does not need to be vertical (in the gravity sense) but more that it should be parallel to the axis of the machine column.

If the machine is just sat on a bench and has not been set up so its column is dead vertical then surely errors would be introduced.

I suppose if a laser pointer (mounted sideways) in the quill could be used to 'draw' a short line on the wall which could then extended upwards and downwards, that would ensure it was inline with the machine column.

Ian P