Member postings for I.M. OUTAHERE

Yep and all about Australia’s contribution to the mission !

I was still 6 months away so have only seen historical footage - it is amazing what we humans can do when we stop blowing each other up isn’t it !

With the PLA filament I’m currently using i cant leave it in the tube overnight without it breaking , i run a dry box with two moisture absorbent canisters in with my filament . I haven’t had a problem while printing with the stuff but a few months back i ran a few prints and shut it down with the filament still in the hot end - mistake #1 , i then after some hassles got the filament out of the hot end and thought i would pull some fresh stuff through but this stuff crumbled in my hands . I thought maybe somehow moisture had infiltrated the tube somehow and left it at that and got on with running the prints i wanted . After i had finished i pulled the filament out of the hot end but left it in the tube as i was going to run some more the next day , when i started to set up the next day i needed to pull some more filament through to feed into the hot end but it broke off so i opened the dry box and pushed through some more which broke again and i was left scratching my head as to why - surely moisture couldn’t do that overnight could it ?

I ended up asking Angus from the Makers Muse channel on Youtube and he replied stating that it is not moisture doing it , A filament when pulled off the reel / spool has set in it and if you force it into a different shape without heating it the filament will sometimes snap if left long enough and some brands will and some won’t . I set up some filament and pulled it taught ( only enough to straighten it ) and left it overnight and sure as he was right - it had snapped ! I now remove the filament completely and haven’t had a problem since . I bought some ABS a couple of years ago and the supplier contacted me to tell me they had no black filament in stock as the batch they had was crook but he sent me two spools for free with the rest of my order to try and this stuff was buggered - I couldn’t get one full turn off the spool without it crumbling in my hands !

I would be looking at the drive roller and how much tension there is on it , it could be slipping and shredding the filament as it passes through if it is set with a light tension or it could be crushing it if too heavy tension .

I don’t see a problem with picking up the switched active on the motor power switch , if you think about it all of the mains powered equipment in your workshop is connected in parallel and you are just switching in or out what you want to turn on .

I would add a fuse and a mains rated switch on the active line to the solenoid so you can turn it off if you don’t want to use it ( edge finding would be one case ) and the fuse is there in case the solenoid does fail dead short ( i have yet to see this but I wouldn’t say it cannot happen ) and if the solenoid has to be earthed make sure it is .

I use a centre in the tailstock to get close then take a facing cut off the end of a piece of scrap bar , i have one of the edge technology height setting tools though i rarely use it but if i had to set up a lot of tool holders it would be a handy tool.but i would have to set up the 3 jaw to use it or stuff around getting the locating shaft running true in the 4 jaw i mostly use .

When i first got my X2 mill it came with a cheap junk vise and the jaws were not remotely parallel so i mountd a grinding stone in the chuck and used the mill to lightly grind the jaw faces and was surprised of how well it worked - i did of course wrap the machine up to keep the grinding dust well away from the slideways though !

Just spent a good part of an hour looking at Mcjings website and you aren’t kidding Raymond when you say it’s an aladins cave ! They even have a range of materials and one that is of particular use to me is silver steel at a reasonable price . Trend also look interesting , they sell everything from timber to clock movements and pen making supplies so i know where i can get some nice pieces of timber for my engine bases - you can only do so much with pine !

Thanks Pero , i will have a look at those as well

Thanks Jason , I haven’t see those before either !

Ian.

Edited By XD 351 on 23/06/2019 10:44:31

I have been past Mcjings a few times and wondered what they sold , most of the time i have gone past there they have been closed as it is early in the morning .

Never heard of Trend , looks like some internet searching is in order !

Ok thanks Raymond .

I haven’t noticed them at hare and forbes but i will look a little closer .

I cop this every time i buy something off Ebay and the best one was some one supposedly from England that had won lotto and was giving away money- just supply your bank details and we will deposit the money today !

I also get the old your account has been locked for my apple account a few days after i download an app and of course there is a link to unlock it - do these dickheads think i am that stupid !

True but with the ER 32 collet holder i am limited to 20 mm .

A lot of the rust problems are caused by touching things with your fingers and hands , i learned his from a boss i had many years ago - a toolmaker by trade and for some reason he.decided to show me his prized set  of mitutoyo gauge blocks of which i decided to pick out a block and pick it up with bare hands - shock and horror to him and i copped an earfull from him about how corrosive fingerprints are etc etc but in the long run he was right and it is something i am constantly mindful of .

Edited By XD 351 on 22/06/2019 09:34:52

Edited By XD 351 on 22/06/2019 09:40:42

Hi Ian ,

I’m in western Sydney near Penrith .

I find it odd that bunnings doesn’t sell them as they seem to sell everything else and I haven’t noticed them at H&F , i will have a look at total tools but I can’t recall ever seeing them there in the past.

any links to tool shops is always welcomed !

Ian .

Light a match 😁

I will have a guess and say a tenths indicator with a total travel of .020 inch but the only way to be certain is to do what Jason said and compare it with the movement of a graduated dial like a lathe cross slide or you could set it up in an indicator stand on a flat surface so the nib is vertical and touching said flat surface and slip a feeler gauge between the nib and the flat surface .

Have a look on the long island indicator website as they may have some info on that make of indicator .

I soaked mine in acetone then lapped it flat .

When i read the title and before reading the post i thought it was going to be about frog. Glow engines !

Or just about any other electronic device !

Duncan ,

Did you consider using an Arduino to make your new Tachometer?  - plenty of sketches available and  adjusting the update frequency is simple enough .

Edited By XD 351 on 20/06/2019 15:48:53

Nice job !

Must get me some faustener bits , bunnings don’t seem to sell them so i will try a few other tool supply stores .

I hate those blow molded plastic boxes that most tools seem to come in these days .

Funny thing is with the naysayers stating that wood will make the tools rust is many of the most respected tool manufacturers always supplied their tools in nicely made wooden cases and never had a problem with them rusting . I have quite a few Starrett , Moore and Wright and Mitutoyo tools in their original wooden cases some over 50 yrs old and not one speck of rust on them . If you look around you will find plenty of sets of gauge blocks all supplied in wooden cases and surely if timber is going to cause rust the one thing you wouldn’t store in a wooden case would be gauge blocks ! If rusting was a concern i would rub some oil into the wood or use lanotec like i did on the ply covers for my mill table - “nuthin like a bit of sheep grease to stop corrosion” !

A hunt around on the internet would more than likely find that it has been done before and the programme for the Arduino is there to be hacked !

The only problem i see with using software limits is the Arduino won’t know where it is when it boots up unless you home it first with a limit switch , i would use a centrally mounted limit switch set up like they use on the conventional power feed units and use movable stops to set the required travel distance . This will simplify things a lot as you wont need a motor with an encoder or a motor that is powerful enough to ensure it doesn’t miss steps and will simplify the Arduino programme a bit . You can still have a display set up to show feed rate using a basic hall effect encoder set up in one of the drive pulleys . I used this sort of set up on the power quill feed on my mill and it works really well .

I know they do make a clip on handle / trigger unit so using a rattle can is a bit more like using a spray gun , try hardware stores ,auto paint suppliers or maybe Ebay under spray can adapter .