What did you do Today 2018

I spent most of the day sorting and loading lots of tools and parts into Brother in Laws van ready for local autojumble tomorrow. Due to health problems parts and tools now of no use to me but any money raised can be used for tools and parts for Models??? Only problem with going to autojumbles is the last one I went to a Myford/Drummond M followed me home. I am under strict instructions by SWMBO not to buy anything whilst there...... Honestly I am just storing it for Ian

JC 54,

I seem to have a similar problem with gunsmiths, wife was non too pleased when I went for 1,000 cartridges and returned with cartridges and another secondhand shotgun. It was worth all the aggravation as the shotgun is an old Winchester in really good condition, keeps me out her hair on Sundays.

Dave W

Took another 10 bags of leaves to tip. 50 bags so far. Spent afternoon and evening fitting a shelf to the top of the splashback on the Colchester Student. Centres, running centres, chuck keys, drill chucks and keys, drive dogs all have holes to sit in. Just have to cut some ali brackets for the QCT holders.

Have now managed to get gears in the hinged drawer in the base, cleared part of bench and cleared the top of the headstock.

Having parted with a Myford 7 yesterday have been able to have bit of a move around and tidy up a bit more.

Colin

As we are having a new kitchen fitted and all the cabinets and other panels are currently being stored in a bedroom and the garage/workshop, I can't get to my machines to do any actual metawork, so I've had to content myself with continuing to get to grips with Atom3D. Further progress on the engine design as seen in my album includes a redraw of the crankshaft to 'pretty it up' and additions to the engine block as well as new drawings of the sump and various minor accessories. Here's a couple of samples:

I'm quite getting into this 3D CAD!

John

Hello all, sold this recently ( the Hardinge)after 10yrs of ownership, cant justify 2 lathes anymore ,

But missed the collet system, so made an adaptor to fit an ER 40 collet chuck to a D16 backplate on my DSG .

Finished another salt/pepper grinder.

Cerastar mech, other parts Zebrano, Delrin, Brass. The big adjuster is a slice from the slug I trepanned out the middle of the nutcracker.

Good stuff John, why don't you post those on the Alibre thread?

Neil

Neil,

I posted them here because I did the majority of the tweaking today! I also rather got the impression that the Atom thread was becoming a place to ask for help when getting stuck on a particular procedure. Feel free to move the post if you consider it should be there.

John

A DSG & a Hardinge.

Jealousy? Envy? Me? Never!

Or just a bit.... the DSG looks stunning. Kudos.

That almost sounds like it could have been an entrant for last year's candlestick challenge

Some more info on the Stepper 'Rattle-Damper' as I fitted to my stepper on the rotary table a few post back -

I dug around some more and found a half-decent patent on the subject - quite informative and useful. For those interested:

**LINK**

Going further, my PCB router/engraver uses NEMA-23 double stack motors ( same as the rotatary table) on each axis and I have always been disappointed by the rapids achievable. The motors drive balls screws via toothed belts and that seems to make it worse - the rotor resonances play havoc all over - stalls and steps lost. So I decided to make and fit some 'Rattle-Dampers' to each axis.

Engraving PCB's is quite hard on the machine - The tracks are many, and quite short most times. Feed speeds are typically 600 to 900mm/m- I cannot go faster as the spindle only does 22K-RPM and the track edges suffer with faster feeds. The machine really needs to be very rigid with high feeds as well, as any oscillation at motion start or end is a wobble in the track. I do tracks down to 0.2mm width, so a wobble is a cut track..

However, the big issue was that the rapids were not able to go much faster than 1000 to 1500mm/m and since the tools is spending more than half the time moving in rapid, that is a huge waste of time.

The three dampers - 55mm OD, 6 holes of 11mm, 6 slugs of 9.5mm diameter, 18mm long.

Fitted to one end of double shafted motors.

Fitted to the drive pulley of the X axis

The Y Axis

And the Z axis

The undamped machine gave -

X and Y Axis - max rapids 1400mm/m. Z Axis 900mm/m - Playing with accelaration on each axis did not change thing much.

The damped machine MAX achievable rapids increased to X,Y and Z - 9500mm/m - with NO lost steps after a 14minute PCB engraving - a 200mmx150mm really complex board with over 1400 tracks.

I reduced this to 5000mm/m on each axis and this gives a very comfortable machine. The steppers are driven from close to 60volts DC, with 1600uSteps/step

These Rattle Dampers are simply miraculous!

I did a video, but as usual, did not turn out well...Not to nauseating though.

Joe

NOTE:  The captions in the video are WRONG!!  Should be mm/MINUTE, not mm/SECOND !!!!!

Sorry...

edit - 'fir' to 'fit'...

Added note on incorrect caption units in video..

Edited By Joseph Noci 1 on 19/11/2018 09:45:47

Thanks for the Patent reference, Joe

I could't find it

probably because I started from here: **LINK**

http://www.tciauto.com/tc/rattlerr-absorber-6-1-4-chevy-small-blockhtml/

MichaelG.

Joe,

A very interesting thread. The link you gave was also informative. I am not clear if the damper increased available torque or allowed the stepper to operate faster. This raises the question of what would be the result of such a unit on the normal AC motor?

MichaelG, You are welcome! believe me, it took a lot of digging to find - it was completely obscured my a myriad of 'Muscle Motors' and car guff as response to every search!

Hello Paul! How's the Hobber????

I think the damper does neither - all it does is smooth out the step changes in rotational velocity, ie, takes the edge off of the pulsed motion, trying to smooth out the motion. The resulting lack of oscillation just allows the stepper to continue accelerating without loosing step. There is no increase in torque - however, the stepper can begin to deliver the design torque, as it is not fighting resonances and loosing step.

I believe it would have no effect whatsoever on an normal AC motor, as it adds nothing, just dampens torsional vibration.

Joe

Yesterday I managed to break the mounting spigot of my DTI.

Today I spent some time on t'internetty trying to find a replacement spare. After a fruitless hour or so I got fed up and made one.

On the left the broken cast ali original, on the right the replacement from a bit of steel out of the bits and bobs drawer.

That should keep me going for a year or two.

Jim

Today I went to an auction at a nearby military base (I did my trade training there many years ago).

Many items were on pallets so I did not require a pallet of 2000 Timken taper roller bearings or army boots/socks/skirts (all the same size) but this aroused my interest **LINK**so I checked it out, as yer do.

Bed wear not much apparent visibly, minor damage limited to a few dings in the topslide, a scored centre on the tailstock live centre and a bit of surface rust on the PB 3J chuck.

Opening the compartment underneath revealed a few spare gears, a chuck key and a few bits and bobs.

Biggest drawback for me was the 3Ph motor.

A decent inverter (or a 3Ph supply to the workshop) would cost more than the lathe (as I found out when I purchased a Boley5 LZ) so I let this one go but it is a nice machine.

I was allowed to take a few photos, it will go for about $1000Au. I hope that I made the correct decision.

* Danny M *

I've picked up the 'ancient engine' again

Just a bit of work getting everything lined up of the base (it's a 'house built' engine which makes things a bit trickier) and started machining the cast supports for the crosshead guide rails.

Progress with the Ancient Engine:

Wow that looks big, what diameter is the flywheel Neil?

LOL must be the perspective! Nowhere near as big as it looks, it's only 6" in diameter.

JS got a pair laser cut for me MANY years ago. Further modified the other one is going on my Lady Stephanie... one day.

Neil