Adrian Rawson's Divider

Adrian Rawson's divider as featured in MEW 295.

Nice project but isn't a Raspberry Pi somewhat overkill? An Arduino Nano would eat the dividing task

Dons tin hate etc.

Don says get your own hat.

Martin

Vid of it working

Brian is right, a Raspberry Pi is overkill, so since submitting the article to the magazine I've changed the brain to an ATSAMD device which is smaller and starts up much more quickly. Also it gave me the opportunity to modify the software quite a bit. I've also changed the worm gear to a heavier 30 tooth setup, which with a 400 step motor gives the same accuracy as before. I'm currently working on a mount to enable it to drive the tail stock directly.

I meant to say drive the head stock directly - sorry. Anyway here are photos of the current worm drive and electronics.

Tried and tested a headstock mount for the divider. Used a 2MT collet connected to a mandrel extension. Then fixed a printed plastic bracket between overarm and stud gear to hold divider in place. Shown under test here **LINK**

That's very interesting. How about drawings, circuit diagrams and software please?

I've sent a load of detailed documentation to Neil who will link it to this thread ASAP. It covers the mechanical build the electronics build and a software user guide. Hope this helps, and thanks John for your interest.

Thanks very much Adrian, I'll look forward to seeing that.

Sorry for the delays, for some reason the ZIP folder woudl not upload properly without getting corrupted.

I've uploaded the three PDFs individually.

www.model-engineer.co.uk/sites/7/documents/RDConstruction.pdf

www.model-engineer.co.uk/sites/7/documents/RDElectronics.pdf

www.model-engineer.co.uk/sites/7/documents/RDUser%20Guide.pdf

Thanks for being patient.

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 18/08/2020 12:04:09

Thanks Neil, sorry it proved a bit difficult.

Excellent stuff ... Thanks to you both

MichaelG.

Thank you, that's great to see. I must say that I am disappointed by the lack of drawings/dimensions in recent years in MEW. Comparing recent articles with old ones it is very noticeable. It is obviously much easier to put lots of photographs in articles than do dimensioned drawings. I notice that even some drawings don't have any dimensions. This is the same with projects in ME. I will now seriously think about making the dividing head. Thank you again.

My article in MEW was pitched as a taster to invite feedback from the readership. My intention was always to give much more information to anyone who showed an interest. As you can see from the linked documents it would have required a series of articles to complete.

Although the divider works as specified, it's still an ongoing project for me. I'm currently looking at a closed loop stepper motors with the possibility of improving the accuracy and reliability. I'd also like to include a clutch on the worm drive to obviate lockups. Oh! and a cast aluminium body which is currently beyond me.

A new stepper motor is on order from China and I'll use this forum topic to document any progress.

Thanks for your interest.