Thanks Matty. I finished up on a wooden mock-up for the remainder of the parts today. Staring at the CAD model was making my brain hurt but having a full size model that you can change easily allows for easy checking of clashes and clearances. Regards, Mark
Ahh yes. I was shamed into buying some pure 601 series ingots from a foundry some years ago when I was lamenting the crappy castings I was making using scrap aluminium alloy of unknown origin. My main critic was "Olfoundryman", a very experienced non ferrous casting expert with a lot of industry background. He was the one that pushed me to get a better quality stock for casting. For castings that have to be machined to close tolerances I use the pure ingots. For non critical castings I use a mixture of recycled automotive cylinder heads and intake manifolds etc. but they don't always machine as nicely. Regards, Mark
Sometimes making a "box" fit together can be more difficult than other operations! Thank heavens for DRO and a steady hand, mate! Love the wildlife down under! It's getting COLD here in Central Texas!
I must say that I fully expected the assembly of that box structure to fail. I still don't trust the DRO setup on my mill but every time I expect it to fail it just works. The whole CAD thing is also a concern. So far though, things have just worked out which makes me smile. It's interesting about your weather. I always think of Texas as being a similar climate to our own. Our winter temperatures never go below 10C but our summers can be brutal. Regards, Mark
I was also having trouble understanding how it did actually move the headstock so I ended up making a full size model of the rest of the parts out of wood. There's nothing like a bit of cardboard, glue and wooden stick craft to make a mechanism come to life quickly. I am hoping Cliff will give me the go ahead to reveal the entire mechanism soon. Regards, Mark
Thanks Cliff. Replicating someone else's project and concept is always an interesting challenge. You have to be respectful and mindful of what you really don't know about the design. I do like TouchDRO and the interesting thing was that I didn't even know it existed until a TH-cam commenter put me onto it. Since then, I haven't looked back. Regards, Mark
18:50 I've had a quite few button heads where the head is not concentric to the thread. More luck with cap heads. Great series!! Merry new happy year. God Bless
In Cliff's original design, he had machined the outside of the heads concentric with the threads but I chickened out and decided to use dowel pins. Regards, Mark
It's coming along nicely. That touch DRO really is a nice little piece of kit, isn't it. As a side note, the perfect upload timing allowed me to watch this during the lunch break in cricket. 👍
Thanks for that. I probably only use about 10% of the capability of TouchDRO. It has some really interesting features and I like the graphical interface. Regards, Mark
Hi Mark, the penny dropped when you said the assembly slides on linear bearings, must have some variable angle arms to achieve variable pitch threads, can't wait for the reveal.
They are not really linear rails but more like a stepped rail rather than a dovetail slide. Cliff's original design had dovetails but the consensus was that a stepped rail was easier to machine. I am still not sure and that is the next thing I want to tackle. The "magic" is in the lever mechanism that has an adjustable pivot point. I sort of half guessed how it worked but I would never have got there without seeing the whole mechanism. Hopefully it will all be revealed soon. It's not my call though. Regards, Mark
Thanks Mark. I learn so much while watching your vids. Happy new year. Looking forward to variable thread pitch reveal. Would be handy if cutting BA threads. Cheers mate
It is always gratifying when an assembly actually comes together as intended. Nicely done bit of machining. Looking forward to seeing more of this apparatus. Thanks for including some of the local wildlife and Happy New Year!
It's always surprising to me when a plan comes together. Particularly with this build since I am working from sketches and it's not always apparent where the pitfalls are going to show up. Regards, Mark
For what it's worth, I actually finished up on a wooden mock-up of the entire mechanism today. Even though I have a fully completed CAD model of all the parts, I was still having trouble understanding how it worked. I was very pleased to see that it does what it is supposed to and now I can go ahead and cut out the rest of the parts knowing that it won't have any nasty surprises. I believe Cliff is going to reveal the entire mechanism shortly. I had to look up Walla Walla on Google Maps. I thought you were pulling my leg but indeed, such a place exists. It sounds like an Australian place name. We have a Wagga Wagga (pronounced Wogga Wogga) in New South Wales. I saw a picture of a lovely manor called Sharpstein Manor. What a beautiful building! Regards, Mark
Thanks Michel. I have actually gone ahead and made a wooden and 3D printed mock-up of the entire machine. I quickly worked out what I was not understanding from the original sketches and CAD model. Regards, Mark
Thanks. Watching the birds from our kitchen window is endlessly entertaining. The sulphur crested cockatoos are clown like but the Kookaburras run the show. Nobody messes with them. Regards, Mark
At 27:18, if you were to make this flange-shaft mount round, with the central shaft 'off center', you could adjust the bevel gear to ring gear engagement with a circular, or rotational motion, vs a linear motion. Just a thought for a future rev. ... Plus round stock is easier to process than square stock.
28:00 I've seen drilled pins that go axially between the spindle and the main gear say at 12 and 6 if you're worried about slippage. South Bend does it on threading gears that use 2 gears on one fixture
Cliff and I have been through lots of alternatives and we have agreed that you need at least two anchor points. The main problem is that there isn't a lot of metal available for a really robust locking mechanism and if you really need to clout the chuck off the spindle, the bevel gear takes all the punishment. I am thinking that a V4.0 version would have a lock that works directly off the spindle. Regards, Mark
Harrison and Colchester also use the grub screw drilled and tapped 50/50 axially on their headstock cluster gear assemblies. There is a technical term for that sort of screw fixturing which I can't remember at present.
Interesting mechanism. I'm not sure how it works yet exactly, but will follow the project. I've been wanting to make a live tooling attachment for my lathe so I could do internal (or OD) threading in one pass. I like the Touch DRO.
TouchDRO is great. I only use about 10% of it's features but I like the graphical layout. I must say I am missing your content on YT! Time to get busy man! 😁 Regards, Mark
@@Preso58 I'm glad to hear it. I need to get a dro on my little lathe too. Yeah, I have a bunch of raw video of projects around the shop, but haven't edited yet, even back from 2020. I'm in the middle of building a prototype (big) vapor blaster from the ground up. Aluminum sheet and rivet construction out of hand tools, with much of it recorded. That plus doing vapor blasting for customers, and when I sit down I don't feel like editing. Instead I start another project, and record it, lol. Thanks for the inspiration. I will get more uploaded. I like the wildlife scenes btw. I wish we had cockatoos landing in the back yard. That's amazing. We just get gold finches, and cardinals fighting.
Your driven gear to lead screw connection should use a Taper Lock style attachment. Simple, easy to machine , can be indexed via keyway if required, Very strong holding force and very accurate if made correctly. Also bushes are cheap. Perfect for use in confined spaces and easy to assemble and disassemble. A nut style thats common in self aligning bearings or a grub screw or bolt style. If your gear is to thin just use a flanged type. Cheers
I have used them on a pulley for my lathe and they work great. The problem with Threadexpress is that there is not a lot of metal around the lower end of the spindle and the opportunities to modify the lower end of the spindle are limited. Mainly because there is a nut and a nut carrier that have to go very close to the bevel gear mechanism. Just today, I realised that the locking mechanism for the spindle could be incorporated into the top end of the spindle but that is a refinement for another version. Regards, Mark
Those cockatoos are a real entertainment. The other day we watched an interaction between a kookaburra and a cockatoo on the perch that I christened "Kookaburra's Rest". The Cockie was there first and it seemed to resent the intrusion of the Kookaburra. What followed was a lot of drama involving squawking and crest flourishing! Priceless. Regards, Mark
@Preso58 i don't know if i could endure the sound tho... i love animals but even blue jays and cardinals are enough to drive me crazy. they'd do better using autotune for me anyways!
Nice work, I'm savoring it with attention. From min. (29.13 - 29.37) mentions of a recirculating sphere guidance system, at this point, I think I have understood that the heart of the instrument is a pantograph that works with Thales' theorem
Interestingly, the original designer and inventor, Cliff Hall references a device by Thales which uses a similar system. I have a new video coming out tomorrow that allows you to see the entire mechanism in mock-up form. Regards, Mark
Maybe a taper pin for the bevel gear locking on to the lead screw. It should stay tight and if not, you would be able to tighten the pin just by driving it in further.
The only issue is that the wall of the spindle is only 3mm thick where the pin needs to go and the spindle is hollow too. Putting a pin right across the spindle would mean that you would not be able to pass long bar stock right through the spindle. Regards, Mark
Hi Mark. Happy new year. It occurred to me whilst watching, that the teeth on the bevel gear could be used for indexing the chuck in a similar way to the latch mechanism on the spindle of some dividing heads. Roll on next Saturdays video.
I had originally designed a hole pattern of 36 and 40 for the large bevel gear and it would have been locked with a small retractable pin. It would be similar to the indexing method I use on my lathe. However that plan was soon scuppered by Cliff who pointed out the the 12 hole indexing pattern has to be quite robust since it is also used to lock the spindle when removing the 3 jaw chuck. The chuck needs to be quite tight on the threaded spindle to resist the flycutting forces and also any milling operations like machining hex patterns on bolt heads etc. Reluctantly, I went back to Cliff's original design but it will still give some extra functionality and nothing will break or distort if the chuck has to be forcibly removed. Regards, Mark
Love what you are doing and hope to follow you when the plans are available. One comment for the machining for the bearing where you changed tools as you tip radius was too big. You could just have machined the corner to a larger diameter so that the tool radius didn't interfere with the bearing radius. A lot easier than changing tools. It is also a great way to get a dead "sharp corner" without having a major stress concentrator. To hopefully be clearer if you have a 0.5 tool radius, if you bring the tool, when right in the corner, a further 0.5+ into the material the tool radius will have functionally been removed. When I did this as part of an actual design (on a 4.5m dia beater wheel for Loy Yang power station) we also had to use a very fine feed (NC machine) to get a really smooth finish.
I did consider just undercutting the inside corner. As it turned out it was probably unnecessary. The bearing had quite a rounded corner on it anyway. One of the good things about this build is that there are very few components that have to deal with high stress/high loads. The cutting forces are pretty minimal and the rotational loads are low. Regards, Mark
At 20:20 and 20:40, does the TouchDRO have a feature that indicated that each-all holes have been located by changing color, or a check mark, or a tally of sorts? If you have a number of items with a large number of holes each, one could mistakenly forget to drill one or 2 or more during the progress of production.... Does the TouchDRO have the ability to import a computer generated "drill list" or did you key those co-ordinates at 20:20 and 20:40 manually?
There is no feature that keeps a tally of points that have been zeroed out on the XY scale. You really do need to have a paper drawing handy or a list that you can tick off manually. However, Yuriy (TouchDRO devoloper) is always keen to hear about feature requests. The next time I get in touch with him I will mention the idea of some sort of automated tally. I am sure it is something that could be incorporated in the code easily. I usually indicate a corner or centre of a workpiece and then move to the co-ordinates on the drawing and add a point for each location. You can do this in incremental mode or absolute mode. As you move around, the points are added to a list which you can select from for each drilled hole. You can chop and change the order to minimise moves. TouchDRO has a "Plus" version which allows for the import of DXF files which overlay a digital photo of the stock. You can then see a "virtual part" on the screen as you move from point to point. I haven't tried that feature yet and I am not sure how useful it would be but it's there if you have subscribed to the plus version. To be honest, I only use about 15% of what TouchDRO can do. Regards, Mark
Its coming along Mark. I'm still trying to work out how you get the variable thread range. I'm thinking that it may be some kind of differential thread setup on some type of sliding scale. I guess we will find out in a few videos time. Happy new year I hope the family are well.
Thanks Jon. It really is a lot simpler than I imagined. I hate not being able to reveal exactly how it works but it's not my "baby". I am thinking that it will all be public knowledge sometime in the early months of this year. Regards, Mark
At 18:45, 19:00 and 19:29, I find that the head of the fastener is not always concentric with the shaft of the bolt or screw. Unless you are touching up the head to shaft dimension with a lathe to correct those manufacturing errors, (Maybe try chucking up a few bolts with a dial indicator on the edge of the head and you can see the runout of the head to shaft, maybe you have gotten some high spec screws??) you will always have locating issues with every intermediate assembly, including the final assembly unless you keep track of each exact bolt into each exact hole with each bolts exact rotation angle. At 20:00, maybe this is your problem???? I think the dowel pins are a better idea for the correct location of related parts-features, ... as long as they actually are correctly placed in the first place.... Thanks for making this video.
You should setup a second channel Mark, with wildlife streaming.. Be nice to see some Australian summer right now as I am in the middle of a Canadian winter :) Cheers,
I believe you are going into some severe weather right now. We visited Canada in the fall of 2018 and enjoyed a walk along the St. Lawrence River about halfway between Montreal and Kingston. There were lovely parks and lots of green grass but we noticed that there weren't many outdoor facilities like tables and public barbecues. It is quite common in Australia for public areas to have lots of facilities like tables, benches and eating areas. We spoke to a local and asked why. He told us that for about six months of the year the place would be under several feet of snow! Duh! We hadn't thought of that. Regards, Mark
I think the micrometer is calibrated correctly. The bearings I am using are cheap Chinese angular contact bearings and I am guessing that they have fairly loose tolerances. Regards, Mark
It certainly helps to make the tool setting more visible. The little tiny graduated dial on my boring head is always hard to read and most often, your hand is in the way when you are trying to set it. Regards, Mark
Nature, that is to say animals are the best compensatory after a long speculation on designing a platform like MP 5, AR 15, AK 47, Uzi, and of course Glock. I mean any mechanism or device that functions the best and looks the best.
I know that there are CNC alternatives and they are very capable. The downside for me is that I have tried and failed to make sense of LInux. The other issue is that using an interpolated toolpath for thread milling doesn't take into account the helix angle of the thread, unless you have a four or five axis mill. Even then it would be no simple matter to create the G code. There is also the risk of tool crashes due to poor planning. One of the advantages of Threadexpress is that it is an entirely manual process. You can pause and slow down the thread milling process as you approach a shoulder and you get direct feedback on the thread milling process. Regards, Mark
@@Preso58 The helix is not a problem - I've done this on a Wells Index that I converted to a closed servo loop control. The learning curves were easier when I was younger - so I understand. FreeCad today makes G-code generation fairly easy - once you learn the tools. I learned G-code when I was in my late 60s. I often write G-code at the console for one-off projects.
Coming right along Mark, looking very good.
Thanks for sharing.
Everything lined up perfectly there Mark. A really good fit on the bevel gears. Nice wildlife images. Cheers Nobby
Thanks. I really should learn to trust my DRO more than I do.
Regards,
Mark
Gday Preso, brilliant work once again, I’m really enjoying this series, cheers
Thanks Matty. I finished up on a wooden mock-up for the remainder of the parts today. Staring at the CAD model was making my brain hurt but having a full size model that you can change easily allows for easy checking of clashes and clearances.
Regards,
Mark
Those “Presalloy” castings do machine nicely! 👍
Ahh yes. I was shamed into buying some pure 601 series ingots from a foundry some years ago when I was lamenting the crappy castings I was making using scrap aluminium alloy of unknown origin. My main critic was "Olfoundryman", a very experienced non ferrous casting expert with a lot of industry background. He was the one that pushed me to get a better quality stock for casting. For castings that have to be machined to close tolerances I use the pure ingots. For non critical castings I use a mixture of recycled automotive cylinder heads and intake manifolds etc. but they don't always machine as nicely.
Regards,
Mark
Sometimes making a "box" fit together can be more difficult than other operations! Thank heavens for DRO and a steady hand, mate! Love the wildlife down under! It's getting COLD here in Central Texas!
I must say that I fully expected the assembly of that box structure to fail. I still don't trust the DRO setup on my mill but every time I expect it to fail it just works. The whole CAD thing is also a concern. So far though, things have just worked out which makes me smile. It's interesting about your weather. I always think of Texas as being a similar climate to our own. Our winter temperatures never go below 10C but our summers can be brutal.
Regards,
Mark
You guys have some really cold weather inbound and maybe power outages again. Good to have a backup heat source.
Great to kick off the year with some quality Preso content - looking forward to the projects throughout '25.
I was puzzled as to how this works till you mentioned the linear rails. Looking really good!
I was also having trouble understanding how it did actually move the headstock so I ended up making a full size model of the rest of the parts out of wood. There's nothing like a bit of cardboard, glue and wooden stick craft to make a mechanism come to life quickly. I am hoping Cliff will give me the go ahead to reveal the entire mechanism soon.
Regards,
Mark
Hi Preso. Good to watch it emerging from our minds. I like the looks of your Touch DRO, halfway to CNC! Cheers, Cliff
Thanks Cliff. Replicating someone else's project and concept is always an interesting challenge. You have to be respectful and mindful of what you really don't know about the design. I do like TouchDRO and the interesting thing was that I didn't even know it existed until a TH-cam commenter put me onto it. Since then, I haven't looked back.
Regards,
Mark
18:50 I've had a quite few button heads where the head is not concentric to the thread. More luck with cap heads. Great series!! Merry new happy year. God Bless
In Cliff's original design, he had machined the outside of the heads concentric with the threads but I chickened out and decided to use dowel pins.
Regards,
Mark
Great project Preso, my mines 25 degrees C makes it even more enjoyable to see the summer background in the vid, Happy New Year and cheers!
It's actually quite pleasant here at the moment. We are off to the beach tomorrow for a swim!
Regards,
Mark
It's coming along nicely. That touch DRO really is a nice little piece of kit, isn't it. As a side note, the perfect upload timing allowed me to watch this during the lunch break in cricket. 👍
Thanks for that. I probably only use about 10% of the capability of TouchDRO. It has some really interesting features and I like the graphical interface.
Regards,
Mark
another great video. liking the build and the wildlife shots . thanks for sharing
👏👏👏👌great work Mark
Cheers Chris
Hi Mark, the penny dropped when you said the assembly slides on linear bearings, must have some variable angle arms to achieve variable pitch threads, can't wait for the reveal.
They are not really linear rails but more like a stepped rail rather than a dovetail slide. Cliff's original design had dovetails but the consensus was that a stepped rail was easier to machine. I am still not sure and that is the next thing I want to tackle. The "magic" is in the lever mechanism that has an adjustable pivot point. I sort of half guessed how it worked but I would never have got there without seeing the whole mechanism. Hopefully it will all be revealed soon. It's not my call though.
Regards,
Mark
There will be an adjustable ratio lever between leadscrew nut and mounting surface.. to get the desired pitch. I think I have it in my head lol.
Thanks Mark. I learn so much while watching your vids. Happy new year. Looking forward to variable thread pitch reveal. Would be handy if cutting BA threads. Cheers mate
Top work mate 👍
And very relaxing conclusion ( with the Wongas)
Robert
🇦🇺
Thanks. Those Wongas are quite the elusive bird. As soon as I get the camera out, they turn their back and snub me.
Regards,
Mark
It is always gratifying when an assembly actually comes together as intended. Nicely done bit of machining. Looking forward to seeing more of this apparatus. Thanks for including some of the local wildlife and Happy New Year!
It's always surprising to me when a plan comes together. Particularly with this build since I am working from sketches and it's not always apparent where the pitfalls are going to show up.
Regards,
Mark
Hi Mark, so far very interesting. I can't wait to see the rest of it. Thanks for the video. From Walla Walla Washington
For what it's worth, I actually finished up on a wooden mock-up of the entire mechanism today. Even though I have a fully completed CAD model of all the parts, I was still having trouble understanding how it worked. I was very pleased to see that it does what it is supposed to and now I can go ahead and cut out the rest of the parts knowing that it won't have any nasty surprises. I believe Cliff is going to reveal the entire mechanism shortly.
I had to look up Walla Walla on Google Maps. I thought you were pulling my leg but indeed, such a place exists. It sounds like an Australian place name. We have a Wagga Wagga (pronounced Wogga Wogga) in New South Wales.
I saw a picture of a lovely manor called Sharpstein Manor. What a beautiful building!
Regards,
Mark
Another alternative to alignment is using a hollow dowel pin right in the bolt holes, motorcycle engine covers use this method.
Happy New Year, Pressso!
Happy New Year Mark. Good progress on this project.
Just noticed the reference to Dr Evil on the band saw. Love it.
Nice work. I learn something new every episode.
Good idea to make first wooden or carboard parts. Something I should do maybe more often.
Thanks Michel. I have actually gone ahead and made a wooden and 3D printed mock-up of the entire machine. I quickly worked out what I was not understanding from the original sketches and CAD model.
Regards,
Mark
Cheers again Mark, looking good.
Coming along nicely Mark. the touch DRO is certainly a good feature on the mill.
I do like TouchDRO. It suits me as I am very graphically orientated.
Regards,
Mark
Nice project. Very intresting build. Subbed.
I really like the wildlife video!
Thanks. Watching the birds from our kitchen window is endlessly entertaining. The sulphur crested cockatoos are clown like but the Kookaburras run the show. Nobody messes with them.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 They are my two favorites!
At 27:18, if you were to make this flange-shaft mount round, with the central shaft 'off center', you could adjust the bevel gear to ring gear engagement with a circular, or rotational motion, vs a linear motion. Just a thought for a future rev. ... Plus round stock is easier to process than square stock.
Looking forward to seeing exactly how this works.
28:00 I've seen drilled pins that go axially between the spindle and the main gear say at 12 and 6 if you're worried about slippage. South Bend does it on threading gears that use 2 gears on one fixture
Cliff and I have been through lots of alternatives and we have agreed that you need at least two anchor points. The main problem is that there isn't a lot of metal available for a really robust locking mechanism and if you really need to clout the chuck off the spindle, the bevel gear takes all the punishment. I am thinking that a V4.0 version would have a lock that works directly off the spindle.
Regards,
Mark
Harrison and Colchester also use the grub screw drilled and tapped 50/50 axially on their headstock cluster gear assemblies. There is a technical term for that sort of screw fixturing which I can't remember at present.
@@Preso58 Yes,a spindle locking pin/dog would be the ideal solution.
Interesting mechanism. I'm not sure how it works yet exactly, but will follow the project. I've been wanting to make a live tooling attachment for my lathe so I could do internal (or OD) threading in one pass. I like the Touch DRO.
TouchDRO is great. I only use about 10% of it's features but I like the graphical layout. I must say I am missing your content on YT! Time to get busy man! 😁
Regards,
Mark
Stefan Gotteswinter did a video on thread cutting with live spindle mounted on the tool post a while back.
@@Preso58 I'm glad to hear it. I need to get a dro on my little lathe too. Yeah, I have a bunch of raw video of projects around the shop, but haven't edited yet, even back from 2020. I'm in the middle of building a prototype (big) vapor blaster from the ground up. Aluminum sheet and rivet construction out of hand tools, with much of it recorded. That plus doing vapor blasting for customers, and when I sit down I don't feel like editing. Instead I start another project, and record it, lol. Thanks for the inspiration. I will get more uploaded. I like the wildlife scenes btw. I wish we had cockatoos landing in the back yard. That's amazing. We just get gold finches, and cardinals fighting.
Lead nut must be connected to a sine bar of sorts which gets forced to travel along rail when rotated.
As a sine rifling machine does, in a way?
Your driven gear to lead screw connection should use a Taper Lock style attachment. Simple, easy to machine , can be indexed via keyway if required, Very strong holding force and very accurate if made correctly. Also bushes are cheap. Perfect for use in confined spaces and easy to assemble and disassemble. A nut style thats common in self aligning bearings or a grub screw or bolt style. If your gear is to thin just use a flanged type.
Cheers
I have used them on a pulley for my lathe and they work great. The problem with Threadexpress is that there is not a lot of metal around the lower end of the spindle and the opportunities to modify the lower end of the spindle are limited. Mainly because there is a nut and a nut carrier that have to go very close to the bevel gear mechanism. Just today, I realised that the locking mechanism for the spindle could be incorporated into the top end of the spindle but that is a refinement for another version.
Regards,
Mark
Very nice work, but the sulphur crested cockatoo at the end is a beauty too!
Those cockatoos are a real entertainment. The other day we watched an interaction between a kookaburra and a cockatoo on the perch that I christened "Kookaburra's Rest". The Cockie was there first and it seemed to resent the intrusion of the Kookaburra. What followed was a lot of drama involving squawking and crest flourishing! Priceless.
Regards,
Mark
@Preso58 i don't know if i could endure the sound tho... i love animals but even blue jays and cardinals are enough to drive me crazy. they'd do better using autotune for me anyways!
Nice work, I'm savoring it with attention. From min. (29.13 - 29.37) mentions of a recirculating sphere guidance system, at this point, I think I have understood that the heart of the instrument is a pantograph that works with Thales' theorem
Interestingly, the original designer and inventor, Cliff Hall references a device by Thales which uses a similar system. I have a new video coming out tomorrow that allows you to see the entire mechanism in mock-up form.
Regards,
Mark
Great vid and Happy New Year 🎉🎉🎉
Maybe a taper pin for the bevel gear locking on to the lead screw. It should stay tight and if not, you would be able to tighten the pin just by driving it in further.
The only issue is that the wall of the spindle is only 3mm thick where the pin needs to go and the spindle is hollow too. Putting a pin right across the spindle would mean that you would not be able to pass long bar stock right through the spindle.
Regards,
Mark
Hi Mark. Happy new year. It occurred to me whilst watching, that the teeth on the bevel gear could be used for indexing the chuck in a similar way to the latch mechanism on the spindle of some dividing heads. Roll on next Saturdays video.
I had originally designed a hole pattern of 36 and 40 for the large bevel gear and it would have been locked with a small retractable pin. It would be similar to the indexing method I use on my lathe. However that plan was soon scuppered by Cliff who pointed out the the 12 hole indexing pattern has to be quite robust since it is also used to lock the spindle when removing the 3 jaw chuck. The chuck needs to be quite tight on the threaded spindle to resist the flycutting forces and also any milling operations like machining hex patterns on bolt heads etc. Reluctantly, I went back to Cliff's original design but it will still give some extra functionality and nothing will break or distort if the chuck has to be forcibly removed.
Regards,
Mark
New sub here. Nice work
Welcome! Glad you're here.
Regards,
Mark
Love what you are doing and hope to follow you when the plans are available. One comment for the machining for the bearing where you changed tools as you tip radius was too big. You could just have machined the corner to a larger diameter so that the tool radius didn't interfere with the bearing radius. A lot easier than changing tools.
It is also a great way to get a dead "sharp corner" without having a major stress concentrator.
To hopefully be clearer if you have a 0.5 tool radius, if you bring the tool, when right in the corner, a further 0.5+ into the material the tool radius will have functionally been removed. When I did this as part of an actual design (on a 4.5m dia beater wheel for Loy Yang power station) we also had to use a very fine feed (NC machine) to get a really smooth finish.
I did consider just undercutting the inside corner. As it turned out it was probably unnecessary. The bearing had quite a rounded corner on it anyway. One of the good things about this build is that there are very few components that have to deal with high stress/high loads. The cutting forces are pretty minimal and the rotational loads are low.
Regards,
Mark
Them pigeons, good tucker bloke. Don't need no sauce.😊
Don't tell my wife that! She's very high up on the Urban Wildlife Gardens working committee! 😐
Regards,
Mark
Thank you
At 20:20 and 20:40, does the TouchDRO have a feature that indicated that each-all holes have been located by changing color, or a check mark, or a tally of sorts? If you have a number of items with a large number of holes each, one could mistakenly forget to drill one or 2 or more during the progress of production.... Does the TouchDRO have the ability to import a computer generated "drill list" or did you key those co-ordinates at 20:20 and 20:40 manually?
There is no feature that keeps a tally of points that have been zeroed out on the XY scale. You really do need to have a paper drawing handy or a list that you can tick off manually. However, Yuriy (TouchDRO devoloper) is always keen to hear about feature requests. The next time I get in touch with him I will mention the idea of some sort of automated tally. I am sure it is something that could be incorporated in the code easily. I usually indicate a corner or centre of a workpiece and then move to the co-ordinates on the drawing and add a point for each location. You can do this in incremental mode or absolute mode. As you move around, the points are added to a list which you can select from for each drilled hole. You can chop and change the order to minimise moves. TouchDRO has a "Plus" version which allows for the import of DXF files which overlay a digital photo of the stock. You can then see a "virtual part" on the screen as you move from point to point. I haven't tried that feature yet and I am not sure how useful it would be but it's there if you have subscribed to the plus version. To be honest, I only use about 15% of what TouchDRO can do.
Regards,
Mark
Its coming along Mark. I'm still trying to work out how you get the variable thread range. I'm thinking that it may be some kind of differential thread setup on some type of sliding scale. I guess we will find out in a few videos time. Happy new year I hope the family are well.
Thanks Jon. It really is a lot simpler than I imagined. I hate not being able to reveal exactly how it works but it's not my "baby". I am thinking that it will all be public knowledge sometime in the early months of this year.
Regards,
Mark
I agree nothing better than Preso in 25
At 18:45, 19:00 and 19:29, I find that the head of the fastener is not always concentric with the shaft of the bolt or screw. Unless you are touching up the head to shaft dimension with a lathe to correct those manufacturing errors, (Maybe try chucking up a few bolts with a dial indicator on the edge of the head and you can see the runout of the head to shaft, maybe you have gotten some high spec screws??) you will always have locating issues with every intermediate assembly, including the final assembly unless you keep track of each exact bolt into each exact hole with each bolts exact rotation angle. At 20:00, maybe this is your problem???? I think the dowel pins are a better idea for the correct location of related parts-features, ... as long as they actually are correctly placed in the first place.... Thanks for making this video.
You should setup a second channel Mark, with wildlife streaming..
Be nice to see some Australian summer right now as I am in the middle of a Canadian winter :)
Cheers,
I believe you are going into some severe weather right now. We visited Canada in the fall of 2018 and enjoyed a walk along the St. Lawrence River about halfway between Montreal and Kingston. There were lovely parks and lots of green grass but we noticed that there weren't many outdoor facilities like tables and public barbecues. It is quite common in Australia for public areas to have lots of facilities like tables, benches and eating areas. We spoke to a local and asked why. He told us that for about six months of the year the place would be under several feet of snow! Duh! We hadn't thought of that.
Regards,
Mark
GRAN TRABAJO💪💪
Gracias y gracias por ver el vídeo.
Regards,
Mark
If you are reading 0,02 deviation from the nominal bearing diameter I suggest it's time to re-calibrated the micrometer.
I think the micrometer is calibrated correctly. The bearings I am using are cheap Chinese angular contact bearings and I am guessing that they have fairly loose tolerances.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 in over 45 years in industry I have never seen such poor tolerancing on a bearing. The chinese really have no guilt in selling such crap
Touch DRO rules!
I know, I love it. It took me a long time to trust it but it has proven to be a real boon to production of complex parts.
Regards,
Mark
👍👍👍👍👍
I would use bearing retainer like 680 loctite
It never occurred to me to put a DTI on the boring head! Always trying to read the scale, remember how far each mark means, etc.
It certainly helps to make the tool setting more visible. The little tiny graduated dial on my boring head is always hard to read and most often, your hand is in the way when you are trying to set it.
Regards,
Mark
To finish that short cut on the bandsaw all you had to do was flip it over 180 surely 🙂
Duh! you're correct. I have such a small brain.
Regards,
Mark
Nature, that is to say animals are the best compensatory after a long speculation on designing a platform like MP 5, AR 15, AK 47, Uzi, and of course Glock. I mean any mechanism or device that functions the best and looks the best.
Simpler to just put servos and scales on the mill - setup linuxCNC and do thread milling. (Freecad can make the Gcode)
That's a great way to ruin the versatility of a bridgeport and not everyone wants a CNC. You're missing the point on this one I'm afraid.
I know that there are CNC alternatives and they are very capable. The downside for me is that I have tried and failed to make sense of LInux. The other issue is that using an interpolated toolpath for thread milling doesn't take into account the helix angle of the thread, unless you have a four or five axis mill. Even then it would be no simple matter to create the G code. There is also the risk of tool crashes due to poor planning. One of the advantages of Threadexpress is that it is an entirely manual process. You can pause and slow down the thread milling process as you approach a shoulder and you get direct feedback on the thread milling process.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 The helix is not a problem - I've done this on a Wells Index that I converted to a closed servo loop control. The learning curves were easier when I was younger - so I understand. FreeCad today makes G-code generation fairly easy - once you learn the tools. I learned G-code when I was in my late 60s. I often write G-code at the console for one-off projects.
Kangaroos are so weird, thanks!
YO ESTOY AUTOMATIZANDO UNA FRESADORE , POR SI A ALGUNO LE SIRVE