The future – 3D printing! I have just bought a SUMPOD kit to build my own printer.

Posted on 7 September, 2011 by Mike Freeman

Whilst frustratingly (been 3 or 4 months now!) laid up and not able to get back to either my metal workshop or the relatively new (and separate wooden shed 'wood' workshop)I have been researching 3D printing and I must admit is is mind blowing what it can do and how it will affect all of our lives! Yes I believe its impact on all of us will be dramatic.

At the hobby level there is a thriving home build printing world with several embryonic new companies and individuals involved. There are also some major players in the commercial sector already saving massive mounts of money with prototyping. Its not just plastics though with the big boy's. Oh no, they even print in metal! Some of the complex mathematical shapes drawn on CAD programs are printing in metal and would be if not impossible to machine, would be prohibitively expensive. There are a couple of video's below that will illustrate some of what I mean but I want to concentrate on what uses I will put my kit to when it arrives in early October (fingers crossed).

Metal printing!....yes printed!

How about printing a working ball bearing? well here is an example......

Finally how about an adjustable spanner that works and no assembly! Straight from the printer.

There are two main uses I see for me in the first instance, one to create patterns for casting aluminum and secondly, printing parts for use in their own right. The plastic filament at present for the home use is either PLA (based on sugar starch) which is recommended for the casting use, or ABS which is the same plastic used in Lego bricks.

Whilst waiting for the kit to arrive I have made several drawings in Alibre 3D CAD of items to printout. These are saved as STL files which are then imported into a great piece of free software called ReplicatorG which cleverly converts the model into slices and then converts that to the GCode required by the printer.

One of the first items I want to printout is a holder for my Proxxon precision drill/grinder and this will then allow me to have a small capacity CNC facility. Exciting times.

If you want to know more about 3D printing the visit my new website http://www.3d-printer-kit.com where I will cover both he build and also experience using the printer.

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Steve Huck’s engine he designed and built himself now runs!

Posted on 4 September, 2011 by Mike Freeman

Whilst I may be laid up and unable to work its nice to see someone being successful! Steve Huck (who helped me with the camshaft calculations and cutting chart) has now finished one of his engines. Its nice to see the many many hours of work be completed and working! Well done Steve!

 

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Lathe tidied then a small wood chuck bar turned up

Posted on 1 June, 2011 by Mike Freeman

 

Well I decided to give the lathe a good sort out after the Seal crankshaft. So I replaced the face plate with the three jaw chuck which allowed me to replace a tightening bar I snapped the end off some time ago.

I decided to use stainless steel and it didn't take long to make the bar in the pictures, in fact I surprised  myself how quick it was. I suppose this only emphasis's the complexity of the work I have been doing on the Seal crankshaft.

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Seal Crankshaft – next stage is profiling

Posted on 30 May, 2011 by Mike Freeman

Well I managed to turn all the journals to size without a major mistake (so far!) and only have the profiling to do on the milling machine. I did check the journals on the granite block and was pleased that they all came around the +/- 0.001 tolerance I set myself. However it is important I feel, to maintain one measurement instrument since there are differences between say a digital caliper and micrometer as discussed on this blog previously.

Now that the 'important' machining is done I can concentrate on the overall profile of the crankshaft. When done I will mark out the second blank waste area's and will drill away the waste before milling as I did this first one. Still, progress is progress.....

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Progress may be slow but its still progress machining the Seal Cankshaft

Posted on 21 May, 2011 by Mike Freeman

 

Managed to get into the model engineering workshop (I now have a separate wood workshop which is great if I am not feeling well enough for the more demanding (for me)metal work) to continue with machining the Seal crankshaft. My now established methodology is very slow, but it also seems to be giving accurate results. The part I am turning now has a seating for one bearing which is (according to my micrometer) dead on 0.375" with the second part 0.0005 undersized and the nut end dead on.

Of course this only adds to the pressure of not *&^%$%& it up! The finish I am achieving is also very good and will need little final polishing, if any. Basically I am using a carbide tipped parting off tool for cutting and only cut 5 thou at a time and at only 100 rpm with the finest feed rate on my lathe. There more than likely are many better and even more professional methods, but it works for me!

After bringing two parts of the taper end of the crankshaft to size I set the top slide over to 5 deg to get the required 10 deg inclusive angle. Beforehand however I sightly scored the finish position to gauge if everything was all right and was relieved to see the taper completed to the mark exactly.

Once the both ends of the crankshaft are completed I will make spacers to fit between flanges to help maintain the shape and add support when turning the journals. At present its not a problem because I am turning on the central crankshaft.

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Faulty DRO replaced but not a simple plug and play!

Posted on 12 May, 2011 by Mike Freeman

 

After buying a DRO unit to replace one that came originally with my lathe some 5 years ago I had some issues getting it to work.

First of all I was buying one from Singapore that advertised it as “Suitable for replacing your faulty scale / using other brand of linear scale/encoder feedback.”

I must admit I was more than a little skeptical but checking their feedback reassured me that they seemed a genuine company. Also the cost, even including shipping from Singapore to the UK for a total of approximately £120 ($200) was £60 cheaper than the original supplier (China) quoted. I decided to go for the cheaper option (twas every thus!).

Whether the aggravation was worth it then I suppose it depends on where you are in the process... When pulling my hair out over the last few days trying to get it to work, then I cursed myself for being a cheapskate (or poor....). Now that it is finally working, I have a bargain!

The positives and negatives of the project from my perspective.

Communications:

Both negative and positive! Peter, the chap I was emailing, always answered emails promptly. However language proved difficult for me even though we kept sending photo’s. If I followed what I thought (not necessarily what Peter meant!) it wouldn’t work. Resulting in several photo’s/diagrams being emailed between us. One major issue revolved around the numbering of pins on the D plug. I was reading the numbers relating to pins to be soldered to the pins to be soldered!!!! No, the pin numbering relates to the front of the plug! Indeed the numbers could be seen when using a Jewelers loupe. I then constructed my own diagram and worked out the colours for each pin from Peters labeling of a photo I sent him showing existing wiring (this was the cause of the breakthrough really). One further fault/frustration was by reading that one pin needed to be soldered and then earthed (or so I think) and when trying the plug the numerals would only change up/down by one digit increase/decrease. In frustration I decided it looked like an earth fault (don’t ask me why!) and I thought &^%$$% it, I’ll cut this earth wire to that pin.

Continue reading →

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Excel is a bonus for planning crankshaft machining

Posted on 25 February, 2011 by Mike Freeman

Whilst not up to doing any machining I thought I would take the opportunity to draw up a better dimension aide memoir. I did however manage to reverse the set up ready for the next  session.

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Seal Crankshaft – Milling and turning the blanks

Posted on 23 February, 2011 by Mike Freeman

In this, and future posts, I am adding links to where I source my tooling (new or second hand) in response to the many enquires I get as to where I bought a particular item. So the links will take you to suppliers or auction sites relative to the item highlighted and hopefully help readers directly.

Crankshaft.

After quite a bit of work on laptop the produced a set of dimensions were transferred to my master build notebook and also the white board alongside the Milling machine. I first tried using my dividing head to hold the blank for machining but because that  meant using a chuck I decided that my Vertex Rotary Table would be easier. It also meant using my as yet un-used, tail-stock, as the first method of securing the blank. I took good care to make sure the blank was level in both planes and then added an angle plate with vertical flat bar to secure part of the blank with an engineers clamp. Finally, a small jack was secured under the blank allowing a very stiff fix to take place.

Once the top side was completed the bar was revolved 180 deg. and the remainder of the blank milled to shape. This was then transferred to the lathe for the next stage in the process of producing the two crankshafts.

Quite a bit of time was spent setting up the lathe. I decided to tackle the turning by fixing a driving dog (to be made up) to the face plate. Using a new large centre at the head stock end and a live centre at the tail stock meant a smooth turn could be achieved. The final task was to ensure the tail stock and head stock were in line before turning the whole face plate one complete revolution to ensure nothing caught.

I have a Glanze replaceable carbide tipped parting tool and thought I would try to use the parting tool to machine the crankshaft. The carbide insert hadn't been changed for some time but I thought it would be best to turn all down before finishing cuts would be made using a brand new insert.

The surface finish gained so far shows promise for final cuts. So far I have turned one end to just become round before turning down the three different sizes required of that end. So far , so good.................

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Seal Crankshaft – marking out

Posted on 23 February, 2011 by Mike Freeman

After converting all the plans dimensions to decimal using a excel spreadsheet, they were transferred to both steel blanks. To ensure they were as accurate as possible a small angle plate combined with an engineer's square clamped in position ensured the markings were at right angles to the longest side. To allow sufficient 'waste' material at each end I used a 0.250 slip gauge to set the height gauge to zero. I also referred frequently to the gauge as I went up the blanks, to ensure no accidental slippage occurred as I went higher. It is still surprising to me that you can pick up expensive and accurate second hand tooling on eBay. I have added a few in this article that lead to the auction site for those who have asked where I buy my tooling.

Also using this method of marking out allowed any errors in end squareness of the blanks to be eliminated. Whilst it may seem a lot of work to mark out in this fashion the lines are a great safety measure for me as I progress to the milling and turning stages, especially since they will not be needed initially because of the use of digital readouts on both lathe and Mill. So they provide a constant check whilst machining.

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