Metalworking Related Projects. This file started out as a place I could stow references to neat projects. I have no illusions that I will ever make (m)any of the more-complex mechanical marvels. In any event, the projects are a source of wonder and inspiration. Perhaps they are also useful in employing methods or giving tips that will be of use in our own less challenging works. They may also give some ideas to more enterprising members as to producing items that might bring a happy buck. Could help pay for this hobby, or take the spouse out to dinner for tolerating (surely not enjoying?) so much time without our company. Extracted from the intro to this site's Home Shop Business file: "Just remember to check out the patent situation. Doing a one-off car part for yourself is okay. Making and selling that same part is only okay if there is no patent still in force. If in doubt, or you plain don't know the patent status, invest some time in research to save much money in court." Initially the projects were mostly metal stuff for metalworkers. But woodworkers can also benefit from tools and jigs needing metalwork in their construction. So projects involving metalwork are now being added, no matter which hobby they ultimately benefit. If you got to this file directly from my HOME PAGE, return there by using your browser's back button. BUT if you came to this file as the result of a web search engine, see more than 70 additional files on my home page Machining and Metalworking at Home http://www.janellestudio.com/metal/ SAFETY WARNING BEWARE: DO NOT ASSUME that any subject matter or procedure or process is safe or correct or appropriate just because it was mentioned in a news/user group or was included in these files or on this site or on any other web site or was published in a magazine or book or video. Working with metals and machinery and chemicals and electrical equipment is inherently dangerous. Wear safety devices and clothing as appropriate. Remove watches, rings, and jewellery -- and secure or remove loose clothing -- before operating any machine. Read, understand and follow the latest operating procedures and safety instructions provided by the manufacturer of your machine or tool or product. If you do not have those most recent official instructions, acquire a copy through the manufacturer before operating or using their product. Where the company no longer exists, use the appropriate news or user group to locate an official copy. Be careful -- original instructions may not meet current safety standards. Updated safety information and operating instructions may also be available through a local club, a local professional in the trade, a local business, or an appropriate government agency. In every case, use your common sense before beginning or taking the next step; and do not proceed if you have any questions or doubts about any procedure, or the safety of any procedure. Follow all laws and codes, and employ certified or licenced professionals as required by those laws or codes. Hazardous tasks beyond your competence or expertise should also be contracted to professionals. Let's be really careful out there. (c) Copyright 2003 - 2008 Machining and Metalworking at Home The form of the collected work in this text file (including editing, additions, and notes) is copyrighted and this file is not to be reproduced by any means, including electronic, without written permission except for strictly personal use. ====================================================================== From: "Y.K.Chan" Date: Sun Jul 9, 2000 5:04 pm Subject: Re: [sherline] Stirling plans From: > Please,I'd like,if possible to know where I can find,the plans for > the Stirling Hot Air which Mr.Tim Schroeder displayed in the > Sherline Catalog pg.44. Thanks Those are my favorite pages. Enjoy. http://www.steamengine.com.au/se/info/stirling/livesteam_stirling/ http://www.webmania.com.au/se/info/stirling/buildme_pics.html YK Seattle ------- Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 20:47:53 -0600 From: Ron Roske Subject: Re: New Member Paul Welcome and I am fairly new to the group, myself. Have a suggestion for a simple and useful item as a first project. This is one of the first things that I did anyway. Measure the distance from the top of the table to the center of the spindle. Take a piece of 3/4 to 1" brass rod, several inches long and turn one end flat. Cut a step, at least 1/8" to maybe 1/4" deep, on the rod that is the same as your measurement taken from the flat end. Continue that cut for an inch or so towards the flat end. Finish off the other end in any way that you see fit. You now have a gauge that you can use to set the height of your cutting bits and cut off tools. You can buy one of these from Sherline for a few bucks, but I enjoyed doing this and felt that I had accomplished something constructive when I had finished it. Best of luck and again, welcome. -Ron- ------- Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 23:26:42 EST From: catboat15x~xxaol.com Subject: Re: How to make a locomotive Here is something I ran across browsing old Model Railroader magazines. I know many of you like to make steam locomotives and here is how it is done full scale. Described by a small girl after visiting Baldwin works. You pour a lot of sand into a lot of boxes and you throw old stove lids and things into a furnace, and then you empty the molten stream into a hole in sand and everybody yells and swears. Then you pour it out and let it cool and pound it, and then you put it in a thing that bores holes in it. Then you screw it together and paint it and put steam in it and it goes splendidly, and they take it to the drafting room and make a blueprint of it. But, one thing I forgot - they have to make a boiler. One man gets inside and one gets outside, and they pound it frightfully. And then they tie it to the other thing, and you ought to see it go! John Meacham High Desert of California, Palmdale, Littlerock. ------- Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 20:29:24 -0000 From: karl.grossx~xxgm.com Subject: fly tying vise I've been a member of this group for awhile, mostly enjoying the posts and amazed at all the help and knowledge that is available. I am new to machining after finding a sherline lathe and mill at a garage sale. I've been building one of Rudy K's two cylinder marine steam engines for the last 6 months(didn't know what I was getting into),and I'm working in a world I never new existed. I would like to make a fly tying vise (old hobby)and wonder if anyone has ever seen a plan for one. Any help would be great.Looking forward to meeting some of you at the NAMES show in April. ------- Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 20:55:08 -0000 From: stevetarvinx~xxhotmail.com Subject: Re: fly tying vise Karl: I don't have plans but I tried making a vise one time the problem is finding an alloy for the jaws that won't set in the closed position. I tried hardening annealing tempering several different types of steel I had in the shop and never could solve the problem. I finally converted it into a line winder and bought a new vise. If you solve the jaw problem I'd like to hear how. Good luck,and welcome to a lifetime of learning. steve ------- Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 16:55:22 -0600 From: Gordon Couger Subject: Re: Re: fly tying vise I would try to find a coil spring that the steel is large enough in diameter to make the jaws and anneal it, straighten it, machine it and heat treat it. Gordon Gordon Couger gcougerx~xxcouger.com Stillwater, OK www.couger.com/gcouger ------- Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 21:06:46 -0600 From: Gordon Couger Subject: Re: Re: fly tying vise > Wouldn't drill rod machined, hardened and tempered work well? > I also would like to see plans for a vise. > Haven't fished and tied flies for years It might but it wouldn't work as well or last as long as spring steel. A great deal of money and research has been spent on springs and tool steel the qualities needed in each of them are radically different. Another consideration might be to use music wire to provide the spring for the jaws. Attaching the music wire to the jaws would be a challenge. Gordon ------- Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 21:29:50 -0600 From: Custom Built Fishing Rods Subject: Re: fly tying vise I would say if you are on the front side of your learning curve, buy a good set of jaws from someone like Renzetti and build the rest of the vise. A good start on a plan would be (again) a good exploded view of an existing commercially produced model that you liked. ------- Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 08:36:37 -0500 From: "Marshall Pharoah" Subject: Re: fly tying vise Think outside the curve. When I was a teenager first tying flies I used a pair of needle nose pliers with a rubberband to hold them closed. If the thought of a collet scares you, use a screw clamp arrangement. Marshall ------- Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 10:23:12 -0600 From: Custom Built Fishing Rods Subject: Re: fly tying vise I am a long time tier (and machinist), and I struggled for years with pliers and rubber bands, $30 imported vises, etc., etc. I even gave up tying for a while because of the frustration factor associated with these pieces of junk. I finally broke down and spent a bit more money for a quality vise and it makes all the difference in the world. The point of all this is, if you want a good fly tying vise and feel the desire to make your own, why spend months (and extra dollars) fabricating a complicated, less than adequate device when you can spend around $50 (far less than one could build a set for) for a set of jaws that will work first time every time and not involve an act of congress to adjust for different hook sizes. On the other hand, if you are already set up to cut complex angles in the hardest of steels to very close tolerances, heat treat and professionally finish these parts so they won't rust, then by all means have at it. I gave up reinventing the wheel a long time ago. Trying to fab a set of jaws as good as could be had for a few bucks would be like trying to grind endmills from stock; why bother when someone else has gone to the trouble to make them already? Unless bragging rights are your primary concern, buy the jaws and build the rest. ------- Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 23:33:51 -0500 From: Tom Bank Subject: Re: Re: Re: fly tying vise Gordon and Les, It seems that a lot of us were fly tiers before we got the where-with-all to buy our machining equipment. I too have all the fly-tying gear and supplies, but lack the time away from the machinery to turn out the bugs. Metal chips are just more fun! But on the subject of the jaws, I would use plain unhardened drill rod. The problem with the spring steel is that it would be so hard it wouldn't conform at all to the steel of the hook, gripping at one small point only, and then allowing the hook to swing up and down around that point as you attempted to tie the fly, wearing the varnish off the hook in the process. I think the real key to making the vise jaws is to make sure the slit between the two jaws goes back maybe 2-1/2" into the collet tube to allow enough metal to bend back and forth without taking a set. I too have the kind of vise where the jaws are retracted by a rear-end cam into a collet sleeve, made by Herters or Thompson back in the '50s. I am sure that that vice has "soft jaws" -- if unhardened steel can be considered soft. I also had other vises before it that had harder jaws and I ruined some good hooks as well as frustrated myself trying to tie flies on them before I bought the whole set from Herters. Too bad old George turned that business over to his grandson. The kid ran the company bankrupt -- with the help of the government and their restrictions on selling firearms. I know, off topic, but it is interesting that the restrictions on importing wild bird feathers that put such a crimp in fly tying from the mid-fifties to the eighties have now been relaxed. Regards, Tom Bank ------- Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001 10:05:46 -0500 From: Tom Bank Subject: My mistake; was Fly Tying Vise I'm sorry, I was wrong. I think Les had the right answer. Then again, Gordon may be describing the stuff used in the modern vises. It sounds like both Les and I have not kept up with the latest developments in vise making. After sending my e-mail last night, I went up to bed and pulled a book titled "Professional Fly Tying and Tackle Making Manual and Manufacturers' Guide" by George L. Herter from the book shelf (first copyright was 1941). In it, George comments on the development of the vise. "An American, Mr. D. H. Thompson, of Elgin, Illinois, made the first advancement in fly vises a good many years ago by bringing out a lever-operated model which worked on the cam principle.... Engineers from the Herter Corporation next brought out a line of vises and tools designed for the commercial tyer. Jaws on these vises are made of alloy steel, hardened all the way through instead of case hardened, and all parts are made for extreme durability under prolonged use." This morning I went down and pulled my vise apart. I would say the jaws are drill rod, chromed at the tip. There is a 1/16" slot about 1-1/2" long to split the jaws and the jaws are drawn by the cam into a collet, behind which the jaw piece is necked to 9/32". That means you have the two jaws on the ends of inch long stems that are slightly less than 1/8" wide and rounded in profile on the outside. My vise jaws have taken a slight set because for the most part I was tying very small flys, but they still open 3/64" wide and could be sprung back further if necessary for salmon hooks. For salt water fly tying, I think Herter's made a larger vise. Mr. Gross, I don't have drawings of the pieces in the vise, but would it be of any help if I pulled my vise (a Herter's #9) apart and scanned the pieces to give you an idea of what parts are involved? I could then answer any questions on thread sizes and how the parts fit and work together. I might even make a vise of my own some day. I have been thinking for a number of years of making what the furniture craftsmen call a secretary, with a fold down front, that would be an elaborate fly tying bench. In it I would like to put a vise on a vertical shaft with a round knob at the base that could be clamped tight to hold it up or released to lay it down flat and then covered with a slide-out writing surface. Regards, Tom Bank ------- Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001 10:02:54 -0600 From: Custom Built Fishing Rods Subject: Re: My mistake; was Fly Tying Vise When you get ready to build that fancy tying bench, don't mount the vise to the top, build a nice base that can be moved around the top. This will allow you to work on the fly from any angle without having to disturb your setup. I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would want to go to the trouble of scratch building something like the Thompson standard vise. The advent of the rotary vise has made fly tying fun, and much simpler than doing it with a fixed head vise like the Thompson. For inspiration, check out the Renzetti and Dyna-King lines, they are the current standard by which all others are measured. For absolute simplicity of operation (any hook size held without jaw adjustment) look at the Regals. They offer a rotating head model which is popular with production tyers thanks to the jaw design that allows going from a #22 to a #6 (or larger) hook simply by taking one out and inserting the other. Don't confuse a rotating head style vise with a true rotary vise. The true rotary design allows the hook to be spun on the shank centerline so your material is simply held and wound onto the hook. A rotating head design allows the head (jaws) to be rotated for viewing, but material must be wound on by rotating the material about the hook. Trust me on this one, the rotary design is by far the simplest and easiest to use. If anyone is interested, I have a nice exploded view of the Renzetti Traveler vise that includes part numbers and details of both a clamp mount and a pedestal base mount. ------- Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 21:36:07 -0000 From: ssmithx~xxserena.com Subject: Re: How To? > I'm planning on making some T-Slots in a piece of aluminum that I > want to match those in the Sherline Equipment. I know that the > method is to make a straight groove in the metal using a standard > 1/4 inch end mill. Once this groove is made, the next step is to > use a tool that has a smaller shaft and is able to cut the lower > part of the groove wall. What is the tool that I > want to use called, and where can it be purchased? > Jerry Jankura, Strongsville, Ohio So many toys, so little time This has come up in the past and you may want to search previous messages. There is no T slot cutters for the shurline T slot. However the Woodruff key seat cutter STD 207 (3/32 face 5/16 dia) would work. The only problem is that is has a 1/2 shank. You could use a 4 jaw check to hold it and zero it in. Or as I plan, to make my own holder from a 3055 #1 morse blank. Or as others plan and bore out a 3/8 mill holder. Some Woodruff key seat cutters may a shaft out the bottom face that needs to be ground flat. ------- Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2001 16:02:20 -0000 From: "david albert" Subject: Re: fly fishing reel plans > Looking for plans to make a small reel on my Sherline. Know that > popular mechanics has plans back in 50s but can't find that issue. > any ideas> I am trying to do the same thing. I am going to model my reels after the Bauer reels I currently own. (www.bauerflyreel.com) I have an LM3 and a MX4. I can give you my measurements if you are interested, but I don't have plans. I'm just taking things one step at a time, i.e. measure, cut, measure, cut.... As you start your building, please keep me informed on how you chuck up 3.5" thru 4.5" aluminum bar stock on your sherline lathe. Also, if you know of a place to buy inexpensive teflon sealed stainless steel ball bearings. Most reels have between 3-4 ball bearings and the cheapest price I've found is $3.00/ea. Good luck! ------- Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2001 18:40:51 -0000 From: jca455x~xxmindspring.com Subject: Re: fly fishing reel plans > I am trying to do the same thing. I am going to model my reels after > the Bauer reels I currently own. I have the same notion, among to build my own reel. I plan on modeling mine on the "Loop" reel system. The one with the triangular frame with the 3 rollers on the inside of the reel. This should save me from having to turn large, round stock. I can form the real from 2 pieces of flat stock, cut round, and attach them with spacers. Let me know how yours turns out. Good luck. Joe A. ------- Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2001 21:43:15 -0000 From: stevetarvinx~xxhotmail.com Subject: Re: fly fishing reel plans David: I've made several Ross replica reels and although I dont have a sherline lathe (only a mill) You should look for articles by Mr WR Smith regarding his super glue jig the first time i used one i took huge cuts on a 10" lathe trying to get it to fail it didnt. The jig is just a piece of round aluminun with a morse taper shaft on one surface to attach to the lathe spindle faced and grooved on the other end,the grooves seem to be the seceret as once they they fill up you have to scrape or soak in acetone With this jig you turn face and bore, they really do work good luck steve ------- Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2001 22:43:37 -0000 From: dlouis1x~xxqwest.net Subject: Re: fly fishing reel plans Thanks David. I plan on using the faceplate, take two sided sticky tape and turn very slowly. I have done this in the past with success. will keep you posted. I have used it for turning plexiglass rounds with some success. Will check out the Bauer site. ------- Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 00:18:21 -0600 From: "Bill May" Subject: RE: fly fishing reel plans Correction on that issue. It's the January '51 of MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED, not Popular Mechanics. If you would like me to scan the article, let me know. ------- Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 03:25:01 EST From: tadici283x~xxcs.com Subject: Re: Grade of bearings? In a message dated 3/26/2001, lasernerdx~xxhotmail.com writes: > Does anyone know what kind, or grade of radial ball bearings the Taig > headstock uses? I've got this crazy idea (well, dream really) to make > a horizontal CNC machining center (what AM I smoking??) and I want to > make a custom headstock for it. I find the Taig's is too small and I > don't like the spindle taper it has (for a QC tooling system). > Thanks for any help, You can get a 3"x3" by 4" block of alumin and have it machined to fit Timken bearings races and use a MT2 extension add a few dust covers and mount some XL pulleys and you have a nice dropdead strong headstock, the tapered bearings do not hurt my feelings also. I have made one already but am experimenting with it now; it was not to costly a project either. I have approx. 14.00 in the bearings; the block of alumin was approx. 2.00 and machining by my larger lathe and 4 jaw chuck, you will need a rather large lathe to do the machining (I can machine a 24" flywheel on my lathe) or send it out. Some other odd parts and you have a solid headstock. I had plans to post some pictures, but moved into a new shop (a house came with it, ha ha) but I will in a few weeks. Any questions please feel free to write. Chris of Bradenton FLA ------- Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 09:40:24 +0100 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: Grade of bearings? At 03:33 27/03/2001 +0000, you wrote: >Does anyone know what kind, or grade of radial ball bearings the Taig >headstock uses? I've got this crazy idea (well, dream really) to make >a horizontal CNC machining center (what AM I smoking??) and I want to >make a custom headstock for it. I find the Taig's is too small and I >don't like the spindle taper it has (for a QC tooling system). Mine are marked "6203-Z". They are a fairly standard, 40mm OD 17mm ID, single row bearing. See [join three lines together, no spaces]: http://rswww.com/itc/scripts/Module.jsp?BV_Sess ionID=x~xxx~xxx~xxx~xx1396934854.0985682193x~xxx~xxx~xxx~xx&BV_Engi neID=halkhhgdedmbemfcfkmcggcg.0&usertype=guest&productID=2867978 or go to: http://rswww.com/ and do a search on 6203. Regards, Tony ------- Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2001 11:24:08 -0500 [sherline] From: "Dan Statman" Subject: Re: Re: First project with my new rotary table Rab, I do not divulge my inlay techniques to anybody. This was a process that I developed without any outside assistance. I have a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and a strong material science background. It is a very interesting and amazing process which holds the inlays permanently in place. Even the CNC kits are too much of a bother for me right now, none of them seem to work without excessive amounts of tinkering. The rings are held with various sets of soft jaws for the 3-jaw chuck. By using the soft jaws you can make 2 sets which will hold every possible ring size from 2-16+ and never have to make any mandrels or other LIMITED size holders. One set hold the ring by the outside diameter and another set can be made to hold them by the inside diameter. And if you screw up the jaws, they are only $35 a set (-15%). ------- From: "John Shadle" Date: Sat Jun 23, 2001 7:07 pm Subject: Torsion balance clock. My torsion balance clock is finished. The lathe work was done with my Taig Microlathe and my Sherline mill, plus a lot of help from the ancient and battered old Mosely watchmakers lathe. There are a few pictures here: The balance wheel runs dead true. It was trued using the internal "full circle" soft jaws on the Taig, then drilled on the Sherline rotary table without removing it from the Taig chuck, which fits on the Sherline. http://www.geocities.com/jshadle.geo/clockten.html John B. Shadle, CMC Online Clockbuilding: http://geocities.com/jshadle.geo/online_clock_building http://geocities.com/jshadle.geo/ ------- From: "John Shadle" Date: Fri Jun 29, 2001 7:13 pm Subject: Yet another new clock finished. Hard to believe, but I've just finished another clock. This one is a miniature version of the Online Clockbuilding project. Actually, I made it last winter and have just gotten the finish work done so that it can go to the Crafts Contest in New Orleans next week For those who want a peek, pix can be found at: http://us.geocities.com/jshadle.geo/clocknine.html Or it can be reached through my main webpage. http://geocities.com/jshadle.geo/ I want to thank everyone for the positive comments I got on the last clock. Your encouragement is much appreciated, believe me. The next clock will be a long time coming. John B. Shadle, CMC Online Clockbuilding: http://geocities.com/jshadle.geo/online_clock_building http://geocities.com/jshadle.geo/ ------- From: Alan Marconett KM6VV Date: Mon Jul 16, 2001 1:43 pm Subject: Re: [sherline] New project deanwx~xxv... wrote: > For any who wish to take a look, I've expanded my webpages with the > addition of a new project. It's a simple indexing fixture that I > built over a year ago, and have finally got around to starting a page > for it. It's at http://home.rmci.net/deanw/shop-3.html > I've used it to cut some gears for a small gas engine I am currently > building and it has worked well. Check it out if you'd like. > Regards Dean W Hi Dean, Nice project! I'll tune in later to see how you accurately layout the holes. I've used surplus gears and timing belt pulleys, I'm curious to see what you've come up with! I now have sherline's rotary table, with a stepper attached, so it becomes quite easy! I can either use Vector CAD/CAM to generate the Gcode, or drive it directly from a little indexing program I have. The "Bedside Reader" has a technique where you calculate a ring circle, and use pins to index around (you calculate for n pins to exactly fit the ring circle cut into a disk). Quite clever, I thought! Alan KM6VV ------- From: deanwx~xxv... Date: Mon Jul 16, 2001 3:41 pm Subject: Re: New project Thanks Alan; I used a trick I learned in a mechanical drawing class I took a few years back. It's just dividing a line into equal parts and then wrap the line around a disc to find where the holes go. (The line is on a piece of paper.) The page for it is up now. Takes longer for me to type it out than to do it! There's a lot to be learned in those Bedside Readers too. I like 'em. Regards, Dean W ------- From: "Daniel Munoz" Date: Mon Jul 16, 2001 3:59 pm Subject: Flying chips Hi guys! I've made my first cut with my Sherline lathe last week-end and want to share my excitement! Wow, amazing tool! After letting it sleep for a while because of lack of a place to install it, I'm stunned about how easy the lathe cut some brass and aluminum. Making chips flying was a real pleasure. Ok, the project I started was very humble, a brass cannon, and the result is far from my expectations (and the original plan picture and sizes!). But it's good enough for a first cut ;-) And my wife find it lovely, so... Now, I will need to learn and practice a lot! And after that and making a complete cannon (well, 6 of them in fact for my ship model), I will go a step further and try to build a drill press attachment. Unlike the existing design based on Ron's drill attachment, I didn't want to infringe Ron's intellectual property and design something very different. Mine could be all the time attached, between the motor and the Z column as a block spacer (there is a positive lock in the design to avoid unexpected Z movements in mill use). There is a handle, moving up and down, just as a real drill press. And I think (hope) rigidity is good enough. But I designed it before seeing the Sherline mill for real, and was surprised by the weight of the motor/head component. Now, I'm not so sure ... I don't know if I'm able to build something rigid and strong enough, and I don't have the guts to machine steel yet! Well, we'll see. I'll post the plans some day. After that, I still have to try to build my table-saw attachment, and also a RPM counter based on an odometer bicycle I have in mind for a while... and, the engine from Rudy's "Steam Engine Video". Now I can appreciate in its full sense the sentence: "So many toys, so little time" As my shop if full of toys, but I don't have all the time I would to use them! Ahhh, I need to go back to work. good day to all! Daniel Quebec, Canada. ------- Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2001 10:57:53 -0400 From: "Daniel Munoz" Subject: Guns and puzzles Hi guys, after a long wait, I've finally made something with my Sherline lathe and mill! For the mill, I've found a perfect project to learn about tolerance, depth cutting and flat milling; the result is not very impressive, but as a total beginner I liked that project and how easily and quickly I can have a tangible thing to play with: http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/puzzle/puzzle1.jpg http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/puzzle/puzzle2.jpg If someone now can tell me now how perfectly polish aluminium... For the lathe, maybe some of you remember I'm a ship modeler, and I've finished the canon of the ship I'm building, "La Belle". Here they are: http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canon1.jpg http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canon2.jpg http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canon3.jpg http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canon4.jpg http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canon5.jpg http://pages.infinit.net/dmunoz/belle/canonx6.jpg Luckily, there's one 6 guns in that ship ! I'll be happy to have some comments; please be gentle, those are my very first try to let some metal chips fly all over the shop :-) Daniel Quebec, Canada ------- Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 10:25:09 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Leetle Beety Oscillator I finished that small oscillating steam engine last night. Keep in mind this is my first engine! That being said, I've got some questions: How much $#%# air does it take to make one of these things turn?! People in "Steam & Stirling" keep talking about stuff like, "It runs like a humming bird on just 5psi of air!" Errr... Ok, mine runs like a rock on 5 psi of air... My guess is I've got too much friction in the system, but once again, this is my first steam engine. I'm admittedly ignorant on the subject. I did make one change from my original design: I'd had a completely flat-sided flywheel. I realized it was rubbing up against the upright, causing a great deal of friction. I faced off one side down to a small shoulder, maybe 3/16" across (it's on a 1/8" axle). This helped a lot, and I can free-wheel it by hand a lot easier. But it still won't spin when I hook it up to a low-pressure air supply. Any ideas? I'll take pictures tonight and post them so you can get a better idea of what I did (right AND wrong). Tom ------- Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 11:01:54 -0700 From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Subject: Re: Leetle Beety Oscillator A lot of it depends on the friction of the pivot - valve thingy, try and get the tension (your pivot nut is spring loaded?) down. http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 13:24:15 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Leetle Beety Oscillator On Thu, 11 Oct 2001, Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein wrote: > A lot of it depends on the friction of the pivot - valve thingy, try > and get the tension (your pivot nut is spring loaded?) down. Yeah, it's spring loaded. I've got a fair amount of travel on the screw and the spring, so it's easy to set the tension. Last night I'd completely removed the spring and screw, and just turned the motor on its side to let gravity do the work. Still no dice. I figure once I get it right, I'll grind the spring to length so I can go ahead and cinch down the screw. But I was leaving that 'till last until I'd cleaned up every other source of friction. I do have some questions about lubricants: Would one lubricate one of these things, or do you run them dry? Would a dry graphite lubricant work better than, say, oil? WHERE would you lubricate? The reason I'm asking is that at some point last night I realized I had a film of oil on EVERYTHING. Sure 'nuff, I wiped off the oil on some of hte mating surfaces, and it moved a lot easier. Do people typically lap the pivot - valve thingy against each other? ;) I flat-lapped both parts, but I can see they're not meeting up absolutely perfectly because of the wear markings on both parts. Thanks, Tom ------- Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 17:36:00 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Leetle Beety Oscillator Ok, got pictures up. It's in my folder "Tom's Taig" under "Oscillator". Three overall views: osc-fw-view.jpg - View from the flywheel osc-piston-view.jpg - View from the piston osc-qtr-view.jpg - 3/4 view Two closeups: osc-fw-clearance.jpg - Clearance on the flywheel. Pretty sure I mentioned having faced off one side of the flywheel to provide clearance. This is basically a shot of that. osc-cylinder.jpg - Basically a shot of the fit between the cylinder and the upright. I've got a short bit of plastic hose stuck on one of the air tubes so I can hook it up using 1/4" tubing. When it's hooked up to an aquarium pump, it definitely spins much more happily in one direction than in the other. But it won't run on its own. One idea I had for reducing friction between the cylinder and the upright was to cut a shallow clearance on the back of the cylinder where it fits against the upright, leaving contact pads at the valves, and at the bottom of the cylinder. Lemme know what you think! Tom ------- Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 10:24:35 +0800 From: Alison & Jim Gregg Subject: Re: Leetle Beety Oscillator Hi Tom. Two things come to mind re the oscillator. 1. DEFINITELY relieve the faces around the pivot pin so you have a raised land at each end of the mating faces ie one where the ports are, and one at the other end. The area in the middle contributes large amounts of friction, while contributing absolutely nothing to the engines operation. The only function of the prot faces is to provide valve events while sealing adequately, - thats the port end, and to keep the cylinder parallel to the axis of the engine - the bottom end of the face. It is better to remove the metal from the engines standard, not the cylinder, for two reasons - usually there isn't too much metal to screw the pin into on the cylinder assembly, so reducing that makes no sense, and the considerations about alignement, - see also 2. below about how to do it. 2. Pivot Pin. Most model engineers actually build the pivot pin bearing arrangement on oscillators too well!! The functions of the pivot pin are only to stop the cylinder moving up and down or sideways, or falling off the standard, while allowing it to pivot. It has nothing to do with the mating alignement of the sliding action of the port face. Think of it this way - If you have a well fitted long bearing for the pivot pin then the pin is constrained so that it can only move either axially (slide in and out in the bearing), or else move by rotation. It is unable to move sideways or to tilt. You have two mating port faces at right angles to the axis of the pin (or they SHOULD be!). To seal this means an incredible degree of accuracy is needed in both the pivot pin and its bearing with reference to be square with the port faces. If you don't achieve this then two things happen - you get leakage at the port face because the bearing is holding the port faces from seating properly, and you get lots of friction as whatever minute degree of misalignement causes the port face and the pin bearing to bind as they try to self align under the spring pressure. I recently bought some gear from the estate of a deceased member of a local model engineering society, and among it was a box with half a dozen small oscillating engines, several from commercial castings. The box was marked "U/S-failiures - don't work.". In each case he had carefully fitted longer bearings for the pivot pins, and well fitted the pin to the bearings, and there was no relief between the sliding faces. He was right - they did not work. The solution is to cut off the excess bearing length, so there was only about 1/16 -3/32" left and have a slightly sloppy fit for the pivot pin, and to cut the relief into the port face around the pivot pin in the standard. They now work! I suggest you make sure that you have a slightly sloppy fit for the pin so the sliding faces control the alignment, and cut the relief as above. Good luck with it! Jim Gregg. ------- Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 02:37:54 -0000 From: n2562001x~xxyahoo.com Subject: Re: Leetle Beety Oscillator Tom: You should be able to give the flywheel a spin with your finger and it should spin a couple of times on its own if it is free enough to run. ( without air attached ) If it spins free the only other item will be the intake and exhaust port alignment. The intake should start to open when the piston is all the way foreward . The exhaust should start to open when the piston is all the way to the rear. Just about any oil will work for lubrication and 5 psi will run a properly fit engine of this size. Have Fun Jerry Kieffer ------- Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 11:51:31 +0800 From: Alison & Jim Gregg Subject: Re: Leetle Beety Oscillator Second Thoughts! Some additional thoughts on this beast. The late "LBSC" writing in the English magazine "Model Engineer" from about 1923 -1970s described a number of oscillating cylinder engines and pumps and he was always very definate about the need to relieve the port faces as discussed earlier. The oscillator is often quoted as a good starter project, and as a project for someone whos work may not be the most accurate due to inexperience that is probably true, but if someone is trying to work very accurately they can be a bit daunting to get going. There are a number of inter-related alignement problems with an oscillator which if you are working accurately create problems, while a bit of sloppiness allow to work better.:- 1. The cylinder and stationary port faces need to be flat and fit well to each other 2. The cylinder bore needs to be parallel with the port face 3. The pivot pin needs to be square with the port face and the bore both ways. 4. The hole or bearing for the pivot pin in the stationary face (the standard) needs to be square to the port face, and fit the pivot pin. 5. The piston needs to be long enough to guide and oscillate the cylinder, and a good but free fit to the bore. 6. The piston rod needs to be straight and the big end bearing at a true right angle to the axis of the piston. 7. The crankshaft bearing needs to be at right angles to the piston/cylinder axis, and square to the port face. 8. The Crank -pin needs to be parallel to the crank shaft. Wow it's a list, and they all interact. The better you make the engine the worse the problems! Solutions all demonstrated by the commercial toy makers:- 3&4 - very short bearing for pivot pin, and slightly sloppy so the port faces self align and seal, and the bearing merely limits up and down and lateral movement of the pin as per previous message. 6/7/8 A short big end bearing slightly sloppy, so that the crankpin/crankshaft to cylinder misalignements do not try to lever the port faces apart. And of course the relieving of the port face as before. These get you minimum friction, and leakage. If you have binding that varies around the rotation of the crankshaft the problem is usually in the alignement of the crankpin or the crankshaft /cylinder alignement. Be sloppy -Be happy!!! Jim Gregg. ------- Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 17:35:21 +0100 From: Tony Jeffree Subject: Re: Re: Small Site Update At 16:20 17/10/2001 +0000, you wrote: >For those who want some of those who would like some of those small >bearings just go to your local computer repair shop and ask >for any DEAD hard drives.... tearing them apart gives me a sense of >satisfying the "caveman" in me... and you get great bearings and other >useful objects for free and you save the environment!!!! phil One of the other useful things you get from cannibalizing hard drives is the platters themselves - very accurately machined aluminium discs with perfectly concentric central holes. They make great encoder discs for rev counters if you cut a few slots in them, or division plates if you drill a few hole circles. Regards, Tony ------- Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 14:03:54 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Re: Small Site Update > useful objects for free and you save the environment!!!! Huh! Hadn't actually thought of doing that. I've been bemoaning the loss of one of our local electronics stores. Used to be you could walk in, graze the racks, and come away with RFE steppers, variable speed DC motors, all kinds of stuff. Back in the boom, they completely converted over to selling computer hardware, and they have no plans of switching back. But I know where those steppers came from! 5-1/4" full height floppy drives! Old hard drives also had nice stepper hardware. Newer ones are a good source for voice coils. And ALL of them are a nice supply for castable metal. ;) HMMM! I've got three computer repair places between work and home. I'm gonna take a detour tonight! Tom ------- Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 19:35:51 -0000 From: "Jim Lewis" Subject: Laser guided spinning top Hi All: I worked several months on a project on my micro lathe and turned it into a commercial product - an ultra high performance spinning top with laser guided balancing. I thought it might motivate some of you guys to use your wonder machine for a commercial product of your own. Pix and tech details of the device are here: http://www.miclog.com/top Regards, Jim ------- Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2001 12:41:26 -0000 From: "Jim Lewis" Subject: Re: Laser guided spinning top > The web page says it's got six adjustment screws in it. Where did > you put them? Hi Tom: The holes are milled into the bottom and filled with micro counterweights. It's kinda fun adjusting the weights. Regards, Jim ------- Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2001 21:37:13 -0000 From: lesgrenzx~xxhotmail.com Subject: Re: Model Railroad Turnout Jig ideas In sherline, "Chuck & Joanne Johnston"wrote: >I am just starting my first narrow gauge layout (HOn3) and wondered if >anyone out there has built any Jigs for building turnouts ? I have several >ideas but hate to reinvent something that someone else has perfected or >tried. Any ideas will be appreciated. I am also looking for ideas on switch >operating mechanisms. Thanks, Chuck Johnston, Ft Collins Co. Hi Chuck, Welcome to the world of HOn3. I would suggest checking out the HOn3 e- group. they can supply a wealth of information for the beginner and advanced modeler alike. You are close to Caboose Hobbies in Denver. They have lots of experienced staff who can make recommendations. A great place to visit for the weekend. Regards, Les Http://lesgrenz.homestead.com/Leshomepage.html ------- Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 17:12:25 -0000 From: trainman80005x~xxyahoo.com Subject: Re: Model Railroad Turnout Jig ideas Chuck: I have been building turnouts for years and they are not difficult. I would recommend buying a handmade turnout from Caboose Hobbies looking it over closely, buying a couple lengths of nickel silver rail and having at it. You will be supprised how easy they are. By the time you have built your second turnout you willhave the technique. I also recommend you make several track gauges on the lathe, they do come in handy as you build your turnouts. You should be able to make a fixture with the proper frog angle to construct the frogs in and solder them together. Machining and Model Railroading, Two of gods gifts to us. It doesn't get much better than this. Lee Brown ------- Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 06:58:27 -0700 From: "John Shadle" Subject: starter clock project There's a good book by John Wilding called "How to make a weight-driven 8-day wall clock." John is a person who's written many manuals on building clocks. This would be a good starter project. There are new copies of John Wilding's books out there that are put out by the British Horological Institute. These, unfortunately, are barely-discernable photocopies, and expensive at that. If you can find copies of old books on the internet, it's a better deal. You might also be able to get them through inter-library loan at your local library. The demand for these books is low, so no publishers are much interested in printing them. If there were a demand, I'd likely do some myself. John B. Shadle, CMC Online Clockbuilding: http://onlineclockbuilding.com Clock photo gallery: http://geocities.com/jshadle.geo/ ------- Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 14:09:34 -0800 From: "Bob May" Subject: Re: Re: Cross feed If you want to build a power supply for 12/24v motors, there are some nice schematics of model train throttles on the web. These are one of the good sources for low voltage variable power supplies as they are trying to get a wide speed range with significant power over that whole range. The typical current capability of most of the throttles is in the 1-10A areas and with a look at the output section, that power can be upgraded to a lot higher if desired. I've built throttles using 60A devices and I would expect that they would be able to provide that much output current without hardly any problems. Bob May http://nav.to/bobmay NEW! http://bobmay.astronomy.net ------- Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 04:34:14 -0000 From: "jeastwoodlm" Subject: Machinist/musicians: how about making a mouthpiece? As a sort of "etude" to exercise my machining skills, I decided to try my hand at making a trombone mouthpiece. I've had my 4400 and 5400 lathe and mill for about a year, so am not by any means an experienced machinist. I have been using them a lot and am having a very good and educational time, turning out digital camera-to-telescope adaptors for myself and my amateur astronomer buddies, various bits of tooling and accessories, and the occasional odd project such as this mouthpiece. See the Photos section of this group; the name is Trombone Mouthpiece. I obtained a mouthpiece from my father, a retired elementary band teacher (and definitely NOT retired trombonist). I took some measurements, thought about it a bit, and started making chips. The only challenging part was the taper inside the shank of the mouthpiece. Even measuring the taper on the pattern mouthpiece was non-trivial. At the end it was easy to measure, and not so hard to measure at the bottom of the bowl, but I also wanted to know if the taper was linear or some curve. I used my digital voltmeter as a continuity tester and a thin rod held in the tool holder as a probe, and got a notion of the shape of the inside bore. It was indeed not linear, but a slightly parabolic shape. The ID of the bore at the end of the shank was easily measured (.35") The other critical dimension is the "throat", the opening at the bottom of the bowl at the other end of the shank. I didn't have a good way of measuring this opening, since my dial caliper would not reach far enough into the bowl. I finally hit upon using my 1-60 drill bit set as gauges. This quickly led to a figure of .23" as the throat diameter (I subsequently bought a Starrett taper gauge and two telescoping hole gauges for this kind of measurement; an addition to your toolkit I can recommend. The telescoping gauges are Starrett part #579A and 829B; the taper gauge is #267. ) Boring the taper inside the shank was interesting. I tried making a long boring tool, but as expected it deflected too much in use to be effective. I ended up step drilling the shank to approximate the contour of the bore, then using files and sandpaper to smooth the interior. The inner and outer parts of the bowl were step turned, filed and sanded in a similar fashion. To get a nice finish I tried a tip from one of Guy Lautard's "Machinist's Bedside Reader" books (these are great books!) where a reader wrote to him about how well 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper works for making smooth shiny finishes. This type of sandpaper is more readily available at auto parts stores than standard hardware/home improvement outlets. The result? Plugged into a trombone, it worked! I was curious as to how critical the dimensions would be; the extent I was able to duplicate the pattern was apparently sufficient, since two trombonists were able to play their 'bones just fine with my mouthpiece. As a practical matter, a raw brass mouthpiece is not terribly useful. Real mouthpieces are gold, silver or nickel plated, for the same reason that such metals are used in jewelry. Nonetheless, it was an interesting experience to see if I could produce a mouthpiece that would function. French horn, trumpet, baritone and tuba mouthpieces should also be feasible to make. French horn and trumpet would be more of a challenge since they are smaller, with smaller throats. Regards, Jeff Eastwood ------- Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 09:17:16 -0600 From: "Sedota, Kevin" Subject: RE: Machinist/musicians: how about making a mouthpiece ? Jeff, nice job. I can attest to the fact that makeing a mouthpiece is no easy feat. Consistency is the key. (Something some major manufacturers haven't yet figured out.) The problem is that the bowl of the mouth piece is a double radius curve. Anyone familiar with Weatherby rifle cases will recognoze this basic shape. No sharp shoulders. everything is curved. My gunsmith tells me that cutting the reamers for these is a very tricky thing to do and that in the beginning, when these cartridges were new, each reamer you would get would be different. I don't know how the factory makes mouth pieces but if they use reamers this might explain the inconsistency. On a mouthpiece, however, it doesn't end there. Once past the opening there is another radius curve although not as severe. This part of the mouthpiece is known as the back bore. While some may not realize it, the design of this part of the mouthpiece is just as critical as the bowl or rim. Here's a suggestion for getting the dimensions of the backbore. Gunsmiths use something called cerrosafe(sp?). It's a substance with a very low melting point. It's used to measure the dimensions for a rifle chamber. You plug the barrel end, then pour the molten cerrosafe into the chamber. Once it cools you pop out the mold and measure. I would think you could do the same thing with a mouth piece. Plug the aperture then fill the back bore with the stuff. When you step cut the bowl did you use a boring bar or a turning tool? I was also thinking you could use a ball end endmill on the mill and a rotory table. I'm pretty happy with my current mouthpiece (a Stork 5) but one can always tinker. Another modification I have on my list is to put a screw rim on a mouth piece. (There are places that will do this for you but where's the fun in that?) There are 2 reasons I would like to do this. I have a couple of Shilke mouthpieces but I hate the rims on these. I'd like to try putting a rim with a sharper soulder. The other reason is that we occasionally have to play outdoors. I'd like to cut a plastic rim. One last thing. Mouthpieces are make primarily out of brass. They are only plated in silver or gold. If you want to pursue it you could probably find some place locally that will plate it for you. Good luck Kevin Sedota ------- Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 09:34:17 -0800 From: "Marcus & Eva" Subject: Re: Machinist/musicians: how about making a mouthpiece? Hi Kevin: Have you considered dental impression rubber for this application? Dead-nuts accurate, and won't stick to the mouthpiece. Easy to pop out, even past undercuts. Cheers Marcus -------- Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 21:48:29 +1000 From: "Charlie Lear" Subject: Real work On this list we're all True Believers [tm] and don't have any questions about the capabilities of our little machines. The other day someone from another engineering list mentioned in an email to me, "Of course, you can't do that on a Sherline." So here's a question - what "Real Work" have you done on your machines? Stuff which wouldn't ordinarily be considered the province of a miniature tool. I'll kick it off - ten minutes ago I came in from the workshop, tired but happy - here's a pic of the final cut of the 7/16" tool slot in a universal toolholder for my new 9" lathe, machined out of a solid block of alloy tool steel. I used a 1/4" slot drill cutting 1/8" depth, medium revs and using Tap Magic as a cutting lubricant. My mill is a plain-jane 5100. I've just got four holes to drill and tap and it's finished - a bit of real work, on a real machine. http://www.steammachine.com/hercus/toolholder.jpg Cheers Charlie Charlie Lear, Melbourne, Australia clearx~xxsteammachine.com Hutt Valley Model Engineer Soc. http://steammachine.com/hvmes Eastern Bays Little Blue Penguin Foundation: same site /penguins ------- Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 07:56:54 -0400 From: "John Guenther" Subject: RE: Real work I have built a QC tool post and holders for my 7x12 lathe using my Sherline 5400 mill, converted to CNC. I have also machined the 5 x 16 inch front panel for my CNC driver box using the Sherline mill and made a set of tapered gib's and brackets for my 7x12 lathe. I will post pictures of the QC tool post and machining the front panel later today. John Guenther Sterling, Virginia ------- Date: Sun, 05 May 2002 14:31:18 -0400 From: Jim Ash Subject: Re: Re: The Great Yo Yo Caper [See file Threading.txt or search the Sherline Group for a long Titanium Yo Yo thread] I've been out on business and just got back last night, so I'm catching up. I've had an aluminum high-performance yoyo in my pocket pretty much every day for the last 15 years. My 'daily-driver' yoyo has a steel shaft (6-32 thread) and a hardwood hub. I've got ball-bearing models with a adjustable string gaps, but for me, they just don't throw as smooth as the one with the wooden hub. The halves are counter-bored to a constant depth to accomodate the hub. I spin my own hubs on the sherline (This is the only wood I turn on it), also to a constant length, but I guess you could make them longer or shorter for different gaps. I take pieces of yoyo string and use them as shims to adjust my gap until it feels right. The slight compressability of the wood helps to hold the threads tight, better than metal-to-metal, in my opinion, especially considering the accelerations it faces. I burn through a string every week or two (It depends how stressful work is), and a hub every 3-4 months. The steel shafts eventually work-harden and shear; for me, every couple years. I get hardened bolts and grind the heads off to replace them. I've stripped the threads from one of the aluminum halves of my daily-driver once, and made a steel threaded-insert (like a Heli-coil for cars) on the sherline as a repair. The titanium might be fun to try. Does anybody know the relative stress and malleability numbers between aluminum and titanium? Jim Ash ------- Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2002 14:17:46 -0500 From: "Don Feinberg" Subject: Completed Project! For "shameless self-promotion", I've put up a website displaying a 4x5 field camera I've just finished building. I couldn't have built it without the Taig mill! Thanks, Nick! The site is at www.duckproductions.com Don Feinberg ------- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 11:44:23 -0000 From: "tnance0913" Subject: How to make a bobbin Hi, guys. I have got a machining operation that I can't figure out how to do and hope that some of you can give me a hand. I am making a rope making machine to wind thread into scale rope for model ships. Everything was going along fine until I came to the three bobbins where the thread is stored. The shape of these little beasties requires deep, penetrating left and righthand cuts that I can't seem to manage without the lathe (Sherline, of course) screaming like a banchee. Here are some particulars: The diameter of the bobbin is 1". The center hub has a diameter of 3/8". The height of the bobbin is 3/4". The top and bottom disks are 1/16" thick which means there's a 5/8" gap seperating the disks. I am cutting the bobbins from a 1" diameter rod of cartridge brass. The problem lies in how to cut out the space between the disks. That space is 5/8" wide and 5/16" deep. I used a cutoff tool to cut two slots on the inside of the disks, and am left with removing the remaining metal. It seems you have to drive the tool bit into the work and then move left or right. The lathe objects mightily to such a thing. Our friendship is being sorely tested in this. I think the problem is not having enough space between the disks to get a proper angle on the cutting tool. an anyone tell me how to do this? Is a specially shaped tool required? While this is not a very common operation, I'm sure it crops up from time to time, and there must be a solution. Thanks in advance for any help you may provide. Tom Nance Corpus Christi TX ------- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 11:52:24 -0000 From: "flyk35r3" Subject: Re: How to make a bobbin Why not use a sewing machine bobbin? They are a little bit narrower than you describe, but the dimensions are very similar to what you describe. They are available at any fabric store. Gary Severson ------- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 07:03:33 -0500 From: "Nance, Tom" Subject: RE: Re: How to make a bobbin Hi Gary. Thanks for the reply. I would love to use sewing machine bobbins. In fact, that's what I thought I would use when I designed the machine. But when I tried them, I found that they don't turn very reliably. There is very little pull on the thread - just enough to keep the slack out of the line - and the bobbins must move freely. The commercial bobbins I bought (a lot of them) are all made from bent tin and there are lots of sharp ridges and bumps on them that make them move in jerks or bind up altogether. So I need to machine the bobbins to make a smooth surface that they can ride on. Tom ------- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 09:08:28 -0400 From: "Carol & Jerry Jankura" Subject: RE: Re: How to make a bobbin My wife uses plastic bobbins for her Singer. Might these be of use? You didn't say what tool you were using (Size), how about something like a 1/8 inch left & right, or maybe grind more of an angle on the parting/cutoff tool? Jerry ------- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 13:12:53 -0000 From: "buchnerb" Subject: Re: How to make a bobbin Why not just make the bobbin in three parts. Part off the two sides fron the bar and then turn the axle. Another option would be to make two bobbin sides with half an axle protruding. Then leave a threaded stud on the axle of one and a threaded recess on the other. Then just screw the two halves together with a little locktite. Several variations on these themes are also possible. Bruce Buchner ------- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 08:22:43 -0500 From: "Nance, Tom" Subject: RE: Re: How to make a bobbin Hi, Bruce. That may be what I have to do. But I'd like to know how to make the bobbin in one piece just because I feel this operation will come up again sometime. It's a learning kind of thing. Here's a similar situation that would require the same sort of machining: How would one make a crankshaft out of a single piece of material? Someday I would like to try it, but I haven't a clue as to how to go about it. Tom ------- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 08:27:30 -0500 From: "Nance, Tom" Subject: RE: Re: How to make a bobbin I've never seen plastic bobbins. They make work just fine. I'll check around. I'm using the standard 1/4" HSS tools that come with the machine (tho, the originals have long since passed on.) You know, I wonder if a graving tool might work. I might be able to do it by hand. Tom ------- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 09:32:53 -0400 From: "Dan Statman" Subject: Re: How to make a bobbin If I understand your problem correctly, you can use a grooving tool that takes carbide inserts. This is by no means the cheapest way to do this. The grooving inserts can be used, with light cuts, in a left- right manner to turn down the final diameter of the center section. You would first have to make a series of plunging cuts to remove the bulk of the materail and then for the last several thousandths slide the cutter axially. I use a 3/8" grooving tool holder (about $49 from J&L), and the TiN coated carbide inserts for a 1 mm square groove are about $12 apiece. Each insert has two cutting edges, and can cut to a depth of about 6 mm or 1/4". You claim to need 5/16" depth of cut, but might be able to get by with a little less. Another option is to grind your own grooving tool. you can make it wider than 1 mm and then slightly longer for your needs. I can easily cut a 1 mm groove 6 mm deep into 6/4 titanium alloy on my Sherline lathe. Dan. ------- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 08:53:04 -0500 From: "Bad Brad" Subject: Re: How to make a bobbin Make two disks of the desired dimensions and then press them on to the ends of a shaft of the proper dimension (interference/press fit). Forrest ------- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 13:55:00 -0000 From: "n2562001" Subject: Re: How to make a bobbin Tom: Your cut off tool can be used for this as well as crank shafts. First cut the right and left side of the bobbin. then make several cuts to remove the center as Dan mentioned. Cut the center a few thousands larger when removing the center material. The center can be cut to size by taking off one or two thousands at a time with the cut off tool by moving it right to left. I have done several crank shafts this way. Jerry Kieffer ------- Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 08:05:18 -0700 From: "Marcus & Eva" Subject: Re: How to make a bobbin Hi Tom: This is an operation that causes grief for many. It is not difficult at all, once you have figured it out. First of all, the gentleman who responded with advice to put the tailstock center against the free end was right on!! That's "must have" step #1. Next, use your parting blade, (clamped up short so that you can just get to the depth you need without crashing the toolpost into the job) to poke into the job at steps JUST SLIGHTLY BIGGER THAN THE WIDTH OF YOUR BLADE. You want the blade to be supported by the metal of the workpiece on both sides. (keeps it from wandering sideways) You will now have a lump with a couple of flanges on each end, and a whole bunch of closely spaced slots that go within 0.005" of your target hub diameter. Use your parting blade again, to poke into the block and knock the skinny ribs down too. The blade won't wander if it is UNSUPPORTED at each side either. Now you're almost there. Pull out your parting blade and grind the end dead nuts square and smooth. Take a fine india stone, and hone a tiny corner break onto the extreme right and left hand corners of the tool. Make SURE it has the proper relief too!!! Shine a bright light on the carriage and put a bit of white paper under the job with the light shining down on it. Now when you remount the parting blade, you can easily see when you have it perfectly aligned with the long axis of the lathe, by pushing it up against a smooth and parallel part of the job, and looking at the light visible in the gap. You can discriminate 0.0001" this way (no that's not a misprint ..one ten thousandths of an inch) Now just kiss the unfinished diameter of the bobbin hub and traverse the full slot width. Finish your cuts in 0.001" increments and you will have a beautiful job. If you have side relief on the parting blade you can kiss the sides of the flanges too, but you can't hog off a lot of metal very well this way. Good luck with your job and let us know how it turns out. Cheers Marcus PS: It takes a lot longer to talk about than to do, so have at 'er with great gusto!!! ------- Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2002 21:23:53 -0000 From: "clibuse" Subject: Re: Thanks, and one more beginner question (first project) In sherline "oldisnew" wrote: > When you've done that for a little while and you feel like you have a > clue, what's a good simple project to start out with, to get some > idea about how you accomplish actual tasks with the machine? I've > seen some fairly simple kits from PM Research--something like that? > Can those be done with just a lathe? John: Oops, I may already have posted an incomplete answer, but in case not, here's a repeat... I'd recommend against starting with a kit that uses castings. If you mess one up, you're in trouble. They are also harder to hold. I'd make something from bar stock to get started. It's cheaper, and if you mess up you can just cut another piece of raw material and try again. There are a number of sources for plans listed at www.sherline.com/resource.htm under the heading "plans and projects you can build." There is also a page with sources for buying small quantities of bar stock either by mail or online. See www.sherline.com/online.htm. One of our customers did what Joe (Sherline's owner) considered a smart thing. For his first project he made five identical engines from bar stock. For each setup he made five parts instead of one to get more practice in the cutting department vs. the setup department. When he was done he had four extra engines which he gave as gifts to friends and family members. Since most of the time is spent in setup, it doesn't really take that much longer to make several of any given part, and you'll get a feel for the machine faster that way. Craig Libuse Sherline Products Inc. ------- Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 00:07:57 -0000 From: "jeastwoodlm" Subject: Re: Trombone mouthpiece? In sherline..., "yaglejpner" wrote: > I saw this pretty looking trombone mouthpiece in the 'Photos' section. > I certainly would like to make one similar. > Do anybody have some drawings or advice? Thanks, Leif Glad you liked it. It was fun to make. Check out message 8147 for some details on why and how I made it. I'll check my original drawings and get some more dimensions for you, but it was basically just a matter of taking dimensions off of an existing mouthpiece and working from there. ------- Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 16:29:04 -0000 From: "clibuse" Subject: Re: 1st Time Steam Engine Ian, rather than start with a casting kit for your first steam engine project, I might suggest building one from bar stock. That way if you mess up a part, you won't have to order another casting. Rudy Kouhoupt has a video out where he makes a bar stock steam engine from start to finish using Sherline tools. The video includes a set of plans, a materials list and brief written summary of the steps. Watching him make each part, you can follow along on your own machine using the same setups. Any beginner can learn a lot from this video whether you want to build the steam engine or not. It is not a "slick" video with lots of fancy titles and camera transitions, just Rudy in his shop explaining what he is doing as he makes the cuts. It runs several hours on two VHS tapes. It's $60.00, but I can't recall anyone saying they didn't get their money's worth out of it. You can get it from Sherline dealers (P/N 5328) or see the ad for New Life Videos in Home Shop Machinist magazine. Craig Libuse Sherline Products Inc. ------- Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2002 20:56:27 -0600 From: "Don Christensen" Subject: RE: Kouhoupt video Dave: You might be interested in some pics I took of my finished "Rudy" engine. I bought the video with my Sherline about 2 years ago. It took me a while to build but was a lot of fun and because it uses bar stock it was easy to just start over on one or two pieces I messed up. I watched the video a couple of times, once all the way through and again, section by section as I machined the individual pieces. Biggest reason it took me so long was the location of my Sherline. I got a lot of practice setting up and tearing down for a totally new setup as my stuff was at work and I got many requests for help on weird stuff and one-off's. http://www.wolsi.com/~donc/first.html Regards, Don ------- [NOTE TO FILE: The following message is out of date order but is a useful addition to a discussion of Rudy's steam engine video for beginners.] Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 08:20:00 -0700 From: "David" Subject: Re: Request information [sherline group] Roger's advice is generally good. But, as a newbie, you'll have to watch out for some traps in Rudy's excellent presentation--drilling holes in a plate, then drilling holes in another part and expecting them to line up concentrically is something that old pros can perhaps (and I stress perhaps) do, but the rest of us have to drill them simultaneously; and the faceplate that you must make to finish the flywheel may come as a surprise (I did it twice, gave up and made a mandrel). But Rudy's presentation is generally excellent and there is much to learn from it (even if, now and then, it's how not to do it). Like his carefully written articles for HSM (some of them now collected into three volumes, which no newbie should be without), the video is organized, written, photographed very well; the plans for the engine are up to his usual standard, and everything works at the end. I can think of no better way for a newbie to get his feet wet. Dave Wood ------- Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 19:26:14 -0700 From: "Dave Hylands" Subject: RE: knobs Hi Reid, I made some knobs like that: http://www.davehylands.com/Machinist/Projects/Inkle-Loom-Screws/index.html I made mine in two pieces so I didn't need to waste so much material (and it was easier). You'll need the knurling attachment: http://sherline.com/3004pg.htm There are also little plastic knobs that you can buy that fit onto the ends of a Socket Head Cap Screw (really cheap, but don't look anywhere near as nice). Dave Hylands Vancouver, BC, Canada http://www.davehylands.com/ ------- Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 13:49:46 -0000 From: "Brian Chapman" Subject: Oblique truncated cone? I welcome advice about machining this shape, which has me puzzled. Imagine a railroad tank car. The diameter of the tank at the center of the car is 100 inches. It is 20 feet each way to the tank heads; the heads are 94 inches in diameter. The car's top slope from center to each end is 1-1/2 inches. The car's bottom slope from center to the each end is 4-1/2 inches. From my searching about on the Web and the local library, I believe this shape is defined as an oblique truncated cone (OTC). Is this correct? I have found the math formula for a right cone (symmetrical) but have found nothing about computing, let alone machining, an OTC. It seems a cone could be easily machined and the ends trimmed/faced at the appropriate angles to create the above tank car shape. However, this would result in a slight oval shape at the ends, will it not? Sure appreciate any help someone might wish to offer. Thanks much, Brian Chapman Cedar Rapids, Iowa ------- Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 07:41:39 -0700 From: "Dave Hylands" Subject: RE: Oblique truncated cone? Hi Brian, I don't know the math formula either, but it isn't too hard to figure out. If you stand your OTC on a flat surface and look at it from the end, you'll see a big circle at the base and a little circle at the end. If the little circle does not contain the perpendicular line drawn from the center of the big circle, then the cone is referred to as oblique. If the cone doesn't go to a point, but is sliced off, then the cone is truncated. So, the formula for a circle centered about a point (a, b) with radius r is (x - a)^2 + (y - b)^2 = r We then want a, b, and r to change linearly as a function of z. If the center of the big circle is at x1, y1, z1, and the center of the small circle is at x2, y2, z2 (and both circles are in XY plane), then the formula for the line connecting them is: x = x1 + (x2 - x1) * z / (z2 - z1) y = y1 + (y2 - y1) * z / (z2 - z1) Since this conincides with the center of the circles we can substitute a and b for x and y, and we get a similar equation for r: r = r1 + (r2 - r1) * z / (z2 - z1). If we plug our new formulas for a, b, and r into the original equation of a circle centered about a point, we now have the equation for your Oblique Truncated Cone. I did all of the above off the top of my head as I typed it in, so please forgive any errors. You're correct, that taking a normal cone and slicing it at an angle will give a non-circular cross section. It won't be elliptical either (slicing a cylinder at an angle would give you an ellipse), but more egg shaped. I can't think of a way of turning an OTC on a lathe, since a lathe can only give you regular cones (and a cylinder is just a special case of a regular cone). You could easily do this on a milling machine with a rotary table. The sides would be a little rough, but could probably be filed/sanded into shape. If you had a CNC machine you could automate this. I think the easiest way of contructing an OTC would be to do it with some type of sheet material (like brass). Make brass circles the size of the big and small end. Cut a piece of tubing (square or round) off at the right angle and solder it between the pieces (this is just an internal structural member so the the cross section is irrelevant. Wrap a piece of sheet brass around the whole thing, soldering it at the edges and trim. You now have an OTC. Dave Hylands Vancouver, BC, Canada http://www.davehylands.com/ ------- Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 10:49:49 -0400 From: "Kevin P. Martin" Subject: RE: Oblique truncated cone? This is indeed not the same as a (circular) cone cut at an oblique angle, which as you observed would have elliptical rather than circular ends, although the difference may be difficult to observe. If you just truncated a regular cone at an angle (arctan 1/160, or about 0.358 degrees), the ends would be out-of-round by a factor of the cosine of that angle (cos 0.358 is 0.99998, so your 100" end would be 100" on the major diameter and 99.998" on the minor diameter. Even if you were making this tanker full-size (I assume you are working on a scale model :-)), you would not worry about this error. Just in case you want the exact formula, however... Consider half your tank sitting on its large end on a table. That end is a 100" circle; the (truncated) top is another circle 94" in diameter, 120" above the tabletop. Your diameter reduces by 6" in 120" (a 40:1 taper), and the centres of the circles line on a line that slopes 1.5" in 120" (a 160:1 slope). If the cone were not truncated, it would reach an apex at a height of 4000", and the apex would be 25" offset from the centre of the base. I'm not sure what form of "formula" you are seeking. The equation defining a cone with the apex at the origin is x^2+y^2 = (Az)^2 where A is the radius taper. For your cone, it is the same formula except (say) the X values are also offset by a second slope factor: (x+Bz)^2 + y^2 = (Az)^2; in this particular case, A is 1/80 (the taper on the radius), B is 1/160, and z runs between 3880 and 4000. This means your part is quite a ways off the origin (both in z and x) so you might want to displace it a bit. Such a shape would be a pain to machine, but with a little more math it can easily be formed from sheet metal (it is, after all, a tank!). On the other hand if you are making the tank (both ends together) from one solid piece, I suggest you ignore the slight ellipticity and just taper-turn both ends on the lathe, then machine off the scrap (and the centre-drill marks) from both ends. Kevin Martin ------- Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 08:42:16 -0700 From: "Marcus & Eva" Subject: Re: Oblique truncated cone? Hi Brian: This is an easy job for a CNC, but rather tedious to do any other way. If I was doing this, I would draft up my end profiles and create a loft between them. I'd then throw a toolpath on the top half, and mill it. I'd flip the block 180 deg. and mill the bottom half. But, if you don't have CNC or a CAD-CAM package capable of this, there is another way. It is an approximate method, and tedious in the extreme, but it does work, and was one of the standard ways moldmakers used to mill complex shapes of this nature. Turn your bar to the big diameter, but leave it 0.500" too long. Squeeze the bar in a grinding vise and set it up so it's sitting vertically on the machine table and can be center drilled at each end in the proper relationship to get the end circles in position. Set up the bar between centers on the lathe and turn the overlong ends down to the small diameter of the circles; then clear the ends to a smaller diameter until you've got just enough of the circle left to get a tiny indicator point onto it. Taper the first bit of the bar back up to the big diameter so you can get the clock point onto the reference diameter as close to the end of the finished shape as you can. Blue the bar and scribe a faint line at the exact center. Make a pair of centers that can be adjusted up and down, and are about the right height so the bar can be squeezed in the milling vise while suspended between centers. Get a height gage with the tiny pointed indicator in it. Now set up the bar between centers on the mill, fiddle the heights of the centers until you just touch at the scribe line and the end circle, squeeze the bar (aluminum jaws and the vise tied down with just one strap clamp after you've squeezed the bar!), and take your first milling pass until you just about touch the scribe line and the turned end stub. Turn the bar a bit and repeat the sequence ad nauseum!!!!! After MANY hours of patient farting about, your shape will emerge. Cheers Marcus ------- Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 19:48:14 -0400 From: "Thomas R. Bank" Subject: Re: Oblique truncated cone? From my experience, the problem with the answers that are being given to the original question in this thread (and the question itself) are that they are machining answers with a lot of complicated math and the need for CNC machines, whereas the question is a model railroading question with a simple solution. The problem is that the cone is off center, with different angles along the top and the bottom from the car end to middle end of the cone, like many steam locomotive boilers were made, and further that there is likely a need for rivet and/or seam detail on the model. The best answer is therefore to do the job the way the real railroads would do it, which is to lay the piece out on flat sheet metal or plastic, then roll it to shape and solder or glue the finished shape. The trick is then in the layout of the flat piece. Mel Thornburg, one of the old-time master model railroaders with many excellent model steam locomotives to his credit, wrote an article which appeared in the February 1952 Model Railroader magazine on the topic of Forming Tapered Boiler Sections. Brian, if you would send me your snail mail address I will send you a copy of Mr. Thornburg's article. I think you will find it almost easy to layout the required shape after reading how the real railroads did the job. Then it will be up to you to win a ribbon at the next NMRA show. Regards, Tom Bank ------- Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2002 20:28:27 -0000 From: "Rabidorn" Subject: Metal Project plans For all you metal working types out there, here is a web site that offers metal project plans. As well there is a place to submit plans for you to sell on this site. Metalprojects.no-ip.com ------- Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2002 22:33:20 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Completed Project! On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, Don Feinberg wrote: > For "shameless self-promotion", I've put up a website displaying > a 4x5 field camera I've just finished building. > I couldn't have built it without the Taig mill! Thanks, Nick! > The site is at www.duckproductions.com > Don Feinberg donfx~xxcybernex.net Hot damn! Thanks for posting that site. Once upon a time I built a 4x5 monorail camera from a kit. Since then I picked up a Crown Graphic. I've been poking around at photo books (including the one from Lindsay), thinking about making a 4x5 field camera. What you built looks a lot like what I was thinking of! I'm a big fan of having the tilt axis in the middle of the lens board rather than at the base (like many many field cameras do). It was neat to see you'd done that. Motivation of the best kind! Tom ------- Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2002 22:49:19 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Re: Completed Project! On Mon, 1 Jul 2002, Des Bromilow wrote: > While I'm quite impressed with the workmanship etc, I don't > understand the camera itself... Neither did I until I started doing large format photography. In case anyone's wondering if it's worthwhile, the answer is a resounding yes. > I'm interested to know why this camera is so special.. I do not > understand the value in being able to tilt the lense and film plates > as demonstrated on the pictures on your website. I can see value in > large format film, but I do not understand why the ability to tilt the > lense and film planes is so important... Could someone please explain > the merits of this to me? I realize I've been on vacation for a week, and this may be a dead subject already. But I'd be happy to explain nevertheless. If this has already been hashed out, feel free to skip this. In photography, you've essentially got three planes all of which work in conjunction with each other, and behave in a very regular, predictable way. The planes are: 1 - The film plane 2 - The lens plane (a plane perpendicular to the axis of the lens) 3 - The focus plane (a plane in front of the camera that will appear in focus on the film plane) The relationship between the three planes is that in all but one case they intersect on the same line. The exception is when the film plane and the lens plane are parallel to each other (as they are in a 35mm camera.) In that case the focus plane will always be parallel to the film plane. This is essentially a degenerate case. For example, if you are taking a picture of a field of flowers, you can get the entire field of flowers in sharp focus by keeping your film plane upright and by tilting the lens plane such that the lens plane intersects the film plane where the film plane intersects the field of flowers. Once you've focused on the flowers, ALL the flowers will be in tack-sharp focus. For someone who's used to doing 35mm photography, you're probably thinking, "Ah, but I can do the same thing by stopping down my lens!" It's not the same effect. Using lens tilt you can in fact make an entire field of flowers appear in tack sharp focus, from your feet out to infinity, with the lens wide open. This has a lot of benefit when you're taking pictures in spring in Texas when the wildflowers bloom and the wind gusts enough to drive a landscape photographer bonkers. I swear those flowers don't sit still. I realize this explanation won't make much sense. It's hard to describe without pictures. If this tickles your interest, my advice is to visit a professional camera store and ask to play with a 4x5 camera. Try a couple of different things ('cause these are wild to see in action): 1 - Open the shutter, set the iris wide open, and focus on something about four feet away. Now slowly stop down and watch your depth of field increase. (The first time I did this I was totally blown away. I love my 35mm gear, but a DOF preview button is not the same as just leaving the shutter open and dinking around with a big piece of ground glass.) 2 - Focus on the counter at the photography store, and try tilting the lens while it's wide open. At some point the entire counter will snap into focus. (This is especially fun if there's a tall display case nearby, since the part of the case nearest the counter will be in focus, but the top will be fuzzy.) These two exercises are what sold me on 4x5 photography. Shifts are a whole 'nuther subject. Those are why I absolutely fell in love with my 4x5 monorail for doing architectural photography. In addition to Philip Greenspun's site, also take a look at three books by Ansel Adams: "The Camera", "The Negative", and "The Print". The first book covers shifts and tilts better than anything else I've run across. > FWIW, I understand basic photography principles, and am reasonably > adept with a panorama camera, and SLR (35mm). Oh good. I hope I didn't screw up that explanation too much. Tom ------- Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2002 10:34:21 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Re: Completed Project! On Mon, 8 Jul 2002, Larry Richter wrote: > Wow. This explains something I've wondered about a long time. In the > late sixties I saw a show of of natural landscapes (which means messy, > wild, untouched by people -- mostly meadow lands with marsh, stream > amd forest, under dynamic change) from the late 1800's. The prints > were huge, but were reductions of the original plates. I haven't > remembered the name of the artist, but I remember the images. They > were so vivid and exact they verged on disturbing. The scenes seemed > to be actually present in their own world, and the detail seemed > limitless. I've wondered, and this helps explain why. It could well. At the turn of the century, enlarging prints was not really as widespread as it is today. A lot of prints were "contact prints", where you put the negative and the paper in contact with one another. This results in a particularly sharp, grain-free print. (And this is one of the reasons why a lot of the photographers of the day were using 8x10 or larger negatives.) When you're using a negative large enough to support contact printing, you're typically using a much larger lens as well, with a longer focal length. A "normal" lens on a 4x5 camera, for example, has a focal length around 150mm. When compared to a "normal" lens for a 35mm camera (of focal length around 40-50mm or so), you start to see the change in scale. This has another affect on how you do photography using a large format camera: When shooting with a 35mm, you're running a constant balance between depth of field (which requires smaller apertures), and diffraction effects (which show up at smaller apertures). As a result, most 35mm lenses tend to produce fuzzier pictures at smaller apertures (higher f-numbers) than at larger ones. By way of example, the 100mm lens I've got is sharpest around f/16 when focused at infinity. Stopping it down to f/22 will result in a fuzzier picture, albeit with more depth of field. But diffraction is a function of the physical size of the aperture, not the f-ratio. f/16 with a 100mm lens means an aperture of 6.25mm. f/16 with a 300mm lens (nearly the equivalent coverage on a 4x5 camera) means an aperture of 18.75mm. Even with the same f-ratio, the 4x5 negative suffers from less diffraction. Because of this, the photographers at the turn of the century had a lot of things going for them. They used large negatives and contact printed them (which bypasses the enlarger, resulting in a sharper print, and also means the film grain is tiny and may not be visible at all.) They could use smaller apertures without suffering from diffraction (f/64 and smaller were common around that time). And with the shifts and tilts available on the large format cameras, they could selectively change the focus plane to get exactly what they wanted in focus, and could selectively change the geometry of an object as it would appear on film. I'm still floored when I make contact prints from 4x5 negatives. Don't get me wrong. I love my 35mm and digital gear. But a good contact print from a carefully made large format negative is something to see. Tom ------- Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 15:11:23 -0000 From: "Thomas " Subject: Easy way of making graduated handwheels? Here's another stupid newbie question. Everyone agrees on the usefulness of graduated handwheels, but I am looking for an easy way to make one, without spending a lot of money. Why couldn't one just print out a sticker with a ruler on it, or take a segment of one of those flexible sewing tape measures and affix that to the handwheel? Would this work? I figure something is better than nothing until my skill level and/or bank account level rises high enough to allow me a better solution ;) ------- Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 10:38:00 -0500 (CDT) From: Tom Benedict Subject: Re: Easy way of making graduated handwheels? Yep, that'd work fine. Gingery uses the ruler trick to graduate parts on his shaper. One advantage of printing your own is that you can customize the scale to the diameter of the particular handwheel. The only catch is you need to somehow protect the printed paper from getting gooed up from cutting fluids. As far as graduating one using a scribe, it's possible to do this provided you've got an index wheel on your headstock. Nick sells one of these (I've got one and love it), or you can make one yourself. Making one from scratch can be a trick in itself, and there are tons of ways to do this, with varying results in terms of accuracy. Tom ------- Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 19:23:41 -0000 From: "mendoje1" Subject: Re: Easy way of making graduated handwheels? Perhaps another version to do this is to print out the graduated scale on label paper, then carefully measure its length (circumference), turn the diameter of the handwheel to match, then stick it on temporarily. Then use the scale to carefully locate and scribe each graduation into the wheel, using a fixture will lock the handwheel. A little laborious, but cheap! Jeff ------- Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 14:20:50 -0500 From: Bob Kelly Subject: Re: Easy way of making graduated handwheels? Thomas, Up front, let me say I KNOW this comes under the heading of cob-house engineering. But it works for me. Anytime I need a temporary graduated disk, I go to my trusty desktop publishing program. I multiply the diameter of the disk by 3.14159 and divide by the number of gradations. In the DTP program, I set the distance between lines at that number and create the a number of short lines equal to the no. of gradations plus one (51 for a standard handwheel.) I print that out and wrap it around the disk. If the first and last line don't overlap, I add or subtract 0.0001" or so and try again. Sometimes I even make every fifth (for example) line longer for easy reference. I have done this on my chuck for using it to scribe lines on a bar clamped in it. The nice thing is that it works with any number of gradations and you don't have to figure the no. of degrees. You can pick up helpful hints like this in any Masters program in CH-E! Bob Kelly ------- Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 18:45:41 -0400 From: Paul Anderson Subject: Watchmaking With The Taig I have a Taig Microlathe which I purchased some time ago, and I am now teaching myself the art of watchmaking. Does anyone have any suggestions of webpages or other references on watchmaking with the Taig? ------- Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2002 12:45:38 -0700 From: James Eckman Subject: Re: Watchmaking With The Taig Home Shop Machinist ran a series a few years back on setting up a Taig for watchmaking, it might be available in one of their annual books they put out. Most of the other stuff I'm aware of is for the Sherline or Toyo lathes, which are roughly the same size. W.R. Smith's books are quite good as well as some of the John Wilding books. Some of the Wilding project books are intended for small lathes. http://horology.magnet.fsu.edu/wrsmith.htm Jim Eckman ------- Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 13:50:15 -0000 From: "Bill Lindsey" Subject: Sherline Steam Engine Project Given the recurring requests for engine projects suitable for Sherline equipment, I came up with what I believe is a challenging but reasonable design even for less experienced machinists whose interest may be in the area of small stationary engines. Considerations included: No castings, square angles on milled parts, readily available materials (brass, aluminum, steel), separate components (cylinder, crosshead, pedestals, etc) to allow easier alignment for height and linear motion, and sized for benchtop work using the Sherline lathe and mill. I have posted pictures in the Photos section in a folder called Mill Engine. Still a little bit of finishing work to do, but the engine has been tested and runs very well on 5 PSI or less and was smooth down to about 100 RPM (hopefully even less with a little break in time). Plans will be drawn in AutoCadLT 2000 as soon as i round up all the scratch paper sketches. Basic Stats: Flywheel Dia - 2 inches Bore - .375" Stroke - .750" Overall Length - 7 inches (base dimension) Overall Width - 4 inches (base dimension) Height - 2.25 inches approx ------- Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 19:54:49 -0000 From: "Ted Walls" Subject: Re: Re: piston rings f/small ic engines Hi Edwin, When the piston rings are hardened they are "set" and will become somewhat oval. this makes measuring them very difficult. Personally I have only made half a dozen and had a great deal of difficulty with those. I found the best way to fit them was with three strips of 5 thou brass shim placed along the piston and then slide the rings down the shim. Keep one piece of shim under the break in the ring and be very very gentle or the ring will snap for sure. A good book with a section on making the rings is "Building Mastiff" ISBN 0852424299. Sorry I can't say if its still in print or not mines dated 1975. Hope this helps. ------- Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 16:57:45 -0800 From: "Scott M. Bolton" Subject: Stirling Plans I've got the lathe and mill set up and have reduced numerous perfectly fine pieces of metal to mere shavings. Now I'm ready to put purpose to this activity. On page 5 of Joe Martin's Tabletop Machining is a photo of the 5 Stirling hot air engines that Tim Schroeder built. Can anyone point me toward a source for the plans? Thanks for your help. Scott Bolton Eugene, OR ------- Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 20:00:29 -0500 From: "Dan Statman" Subject: Re: Stirling Plans Plans, plans, and more plans. http://www.jerry-howell.com/default.htm#a2 HTH, Daniel J. Statman, Statman Designs www.statmandesigns.com ------- Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 21:18:00 -0800 From: "Orrin B. Iseminger" Subject: Re: Stirling Plans I'm quite certain it is the same Stirling engine featured in Rudy Kouhoupt's how-to-build-a-Stirling instructional video. It comes complete with well drawn plans. Everything that Rudy does is done well. I have the video and feel that it is worthwhile for the beginner. I don't consider myself a raw beginner, but I still feel the video was worth the expense. There are some glitches in the videography, but they are not Rudy's fault. If you're not bugged by this minor fault, you'd probably enjoy it. It's advertised in all the Village Press periodicals, HSM, etc. Orrin ------- Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 15:06:43 -0500 From: Stan Stocker Subject: Re: Re: cannon plans Here's an updated copy of a post I just made to a similar request for info over on RCM: A good starting point is "Round Shot and Rammers" by Harold L Peterson ISBN 0-517-11948X available from South Bend Replicas and at SOME National Park bookstores. This book covers the range from early colonial period through the War Between The States. Antique Ordnance Publishers, 3611 Old Farm Lane, Box 610434, Port Huron, Michigan 48060 is a real good outfit to get familiar with. They publish dimensioned drawings of mostly War Between the States artillery. Publication #12 "Artillery for the Land Service of the United States 1849 - 1865" has drawings of carriages and barrels as well as limber chests and ancillary materiel. Guns(smooth bore) and Rifles (cannon with rifling) are covered. Publication #25 covers the 12 PDR Mountain Howitzer and Pack Carriage. #48 is the 1861 8 inch Siege Mortar. They have lots more, I just happen to have these 3 as I'm the Ordnance Sgt. with an re-enactment unit and one of the suttlers had these 3 folios at the Cedar Creek reenactment in October. "Cannons - An Introduction to Civil War Artillery" by Dean S Thomas ISBN 0-939631-03-2 is a fairly good introduction to artillery in general, not much in the way of detailed drawings of artillery, but gives a good overview of manufacture of barrels, gun crew organization and drill, and lots of general information about projectile manufacture and types by artillery piece. It does have pretty good line drawings of carriages, limber chests, and the like. Jerry Howell offers plans for a Naval cannon. I haven't seen the plans, but Jerry is bringing a set to Cabin Fever for me. If these plans are even close to the quality of his engine plans they should be superb. Dixie Gun Works has quite a good assortment of books on artillery, they are at: http://www.dixiegunworks.com Osprey publishing has two volumes on light and heavy artillery for the mid 1800's as well. Again, a bit skimpy on dimensions, but good sources of supporting information. Hopefully this is of some help, Stan ------- Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 14:46:49 +1100 From: "Charlie Lear" Subject: Re: Small (1/16") Hex driver stock needed On Sat, 28 Dec 2002, "Paul Fitch" wrote: >where on the web I can find the proper "tool quality" hex stock I >will need for my planned driver set? Not in any reasonable (eg small) quantity. Me, I'd buy either a set or just the sizes you need (Bondhus is a name that springs to mind) and slice the length you need off the long end with a Dremel cutoff wheel. That way you get your good quality hex stock, and you've got a good set of slightly shorter Allen keys. Cheers Charlie Charlie Lear, Melbourne, Australia clearx~xxsteammachine.com Hutt Valley Model Engineer Soc. http://steammachine.com/hvmes Eastern Bays Little Blue Penguin Foundation: same site /penguins ------- Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 07:42:49 +0000 From: Brian Squibb Subject: Hex head [ATLAS GROUP] My first nut to cut will be a stainless 22mm hex, blind and domed, flat head. It seems the nearest stock size is 1 inch (25.4mm) so I will have to machine down each nut. Now this is a widely used size and have been asked to produce 10 for a motorcycle accessory shop (first order). The thread I will tap (only about 1/2 inch) but I need good repeatability so have made a form tool for the radius. Have yet to work out an easy way to make the hex's. This may lead to a regular order (small volume) which will give me some cash, so I am prepared to put time into making up a one off tool. The first batch I am think of doing the hex in the vertical slide, using a slot mill to shave the vertical flats. The width will be measured using the cross slide, 11mm each side of centre using the calibration on the wheel. I will keep you posted on how that goes. The motorcycle accessory market is ideal for small machinist - the products are small, the volumes are low, the investment is low (just the lathe an normal tools). People are prepared to make their motorcycles unique or as they want them. The US market seems to be particularly so - look at all those Harley's out there - not one as it left the factory. Turn up with a non mass produced product and the queue will form. I don't intend to make this a living, but it may enable me to retire early - which can't be a bad thing:)) Brian ------- Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2003 09:07:15 -0600 From: Rodent Subject: Cuttting Hex Heads [ATLAS GROUP] I posted a few photos of a motorcycle tool we made to the misc. photos folder. This is an example of what can be done with a mill and rotary table. It could also be done on a lathe provided you could index the part accurately. The hex fits 1 7/8" wrench and the tool is used to remove a slotted lock-ring on a Honda rear wheel assembly. ------- Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 05:24:04 -0500 From: "Cindy/Wayne" Subject: Re: Cuttting Hex Heads Rodent, Nice job on the Honda tool, where is this used? I too make parts and tools for my vintage motorcycles. I just finished doing a top end on a Honda Z-50 , and found that my valve spring compressor was a little too large to fit inside the recess to get the keepers in and out . A few minutes on my Atlas 10" and I had a new ,smaller diameter ,recessed, holder that will do the smaller valves, and still fit on the original tool. I'll see if I can post a couple of pics of it on the site, I'll let all know when I do. Wayne(rice)Burner In S. NH where it hasn't gone above freezing in about month. Lots of ice damage to peoples roofs.About 18" of snow. Great weather to stay inside and make motorcycle stuff on my A/C lathe. ------- Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2003 11:45:11 -0000 From: "ptkeillor3 " Subject: First Shaper Project I posted some pictures of my first shaper project, a carriage stop for my lathe, which was made on my 8" Logan. I made a block to fit the lathe ways, with a counterbored hole for a 1/4"x20 tpi clamp bolt, a clamp block with dowel alignment hole, and 3/8" hole with setscrew/brass plug to take either a micrometer head or dial indicator. The photos are: http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/CarrStopMic.jpg carriage stop with micrometer head http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/CarrStopDial.jpg ditto with cheapo dial indicator http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/CarrStopDis.jpg carriage stop disassembled http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/CarrStopAssemb.jpg carriage stop assembled One problem with the design is that I can't operate the clamp bolt with the stop under the headstock, which might be handy for close work in a collet. Didn't notice until I had it finished. I may make a similar design with a hinged clamp block actuated by a horizontal setscrew or bolt. Only thing left on this one is to bore/face a recess so the micrometer head mounts flush with the front face. That'll have to wait for a faceplate. Pete Keillor ------- Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 20:36:14 -0800 From: "Mark" Subject: Ring Stock [SHERLINE GROUP] I'm looking for some stock to make an engraved thumb ring for my wife. I already made the 'prototype' from brass and she loved it but it turned her thumb a bit black. Now I want to move on to 10 or 14K gold. I'm looking for a pipe cut 6mm band (maybe a couple in case I screw up one). You wouldn't believe the cost considering how simple is for them to make. Picture a piece of copper pipe and a hacksaw finished by some sanding and polishing. Not much into it but it would appear that just because they are generally used as wedding bands we have to add the token 400% mark up as you certainly wouldn't want to admit your token of everlasting love only cost $35. Does anyone know where I can get blank rings or perhaps the pipe they cut into them. I'm also interested in other relatively inexpensive metals I may not be aware of. Thanks, Mark P.S. To the gentleman on the group who makes the engraved/enlayed either titanium or platinum rings (I forget which): My issues with the costs of the plain, unsculptured bands are in no way directed towards you or you work. I have visited your site and am awed by the artistic designs, craftsmanship, and obvious pride that goes into you products. Having gone through the processes required to engrave circular objects with any design I can appreciate your work. These are obviously not simply bands you parted from a piece of stock. ------- Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 01:52:21 -0500 From: "Daniel J. Statman" Subject: Re: Ring Stock Mark, I in no way took offense at your comments, I found them quite amusing and accurate. I can supply you with ring blanks in whatever material you would like. I can purchase them from wholesale jewelry outlets that I have contacts with. Not really sure about straight pipe-style rings, but I will have a look. Let me know the ring size and width and the material that you are interested in. Daniel J. Statman, Statman Designs www.statmandesigns.com dan.statmanx~xxrennlist.com P.S. Thanks for the compliments on my designs. ------- Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 22:17:23 -0000 From: "Glen Reeser " Subject: Re: Ring Stock Hi Mark, I do some wax turning and investment casting for jewelry and fountain pen barrels and caps. Rio Grande in Albuquerque, NM is a good source of all kinds of metal casting products, tools, wax, lapidary equipment and even Sherline products. They also sell "fabricated" metals- sheets, wire, tubes, etc. Log on to www.riogrande.com and order their catalogs (tools and equipment, jems and findings, display and packaging). Don't let your wife see the jems and findings one when it comes, it could get expensive. I forgot to mention that if you are buying wax for machining, there are different color coded waxes. The green wax (also called file wax) is the hardest and best for turning on a lathe. A good jeweler in your area would be able to cast your wax for you. If not, contact me off list. No connection or financial interest in Rio Grande, just a repeat customer. Glen Reeser ------- Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 23:28:11 -0000 From: "Alan Smith" Subject: My First Engine Hi All, I am quite pleased with my engine made with the help of my Peatol Lathe. The Loco is an 0-6-0 freelance design built from scratch. It is gas fired and radio-controlled. It gives me a feeling of great satisfaction. Alan Smith -------- Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 09:16:05 -0000 From: "alenz2002 " Subject: Re: wire spoke wheels [SHERLINE GROUP] > I just joined the group, and I am hoping that one of you expert > machinist could help me ? > I am looking for info. on building small spoke wheels for a 1/18 > scale ferrari 500 TRC. they are borrani wheels and I have some good > pictures of them but I am hopeing someone out there has done this > before, and could offer me some help as to building a jig or whatever > I need to do this. Thanks, Ted Ted, this won't answer your question, but I've seen some small spoked wheels that were made by turning the hub and rim from a single piece of stock. One side had the hub and rim cut as complete as possible with the spoke part being cut deeper than the width of the finished wheel. Then the holes were drilled and the spokes installed. Then the wheel was parted off and the other side finished. I thought it was amazingly strong considering that the spokes were only pressed into place. Hope this helps, al -------- Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 10:31:48 -0000 From: "Graham Green " Subject: Re: wire spoke wheels Hi Ted, if you go to this link and LOOK thru ALL this site, you will find what you are looking for in the album on the Bentley car that this gentleman has produced. Please take your time and read all that is on offer and you will definately learn from the MASTER OF MODELMAKING, a Mr Gerald Wingrove. http://www.wincol.com/ Enjoy the visual experience. radish ------- Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 01:58:37 -0000 From: "parryj2002 " Subject: Re: wire spoke wheels Hi Ted, at some time in the future I will want to try this as well. I manufacture wire wheels for 1/8 scale model cars using Sherline equipment. Haven't worked in 1/18 scale but I do have some experience in 1/8 scale. I assemble each wheel using SS wire in .019 to .021 sizes with each spoke cut and formed to fit. A jig is used for one type of wheel (Jag) but not required for another type (Mercedes). Pics are at this website: www.precisionscalereplicas.com Are you planning to use aluminum or brass? Brass may be easier to use as the spoke holes would be about .010 and a mistake could be fixed with solder. But then you have the problem with chrome not covering or filling in holes... Will you be using a rotary table to drill the holes? As someone else mentioned, you could also check out Gerald Wingrove's site. He mainly builds in 1/15 scale and uses stainless wire and a jig. The Borrani wire wheel is a very attractive wheel and will look great when finished. Looking forward to see how you make out. Regards, John Parry ------- Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 14:07:52 -0800 From: Alan Marconett KM6VV Subject: Re: Web Page [SHERLINE GROUP] Hi Dave, If you're interested in flywheels, I've just posted plans to build the flywheel for a little oscillator engine, the "David" (for my 9 year old nephew David). It's in the list's photos, under KM6VV engine, David Engine Flywheel. Later I'll post a pix of the whole engine, and the complete plans, if anyone is interested. It is basically my dimensions and stock sizes inspired from a simple oscillator engine I saw posted. The one posted had funny sizes and dimensions, not all of which I could read (no author credited). I decided to make the little engine a test case for a flywheel construction I wanted to try. The flywheel is quite cute, and is fabricated from three pieces of brass. I had 2" dia by .5"+ brass rings, with 1.625" IDs, probably for bearings. I had .625 brass rod, and a scrap of .125" brass plate. The cutouts that form the "spokes" were done with my CNC Sherline mill. The ring and hub were turned on the lathe. The three parts were cleaned, and silver brazed together. [REMOVE LINEBREAKS IN FOLLOWING IN YOUR BROWSER] http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/sherline/vwp?.dir=/KM6VV+E ngine&.src=gr&.dnm=David+Engine+Flywheel.jpg&.view=t&.done=ht tp%3a//photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/sherline/lst%3f%26.dir=/KM6 VV%2bEngine%26.src=gr%26.view=t Alan KM6VV ------- Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 16:07:28 -0800 From: Alan Marconett KM6VV Subject: Re: Flywheel Hi Dave, For silver brazing, flux is applied in the joint, and the work melts the silver brazing wire. Heat draws it in by capillary action, and if flux doesn't get all over the place, the result is a thin line where the cracks used to be. Too much heat, or too much silver, and then it can flow and "tin" surfaces you don't want. It can usually be fine sanded off. I can send you a .PDF or .CCD (Vector CAD/CAM) file if you wish. I use Irfran view, and I can see all the details, except the dashed lines and arcs. Alan KM6VV ------- Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 16:31:53 -0800 From: Randy Gordon-Gilmore Subject: Re: Flywheel At 04:07 PM 3/3/2003 -0800, you wrote: >I use Irfran view, and I can see all the details, except the dashed >lines and arcs. Hi Alan, The problem is that, even though you as the uploader can see the picture in the same resolution you uploaded it, for the rest of us it is an unzoomable 400x240 pixels. Yahoo reports the filesize as 49kb, but the file as presented on the site is 10kb. They've shrunk it! Yahoo has made the photos section basically unworkable by doing this. I make a point to always upload pictures to the Files area, where they are unmolested by Yahoo. Best regards, Randy Randy Gordon-Gilmore http://www.prototrains.com ------- Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 17:05:34 -0800 From: Alan Marconett KM6VV Subject: Re: Flywheel Hi Randy, I notice a "full size" button on the Yahoo photos page. Does that help? I do notice also now the centerlines (as well as the dashed lines previously mentioned) are now solid. guess a .DXF would be better! I hadn't realized that they were shrinking the pix in the photo section! But I think it's just in the minimized (initial) view. I downloaded the "full size" (there is a place to click for full size), and it is 50K, as is the one I posted. Or are you saying the viewers (other then me) do not have access the full size? Maybe you have to order postcards. :<( At any rate, see if the 2nd one I posted in the files section is readable (KM6VV Engines). http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sherline/files/KM6VV%20Engines/ Thanks for the comments guys, Best regards, Alan KM6VV ------- Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 17:34:54 -0800 From: "Dave Hylands" Subject: RE: Flywheel The "Full Size" button is only available to the owner of the photo :( Dave Hylands ------- Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 11:03:03 -0800 From: Alan Marconett KM6VV Subject: Flywheel, Bar Stock Engine Hi to the list, I've just posted some full resolution .JPG files in the Files section, under "KM6VV Engines". Seems the pix no longer have sufficient resolution for our use. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sherline/files/KM6VV%20Engines/ The flywheel5C pix is the fabricated flywheel, just out of the pickling bath. There is a full resolution drawing of the flywheel (mentioned last post). This is a present for my 9 year old nephew who expressed great interest in my bar stock engine! He's a loco fan, although I'll leave it up to his dad to build a loco for him! There are also two views of my recently completed (well, RUNNING, anyway) bar stock engine. it is 3/4" x 3/4" bore/stroke. No castings. What a joy to see it start up by it's self the first time I put air to it! I intend to make a more detailed flywheel for it as well, and paint the base. Alan KM6VV ------- Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 11:51:46 -0800 From: "Nicholas Carter and Felice Luftschein" Subject: Re: Just a question From: To: Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 5:40 AM Subject: [taigtools] Just a question > Anyone in this group has experince in glass engraving? I did a little for fun. I have a foredom flex shaft tool that I mounted horizontally. I chucked up a some small plated diamond points and directed a stream of water on the workpiece. You have to take light cuts and make sure there is no vibration. See our web pages http://www.cartertools.com/nfhome.html ------- Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 20:05:50 -0000 From: "Walter Anderson " Subject: Re: Just a question Rather than considering a mechanical system your might want to use a chemical etchant. The process is very simple. You mask out the areas of the glass that you don't want engraved (wax or some other masking material) then you apply a chemical to etch the glass. One source that I know of for the chemical is woodcraft. The link for the product is: www.woodcraft.com In the search box type "etching cream". The product runs about $15 for a 12oz bottle. ------- Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 02:07:56 -0000 From: "Roger Petrella " Subject: Glass Etching I have done glass etching sucessfully a couple of ways. The first way is using an acid paste with either masking or stencils. This is very easy to do and you can do large or small areas easily. You can get the product and more info at: http://www.armourproducts.com The second way I use is with an ultra high speed handpiece and diamond burrs. They are basically a high speed turbine like a dental drill and can use the same bits as well. The handpiece is running WAY faster than a Dremel tool so it is easily controlled and has virtually no vibration. You can literally write your name with one of these tools. They are made by several manufacturers. The one I use is: Powercrafter: http://www.twopaw.com/products/powercrafter/powercrafter.html There are several other brands on the market as well, put out by Paragraphics (parent company of powercrafter): http://www.paragraphics.net/engraver.htm SMC http://www.scmsysteminc.com Turbocarver http://www.turbocarver.com There may be others as well. A third method, which I have not tried, is by actually sandblasting the glass. Again, you must use a mask or stencil, and it is better for larger areas but fine detail can be done also. The process uses fine silicon carbide abrasive to do the etching with a miniature abrasive blaster similar to an airbrush. People use this a lot to etch ID numbers, graphics, etc. in automobile window glass. Both Paragraphics and SCM sell these systems, but I'm sure there are others. Roger Petrella Franktown, CO ------- Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2003 12:31:01 -0800 From: Alan Marconett KM6VV Subject: Bar stock Steam Enginel I've just posted some full resolution .JPG files in the Sherline Files section, under "KM6VV Engines". On recommendation, they are posted under files to preserve their resolution (Yahoo reduces pix in the Photos section). http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sherline/files/KM6VV%20Engines/ There are two views of my recently completed (well, RUNNING, anyway) bar stock engine. it is 3/4" x 3/4" bore/stroke. No castings. I've drawn my own plans for it, based on dimensions for the Stuart 10V engine. What a joy to see it start up by it's self the first time I put air to it! I intend to make a more detailed flywheel for it as well, and paint the base. The flywheel5C pix is the fabricated flywheel, just out of the pickling bath. This is flywheel is for an oscillating engine; a present for my 9 year old nephew who expressed great interest in my bar stock engine! He's a loco fan, although I'll leave it up to his dad to build a loco for him! If there is any interest in the oscillating engine, I have prepared drawings for it, and can post that as well. Cheers! Alan KM6VV ------- Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2003 16:09:39 -0800 From: Alan Marconett KM6VV Subject: Re: Bar stock Steam Engine David Goodfellow wrote: > Looks great, Alan! Did you make the cap nuts, or buy them. They > really add a touch of class. Hi Dave, I made them from hex stock (it's WONDERFUL to have several sizes of stock on hand now). Yeah, that looked a little better then the over-sized 5-40 steel hex nuts I bought. I also made tiny 5-40 nuts for the connecting rod, and I've yet to make a new pin for the valve rod hinge, and a little screw with a point to follow the groove in the eccentric (it runs without it!). I guess to be truly a "model" engine, I need to make tiny studs and nuts for all the fastenings, but I LIKE the Allen head cap screws (and I finally got a good supply of them). I want to make a fancy flywheel for the engine, then it's on to a disassembly, and a through finishing and polishing for everything. I think I'll paint the base as well. Thanks for the kind comments. What's your latest project? Alan KM6VV ------- Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 19:41:21 -0800 From: "David Goodfellow" Subject: RE: Bar stock Steam Engine >> What's your latest project? .....Alan KM6VV I've been fussing around with stuff around the house that needs doing, and for the past 3 months I haven't really been working a project. The current project is an Elmer's double-acting oscillator engine with reverse lever, but I haven't been putting any time on it recently. So far I have the base, column, flywheel etc. done for 4 of them (ain't CNC grand?). And the cylinder blocks are done for all. I'm redrawing Elmer's plans in CAD, and building as I finish a drawing. Hope they'll turn out good enough for Xmas presents to my grand-nephews. I hope to get some time this weekend to work on them. (Here I am, on my 69th birthday, living alone with 3-day weekends and wondering if I'll be able to find time. Didn't know I could be so busy!) Dave ------- Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2003 00:06:17 EST From: catboat15x~xxaol.com Subject: Re: Bar stock Steam Engine 3/7/2003 KM6VVx~xxarrl.net writes: >(Here I am, on my 69th birthday, living alone with 3-day weekends >and wondering if I'll be able to find time. Didn't know I could be so busy!) Sure, Dave. I know when I was working I looked forward to retirement so I could sleep late and get projects done. Been retired for over 10 years and still get up at 6:00 AM, but projects gather much faster than I can finish them. Have castings for one more locomotive, one 3/4 done, telescope parts to cast and machine and a shed full of model airplane stuff. That is when I find enough time away from church work, chamber of commerce and helping out at the library. I guess I can rest when they finally pat me on the face with a shovel. John in the high desert of California 12 inch Atlas Mini Mill Rusty file ------- Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2003 10:00:50 -0800 From: Alan Marconett KM6VV Subject: Re: Bar stock Steam Enginel Hi Bruce, I think I may have confused some. I posted plans and pix for the flywheel (fabricated) of the "David" engine, and a pair of pix for my bar stock engine as well. The David oscillating engine should be finished in a few days, and the plans likewise. The prints for bar stock engine with the slide valve are not ready yet. I am thinking about posting complete assembly step pix, as well as plans, but that will be a while. This engine requires a few jigs, boring bars, a considerable number of reamers, and a few taps and dies. I used both a lathe and mill to build it. Thanks for the kind words. Alan KM6VV ------- Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 14:43:10 -0800 (PST) From: Pete Brown Subject: First pile of chips Finally got some time this weekend to work a little more on the HO-scale I2 decapod I'm building. The frame sides are the first things I've milled. I learned a lot while doing it, and likely would do it differently next time. That's the fun, though :-) http://www.irritatedvowel.com/Railroad/Model/Locomotives/ScratchBuiltI2.aspx (watch out for link-wrap. If it wraps on you, just go to my site www.irritatedVowel.com and go to Railroad-> Model Railroad-> Locomotives-> Scratch-Built I2) Here are a few photos of my workshop : http://www.irritatedvowel.com/Railroad/Model/Default.aspx Thanks for all the help and advice :-) Pete ------- Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2003 18:44:44 -0800 From: Keith Green Subject: Re: What happened to the fly reel plans? I posted the originals here [NO SPACES IN FOLLOWING ADDRESSES]: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/plansandblueprints/files/Everything%20El se/Miscellaneous%20Plans/MIFlyreel.pdf Suppose they got cross-posted and subsequently removed. Added a tackle box and rod rack plan the other day, if you're interested. They're here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Prints_and_Plans/files/Woodwo rking/PMAug54RodRAck.pdf and here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Prints_and_Plans/files/Woodwo rking/PMAug54TackleBox.pdf ------- Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 13:03:59 -0500 From: Stan Stocker Subject: OT: Clockmaking WAS: Re: new member seeks accessories for an Atlas10-F John Weight wrote: > Hello Stan, > I read with interest your latest message, where you said you are making > various tools for clockmakers. Are you into clockmaking? or are you > making the tools for order??? I am making three different clocks at the > moment and enjoy making the tools as much as the movements. > Do you use any of John Wilding's or Bill Smith's designs??? > Regards, John Weight San Francisco Hi John; I'm really just getting started in the serious (more than clean, oil, adjust) repair end of things. John Wildings 8 day clock is in process, as is Conovers American Clock Movement. Colin Thornes Franklin one hand clock will be next. I'm restoring an Ingraham mantle clock and an old weight driven Pierce mantle clock that's been in the family since around 1815 also. I flipped when I saw the price for bushing fixtures, spring winders, and some of the other tools (gear cutters particularly), so I'm making most of the tools myself for the clock work. I'm prowling eBay for staking sets, jewel presses, and the like for the watch work. I have some of the HSM issues with articles from Bill Smith, and am borrowing some of his books from the NAWCC library. There is a yahoo horology group if you're interested, we're probably rather OT for this group. At least we're doing metalwork, and many of the tool parts can be made using an Atlas, so I hope Jon will forgive the drift! Cheers, Stan ------- Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 11:57:01 -0800 From: Alan Marconett KM6VV Subject: Re: Steam engine plans wanted I seen to recall someone wanting plans for a steam engine a while back. Here is a nice two cylinder, 'D' slide valve engine. Very nice prints! [NO BREAK IN ADDRESS WHEN YOU COPY IT TO YOUR BROWSER] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/STEAMENGINEPRI NTS/files/cool%20new%20plans/COOL%20SLIDE%20VALVE%20TWIN/ Look in yahoo group Steam engine prints, files, "cool new plans". Hope you don't mind a little French! enjoy, Alan KM6VV ------- Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2003 23:09:57 -0000 From: "dreilanderecht" Subject: Re: Pictures of Peoples Work Seems to be a distinct shortage of volunteers around here! Surely we don't just buy these things to hold down the workshop floor? I have some photos of my machines doing various jobs, so I will try to make a bit of time to scan a few. Maybe at the weekend. At least, I have photos of the Ammco and the Alba 1A at work, I haven't taken any of the Alba 4S and I am not sure that I want to show the world the dreadful state of the paint at the moment. I'm also a bit afraid of tackling the job of painting a machine this size! Of course, few projects are carried out using only the shaper, there tends to be a bit of lathe work as well, and even some milling since I have gone so far astray as to allow a mill/drill machine into my workshop. My main project at the moment is a compound steam angine intended for a launch. The stroke is 3 inches and the bores are three and five inches. The shapers are responsible for most of the flat surfaces such as the bedplate with its bearing housings, and the columns with the crosshead slides. This is the older style of crosshead, the style