rattle_snake's random shop projects v0.1

[rattle_snake]

Slick thanks for sharing that. Using tools to have more tools.

I'm considering drilling a hole in the end of one fork to use as a lift point. Can also put a trailer ball in it.

 

[555]

Slick thanks for sharing that. Using tools to have more tools.

I'm considering drilling a hole in the end of one fork to use as a lift point. Can also put a trailer ball in it.

I did!

 

[SilverJimmy]

Instead of drilling a hole in one of your forks you could build one of these setups. I worked at SRP back in my youth and a fork with a hole in it was verboten, OSHA would instantly Red Tag a forklift that was modified that way.

A customer made this trailer hitch and it was slick, he could easily just drive up and be able to move a trailer without getting off the forklift.

 

[ntsqd]

Slick thanks for sharing that. Using tools to have more tools.

I'm considering drilling a hole in the end of one fork to use as a lift point. Can also put a trailer ball in it.

That forklift that I was trained on had such a hole in one of the tines. No OSHA to worry about there!
I used a used 9" large pinion bearing to create a swivel hook that could drop thru that hole. I built it on a lark, and then we used the snot out of that thing for decades. Sure made moving engines around easy and simple. Which was a good thing because it was racing engines machine shop.

 

[bugnut]

I'm considering drilling a hole in the end of one fork to use as a lift point. Can also put a trailer ball in it.

I'd insure the hole provided room for eye bolt and clevis/shackle

 

[rattle_snake]

I worked as a tech at an RV dealer, we had a few forklifts that had a similar apparatus between the forks to move trailers. I moved a lot of 5th wheels and TT with them. Bouncy and kinda sketch with the really big triple axle monsters, but still drove backwards at full speed.

 

[rattle_snake]

Continuing to take inventory and putter on the CNC router project. Starting with the Z-axis so I can figure out the dimensional overhead for table size.
I have two z-axis options. A build myself from raw parts or this premade deal. It is has some limitations but still a easier starting point. The router doesn't need initial height sensing like a plasma. This unit had IHS travel and a switch. So I deleted it and fastened the ball screw to the actuator to make it solid. It has a simple DC motor with in-line limit switches. Removing that and going to use a stepper with limit inputs instead.


There is an existing bracket to hold a plasma torch with a spring loaded safety. I removed that to use just the base plate that fits the z-axis. But the hole ID is too small for the router body. Found some tooling to fix that.


Opened up to 72 mm. Could have just made a ring to bolt the motor to this bracket. but...


There is a clamp to hold the router motor. Don't need the flanges so cut them off. Smooth casting.


Now attach these together.


Drilled the 5mm threads out to 5 mm holes and tapped 5 mm threads into the clamp.


mock-up of the z-axis. Stepper isn't a direct swap will have to machine the top plate. The rewire the limit switches as just sensors and not gate the power to motor.

 

[ntsqd]

Will that flat plate with the router motor cantilevered like that be rigid enough? I realize that .005" tols aren't expected, just wondering.

 

[rattle_snake]

It is a concern, perhaps a problem. But yes cutting wood so not a big deal.
I inherited all the stuff so not my design. What I have to work with. I didn't weld the two pieces, just screws.
Not sure I will stay with that method.

 

[rattle_snake]

Well regardless of how I attach the cutter moving forward with stepper conversion of the z-axis. The 24V DC motor had a gear reduction box and an offset mount pattern. So nothing lines up.


Opened up the pilot hole to 38 mm for the Nema 23 motor and tapped four holes to 5 mm. Sticking with communist threads for consistency.


The unit came with limit switches, but wired in series with motor power. Not sure how you back up after hitting limit since circuit is open at that point. The full motor current runs through them which has issues, including inductive dump/back EMF hence the diodes to protect the switch contacts from arcing every time motor stops. These steppers have two pairs of winding so the switches can't easily be reused in same way, however wouldn't want to anyhow. Better to use them as a sensor not a blocking device.
Repurposed the 4-pin connector for the limit switches. Removed the diodes and soldered the wires back together and put the cover on.

 

[ntsqd]

If I might suggest a fairly simple mod that I think would dramatically increase the stiffness, it would be to add two plate brackets that connect each side of the motor clamp to both the lower plate that you added and to the plate that carries the linear bearings that appears to be attached to the center shaft. Oddly enough I modeled it using 'those other threads'.


How I'm seeing this work, and the actual geometry may end up looking nothing like this, is an M6 thru the upper hole into a tapped hole in the linear bearing plate, an M6 thru the lower hole into an M6 hole tapped into the backside of the motor clamp, and an M6 thru a new hole in the lower plate and threaded into the unseen M6 tapped hole in the bottom of this bracket.
I don't think that it would take much of a bracket like this to make a huge difference in stiffness and I do think that the pair of brackets want to be fairly svelte to keep the overall inertia down.
If that's clear as mud but there's interest I'll try to model the whole thing and generate a jpg from that.

 

[rattle_snake]

Original idea was cut the lower plate down and weld to clamp. then gusset. Would be nice to have a TIG for this, and then into some type of tool purchase debacle.

Someone else mentioned attaching clamp to z-axis back plate and have the shaft connected to gantry. Whole thing go up and down.

 

[ntsqd]

Regardless of which orientation I think you'll need to attach the linear bearing plate and the end of the center shaft to the same structure. Whether that's the gantry or the cutter motor I'm not sure will matter unless one is easier to do than the other.

 

[rattle_snake]

Even though I can barley play a guitar, I enjoy playing them and tinkering with all the equipment. Building driver enclosures, amp racks, whatever. A musician friend of mine had some electric righties in a closet and said use as long as you want. That was many years ago. I want to fix and modify them so I offered to buy, we made a deal. Evidently he has a music equipment purchasing 'condition'.
but a wrong handed guitar? Useless to me. Actually I can play both poorly.

righty Dean 4 string bass was nature wood finish with scratches. Not very speed metal. Have to change that. Sanded the body and it was pretty rough in the glue up. Kinda surprised not sanded even close to flat.


Backwards up side down


Doing a candy blue metallic with a white base. Started with a heavy coat of Kilz primer, sand, white.

 

[WoodsTruck]

Glad to see you are reworking some older equipment.
My brother bought a Rickenbacker bass in the late 70's that needed work. He played it as is for a while, but after collecting some Mt. St. Helens ash from the yard, he added that to the paint when he refinished it.

 

[lilscorpion]

So my tractor bucket doesn't touch the ground when curled. Other machines I've used it does, and you can push and pull material smooth that way.


Ram appears to be fully compressed and there are no adjustable stops.


Seems like I could make another hole with overlays to move the forward pin forward.


Plan B is just accept, and buy a 3-pt box blade/gannon/scraper thing for the rear.
Thoughts?

Hm. I have a Kubota and mine will go to the ground but it has little metal stops that would dig into the ground preventing me from doing any smoothing when pushing or pulling with the bucket tilted up. Maybe I’m not getting it - what I do is drag/pull with the bucket almost flat to smooth. Never considered pushing tho I do understand why it would work with the bucket tilted up.

I do have a box blade and it works well tho it does not really compress the soil like I can dragging the front bucket (like you’re referring to). It dis a very nice job of leveling tho.

 

[rattle_snake]

Completed the guitar refinish job. Lots of coats of paint. After primer and sanding I put down a few coats of base, white appliance epoxy because I happened to have it. Then sanded and put down 12 coats or so of color. Being a candy metallic, it covered poorly, tiger stripes.


Finished up with lots of coats of clear gloss.


Reassemble, check action, tune.


This guitar has passive pickups. Might add a 9v battery powered preamp.

 

[rattle_snake]

Spent some time on CNC router design, I think I have a plan. Hooked up z-axis wiring and made things move. Designed the table.
Cut down the long x-axis linear guides from 102 to 62". The x-axis ball screw is larger diameter than the others, cut it down also. Ordered a 2nd 16mm x 1350mm ball screw for the dual y-axis rails the gantry will sit on. Designed a few plates to bolt stuff together.


The screw just fit in the lathe so I could machine the end for the bearing block.


Decided to chop up the z-axis to spindle bracket and weld it to the clamp. Added some bracing.


Maybe a little too close.


Cut down the piece of 3x6 extrusion to 62" for the gantry. Started mounting the rails to it. Drill and tap.

 

[rattle_snake]

Last day of the quarter, last day of my old job role. 13 1/2 years.
I've been 50/50 old/new for last 6 months.
All my reports are transferred to someone else.
My days will go from triage and issue management to technical work.
Specifically digital power control. Today, solar inverter reference design, software. High level library software, bloatware. I'm more of a hardware guy, so guess I'll have to figure it out.

 

[ntsqd]

Big power, like solar farms, or small stuff like home systems?

 

[rattle_snake]

The solar deal is a microinverter, 800 W. Takes a DC voltage and makes a 120/220 VRMS SINE synced to grid power.

Main market is server power supplies. AC->DC, DC->DC, battery back up.

 

[rattle_snake]

Made the x-axis bearing plates in CAD and priced in SCS. $20 and 30 min of farting around. Decided to just make out of some scrap.
With multiple tapped holes cannot have much error. So I drill and tap one hole, put the bolt in and center punch the rest.


The t-slot in the extrusion allow for some adjustment.

 

[rattle_snake]

Found some 1/2" aluminum bar in rem pile for x-axis drive. Welded into a 'L' shape while the spool gun was still set up.


the 2nd y-axis ball screw arrived. But it is not machined to accept the bearings or coupler. I guess that costs extra.


Some more lathe work to do, but at least I can do it.

 

[rattle_snake]

Enjoying my new role at work.
I cancelled all my reoccurring meetings.
Removed myself from email groups, customer support triage.
My old role was to make sure my team could be successful. Prevent past problems. Damage control. Planning, staffing, mentoring, resourcing, prioritizing. All that is gone and the stress of managing all the deliverable for 10 products at a time.

Oddly enough I got a raise the day before my transfer.

 

[ntsqd]

That's a real bonus! Any management in the new role?
My wife's employer keeps trying to push her back into management, to which she keeps saying "hell no!"

 

[rattle_snake]

Not any people management. All my direct reports were moved to someone else.

Requests from the field will continue, they found my email long ago. But now I can ignore things outside of my new role.

I said no to people management for a long time. I took on managing processes and projects. I eventually got bored in my role and got coerced into managing people. I claimed to have fallen down the stairs, suffered a severe head injury, as the reason to accepting the role.

 

[rattle_snake]

Bought some 2x2 tube to build the base of the CNC router. Expensive. Steel yard won't do single free cut anymore, have to get the whole 20' sticks. Then of course have to dig through the rem piles and spend even more money. Aluminum rems are $5/#.
I had recently put a new band saw blade on the saw and it was cutting OK. I forced the end of a cut and got the blade outside of the edge bearing, which dulled one side of the teeth. The next cut was as crooked as a politician. So that blade went into the trash.

 

[PugetDude]

Bought some 2x2 tube to build the base of the CNC router. Expensive. Steel yard won't do single free cut anymore, have to get the whole 20' sticks. Then of course have to dig through the rem piles and spend even more money. Aluminum rems are $5/#.
I had recently put a new band saw blade on the saw and it was cutting OK. I forced the end of a cut and got the blade outside of the edge bearing, which dulled one side of the teeth. The next cut was as crooked as a politician. So that blade went into the trash.

Justin, I bought an Evolution Cold cut Saw with a 14" 66-tooth TCT blade. Really impressed with how well it cuts. Where are you buying your square tubing? American Metals in Mesa is my go-to for commodity shapes. Haven't found better pricing anywhere, and they generally have remnants in the profiles I commonly use.

 

[rattle_snake]

Scott,
I buy my metal from industrial metal supply. 38th & Southern. I used to buy mostly from American years ago. I haven't check their pricing lately, probably should next time.

I have an Evo 14" chop and an extra Tenryu heavy metal blade. It's fast, loud and messy. I recently used it to cut the aluminum 3x6 extrusion. Precision is about the same as the bandsaw depending on what your cutting. If something 'tall' in the saw then the radial saw is usually better, no blade wander of the band. Like bandsaw I never cut anything hard on it, as the teeth will fracture or come off. They can be repaired, but that cost more than just 'sharpen'.

For jobs like this I can setup the bandsaw and go do something else.

 

[rattle_snake]

Got started on the CNC router table. Picked a path for tube layout and got started. Coulda shoulda done it differently but that is always the case. Started with the base of the table. Welded the two pairs on the weld table then had to switch to fab table to make the larger piece.


Welded the uprights onto the base with a pair of squares.


Mockup of the rest of the tubing


Center brace for the base. Plan to store sheet goods under the table.


Table will sit on casters. I'm lazy and usually weld them on. Recently bought a drill powered riv-nut setter. So put it to use. Wow awesome tool. Holy **** shoulda bought that years ago. Found a bag of M8 in my stash and used the odd bolts the caster came with.


Undercarriage complete.

 

[plain2car]

nice plan so far Justin... all is looking really nice! I typically use IMS as well for supply, I think there is another metal supply place (mesa??) but i believe they run a little more than IMS....

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice job Justin. I agree with the drill powered rivnut setter. Cam, aka @LXCam , suggested it a while back and I was amazed how nice it makes installing rivnuts. I too should have bought one years ago, had I known about it.

 

[rattle_snake]

Made some progress on the CNC router table. Welded on the y-axis rails and installed rivnuts to attach the linear rails.




Modified the stepper motor brackets to fit the 2" tubing. Welded the slots closed and drilled holes to locate.


Calculated the bearing spacer height needed to work with the motor bracket. Cut some 1" thick aluminum down to size.


Added some more tubing to the ends of the bed to have something to attach to. Got one y-axis linear drive built.


2nd set of bearing blocks for 2nd y-axis.


Ordered some fasteners. The rules say everything has to be socket head stainless. Waiting on send cut send pieces to assemble the gantry.

 

[rattle_snake]

Finished machining the 2nd y-axis ball screw. Didn't come out as nice as I had hoped but will work fine. Cut a groove for the end retainer.




Set rivnuts for the thrust bearing and motor mount.


Bought a M12x1.0 die to thread the thrust bearing end of ball screw shaft for the lock nut.


Swapped out all the noncompliant fasteners for socket heads.


Both y-axis drives are complete except for the connection to the gantry.
Still a long way to go on the project, which is fine because I tell myself this is what I do for fun.

 

[rattle_snake]

Trying to decide if I should add more bracing/support for the bed. At this time it is only bisected and area is 2'x4'. The bed will be made of MDF, probably 1/2", with another layer of 1/2 MDF slats as the sacrificial material. Maybe some t-slots.

Send cut send pieces have arrived. Will see if any of them fit properly. I'm concerned on the gantry ends, the material is only 0.25 Al and the gantry is really heavy. Might need to add a side brace the whole length, and tie that into the linear drive.

Started looking into the spindle VFD, and how to connect to the main controller. Not sure how that all is going to work. Just on/off or able to set speed in the G code and transmit over data link.

Need to make a mount the four stepper drives and the 32VDC power supply. And also the controllers and a master on/off switch. Then wire and test it out. If all is OK then complete disassembly and paint the table frame.

 

[ntsqd]

Is vacuum working holding a possibility? Old HS friend runs his family's cabinet shop and they've gone to a CNC router for most of their cut-out operations. Theirs uses a vacuum to hold the sheets from moving, and can pull it thru a piece of 1" MDF over a 4' X 12' bed. When the MDF gets too carved up to let a sheet sit flat they have a tool that looks a lot like a multi-insert fly-cutter for a mill that they use to plane the MDF flat again.

 

[rattle_snake]

Probably not, the vacuum tables are nice and typically on the professional level machines. I plan to start simple, just hold the edge of the sheet with some type of clip.
Not planning on a dust extraction method to start with either. That is another whole snowball of a system, which would be nice for the other woodworking tools also. Probably will put in some 110v receptacles on the table to plug in a shop vac to clean the table after a cut.

 

[rattle_snake]

Well my SCS parts had all the right holes in the right places. Miracle. Bad news is the gantry ends deflect and the gantry is not high enough. I already knew this and added some provisions to raise the z-axis on it's plate. But even all the way up it's too short and needs to be modified. I have some 3x3 extrusion to use as a spacer/support, which was likely the intent on purchase.

$200 doesn't go far.


Should have bought some M6 socket head flat head screws for the Z plate. holes need to be counter sunk, but that was quite expensive through SCS. Used what I had for mockup.


x-axis motor bracket/end plate


Z-axis attached. It is already all the way up




single piece of 0.25" is not enough and had deflection at rest. Plan to still use the piece below the extrusion to locate the linear guides.


Still a good milestone to hit. starting to look like something.

 

[tarbellb]

Lots of progress on this, impressive.

Your Z axis situation is unfortunate, it looks like you have 8-9" of travel, is that right? Any way to locate the spindle carriage in between the upper and lower plates?

Or Wonder if you could gain extra height by reinforcing the upper frame perimeter, would add both rigidity and increase you z height off work bed? (keep you X+Y mounted as-is, add full horizontal perimeter below)

Good luck

 

[ntsqd]

I would make the end plates roughly trapezoidal and use them to lift the extrusion up. Then join those end plates to the plates on the linear bearings with some heavy Aluminum angle.