Above 1200 Sq/FT Eastern Washington Workshop

[slodat]

Saw these in what did you buy today thread and thought they were worth adding to the shop.



Pretty cool jaws for removing screws with broken heads:


The HVAC company came out today to replace the old Pioneer mini split with another Mitsubishi hyper heat unit. When I build this wall, I made somewhat easily removable panels to be able to access the lines and to route them through the old window open instead of busting a hole in the block wall. This is what we found when we opened it up:



I had no less than three different HVAC companies do a service call on the Pioneer units. All claimed they couldn't find a leak, and just added refrigerant. NONE of them asked for access to these connections, which I would have readily helped with. These Mitsubishi units really do a substantially better job than the Pioneer units did at their best.

I had them install the new indoor unit higher up on the wall because the press brake sits in front of it now.



New indoor unit buttoned up:




Since the press brake obscures this from view, I'm not going to worry about it right now. If I had to look at it all the time it would be higher on the priority list.

 

[slodat]

I’m interested to see how the new Mitsubishi heat pumps perform in colder temperatures. We have some cold headed our way. This is last night as I was about to go to bed. Current outside temperature is 22F.



The ecobee thermostats control my resistive heat. They also have remote temperature sensors in the area of each of the heat pumps. Makes them great for room temperature indication. Last night:



This morning:


The white circle means that temperature value is used in the thermostat’s temperature calculation currently. Sensors can be selected for each of the “comfort settings” - away, home, sleep.

The thermostats are set to away, which inhibits the heat from running until temperature gets down to that comfort setting. 45F in this case.

We’ve had mild temperatures so far this winter. 22F is a colder night. The old heat pumps never heated either room to the mid to high 60’s overnight. Even when it was a little warmer outside. These units are heating a significant amount more. It will be interesting to get an idea of how much more. Especially in the next few days with the zero degree temperatures. These hyper heat units are rated for full heat output down to -5F and to provide some heat output down to -13F.

 

[Finallygotit]

Steven, what are the SEER ratings on the new units as compared to the old ones?

 

[slodat]

Steven, what are the SEER ratings on the new units as compared to the old ones?

Dan, new units are 21.5. I don't recall the efficiency rating on the old units. I do know they only heated down to about 40F or so. That's the thing that I really wanted with these Hyper Heat Mitsubishis.

 

[Finallygotit]

Well, it sounds like that not only is the space getting properly heated, it will be cheaper in doing so. It's better for the machines too.

Good job!

 

[slodat]

Like a lot of the country we got hit with a hell of a cold spell. The heat pumps are keeping the shop in the mid 60's with outside ambient temperatures hovering around zero. I'm happy with them. The next test will come mid summer during a heat wave.

Came across a good (enough) deal on four Vidmar cabinets. I am running out of space, and these things are a great way to condense storage space. I kit up hardware for a client, so I have a lot of fastners sitting around for that work. This is a small portion:


All four have the same drawer layout.


They are in good used condition. Not too beat up. Typical dirt, grime, and crunchy bearings. Same as the others I bought years ago. The bearings are crunchy from dried up grease. Quick washout with brake cleaner, and re-lube with this stuff.


I'm no expert. This is what I found in a search when I did the last cabinets. I put two big spots of the assembly lube on each bearing:


Then work it in..


While they do weigh around 550 pounds, they aren't too bad to move around with the pallet jack. I moved the remaining two sewing machines out of the shop to make room for them up against the wall.




All that hardware, and a lot more not in the previous photo, fits in one drawer.


How I left things tonight. Lots of drawer cleanup and lube remaining..

 

[cycle61]

So much room for frozen burritos

 

[Xti04]

Wont be frozen burritos with those new mini splits!

 

[slodat]

Cranked out an order of these copper testing rods. Straight forward parts.. cut to length, radius each end in the CNC Hardinge, and sand for uniform finish.



The cycle time is about one minute per end. Nice and reliable. The work in progress block is great. I need to make another.

The group on the left of the photo have been lightly sanded with 320 grit. Ready to go. I’ll sand the rest in the morning.



I really like how consistent the end radii are.

 

[slodat]

A few weeks ago I went to buy one of those IR thermometers. This quickly had me looking at thermal imaging cameras. At the time Amazon had a hell of a discount on the Flir TG297. I also had almost $400 in rewards. I just looked, they now sell this thing for $1200. When I bought it the base price was $730, with a 15% coupon, making it $620. Once I applied my $370 in rewards, I got it for a flat $300 with tax. Which was in the upper range of the price for a decent quality thermometer. I know Amazon plays with their pricing, a lot. Direct from FLIR, it has been $800 the whole time. So, I felt like I got a decent deal. Over 20 years ago I purchased a FLIR thermal imaging camera at work.. for over $50k. It's amazing how the tech has progressed over time. In all the ways.

Anyway.. I'm not averse to have such a tool in the toolbox, even for my limited usage. My main interest was to monitor spindle temperatures on long runs and the like. Fast forward to an hour ago.. The electric heater by the main bench in the shop wasn't running while the one across the room was running. Hmm.. They are both on the same thermostat.. Checked the breaker.. went to unplug and saw some arcing through the white plastic on the twist lock plug. Powered it all down, and this is what I found:




One of the two hot leg wires burnt up. Typically this is a high resistance connection. This circuit does see 22a or so rather continuous. Nothing a new plug and receptacle won't solve. The risk of fire though, is scary as hell. Strangely, I had taken a look at the heater circuits when the FLIR arrived a few weeks ago. And, this cord doesn't get plugged/unplugged often.. Scary **** nonetheless.

Once that was done, I set on a bit of a thermography survey. Here are some of the shots.

Both panels:


The plug in question after repair:


The heater element:


This is obviously a small, low pixel count thermal imaging camera. But, it is a really helpful troubleshooting, and trouble detecting tool. Given the arctic outside temperatures, this is an ideal time to check things out. The rest of the heater circuit components all look good.. In that 80F range.

 

[slodat]

I took a few shots of the outside walls in different areas to see how well they are at insulating from the outside temps. The bare cinder block wall is the lowest. Outside air temperature is about 0F right now.

Block wall:



Firred in wall with insulation (under the heat pump):


Insulated garage door:


Insulated steel man door:


Insulated window opening:


Output of the heat pump:


I like data. Pretty cool stuff.

 

[rvieceli]

@slodat thermal imaging cameras are way cool.

On your heaters would it be better to direct wire those in and eliminate the plug and receptacle?

Ron

 

[slodat]

Ron- Good question. I asked myself the same thing. I just went through all four of them and checked the connections. No other issues. Everything in the circuit is rated for the application. I'm not going to at this time. The plug did its job, it contained the heat. There was no visible damage to the receptacle. The thermal imaging camera gives another view into things. It was nice to pull it out of the drawer and do a quick survey. I definitely wouldn't have paid the $800+ for it though.

 

[Finallygotit]

Seeing stuff like this scares the **** out of me. I wonder what it was about that one leg that it decided to self-destruct. Glad you caught it.

 

[slodat]

It looks like the wire ultimately broke/melted in two. It's difficult to say for sure. Definitely a high impedance connection at some point. That creates the heat which caused the conductor to open circuit. That open circuit, when the gap is very small, is jumped (arced), exacerbating the problem. The plug completely contained the heat/arc damage. There was very little visible damage or evidence of heat on the outside of the plug. This was a temperature thing, not a short circuit. In a short circuit the breaker will trip on the overcurrent.

This sort of thing scares the **** out of me, too. With that said, it would take an order of magnitude before this would impart enough heat into the drywall via the steel box cover, box, conduit to be an issue. While this is ugly to look at, it was very far from an actual fire hazard. Because of the plug containing it all, in this case. At least, this is how I see things.

I absolutely don't take this lightly. I feel like I got off easy. That's why I spent the morning doing inspections on everything.

Edited to add: I dug the plug out of the trash and did some more looking. The ground and other hot wire's insulation was in tact. I did an insulation resistance test at 1000v (Fluke 1587) and it maxed the meter at 2.2G. Meaning, there was no short circuit path.

 

[slodat]

Some updates..

The Prusa XL continues to make really nice parts.





These are part of the Sumo enclosure for the XL.

I updated the firmware recently. It now has the ability to switch to the other tool head when the first runs out of filament. This is a really nice feature. Especially on really long prints. The XL is no speed queen, but the prints are really nice.

The Freddy coolant processor shipped. They sent me this photo of it.


I've put some of the shrink fit tool holders in service. That whole system is really slick.


Still getting the hang of how to get the desired stickout. I use a thick insulated glove. It's HOT! I've been running my products the last little while. The Biltwell hydraulic mod on the Ellis bandsaw is a huge quality of life improvement. This is 60' of bar stock:


I gang cut 4 bars at a time. Works great. I was able to pick up the remaining two Vidmar cabinets.


They are a really nice addition to the shop. I needed more drawer storage. I REALLY hot chip flew off the Haas last night and got me good. This one hurt for a few minutes.


Crazy one little chip did that. Lastly, I've been working on getting the Supermax VMC up and making parts. I loaded the tool carousel tonight with several tools.





Pretty cool seeing them go in. I need to set work offsets and tool length offsets. Then I'll see how it goes running some parts. Oh.. I have to check the coolant pump rotation and fill the coolant tank as well. Anyway, getting closer.

Thanks for following along!

 

[lilscorpion]

Yeiks. What Not that this is the case, but I’ve always wondered if twisting the end of braised wire too much or aggressively (over twisting?) could break or damage some of the strands right where the insulation ends. Then they’re stuffed into the plug and i tighten the **** out of the screws. With all that manipulation of the atranded wire right at that point (and doing it multiple times over time as plugs get replaced or changed) could it cause a failure like that?

you said “break”. Can strands just fail?

 

[lilscorpion]

Thing that ***** about hot chips is they stick to your skin and keep burning you until they’re pulled off. Think I’ve gotten one in that same spot. Better I guess than the face.

 

[zanyad]

Still getting the hang of how to get the desired stickout.

Can you use a set screw collar on the tool?

 

[Finallygotit]

One time I had one of those hot chips land in the crook of my arm while I was making a finish pass on a Bridgeport. I could not stop as I was milling on a molding surface. I just stood there watching it burn into my skin as I cranked the handle. Man that hurt!

So I know the feeling all too well.

 

[MadeByMiller]

Glad Prusa finally added that tool head swapping feature when you run out of filament. Did the input shaping firmware update improve print speed/quality?

 

[slodat]

Thing that ***** about hot chips is they stick to your skin and keep burning you until they’re pulled off. Think I’ve gotten one in that same spot. Better I guess than the face.

I think the conductor failed in the heater cord. Not sure why. The hot chip was the worst one I’ve had on me so far.

Can you use a set screw collar on the tool?

That’s a GREAT idea! Thank you!

One time I had one of those hot chips land in the crook of my arm while I was making a finish pass on a Bridgeport. I could not stop as I was milling on a molding surface. I just stood there watching it burn into my skin as I cranked the handle. Man that hurt!

So I know the feeling all too well.

I’m saying!

Glad Prusa finally added that tool head swapping feature when you run out of filament. Did the input shaping firmware update improve print speed/quality?

I don’t know that I’m even using the input shaping. Like I’ve said before, I like the printer. Prusa’s customer service left me wanting better out of them. Swapping to another tool head is obvious. I’m happy they got it working.

 

[slodat]

Continued working on putting the VMC into service today. Quite a bit of figuring things out. The older control is rather stripped down feature wise. And I’m seeing some strange behavior that had to work around. I’ll continue trying to sort that out. Nonetheless, I have it drip feeding from the little DNC box I got for the machine.

I eased into things to make sure my offsets were right and that I didn’t ruin a tool unnecessarily. Started with drilling:



That went well. Next was mixing up the coolant. It has 13 gallons in it right now and seems to be doing fine with that. Then I ran the rest of OP1 on this part. I need to run a bunch of these.



Had the rapids dialed down to 25% (the next lower step is 0%), and feedrate at 10% with my finger on the feed hold button.



The 3/4” Shear Hog ran incredibly well. It’s mind blowing how much more rigidity and power this machine has. I only ran the spindle at 7k rpm (8k max). I think I can run the shear hog another 20-30 ipm. Currently ran at 70ipm, 0.2 doc, 0.4 step over and a 0.016 chip! Pretty rad.



The coolant is a game changer. I’m using Fogbusters on the Tree and Haas. They are great for minimizing mess and do a good job of keeping the tool cool, for what they are. Flood is what’s up though! Lastly, the Shear Hog is orders of magnitude quieter in this machine.



OP1 complete. I’m stoked! Now to get the second vise trammed in and OP2 proven out.

 

[slodat]

Took a dinner break and had to come back! Late night, totally worth it. I got the second vise trammed in, zeros set, measured a couple more tools, and sent it! This is OP2 in the left vise. The flood coolant is awesome. First machine with it.



Up to now, I've made all of this part on the Tree. Changing tools manually. One half a part at a time. This is the first time I've ran it on a tool changer machine, with an OP1 & OP2 in the same cycle. I've been wanting to for a long while. I finally got the second set of soft jaws made, the second tool changer milling machine setup and running. It's SO nice! Looks like I've got the cycle down to about 6 minutes or so. The tool change is rather slow by modern standards, and I don't mind at all. It's automation and not me standing there changing tools.

On this last part of the night I turned the rapid override up from 25% to 100%. This thing FLIES! The Haas has 400ipm rapids and that feels really fast. I have the Tree setup at 150ipm rapids. Well.. the Rebel 1 is 630 ipm (if not more). The display said seven hundred something during a rapid move. I haven't found an exact spec sheet. The one I did find is 16m/min (630ipm). Needless to say, compared to anything I've ran these rapids are FAST! The Shear Hog is barely hitting 50% spindle load running it prettty hard. I think it has a lot left in it. I don't need to go faster, so I'll stick with the recipe.

The reason this is so cool to me is I didn't pay a whole lot relatively speaking for this machine. And it's the most productive milling spindle in the shop. Pretty cool!

This is what the part looks like:


There's an overlap on the sides. It's very good. Fingernail doesn't catch it, but you can see the direction of the milling mark. Can't complain. The Haimer does a great job of setting up offsets.

 

[rvieceli]

Nice looking part. Flood is always fun.

Is that piece done or do you have to go back and break/bevel all the edges?

Ron

 

[bugnut]

That part looks awesome. In op1 if you have room in the tool changer for another tool, a back chamfer tool for the hole might be a good addition.

THIS all day

The tool change is rather slow by modern standards, and I don't mind at all. It's automation and not me standing there changing tools.

 

[slodat]

I haven’t done a back chamfer yet. Like you and Ron, it’s the first thing I thought when the part came off the machine. I have a 3/8” single point thread mill that I can try for it today. If not, I’ve tumbled them and they turn out nice. Ultimately I want to get a lollipop and use the new debur toolpath.

 

[Finallygotit]

If you want to see a slow tool changer, check out a Charmilles sinker EDM. OMG that used to drive me insane to watch it change electrodes. I'm not sure if the newer machines are any better but geezuz those were S L O W.

 

[Arne73]

I've had a similar experience. I found that not following the recommended conductor strip back length created what seemed like a nice tight connection, but in fact, I'd cut it back too short. The insulation was beneath the screw and the conductor was only touching.
I've been following your thread and really enjoying your progress! Thanks for sharing.

 

[slodat]

If you want to see a slow tool changer, check out a Charmilles sinker EDM. OMG that used to drive me insane to watch it change electrodes. I'm not sure if the newer machines are any better but geezuz those were S L O W.

Depending on how far away on the carousel the next tool is, I think I'm averaging around 13 seconds or so chip to chip. Not a big deal. I watched some EDM videos recently. Cool stuff!

 

[slodat]

I've had a similar experience. I found that not following the recommended conductor strip back length created what seemed like a nice tight connection, but in fact, I'd cut it back too short. The insulation was beneath the screw and the conductor was only touching.
I've been following your thread and really enjoying your progress! Thanks for sharing.

Yeah. I have seen a few where the insulation is under the clamp, not the wire. Those tend to heat up in short order.

Thanks for following and taking the time to contribute to the conversation!

 

[slodat]

Ran parts on both mills all day today. It’s a really nice dance keeping them both fed. Literally twice the output for the same amount of time. So cool! The parting line on these parts between the operations is so satisfying. Can't feel it with a fingernail.



I just checked.. This blade lasted 14 months cutting everything I've ran in that time:


Finally gave up the ghost today. Felt like I really got my money's worth!

This coming week should be really fun in the shop. All the new stuff I've ordered is due to arrive this week. We all know how awesome new machine day is!

 

[Finallygotit]

Ooooooow...... New stuff!!

 

[rmack898]

Did I miss a new tool acquisition?

 

[slodat]

Did I miss a new tool acquisition?

I ordered the new Mitutoyo linear height gauge two months ago. It's due this week. As well as the Freddy mentioned above and the Scotchman ironworker.

 

[slodat]

Changed over the Supermax to run another part today. There’s a lot of material removed on this one. The enclosure is great. SO many chips! This guy has seen better days.



Proving the code out went well. Got some chatter on the flat on the first part:





Adjusted the coolant nozzle and the second one turned out glass smooth.


I like the tooling marks in that toolpath. I turned up the heat on the 2 flute 1.25” Shear Hog- 0.25” doc (depth of cut), 7500rpm, 1” step over, 0.017ipt (inches per tooth), 100ipm (inches per minute). It’s loud, and it’s removing a lot of material.



7500rpm and around 70% spindle load (10hp spindle) when it’s in the cut. A little chatter on the first pass, then it goes away.

Tried the rigid tapping and it worked great. So cool!

I’m really happy with this 26 year old machine. Can’t imagine the difference modern technology would make in a machine.

 

[slodat]

Does the material supplier charge too much to deliver? I think that having them deliver might be cheaper than an F250. That is unless they don't deliver to your neck of the woods.

I have thought about this since you asked this question.. Felt like the business made a step forward this morning. Up to now, I’ve ran to Spokane to pick things up when I need them. It’s a 4 hour drive and $134 in mileage. Real, hard costs. Each trip. That's the minimum. It doesn't include the time to run to all the places once I'm in town. It essentially blows half or all of a day. I have an order of my custom shipping boxes ready for pickup. I need them in order to ship my tooling kit orders tomorrow. I found a courier service. He comes here daily M-F. He’s charging $25 to pick them up in Spokane and drop off here. I’ll have them tomorrow. Feels like I won the hours and the $109!

Additionally, he's willing to pickup and deliver 6' lengths of copper and aluminum for $0.25/lb. All of a sudden, this not only makes business/financial sense, it's what I'm doing!

For the steel, and bigger aluminum orders, it will probably still make sense to make the trip. I don't mind a trip to town here and there. Once or twice a week when I have a lot going on really hurts productivity.

Great question and suggestion!

 

[rvieceli]

@slodat when your courier person delivers tomorrow, you might want to explain what you are needing metal delivery wise and ask if they would be interested. If not they may know someone who has the capability and the inclination. There should be someone running a trailer back and forth. At worst you are still in your current situation. Using up an entire day when you don’t want to is no fun.

Ron

 

[SilverJimmy]

Up in Flagstaff there are guys who run parts up from wrecking yards for hire. They pickup engines and transmissions and then drop them at shops daily. I bet there are guys doing the same or similar near you. They offered to haul equipment for me down to Phoenix for repair, anything to make a buck and feed their family.

 

[slodat]

Thanks for the info and ideas @rvieceli and @SilverJimmy! Box delivery was perfect. The other outfit that can do real weight- pallets and such is quite a bit more cost. I’m sure it will be just as useful. I don’t have near as much of that need right now. I’m really stoked on the courier!